I Barely Passed My Semichah Exam. Kohelet Told Me So. | 10@9 | 2026.09.24

Good morning. Today is Thursday, September 24th, 2026. I want to continue what I started yesterday to share some of the very practical wisdom that we find in Coelis, the book of Ecclesiastes that we read, not this Shabbos, but the next Shabbos, the Shabbos of Chol HaMoi, Tsukkos. We shared a number of passages yesterday, and I want to share a couple more plus a very, very embarrassing story that I want to share with you. The Pasek says in Coelis, Divre Chachamim Benachas Nishmoyim, words from a wise person, words from a wise person, when they are said gently, will be heard much more deeply, Mizakas Mosheb Baxilim, than a foolish person who is yelling and screaming. If you want to reach somebody, speak nicely, speak gently. There's much less chance that you will accomplish whatever it is you're trying to accomplish, by yelling and screaming and cursing and insulting. I remember hearing this from Ravnok Weinberg, a blessed memory, one of the greatest people at being able to reach Jews from as far away as you can imagine. And he used to say, if you're trying to get someone to improve a behavior, and you say to them, you lousy, mistaken, horrible person, what you're doing is terrible. And they say, you know what? You're right. I was wrong. You're right. How often do you think that happens? What is the likelihood that a person is going to respond to an insulting, yelling, evictive, by saying, okay, I'm convinced I'm going to do it differently. I'm going to take your opinion. It doesn't work like that. The most likely way to get a person to listen is to speak gently and to speak positively and to bring them in another Pusk. Chofre gumatz bojipol. If you dig a pit, it's very possible you may fall into it. Upor etz gedar, and if you break down a wall, you shchenu nakhash, you might get bitten by a snake. In other words, just simply, if you dig a hole, so you're creating a possible danger, and you yourself might be one of the people that is harmed by the danger. And if there is a fence, the fence is to keep things out that are undesirable. There could be snakes outside. And if you break down the fence, it could be that what is outside that you're supposed trying to protect yourself from could harm you. In other words, Cajalus is teaching us about unintended consequences. We do something. We think that's what we want. We think it's going to be good for us. But it turns out we're going to be harmed by that which we do. This phrase is used by our rabbis to express the rationale behind many, many rabbinic laws, especially rabbinic laws on Shabbos and Yom Tov. So the Torah tells us we understand from the Torah Shabbat, the oral law which has the same weight as the written law, we understand that there are 39 categories of behavior, of activity that we're not supposed to do on Shabbos, a little bit less on Yom Tov because there are some differences. Okay, those are things that according to the Torah, God does not want us to do on Shabbos. Then the rabbis came along and for each of those 39 categories, they added many, many more limitations. And those limitations are intended to protect the biblical laws. So our sages understood the most important thing is not to violate a biblical law. Now we're going to prohibit certain things that in themselves there's nothing wrong with them, but if we do them, we might come to violate the biblical law. So in other words, our rabbis created fences around the biblical law so that we don't even get close to God forbid violating a biblical law. I've used this analogy in the past. If there's water, let's say a river and you're afraid of people, someone might accidentally fall in. So you put a fence. If it's a small river that's not deep, you might have a small fence. But if you go to visit Niagara Falls, there's a very high fence all the way around because the danger of falling is much greater. If you fall into Niagara Falls, it's bad news. A Torah prohibition, God forbid to violate a Torah prohibition. That's Niagara Falls. That's bad news. And so the fence that the rabbis erected around it is quite solid. And so there's a certain kind of public area with a certain number of people which almost doesn't even exist today where the Torah says you're not allowed to carry in a public domain. Our rabbis came along and said, what happens if a person makes a mistake between that specific area where the Torah doesn't prohibit it and another area that leads into it or looks like it? And the rabbis prohibited carrying in all sorts of other places in our streets, even if they're small streets and even in my front yard or my backyard, if it's not enclosed in a fence. That's not what the Torah prohibits. But the rabbis understood if I get used to carrying things in public areas, I might not remember to make the distinction between what the Torah itself prohibits and some area that is adjacent to it or looks like it. The Talmud tells the following story. A rabbi is prohibited reading on Shabbos by the light of a flame. Doesn't apply to electric lights. Of course, we leave electric lights on. We read by their light, but an electric and oil flame like a menorah, we're not allowed to read next to it on Shabbos because we're worried that maybe a person will forget and maybe they will tip the candle if it starts to sputter. They'll tip it so that more oil will flow to the wick so they can read and they won't remember that that is a Torah prohibition. To cause more oil to come near the wick, that is a Torah prohibition. So a person says to themselves, I'm not going to do that. I'll have the oil flame. I'll put it there. I'll read next to it and I'll remember not to touch the oil flame. The Torah, the Talmud tells the story of one of the great Talmudic sages who said exactly that. It's not going to happen to me. And it happened one Shabbos that he was learning Torah by the light of an oil lamp and it was very late and he was very intensely involved and focused on his Torah learning. And by accident he reached out his hand and he tipped the lamp and then he said and he publicized. The rabbis know better than I do. If we break through the fence, we could be bitten by the snake. Anybody is subject to making a mistake. And so we have to correct, we have to erect safeguards to prevent us from even getting close to what is something that is serious in any area of life. The more serious something is, the more safeguards we need. And so when it comes to, let's say, financial dealings, we certainly have to be very, very careful because there's a tremendous temptation that many people feel. To cut corners or to not pay taxes or to, so we have to have safeguards. Certainly when it comes to immorality, there can be very great temptation, God forbid. So we have to have safeguards. We have a safeguard of not having a man and a woman alone in a certain place if they're not permitted to each other. Safeguards of not having intimate touching safeguards that keep us away from the main prohibition which is very, very serious. And etc., etc., it's like that in every area of life. The more serious the potential, the more safeguards we need. This verse expresses one of the fundamentals of Judaism. The Yashov Hevhar al-Haaretz kashayah, when a person passes away, a person's body, the physical body, is returned to the earth. We bury a person in the earth. Va'ruach, but the spirit of the person, the nasham of a person. Tashuv al-Hu'alakimashernisana, that returns to God who gave it. Every person is comprised of two parts, a physical body, a spiritual soul. The physical body lives a certain amount of time, everyone according to what God allots them. A person's nashama, their soul, that's eternal. That existed before we were born into this world and will continue to exist after we leave this world. Because it's connected to God. As we've discussed many times, all of our laws of death and mourning and the different stages of mourning, they're all intended, the cousins are intended to recognize that while the body is being placed into the earth with respect, because it's served as the clothing or the instrumentality of the soul. But it's the soul that is the identity of the person and that lasts forever. And this is a fundamental expression of how we look at life and death. We look at it as the separation between the body and the soul. And yes, of course we're sad because we're not going to have the person's physical presence with us. But we understand that the nashama, the soul, exists forever. It's a fundamental way we look at life. And now the penultimate verse, the next to the last verse. Sovdavara kal nishma. The sum of the whole thing is after all of the verses, all the wisdom. As I said before, some of it contradictory, some of it hard to understand. But the unstashura, the bottom line, after everything is said, what we need to take away from this entire work, as hella kim yurei, you should respect God. Vetsvitsvosavshamoor. And you should assiduously observe God's commandments. Kizekulha adam. Because this is a person's entire duty. This is the main theme. This is the takeaway. This is the reason that we read this book for this line. This is our mission in life. To have reverence and respect for God and to observe God's commandments. It was for this reason that we were created. And this is what we want to remind ourselves. We want to remind ourselves of this primary, golden life, primary purpose for life. To revere God and to observe God's commandments. So I want to mention one more verse. It's a little bit earlier. I've gone out of order because this comes along with the story. Now, I only told this story once in my entire life. I told it at a death. So I've never shared this in such a public forum. It's a very personal story and it is very embarrassing. But here it goes. Now, before I tell you the story, I do want to be very clear about this. I am a rabbi. I have been a rabbi for a long time. My resume, my CV, which by the way is on our website. You can check it. My CV, my resume is honest. There is nothing there that is exaggerated. It is correct and honest. And I am a rabbi, notwithstanding what I'm about to tell you. A couple of months ago, I shared with you the type of preparation I received in order to receive Smihah, Rabbenik ordination. What I did receive in the process of becoming, having the title of rabbi, what I did not receive, how I got it later. We shared that whole conversation. So at that time, as a long time ago, I received my Smihah from Nair Yisrael, Nair Israel, Rabbenikul College in Baltimore. And at that time, in order to receive Smihah, to receive Rabbenik ordination, a person had to, number one, be admitted to start the course of study. So someone at the head of the Yeshiva had to decide, you were a person who is worthy to start this study. It took me two years of full-time study and it was very hard. It was extremely advanced Talmud with commentaries, with codes and commentaries on the codes. And most of the effort was not practically oriented. What I mean by that is it did cover certain areas of keeping kosher and other areas of ritual law. But it wasn't focused on what happens if this boom goes into that pot. It was focused on the Talmudic concepts, the lumbus, the give and take of the conceptual understanding of the differences of opinion in the Talmud and how we arrived at the conclusions and what the conclusions were, how to understand what was in the codes, in the Shulkhon Arul and the other codes. It had no connection to testing what a person would need in order to be a synagogue rabbi. I've shared that before. But it was very hard. It was very high level and it was very abstract and it was very dense, two full years of very hard studying and I worked hard. I really worked very hard during those two years to prepare. I did it together with several others who were in the same small program within the Yeshiva. And then I thought that I was ready. And so the procedure was that you had to take a test. And the test was an oral test. And the test was given by Rabbi Yakov Kolevsky. Now, I just want to point out, if a person passed, they would be granted Smicha, rabbinic ordination from the head of the Yeshiva, Rabbi Yakov Yitzchak Rudaman, a blessed memory, who was a great and well-known Torah scholar, one of the greatest Torah scholars of the world and one of the most respected Torah scholars in the world at that time. So he is the one that granted the Smicha, my Smicha, my certificate, has his signature. And he would do so if a person passed the test given by Rabbi Kolevsky. Rabbi Kolevsky, a blessed memory, at that time was a Rebbe in the Yeshiva. He gave the highest daily Shia, the highest class. I was in his class for some time and it was a very, very hard class. It was an advanced Talmud, conceptual, very demanding. And Rabbi Kolevsky, he was tough. He was tough in class. He expected you to have been prepared. You spent several hours in the morning preparing for the class and then several hours in the afternoon reviewing it with others and trying to understand it. He was intimidating. He was tough. And he was intimidating. It could be to others, you know, others had different relationships with him, but just as a student in the Yeshiva, he was tough. So it was to have this final test which would decide my future, it was very intimidating and I was very nervous. Okay. So, but at any event, I thought I was ready. He scheduled the test with me on a certain date and then at the last minute, he canceled. Something came up. I'm sure it was something, I don't question that it was something important. He canceled and rescheduled it for two weeks later. Now, to be perfectly honest, I had crammed for this test. I was ready on that day and I was very disheartened when it was postponed because I was nervous in two weeks. I didn't know if I would remember this stuff because I had, I had crammed and memorized for that day. All right. Two weeks passed and the day for the test came and I took the test together with two others. So the three of us and Rav Kolevsky is asking us questions, each of us. And there are very hard questions. Again, about the commentaries on the codes and the conceptual understanding. I remember that I messed up one of the questions and I remember it was about Rubekeva Eger. Rubekeva Eger is one of the commentaries to the code of Shulchan Aruch. Again, very dense, very high level, very difficult to understand. I messed it up. I got the other questions right, but I messed that one up. All right. So this grueling went on for quite some time. And to the other two young men who were in the room, he said to them, you passed Whitman, stay here. So after they had left, he says to me, Whitman, you didn't do so good. And I was desperate. I was, I was very desperate. I said to him, Rebbe, Rebbe, please. I studied so hard for this. I worked for two full years. I was ready two weeks ago. I could have answered that question two weeks ago. You postponed. Okay. I understand you postponed, but I was ready. And I only messed up one question. I messed up one question, but Rebbe, please, please. And he just sat there for a while looking at me, stroking his beard. I thought I would faint. And finally he said, Whitman, gay Fraser. Now that's Yiddish. It means go and fresco and eat. I realized that I was being dismissed, but I did not know what he meant. As I walked out of the room, I truly, I did not know if I had passed or if I had failed. Because I didn't know what, what those words were supposed to convey to me. So as I left the test, I saw one of my close friends, really an older person who was a mentor to me. Very close, very helpful to me. And I told him what happened. And I asked him, what does it mean? What, what? And he smiled at me. And he said, you passed. Gay Fraser means to say go and celebrate. It means this was Rabbi Kolevsky's way of saying, okay, I realized I was just over the line, but okay, you passed. Now it turns out that Rav Kolevsky's way of saying that I passed using those two Yiddish words, it turns out that he was referring to a Pasek in Kohales. So you can understand that this Pasek means a great deal to me. So the Pasek says as follows. This is from Kohales. Lech echol besimcha lahmecha. Go and eat your bread in joy with joy. Ushe sey belevtov ye necha. And drink wine with a gladdened heart. Kikvah ratsah hoelakim es masechah. Because God has found favor with your actions. That's the Pasek. So Gay Fraser is kind of a Yiddish paraphrase of the first words, lech echol besimcha. Go besimcha lahmecha. Go and celebrate. That was Rav Kolevsky's way of saying I passed in his characteristically cryptic and oblique manner. That's how he said it, but I passed. Barely, but I did pass. And I am a rabbi, and my CV is accurate. So the range of emotions I felt that day was something I'll never forget. And obviously this Pasek in Kohales means a great deal to me. Because it actually determined the rest of my life so far. I just want to finish by sharing that this Pasek has a significance for every single one of us. The medrish says something fascinating. Lech echol besimcha lahmecha. Go and eat your bread in joy. Rabi Levy Pasekra. Rabi Levy explains this Pasek in the following way. He explains that it refers to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. And the process of tshuvah, of repentance and improving our behavior that we're involved in from before Rosh Hashanah through the Aseris Yumeh Chuvah and Yom Kippur. And the end of Yom Kippur and the ilah ends with that crescendo. Rabi Levy explains this follows. By the time Rosh Hashanah begins, we have been forgiven for a third of our sins. God forgives us of a third of our sins. With the preparing for Rosh Hashanah and the introspection, employing the shofar and starting tshuvah, a third of our sins are forgiven. By the time Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur begins, in response to our, hopefully, our positive behavior between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the extra prayers, the slichas that we're saying, asking each other for forgiveness, the second third of our sins are forgiven by God. Yom Kippur, Ms. Anem, on Yom Kippur we fast and we engage in prayers and the slichos. And we're trying to act like angels. By the end of Yom Kippur, Mokho Lehem Esaqol. God forgives the Jewish people for all of their sins. The last third. Ubas kol Yotsas v'Omeres Lehem. And there is a voice from heaven that says to the Jewish people, Lech echol besimchel lach mechah. Go and rejoice with your bread and drink wine with a glad heart. Kikvah ratsahel echim esmasechah. Because God has found favor in our actions. Kvarnishmat fylashkham. Our prayers have been heard. Our repentance has been accepted. And so when Yom Kippur ends, we should celebrate with the confidence that we have all been given a fresh, clean start. And one of the commentary's Tosfos adds, Be motso yom a kippurim. At the end of Yom Kippur, Yotsas baskol kizah. This voice comes from heaven. Now I have to confess, I never heard this voice. Maybe others have heard this voice. Hopefully one day I will hear this voice. But the Talmud is attesting, our rabbis are attesting that there is such a voice that comes from heaven. Uchhein nechcheves osa suudah ke suudas yom tov. And therefore the meal that we eat at the end of Yom Kippur should be considered like a yom tov meal. It is a holiday celebration. Umitra letrah ba. And a person should pay attention to that, should elaborate on that meal. That practice that so many people have to have an elaborate, break the fast meal. It's a celebration that our prayers have been accepted. It wouldn't be the right thing just to, I mean if a person physically couldn't make it, okay, but it wouldn't be the right thing just to, you know, eat something quickly and go to bed. A person should celebrate by the end of Yom Kippur. It's a celebration. And that meal that we eat should reflect the fact of this