We're standing in the four days between Yom Kippur and Sukkos, and this shiur is about why they matter more than almost anything. The Ten Days from Rosh Hashana to Yom Kippur are teshuva mi'yirah — you came the way a man comes to court, in his best suit, with his best lawyer, because he is being judged. And Sukkos through Hoshana Rabba is teshuva me'ahava. Then Simchas Torah, where we marry the Torah. But between them there is a gap. Four days. And what you do in them decides which teshuva you get. Hamtana — waiting. Holding on to the ohr you received. Facing the same feelings you have always run from — the loneliness, the rejection, the failure, the one feeling underneath that nobody wants to meet — and this time not running. Every one of us is an addict of something. These are the withdrawal days. Hold on through them, and you walk into Sukkos able to do it out of love instead of fear. Today is day one. Baruch Hashem — victory. What we go through: • B'tzila d'mehemnusa — the sukkah as the shade of emuna. And emuna is not only faith, it is loyalty — He is loyal to us every morning, rabbah emunasecha • Hisbodedus, practically. Not a technique — a relationship. Five minutes. The four components: gratitude, yesterday, today, and the one most people leave out — the pain • Thirty seconds of thank You can hold your whole family • Ribono Shel Olam, what am I doing wrong? What is blocking me? • Talk to Him like a friend. A king judges. A father judges. A real friend never judges, and you can tell him anything — and the Ribono Shel Olam understands your struggles • The heart follows the words. Start talking even when you feel nothing, and the heart comes after. And when it doesn't — just sit there • You are not one of Klal Yisrael in those five minutes. You are the only one. Ben yachid, bas yechidah • Awareness — what am I feeling right now? Ask most people and they have to think, and if you have to think, that is already the answer • Why running from yourself is itself an aveira, even when nothing in the Torah was broken — and why it eventually turns into one And then the heart of it: the whole yesod of screaming. • Hashem ori v'yish'i — He is my light, my flashlight. I am in the darkness and I cannot find the door • P'sach lanu sha'ar b'eis ne'ilas sha'ar — open a gate at the moment the gate is closing. The words contradict each other, and that is the point • How do we know there is always a door? Haba l'taher mesay'in lo, haba l'tamei posschin lo. If there was a door out, there has to be a door back in. We just cannot see where it is • The flashlight has a button, and the button is emes. Chosamo shel HaKadosh Baruch Hu emes. One word of truth and the light goes on • But what if I cannot manage even one word of truth? Then scream. Shray tzum Eibershten — as my Rebbe, Rav Leizer Kenig zt"l, used to tell me every time I came to him with a problem • Because when I scream oy — that oy of pain — that is my emes. My pain is talking, and pain does not lie. That turns on the flashlight, and then I can find the door #Sukkos #Sukkot #Teshuva #TeshuvaMeAhava #YomKippur #HoshanaRabba #SimchasTorah #Hisbodedus #Hitbodedut #Breslov #Breslev #RebNachman #RebbeNachman #RabbiNachmanOfBreslov #LikuteiMoharan #Emuna #Emunah #Emes #Screaming #ShrayTzumEibershten #RavLeizerKenig #Chassidus #Chassidut #JewishSpirituality #Addiction #Recovery #SelfAwareness #Awareness #Tefillah #Prayer #Gratitude #Hakaras HaTov #BenYachid #Yiddishkeit #TorahShiur #Shiur #JewishGrowth #BaalTeshuva #Sukkah #Ushpizin #EilechVanaseh