If you're brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello: Exhaling the old year, inhaling the new.
A spiritual and motivational discourse emphasizing the importance of saying goodbye to the past with faith (emunah) in order to make room for new blessings and opportunities. The speaker argues that holding onto resentment, trauma, and unfinished business prevents spiritual growth and blocks new beginnings, and that true faith requires surrendering the need to understand or seek justice.
Summary
The speaker opens by introducing the class as a preparation for Rosh Hashanah and references Paulo Coelho's quote about having the courage to say goodbye so life can offer new hellos. The central thesis is that people remain stuck in their lives because they fail to say goodbye gracefully to past relationships, business deals, and traumatic experiences. The speaker explains that this stuckness requires faith to release the old and trust to welcome the new—without faith in saying goodbye, one cannot access the trust needed for new beginnings.
The speaker discusses how relationships, business partnerships, and life situations that end have fulfilled their purpose, and that closure should be marked by gratitude rather than resentment. He illustrates this with examples: a billionaire who learned generosity, a hotel purchase during COVID, and settling lawsuits for peace of mind rather than pursuing justice. The speaker emphasizes that seeking justice and holding grudges keeps one emotionally connected to the past and blocks new opportunities.
A significant portion addresses the psychological and spiritual dangers of not saying goodbye: people become addicted to familiar emotional patterns (even toxic ones), their nervous system becomes hijacked by chaos, and they view the world through the lens of their trauma (anger, grief, tragedy). The speaker notes that depression and anxiety are signals that one hasn't truly let go, and that even if new opportunities arrive, a person stuck in the past will sabotage them or fail to recognize them.
The speaker introduces the concept of the 'space between goodbye and hello' as being filled with emunah (faith and trust). Without this faith, one remains trapped in the past. He explains that consciousness and joy are prerequisites for receiving blessings, and that decisions made in fear are guaranteed mistakes, while those made in joy succeed. The speaker also discusses the spiritual mechanism of minimizing one's own ego (kavod) while maximizing God's honor, which creates the conditions for blessing.
The talk concludes with practical guidance: identify ten areas where you haven't said goodbye, understand that people can only give what they have, practice courage (moving forward despite fear), and use charity to open doors. The speaker invokes Rabbi Nachman's teaching about the Hebrew letters of God's name—that arrogance (taking God's place) results in chaos, while proper faith and emotional regulation create blessing.
About this episode
<p>If you're brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a new hello: Exhaling the old year, inhaling the new.</p>
Key Insights
- The speaker claims that most people's stuckness in life stems not from actual events but from their unwillingness or inability to say goodbye to past situations, relationships, and traumas.
- The speaker argues that relationships and business partnerships that end have still fulfilled their purpose and served their intended function in expanding one's vessel, regardless of how they concluded.
- The speaker contends that seeking justice and holding onto grudges keeps one emotionally connected to the past, preventing new opportunities from entering one's life—making the pursuit of justice incompatible with receiving blessings.
- The speaker identifies that many people are unconsciously addicted to familiar emotional chaos and toxicity, finding non-chaotic stability boring or unexciting, which perpetuates cycles of self-sabotage.
- The speaker claims that anxiety and depression are actually signals that one has not truly said goodbye and released the past, and that these emotions will block or sabotage new opportunities even when they arrive.
- The speaker argues that decisions made in a state of fear are guaranteed mistakes, while decisions made in joy and settled consciousness will succeed, based on Rabbi Nachman's teaching.
- The speaker asserts that the 'space between goodbye and hello' is filled with emunah (faith), and without this faith specifically, one cannot transition from the old to the new—remaining stuck indefinitely.
- The speaker claims that arrogance and the need to be right, understand everything, and maintain control minimizes God's honor and creates chaos in one's life, whereas surrendering the need for certainty and validation opens pathways for blessing.
Topics
Transcript
Okay, welcome, welcome to today's class. Today's podcast is Also, this class is in the success of Shoshana Batzipora Malka. This class is also sponsored by Rachel Brown Matchmaking. And also, you can tell Yehuda Ben-Morcha Gittel got room this Sunday night. We're going to be in Lincoln Road, Chabad for a Rosh Hashanah class. And then Wednesday, we're off to Hungary in Lincoln Road, Chabad for a Rosh Hashanah class and then Wednesday we're off to Hungary and Ukraine Oman, very excited as we exhale the year we exhale the year and inhale the new year that's really what we have to work on, really really exhaling, you know, what do we need to let go of Paulo Coelho…
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