Episode 183 - Preparing for Rosh Hashanah: Reflections and Insights

A deep dive into self-assessment and atonement this season.

As the season of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur approaches, Jessy Revivo invites us to reflect on our lives and actions. This is a time not just for celebration but for deep introspection. How have we utilized the time, resources, and relationships we’ve been given?

The Time for Judgment

Jessy emphasizes that this period is a time of judgment, where we must evaluate our past year. "What are you doing with the time that I'm giving you?" he asks, urging listeners to consider their contributions to the world versus what they take from it. 

He challenges us to shake off the cruise control mindset we often fall into and to actively engage in self-analysis. "If you're on cruise control nine months out of the year, make sure that this month you're not."

Seeking Forgiveness and Growth

The process of atonement involves more than just asking for forgiveness; it requires us to acknowledge our actions. Jessy points out that most people avoid serious self-reflection because it may reveal uncomfortable truths. "Why? Because it might not be good. And that might force me to change."

It's a simple equation: the good we’ve done deserves to be amplified, and the negative actions should be minimized. However, many skip this analysis, leading to stagnation. 

Understanding Judgment

Jessy delves into how we can prepare ourselves for this judgment. He explains a divine principle akin to double jeopardy in law: when we judge ourselves and seek forgiveness in this world, the heavenly court cannot judge us for the same transgressions.  

The judgments we face from the heavenly court are precise, while God's judgments are merciful. This distinction offers comfort and hope: when we acknowledge our faults and strive to improve, we invite compassion into our lives. 

 "If you judge yourself in this world, then I won’t judge you in the next."

This powerful reminder underscores the importance of self-reflection and accountability, particularly during this sacred time.

The Path Forward

As we navigate our lives and the judgments we face, Jessy encourages us to foster a deeper relationship with our Creator. Recognizing the blessings in our lives and expressing gratitude can transform our perspective. "Stop and say thank you, Hashem, for getting me out of that jam. Do you know how powerful that is?"  

In closing, Jessy invites us to reflect on our actions and the impact we have on others. This Rosh Hashanah, let’s commit to being better, to understanding our judgments, and to fostering a relationship filled with gratitude and growth. 

For more insights on preparing for this significant time, listen to the full episode of the Trust Factor Podcast.

#thetrustfactorpodcast #JewishWisdom

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_00 0:00

You could believe in God as much as you want. You could go to synagogue and pray all day long. You could do all of the introspection you want. If you don't believe that God is righteous, meaning exacting and perfect in everything that he does, then it's all for naught. Because you will not be able to establish a real positive working relationship because you're always the victim, even in that relationship. Hashem alone runs the world and that he does everything for our very best, and that he has a specific purpose for everything that he does. One must believe that all of his judgments are not only righteous, but merciful and compassionate as well. Everything that he does is for our benefit. We don't have eyes to see it, and you need to be okay with that. The trust factor is the ticket to a bad life. The trust factor shows you how to get through the night. We're going to be there before you know it. So, how do you prepare for Rosh Hoshana and Yom Kippur? It's a time of judgment. It's a time where the heavens are looking down at you and saying, What are you doing? How did your year go for you? How are you doing with the time that I'm giving you, with the money that I'm giving you, with the children that I gave you, with the house that I gave you, with the eyes and the eyesight that I gave you and the ears. What are you listening to? What are you looking at? Where are you going? That car, what are you using it for? How much good are you bringing into this world? And how much are you just busy taking out of this world? But God forbid, putting negativity into this world. It's an analysis. It's a review of your entire life. So, what do we find ourselves doing this time of year? Usually asking for forgiveness, doing that reconciliation, doing that investigation. What was our life like? What are the good things that we did, and what are the bad things that we did? The good things that we did, we want to do more of them. The negative things, we want to do less of them. And it's not difficult math, guys. It's very simple. It's just that most people go through this life and they don't take the time to review these things. They're just permanently on cruise control. Make sure that this month you check in with yourself and see how you're doing. That's exactly what we're talking about when it comes to judgment, when it comes to prayer, when it comes to atonement, all of these things that we've been discussing are exactly what take us into Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. So pay attention. Let's listen. Because when you understand the intricate details of how the back office works, you know, oftentimes people in sales have no clue about the back office. People who are at the front of the house dealing with administration and sales and all kinds of different things to get things done don't appreciate what has to happen in the background, in manufacturing and processing and human resources and compliance and all these different areas because they're not intimately involved. If they understood it, if they understood each other, they would work well together so much better than they do currently because they don't understand the challenges that each other have and how they operate. So it's the same idea. If we want to be able to win at being judged, then it helps us to understand how we're judged. How does that process play out in the heavens? Who does the judging? When does it happen? All these details that surround that give you insight and give you an advantage. Because eventually we're all going to be judged. The question is, are we all going to atone? Are we all going to be ready for that judgment day? Because if you're not, then the odds are that the judgment is not going to be in your favor. Most people just don't want to think about that. It's so easy to just forget about that and go to the mall, go shopping, go to Canada's Wonderland, go to some theme park, go do something random that's mind-numbing and that's not going to help you. Why? Because it's not serious. And I don't want to take on anything serious. And I don't want to think about my actions. I don't want to think about how I've impacted the people around me. Why? Because it might not be good. And that might force me to change. And you know what? I'm just not inspired enough to change, or I'm too lazy to change. That's the problem with humanity. We're created this way, guys. If that was ever you, it's by design. That's how Hashem created us. He gave us the evil inclination. And that evil inclination is exactly what's pushing you in those directions. Go shopping today. Forget about what's this atonement, junk? Come on. Really? You really believe there's a God? You know, I post online often. And recently I love you, you get to see where people's heads are at, what gets them excited. And a lot of people, they lurk in darkness. You know, they don't say anything. They're very quiet. They bite their tongue. They're really inside morally and ethically corrupt and broken, racist, anti-Semites. Inside, deep down they are, but they put on a facade or they bite their tongues. Just like the guys on the Uber right, you see them now, right? The Takakrosans who used to be, apparently they used to be all about Israel and democracy and freedoms and liberties, all these different things that he used to promote Israel as being such a wonderful example of suddenly all he can do is talk negatively about it. He has nothing else he can talk about. There's no other content that this guy is capable of putting out. 98% of his podcasts are on Israel, Baby, Gaza. That's all they can talk about. And it's always negative. They flipped all of these people, and he's amongst many. Why? Was he always like that? Or is this a new phenomenon that happened on October 7th? I'll give him a little bit of credit. He's not a dummy. These people are not dummies. They're smart people. They are well educated. They can put up a great argument. And in order to put up a great argument, you have to do your homework. So you can be assured that these people are doing their homework. Whether or not it's for clicks, different story. But bottom line, they've outed themselves as rabid anti-Semites. And I'm seeing it online. I often post, you know this, I post multiple times a day, snippets from different podcasts. And a lot of the time it garners very little response because they are subjects that don't strike a nerve. When do they strike a nerve? When you talk about Gaza or when you talk about the Jews being the chosen people, the chosen nation. When you talk about any of these things, suddenly you see the people coming out of the woodworks. They can't bite their tongue anymore. They have to come out and speak negatively. That's the way that they are programmed. They have to change. You can change. You can beat your evil inclination. It is something that is possible for each and every one of us. We just have to learn how. And that is exactly what we've been doing. You know, it's funny because the antidote to these people's problems, the antidote to their hatred and their ignorance is in the podcast. This is what I talk about on a daily basis. I talk about God and positivity and bringing happiness into this world and doing a self-assessment and educating yourself and learning about the relationship and investing time and energy in that relationship and helping other people. And it should be altruistic. And all of these different things, the commandments that are designed to make this world a better place, all of these things that I talk about in the podcast every day are exactly what these haters need. But they're not going to tune into the podcast. They're just going to take the 60-second soundbite and it's going to rub them the wrong way and they're going to start screaming bloody murder. Instead of going back and saying, you know what, let me listen to this guy and see what he's got to say, because clearly he's gotten a rise out of me. Not interested. It requires effort. If we're willing to put up the effort, then we're going to earn the reward. If you're not, then you're stuck with whatever you get. Let's get back into this book. We left off with this concept that you might come to think, I know there's a God. I know he runs the world. I know everything is great and it's by design. The problem is my life is not working out for me the way that I want it to. The things that are happening in my life and my relationships and my financial situations and my health situation, I interpret them as negative. And therefore, because I know that God runs the world, there must be something wrong with God. He's not hearing me. He's not getting the message. And therefore, you start to automatically think that God's justice is not justice. It's warped. And so, in that, you find yourself an excuse to not keeping the mitzvahs. Don't follow his instruction. Why would I follow the instructions of a corrupt God? Obviously, I won't. So all I need to do is find the points of corruption and say, look, it's not working out the way I want. God clearly doesn't know how to run this world. He's clearly made mistakes. And it doesn't even have to be in my life. I could point out that he allowed the Holocaust to happen. I could point out that he allowed October 7th to happen. Those are clearly mistakes. If that's God running this world, why would I follow his instructions? Why would I do his commandments? That's how ignorance causes us to fall. We're not willing to learn. We're not willing to use our own eyes to see. Let's see what it says in the book. When a person develops a warp sense of judgment, he might still believe that everything comes from the creator, like we just said, but he harbors ill feelings in his heart towards that creator, that he's not dealing fairly with him. This becomes an excuse to not serve the creator and to heed to his commandments. But the truth is that the creator doesn't demand anything from a person and he's not capable of doing. If he gave you that test, if he put you in that situation and it's difficult for you, it's because you can overcome and he knows what you're capable of. He doesn't give people tests that they're not capable of overcoming. The question is, are we willing to make the effort? The key to inner peace is the internalization of the fact that Hashem is righteous. It all goes out the window. You could believe in God as much as you want. You could go to synagogue and pray all day long. You could do all of the introspection you want. If you don't believe that God is righteous, meaning exacting and perfect in everything that he does, then it's all for naught. Because you will not be able to establish a real positive working relationship because you're always the victim, even in that relationship. That Hashem alone runs the world and that he does everything for our very best, and that he has a specific purpose for everything that he does. Just as one believes that everything comes from him, one must believe that all of his judgments are not only righteous, but merciful and compassionate as well. Everything that he does is for our benefit. We don't have eyes to see it, and you need to be okay with that. I don't understand why it needs to be difficult, God. I just don't. But you know what? I'm okay with that because I know who's pulling the strings. I know who's running the show. You've been running my life for 50, 60, 70 years. Why am I still asking questions on you? That's us. We see his hand in our life every day. If you stop and take an accounting and look around you at all the things that you have to be grateful for, at every situation that you now have hindsight, that's why I said to you a few weeks ago, if you have hindsight in terms of your life and the things that you thought were difficult and they turned out to be great, if you miss out on that opportunity for the hindsight to connect it back to your creator, you've lost out on a major opportunity to grow that relationship. So that's what he's saying. Look around, figure out. Hashem has been there. He's made unbelievable calls in my life. He's gotten me out of jam after jam after jam. The problem is as soon as we're out of a jam, we're already thinking about the next jam that we've got. What about stopping and saying thank you, Hashem, for getting me out of that jam? Do you know how powerful that is? Do you know what a tool that is to be able to cement in your life that Hashem is running the show? Stop and say thank you. When you say thank you, you number one, you're acknowledging that he exists. And number two, you're acknowledging that he is instrumental in the things that are happening in your life. When do people usually look out and cry up to Hashem? When they're in a hospital, or when somebody, God forbid, passes away, or when there's an October 7th and it's always negative. What about the rest of the year? What about the rest of your life? What about your children? What about your family? What about your home and your business and your money? How come you're not looking at that? Why is it that you just wait for this massive tragedy to fall upon us that you interpret to be a tragedy? And on its face, it might even seem like a tragedy, but you have no clue. Why? Because you haven't been fostering that relationship with your creator. That's why it's so important. All right, so we're going to switch gears. We're going into the courtroom. We said we're coming up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. You know what happens in those times, right? Upstairs, there's a courtroom. And that courtroom, this time of year, is very, very busy preparing for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Judgments are going to happen for everybody. And so we have to understand how that back office work? How does that judgment process work? Who does the judging and what is it based on? Let's learn. There's a principle in Judaism. There's actually a principle in American law. I don't believe we have in Canadian law. But there's a principle called double jeopardy. That means that if you've been tried of a certain crime, you're no longer allowed to be tried for the same crime again. That is a divine godly idea. It comes from the Torah that Hashem says, if you judge yourself in this world, then I won't judge you in the next. Whatever you judge in this world is done. Practically speaking, this means when we regularly confess our wrongdoings to God and we seek forgiveness and we resolve to improve all of the things that benefit us, right? Let go of the baggage, don't carry it around with you, become a better person, put steps in the in the place to be able to implement those plans. Then he doesn't allow the heavenly court to judge us. Who judges us? He does. He judges us himself. So there are two potential judges. One is the actual heavenly court that does the judging when you don't judge yourself, when you don't do the analysis, it's left to the heavenly court. But like we said a few weeks ago, when they get to a page in your book that says, ah, this person prayed today, they did that self-reflection. They asked for forgiveness, they put mechanisms in place. That page gets flipped. Next page, what are they looking for? They're looking for the page that says that you didn't pray on that day, in which case, they're now activated. We need to judge this person. But if I did the praying, if I ask and I connect it back to my creator, they have no right. It's now out of their hands. They can't touch it. Shem has dealt with it himself. There's a vast difference between the creator's judgments and the judgments of the heavenly court. Listen to this. Whereas the heavenly court judges in exacting hair-splitting precision to the letter of the law, the creator's judgments are merciful and forgiving. When the heavenly court tries the case, the defendant is almost always found to be guilty. And when our ever so merciful father judges the case, the defendant is always declared innocent. Doesn't that make sense? You walk into a courtroom, and who's sitting behind the bench? Your father. Your dad is sitting behind the bench. What do you think? You think he's going to throw the book at you? No. He's going to be very lenient with you. He's going to be very merciful with you. Why? Because you're his child and he loves you and he wants you to benefit from it. So now you have to understand that you're going to have to say certain things to your father to bring out that mercy inside of him. How do you do that? The number one way that a parent wants to see a child operate is to see that child acknowledge their wrongdoings. If the child, like we said the other day, is busy blaming the brother and the sister, or maybe even the judge, then you know what's going to happen? You're going to arise anger. You're going to flare up the situation because the judge, who's your father, is now looking at you and thinking, This is my offspring? This is what I taught him? After all of this, the time and the energy that I invested in this child, and that's what he comes away with. He doesn't even have the ability to take ownership of his own actions. And suddenly your own father will throw the book at you. How do you approach your father who's sitting behind the bench? You acknowledge that you made mistakes. And when you do, the world will open up for you. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to give you a classic example of exactly how that courtroom works so that not only do you come out completely scot-free, though the slate is clean, but you come out with the fine that you were supposed to pay in your pocket. In other words, if you had to pay a thousand dollar fine, you come out with an additional thousand dollars from that courtroom. It doesn't make any sense. It'll never happen, not in this world, not in the world of flesh and blood, but in the heavenly courts. That's exactly the way it happens. How do we get there? I'll tell you tomorrow. Have an amazing day. Thank you for spending time with us on the Trust Factor Podcast. If you've heard something today that moved you, save this episode and share it with someone who might need to hear it. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss upcoming conversations that challenge, empower, and uplift. And if you're on social media, connect with us. Leave your thoughts. Drop a quote that resonated with you. Hashtag the TrustFactor Podcast. Until next time, keep growing in your trust and keep living with purpose. I'm Jesse Revivo, and this has been the TrustFactor Podcast. Thanks for listening.