Parshas Nitzavim–Vayeilech: The 2,000-Year-Old Secret Hidden in a Lod Attic—and Why Your Workday Is Your Greatest Elul Avodah

Seven Days To Close Strong

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It's closing time. There are just seven days left until the end of the year. That is all. The year will never come back. And it is our one shot to lace up our sneakers and close the deal for the X Vactor players to come out and put a cold blooded dagger into the air to secure the victory. Gotta close strong. Capitalistically speaking, you can rectify the whole year with just a mere seven days. And this week on the Weekly Parsha podcast, I want to review some of the basic themes of the Parsha before we create some friction, some pain about a question that's been bothering me and maybe bothering you internally. I want to put forth one Yasod, life-changing Yasod, eye-opening Yasod, from a Gemara Mesahta Kedushin, that tells us how we should spend the final seven days of the year, and then two takeaways from that yesod before we finish up

Nitzavim Vayelech In One Pass

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here. The parshah is a double parsha, Nitsavim Vayelech. Its Akhempak Nitsavim deals with so many fundamental principles of the Jewish faith. You stand today, all of you before the Lord your God, your heads, your tribes, your elders, your officers, every Israelite man. The unity of Israel is clear. We are one, united. The Parsha continues to tell about the future redemption, practicality of Torah. Kiya mitzvah hazois, this mitzvah, lainiflaisi mimcha, the Laira Chikahi, Tirah, is in your mouth, in your heart, that you may do it. And you need not travel to remote islands or to the heavens to track it down. Nitzaven finishes with the freedom of choice. I've set before you life and goodness, death and evil, and I command you to choose life. You would agree that these are pretty fundamental principles to the Jewish faith. Pajas Vayelech, and he went, did Moshe, speaks about the last day of Moshe Abainu's earthly life. I am 120 years old today, Moshe Rahbainu said. And I can no longer go forth and come in. Moshe transfers the leadership to Yahushua. He writes a safer Torah, entrusts it to the Levium for safekeeping. We get a mitzvah of Hakel Es Ha'um, a unique mitzvah, every seven years during Sukkis, that the entire Jewish people, men, women, and children gather in the Bes Hamiddash, kind of like a large Adire Hatoira, Daf Hayoimi, Super Bowl, all-encompassing gathering of the Jewish people to get a real championing of a cause that unites a nation. Before Bayeg concludes with the prediction that there will be some tough times ahead that will cause God to hide his face, but also with that a promise that the words of Torah shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their descendants. So have no fear about how bad things get, because the good times will return, and Torah will remain. And with that job being done of a quick synopsis of the two Partios, now that you know a bit about them, I'd like to direct your attention to the matter at hand.

Elul After Yeshiva Gets Real

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Rosh Hashanah, a week away. El is here. And I know how to do El, not because I know some secret, but because my parents paid for me to go to Yeshiva. Nine months ago, I was still in Yeshiva, and I learned how to do Elul. In Yeshiva, you're involved in the Sugya all day. You're involved in Torah study. I spent five years arguing over sevaras, pushing myself in Torah study until Toastopos would finally open up. On a good day, you would be involved in Torah study for countless hours if the focus was there. We had schmuzen about Elul. Seriousness could be felt. Everybody steiging together. Aurora in the base medrish, where the entire focus for the hundred students there was to work on our Torah knowledge and fear of God. Elol and Yeshiva is different, but now I don't know how to do Elol. Nine months ago is not long enough to forget what Elol was like for me and Yeshiva. But now much of Elol is calls, contracts, clients, and problems that need to be attended to before 5 p.m. Not sure if you have financial obligations and are required to do what you need to do in the business world, your job, the maintenance of your affairs. But as you know, that's not yeshiva. That's not full-time engrossment in the sea of the Talmud. And of course, I still dovin, I'm sure you do, and still grab a daff here or there, catch a share in the car, because we care. But I do miss having the whole day, where the thing that we care about most gets most of me. The chauffeur in the morning still wakes us up, but after it reaches you and says, I need a change, and then as I'm wrapping up my t'fillin', I have to find myself getting caught up in rehearsing my client calls, distracted again. Back into the mundane. By lunch, I remember that I forgot to get back to yesterday's showing. And even in the morning when there are no business affairs, no calls, no bills coming in, and I'm sitting in front of my Gamura, I find myself caught up in another approach that I can take to salvage the deal. I want to be worried about the Yom Ha Din, but I'm worried about the mortgage contingency and a client's offer. The drive home from work? Of course, turn on a shear. The phone rings though. If we're lucky, it's another new client. The shear pauses again. The evening, of course, it's meant for Torah study, but I don't have the same energy. My children need me. My wife needs me. So I'm still on the same line in my Gemara. And I, speaking from the heart, say there's a bit of guilt. Should I go out and learn tonight? Or maybe I should have stayed home and helped some more. Maybe I have to work because of course I need to pay my bills, but what's gonna be with my Torah? Is helping just a convenient excuse for another missed stater? How do I tell the difference between carrying my responsibilities and maybe hiding behind them? And where it really gets uncomfortable is at the end of a long and productive workday in Ell, spent mostly at the brokerage, I ask myself, what would my day have looked like back in February, back in January, when I still was in the base Medrish? And then another day passes and Rosh Hashanah gets closer. Now I don't want a permanent apology of Nebuchad he used to learn. And I also don't want to congratulate myself for being busy. I also don't want to stop asking if I could do more. So my thoughts, and maybe they resonate with you, is how do normal Balabatim do Ell? Is it just supposed to be a squeezed-down watered version of some yeshiva leftovers? Or does this new stage of life that most of us live, I may add, that have many business, entrepreneurial, and maybe even menial obligations, maybe it has its own avoda. And maybe it demands something new. Because I can't put my family and Parnassa on hold until after Yom Kippur. And I don't want to put the Reboynoishal Oilam on hold until I miss this opportunity. So what does a serious month of Elul and a final week of the year look like for a man, woman, or child that has to be at work at 9 a.m. and has many obligations and can't spend his whole day inside of the Yamhat Talmud? What should Elul look like for a person that wants to serve Hashem with honesty, but honestly, has many obligations that don't seem godly? How do we balance work and life in the final year, in the final month, in the final week leading up to Rosh Hashanah?

Study Or Action The Core Question

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The answer and the perspective changing Gemara come from Meshta Kedushin, the Afmem on Mabid Bays, Ukvarhoyu Rabbi Tarfun Uziken, Misubim Ba Alias Bait Niza Belod. Rabbi Tarfun and the elders were reclining in the loft, in the attic of the house of Nitza and Lud, when a difficult question arose. It is noteworthy that this loft, this attic in the house of Nitza and Ludd, where this massive conversation between Torah sages broke out, it is not just a one-time occurrence that we have the house of Nitza and Ludd. It seems that this house of Nitzah is actually a large estate, and the commentators debate whether or not Nitsa was actually the man, the matriarch, or simply the family name, the house of Nitza, kind of like the Carnegie House. And during the Hadrianic persecutions, right after Bar Kokhpa, that attic became the epicenter of the Torah world, where secret meetings for Torah would be convened. The leading sages, including Rebbi Tarfun and Rebbi Yakiva, would come to debate and to learn and to study, hiding out in the attic, in the house of Nitza, in the Nitza estate. And the Nitza estate was in Lud, and Ludd is actually as Mesahtas Megillah Davdalid Amin Aleph listed as with Ono and Ge'i Haharashim as the s significant walled cities since the days of Yehoshua bin Nun and Sanhedrin Lamid Bez Ahmed Bez talks about Lud as the place to follow Rebeliezer to, discussing the seat of his renowned Baysdin. Anyway, this place is special. But just to set the scene a little bit, Rabbi Tarfun Uzakane Mesubin, these sages are lining, laying down in an attic on the Nizza estate in the town of Lod in this walled city. Nisha Lovish Sha'ila Zubiv Nahem. They asked a question that was posed to the sages. Talmud Goddou or Misa Goddle? Which is greater? Torah study or Torah action? What do you think? The question is straightforward, but its simplicity is what makes it difficult. Is it better? Is it greater? The study of Torah? Or action, the doing of Torah? Na'ana Rabbi Tarfin Valmar Rabbi Tarfan answers first. Maisa Goddle, Torah action. Maisa mitzvos are greater. Na'ana Rabbi Akiva Valmar, Talmud Godel. Rabbi Akiva quips back, or maybe does it quip. Maybe he just answers calmly and professionally. Study is greater than action. Seems to be a standoff. The Gemara concludes. Na'anu Kulam Va'amru, Talmud Godl, Shaha Talmud may vi lide myself. Everyone answered. Na'anu kulam, everyone answered, that study is greater, but not as an independent value. Rather, study is greater because study leads to action. It is interesting to think about what changed here. What does it mean everyone answered? Is that Rabbi Tarfun and Rebi Akiva now agreeing? Is that all of the students answering? It sounds like everyone in this little attic in the state of Nitza and Lod all screamed out together that study is greater, not because it's actually greater, but because it is a causative factor, because it's the engine, the locomotive that brings to action. What we see here, Abbey Lopiansky points out, is the perspective between the relationship between Yeshiva life and Balabatish life. Learning Torah is great. It is greater because it produces action. And being a balabas is the fulfillment and the closing of the circle, the closing of the circuit from your Talmud.

Work As The Arena For Mitzvos

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So there's supposed to be time spent learning. But then action. Action, life is the product of study. So the end goal we see from this Gemara, where A travels to B is when you're out there in the world, having a chance to do mice. Learning is a mitzvah on its own. And it's meant to shape how you speak, how you handle your money, how you treat people, and what to do in every situation. And town loaded coaching and leading to mice should give you the understanding. It does give me the understanding of now my new perspective on what my days are. That a bala bus is handed opportunities for mice all day long. In the deal in the office at the front door, coming down the stairs, when you eat the apple, when you negotiate a contract, each one is a chance to close the circuit and bring the learning to its completion. Being a bala bus is putting a cap on learning. It's what consummates Perek Maruba. People of the world are what most of us are, with regular obligations. And many of us, including myself, think of well, those great Taurus sages, they have time to study. I barely have any time for any of that. I have so many obligations. But what I see is that the time for action is constantly a fulfillment of all the time that you had to study and that you continue to study. My kolil years, they find new expression at work. Five years in Kolel. Maybe you've done one month of serious Torah study in a camp. Those years now show up in the responsibilities that you carry today. I was living Torah then, but now I meet situations that I rarely faced when I was sequestered in the Yamha Talmud. Halochas that used to be theoretical, rashis and tosfasim that used to be theoretical are now personal. My money, my reputation, my parnosa are in the room. My honesty needs to be on the line. Another opportunity to flex my Torah myself muscles is what being a regular Bala Bas means. To have life obligations means. To have proper speech, proper patience, proper lending, proper paying, proper buying, proper selling. These are the halochos that Talmud is supposed to cause you to do properly now in the world of MISA. And that's not to say that MISA is greater and being a balabas is greater than someone who gets to sit and learn. Everyone has their own role, Rambam writes. The great stature of a person who separates himself from the world to serve Hashem like Shaivat Levi. And every person whose heart stirs within him, whose spirit moves him to come forward and to become a full-time Torah scholar. Now that is the highest of callings, and that deserves our deepest respect. See Hilho Shemita V Yovel, Perek Yod Gimel, Halocha Yud Baez, and Yod Gimel to see what the stature of a Torah scholar Kolel Yongo Light is in the eyes of Hashem. But for us, work is to be the continuation of what we have learned. It's to experiment and see if I let the Torah govern what I do there. From the base medrish to the brokerage office or whichever profession you have. Does your Talmud may vili de Maisa? That's yeso number one. That it's not that there's Torah and then there's not Torah. It's that they're related and that one thing finds its consummation and finalizes itself in the Maisa in the step two. And now for the two takeaways.

Protect Your Seder Learn Properly

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Takeaway number one from this, Gimara, is how much more so now your Torah study as a Balabas, as a working person, how much more essential it is now than when you were in Kolo. Because if Talmud is mayvili de myself, what we see here is that people have regular obligations and aren't full-time Torah scholars, and they only have about an hour a day to learn or 15 minutes a day to learn, how important we need it is that we need to focus on those 15 minutes because that is what's left in causing us, in causing us to live properly. If you want to expect to live Torah today, you have to do that on the strength of what you have studied. The Ramam talks about this. He includes the man with his wife and children and all the financial pressures. You have a ghiv to learn a little bit day, a little bit by night. Our schedules have changed, but the importance of Torah study has not. A Seder, a shir, a page of Hilchas Losh and Hara. It should stay with you long after you close the safer, but you must protect that Seder at all costs. You must protect your focus during that Seder at all costs. To be present with the phone away, learning the Halachos and actually doing Talmud, because Talmud, Talmud is the locomotive. The learning is the locomotive that pushes you to good action. So if you want to be a good, healthy, happy bala bus, consummating is Torah learning, you need to ensure that you still have Talmud because it's a cycle and it's a circuit. And it all starts and gets its life force and pulsates and begins. The spark plug, the engine of the car when you hold down the brake and press the button to ignite. That is Torah study. Talmud, maybe Lide Maisa. So as a Bala bust, your 15 minutes Talmud is even more critical. And takeaway number two is that if you're learning, but somehow you still aren't towing your weight in the office, you still find yourself not doing mice right. The prayers aren't good. There's a gap between our level of honesty, integrity, and fulfillment of Hashem's mitzvos between what we are doing and what is actually stated in the Torah, well then you have to conclude that maybe we're not learning right. Because the formula is simple. Torah learning leads to action. So if there's poor action, that means that the start, that the ignition of the Torah study isn't being done right. If learning is meant to lead to action, so if there is no action, then we have to conclude that there must be something wrong with the initiation with the Talmud. People somehow think that Torah learning is, well, turning pages, reading the words, as if trying to cover ground. But that has very little to do with Torah study. Torah study is about clarity. Torah study is about knowledge. Torah study is about did you learn? Did you learn? Not are you finishing the safer? Not are you making a siam. Those aren't mitzvos. Those are nice things. You make a celebration, a bayu would make a celebration for his students when they would finish. But it's not a mitzvah to make a siam. It's a mitzvah to learn. If you don't know what the Gemara's question is, and the Gemara's answer is, you haven't learned. You've just read. And that's not Torah study. Do you know the material? Can you answer a question on it? Is it personal to you? Your Torah study needs to be Talmud. It needs to be Talmud. It needs to be study. And that's the proper recognition that ends up in Maisa. These are our two takeaways from the circuit of Torah Meveli de Maisa. Number one, that you need Talmud even more so when you live in the world of Maisa. And secondly, that if the Talmud isn't turning you into a Maisa man, then your Talmud may not be done adequately, satisfactorily yet.

The Final Week Plan And Charge

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So how do we spend the final week? We don't change our schedules. We keep our normal life obligations because we have normal life obligations, and that's how God set up the world, and that's how God wants us to live in his world. And we don't spend a little mourning or thinking about what used to be or what would be if I had that schedule or how it used to be nine months ago in Yeshiva. Instead, we recognize the Avoda and the unique opportunity that Hashem has put into our schedule now, that our Avaida is in protecting our world of mice and fulfilling in life, in changing the diaper, and doing the grocery shopping and paying the rights amounts and being friendly and letting people cut in front of you during traffic, acting cordially in business, normal to people and shoals, smiling at friends, all these things when you're out in the world living life and you're no longer a student, a full-time student. It's a unique and beautiful avoda of mice. That's what we focus on. Making the most of the mice world. And the two caveats are number one, caveats, takeaways. Number one, that the time we do have allotted for Torah study needs to be protected, all that more so, because that's what everyone answered in the attic of Nitza in the town of Lud, that Torah study, Talmud is what's Mavili De Mice. You gotta learn. You gotta find time to learn. And number two, is you gotta learn properly. You gotta do Talmud. Our task? Bring the Torah of the Base Medrish into all of our daily moments. That the five years of Torah study and kola should be recognizable in the way that I do business, the way that I drive, the way that I speak, the way that I treat my family, and that I walk out of the base medrish and I ask myself, what comes with me? Is Ela Mitsia Shalom still with me? We are handed opportunities for Myssa all day long. Each one is a chance to close the circuit and bring the learning to its completion. This Ell, learn what you can do with what you have learned. That's the Ell of Abalabas for the final seven days of the year. Remember what everyone answered up in the loft, in the attic, in the house of Nitza, in the walled city of Lud, that Naanu Kulan Vel Amru Talmud Gadol, learning Torah is greater. Why? Because Shahatalmud mayvi lide myself. It's greater because it is study that leads to action. So study hard, study right, protect that Seder, and then bring the Avoda out of the base Ahmedrish and into every single moment of your normal and wonderful life.