As I said in the last שיעור, in the last class, that we're going to continue to explain the נקודות, the different points concerning ראש השנה through יום כיפור. And just in short, I explained that there are three major points concerning ראש השנה, the days from ראש השנה through יום כיפור, and the three are, they are ימי הדין, days of judgment, days that we sit here in front of the heavenly court and God judges us. Then it is also ימי תשובה, days of תשובה, days of repentance, days of return to God, and they're ימי הכתרת המלכות, days of crowning the king. Last שיעור, last session, I explained some of the meanings behind this concept of accepting God as our king on ראש השנה, what it really means. Today we'll discuss the second the other one, I wouldn't call it second or first, but the other one, which is days of judgment, days in which we are judged. And this is a much simpler concept. Everyone understands what that means. This is much simpler, the fact that this is a day that we are on trial. This is a day that there is a tribunal, there is a heavenly court that judges every person, looks into the acts of the person, what the person did throughout the year, and based on that, the judge, the court decides what is going to be with this person concerning the coming year. And even though this is definitely not physical, no physical court, all this is in a spiritual way, but we can't deal with spirituality, we can't relate to it unless we use the physical concept of the same thing and from that we can understand that in the spiritual sense we have something similar. So we have to, in order to understand or in order to think about this concept of being judged, let's look at a simple court case. Just like in a regular court case, there is the prosecutor and then there is defender, and sometimes you have more than one defender and more than one prosecutor, etc., etc. The same thing is concerning ראש השנה. When we come ראש comes ראש השנה, we are judged. There is a court, and there are מלאכים, angels, who are prosecutors, and there are מלאכים, angels, who are defenders, and they come and they bring all kinds of things up, and we are being judged. And because of that, most people feel that they are very, let's say nervous, let's call it, before ראש השנה and on ראש השנה, because just like a person is nervous when a person sits in front of a judge. I want to read a little bit from something the בעל שם טוב said to describe what goes on in the heavenly court when it comes ראש השנה. And this is printed in the הוספות, we call the additional part to the ספר of the בעל שם טוב called כתר שם טוב. And then it says that the אלטער רבי said in the name of his רבי, who was the מגיד of מעזריטש, who heard this from his רבי, who was the בעל שם טוב. And he said this to his grandson who wrote the ספר, the author of the דגל מחנה אפרים. And he writes what goes on up in שמים, and in connects it to תקיעת שופר. And we said before blowing of the שופר is connected also to the fact that we are being judged, because when there is a trial, they used to be, those days, a trial, they used to started off with blowing trumpets or a שופר. So the שופר represents also the fact of being judged. So he describes it like this: he says that הקל הגדול השם הנשגב והנורא, the great, great, awesome God, is sitting on כסא רם ונשא, on this great throne, which is a כסא דין, it's a chair of judgment. And אברהם אבינו, with his great love, is standing there and begging השם that he should get up from the chair of judgment and sit down on the chair of pity. And he quotes different sources in the זוהר. And then יצחק אבינו, our forefather יצחק, מתעורר בהתעוררות גדולה, gets very, very excited, ומזכיר את העקידה, so he mentions, he reminds השם the עקידה, that I was ready to be sacrificed when you asked my father to kill me, to sacrifice me, ומבקש על זרעו, and he begs God for his children that he should give them all the good things, והתעוררות מסלק כל המסכים והפרוסות, and his התעוררות, his what what יצחק אבינו does, actually takes away all the concealments, all the problems. יעקב אבינו מעורר רחמים רבים על בני ישראל, and יעקב אבינו comes and he puts in his begging for his children. משה רבינו עומד בתפלה ובתחנונים, משה רבינו is standing there and begging and davening to השם, please help your children, judge them favorably. והרועים עמדם, all the other Jewish shepherds, these Jewish leaders are standing standing with him and begging השם, ומתאמצים בתפילה, and they're really, really דאווענינג very hard. ומלאכי מעלה מליצי יושר, the מלאכים who are the defenders, מביאים זכיותיהם של ישראל, they bring bring to the heavenly court all the merits that the Jews did. But לעומתם ישנם הטוענים, but on the other hand, across them, against them, you have the prosecutors. וסופרים ומונים את כל מחשבותיו, דבוריו, ומעשיו, הטובים והלא טובים, and they count and they go through all the thoughts, all the words, all the actions, the good ones and the not good ones, של כל אחד ואחד בפרט, of every single one. והאבות ומשה רבינו, and the אבות: אברהם, יצחק, יעקב, and משה רבינו, ממליצים טוב על כל אחד ואחד, they find all kinds of merits on every single ייד. And he says this is the סדר of תקיעות, this is the סדר of תקיעות, this is the order of the תקיעות, and he explains how this is connected, the תקיעות are connected to אברהם, יצחק, יעקב. And then he says, וכאשר האדם צועק, ״אבא ומלכי, הצילני ורחמני!״ when a person screams, ״טאטע, Father, my King, save me! Have pity on me!״ הוא נותן כח במידת הרחמים להתגבר, that gives the power for the מידה, the attribute of mercy of השם to take over and help us. So what I'm trying to show you that the בעל שם טוב described this because he actually was there and saw it, what it looks like. It's a regular court case, and the idea is that we have to take it seriously. We have to look at it like we look at a simple court case down here in this world, and it would make us a little bit nervous and make us more sincere. I remember once when I, years ago when I just came here to Miami, I once got a ticket. In those days for I the policeman said he claimed I passed a stop sign, and I went to court. And the worst that could have happened then was I would have to pay $25. Okay, it was a lot of money then, but it was $25. And it was actually three days before ראש השנה, and I was sitting in the courtroom, and right before beside me was sitting a woman from the community, a פרומע, religious woman, also for some ticket. And she turns around to me, and she says to me, \"Look around. You see how all these people are sitting very, very nervous?\" And I said, \"You're right. The best proof is I'm nervous myself. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm looking to see is the policeman really here or maybe he didn't come,\" and I was very, very nervous, and so was she. And she says, \"Imagine, why are we nervous? What could happen? The worst that could happen you'll get a $25 ticket. Imagine it's before ראש השנה and there's a judgment למעלה and there's a court case. Why aren't we nervous there? Because we don't even try to take it so seriously.\" We have to realize that we have to take it seriously, to realize that this is a true thing, and we have to do things to find favor in the eyes of the judges. And therefore, the custom by יידן is that days before ראש השנה, the month of אלול, we do more מצות, we do more מעשים טובים, because all this helps us be judged favorably by the judges up there. And also, we know that if a person, God forbid, suffers down here, it takes away a lot of the demerits of the negative part of him in שמים. Actually, the אלטער רבי, the בעל התניא says in תניא, in אגרת התשובה he says, he gives an example, a parable, that when the sun moves down here, when you see the rays of the sun moving down here a few inches, really in heaven, by heaven, I mean in the sky, it moved hundreds and hundreds of miles. That means a little bit down here is equivalent to a lot up there. So when you have a little bit of suffering down here, he said, that takes away a lot a lot of suffering that, God forbid, could come from the judgment in שמים. So this makes a person look favorable on suffering, shouldn't complain. We have to ask השם, God forbid, should not give us any suffering, but if a person does have it, the גמרא says you have to be מקבל יסורים באהבה, you have to accept the suffering with love. And one of the ways to do it is by realizing that by having a little bit of suffering, it'll take care of a lot. So if a person suffered, that will help him when he's judged in the בית דין של מעלה. There's a famous story of the רוזשינער, one of the big צדיקים was the רוזשינער, that there was a person who suffered a lot and used to come from him to time to him from time to time, beg him for a blessing to get rid of his suffering. And for some reason, he didn't give him. Finally, he really, really begged him, and he said, \"Please, I have to get rid of the suffering.\" So the רוזשינער says, \"Okay, I'll give you a ברכה, but I have to tell you a story first.\" And he tells him a story. He says that there was a man who suffered a lot in this world. When he came to the בית דין של מעלה after 120, he came to the heavenly court after 120, and They put everything that he did in his lifetime on the scale, and unfortunately, the negative side weighed down. So, one מלאך comes running, he says, \"Yeah, but this guy suffered a lot.\" So the court says, \"Okay.\" So they took, says, \"Bring me what he suffered.\" They brought what he suffered, and they put it on the side of the מצות, and it started weighing down the good side. But still not enough. So they said, \"Is there any more?\" \"Yes.\" So they said, \"There's something else he suffered with.\" They brought that, too. It helped a little bit, but it still did not tip the scale. It was tipping it a little bit, but it didn't tip the scale that the good side should tip down more than the bad side. And they brought some more, and they still, and it still didn't tip it. Then the court says, \"Is there any more? Because it almost, almost tipped it.\" And they said, \"That's it.\" So this man turns around and he says, \"God, couldn't You give me a little bit more suffering?\" So he told the story, the רוזשינער told the story to this ייד, and he says, \"נו, do you want a ברכה, a blessing, that you should not suffer?\" He says, \"רבי, no, I don't want.\" Now, it doesn't mean חס ושלום we have to ask for it. But if God gives it, we have to look at it in a different way, knowing that this will help us when it comes to the בית דין של מעלה. We know that helping another Jew, doing a favor to another Jew in whichever way, whether it's spiritually or physically, also helps us in being accepted favorably in the בית דין של מעלה. And therefore, we should try to do מצות of אהבת ישראל, helping Jews before. There is a story, even, I don't even remember of which רבי told the story, that there was once a person, also, that he was traveling, and he saw a wagon with a whole bunch of יידן, their wagon got stuck in the mud and they were in danger, and he worked very hard and he finally pulled them out and saved them. When he came to the בית דין של מעלה after 120, and they started weighing, well, it wasn't so good, but what they did was they put this favor that he did to that Jew on the scale, but it didn't really still tip the scale. Then the judge says, \"You know what? They took the horse and the wagon, and they put them all on the scale.\" And when they put that on the scale, it overweighed and it tipped the scale, and he was judged favorably. So, doing a favor to a ייד before ראש השנה could help if we take it serious that we know that this is really a day of judgment, and we take it seriously, then we will do all these מצות to help it. And especially one מצוה is especially important before ראש השנה, to help when you're standing trial in front of the בית דין של מעלה, is the מצוה of צדקה. Why the מצוה of צדקה? What is צדקה? צדקה is charity. Charity means you give some money or whatever you give to somebody who needs it, but he didn't work for it. He doesn't deserve it, he didn't work for it. Why should you give, it's my money, I should give him? But nevertheless, that's the מצוה of צדקה. A person who didn't work for it, he didn't earn it, nevertheless you should give him. Now, we know that God deals with us, we call it מידה כנגד מידה. God deals with us measure for measure. Whatever we do, He will do to us similarly. If we give צדקה, that means we're giving to somebody who doesn't deserve it, or, using better words, didn't earn it, God looks down and says, \"Hey, this guy gave to somebody he doesn't deserve it. So, I'll do the same thing to him. I'll give him, also, a good year,\" we call כתיבה וחתימה טובה, \"even though he doesn't deserve it.\" So, by doing this, we help our case in the בית דין של מעלה. And this is how we have to look at it. We have to look at it as a serious matter. This is a real, almost like a real, we could say a real court case. And if we look at it that this is serious, then השם will give us a כתיבה וחתימה טובה, He will write and sign for a good year because He sees what we do, He will do the same to us. And we hope, actually, that this year will be the best year. He'll give us a כתיבה וחתימה טובה for a happy and sweet, healthy year, but the main thing, He'll give us the ברכה, hopefully, אם ירצה השם, for sure, that He will bring משיח this year. This is concerning the second part, which is realizing that it's a יום הדין. And I want to add that this is one of the things we mention in the prayers also, especially in the one famous, famous prayer we say on ראש השנה, as the most famous one is what we call ונתנה תוקף. ונתנה תוקף is a time when everyone is very serious, and it's a good time to be serious. What does it talk about? It talks about what goes on in heaven while this court case takes place. And he says מלאכים are running back and forth, and they're opening the books, and in the book everyone's signature is there, and all the מעשים, all the acts and everything that a person did during that year is there, and they start judging the person of what's going to be. So, we say that and we take it seriously, but we should really take it seriously a few days before, so That when we come to that day, we will will have the chance of השם giving us a good year, and we also have to have another aspect here, the בטחון, which is the true trust that השם will give us a good year. And it says in שולחן ערוך, the טור brings, that the custom is, and that's how it should be, that we get dressed with יום טוב, שבת, holiday clothing before ראש השנה, and we go to שול and we're dressed in a way that we're already celebrating. What are we celebrating? We're celebrating the fact that God gave us a good year and gave us a כתיבה וחתימה טובה, that means we were judged favorably. How do we know? This is we're doing this ערב ראש השנה, going to שול at night before it happened yet, because he says we have to show that we are so sure, we are so בטוח, בטוח, we guarantee to ourselves because we have the true בטחון, trust in God that He will give it to us, and that's why we do it. And if השם says that these people really trust Me, He says, \"Okay, I'll give it to them,\" and we really get it, a שנה טובה ומתוקה, לשנה טובה תכתבו ותחתמו.