Very good. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to Daily Advice. Thank you all for joining us, with God’s help. May we have the merit of God’s commandments.
Today, Albert chose an interesting topic—although he chose it a little late: Rosh Hashanah. Very nice, Albert, but you should have chosen it a couple of days ago. Nevertheless, I believe that Borei Olam wants us to hear this very important lesson.
We all continue with our day. We go through Rosh Hashanah, we come and finish, we move on, and that is it. Now we are preparing for Yom Kippur. But a person does not realize what Rosh Hashanah is. Rosh Hashanah, my friends, is a new beginning. Your life is not supposed to be the same today as it was on Thursday. It has to be a completely different day.
You are recalibrating and changing your relationships—with your parents, your spouse, your children, and God. It has to be a new relationship. If it is the same relationship you had on Thursday, that means you accomplished nothing. The entire point of Rosh Hashanah is that today is a new beginning.
So you are right to ask, “Why today?” Because yesterday was the first day after Rosh Hashanah. Now I ask: Why did you go back to your routine? Why did you return to your usual way of doing things? Yes, you came back to the Selichot a little early, but everything else is the same. The way you speak to your spouse is the same. The way you speak to your workers is the same. The way you speak to your boss is the same. Why is it the same? It is Rosh Hashanah. I have to become a completely different person.
Even non-Jews make New Year’s resolutions. What are those resolutions? “I am going to eat less. I am going to eat more. I am going to come here.” That is it. It is nonsense. What is our New Year’s resolution? What does God want from us? Are we the same people? Perhaps you did a little repentance. Perhaps you decided, “I am going to speak less.” Repentance is very good; it is a major accomplishment. But the way you are has to be new.
A person goes on vacation and comes back feeling rejuvenated. He walks into his office as a different person. Why? He is relaxed and refreshed. A person comes to yeshiva on the first day, and you can look at the boys: they are excited, energized, and ready. By two o’clock, they are still too excited. When is the next occasion? Why? Because you are entering a new year. You have to be a different person. You cannot walk around as the same person, with the same swagger. You have to be rejuvenated.
A person has to understand what makes him a different person. When we have faith in God, we say, “We are going to have a great year.” We say that all the time. If that is the case, and I have trust in God, I know that God will give me a great year and give me the strength to face it. So now I have to be a different person. It is a different year. I am a new person.
If you are walking around as the same person you were last week, look at yourself and ask, “What can I do differently today?” When I walk into my house today, I am going to walk in with a smile. I have been carrying stress, worries, and problems that have been troubling me, and I cannot handle them. But when I walk into my house, I am going to be a new person. Try it. We will see whether you did it yesterday.
Obviously, God wants us to hear this today. Perhaps we did not reach that point yesterday. I am not talking about the people here, of course; perhaps someone else needed to hear this message. You cannot be the same person today. The way each person prepares himself is where he will find his year. It is not too late. We are between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I am saying: Let us go and become different people. Change yourselves, rejuvenate yourselves, and revive yourselves. Revive your family, revive your marriage, revive your children, and revive your workers. Revive, revive. With God’s help, if we do that, God will grant us the merit to experience only joy and good things. Amen, amen. Have a good day.