Aug. 24, 2025
RISE & GRIND - ELUL 2025 MOTIVATION
What if everything holding you back spiritually was actually designed to propel you forward? As we enter the month of Elul, many of us feel a familiar pit in our stomach – anxiety about the upcoming High Holidays mixed with guilt over spiritual stagnation. But what if we've been looking at this all wrong?
This transformative exploration reframes our understanding of life's challenges through the lens of Jewish wisdom. Drawing from Parshat Re'eh's teaching about false prophets, the famous Talmudic story of Rabbi Eliezer and the Oven of Achnai, and Ramchal's foundational work Mesillat Yesharim, we discover that our spiritual obstacles – our nisyonot – aren't accidents or punishments. They're divinely crafted tests designed to help us prove our love for God.
When heavenly voices boomed down supporting Rabbi Eliezer's position, the sages recognized it as a test rather than surrendering their understanding of Torah. Rabbeinu Nissim explains this remarkable response as parallel to our struggle with false prophets – sometimes even the most convincing miracles must be recognized as challenges to our faith rather than divine directives.
The wisdom shared here isn't just theoretical – it's intensely practical. Whether you're battling depression, anxiety, relationship problems, financial struggles, or simply spiritual apathy, this perspective offers a revolutionary approach. Your challenges aren't in the way of your spiritual growth; they ARE the way. And just as God never commands us to place a mezuzah without providing a doorpost, He never presents us with tests beyond our capacity to overcome.
This Elul, arm yourself with this powerful understanding. Face your challenges with newfound courage, knowing they're not random obstacles but carefully designed opportunities to demonstrate your love for Hashem. What spiritual mountains will you climb when you realize you've been equipped for the journey all along?
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00:00 - Reimagining Elul as Spiritual Opportunity
07:19 - Understanding Our Spiritual Impediments
12:51 - Parshat Re'eh: Blessings and Curses
20:50 - The False Prophet Test
29:58 - Rabbi Eliezer and the Oven of Achnai
38:02 - Life's Challenges as Divine Tests
44:23 - Your Nisyonot Are the Way
WEBVTT
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If the world is like an amusement park, then Elul, this Jewish month that we are beginning right now, is like hitting the jackpot and taking a family trip to Disney World and you have a fast pass in your hand so you can skip all the lines and enjoy that much more and take in the thrills at double the time, or better yet.
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You know what LO is like.
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Lo is like when you're racing down Rainbow Road in Mario Kart and you bump into one of those power-up cubes and now you have gained star power where it plays that upbeat music and you can zoom ahead of the competition with greater energy and with greater stamina.
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That's what L is.
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So why don't each and every one of us always feel that way about Elul?
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Why is it that when you hear the word Elul, you find a pit in your stomach?
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Why, for others, does the name itself Rosh Chodesh Elul Yiyab Yom HaRishon UveYom HaSheni?
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Why does that make you tremble with stress, tension and aggravate your lockjaw?
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Elul?
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To others, it's just unremarkable, it is no different.
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But LL is supposed to be.
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What it was created for was to be brimming with potential, overflowing with opportunity and growth.
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So why does it feel out of touch?
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Why can't we fully embrace it?
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Why does our path up the mountain of Hashem over the next 40 days seem to be impeded, blockaded and seem impossible For many of us?
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It's because we suffer from the curious case of nisionos.
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We have things in our lives that sap our spiritual stamina and energy.
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We have nisionos in so many different forms Troubles, obstacles, challenges.
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Literally, nisionos means tests that they make us depressed.
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They make others suffer from a poor self-image, others stifled by poverty, others held back and shackled by anxiety.
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More people with relationship issues, financial issues, emotional issues, psychological issues, issues, psychological issues.
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Even wealth and prosperity can be such a nesoyon that it makes a person feel haughty and like he doesn't need God.
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Everybody has something gnawing at their insides, draining their strength, that often inhibit us to actually enter into the door of Elul.
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So today I propose that we reframe the impediment between us and a good Elul, and that is, we understand a new understanding of what your Nisionos are and how you can overcome your nisionos, how you can shift your mindset on the spiritual power of Elul and overcome your problems.
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Like a Louisville slugger with his metal baseball bat because the ball goes farther when it hits the metal college bat and smashing your problems like a dollar general wiffle ball.
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Today we are to uncover the way that Hashem wants us to view Elul and how we should interplay with what it is that depresses you and drains you and shackles you down from capitalizing on the amazing time, the Eseratzon, that is now and that will continue for the next 40 days.
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That is now and that will continue for the next 40 days.
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Our Parsha of the week Re'ei see Most.
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Just tell the Jewish people they need to crystallize good and evil.
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Know that if you do good, you will get good.
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If you daven and pray and give charity, tzedakah and be kind to other people, do not lie to yourself that goodness is returned.
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With goodness you do good, you daven and pray, be nice to people, you'll get a Maserati.
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Sometimes it takes a long time.
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If you daven, pray and give charity, you'll get your beachfront miami penthouse house.
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It just may take a while or maybe god wants to give you something way better than that.
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Our parsha continues after that to talk about the blessings and curses.
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On my greet mount grisim and har aval, we learn about how you need to have a centralized place to be able to do sacrifices.
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You cannot have a backyard minion.
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You need to slaughter thy animals up and go visit Hashem.
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When you do it, we learn special laws about the blood and we learn about a false prophet who entices others to worship idols A terrible man.
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We hear again about identifying kosher signs.
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We learn about tithes.
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We learn about firstborn cattle and sheep to be offered in the Besam Migdash and their meat to be eaten by whom.
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We learn about the mitzvah of charity, of opening thy heart and of thy hand aiding the fellow man, even giving him a, a loan.
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We learn about the sabbatical Shemitah year.
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We learn about indentured servants.
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Before our parasha concludes, parashasra A, with the three pilgrimage festivals and a reminding of the Jewish people of how important they are Pesach, shavuos and Sukkos, where you have to go see and be seen.
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You have to go see and be seen, aliyah l'regel.
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You have to go up and visit Hashem and don't go empty-handed.
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I'd like to dwell today on that false prophet narrative.
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I'd like to change your way that you view your troubles, or share with you the wisdom that Rabbi Yerucham Lvovitz shares and the great Balei Musser share, and the great sages of your share, about how to reframe your struggles and capitalize on Elul.
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If there should appear among you a prophet, a dream diviner who gives you a prophet or a portrait.
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Let us follow and worship another God.
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Come with me, ladies and gentlemen, I can walk on water.
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Come with me.
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Let us engage in terrible idol worshiping and terrible frolicking and terrible, haphazard, dangerous activities.
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And look, if you don't believe me, that I'm the next coming of the next great thing, well then, look, I can do a magic trick.
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We have a commandment.
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Lo tishma el divre ha-noviahu.
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Don't listen to this singular, rather odd, this prophet.
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O cholem ha-chalomahu.
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Don't listen to that dream diviner.
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Ki menasa Hashem alokeichem eschem, for God is testing you.
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Ladas hayeshchem oyavim es Hashem alokeichem.
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Are there any lovers, true lovers of God in your midst, those that love God with all thy heart and with your entire soul?
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This false prophet, religious deceiver, a man who, klal Yisrael, has never faltered too many times because of.
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We have so many, actually shockingly numerous, accounts of people coming to the Jewish people claiming divine inspiration, claiming that they've had an encounter with God, and these people continuously lead Jews astray with greed and with pride and with distorted teachings.
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They replace truth with evil and they identify themselves as nothing but for the masses and for the people, but in truth.
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They seek to manipulate and only focus on material gain and they totally disregard spiritual purity and they have a total lack of accountability and their prophecies always fail to materialize.
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That's what seems to be a loose definition of a false prophet.
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But that's not how Chazal see the false prophet.
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That's not how the Torah commands us to not look at the false prophet.
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We're not commanded to see through him.
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We're commanded not to disregard him or to call him a snake oil salesman.
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We're not to say he's just a magician, just some theatrics.
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No, read the Pusik again and let us hear what's happening here.
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God tells us when there should be a prophet.
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He's a nuffie.
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He's real, he's not a snake oil salesman and he can do real tricks.
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Doesn't tell us that there are any fake tricks.
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He may be really magical.
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He may really be able to change the sun into a moon and run across Lake Michigan without ever slipping into the water.
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He can truly do incredible things.
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Chole machalom, he can see the future, make predictions.
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They seem real, they are real.
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Still the Pesach tells us that our obligation is to know that they're a test.
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It all seems real.
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It may be real, but our decision, our commandment, is to say very nice, but I already have clarity and Hashem told me what to do when I see someone like this.
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Why does Hashem send them our way?
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Ki Menasseh, because God wants to see and how much we love him.
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The Menasseh for the fact that Hashem Elokeichem is testing you.
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It's to say that whatever I'm seeing in my problem it is totally real.
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But I still choose to follow the commandments of Hashem, which is to not get too wrapped up in your false or even true prophecies.
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That's great that the moon is a sun and the sun is a moon, but I don't listen if you're telling me to go awry and to even miss one positive commandment.
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Chazal, know this.
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Chazal, know that life.
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When you see a false prophet, how to respond to them.
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There's an incredible Gemara in Brachos.
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You've heard the Gemara before and the way that Ron understands it, he understands the false prophet it makes.
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It sheds a lot of light onto how we should deal with our problems.
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It's not in Chosem.
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We learned in the Mishnah.
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There's a famous Gemara in Brachas I believe it is in 59B and 60A where there's a discrepancy in a mishnah how to deal with a oven.
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It's an earthenware oven and it's not today's conversation, but it cracks.
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So it's not a full and wholesome and maybe productive entity.
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So it is not possible for it to become ritually impure.
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But what happens if you should fill the earthenware cracks with sand in order to make it usable, pliable still somewhat of a functioning oven?
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There's a machlokas between the Chachamim and Rabbi Eliezer.
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Rabbi Eliezer says it is Tohor, the Zehutaner Shalach Noi.
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This is what we refer to as the famous episode of the Ach No'oi Oven.
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Why is it called the Ah No'oi Oven?
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That had this great dispute?
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That what happened?
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The rabbi surrounded it with their statements, like a snake, which often forms a coil when at rest, and deemed it impure, meaning that there was a classic showdown, a classic dispute over this oven.
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Listen to what happened.
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Listen to how the rabbis reacted when faced with unprecedented circumstances, with unprecedented circumstances Ba'o so'ayom heyshiv, rebbe Leiezer, kol tshuva sheba olam.
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While they were fighting back and forth the rabbis and Rebbe Leiezer as to who was correct about the Tanr shalach noi is it deemed pure, is it deemed susceptible to impurity or not?
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Rebbe Leiezer answered every single question that the rabbis had for him.
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Rebbe Leiezer was fighting them off A shield bearer.
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The rabbis were attacking them with nunchucks of riles and proofs as to why it is that it is Tomei.
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It is susceptible to impurity.
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The sand makes it susceptible to impurity because the sand makes it a practical and usable oven.
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Rebbe Eliezer knocked away all of the proofs of the rabbis and the rabbis.
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They didn't accept Rebbe Eliezer's remarks back.
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The rabbis said we still see it.
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And all of the sages, a multitude of them, several of them saw it differently than Rebbe Eliezer.
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Amar Lahem, rebbe Eliezer said to them, said to them then this cherub, cherub tree should prove that I'm right.
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The tree, the tree, uprooted itself and moved, walked, transported itself 100 cubits.
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Another bystander saw the tree get up and move 400 cubits away.
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All in a proof that Rebbe Eliezer is the one who is correct.
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And with this magic trick Rebbe Eliezer sought to win over the sages that this sand filled oven is truly pure because it is not susceptible, that this tanor shel achnoy, that this sand-filled oven is truly pure because it is not susceptible.
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It has not remade itself as an oven, it's still cracked.
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Om rulo the sages after they saw this magic trick ein mevian rayim en achorav.
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You can't bring a proof from a carob tree.
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That's not a proof in Torah learning.
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That's got nothing to do with the topic.
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Chozreva omar lehem.
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Okay, I have another trick.
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Rabbi Eliezer says Im haloch et kimosi.
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If the law is like me, amas hamayim yochichu, then let the water prove it.
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Pozru amas hamayim liach oreyim.
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So the water turned and began to flow the opposite direction, as if the whole Mississippi River was now flowing east to west as opposed to north and south and south to north.
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Or maybe just the direction from north to south was now flipped to south, going up towards north.
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But either way, the water did something miraculous Um Rulo, the sage, is still totally alive, uninspired.
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Ein mehvi enrayim eyam ha-samayim In halacha, you can't bring accordance to your opinion just from a stream moving backwards, a stream moving and flowing in the opposite direction.
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One does not cite halachic proof from a stream.
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Chazer v'yamar lohem emalochik ha-mosi.
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Rabbi Eliezer continues with his incredible feats.
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The walls of this very shul, the walls of the study house of this Torah academy, should prove that I'm right, that the Taner Shalach Noi is truly pure.
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Immediately, the walls of the shul began to shake and began to fall.
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Go'ar behem, rabbi Yeshua.
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But then, rabbi Joshua, rabbi Yeshua, he stands up and yells at the walls Omer le'hem im tamideh ha'chamim menatzichim zehadzeh ba'halacha Atem mativchem, because the sages are fighting in.
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Torah matters Walls what business do you have in this?
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That you could possibly just fall?
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So the walls halted from falling.
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But the walls did not straighten, so they stay there, kind of in an arched position, slightly sloped on their way to the ground, and the walls, to this very day, continue to be in that rather leaning posture.
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Chazar v'omar lahem.
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Rebbe Leiezer is still not done with his proofs.
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If the law is like me, the heavens prove it that this Tanor, this snake Tanor that Rebbe Eliezer deems is pure.
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Let the heavens prove that I'm right and the rabbis are incorrect.
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Yot Soso, bas Kol Ve'Omra, a booming, heralding prophetic message and voice, bas Kol, daughter of the voice, booms out from the heavens.
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Ma lochem Eitzel, rebbe Eliezer, shalacha kamaysi b'chom makom.
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What are y'all saying?
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Because the prophetic voice has a southern twang?
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What are y'all rabbis saying?
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Don't you know that the laws are like Rebbe Eliezer in every place?
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Oman, rebbe Yehosh Al-Raglov.
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Rabbi Yehoshua stands up and barks back at the heavenly voice Loi basho mayim hi.
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The Torah is not from the heavens.
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Mai loi basho mayim hi.
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Omar.
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Rabbi Yirmiya, the sages explained what Rabbi Yehoshua meant.
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What did he say back?
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Shekvar nitno toire mei arsinai.
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God gave us the Torah from Arsinai, and einanu mashkichim bebas kol.
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We don't paskin halacha questions with prophetic proclamations.
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Shekvar kosavta baharsinai ba'torah acharei rabim lahatos.
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God, you already told us that after the multitudes, after the rove, we paskin with the general consensus.
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So we don't listen to the baskel and the law is like the chachamim and Rebbe Eliezer is incorrect in this matter.
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We paskin like the sages.
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The Gemara continues to tell us what happened, but just for the sake of our conversation, we've learned of this Gemara enough information.
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We see incredible resolve of the sages to not budge from their position because they grabbed onto a law that they are told to keep and listen to how they're tested.
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Listen to this Ron, listen to Rabbeinu Nisim's explanation.
00:21:21.828 --> 00:21:29.976
The Ron, the great medieval commentator, one of the most incredible and prolific Rishonim.
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He's explaining what exactly is going on.
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When the proclamation says how are the sages internalizing and understanding, when there's a heavenly prophetic meshes that's booming out, that Reb Eliezer is correct, how can the rabbis say no to it?
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How can you say no to a basko?
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Says the Rahn, shalohai sa ha-kavana elalanasos es ha-chachamim im yanichu ha-kabola shebi yadam vage-marah shebefim b'shvel basko.
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That the rabbis understood that what's happening here is that this prophetic proclamation is coming like a false prophet to test us.
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Are we going to budge from our Kabbalah?
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Are we going to budge from the Torah?
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Are we going to budge from what we know is right, imlav or not?
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What is this situation like?
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What is this test like?
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From what we know is right, ve'imlav or not Ve'domeh?
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What is this situation like?
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What is this test like?
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It's similar.
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You guessed it l'mashekosah ve'kim enasah Hashem elokeichem eschem.
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It's like in Parshas Re'eh.
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The sages, they maximize their understanding of how you're supposed to live.
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And see how steadfast they were, and see how they are immovable, unbudgeable in their approach.
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Ki minasa Hashem elokeichem eschem.
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God is challenging you.
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So the sages, they know how God told us to pasken a halacha, and that's to go with the row of the majority.
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Everything else, even a heavenly proclamation, is seen as a test.
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They won't budge.
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Their hashkafa rishona, their first thought when something happens, even majestic and magical, if it's against how God told us to live our lives, if it is not in line with the Torah, then it is false, it is incorrect and it's a false prophet that's trying to lead us astray.
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The hashkafa rishona when you reach life's challenges and difficulties.
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The sages see, they see a moment like this as a nesayon, as a challenge.
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As a challenge, as opposed to melting down and wilting and falling depressed and confused.
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You respond to it.
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The sages respond to it with the immediate reframing of it, of this is a chance that God wants me to prove my love.
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That doesn't work with the Torah's laws, so it must be a false prophet and nothing can shake you.
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Let's broaden this, because you're aware that it's not just about paskening halacha, that you're supposed to see life and its tough times as an esayon.
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Rabbi Moses Chaim Lutzato of 1738 wrote the greatest guidebook to your Jewish life, and it's how we interpret the entire Torah and live our lives, climbing up to God.
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It's called the Mesilas Yisharim and it's the work that everybody studies all the time and every day, and you should too.
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And in it, in his first chapter, when he introduces the entire point of life, he says exactly like this also, and he says even more he flushes out the idea fully.
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And he says even more he flushes out the idea fully that you should know that you should know that you should know no-transcript, that you should know that you should.
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And God takes us and he puts us into a world that is full of things that pull us away from Hashem.
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It's all of the cravings of your heart.
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You know that you have a craving for food and sometimes you shouldn't eat it, but you do, and you know, and I know that there are times that we just can't say no to ourselves, and that is what pulls us away from Hashem.
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And now the choice is yours Follow your lust, follow your thirsts to gross places and you'll continue to go down the slope towards apostasy until you are so far away from Hashem that even a telescope will make Hashem hardly visible.
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God forbid, and it comes out.
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The reality is is that we're all placed inside of an incredible battle.
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Everything in this world, whether it's good or whether it's bad, reality is is that we're all placed inside of an incredible battle?
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Ki kolin, yone ha'olam, ben latov, ben lora, everything in this world, whether it's good or whether it's bad, everything in this world, whether it's good or whether it's bad, ben latov, ben lora, hinei, heim nes, yonos, la'adam, everything is a test to see if you will be able to see the false prophet working his magic and that you're able to say no.
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Ramchal concludes the pauper struggles with impoverishedness, and the wealthy person from his side with impoverishedness and the wealthy person from his side.
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And he brings proofs to this.
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Until you realize that you are totally surrounded by tests.
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And if you will be strong, if you'll be a warrior, if you'll stand up in the face of your challenges and fight from the front to the back, to the east, to the west, and make yourself totally safe and totally complete, then you'll be able to walk into that vestibule, into the great corridor, into the great dining hall where you'll see HaKadosh Baruch Hu and you'll dance at the ball for eternity in paradise, in the next world.
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And it seems from here, says Ramchal, nim Seinul made him the point of life.
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It is only threefold Ki ikr mitziyasa odam ba'olam azeh.
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What are you doing in this world?
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It is threefold Rak l'kayim mitzvos.
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Do Torah and mitzvos.
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Pray, la'avod, pray, serve God.
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What is the third one?
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