Transcript
Good morning and boker tov and welcome back to Living with Emunah. So excited to be together again and to host our Emunah support group each and every week to remind ourselves what matters and who's in charge, who is in control, and what we need to let go. And with that, to draw strength, to draw chizuk to never be jealous or anger, angry or arrogant and to be able to control our emotions because we know that we're just along for the ride. We are passengers and somebody else is really driving us. I want to thank our Emunah sponsors for the series for the year, Dr. Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of her mother, Dr. Ellen Shanzer. Thank you so much for your generosity, thank you so much for your sponsorship. We deeply appreciate and a reminder that any particular class can be sponsored as well. Please be in touch with Lee at BRSonline.org, Lee at BRSonline.org and she will be happy to arrange that sponsorship. Okay, we're going to start a new limud, a new learning which I'm very, very excited about. It's a new sefer that I got and I'm really, really excited to share with you because it's really inspiring to me. Hold on one second, I'm just trying to find the technology end of this. There it is, one second and okay. Yeah, we're good now. The name of the sefer is Beyam Darkecha, Darchei Avoda L'Maaseh. It's a sefer on character growth, a sefer on self-improvement, a sefer on recalibrating the priorities of our lives and who we are and who we want to be. It's in Hebrew, it's not in English. Here is the sefer and the author, it's not an author, it's really a record of the teachings and the inspiration by רב יצחק מאיר מורגנשטרן, otherwise known as רב איטשע מאיר מורגנשטרן, who is a Gerer chasid in Eretz Yisrael. He comes from, I believe he comes from England, but he made aliyah, lives in Eretz Yisrael, he's the Rosh Yeshiva of Toras Chacham in Eretz Yisrael. He's a mekubal and a great talmid chacham and a Gerer chasid with very deep penetrating insight and very elevating and enriching thoughts. And he has a wonderful, wonderful sefer. And it's not the usual book that tells us the path of character growth. It's not the usual qualities that we often hear about, it's some unusual. And so for example, Darchei Ha'avoda. I'll just share with you from the table of contents what he considers to be the path of avoda of self-improvement. He talks about Ahavas Yisrael, how to love all Jews. Achila, how to eat like a Jew. He has a whole perek, a whole chapter on sleep. What does the Torah say about sleep? How do we value sleep? How important is sleep? How much sleep? What role does sleep have in our relationship with Hashem? Kedusha, holiness, simcha, joy, taiva, desire, Torah, tefilla, teshuva, bittul, gaiva. He has a whole series of topics, really, really wonderful. And I don't know that we're going to learn the whole sefer, but he has a perek, he has a chapter on deveikus. He has a chapter on a quality that we've spoken a fair amount about, which is deveikus. How to attach ourselves to Hashem. The root of the word deveikus is devek. Devek means glue. The Meshech Chochma, Rav Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, we've shared many, many times, says that deveikus means stick with God like glue. Stick with God. Stick with him and know that everything is going to be okay. That is the quality, that is the attribute of deveikus. So you don't have the text in front of you, you can buy it online, but I'm going to share it and read it and translate it slowly and hopefully we'll all gain together. Deveikus. המידה שלב כל יהודי משתוקק אליה. This is a quality the heart of every Jew aspires and leans towards. ואבן הפינה לכל העבודה האמיתית. This is the cornerstone of any real effort or desire to draw close to God. Any real effort to be a living, vibrant, enthusiastic, dynamic, animated Jew has to include deveikus. It includes simcha, you have to be joyful, you have to be happy, you have to have a smile, but you also have to cling to God, you have to attach yourself to him. You have to see him and feel him in our lives. והיא היסוד לחיים אמיתיים. This is the foundation of a true life, of really living. There are people who are sleepwalking through life. There are people who are dead even while they are alive. They're asleep even while they are awake. They are numb to their own reality, to their own lives, to their own relationship, to everything that's happening and everything that they're trying to do to others. How does one really achieve life? How do you come to life? How are you alive? Deveikus. Clinging, attaching yourself to God. Feeling his presence all around. Not just stumbling through life, not just trying to figure our way through life, but rather feeling that there is a navigator, that there is a guide, that there is a pilot. Knowing that there is a source, knowing that there is a source of support, knowing that there is a place of accountability. Feeling Hashem's presence each and every day in our lives. and knowing that we are accountable to him and attaching ourselves, not just that he's a policeman or a supervisor, not just that we're being trailed or followed, not that he is surveying us, but rather he's not policing us, dveikus. He is there as an extraordinary source of support for us. Just attach ourselves to him. Stick with him. That is the source, the core to really living. And he writes here in the footnote on those words, היא היסוד לחיים אמיתיים. This is the foundation of what it means to truly be alive. He says the following: ישנו ענין הכואב להרבה בני עליה. You know, there's something which is very frustrating and it's difficult to bnei aliya. What are bnei aliya? Bnei aliya means the community of people who are striving to be better. Now you'll say, who doesn't want to be better? And the answer is most people. Just look around. Most people in life are complacent, they're apathetic, they're indifferent. They're happy-go-lucky, they're satisfied with who they are and what their lives are about. They're simply being carried by the momentum of life. Each and every day the day ends, they don't even remember its beginning, and the week blends into the months blends into the years, and you can fast forward several years and most people, their marriage is what their marriage is and professionally they're stuck wherever they're stuck and in their spirituality or in how they take care of themselves, it is what it is, they are who they are and most people things don't change, they don't grow or improve, they're simply a traction, a momentum that carries them through life. To be among the bnei aliya, to be counted among a community of people who are striving, who are ambitious, who are aspirational, who have set goals and are seeking to achieve them, who've made resolutions and have metrics to measure how well they're doing with them, they're very, very few. In fact, the Gemara quotes that one of our great Tannaim, one of our great rabbis, turned to his son and he said, there are no bnei aliya and if there are, you and I are the only ones among them. There are very few bnei aliya to really be striving to grow. Says Rav Itche Meir, it's very frustrating if you're among that community of people who are thoughtful and mindful, who say you know what, I want to grow in my patience and I want to grow in enriching my relationships and I want to grow professionally in my career and I want to grow in understanding Torah and the parsha and I want to grow in davening really moving me and I want to grow in my relationships with my spouse, with my children, with others around me. That group, that segment, that demographic, that community of bnei aliya, inyan koev, there's something that frustrates them. And what is it? שמרגישים שאף בלימוד ובבתפילה זכו והרגישו קרבת אלקים, that even when I'm sitting and learning or even when I'm davening I feel the presence of the Almighty, I feel that he's over my shoulder, I feel that he's in the room, I feel that he's on the other side of the chavrusa, I feel that he's listening in my davening. וטעמו ממתקות התורה ועבודה, and even if during a davening, even if there's an amazing chazzan and you're listening to beautiful tefillah and the song and the melody is moving you and you're clapping and it's amazing and you're being lifted, or you learn something that touches you in a very deep place in a very deep way, mikol makom acharkach, however for many people afterwards, כאשר הם צריכים לעסוק בעניני העולם. What happens? You gotta close the sefer. You close the siddur. You leave the shul, the beis medrash, and you have to enter a world of inyanei olam. The world of inyanei olam is work, I have to go shopping, I have to cook, I have to change diapers, I have to drive carpool, I have to review documents, I have to pay bills, I have to take out the garbage. Inyanei olam. Where is God on garbage day? Where is God in the supermarket? Where is God reviewing and filing papers? Where is God in the inyanei olam? הם מרגישים נפילה גדולה מהרוממות הרוחנית שהיתה להם ואינם יודעים לעשות. So even among the bnei aliya, and my dearest friends, I have to include you, if you're watching this right now and if you're part of our living with emuna each and every week, then hopefully you're among, we are among the bnei aliya. We're not complacent, we're not apathetic, we're not indifferent, but we are regularly striving to improve, to become better. We are among the bnei aliya. And I identify with what he describes. In the shiur, in the davening, at the kumzitz, in the hisbodedus, wow, transformed, feel the presence of Hashem, alive, excited, awake. And then you go to life and you forget he's in the room and you forget he's in our lives and we forget his role, that we lean on him and turn to him and that he's responsible and deserves the credit. We can so easily forget and we're brought down and we can grow depressed or despondent. Tzarikh lada'at, says Rav Itche Meir, you have to know, שעבודת הדביקות היא העצה היחידה להצליח שלא ליפול, that the answer and the antidote is this quality that we're going to spend the next few weeks, maybe longer, learning, discussing, and most importantly, practicing and putting into. into practice, dveikus. If we want to bring him with us, then we've got to attach ourselves to him, devek, glue. You know, if something gets stuck to the bottom of your foot, then it's not only with you in that room, but when you walk - this is the worst analogy ever, just thought of on the spot - but when you walk out of the room, it follows you out till someone tells you you have something stuck on the bottom of your foot and you look like an idiot. Lehavdil, in great contrast, and completing this worst metaphor of all time, if when we're in the room with Hashem, we make the effort to stick to him, we apply some glue, we staple ourselves to him, then when we walk out of that room and we go to the supermarket, the gym, when we go to work, when we go to drive carpool, when we go to the inyanei ha'olam, when we go to take the garbage to the edge of the driveway, when we go to do whatever we're going to do that is not among the spiritual lofty but is among the mundane, but if we bothered when we were with him to attach ourselves, to glue ourselves, to staple ourselves, then he comes with us. And therefore it is the most important part of the formula, the antidote. This is the most important quality, says Rav Itche Meyer, to be able to not feel the drop and to not feel that down and to not feel that when we walk out of the room where God was there, now we're at work, now we're at home, now we're choosing what to watch, now we're choosing what to entertain ourselves with, and there's no more spirituality, no more loftiness, no more God, and that neshamah, the soulfulness, no longer feels alive. We've developed through the years, and we all know this to be true, it's the foundation of our Judaism, that we're made up of two parts simultaneously. It was last week's parsha, Bereishis, it's part of the creation, the beginning of the whole Torah. We are on the one hand human beings, we're animals, we're physical beings, we're material beings. Like animals, we have instinct, and like animals we have intuition, and like animals we have desire and appetite and temptation. And animals have no self-control. An animal wants to eat, it doesn't care whether it belongs to that animal or someone else. An animal wants intimacy, an animal wants to defecate. Whatever physical impulse the animal feels, the animal gives into that impulse at that moment because that's what it means to be an animal. To eat like an animal, to live like an animal, to be in a pigsty, it's what it means to be an animal. But we were endowed also with a tzelem Elokim, חלק אלוה ממעל ממש. We also were endowed, God says, I've breathed a power of discipline, of sovereignty, of self-control. I've given you the ability to not only have a self-awareness, but I've given you the ability to regulate yourself. I've given you the ability to not give into that pull of impulse, of compulsiveness, of indulgence, of appetite. You have the ability to be discerning and disciplined and say what's good for me, what's bad for me, what right now, what at a later time, what with this person and nobody else, to apply and satisfy all those appetites but in the appropriate place with the appropriate person at the appropriate time. So we have a body, a guf, and we also have a neshamah. And which is the real us? So many or most of us are used to saying, I'm a body and I have a soul. But it's really the opposite. I am a soul that happens to be housed in this body, and it's housed in this body for a finite period of time. And we confuse who we are because what we look in the mirror, who we pamper, who we feed, who we experience pleasure with, we think that's us. But that body is temporary. That body is finite. That body is only housing the soul as an instrument and vehicle for the soul to make choices. So what makes our soul feel alive? When is the last time that you were in touch with your soul? How do you measure the health of your soul? Your body, you know how to measure. You get on the scale - you may not like what it tells you right after Yom Tov - but if you get on the scale, it tells you how you're doing. If you get your blood pressure or take your A1C and you know what your sugars are or your cholesterol, you know how you're doing. We have metrics and measures to physically know how we are doing and try to regulate ourselves, exercise, eating, and if necessary, medications in order to take care of and protect our physical well-being, our physical bodies. But what do you use to measure your soul? How is your soul? How is your soul? When you see a friend or you talk on the phone or you connect with someone, you say, how are you doing? What are you talking about? How is your body? What's your blood pressure? What's your cholesterol? What's your A1C? How's your pulse rate? Are you asking how is your body, or how is your soul? And the soul is not just the heart, it's not just the realm of emotions and relationships. The soul is something so much deeper. The soul is the piece of God in us. The soul is that place that we know that is immortal, that existed since the beginning of creation, the beginning of time, and that will exist forever and ultimately will be extracted from the body, will ascend back on high and will reconnect to God. So what are the things that nourish that soul? You know when the soul feels alive, have you ever witnessed a magnificent sunset, been present at the birth of a child? This is a woman's shiur, so if you were at the birth of a child... Have you ever seen something that seemed coincidental or miraculous and came together into being? Have you been to the Swiss Alps, the Grand Canyon, or to Glacier National Park, or I’m happy to say Yocheved and I will be leading a trip this summer to Jackson Hole, Wyoming? Hopefully you can join us. And you felt something, have you been at a kumzitz, or have you davened neilah, have you heard a shiur that touched you in such a deep place and made you feel so alive? There’s something so much bigger than us and there’s something that is so much more lasting than us. Then that is the soul, that is the soul that is the essence and the truth of who we are. Now how do you nourish that? How do you feed that? How do you make sure that that stays well and alive? And the answer is this deveikus. That soul, to be soulful, and to know that we are neshama and we have a body. And even when I’m taking out the garbage, it’s because my body produced garbage and the garbage needs to be collected and disposed of, and my body has this task, but even in this task my soul is present, and my soul is guiding. Cause you know my body said by the way sleep in. There's enough time in the morning you’ll take the garbage out before they get here to collect. And my soul says you lazy oisvarf good for nothing bum, get out of bed even though you forgot to take the garbage out on a Sunday night or Wednesday night, it’s really not my soul it’s usually Yocheved's soul that’s telling my body to do this, but get out of bed you good for nothing bum and drag the garbage to the edge of the driveway because you don’t know when they sometimes come early and we’re not going to be stuck with the garbage not being collected. And now the soul has a choice. Will it give into the laziness of the body, the lethargy of the body, or will the soul say you know what, I’m greater, I’m stronger, I’m disciplined, I’m jumping out of bed because I’m in control, I’m sovereign, I determine my own destiny, even on something as mundane as taking out the garbage, which is because of the physical need that I have. So in every which way, with every morsel of food that we eat, with what time and how we jump out of bed, with our punctuality and attitude towards time, and whether we’re being disciplined when we take the garbage to the edge of the curb, it is our soul competing with our body. And what nourishes the soul and how do we experience the pleasures of being alive of the soul being alive even when we’re not in a soulful environment, namely the siddur open or neilah or the Grand Canyon or the sunset or the birth of a child or the learning of Torah. So the answer is we have to know that we are a soul that has a body even when we are in the place of inyanei ha'olam even at the supermarket in the gym and at work and in carpool and in changing a diaper. And how do we do that? Deveikus. When we attach ourselves to Hashem which is the power source of the soul. The soul needs to plug in and draw power from somewhere, and where do we draw it from? The source of the soul which is Hakadosh Baruch Hu, which is the Almighty himself. So we draw that power when we plug in and we remain plugged in all day and everywhere we go when we practice deveikus. So he writes, we're just concluding this footnote, כאשר זוכים לדביקות אמיתית when a person achieves genuine, authentic, sincere, true deveikus, וחיים את מציאות השם יתברך אזי מרגישים את חיותו גם בתוך הגשמיות ואין זמן שבו נפרד ממנו. You see, if you really achieve deveikus, your life is not bifurcated. Your life is not divided between the physical and the spiritual, the holy and the mundane. Our lives are not bifurcated between who I am and how I behave in shul and in a beis medrash or at my Shabbos table and how I behave at the gym and at work and in other environments. My life is not divided or bifurcated, my life is integrated. My life is whole, my life is one, because Hashem is there, I'm attached to him, I'm clinging to him, I'm stuck to him, I'm stapled to him. He’s there holding me accountable and he’s there giving me love, encouragement, support all day and everywhere. כי דביקות היא עיקר פנימיות ומהות הנשמה היהודית. Deveikus is the ikar pnimiyus it’s the essence, the core of who we are, the neshama of Judaism, שנזכה להיות שייכים להשם יתברך to live with a connection to God ונהיה מחוברים עמו בקשר פנימי עמוק and to be attached to him with such a powerful and deep, deep connection עד שנרגיש את השם יתברך איתנו בכל דבר to where we feel the presence of Hashem in every way ונרצה רק אותו ואת קרבתו always all we want is him, all we want is to come close to him, all we want is to share with him, all we want is to experience with him, ונזכה להרגיש באמת בנים אתם להשם אלוהיכם and to experience the knowledge that we are children of Hashem. Now I want to make a better metaphor, let’s not talk about the toilet paper stuck to the bottom of your shoe, let’s come with a little bit of a better of a metaphor, not even of a parent and a child but what speaks very much to me is the metaphor of a husband and wife, of a romantic loving relationship and marriage. Now I know that not everybody’s married and those who want to be married or remarried I bless you that you should find your zivug, you should find your shidduch, you should be merited to find your spouse. Those that are married and are not experiencing the happiest marriage should be Those that are married and are not experiencing the happiest marriage should be zocheh, should merit to be able to repair and improve. Those who have a great marriage should have a greater marriage, a good marriage should have a greater marriage. So what's the metaphor? Is the following: In a great marriage, in a truly great marriage, you're not just married when you're around your spouse. You're not only married when you're present together. You're not just married when you're in the kitchen preparing for dinner or setting the table or heading to the bedroom. You're not just married when you're in the car on the way to a simcha or on a vacation together, but when you go to work and when you go to the gym and when you're doing the mundane activities, all of a sudden you're a bachelor or a bachelorette, you're all alone. That status and that identity of being married is permanent, is consistent, is constant, it comes with you everywhere that you go, it is part of the core identity of who you are. Now I don't just mean it's part of the core identity of who you are that you need to have fidelity and loyalty, that when you're on the business trip without your spouse, you cannot say I'm a bachelor or bachelorette and God forbid do terrible things that will be damaging. I'm not just talking about how it informs your behavior. But I'm telling you the following: In the most romantic and the most beautiful and the healthiest marriage, it's not just that you know you're married all times and everywhere you go, it's that in the background of how you're living life is always that connection and that love of the other person. And what I mean to say is in the best of marriages, even when you're not together, everything you're experiencing you are remembering so you can share. Everything you're experiencing is being informed and inspired by how your spouse would experience it, what they would say to you about it, the advice they would give you for it, remembering how you're going to tell them about it later. So that even at the gym and the supermarket and even at work and even in carpool and every activity, the love of the connection you have with your spouse even when they're not physically with you, they are metaphysically connected to you. v'hayu l'vasar echad you are one, two halves becoming a whole, and you experience life not only as your half unless you're in the room with the other half, but you experience your entire life with the other half. What you're going to tell them, how you're going to remember everything, how you're going to share it, how you're going to enjoy it, how they will be sad with you or for you, how they will celebrate or be happy in the triumph of your success together with you, how you're going to turn to them for advice and guidance. And the best and the healthiest of marriages, it's not just when you're physically together, but it permeates, it penetrates, it informs, it inspires all the time, all the time, not just when you're together. There's an awareness that you're married all the time. And that which we can achieve in the healthiest marriage and we should all be zocheh to have such a marriage, that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, in that beautiful marriage that we have, we cannot wait to be together again, we cannot wait to share, we cannot wait to be able to confide, we cannot wait to draw strength, we cannot wait to get advice, we cannot wait to experience emotionally intertwined and integrated everything together, two halves becoming a whole, living together as one, not just when we're physically together, but emotionally and metaphysically we are always together. I'm not just married when I'm in the room, I'm married at work and when I'm in the gym and when I'm on the business trip and when I'm traveling even if you're not there, and I can't wait to tell you about it and experience it with you and get your feedback and advice and response to it. And that, that which we describe as the healthiest and best marriage is exactly what deveikus is all about with Hashem. It means that my identity as an eved Hashem, my identity as being in a loving romantic connection with Hashem, my longing for Hashem, my attachment to Hashem, and whichever metaphor works best and whichever works best for you today because it changes on a regular basis. Is my relationship with Hashem as a parent and child, is that as a spouse, is that as a friend, is that as an employer-employee, what is it, is it a king and a servant? We have all of these metaphors and all these paradigms for a relationship with Hashem and whichever one is working best for me and working best for me today is okay. But it means that that metaphor I'm connecting with today, that paradigm I'm tapping into today, is not just when I'm in shul, it's not just when I'm in the beis medrash, it's not just when the chumash or the siddur are open. It's at work and I have an ethical dilemma in business. It's my conduct, it's how I speak, it's how I think, it's where I go, it's what I do, it's in every area and every aspect and every venue of my life. I'm married to Hashem. My core identity as an eved Hashem. I never literally or figuratively take off my yarmulke. I am forever aware of His presence and connected with Him. I can't wait to confide and to share and to tell Him and to draw strength from Him and to get guidance and wisdom from Him. I can't wait to experience it all with Him because it's who I am. He is part of me and I am part of Him and we are incredibly attached together. וכל כך הרבה יהודים שלבם ער שואלים איך זוכים לזה? How do I get to that? Because you know what happens? As soon as I turn on Netflix, I forget that there's God and I forget that I am His servant. just choose what draws my attention to it. And as soon as I go to work and I have to negotiate a business deal, and as soon as I go to the supermarket, or as soon as I have to drive carpool or change a diaper, or drag the garbage to the edge of the curb, I forget He's there. Because it's hard to see God and frankly we're trained to not want to see God in the garbage, or at the diaper station, or sometimes at work. So how do I achieve that? That it's part of my core identity and it defines who I am, and not in some punitive way, in some accountable, restraining, constrictive way, but some liberating way, some enriching way, some elevating way, that I always know He's there and I always know He's with me. How do I get to that? וכמו כן הרבה שכן זוכים להרבה דבקות, רוצים להגביר ולהגדיל אש דבקות, מבקשים את הדרך לזכות לשיויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. And others have achieved it and they are familiar with it and they know what that's like at times, but they want to increase the intensity, they want to turn up the volume, turn up the knob, turn up that feeling which could be true in marriage and it could be true in our marriage with Hashem that I've experienced it and I know it's there at some low level but I want to make it even more bright, even louder taking place in the background. How do I get there? Now understand my dearest friends what's at stake, why this is worthwhile, why we need it and why it's important because you'll say to me, well what's the difference, this dveykus as long as I'm ethical and moral at work and in the supermarket and in life, so God will be waiting for me at Shul, will be waiting for me in the Beis Medrash. What do I need Him in my living room, and my bedroom, and my kitchen, in my car, and on the plane, and in the business trip? Why does He need to be there? So the answer is He's there whether you recognize Him or not, but I'll tell you why you want Him there. Because your life will change radically for the better when you welcome Him there and when you see Him there. And why will it change radically for the better? For all the reasons that we have learned and studied and tried to practice for the last several years. Because you will get less angry. Because you'll realize when you're frustrated that your anger comes from your ego and true, this person or that thing didn't work out the way we drew it up, but so be it. I'm not always in charge and I'm not in control and I can't micromanage everything around me. And hey God, who's standing right next to me when that thing disappointed me, what was the plan and why did that happen and why'd you make it work this way? And here's how I'd like the outcome. Can I turn to you and ask you to do it differently? But I'm not getting bent out of shape, you know why? Because You are my superior, You are omnipotent, infinite, the source of all and there's a reason that it's happening in this way. So I may get frustrated, I may be disappointed, but I'm not going to be angry. When we're tempted to feel envious or jealous of what someone else has or something else going on, so hey God, you know what? I have what I need and You're in this room providing for me and therefore, I'm not going to be angry or envious or jealous of anyone else. We're able to regulate and control our emotions. We're able to not even be tempted or feel those compulsive feelings if we're attached to Hashem, if we have that dveykus. We know He's there. We know He's there, we know He's in charge, we know He's in control, we know everything is for a reason and for a purpose and therefore we're able to avoid those feelings, those feelings that are most negative and those feelings that are most destructive. לזה בנו במאמר זה אולי נזכה לפתוח מעט שער לחיי דבקות. So that's our mission, that's our goal. I'm reading so far by the way, all we've done is the introduction to the chapter on dveykus. רב יצחק מאיר מורגנשטרן, רב איצ'ה מאיר מורגנשטרן in this beautiful, beautiful new sefer that I really recommend, Biyah Darchecha, על דרכי עבודה למעשה. And he says we're going to open the gates a little bit, we just want to open the window a crack to look into a life of what it would mean. What would it mean to be at the copier or the water cooler at work? What would it mean to be online at the supermarket? What would it mean to be working out at the gym? What would it mean to be in my kitchen trying to get breakfast to my kids or getting them in the car to school and what would it mean to always be attached to God? How would that improve my life? How would that, how would that help me with my anxiety and my worry and my fear? How would it help me with my anger and my envy? How would it help me with my not only physical well-being, my spiritual well-being? How would it help me with nourishing my soul? לצעוד אחרי אבותינו ורבותינו to walk and take steps after our matriarchs and patriarchs and teachers שדבקו בו יתברך בכל לבם who attached and clung to God with all their hearts. כמו שאמר אדונינו המלך דוד דבקה נפשי אחריך as King David said my heart desires, my heart clings to you, my soul, davka nafshi, davka nafshi acharecha, my soul clings after you. How would our lives be different if we see Him everywhere and we look for Him everywhere and therefore we keep our calm and cool and we are collected no matter what's happening? Okay, started pouring and we were in the middle of doing X, Y, or Z and we got drenched. That was the way it was meant to be, that's what's supposed to happen, that's how it was supposed to turn out. Vaiter, what's next? Let's keep going on. How would our lives improve and how would it be different? That is what we're going to try to work on together. All we did today was the introduction and one footnote, but we'll pick it up next time. Until then, here's your homework as it is each and every week: to see Hashem everywhere and to cling to Him and to recognize everything is for a reason and to rely on Him not only in the places of holiness but each Monday I did a funeral. 97 percent chance of rain in Miami at the graveside funeral that I did. So I was prepared to get drenched. I was prepared to absolutely get poured on. We've had in the week of Parshas Noach, of course it's going to rain a lot. So we've had terrible mabul. It's been pouring. It rained all the way there and it rained all the way home and for the short time we did the graveside funeral, there was no rain. So I recorded a voice note in our family WhatsApp group, Hashgacha Pratis diary, that Hashem, thank you so much. See, you could see that and chalk that up to a coincidence and chance or you could say Hashem, you're right there with me. You're right there next to me. Do we see Him in our lives in the seeming coincidence and chance? Do we thank Him, do we appreciate Him, do we nourish the relationship with appreciation, which is critical to every healthy relationship? Okay, you know your homework, go and do it. Until then, until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy. Nine o'clock tonight we're going Behind the Bima with Judge Ruchie Freier, a Chasidish woman, the first Chasidic judge, Criminal Court of New York, and the founder of Ezras Nashim, a women's emergency medical service. See it tonight, nine o'clock. Until then, have a fantastic day.
