Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov, it's great to be back together for our weekly study, Living with Emuna. It's not a study as much as a support group and a reminder for all of us that we're never alone, that Hashem is always with us and watching over us and involved deeply in our lives. I want to thank our incredibly generous sponsors for the year, Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan, who are sponsoring for yet another year of our Living with Emuna series. You can still sponsor individual classes. They have sponsored in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Gabber, ברוך צבי בן ראובן נתן, and in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Chanzer, who lived a life of service to the Jewish community and Chesed. We're very grateful to them for their generosity. Last week we began a new text, a new study, this Sefer called Chovas HaAdam BeOlamo. I would tell you who the author is, but he chose to remain anonymous. He has a series of many, many Sefarim on different qualities, character traits, different important areas to work on within our Judaism. And this is a thick Sefer, yes, Chovas HaAdam BeOlamo, and the volume is called Bitachon. And we began last week taking a look at what he talked about is a universal challenge of humanity. And that universal challenge that we go through is a little something called loneliness. And he was not writing during a pandemic. He, by the way, is a contemporary author, these Sefarim are still coming out, but he didn't author or publish this Sefer on Bitachon, on faith and Emuna and trust in Hashem during a pandemic. He wasn't talking about the loneliness of quarantine and the loneliness and the isolation of lockdown. And as much as there are many people who've begun to find companionship and camaraderie, we should know I had a conversation just this week with a wonderful woman in our community who is still in a category that she is alone, described her Shabbos meals, she hasn't had a meal with anyone since March, which is extraordinary and extraordinarily painful. We're trying to make sure that that can change in a safe and secure manner. Nobody should have to endure that loneliness, that sense of isolation, which could be as damaging, as dangerous, even as an invisible virus itself. So he describes this notion of Bididus, of being in Bidud, of being in isolation. In Israel, that's the word. Person who has to go into lockdown, a person who has to quarantine is in Bidud. And that existential feeling of being Badad. A person can be lonely in a crowded room. A person can have people all around them, have noise and voices and people and yet feel incredibly lonely. And that loneliness stems from a feeling that no one understands me, no one truly knows me. I don't matter. We talked about last week a young generation, tragically, those struggling with mental health who feel I'm not consequential, I don't matter, I'm invisible, nobody cares. So loneliness is not so much a physical description, whether you're with other people. Loneliness can be an existential description. Loneliness is a mentality. You can be lonely in a crowded room, you can be lonely in a crowded space when you feel that you're isolated, that no one gets you, that you're all by yourself. And what the author of the Chovas HaAdam BeOlamo was trying to communicate to us is that at the core of Bitachon and Emuna is to know that you're never alone. Yes, it's difficult, you can't see Hashem or hear him or smell him or touch him. But the more one works on examining the evidence of his existence, but even more empirically looking around this world and sensing and feeling, טעמו וראו כי טוב ה׳. Something you don't have to be proven. Something you don't have to have evidence supplied. Something just taste, just experience, just get that feeling, just know. Look around at your life, experience this incredible world and you will see and you will feel Hashem's presence in it. And when you can acknowledge and when you can recognize and when you can feel that you're not alone, that Hashem is here, He's a guiding hand on your shoulder and He's holding you up and His shoulder is for you to cry on. He's there for you to protest or object, and He's there to express gratitude and show appreciation. That when you feel that, you will realize that no matter what you're going through in life, you're never really alone. כאשר יהודי הולך בהרגשה כזו, we're continuing to read in this text which only I have but you can listen to. כאשר יהודי הולך בהרגשה כזו, when a Jew goes through life with this feeling, and it's a feeling that needs constant Chizuk, it needs reminding, and it needs strengthening. You have to wake up and you have to say a hundred times a day, you make a Bracha. מה ה׳ אלקיך שואל מעמך מאה, a hundred times a day God wants you to stop. And before your cup of coffee, and then an hour later when you come out of the bathroom, and then your Birchas Hashachar, and then your lunch, your Hamotzi, and then when you put on the Tefillin and when you light the candles and a hundred times a day interrupt and say, oh yeah, I'm not alone. Oh yeah, You're here. Oh yeah, what I do matters. Oh yeah, I'm not just a subject or object of random. this and chance, You're here. It's so easy to forget. It's so easy to be distracted. It's so easy to get lost from that anchor which is supposed to hold us and help us and calibrate us that a hundred times a day we have to interrupt our day, a hundred times a day, do the math. I don't know how many hours of the day you're awake and how many hours you sleep, but a hundred times during that day is pretty frequent, it's pretty often. So easy is it to forget that a hundred times a day you stop and you say, oh yeah, I am not alone, You're here, You're in this room and You're in my mind and You know how I feel and You love me unconditionally and yes You have expectations of me and You hold me accountable schar v'onesh reward and punishment are fundamental axioms of our faith and our belief, it's not just that God says I want you to be happy do whatever you want. He has expectations of us and He holds us accountable, just like parents do towards children but ultimately those parents love those children unconditionally, root for and cheer on and feel tell me anything. It's a safe space. That is the way it is with Hashem. A hundred times a day כאשר יהודי הולך בהרגשה כזו so when we go through our life with this feeling אזי גם אם יקלע לצרה כלשהי הוא לא יאבד את העשתונות לא ירגיש כעלה נידף ברוח even when you go through a hard time, a challenging situation, a frustrating moment, a depressing period, you don't feel like a leaf blowing in the wind, you don't feel like a victim of randomness or chance. But if a person has been training their whole life, getting ready their whole life for when you'd encounter that struggle or that challenge, now you're ready and now you don't just feel like a leaf blowing in the wind, you don't just feel like a statistic or a data point, but you realize everything's from Above ella adaraba יבין שהקדוש ברוך הוא אביו שבשמים you have to know that Hashem is our tateh in heaven, He's our Father in heaven הוביל אותו למקום זה ועושה הכל לטובתו He has brought us to this place and He's done everything for our good וכל מה שעשה היה מחמת דאגתו עליו and everything He does is for our own good, it's for our benefit. When the storm looks like it's heading to our simcha or the power goes out, when a person, I know somebody that recently was supposed to be or scheduled or thought that they had signed a contract to buy a house and it fell through and they were devastated and it's very devastating, it's depressing and it's upsetting when you envision a certain reality, you envisioned the simcha, you envisioned your life, you envisioned things flowing a certain way, you envisioned moving into that home or having that job or marrying that person or having that amount of children and things don't work out that way. But nevertheless a person has to know it's my Father, and my Father would never do anything to harm me or hurt me, and even when it feels painful it doesn't mean it's bad. There are painful things that happen to good people, there are not bad things because by definition from Hashem it's all good, and that's why we wish each other a shana tova u'mesuka. We don't say have a just a good year because by definition it's all good, it comes from Hashem, we hope and we wish and we pray and we bless one another that that which is good should also be metuka, it should also be sweet. But it's all from Hashem. וכל מה שעשה היה מחמת דאגתו עליו everything He's done is for our good, is for our benefit. Oto Abba that Father מנסה להושיט לו כל רגע יד He's constantly trying to put out His hand for us to grab it, take hold of it ulechaltzo mehatzara and to pull us out of whatever struggle, to pull us out, to lift us up from whatever we're going through. הביטחון הוא המחבר והמדביק את האדם לבוראו so bitachon trust and faith is that glue that attaches us to God, that enables us to cling to Him, that reminds us that we're never alone. As we said last week, it is so painful, so painful that the harshest punishment in the penal system is to put someone in solitary confinement. You want to really make somebody feel pain, make them feel alone. Eicha yashva vadad and the opposite's also true. If you want to provide comfort and consolation and strengthen someone, then make them feel they're not alone. Reach out, send a text, drop off a soup, call, check in, be a presence in the person's life and it gives strength, it awakens, it makes them feel alive. It's the greatest source of pain, loneliness, and it's the greatest source of comfort, companionship. And hakadosh baruch hu's presence in our life is to make us know and feel we are never ever ever alone ever. I don't remember who told me this story, a rabbinic colleague and friend of mine, I don't remember which one, I apologize, of an older woman who had corona and had to isolate for fourteen days and fourteen days of course was davening from the bottom of her heart that Symptoms not develop that were dangerous and that the Corona would not evolve or develop into something which was life-threatening. And 14 days with the door closed where meals were left outside that door. No companionship, no conversation, no visitor, no presence of anyone else, 14 days of complete and utter isolation. And when it ended, and thank God she's healthy and she came out, and was asked by someone how she's doing, she said and described, she said, you know, 14 days, it was me, my Tehillim and Hashem. For 14 days, there was nowhere to go and nothing to do, and no FOMO, nothing to fear of missing out on, and no one to be with, and nothing to accomplish and no tasks to achieve. For 14 days, it was me, my Tehillim and Hashem and she said, now looking back, I wouldn't exchange it for anything. Those 14 days of feeling that I wasn't alone, that I had companionship, that you can never be isolated or quarantined from Hashem, that no mask could be a barrier between you and Hashem. She said what I felt and what I achieved in that closeness and that reliance and that dependence and that feeling of His presence in my life, looking back she said, 14 days, me, my Tehillim and Hashem, and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Now we don't wish that isolation, we don't wish anyone to have to test it or discover that in that way, but my dearest friends, we all have that possibility. We have that ability. That is what bitachon is. Bitachon is that even when you're in the crowded room and you're about to get up to speak and you're nervous and you feel whatever this, that, or the other, what if I flop, what if I fail, what if something happens and I have to run out of the room, and you say you know there's no what ifs because I'll never be alone. Hashem is going through, He has got those concerns and He's going to lift me and He'll be here all along at the same time. Whatever you're going through in your life, from the highest high and the greatest joy, to the lowest low and the biggest struggle, you are never ever alone. And if you have to reduce the definition of bitachon to its core and if you have to identify what is it we're working on and why do we get together every week? What we're working on is to develop and cultivate that sense within ourselves that we are not alone. There is no such thing as a Jew being in bidud. Yes, you're in bidud, my children went back to Israel, got out of bidud this week, and boy did they break free. What a joy it is to go out and get that ice cafe and get out and feel like you're re-entering the world. What a gift, what a gift. And while legally and technically and medically we have that term called bidud, quarantine and isolation, but hashkafically, in our thought and in our philosophy and in our reality, a Jew is never in bidud, ever. A Jew is never alone, no matter what and no matter when and no matter where. There is no solitary confinement for a Jew because He is always with us. Talk to Him. What it takes to get an audience with people in high positions of power, but Hashem all it takes is moving your lips and you have an audience with Him. And even without moving your lips, even in your own mind or your heart, talk to Him, talk to Him. We don't not only not reject or fear aloneness because Hashem is with us, to a certain degree we cherish it and we crave it and we manufacture it and we take advantage of it. We have something called hisbodedus where you go into a place of being alone with Hashem, where there is no noise and there are no distractions and there are no inhibitions and you're not worried about what you look like or what people will think or how you appear in that room. You're in hisbodedus. You're by yourself just you and Him. You're talking out loud, not as if He's in the room, you're talking out loud because He's in the room. Tell Him everything. Okay, Hashem, here's what's on tap today, here's what we have to do, help me with this, I'm concerned about that, what do you think I should do with this, here's my struggle with that. Talk out loud to the point that if someone saw you they'd think you were crazy, but you and I know that you're not crazy because you're not really alone and you're not talking to yourself, you're talking to Him. Put differently, this is our mission. You know, we read in Eicha, שפכי כמים לבך השם I want to pour out my heart to you, nochach pnei Hashem. That word nochach means opposite. Nochach means in the presence of. Nochach means facing. Nochach means you're here. We're out for lunch, we're out for coffee, we're on a walk, we're on the phone, we're FaceTiming, you're nochach me, you're opposite me, you're present here. And that is our mission, that is our mandate. That's what Torah, that's what mitzvos, that's what Judaism is about, that's what we're trying to achieve and it's how we're trying to live, that You Hashem, You're nochach, that I am nochach pnei Hashem. And that's included, we learned recently the Bilvavi, the author of Bilvavi Rav Schwartz says, that's what's implicit every bracha we make, Baruch Atah Hashem. That word Atah is lashon nochach. He's got a lot on His mind, He's trying to deal with a global pandemic. Wherever He is, I'm blessing Him. I'm not blessing God like He's some third party, I don't know where He is, He's out of the room. I don't, wherever He is, He should be blessed. No, Baruch Ata Hashem. Wherever I'm making those hundred brachot, wherever I'm having my coffee, or whatever bathroom I just came out of, or wherever I'm washing for that sandwich, or wherever I'm davening, or whatever bracha I'm making on my tfillin, on my candles, on my shofar, on my lulav, whatever of the hundred brachot I'm making, I make it lashon nochach, Baruch Ata. You're here! I'm blessing You, You're right here! You are here! I give a bracha Friday night to my children, it's the minhag I have from my father, from my parents. And my father, since we're young, has given us brachot when we're home, and in absentia he's given us brachot when we're away. In our year in Israel, in those days, I spoke to my parents once every two weeks. In those days, I'm not archaic, I'm not a dinosaur, I'm not a dinosaur, but in those days, 92 to 94, there were payphones in Kerem B'Yavneh and asimonim, and you'd call, put in an asimon, call, they'd return the call right back to that payphone, and it was extraordinarily expensive and you talked for five minutes once every two weeks. Once every two weeks. Meanwhile, someone bemoaned to me last week that their child's leaving to Israel, they're going to miss them, they're not going to see them, what's it going to be? And I said, my experience is, I spoke to my children, I saw my children on FaceTime ten times more when they went to Israel for the year than when they lived in my home as teenagers. When they lived in my home as teenagers, I needed a search party to find them in their room, under their blankets, under their pillows. I don't know where they, for four years I never saw or heard from them. The day they left to Israel, FaceTime 400 times a day. When I was in Israel, once every two weeks I saw my parents. So my father would give a bracha to me, my siblings, when we weren't home. Friday night, he'd close his eyes, he'd think about us, and he'd give us a bracha. I try to give a bracha to my children wherever they are in the world on FaceTime if they're not going to be home, and of course at home on Friday nights. And if I didn't get that chance, then I, like my father, close my eyes and think about them. So if the person's not in the room, you're giving them a bracha wherever they are. When they're right in front of you, and my kids will be embarrassed I'm saying this, but I still make them sit on my lap and give them a bracha, and I will, even the one who's a mother has to sit on my lap to get her bracha. When they're right there, I give them a bracha. You're blessed, here are my wishes, my dreams, my aspirations, here's what a wonderful week we had and you are blessed. And when they're not in the room, I'm talking about them, may they be blessed wherever they are, wherever they are. Every bracha we say to Hashem is not a bracha about Him wherever He is. We don't have to talk to Him once every two weeks. Every bracha is lashon nochach, Baruch Ata Hashem. Blessed are You, You! You're right here! You're right here! You're going to be watching whatever I'm watching, You're eavesdropping this conversation whatever I'm having, You're going to be informing or guiding whatever decision I'm making, You're watching how I'm filling out my income taxes, You're watching what I choose to wear and how I'm getting dressed, You're choosing whether I'm going to be on time or whether I'm running late. And You're also there for me when I'm down and depressed and anxious, when I hang up that phone and feel so frustrated and want to strangle the person on the other end, You're there for me to be a shoulder to cry on, You put Your hand on my around me and make me feel good, You lift my spirits and You make me feel I'm not alone. That is our job. Nochach pnei Hashem. שפכי כמים לבך נכח פני ה' to live our lives and to feel nochach pnei Hashem, that we're opposite Him, that He's here, that He's in that room, that we're not alone and we're not victims of chance and we're not victims of randomness. That is, that is the language of Amalek. That's this week's parsha. The end of this week's parsha, Ki Teitzei, is זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק, remember what Amalek did, asher karcha baderech. What is asher karcha? Rashi quotes three interpretations. One is asher karcha comes from the language of kor, cold. You know what they did, Amalek? You know what they did? You come out of the living with emuna shiur and you're on fire. There's Hashem and I love Him and He's involved in my life and I'm on fire! And then you run into somebody who says, oh please, oh you listen to Goldberg again? Who says there's a God and you can't even prove it, there's no evidence, and why would He make bad things happen? And that whole, some cynical, sarcastic, hardened person, angry person, egomaniac person, pours cold water on your fire. They pour cold water on your fire. Teenagers have that expression, I will not use the version that they have, but it says, why are you pouring cold water on my fire? When they get excited about something and you start to ask questions or maybe it won't work out or are you sure that's the best idea, they say, and I'm paraphrasing, why are you pouring cold water on my fire? Why are you pouring... that was Amalek. We were on fire, we walked away from Har Sinai, there's a God and there's a purpose and there's a meaning and we're here to repair the world and we're going to live our best lives. Isn't Hashem amazing? Isn't the world amazing? Everything's on fire! And they poured cold water on our fire. extinguished, they absolutely cooled us off, they cooled us off. And the second interpretation Rashi says is Asher korcha comes milashon mikreh, happenstance, chance. We said, you know, I'm not bent out of shape, I'm not worried, I'm not anxious, I'm not angry, I'm not nervous because everything's from Hashem. Whatever happens, whatever is, whatever will be, will be, it's all from Hashem, it's all for a reason and they said, really? Are you sure? Because I think it's random. I think it's chance. I don't think there's a God, I think that there's science and data and statistics and there's chance and there's randomness and you are a victim of randomness. Maybe that's how they poured the cold water on our fire by giving us that doubt. You know, Amalek is gematria safek, Amalek is the same numerical value as doubt because Amalek introduced doubt. What is bitachon? It's certainty. We've talked all about that for the last several months that bitachon is certainty. I walk into every situation and I'm certain it will work out. How can I be so certain? Because Hashem. However it works out is the way it was meant to be. So you know what a great and comforting feeling that is to walk into every situation and every scenario with certainty. I know it will work out. How could I know that? I don't have a crystal ball, am I so arrogant? No, I know it will all work out because however Hashem makes it work out is how it was meant to be. So people with bitachon, with faith, live with certainty. Amalek is gematria, Amalek introduces doubt. You're so sure? Are you so sure? Isn't it possible? Maybe? A little just a shtickel doubt, they put in a little bit doubt, they pour cold water on our fire, a little doubt. Who says there's a God? Are you so sure it's meant to work out that way? And why are you so happy? And how do you know it will be? And how do you know you'll have that strength? So within our own selves we have that voice of Amalek and our obligation, this week's parsha, remember what Amalek did and eliminate, wipe them out, mecho timcheh, eliminate, erase them. Get that voice out of your head. Get that voice of insignificance and of being inconsequential and of feeling invisible, of wondering if there's a purpose and a meaning, of wondering if there's a God. Get it out of your head, that feeling of loneliness, of being in bidud, and realize that you're nochach pnei Hashem, you're never alone. You're never ever alone. Talk to him. Talk to him on your walk or on your drive, talk to him in your kitchen, talk to him in your boardroom, talk to him in your bedroom, talk to him, talk to him, unburden yourself on him, thank him, feel his love and support. That is our mission, that is our mandate, that is what bitachon is about. החיבור האישי של יהודי לאביו שבשמים לא יסולא בפז. אין כמוהו לסדר החיים בכל התמודדות שהיא ליצור תשתית של רוגע בסיסי ואמיתי היונק את כוחו מביטחון. הרגשה שלו לאדם טוב בגלל שהבורא כל יכול וגם רוצה להיטיב עמו. Is there anything that's more validating, more comforting, more supportive, more strengthening than knowing that God's got my back, that he's with me wherever I go, that I'll give it my best effort, I'll take my initiative, I'll do everything I can, but at the end of the day my father is with me. And he quotes here the Meshech Chochma, Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk. The Meshech Chochma writes וזה עניין הביטחון נקרא ובו תדבק. Bitachon is characterized or captured as u'vo tidbak, attach yourself to God. We've shared this Meshech Chochma many times. Tidbak, dveykus, at the root of that word is devek. Devek means glue. Glue yourself to him. Glue. שכיון שיצר האדם שהוא דבוק להשגחה העליונה מהשם יתברך ומרגיש השם יתברך בענייניו יותר ממה שמרגיש האדם בעצמו ורוצה בהצלחת האדם יותר ממה שחפץ לבב האדם בעצמו. God is rooting for us and cheering us on and wants for us even more than we do. Can you imagine that? Do you believe that? You can understand that, those who have been blessed to be parents and those who want to be blessed, I bless you that you should know that experience of being parents and grandparents. But those who are blessed to be parents know and feel sometimes that we want it even more badly than our children do. We want their success and we want their happiness and we want that outcome even more than they do. Avinu shebashamayim, our father in heaven, Hashem wants it for us. He's attached to us, devek, dveykus, u'vo tidbak. Hashem is attached to us. And our journey is his journey, and our destination is his destination, our success his success, and our failure his failure. He is along for this ride. He is with us and he wants it even more than we do. הביטחון אינו משמש רק כמקלט בעת צרה אלא נחשב לתכלית בפני עצמו. Bitachon is not a place that you go in a time of danger or fear or crisis. It's not a tower that you hide in or find refuge in in a time of crisis. It's not that I live my life like God, I'm good, hope you're well, I'll be in touch with you a couple times a year, I'd I got it covered, it's all good, you all know the great story of the individual who has that job interview and needs the parking space and is circling and circling and is going to be late and says to God help me find a parking space and I'll never speak Lashon Hara, be on time in Shul, I'll concentrate in Davening, I'll say 100 Brachos a day, I'll Kasher my kitchen, whatever the deal, whatever the conditions, we've all been there, we've all done that. And the next time he circles right in front of the building where he has his job interview, Punkt, right then a spot opens. And the man stops and looks up and he says never mind God I found one. And you all know I've said that story many times but is it not how we live our lives? Never mind God I got it, I'm good, I have my health and I have my income and I have my family and I have my life and you I didn't even know you were here, I forgot that you're here, I haven't reached out 100 times a day, I haven't responded to that bid for connection 100 times a day, I haven't reminded myself that I'm not alone 100 times a day. We think we've got it covered. So he points out this author of the Chovos HaLevavos that Bitachon is not a place that you go to in crisis. You go to the doctor when you're sick, you go to the lawyer when you have legal problems, you go to the accountant when you have to file your taxes. You don't go to God when you have a problem. That's not the nature of that relationship. What would your marriage look like if the only time you spoke to your spouse was by the way don't forget to do the shopping, to take out the garbage, to renew the passports, to pay the bills. When we have something to talk about, when there's an agenda, that's when we spend time, that's when we talk. There are marriages like that and they're called dysfunctional ones, they're very unhealthy when they are a business relationship and the only communication and the only time spent is when it's a collaboration to take care of things then that's not a relationship, that's not a relationship. Relationships need time, they need communication, they need a person to confide, make themselves vulnerable, they need to be present, to feel present, to feel love, unconditional love at times. That's a relationship. And the same is true with Hashem. Bitachon is not the place you go to when you need him. It's not the doctor, the lawyer, the accountant. It's not the person who's going to bail you out. Hashem is that relationship like a spouse, like the one that you love who you want to get away with on vacation, who you crave spending time with, who when their name comes up on the caller ID your heart still skips a beat even 23 years into marriage. That when they walk in that room you're so excited to see them and when you have a date night coming up you're counting down to it. That's the relationship with Hashem that I'm never alone, I can't wait for that conversation, that camaraderie, that companionship, that time, that we're always together. He's not the place I go in crisis as part of my checklist to be bailed out, he's that place I go and I'm with all the time because I love. דבקות זו מביאה את האדם להישען ולסמוך על הקדוש ברוך הוא לגמרי. Such a Dveikus, a Devek, such a glue, such attaching myself to him makes a person lean on and rely on Hashem entirely בגלל הידיעה הגמורה שהוא יתברך קרוב אלינו with the absolute knowledge and certainty, the opposite of Amalek, that he's here, that he's Nochach, that he's equal and opposite me, Mashgiach aleinu, that he's aware of and his providence is involved in guiding my life. מטפל בנו על כל צד ושעל, he is involved with every step that we take. ודואג לכל צרכינו קטנים כגדולים, and he worries and he cares about every detail of our life, from the large and the big, the most significant and consequential, to the small and the insignificant and the things that we wouldn't even want to bother him with. There is nothing too small or too big for Hashem. Is there anything too small for us to care about our children? Is there anything too insignificant? We are his children. He cares, he loves, he knows, he is here with us whenever we let him in. That's the great Kotzker. Where can Hashem be found? We spoke about it, it's not Uncle Moishy, he's here, there and everywhere. That's also true. Machlokes Uncle Moishy and the Kotzker Rebbe. It's also true he's here, there and everywhere, it's true. But the Kotzker was asked where can God be found and he said wherever you let him in. And that's true. If you don't let him in, if you don't ever talk to him, confide in him, lean on him, protest him, thank him, then he's not there. Of course he's there as the omnipotent, infinite, all-powerful God, but he's not there in the sense that you have a relationship with him there. To be really there, to be there with an active relationship, to be there in a real relationship, that there is only when you let him in. Let's let him in, let's invite him in, let's want to be with him in that presence. 100 times a day let's remind ourselves we are never ever alone. And that sense of aloneness doesn't have to lead to loneliness. There are two very different qualities: aloneness and loneliness. You can be alone physically but not lonely because you're with him. That's called hisbodidus. We'll talk more about it. hisbodidus. How do you achieve that? How do you achieve that? Maybe we'll learn that next. How to really get into that and how to perform that and how to do that. I have a good friend here in our community who as his kabbalah, what he took upon himself for this Elul, is three minutes a day to have a conversation with God. Now, three minutes a day don't laugh at that till you try it because three minutes a day will feel like forever. Try it you'll see thirty seconds the first time you do it feels like forever. I'm not talking about a siddur or Tehillim. I am talking about talking to Him. What we were describing before, things you're grateful for, what's coming up in your day, what you need His help on, what you're asking for Him to give you some wisdom about a decision you have to make. I'm talking about really talking to Him. Really talking to Him. The most authentic conversation I ever heard of someone between them and God was a conversation I overheard, not on purpose. I was at the Kotel many, many years ago before I was married. And there was a Sephardi man right at the spot next to me. I say he was Sephardi, which it could sound gratuitous, but I say it complimentary because I think Sephardim live with that sense of emunah and nochach that Hashem is there even more. And he was talking to God like, you know I went to my grandparents' graves a few years ago and I don't know why I was moved to I got very emotional, I started telling them about everything. I went through each of my children and my life and my job and the community and I just started telling them everything that's gone on in my life and it felt so cathartic and I felt so connected with them and you could do that anywhere you could talk to your loved ones or you can assume they know what's going on anyway or... but talking to someone, it makes you feel connected and attached to them. And that was exactly the way he was speaking to Hashem at the Kotel. This is what's happening with this child and this grandchild and here's what's going on and let me fill you in and a nachas moment and here's where I'm concerned about this one I'm a little bit nervous about Hashem what are we going to do? Can you get involved? I need your help. He was talking not as if God was right there, he was talking like it was a best friend. It was unbelievable. That's what we're all capable of. That's what dveikus, that's what bitachon is about. It's faith and it's trust, it's knowing we're never even if we're alone we're never meant to be lonely. There is no bidud when you live with bitachon. There is no mikreh, nobody pours water on our fire. Be on fire, let Him in and that's where He will im yirtzeh Hashem be found. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy. Tonight nine o'clock we go Behind the Bima with Beatie Deutsch and learn about her fight with the Olympics to be able to compete on Sunday rather than Saturday. Join us there, if you're watching on YouTube please subscribe to our channel. Have a fantastic day.
