DO MORE NOW! (10 Days of Return!)

Why? Because we are in the very, very special period of time known as Aseret Yimei Teshuvah, the 10 days of return, which began with the two beautiful days of Rosh Hashanah and culminate one week from today on Yom Kippur, but all 10 days are supercharged, powerful days to do more now, more mitzvot, more commandments, more good deeds, chesed, give more tzedakah, charity to worthy causes, study a little extra Torah, pray a little extra.

We're supposed to go in this time period beyond what we usually do.

even if we're not going to be able to sustain such behaviors later on.

Now, what's that all about, you say? What, we're trying to fake God out in these 10 days, which are days of judgment? What, Hashem is scrutinizing us? No, we're not trying to fake God out.

That's not at all the right way to look at it.

We're trying to live up to what we really can become and really live up to who we really are.

I'm not an athlete, but I guess if an athlete is going through a very rigorous training and there's a certain period where they do extra laps and extra exercises like at... post at peak performance, even peak plus.

So it's not like that's an artificial joke.

That's like the ultimate that they aspire to and what really they can achieve, what they can achieve.

And even if they can't sustain every bit of that extra, then when they get back to the quote unquote normal schedule, they'll be further along than they were before.

So these are days imbued with the power to remake ourselves.

We were reborn spiritually on Rosh Hashanah and we can, Go further with everything we do.

Yeah, you might have heard it before.

If not, I'll say it again.

I call them Zamboni days because the ice is smooth.

The super spiritual Zamboni machine that Hashem runs, which is the best Zamboni machine you can get, has smoothed the ice.

And that means every bit of energy and extra energy we give towards Torah, prayer, good deeds.

It goes further, brings us further.

The ice is smooth.

You got it? The ice is smooth.

It's more than that.

It's more than that, because Hashem is not in the palace.

He's on the rink with us, right? The prophet Isaiah says, seek out Hashem when He's close, call to Him when He's near, and the Talmud explains that's the 10 days of Teshuvah right now.

Hashem can be... can be accessed any time of year but never so easily and readily as the 10 days of Chuva when he's down on the rink in his royal skates and he's given you a pair of royal skates you won't slip don't worry and he wants you to not just to skate on one side of the hall and he's on the other on the rink no no no he wants you to skate right next to him he sticks out his hand to every one of us even the people have stumbled and in their skating before in every kind of way stumbling in mistakes and transgressions Now's the time to grab onto his hand and skate.

You're not faking him out.