The Heart is Sealed, There is No True Feeling of Sorrow for the Destruction and Exile - Shabbat Chazon Rabbi Menachem Azulai shlit"a

Holy Words from Rabbi Menachem Azulai shlit"a - Parshat Devarim Always Before Tisha B'Av, During the Three Weeks

"These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel" (Deuteronomy 1:1). What words? Words of rebuke, but all in hints, all with merit. Because the places themselves caused them to sin. "The place causes." You are fine, you are wonderful, only the places you passed through caused you to sin because they passed through the desert, a place of snakes, fiery serpents, and scorpions, and this is what caused them to fail (based on Likutei Halachot Orlah 4:16). 'Eicha' the cry of Eicha is not a protest, it is a search, it is that eternal cry of a Jew who wants closeness to Hashem so that this pleasantness of closeness to Hashem will give him strength to overcome all the other things that pull him and distance him from Hashem. Our whole matter in life is to maintain the connection with Hashem. Only this will fill my soul, only this will truly make me happy. Material things never succeed in filling us. If they do, then only for a moment and it disappears and leaves us with a taste of regret. The evil inclination is not life."

"A person may feel some pleasure, he feels that he is having fun, but somewhere in the end, he will feel bad, feel emptiness. Everything a person does that is not connected to Hashem, it hides the light of Hashem from him, it distances him from Hashem. Parshat Devarim, always before Tisha B'Av, during the 'Three Weeks'. The divine soul has an immense desire to escape the constraints of the body, the constraints of material. The animal soul wants to sleep, rest, eat, and drink. But truly, truly, it does not do us good. The divine soul wants completely different things. It wants to give up, it wants to overcome, it wants to strengthen itself in another matter of kedushah (holiness). We are always between the straits. All kinds of straits. And the hardest straits are routine. Doing without enthusiasm, without excitement, without truly feeling Hashem."

The heart is sealed, there is no true feeling of sorrow for the destruction and exile. It is hard to feel sorrow for a friend who has gone astray, God forbid, so to mourn and cry for three weeks over the destruction and exile? What does hurt us? Our distance from Hashem. Distance from the source of life. There is no Jew who does not feel this pain. The crying on Tisha B'Av is a cry of longing, crying to Hashem to be with us, that we will finally be connected to Him because if not, we are connected to other things. Crying because it is hard for us to cry, hard to feel, hard to pray, hard to rejoice. Crying for our neshamah (soul), which has fallen to such low places, a soul hewn from the Throne of Glory and is imprisoned within a body with desires, with such low wants. As long as a person lives, he is in a war. A war with the evil inclination."

"Master of the Universe, help me in this war because alone I cannot. Because without You I have no chance. A person, the bad thoughts, the bad desires, do not leave him for a moment. Until he thinks that maybe indeed he has no chance in this war. Maybe indeed it is not for him. Our whole life is a struggle. Every moment. One moment we feel Hashem and the next moment the body overcomes. Just like what happened to the people of Israel who after the spiritual elevation of receiving the Torah fell to the Golden Calf to permit themselves forbidden relations. If a person does not work to nullify the evil inclination, it will not leave him. A person knows he has an evil inclination, to get angry, to eat with desire, to neglect Torah, to speak lashon hara, what he must do is pray. For everything in kedushah. For everything that distances and separates me from Hashem. And more than anything for guarding the eyes because here is the greatest evil inclination. Prayers from the depths of the heart. With all the strength. Like a person fighting for his life."

"Everything is possible. It is possible to merit good eyes, that rejoice in the success of another, it is possible to conquer anger, it is possible to overcome the desires for food, for sleep, it is even possible to guard the eyes, everything is possible if you walk hand in hand with Hashem. If you do not stop praying and asking. A person must remember, you are not alone. You have someone to turn to. You have a way, a direction, you know that with prayers you can win the war of life. Remember: just as a Jew wants Hashem, so Hashem wants the Jew. Just as a Jew loves Hashem, so Hashem loves the Jew. Even more. This war is full of difficult trials. But only this way do we merit to ascend spiritual levels and draw closer to Hashem, only when we truly break ourselves to do the will of Hashem."

"In this difficulty of the trial, a person builds himself. He brings out from potential to actual the hidden strengths within him. Immense strengths that cannot come to light when everything goes regularly and everything is wonderful, but when he is tested, and he stands in it, then he becomes happier, it becomes better for him, he discovers himself as a greater person than he was before. There are many straits in life. Problems with bank accounts, housing problems, many problems with educating children, many problems with marital peace, and many very difficult things, in every Jewish home it is like this. Every minute we have a strait, every minute we have a trial, every moment we have some suffering, but what do they say? All her pursuers overtook her between the straits, there are also attainments, not just straits. All the straits are vessels for divine attainments. Every strait is a wonderful vessel to draw closer to Hashem. Suddenly a person feels that Hashem is so close to him, he feels that Hashem is holding his hand, not leaving him, it is so hard for me but Hashem loves me within this difficulty, Hashem is with me, going with me from place to place, He is always with me. Why? Because I am between the straits. Within the troubles, within the constraints, within our straits we discover the mercy of Hashem. We discover the kindness within the judgment."

"If there was only kindness here, we would treat it as something taken for granted, something that is owed to us, there is nothing else. But when everything is hard, when every moment is another trial, then there is no choice but to flee to Hashem, to increase in prayers and an abundance of prayers is already attachment to Hashem. Tisha B'Av is a day that concentrates all the sorrow and pain that the Jewish people have experienced in thousands of years of existence. It is not mourning of grief, of despair, of bitterness and disappointment, God forbid, it is a cry of hope, of emunah (faith), of yearning and longing. This crying is something wonderful, like all the wonderful ways of Hashem. We cry for the Holy Temple that is not because when it was standing, a Jew would enter there and immediately receive wonderful knowledge, offer a sacrifice and immediately feel so close to Hashem, for this we cry. We cry for the fact that even the light of the tzaddik is also not, it is also hidden from us "because when one desires his own honor, then he cannot draw close and enjoy at all from the light of the tzaddik, and sometimes even becomes an opponent, especially now, in these generations, when the point of truth is very despised" (Otzar HaYirah Bein HaMetzarim 2)."

"Eicha is a cry of yearning and searching for a beloved who has distanced. The pain in it comes from the depth of love. Even if the separation is so long, the longing has not weakened, they are growing stronger. The neshamah of a Jew yearns to be freed from the constraints of the body, from the boundaries of material. It wants completely different things, it wants the infinite. How do we attain the infinite? The holy Torah in Parshat Devarim gives us the answer: Ahavat Chinam (unconditional love)."

"There are Jews whose love for every Jew knows no bounds. They always know how to judge a person favorably. The patience they have for everyone, the respect they give to every person, it is truly a Kiddush Hashem. They live with the knowledge that everyone is a child of Hashem, that every Jew is a part of the Divine from above, and to know that Hashem is also with the friend is a very high level. "Moses our teacher lists in Parshat Devarim all the places where Israel angered their Father in Heaven but it is not a sharp rebuke, it is a rebuke said with caution and gentleness. All in hints, so as not to hurt them. For example, a place called "Di Zahav" comes to hint at the sin of the Golden Calf and so on. "He concealed the matters and mentioned them in hints, for the honor of Israel" (Rashi). Judaism in its beauty. The main thing is not to shame a person. The main thing is to maintain his honor."

"The days of Bein HaMetzarim are days when one must strengthen in the mitzvot between a person and his fellow because the Second Holy Temple was destroyed due to baseless hatred and what will bring us the redemption is unconditional love. Ahavat Yisrael is first and foremost bringing people closer to Hashem. Life should be a journey of drawing hearts closer to our Father in Heaven. No one is exempt from this mission. Each in his own way. "For these I weep", for so many Jews who are far from the light of Hashem, from the light of the Torah, from the light of emunah. "These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel". Moses our teacher speaks to all Israel. He knows the truth, that there is no such thing as a Jew who does not want Hashem, that it is possible to reach every Jew. The holy Torah demands from us much inner work. You cannot love the Father and so easily dismiss His children. You must start looking with good eyes at every child of Hashem and find his unique beauty, the thing that only he can do for his Creator and no one else can do it in his place."

"We have so much to do with our own personal introspection, so why are we always busy seeing disgraceful things in others?! This is what the holy Baal Shem Tov said: "A person sees all blemishes except his own." A person just forgets that if he saw something disgraceful in another, surely he also has of the same kind. With Hashem it is all one. It does not interest me. To me you are together. It does not matter to me who you are. You are the greatest person of the generation or you are a woodcutter or a water drawer. To me, you are all equal, I am the Father of all, I have no preference for one even if he is more talented and more successful and more of a tzaddik."

"Hashem created the world out of His mercy. He wants a world where we feel His mercy. And how will we feel mercy in the world if we do not start to have mercy on each other? If we do not learn to step out of ourselves a bit and start looking around, to see where we are needed. We need to help everyone, love everyone, it is such a minimal, simple, and essential thing, it does not even need words of Torah. There is nothing that brings us closer to Hashem more than love for others. You say a good word to another, you do a kindness with him, the Shechinah immediately jumps, it is between you. Between a person and his fellow and between a person and his Creator it goes together. You reveal the Creator in the "Good morning" you say to another, in "Be blessed", in an encouraging smile, in a pat on the back, in every expression of love, of respect, of consideration for others."

"Whoever wants Hashem to dwell in his heart cannot ignore his brothers. Because giving is simcha (joy) and simcha is the holy Shechinah, the Shechinah only rests in joy. With between a person and his fellow, hearts are received. A dwelling is built within the heart. We love you Father, we love kedushah, we love the Torah, we love living among a community that fears Your name, we love those wonderful moments when we feel You, suddenly we want to cry, we want to pour out before You within the holy words of prayer, within our private words, suddenly we see a miracle, suddenly we feel You within all our troubles, suddenly we feel You within the heart. On the day that is next week, the great day of Tu B'Av, a day about which it is said: "There were no better days for Israel than the fifteenth of Av and Yom Kippur" (Taanit). Our teacher the rabbi: ["If a person believes in what our Sages say, then now Tu B'Av, it is really Kol Nidrei."

"Only instead of fasting and saying Selichot, they gave us juice and cakes so that we make a joyful Yom Kippur. The gates of heaven are open. Every person can receive today holy eyes, a holy mind, everyone can today merit everything that can be merited on Yom Kippur. Just keep your head. Remember it is Yom Kippur. Although the stores are not closed and cars are driving on the street, a person must remember that he is now with Hashem. Today they distribute mind, they distribute heart, a person regrets, does teshuvah, cries out to Hashem: I am tired of forbidden desires, I am tired of forbidden thoughts, then Hashem will give him a new heart, a new mind. Today you can come out of all the falls, all the failures, all the nonsense, all the illusions."

"A day when a person is given immense powers, a new neshamah is lowered to him, a new mind, new eyes, a day of forgiveness of sins through songs and dances, increasing in simcha and dances and sins are forgiven"] (until here our teacher the rabbi). Shabbat Chazon is not just the Shabbat before Tisha B'Av. Shabbat Chazon opens our eyes. Chazon means prophecy. We see the redemption up close. Within the exile is the redemption. "Lay it bare, lay it bare to its foundation." Although they destroyed the house only to the foundation. They did not reach the foundation. The bricks can be destroyed, not the souls. The people of Israel and every Jew personally have a covenant with the Creator of the world. This is an eternal connection that cannot be annulled. All this is seen on Shabbat Chazon. A Shabbat that is closest to redemption. Both general and personal."