Letter From Sholom Mordechai

Rabbi Lipa Brennan to COLlive: “I received this message from Sholom Mordechai Rubashkin this morning and he would like to share it with everyone. Please keep him in mind during Yom Kippur – Sholom Mordechai halevi ben Rivka. It would be appropriate that a Misheberach be said for him and his family during krias hatorah in every shul possible around the world.

B”H

My brothers, askonim and family,

Today is Ches Tishrei, which is getting closer to Yom Kippur. These are times one needs to tap into the deepest level of his neshama to be able to continue and even grow in avoidas Hashem, which is what Yom Kippur is the koach for. Today, Ches Tishrei, is about serving Hashem lemaaleh min hasechel.

As every day we are waiting for the yeshua proti and the yeshua kloli, and we will be zoiche to see it. Ches is eight which is higher than teva. Hashem creates the world in seven days and eight shows on the bechina which is “hecher fun velt” – velt altz hagbolohs and hesterim.

Ches also has a connected to Yom Kippur because one of the zechusim that the kohen gadol can enter the koidesh hakadashim on Yom Kippur iz bezchus hamilah, bezois yovoi aharon.

Milah is done bayom hahsmini, on the eigth day. The whole inyan of a bris is a binding that is higher than sechel. Bepashtus, a bris is needed for two oihavim for those times that the sechel and the reasons that now are uniting the two oihavim to like each other and want to be together, are not there. So the two oihavim make a bris that says even when there will be a time that the reason for our unity is not revealed, the bris which is higher than sechel will be there to keep us united.

Likewise, on Yom Kippur the koihen gadol prepares himself seven days before Yom Kippur. The avoidah of Yom Kippur is on the eighth day because the koichos to accomplish on Yom Kippur are unlimited and higher than teva. Very simply put, in order to correct the past, like we do with teshuva, we must draw from koichois that are higher than nature, because nature says that what happened is done. The yud gimmel middos harachamim are lemala metava.

Further, the avoidah of Yom Kippur is “achas lemaaleh veshevah lemato” which is also the avoidah of eight!

The high point of Yom Kippur is when the koihen gadol goes into the koidesh hakadoshim and when he is there it says in the posuk. “Vchol adam lo yehye beohel” and adam here means even those malachim that are called “pnei adam”.

The avoidah of Yom Kippur is done on such a high madreigah that even the malachim cannot be there when the kohen gadol is doing his avoidah. The koihen gadol is the shliach of klal yisroel so it is an avoidah that is only with the oibeshter and the yidden.

Every yidisher neshama has five parts – nefesh, ruach, neshama, chayei and yechidah. The five tefillos of Yom Kippur are keneged the five chalakim of the neshama with yechida being the tefillah of neilah. The regular pshat of neilah is that the doors are about to close. The day is about to end, and the shaarei shammayim are about to close so “chap arein” and make one more very strong effort in your avoidas hatshuva of yom kippur and request even stronger from the reboinoi shel oilam to make the kesiva toiva, into a CHASIMA TOVA. The aron koidesh is open and the teffilos gather the strengh from a whole day of fasting and davening.

But, there is a deeper pshat for neilah.

Hashem says to all creation, including the greatest malachim, the ones that yechezkeil hanavi describes as upneihem kepnei adam that now is a time for neilah, to close the doors, to all creation that is limited. now is the time to be beyechidus with the yidden. It’s a time when the yid who has the yechida, the level which is always connected with Hashem, is going to be alone with his essence Hashem, the only one he really really wants to be united with, because the doors are closed to everybody else. Just like it says by the avoidah in the bais hamikdash “vcol adam loi yeheh beoihel moied” that when the avoidah of yom kippur is being done nobody else is there.

This year has been for me and my family a year of yechidah. It has been a year where we needed to draw on kochos that were much deeper and stronger than any other level. The nisyoinois brought out the koach of yechidah.

Yechidah is the level of the neshama that brings a yid to “AZOI UN NISHT ANDRESH”. This way, Hashem’s way and no changes. Not even a small change that can seperate me from Hashem the true and only being.

Yechidah, the yid, is connected to a point that any seperation is simply intolarable, impossible. Nothing else matters. It’s only der oibeshter that matters there is nothing else. The nisayon, whatever is other than Hashem’s ratzoin is just not real. It can’t be.

When yechida is challenged there is no rational, secheldiker thought process to weigh the maalois or chesroinois. The only question is, “is what is being asked of me to do allow me to stay connected with my essence or will it seperate me”.

Seperation from Hashem, even a temporary one, for a quick moment is not a option. Just as death r”l, even a temporary one just for a second, is not a option. The truth being that Hahsem is higher than time so there is really not even the concept of the “only for a second” as DOVID HAMELECH says in tehilim “vechatosi negdi tomid”.

Being connected, on the other hand, is a real simcha with the avoidah of yechidah.

You should try it. It’s really real. Why get caught up in the limitations of rationality? serve Hashem for real in a unlimited way, as Hashem is unlimited (and as you want the brochos you are asking for to be unlimited.)

There is absolutely nothing more thrilling than knowing that you are connected with Hashem. Listen, Hashem is with you and he is giving you the avoidah. That’s the most important thing to happen to you. Yechidah says ‘I am holding on to you hashem and I am not letting go. Nothing will seperate me from you.’

There is a story about a yid in the times of the Dpanish inquisition. He was a tzadik and he had the most trying nisyoinois that a human being could endure. After all the nisyonois that he had he had a nisoyoin of terrible magnitude. He stood on his ship he raised his eyes to heaven and said to Hashem, “Hashem, you are doing everything to try to push me away from you. So I am telling you that I am not seperating myself from you!”

This is what yechidah is. It’s the yid in his avoidah from life that says to Hashem it’s only you and i am not seperating myself from you. This is one of the stories that I read when I was in yeshiva and came to me in South Dakota State Prison.

What defines mesiras nefesh is that its not what a the yid wants to gain from the avoidah that he is given but rather that this is the only way it can be. Ehy? because the only thing yechida knows is the truth of HASHEM and “ein oid melvadoi”.

It’s not about gaining a sechar of anything. It’s all about this: If whatever is happening is going to seperate the neshama from Hakodoish Baruch Hu, then it will not happen. He cant do it.

That’s what teshuva and Yom Kippur show, in a revealed way. That no matter what a yid “did” through the year, the yid has a neshama he really wants Hashem. What is the yid’s real rotzoin, what does he really want, he wants Hashem. He is fasting yom kippur and saying vidui and taking down any seperation that may be between him and Hashem.

The avoidah of yechidah is also shown besimcha on simchas torah after the hachana of the choidesh Elul.

The whole month of Tishrei starts with the kabolas hamalchus of Rosh Hashana. Then when we have the realization that we may have not served the king as we should have in the past. So we do teshuva in the aseres yemei teshuva.

On Yom Kippur the teshuva is niskabel and teshuva means to return. We returned to our real source and we have revealed the deepest koichois of our neshama our koiach of mesiras nefesh, our connection to Hahsem that is unlimited.

In the next for days, called G-U-T-s teg (Hashem’s Days), we are so busy doing mitzvas beahava that we have no time to do any aveirus.

Then we have zman simchaseinu of sukkos where we sit in tzeil of Hakodoish Boruch Hu and he loving protection. We take the arba minim which shows the UNITY of all yidden as each min represents a certain type of yid.

The important lesson being that we are really one unit, so much so that if one min is missing, the other is so affected that the mitzvah cannot be done.

Then we have shmini atzeres which is exactly what we said was neilah. Like rashi explains the moshel of the king that had others that came to the party and then he says to his son “BOI VENAGALGEL ANI VEATO” – thats is what neilah is. The doors are closed to everybody else. It’s the kohen gadol the repersentetive of klal yisroel and the oibeshter together.

And that makes the greatest simcha. The simcha of simchas torah that is shared by every single type of yid – learned and not so learned. We are dancing with the torah in its mantle covered. We are not learning now and that is because out connection with the torah and Hashem transcends the sechel.

There is a essential connection that exist that fuels the dancing and thats YECHIDAH.

Yidden are davening for me every day and giving me more chizuk than they can imagine. The letters they send are so full of ahavas yisroel and achdus. They express their love and caring like to a family member. Yes, because WE ARE FAMILY.

So I join in their tefillos and I am mispallel for all my brothers and sisters. I want to wish the whole klal yisroel a CHASIMA AND GMAR CHASIMA TOVA BTOV HANIREH VEHANIGLA. THERE SHOULD BE THE GEULA PROTI FOR EACH YID AND THE GEULAH KLOLI FOR ALL YIDDEN WITH THE COMING OF MOSHIACH NOW.

Sholom Mordechai halevi