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Home > Daily Emunah Podcast - Daily Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear > The Awesome Power of Rosh Hashanah
Podcast: Daily Emunah Podcast - Daily Emunah By Rabbi David Ashear
Episode:

The Awesome Power of Rosh Hashanah
Category: Religion & Spirituality
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2021-09-06 13:00:00
Description: On Rosh Hashanah we read the parasha of Sarah Imenu having a child and the haftarah of Channa having a child. Chazal tell us that Sarah was an ilonit – which means it was not physically possible for her to conceive. Chazal also tell us, one of the reasons Hashem made Sarah barren was because He loves listening to the prayers of the tzaddikim . Rabbi Menachem Stein, shlita , asked, it says elsewhere we’re not supposed to pray for Hashem to change nature and make open miracles, so how could it be that Hashem wanted Sarah to pray for a child if it would have entailed an open miracle for her to conceive? The Rabbi explains that on Rosh Hashanah, everything gets recreated and for a physical change to happen on Rosh Hashanah, it’s not a miracle, it’s in the nature of the day. And, in fact, Sarah became able to have children on the day of Rosh Hashanah. What was last year does not have to be this year, everything gets recreated and it gives us an opportunity to be zocheh to great blessings. Rabbi Stein told a story of a girl in his neighborhood who would occasionally babysit his children. One day, the girl told the Rabbi’s wife she didn’t want to go home after the job was finished. They found out she came from a broken home and, with the permission of her parents, she was able to practically live at the Stein house, staying there all day and just going home to sleep. This girl eventually married an outstanding Torah student and kept somewhat of a connection to the Stein family, although she did move to another city. She was married for 8 years but did not have children. She had gone to America to top specialists and she was told that her chances for ever having a baby were very slim. Towards the end of Elul one year, she contacted the Stein family asking if she and her husband could come to them for Rosh Hashanah. She said she remembered praying there in Yeshivat Ohr Yisrael in Petach Tikvah in her youth and she never found another minyan since for the Yamim Nora’im that was as spiritually elevating as that one. The Steins happily welcomed them. The woman did not speak any mundane talk the entire Rosh Hashanah, it was either Tehillim , Torah or tefila . She had heard an inspiring speech about how the day of Rosh Hashanah can change anything and she was determined to do whatever she could to merit having a baby. She went early in the morning on Rosh Hashanah to pray and she was focused the entire tefila . When the ba’al koreh read from the haftarah and got to the words of Elkanah asking Channa why she was crying, wasn’t he better to her than ten sons? This woman burst out crying from the ladies’ section. It was a loud and piercing cry and the whole yeshiva stopped the prayers, the ba’al koreh couldn’t continue reading, her cries kept getting stronger and she couldn’t stop. Everyone’s heart was melting, they all stood there in trepidation, thinking about what the day of Rosh Hashanah actually meant. After a pause of over five minutes, the haftarah resumed and the prayers continued. The students asked the Rabbi afterward about that episode. He told them it was a woman who wanted a child just like Channa. The rest of the tefila that day was the best it ever was in that yeshiva, everyone was inspired by that woman’s tears. Nine months later, Rabbi Stein received a phone call from that woman informing him of the berit milah she was making for her baby. Today, baruch Hashem, that woman has eight children. Her emotion and tears on Rosh Hashanah seemed to have pierced the Heavens and recreated her into a woman who could have children. Rabbi Stein concluded by saying, another woman who heard him telling over this story on Kol Halashon said to him she was so inspired by it, she told her niece to listen. That same year, she invited her niece to come pray with her on Rosh Hashanah in Yeshivat Kol Torah in Bayit V’gan. Her niece had been married for 13 years without children. When the ba’al koreh got up to that part of Elkanah asking Channa why she was crying, she motioned to her niece, this is the time you should pour out your heart to Hashem . And, indeed, that year she was blessed with a baby of her own. There is a tremendous power in the day of Rosh Hashanah, we should use the day properly in all aspects, especially in tefila . We should be mamlich Hashem the way we are supposed to, we should accept upon ourselves to improve our ways and, b’ezrat Hashem, everyone should be inscribed in the Sefer Hachaim. Tizku l’shanim rabot, ne’imot v’tovot.
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