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Dear Friend,

I wish you and your family, a healthy, prosperous, happy and spiritually fulfilling year.

As Rosh Hashanah is a time for Teshuva (returning to Hash-m) and atonement, I wish to offer a small suggestion.

Recently I gave a lecture entitled “Achieve your potential in life through Torah.” The basis of the lecture was that – a person is happiest when they are themselves. Thus through a person becoming oneself they ultimately reach happiness. Thus the question one must answer then is “who am I?”

In short, I discovered that the true essence of a person is their soul. By providing satisfaction to the soul, not only does one gain fulfillment, but they reach into developing their true essence as a person.

Through concentrating their efforts on the pursuit of spiritual pleasure – specifically through Torah – one ultimately becomes themselves and happiness ensues because one is acting like their true essence. Through experience, triumphs and failings I learned that, in truth, lasting satisfaction does not come through the pursuit of physical pleasure. One reaches their potential in life through spirituality — through the Torah. Ultimately this gives a person inner satisfaction.

I took some time to make a list of easy things a person can do in order to gain the satisfaction and to be victorious in judgment: If one commits themselves to even one of these things I’m almost sure that they will have a good judgment for the year. Remember by doing these you give your soul satisfaction. These are they:

1. Light Shabbat candles Friday 18 minutes before Sunset (at candle lighting time).
2. Say the Shema Yisrael and three accompanying paragraphs (found in most siddurs/prayer books) upon awakening and before going to sleep.
3. Learn five minutes of Torah every day (there are many good Torah books available in English at feldheim.com and artscroll.com)
4. Do not speak badly about people for one hour every day.
5. Learn about the laws of Jewish modesty (tzniut / tznius) – for women / for men – put on Tephillin (it’s prudent to check yours by a competent sofer/ Jewish scribe if you haven’t in a while) and say the Shema every day with them on.
6. Learn about the laws a Jewish family purity (taharas hamishpacha / taharat hamishpacha)
7. Keep a kosher kitchen at home and/or keep kosher outside.
8. Learn about the 13 principles of faith of the Rambam.
9. Recite the Shema (and first paragraph) and tell Jewish stories to children at bedtime.
10. Eat a Shabbat meal with your family (prepare the hot food before Shabbat).
11. Be in contact with Hash-m regularly by praying and/or talking with Him to help you resolve your daily concerns

Every mitzvah goes a very long way in this world and the next world. If you need any further explanation, please feel free to contact me. These are some of the best “gifts of advice” I can give you for the New Year.

May it be the will of Hash-m to bless you with all good. Shana Tova and Shabbat Shalom.

Hashem gave seven eternal laws to Adam and Noach after him and taught them to Moses for all mankind to follow. These are called the Sheva Mitzvot Benei Noach / the Seven Noahide laws. A person who follows them only because the authentic Torah followed by orthodox Jews commands them is called a Ben Noach or Benei Noach in plural. Those gentiles that scrupulously follow them are promised a portion in heaven. They are:

1)Do not kill.
2)Do not steal.
3)Do not commit forbidden immoral relations.
4)Do not blaspheme.
5)Do not commit idolatry.
6)Do not eat a limb taken from a living animal.
7)To establish courts of justice enforcing these laws.

Goal : to help a person to live eternally.

A person is composed of a body and a soul.
After life a person’s soul leaves their body.

If a person was good they will inherit a place in heaven.
Some will live forever.

The question is – what are the criteria that Heaven uses to judge a person?

It is logical to say it is a law. It is probable any person could have had access to the law. It is logical to say the law must make sense to believe in it. It makes sense to say the law must have been given in front of millions of witnesses.

The law that fits all those criteria is – The Torah given to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai almost 3,300 years ago.

A Jew’s observance of the 613 commandments – as explained in the Shulchan Aruch [Code of Jewish Law by Rav Yosef Caro] – will gain them a good place in the next world.

Gentiles will be Judged based upon their observance of the Seven Noahide laws.

Here are the Beliefs that Hash-m (G-d) expects us to believe to live eternally.

Maimonides – the Rambam – who was a great Rabbi and a Doctor compiled 13 foundations from the Torah that a Jew is required to believe. If a Jew believes them – and acts in a decent manner – he will receive a portion in the world to come and will be resurrected after the resurrection of the dead. The thirteen principles of faith the Rambam that Torah requires a Jew to believe to receive a portion in the world to come are

One – To believe in the existence of Hashem (G-d). This means to believe in the existence of the Creator, blessed be He, and this is that there is a complete existence in all aspects of existence. He is the pinnacle of all of existence. From Him is the establishment of their existence and from Him is their establishment. And if one could imagine that He did not exist, then nothing else could exist. But even if all other things ceased to exist, He would still remain in existence. In other words everything is dependent upon his existence. But He is not dependent on any other existence.

Jews are to believe with perfect faith in the thirteen principles of the Holy Torah.

1) That the Holy One, Blessed Be He exists and supervises
2) and that He is One
3) and that He has no body and no likeness of a body
4) and he was before anything from before
5) and that there is no worship except to Him
6) and he knows the thoughts of people
7) and the prophesy of Moses our teacher is true
8) and that he is the master of all prophets
9) and that the Torah was given from Heaven
10) and that it [the Torah] will not change at any time, Heaven forbid
11) and that the Holy One Blessed be He punishes the wicked and pays great reward to the righteous
12) and that the king Messiah will come
13) and that the dead will be resurrected in the future.