You should say out loud before Hashem, your G-d (Devarim 26:5)Rashi explains that this means we should raise our voice. The Alter Zutshka rebbe described the reason why, because a loud voice in matters of kedusha is necessary to overcome any other voices, voices urging us on towards gashmiyos of this world. These other voices that attempt to persuade us towards worldly matters, away from our focus on the inner spiritual-ity come from the other side - the sitra achra, and these foreign outside influences try to be the ones to be heard.

They raise their volume and call out in our ears as if we, mankind, have power, as if it is our hands and our strength to accomplish things. Therefore raise your voice in ruchniyus to drown out all those other voices, reminding them we were enslaved in Egypt and without Hashem’s help we would have never succeeded.

That is the way to place pure emunah and faith into your heart, raise your voice in matters of ruchniyos and drown out and silence all the competing voices in your mind. Vocalize holy words of pure emunah with power and confidence that these fruits were given to me by Hashem and to bow down to him, to be me’vatel myself before Hashem and to conquer my will and subjugate myself totally to Him. By pouring out our thanksgiving to Hashem thanking Him for our blessings with kedusha and hakaras ha’tov to our Father in Heaven we can achieve them.

The next week the rebbe zy”a asked his grandson if he had written down what he had said? When the response was that yes, they had been written down the tzadik added, “please add a note next to these Divrei Torah that I believe what I am saying is the simple straightforward peshat mamash. Because if we come to Bais haMikdash and whisper this quietly like some prayers are whispered, then after we go back home nothing will remain with us. However if when we come to Bais haMikdash we call out loud with all our might that we believe with full emunah, with all our hearts that Hashem gave us all this then when we return to our homes we will take this awakening back with us.

He added that the same goes for davening, even in shul. When we come to a holy place and awaken with feelings of kedusha towards Hashem we need to vocally say words of power and kedusha out loud with volume and emphasis. Then when we go back home we take that fiery awakening with us, permanently etched into our hearts.

Mrs Illana Rivka Weinstock bas Rav Shmuel Yosef a”h17 Elul תשע”ה.

ת.נ.צ.ב.הDedicated by our dear friends, her daughter and son in law

Rav & Mrs. Shlomo & Rachel Isaacson of Lakewood NJ

And now I have brought the first fruit of the ground which You, Hashem, haven given me.” (Devarim 26:10)The Midrash Rabbah (Bereishis Rabba 21:6) interprets the word - veAatah (and now) as a lashon of teshuva and repentance. The Alter Zutshka Rebbe translated this phrase into Yid-dish as: Vile me’nemt zich fin yezt zi avodas Hashem Yisborach - which means ‘from now on I dedicate myself to Avodas Hashem!”

Explains the rebbe then, how do we practically accomplish this? By teshuva that rectifies physical matters of gashmiyos properly. Because the primary focus of teshuva is to repair such matters by being focused constantly on Hashem in all that we do as it says “Know Him in all your ways,”(Mishlei 3:6) - “all your ways should be for the sake of Heaven,” (Avos 2:12)

This is why we take the first ripened fruit, and bring it to Bais haMikdash and recite over it a gilui da’as – a resolution that we wish to serve Hashem even with physical matters, even with such as a gashmiyosdik thing as a ripe fig!

This is the deeper meaning behind the statement in our pasuk “I have brought the first fruits of the land,” the land refers to earthly worldly matters, “that You Hashem have given me,” the purpose that Hashem gave me these bountiful blessings in physical gashmiyos is solely for the purpose to uplift them to Hashem.

This can be better understood by what the author of Noam Elimelech, the Rebbe Elimelech zy”a of Lizensk writes in his Tzetel Koton: when a person derives pleasure and enjoys any food he must have in mind the awareness that the taste of the food he feels while chewing and swallowing is the taste of the inner sanctity of the holy sparks that rest in that food or drink. By eating and chewing down our food we are refining it and extracting the inner es-sence so our soul can benefit from that penimiyus.

Therefore, continues the Zutshka Rebbe, a person must strengthen his soul from this inner essence of the food we eat, to make that the primary purpose of why we eat besides to also strengthen our body, which should be secondary to strengthening our soul.

This is why we say when we bring the bikkurim that “I have brought the first fruit of the ground which You, Hashem, haven given me.” because the primary reason why Hashem gave us these fruits of the earth is due to the holy sparks in them, to uplift them to a holy purpose.

The pasuk continues saying “and you placed them before Hashem your G-d,” place this form of avodas Hashem when you eat and drink as a primary form avodah that you should habit-uate to and accustom yourself with. The pasuk says further that all the purpose behind any Avodas Hashem is “and you bowed down before Hashem your G-d,” to subjugate yourself and humble yourself before Hashem with total and complete bitul, by doing so you will mer-it dveykus in the Creator in all matters.

”And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you,” (Devarim 28:2)The Alter Zutshka taught in the name of the Rebbe Reb Bunim of Peshischah that the pasuk says the Berachos can only reach us each on our own individual level, as the Kedushas Levi (Rosh haShannah) explains to us that based on the keli or vessel of the receiver so is the abun-dance of blessings and shefa transmitted to him. If we prepare a vessel big enough to receive all of Hashem’s bounty of berachah then it will reach us properly since we will have the prop-er keilim to be able to hold it and receive it.

Elul – Taking Stock

At the end of the year each person takes stock and does an accounting to calculate his profits and losses for the year. On a spiritual level in Elul we too must make a spiritual accounting and look over our books and calculate this past year’s losses - the sins and transgressions against our profits- the good deeds and mitzvos.

“Therefore the moshlim (poets) would say, ‘Come to Cheshbon - let it be built and established as the city of Sichon’” (Bamidbar 21:27).

The Gemara in Bava Basra (78b) has a drasha on this pasuk. Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman says that Rabbi Yo?anan says: The word for poets is “moshlim.” The same word means rulers and the word “cheshbon” also means to calculate.

Based on this, the pasuk can be interpreted as “Therefore the moshlim - those individuals who rule over their evil inclination and their desires - say, ‘Come to cheshbon – come let us make an accounting of this world! Let us calculate the account of cheshbono of the world, what is the cost of fulfilling a Mitzva in contrast to its reward, and the reward for committing a transgression, such as the pleasure and gain received, in contrast to the loss it causes? As Chazal say calculate a mitzvah’s loss against its gain, and a sin’s gain against its loss. (Avos 2:1)

The Alter Zutshka Rebbe, the Nachal Yitzchok said that there are two types of accounts, the general account of all of Klal Yisroel together as one nation – the Jewish people and another type of account, the individuals accounts of each and every member, all of our personal ac-counts of deeds and misdeeds, merits and demerits.

Chazal are saying that the moshlim need to also take into account the general account of Klal Yisroel and not only their own personal accounts. The problem is that if an individual sinned and did stacks of transgressions we can say to him to make up for it with mountains of mitz-vos (VaYikra Rabbah 21:5) however when we are talking about taking stock of all of Klal Yis-roel, knowing that the majority of people are not all G-d fearing individuals and many people do sin and act wrongly, how then can those few people who do the right thing, the minority of do-gooders fulfill sufficient mitzvos to counterbalance all the aveiros that the majority does?

That is why Chazal told us to calculate the loss of a mitzvah against its reward and the reward for sin against its losses. Then after that calculation we can see why we really do not need so many mitzvos against the sins and transgressions committed. Because even just one mitzvah

can count against many many aveiros. The Rebbe told the following story to illustrate this:

Rav Nachum of Tshernoble once came to a bris milah. The father of the child was poor and did not even have the means to provide a seudas mitzvah to celebrate his son’s bris. The tza-dik promptly took out some of his own money handed it to one of the guests and asked them to quickly go and purchase all the necessary provisions for a seudas bris.

At the festive meal the tzadik, Rav Nachum told his audience the following miraculous tale:

‘You have no idea what a terrible state the Soton is in thanks to your little seudah.

It caused him no end of trouble, you see. The Soton was doing his job accusing and prosecut-ing against us all and he had tallied up an unusually long list of sins and transgressions to take us to trial for.

The mitzvos on the counterbalance sheet were few in number and the situation was dire in-deed.

Then the archangel Michoel arrived and he, our defense attorney, advocated on our behalf defending us from Sotron’s accusations. He argued that the scales of justice could not be tipped against us. He argued that even though the transgressions were greater in number the mitzvos still outweighed them. Why? Because when a Jew sins and commits a transgression he only does so because a foolish spirit has taken hold of him (Sotah 3a), also many mistakes are due to the burden of our exile (Berachos 17a), furthermore poverty causes people to sin and transgress (Eruvin 41b) and therefore all such people should be seen as under duress and forced circumstances. In conclusion any sins they do are not wholehearted and forced and even “the wicked are full of regrets.” (Shevet Mussar 25) However if you look at the mitzvos we do, they are all done happily, willingly and wholeheartedly.

The proof is in the seudah! When they do a mitzvah they mark the happy occasion with a fes-tive meal and celebrate together in joy and simchah like a bris milah, pidyon haben, marriage or siyum. Have you ever heard of a seudas averirah?! What Jew celebrate sin with a festive meal?! Using this argument the malach Michoel; defeated the Soton.’

We see, concluded the Zutshka, that even if there are sins, many in number, they have no substance but mitzvos are done happily with joy and wholeheartedly they surely count for so much more!

The Zutshka Rebbe zatzal blessing his son the current Rebbe shlita on Erev Yom Kippur

The Zutshka Rebbe zatzal blessing his grandson on Erev Yom Kippur