Transcript
To our gracious host this evening, Rabbi Schaechter, my esteemed colleagues, ראש כולל Rosh Kollel Rabbi Torczyner, and friends who I've just met, and some friends who I know a long time. It really is a great privilege and an honor to be with you this evening. Your community, the Toronto community is well known for its strong תורה Torah values, its generosity, its philanthropy, its commitment to community and more. I want to add my wishes of מזל טוב mazel tov to the Rubensteins and to the Zirkins this evening. And a real יישר כח yasher koach for your hard work and your selfless devotion and dedication on behalf of this wonderful institution, the YU תורה מציון זכרון דב כולל Torah Mitzion Zichron Dov Kollel.I have to tell you, I myself am very partial. I have a great affinity and a very, very big place in my heart for community כוללים kollels. I first came to Boca Raton as part of its community כולל kollel. It provided me an incredible opportunity to continue to study and at the same time to learn, to learn through teaching, to learn how to value community, to learn what it means to give to others. In fact, in our case, it could be argued that the כולל kollel in Boca Raton was really the critical factor in the outstanding growth it's had over the last number of years. In Boca, the כולל kollel was the farm system. Its graduates went on to seed the schools and the שול shul, outreach, community leadership. And I know that the כולל kollel plays a pivotal role in this Toronto community as well. I want to begin really by giving a ברכה bracha to all of the כולל kollel members, that your time here, under the leadership of Rabbi Torczyner, is as enriching, is as gratifying, and as productive as my time in the כולל kollel in Boca was. And may this community benefit from each of your talents, your skills, and your unique gifts.The Italian says, I'm tired and I'm thirsty, I must have some wine. The German says, I'm tired and I'm thirsty, I must have some beer. The Scot says, I'm tired and I'm thirsty, I must have some scotch. The Russian says, I'm tired and I'm thirsty, I must have some vodka. The Jew says, I'm tired and I'm thirsty, I must have diabetes.Jews in particular tend to look for the negative. We tend to jump towards bad news and to see bad results. This past שבת Shabbos, as we all know, we read פרשת שלח Parshas Shlach with the very familiar story of the מרגלים Meraglim, the spies. And we often oversimplify the story, saying that ten of the twelve men went to investigate the land, they came back and reported a negative result, and the consequences were dire. Forty years of wandering, the Torah testifies, a year per day of this terrible mission gone wrong. But the story really goes much, much deeper. And I believe the lesson of this story of the מרגלים Meraglim yields a message that in many ways is the hallmark of what our community, the Toronto community, the Boca Raton community, the global Yeshiva University community believes in, what we strive for, and what we're all about.Who were these twelve men? Were they simple, casual, everyday men that they could make such a terrible error in judgment? The Medrash tells us that they were not ordinary. They were not common. היו צדיקים בפני ישראל ובפני משה Hayu tzadikim bifnei Yisrael u'bifnei Moshe. They were men of great distinction. They were righteous. Rashi tells us they're called אנשים anashim, לשון חשיבות lashon chashivus. These are men that are important, that are prominent, that are prestigious. The Zohar goes so far as to tell us what sounds almost like a conspiracy theory about them. אמרו, אם יכנסו ישראל לארץ, יעבירו אותנו מלהיות ראשים Amru, im yikansu Yisrael la'aretz, ya'aviru osonu mi'liyos roshim. If they succeed, if we indeed, the Jews go into Israel, we're going to be removed as the leaders of the people. וימנה משה ראשים אחרים V'yimneh Moshe rashim acherim, God will assign, will appoint, Moshe rather will assign and appoint other leaders in our stead. שהרי אנו זכינו להיות ראשים במדבר, אבל בארץ לא נזכה She'harei anu zachinu liyos roshim ba'midbar, aval ba'aretz lo niskeh. Maybe we merited to be the leaders. We're the executive board, the board of directors here in the desert, but we'll be replaced if we go into the land. What kind of conspiracy theory? These אנשים חשובים anashim chashuvim, these men of distinction. It's terribly disturbing to think that men of such righteousness, nobility, virtuous תלמידי חכמים talmidei chachamim, גדולי הדור gedolei hador, נשיאים nesi'im would deliver such a negative and toxic report about Israel just to retain their ability to continue to lead. How could they have made such a terrible error in judgment? Were they really motivated by self-interest and self-preservation? What's really going on?As quoted earlier, Rav Chaim Yaakov Goldvicht, זצ\"ל zatzal, ראש ישיבה Rosh Yeshiva of כרם ביבנה Kerem B'Yavneh explained that the seemingly strange behavior of the מרגלים Meraglim, this terrible report that they gave and the conspiracy theory that surrounds them, is really an expression of a mistaken, a mistaken philosophy in life. You see, the מרגלים Meraglim had experienced, together with all of the people, a מדבר midbar, a desert lifestyle. Thus far in the desert, their food, the bread, fell from the sky. Water, it rose from the well. Protection, provided miraculously by the ענני הכבוד ananei hakavod, by the clouds of glory. All anyone could need with no effort. No effort at all. The מרגלים Meraglim had all of their needs provided and they were left alone to exclusively focus on the pursuit of תורה Torah learning and getting closer to השם Hashem. Theirs, the community, the Jewish people's experience in the desert thus far, was a purely spiritual existence. It transcended all those mundane activities and physical undertakings, the efforts we have to engage in in order to achieve food and drink and protection. Theirs was a purely spiritual existence. And so when they surveyed the land, when they came back to provide their report, their conclusion was something they considered a radical departure, a step down from the level that they and all of the people were on. If they would indeed enter the land at that moment, noted the מרגלים Meraglim, they were going to have to close the ספר sefer. And they were going to have to grab a plow and plant and harvest in order to eat. The manna would no longer fall from heaven. Settling the land would require the establishment of a judicial system, of a police force, of an army to protect them. And so confronted by the realization that entering the land of Israel would profoundly and fundamentally alter their lifestyle, would require them to engage and dedicate time to physical activities and pursuits, these great men attempted to sabotage the mission and avoid entering the land.Said Rav Goldvicht, the thirst for spirituality, their yearning for spending their time exclusively on spiritual ambition and pursuits was perhaps noble and virtuous, but terribly misguided. ארץ ישראל Eretz Yisrael, the land of Israel is a microcosm of what the rest of the world and life is about. The mundane is transformed into the holy when we dedicate our efforts towards bringing Hashem into the everyday. We don't believe in exclusive, overlapping lives. Religion, spirituality, עבודת השם avodas Hashem is not pursued only in the walls of the בית מדרש beis medrash and the שול shul. And when we plow and plant and harvest, and when we serve and protect, and when we work, and when we shop, and when we change diapers, that's mundane. We don't live independent, isolated, exclusive lives, but rather we live lives of integration. What the מרגלים Meraglim failed to understand, and the lesson that we draw from their failure, said Rav Goldvicht, is that Judaism, is that Torah endorses not life of integration, of synthesis, rather than of coexistence. The מרגלים Meraglim didn't understand that there's such a concept of מצוות התלויות בארץ mitzvos hateluyos ba'aretz. You could have commandments, you could have a mechanism to get close to God that relies on the earth, the most base, mundane, material, physical thing that exists. Spirituality is rooted in the physical, in the earth itself. True עבודת השם avodas Hashem does not demand asceticism, withdrawal, secession from physical world around us. We don't retreat from living in this world, we embrace it, and we imbue it with spirituality.I share this insight with you this evening, not only because I find it a brilliant interpretation by my ראש ישיבה זצ\"ל Rosh Yeshiva zatzal, because to me, it captures the motto and the credo and the mission statement, the values and the outlook of our Yeshiva University, of our collective community in Toronto, in Boca Raton, and elsewhere. When we wake in the morning, as was described so beautifully a few moments ago, we don't live compartmentalized lives in which having to go to work or engage in a profession is a concession to this world, but really authentic religious growth is reserved for the בית מדרש beis medrash. No. What YU taught me, and what this כולל kollel teaches this community, is to recognize that every moment of our day is charged with the potential to bring us closer to השם Hashem if we only infuse it with holiness, with meaning, and with purpose.Rav Chaim Soloveitchik, Rav Chaim Brisker asked a very simple question. We wake up in the morning and we say ברכת התורה birchas haTorah, the blessing on learning תורה Torah. And then we recite a few verses and a משנה mishna and a גמרא gemara to fulfill that blessing that we've just recited, to actually learn a little bit of תורה Torah. But most of us do not have the privilege and the opportunity to spend the entire day engaged in תורה Torah. We go out to work, or to take care of chores, or tasks or responsibilities, maybe we go to the gym, we go shopping, we do carpool. Our day is filled and occupied with all kinds of other mundane tasks. And then we come at night to one of the כולל's kollel's classes. Then we come at night to learn בחברותא b'chavrusa with a study partner. Ask Rav Chaim, why don't I have to make a new ברכת התורה birchas haTorah? Why don't I have to say a new blessing? In the world of the blessing of ברכות brachos, we have a principle called a הפסק hefsek. If there is an interruption, a break or a barrier, I have to repeat the ברכה bracha. So how does my ברכה bracha from six or seven or eight o'clock in the morning cover me for my חברותא chavrusa for seven, eight, or nine o'clock at night?Says Rav Chaim, there are two components to learning תורה Torah. There's the learning of תורה Torah, the לימוד limud, of paramount importance, equal to all other מצוות mitzvos. But then there's the application of that which we've learned. There's the living of תורה Torah. There's the מעשה ma'aseh. And when we make that ברכה bracha in the morning, says Rav Chaim, and then we have to leave שול shul or leave the בית מדרש beis medrash to live our lives, only to return to the formal learning or חברותא chavrusa later, no meaningful interruption has taken place if we're living our lives properly. So long as our activities are informed and guided and inspired and infused with תורה Torah, no matter where or what they may be, no הפסק hefsek, no interruption has taken place. Indeed, the wording of the ברכה bracha is לעסוק בדברי תורה la'asok b'divrei Torah, to be occupied with תורה Torah. Because when we approach our profession with תורה Torah ethics and values, when we lovingly care for our children and teach them what דרך ארץ derech eretz means, when we cook supper or even change a diaper, when we shop and we go out of our way to be courteous and kind and appreciative to the cashier, we haven't created a הפסק hefsek from the ברכה bracha. There's no interruption from the blessing that morning, but rather we are fulfilling and applying the ברכה bracha throughout our day. לעסוק La'asok, to be fully immersed in and guided by תורה Torah, no matter our circumstance.So how do we accomplish this goal? How do we bring Hashem into our lives constantly and consistently? How do we make sure there's no interruption from the שול shul and the בית מדרש beis medrash to the other aspects of life what the מרגלים Meraglim feared? How do we respond? What is the GPS? What is the path towards integration and synthesis in which the mundane becomes sacred and the secular becomes holy? I want to suggest to you this evening, with the goal of catching the end of the fourth quarter, and hopefully I can finish better than LeBron. I want to suggest to you this evening two keys I think to accomplish these goals and as a result to find more meaning and purpose in our lives and to imbue more meaning and purpose in our communities.There's a relatively new phenomenon that sociologists have noted, it's taking place all around us. You can see it virtually everywhere that you look. One sociologist, Kenneth Gergen has called it absent presence. Absent presence. You can see it in restaurants, you see it in the park, you see it while people are in line at the bank or checking out in the supermarket, you see it even while they are דאווענען davening in שול shul. Absent presence is the phenomenon of being physically present but mentally absent because you're distracted by that technology. That iPhone, that BlackBerry, whatever the latest gadget may be, your Android, I don't want to insult anyone if you still have a Trio, your Trio. But whatever the latest gadget is that's dominating our attention, that appendage which when it's missing, we have a phantom limb syndrome in which we still feel it buzz and ring, sometimes even on שבת Shabbos when we're not carrying it with us. Indeed, research shows today that smartphones with their abundance of apps and social networking and text messages, research shows that they are as addictive a substance as drugs and alcohol. Researchers are identifying similar trends and patterns in the addiction to technology that people have to drugs and alcohol. See, when people are in physical proximity of one another, but their minds and their attention is elsewhere, in reality they're absent. Their body may be there. They think they attended, but they were somewhere else. And so couples who supposedly are sharing a meal together, they're out on date night. I'm sure you've seen this, of course none of you are guilty of it, but we see it at the table next to us in the restaurant. A couple who will leave and think that they spent time together, but if you watch them during the meal, half the time they were texting, checking the score, responding, looking things up, putting on Facebook how they're out with their spouse and what they think of the restaurant they're in. Men who with their tallis and tefillin can't resist the urge to check out what that buzz or that beep or that alert may be telling them. Maybe it's the prime minister or the president. Have to interrupt my davening, it could be of critical, paramount importance. And then you leave shul thinking, I just had a rendezvous with my creator. And while physically they may have been in shul, they checked their mind and soul at the door. Go to the park and witness parents who are pushing their kids on the swing. And they'll go home and say, I spent quality time today with my child or grandchild. But the entire time they're talking on the phone while they're pushing that swing. And so while they think they were in the park, they really haven't spent any quality time with that child.When משה רבינו Moshe Rabbeinu ascends הר סיני Har Sinai to receive the תורה Torah, God tells him in a peculiar phrase, עלה אלי ההרה והיה שם Alei eilai hahar v'heyei sham. Ascend to me on the mountain and be there. Some of the commentators ask, it's redundant. If Moshe is going to ascend the mountain, והיה שם v'heyei sham, be there, of course he's there, where else is he? Why does God need to say, והיה שם v'heyei sham, and be there? And if you read the text carefully, if you listen to what's being said between the lines, you can almost hear the רבונו של עולם Ribono shel Olam saying to Moshe, \"My beloved Moshe, my dear Moshe, I know there are thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of people who need your attention. They're calling you and emailing you and texting you. I know that they rely on you and your mind is with them. But Moshe, עלה אלי ההרה alei eilai hahar, when you come onto this mountain, היה שם heyei sham. If you're going to physically be here, then I'm asking you to mentally be here. היה שם Heyei sham. No absent presence. Be here in this moment, with me. No distractions, no interruptions, no lack of focus. Says השם Hashem to Moshe, I don't want to compete for your attention, even if you have the most noble distraction. Put it aside while you're with me.My friends, I'd like to suggest that if we're going to experience qualitative, meaningful time in our relationships, be it in marriage, in parenting, or with השם Hashem, we have to learn to disconnect. We have to renew and rediscover our capacity to be fully present in all that we are doing at any given moment if we're going to live lives of meaning and of purpose and of substance. But being present is not just about disconnecting technologically, as hard as that may be. It's about an equally difficult choice. But to lead this life of synthesis, synthesis and integration, to lead this mission-driven life, we have to be present. We can't afford to be absent-present, or we have compromised and sacrificed our whole life. So we have to be willing to not be stuck or caught in the past, to not be fearful and anxiety-ridden about the future, but we have to be able to embrace the present fully and to be there with every ounce of our being. My first suggestion is to realize the Yeshiva University's vision and mandate of infusing the mundane with holy, the secular with sacred, to see the different roles, activities, and components of our lives as integrated into one goal requires us to master the ability to be present in the moment, to not be distracted and disconnected. See, being modern Orthodox probably means something different to every single person in this room. But I'd like to suggest that it mean embracing modernity in an Orthodox and Torah way. It means incorporating the amazing technological advancements that we are privileged to have into our lives. Not rejecting technology, embracing it, but doing so judiciously, cautiously, and with healthy boundaries that protect our capacity to be present. Technology is a remarkable tool to connect, but if not used properly, it disconnects us from the people that matter most, from the mission that matters most in our life.My second and final suggestion to you tonight, which I share quickly, as I've already been given the sign, is that to realize our personal and collective potential, we have to learn to be givers and stop being takers. See, the Meraglim's desire to remain in the desert, the Meraglim's faulty strategy to attain the desert lifestyle, to have all the supernatural needs met, was in some ways selfish, was self-serving. Torah describes when Hashem created the world at first, He created Adam all alone. It begins as if something goes off in Hashem's head. And He looks at His creation, the world that He created, and He says, something needs to be adjusted. I need to make a change. ויאמר השם אלוקים לא טוב היות האדם לבדו Vayomer Hashem Elokim, lo tov heyos ha'adam l'vado, אעשה לו עזר כנגדו e'eseh lo ezer k'negdo. It's not good for man to be alone. I need to fashion a helpmate opposite him. A חברותא chavrusa to be able to learn together. What specifically bothered Hashem that man was alone? There are men who would petition and will protest that God did not make a mistake. So what bothered Hashem? What did he see that made him say, I got to fix it. Why did he feel a need to change the status quo? When Adam lived alone in גן עדן Gan Eden, he had one concern in the world: Adam. All he cared about, exclusively, was his happiness, his wants, his desires, his needs. Adam alone is a taker, living life with a sense of entitlement that all of creation is there to serve him. Hashem realizes, לא טוב היות האדם לבדו lo tov heyos ha'adam l'vado. It's not good to be alone, because aloneness leads to self-centeredness. And so Hashem plants the seed of what is to become a family, and ultimately grow into a community, to teach that the purpose of life is not to be a taker, but to be a giver. Not to be selfish, but to be selfless. Not to care only about me, but to learn to care about we.Someone once wrote the Lubavitcher Rebbe a letter. They were in a state of great depression and despair. And the letter said the following, quote, \"I would like the Rebbe's help. I wake up each day sad and apprehensive. I can't concentrate. I find it hard to pray. I keep the mitzvos but I find no spiritual satisfaction. I go to shul but I feel alone. I begin to wonder what life is about. I need help.\" The Rebbe sent, in his inimitable style, a brilliant reply that did not employ even a single word. The Rebbe simply circled the first word of every sentence in the letter, and he sent the letter back. And his disciple understood what was the source of his problems. The Rebbe had answered his question and set him on the path of recovery. The circled word at the beginning of every sentence of his letter was the word I.The רמח\"ל Ramchal begins מסילת ישרים Mesilas Yesharim with a fundamental question: מה חובת האדם בעולמו ma chovas ha'adam b'olamo? What is man's duty in the world? Why are we here? Notice he doesn't say, what is man's entitlement in the world? How can we take all we deserve? How can we capture all that we are entitled to, our rights? No, the opening question to a meaningful and purposeful life is how we can fashion ourselves to be givers instead of being takers. Life is about duties and obligations and serving others, not my rights, my entitlements, and how you can serve me. Life is about giving, it's not about taking. It's about others, not about me.Many of you, I'm sure, saw the New York Times article last week that caused a great buzz, quoting the recent ten-year demographic study by the UJA in New York. And while I'm sure its conclusions do not apply to Toronto, the trends are, I think, to some degree, universal. The conclusions were astonishing and give pause to all of us to reflect. The ten-year study found that 40% of Jews in New York today are Orthodox. 74% of all Jewish children in New York, three quarters of all Jewish children in New York today, are Orthodox. But before you celebrate, and before you applaud, there's another finding that's just as remarkable, but it's tragically sad. 37% of all of the respondents checked off when asked their identity, just Jewish. No observance, no affiliation, barely a Jewish identity at all. The demographers and the authors of the study have concluded that the middle, the center of the Jewish people is dropping out. The future of the Jewish people, they note from the study, is in the wings, or what I would call the extremes. Many are moving away from Jewish identity altogether, the 37%, and the other, the 40%, dominated by חסידים Chasidim, חרדים Chareidim, the Orthodox, are of course embracing strong observance in a wonderful, magnificent way that secures our future and our faith. But what I want to share with you this evening is that the common denominator of the two wing groups is very little interest, commitment, or concern for the greater Jewish community, for peoplehood, for our national destiny.And my friends, I leave you with the thought that that is where our Yeshiva University community comes in. See, we have so much to offer, to teach, and to share with the Jewish world. We can show those who believe a commitment to Torah means retreating from the world, that you can learn Torah intensively, you can live Torah faithfully, and still participate in all the beauty the world has to offer. We can reach out to those who think Torah is archaic and outdated and irrelevant, that only modernity offers meaning in life. And we can show them that one can reach the pinnacle of success in any profession, participate fully in society and in culture, and still embrace the lessons and lifestyle of Torah. We, you and I, Toronto, Boca Raton, we as a community care deeply about the future of the Jewish people, about our national destiny, the religious significance of the state of Israel, the unity and the health of our people. We have so much to give the Jewish world around us, but it can only happen if we are givers, if we transform ourselves to those who seek to be role models, to share its vision, and to reach out to those who've never been exposed to it before. Let me tell you the difference between a giver and a taker, and the honorees this evening from what I've heard, certainly embody it. A taker says, why should I help? But a giver says, why shouldn't I help? A taker says, what's in it for me? But a giver says, how will this benefit others? A taker invests in himself, but a giver invests in others. A taker sees the problems, but a giver sees the solutions. A taker is demanding, but a giver is cooperative. Winston Churchill once said, \"We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.\" If we are to form what the Rav called a covenental community, if we are to truly harness our perspective of the world to better the world around us, we have to learn to be givers instead of takers. A famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, who designed so many brilliant buildings and homes and magnificent structures, towards the end of his illustrious career, a reporter… stopped him and asked him, \"Of all of your beautiful designs, which one is your favorite? Which one is the best?\" And without missing a beat, he answered, \"My next one.\" Because he understood that to succeed in life, you have to believe the best is yet to come. As we celebrate the accomplishments of the Toronto YU תורה מציון Torah Mitzion זכרון דוב Zichron Dov כולל Kollel this evening, let us pledge that for this community and for the greater YU community, that the best is yet to come. Let's keep stretching and striving and pressing forward, never satisfied that we have arrived. Let's vow to live in the moment, to be present in all that we do. And let's stop being takers, feeling entitled. Instead, let's be generous givers, seeking to impact the world for the better. Thank you.
