Episode 184 - Introspection: The Path to Righteousness

Transforming Judgment Day: Insights for Rosh Hashanah

Prepare for the new year with powerful spiritual reflections.

Good morning! As we enter the season of reflection and renewal, Jessy Revivo shares transformative insights that can reshape your approach to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Embracing the Power of Divine Mercy

In today's conversation, Jessy emphasizes the unique relationship we have with our Creator, especially as we approach the Days of Awe. He reminds us that while heavenly courts uphold justice, our Father in Heaven is filled with mercy. This understanding allows us to approach Him with confidence, knowing that sincere repentance can lead to forgiveness.

 "If you say the right things and you mean them, then He will give you an opportunity to... get off scot-free."  
 — Jessy Revivo

The Importance of Daily Reflection

Jessy encourages listeners to dedicate time each day for personal prayer and introspection, suggesting that even just an hour can lead to a favorable verdict when judgment day arrives. He notes:

"Imagine a person is caught red-handed in a crime... if you want to judge yourself outside, then the judge will... guarantee you you're off the hook."

This metaphor highlights the importance of self-reflection and taking responsibility for our actions before seeking divine judgment.

A Call to Action

As we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, Jessy challenges us to consider our spiritual garments. He stresses that while none of us are perfect, daily atonement through honest conversation with God can keep our souls clean. 

"We need to atone right now, every single day. And you can do that in your hour of conversation with your Creator."

This consistent practice not only positions us favorably in the eyes of God but also cultivates a deeper sense of self-awareness and growth.

The Balance of Good and Bad

Finally, Jessy discusses the teachings of Maimonides, urging us to assess our deeds as we approach this critical time. Seeing ourselves as "bainoni"—one who hangs in the balance—reminds us to be mindful of every action, knowing that each one carries weight.

"What does Maimonides say about the individual who is just doing the math? That person is already considered a tzadik, a righteous individual."

As we step into this new year, let's take these insights to heart and commit to a path of reflection and growth.

To dive deeper into this enlightening conversation, listen to the full episode. This journey towards personal and spiritual transformation awaits you.

#thetrustfactorpodcast #JewishWisdom #RoshHashanah #YomKippur

Transcript

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We haven't even gotten to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We haven't even been judged yet. Just by virtue of the fact that we're doing our introspection makes you a righteous individual. What does it tell you? It tells you that so many people in the world don't do these things. So many people don't take a minute out of their day for introspection. How am I doing? What path am I on right now? Where is my life leading me to? How are the choices that I'm making working out for me? People simply don't do these things. Their heads are buried in the sand and they're just plowing forward, trying to break through everything at all costs. That cost, unfortunately, could end up with your health and eventually even your life. So stop and assess. You're operating in the top percentiles of the world of humanity, and all it takes is some introspection.

SPEAKER_01 0:49

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SPEAKER_00 1:00

Good morning, everybody. It's moving week for us, so things aren't as they normally are. It's going to be pretty hectic over the coming weeks, but I'm going to do my best to keep it as consistent as possible and uninterrupted. We're into an amazing conversation that's going to take us right until the day of Rosh Hashanah and then to Yom Kippur. And we're going to start off this year in a way that you've never started it before. It's going to be unprecedented in terms of how powerful your Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are going to be because you're listening, you're paying attention, you're taking notes, and you're implementing the things that we're teaching. Yesterday we talked about the fact that Hashem rubs the world in a certain way with divine mercy and justice combined. The heavenly courts, strictly justice, strictly to the letter of the law. But when it comes to Hashem, your heavenly father, who's the judge, sitting behind the bench when you come into court, you now have the ability, the advantage, knowing that it's your father and knowing that he knows you and knowing that he has a soft spot. And knowing what his soft spot is, you can pull on those heart streams. If you say the right things and you mean them, then he will make it so that you can get off account free. He'll give you as many chances as you need. That's a loving father. That's what he does. The human court, no such thing exists. So how do we take advantage of that? Yesterday I told you that I will explain to you how you can walk into court this coming Rosh Shango, and you can walk out. If you had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, you can walk out with those hundreds, thousands of dollars in your pocket, plus the additional hundreds of thousands of dollars that the court is going to give you. It doesn't make any sense. We're not used to this type of idea. Usually you're lucky if you get off with a lesser fine. That's not the case when it comes to your spirituality. We're going to read it from the book so that we hear how he puts it across and I'll give you an example. So he says that a person who spends an hour a day in personal prayer doing what we've been talking about and self-evaluation is bound to win a favorable verdict whenever judgment day rolls around, which we know is coming right up. So take an hour. Take an hour every day, disconnect from the craziness of the world. Find yourself a quiet spot. Like I said the other day, it could even be in your car. Remember, you're on Bluetooth. Have that conversation with your creator and introspect with him in real time. What did I do yesterday, Shell? These are the interactions that I had. How did they play out? Maybe I could have done better. Maybe I could have done different. I'm going to strive to do more. I'm going to strive to be better. Those are the conversations you should have. What's the downside? Are you kidding me? Even an atheist would win from that. Even somebody who doesn't believe and thinks the whole concept of God is a joke to sit in a car and do introspection every day, twice a day, on the way to work and on the way back, spend an hour a day in personal reflection. How did I do today? How was my day yesterday? What can I do to make myself better? I don't care if you're the biggest hater of God. That exercise alone is going to make your life exponentially better. How much more so when you know that there's a creator that's listening and that loves to hear these things because he knows that you're benefiting and he knows that you're operating in the right way in this world. He wants to help you. You're going to get assistance from him. That's the biggest difference. The hater, the one that doesn't see God, he's not going to get any assistance. He's going to get the basic amount because, like we said many times a long time ago, God brought him into this world also. So he has an obligation to give him the bare necessities. Because that person chose to do it without Hashem. I'm going to go it alone. I don't believe in you. I don't want anything to do with you. I'm going to go it alone. So Hashem says, that's the way you want to go. Have at it. Let me know when you change your mind. By us, we don't operate like that. We say, Hashem, I don't want to go this alone. I'm not even going to contemplate that. I need you by my side. I need you at my back all day, every day, in every situation, because I know that that will bring me the greatest odds of success. Greater than I can ever do on my own. And so Hashem wants to be there. So when he hears you asking and he hears you talking to him, he rushes to your assistance. Who wouldn't want that? It doesn't make sense. A wise man says, listen to this our clothes should always be spotless. A wise man is not going to talk to you about your garments. Generally speaking, there are rules and principles that you have to look apart. We get that. But it's not talking about your external clothing. It's talking about your spirituality. He says they're not referring to laundry, but to our spiritual garments. In other words, we shouldn't soil our souls with sin. Yet he says no one is perfect and everyone makes mistakes from time to time. We're all human. For that reason, he should atone at least one day before he's going to die. How's that possible? Do you know when you're going to die? I don't know when I'm going to die. I know it's going to happen to every single person on planet Earth, but what and how? Nobody knows. Even the person, like I've said before, is held up in a hospital bed, connected to all kinds of machines and tubes. The doctors are saying you got a few hours left to live and they outlive it. So even the person who the doctors have said, come say your last goodbyes, they've got time potentially. How does one person know? And the answer is we don't. And we're not supposed to know. So how do we atone the day before we sin? The answer is it's a logical one. We need to atone right now, every single day. And you can do that in your hour of conversation with your creator, in your hour of prayer and discussion. That's when you can do it every single day, multiple times a day. Since today could be our last day. Now listen to this. This takes us into the courtroom. It says, imagine a person is caught red-handed in a crime. The police bring him in front of the judge, and he's time for his arraignment. The judge says he's willing to give the criminal an opportunity to judge himself before he comes into the courtroom. Before you come in and step in front of me, if you want to judge yourself outside, then the judge says you're off the hook. Before you even step into my courtroom, judge yourself outside, and I guarantee you you're off the hook. But you come in here into my courtroom and you're unrepentant. You haven't judged yourself outside. I'm going to make it very, very difficult for you, he says. I'm going to give you years in prison. Which fool would not stop outside and do that self-reflection? Which fool would not stand outside and ask for atonement before stepping foot in that courtroom? And if that individual wants to step into that courtroom, then it is all at their own hands. Reminder, we're only talking about the heavenly court over here. Now, in the human court, which coincidentally, not coincidentally, was fashioned after spiritual law, the Torah law. That is a basis for all democratic legal systems. They're all rooted in the Old Testament in the Torah. They've taken it and they've built upon it with human flaws, but the basis of them is all from the Torah. It's divinely inspired. We know this. It goes back to the portion of Yitro, Jethro. That's where it was introduced. We have in our courts this idea of a plea bargain that before you step into the courtroom, do a deal outside, admit that you were wrong, and we'll give you a lighter sentence. It's a similar concept, but it's nowhere near what happens in the spiritual realm. Because over here, you're still going to get nailed. You're still going to get hit hard. Over there, that's not the case. If you haven't stepped into the courtroom and you've judged yourself outside, you don't even step into the courtroom and there is zero judgment. There is zero punishment. You've dealt with it, you've put it to bed. So not only do we not get punished, but we get rewarded. Two things. Number one, the Ram Bam says that as we come up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the day of judgment, the best place to be for every single one of us is to first of all do the math. How am I doing right now? Do I have more sins or do I have more mitzvah's good deeds? I have to do that analysis. That's number one. Then he says, you can consider yourself as somebody who has more of the bad deeds, the sins, or you can consider yourself as one who has more of the good deeds. He suggests that you consider neither. He suggests that you consider yourself as somebody who hangs in the balance, that right now you're 50-50. You've got the exact same amount of sins and good deeds, and it's only going to take one, either good or bad, to throw you over the edge and determine your outcome. What does that do? It puts you in that mindset to say, okay, I've got to be careful with every single action that I do, especially as I come up on Rajashara and Yom Kippur. But more than that, what does Maimonides say about the individual who is just doing the math, who is just doing the accounting of how many mitzvahs and how many averas, how many sins and how many good deeds do I have? He says that that person is already considered a tzadik, a righteous individual. You hear? We haven't even gotten to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We haven't even been judged yet. Just by virtue of the fact that we're doing our introspection, we're taking that accounting makes you a righteous individual. What does it tell you? It tells you that so many people in the world don't do these things. So many people don't take a minute out of their day for introspection. How did I do? How am I doing? What path am I on right now? Where is my life leading me to? How are the choices that I'm making working out for me? People simply don't do these things. They're in a race, they're in a rat race, and the finish line is so far away, but they're not looking up. They've got their heads down, their heads are buried in the sand, and they're just plowing forward, trying to break through everything at all costs. That cost, unfortunately, could end up with your health and eventually even your life. So stop and assess, analyze, how am I doing? What do I need to change? And you become labeled as a righteous individual. That's sounding. You're operating in the top percentiles of the world of humanity. Who wouldn't want to be there? And all it takes is some introspection. Come on. Now, the other thing is this when the shem is our judge behind that bench, it works as follows. You get a speeding ticket. Now you've got a fine and you've got to pay $500. You walk into the courtroom and you plead your case before your father who's sitting behind the bench. You can do one of two things. You can do, like we said, Adam, the first man, did, and he blamed it on his wife, and he blamed it on the snake, and he blamed it on God. In which case, the only thing you're gonna do is make your father behind the bench supremely upset. Just like Adam did. And now today, thousands of years later, we're still paying the price. We're still trying to undo what was done back then, the original sin. That's our biggest challenge, right? 5,000 plus years later, here we are trying to fix something that he did so long ago. And we continue to do the same thing, to make the same mistakes. So if you're doing that, if you're employing that in your life today, if that's your go-to, God, it's your fault. You didn't set me upright. I told you I needed money. I told you I needed help. I told you I needed children. I told you, and you didn't give it to me. So I was forced to do what I thought I needed to do. It's your fault. You're in trouble. You're gonna end up having the book thrown at you, and your life is going to be that much more sour because of it. The opposite is true, and it's the only right way forward, is to say to your father behind the bench, I'm sorry. I made a mistake. I should not have done what I did. I should not have driven beyond the speed limit. I should not have made the mistake that I made on the road. It wasn't me. It was out of character. You taught me better than that, and I should know better, but I'm human. I'm made of flesh and blood. I'm going to make mistakes. That's how you programmed me. But I take ownership of it. I accept that I'm flawed and I accept that I make mistakes. I don't want to. I want to be better. I can't do it on my own. I need your help. And when your father hears you saying those words, that is what pulls on the heart stream. And the judge behind the bench is your father. So now all of a sudden he says, you know what? I see in your eyes and I hear in your voice that you really feel bad. You really feel terrible for what you did. It's genuine. And now you've told him I'm going to commit to doing A, B, and C to put these mechanisms in place to make sure, to the best of my abilities, that I never repeat this action again. And it's real. You've shown him a real plan. This is what I'm planning to do. And he can see it, it's tangible. Then he says, You got this. You've understood. You're that role model child who doesn't wait to atone. He sees right away that he's lacking, and immediately he picks up the weight and he runs with it. So Hashem, your father behind the bench, says, You know what? Forget the $500. Let's do away with that. Here's $500 for you. Take it and go. Do what you said you were going to do. Why? Why does he give you that bonus? Why does your Avera, your sin, become a mitzvah, a good deed? Because we know we get rewarded for a good deed. You don't get rewarded for an avera, a sin. So how's it possible that you sin? And the judge, God, your father, gives you the money that was your reward for having done a mitzvah. You didn't do a mitzvah. And the answer is yes, you did. You did a mitzvah. You did more than a mitzvah. By virtue of the fact that you sinned and recognized it, had you not sinned, you never would have come before your father and explained to him what your problems are and that you needed his help. It was by virtue of that sin. That mistake wasn't done intentionally, it was done by accident. You've recognized it and you've brought it to your father and said, I need help. By virtue of you doing the right thing, atoning, number one, is a medzpa. Number two, you said all the right things to your father because you're in a relationship with him. Somebody says, You've got this. You're deserving of reward. You're not deserving of punishment. That's that golden child again. Remember, you're a father, and your golden child comes to you with all of the things that are going on in his life. The only thing you want to do is help him. Dad, I'm in trouble. I need to get out of it. How am I going to get out? Let me come help. Let me do whatever I can do to help you get out of the trouble. But if it's the opposite son, if it's the son that's always getting into the trouble, and if it's the son that's always blaming it on everybody else and doesn't want to take ownership of it, the parent wants to help in the first time, in the second time, in the tenth time, the twelfth time, but eventually a parent becomes exhausted. They realize that this child is a lost cause. So how can I keep getting behind this child when he's knowingly and willfully doing the wrong things? The other child, I'll get behind them all day long until my dying day, I will be behind that child, supporting them and helping them to do whatever it is that they need to do and to overcome their challenges. That is why when we walk into that court every day in our car, driving and working back, or wherever it is in the synagogue when you're doing your prayers, when you're having that conversation with your creator, you're reviewing and you're atoning, you're asking for forgiveness, you're asking for strength, you're asking for clarity, you're asking for support, and he's listening and loving it. You're that golden child. Who wouldn't want to be there? If everybody knew the secrets that I just shared with you, think about this. What kind of a world would we be living in? Every person would be that golden child. It wouldn't make sense to be anything else. But Hashem doesn't want that. He doesn't want robots. That's why a lot of these things, the understanding, the knowledge has to come with our effort. How do you get the knowledge? By listening to the podcast, by finding a rabbi, sitting with him and learning Torah every single day. That's how you gain the knowledge. When you have this knowledge, which, like I said yesterday, this is how the back office operates. This is how the world, the heavenly courts, the heavenly bodies, God who keeps this planet running, who created and maintains it, those are the rules that He put in place. People are walking around every day. They haven't got a clue. They don't know that these principles exist. And so they can't take advantage of them. You can. You can take advantage of these rules and you can make your life that much sweeter as a result of having this knowledge. That's number one. But number two, you can help all those people who don't know about it. You know how you help them? By sending them this video, by forwarding the podcast, by letting people know that there is important, meaningful, good information on the internet that is not the junk that they're occupied with 24 hours a day, seven days a week, scrolling, zombie scrolling, looking for ridiculousness. That's not going to add to their lives. Send them the video. Send them the podcast. Tell them to start their day right, on the right foot, 10, 15, 20 minutes a day. Get your day started properly, and then you will benefit from having gained all of the knowledge of the inner workings of this world and you can use them to your advantage. Have an amazing day, my friends. We'll try to get to more. 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 Trust Factor Podcast. Thanks for listening.