Transcript
Boker tov and good morning. Welcome back to Living with Emuna, our weekly Wednesday morning group to give one another chizuk, to strengthen one another, to remind ourselves that which should be obvious, and that which we should know by now, namely that there is an Almighty, there is a creator, there is a God, there is a Father in Heaven who loves us, who has expectations of us, and he yearns for a relationship with us, and it's so easy to forget. We need to remind ourselves a hundred times a day. We make a hundred blessings a day in order to remind ourselves and more than once a week Wednesday mornings, but we'll start with Wednesday mornings. I want to thank our generous Emuna sponsors this morning, Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan. Thank you so much for your generous sponsorship in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, whom we still miss desperately, and in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Chanczer. Thank you so much, נשמה שתהא לה עליה. Also this morning's Emuna class is sponsored by Carol Wald in commemoration of the yahrtzeit of her beloved father Benjamin Presner. His נשמה שתהא לו עליה. Thank you for your generosity, thank you for your sponsorship. If you'd like to sponsor a future class of Living with Emuna or any other, please email lee@brsonline.org lee@brsonline.org. Okay, we're jumping right back in. B'Yom Orechecha, the great sefer, teachings of Rav Itche Meir Morgenstern that we've been studying. I don't know that we're worthy or qualified to study, but we've been studying. It's a great platform and it's a framework for us to be able to have discussions about dveikus, what it means to cling to God, to stick with God, to glue ourselves to God, to attach ourselves to God, to know that God has our back. I thank those of you who continue to send me your Emuna emails. I love to hear your stories, they inspire me, and when you give me permission I share them to be able to help inspire others as well. So the last chapter was dveikus, was the notion of defining the possibility of living a life of such mindfulness, living a life of such acute awareness that God is always in the room, He's always looking over our shoulder, He's always lifting our spirits, He's always having expectations of us. We're never ever alone, He's always with us and He's always around us, and to never stop believing. The moment we don't believe we're capable of it, the moment we think that we're isolated or lost or distanced or on our own is when we're in trouble. We have companionship. We're never ever alone. We're always together even when it feels we are that way. So we began last week this second perek about darkei kinyan dveikus, the methodology and the strategy for how to acquire dveikus, how to acquire a life in which we are attaching ourselves to God, in which we feel His presence and it gives us the strength to be able to get through on a regular basis. How do we merit for such a thing? Are we worthy? Because some will say, you know what, I haven't really perfected keeping kosher, Shabbos, I haven't perfected my davening, I haven't perfected my blessings. I'm not always kind to everybody. I struggle with my arrogance and my envy. So who am I to think that I could qualify for a life of dveikus? Am I such a holy roller? I'm going to walk around preaching and talking God all the time? I'm going to invoke God and turn to God and think about God when I haven't even gotten down the basics? Who am I? And Rav Itche Meir encourages us to never ever think that way, to recognize that this is our Father. Does any child say, who am I to be close with my parent? You know after all, I forgot to give them a card, a gift for Chanukah, after all I don't always say good morning, I don't always listen to what they ask me to do, so I guess I shouldn't even try to be close. God forbid, every one of us has the capacity, every one of us has the capability, and every one of us is invited for that opportunity for ourselves, and it's what God our Father in Heaven wants of us. So let's get into it. The first thing he's going to be is darkei, these are the methodology, strategy for how to acquire a life in which we are attaching ourselves to God, in which we feel His presence and it gives us the strength to be able to get through on a regular basis. So the first is obvious, it's Emuna, it's to live with Emuna, which is what our shiur is all about. Living with Emuna, that Emuna is not theoretical, it's not conceptual, Emuna is not in the abstract, Emuna is not academic. Emuna is real, it's who I am and it's how I live and it's what my life is informed and defined by. ובוודאי כל יהודי מאמין בהשם יתברך. Every Jew knows intuitively, intrinsically, we believe that there is a God. We know it, we know it. We studied together the beautiful ma'amar, the beautiful teaching of Rav Elchonon Wasserman, Hashem yikom damo, murdered by the Nazis, in which Rav Elchonon said, how could a Bar Mitzvah child, a girl turns 12, a boy turns 13, and we expect them—one of the commandments is they have to believe in God? I don't understand, he says. Aristotle struggled with evidence of God. Great minds, brilliant people struggled with evidence of God. And here you got this 12 or 13-year-old kid and we say, you must believe. You could tell the 12 or 13-year-old kid, shake a lulav. You could tell them light a menorah. But believe in God, when those much older and much greater than them have struggled? How could it be? How could it be? And he says the answer is, every child knows from conception, from inception, from when they enter the world, every child instinctively and intuitively knows they have that spark inside themselves, not just the pintele Yid, every human being knows that there's a creator, there's a God. In fact, it takes more belief to be an atheist. More faith to reject God than to accept Him. Because if you just look around this world and you see the complexity, if you look around this world and you see how sophisticated, you see the details, the minutiae. If you look around this world and you know that every book has an author and every building has an architect, and every sculpture has a sculptor, then you know that this world also has a creator, namely the Almighty. So kol Yehudi every Jew knows, we know in our kishkas, we know in our heart, and even those who fight it, and even those who claim to reject it, they too know there are just layers of life experiences, layers of disappointment or hurt, layers of people who got in the way for them to be able to fully believe it. ולכן תחילת הדרך להשיג דבקות the first step to achieve a life of cleaving to God, of knowing He's in the room, of attaching ourselves to Him, להגביר ולחזק את האמונה is to work on emunah, is to remind ourselves, investigate the evidence of God's existence. Listen to the voice of God inside us who says hello, I'm here. You see that magnificent day? You see that coincidence of the thing that worked out? You see the blessings in your life? That's me talking to you, says God. I am here, I am here. ושער האמונה הוא כוח הדיבור and the gateway, the entrance into emunah is speech, is speech. What does that mean? Dehainu להתרגל לדבר עם השם יתברך talk to God. Get used to talking to God. ולהשיח לפניו את אשר עובר עליו. One of the words, we have a lot of synonyms for prayer and one of them is sicha. We learn it from Yitzchak ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה, Yitzchak went out to talk to God in the field. So we think about prayer and we think about the prayer book and the liturgy and the chazzan and the environment and all the pomp and circumstance, but the most authentic and the most genuine, the most real form of prayer is simply opening your mouth and talking to God, pouring out your heart. That word ויצא יצחק לשוח בשדה, sicha, that form of prayer which is sicha, sicha means a conversation. The greatest form of prayer with God is just to have a conversation with him. All right, God, here's what's going on in my life. I know you know because you're the omnipotent infinite being, but let me tell you in my own words what's going on in my life. Let me tell you about my family, my hopes, my dreams, my disappointments. Let me tell you my frustrations, let me tell you my great pleasures, and let me tell you my pain. Let me tell you everything that's going on in my, in my life. Let me tell you it's a sicha. Let me tell you what I object to and I protest to, let me tell you what I'm grateful for. Let me talk to you not as if you're right in front of me, but you are right in front of me. I'm having a conversation with you. You know, I got away from this for a little while. I was preaching hisbodedus, I was preaching talking to God three minutes a day, disconnecting, putting your phone on airplane mode, just allowing your mind to clear and to calm and talk to God. I got away from it but last week I did it again and I can't tell you how amazing it was, how invigorating it was, how nourishing it was to that relationship with Hashem. Because you can learn the Daf Yomi and make it to minyan and daven from the siddur and do all the mitzvos and light the Chanukah candles later this week. You could check, check, check, check, check. The relationship is stale. And like any relationship it needs communication and it needs time. You could take out the garbage and cook dinner and pay the bills and you could do everything, bring home flowers and chocolates and write a beautiful card. But if you don't spend time and have a conversation with your spouse, if you're not spending time with your children, if you're not really getting to know and being curious and inquisitive about their lives, if you're not sharing and confiding and making yourself vulnerable, then you're not nourishing a relationship. And so the relationship with Hashem is the same way. It's the same way. So you'll say, well what do I have to tell him about my innermost feelings? What do I have to tell him about my disappointments or my hurt or my greatest joys or my, what do I have to share? He knows. He's God, he's omnipotent, he's perfect, he has access to it all, he already knows it all. So why do I have to share it? And the answer is the experience and the exercise of sharing it is an experience and exercise of confiding, of making ourselves vulnerable, of drawing a bridge and of making a connection. That's what yields the closeness. That is the relationship. So says Rav Itcha Mayer, the pathway, the sha'ar, the gateway into a life of emunah, the gateway into a life of faith is koach hadibbur, is speech, the power of speech. להתרגל לדבר עם השם יתברך start to get used to talking to God. It's a conversation. In the old days people would call you crazy, they'd put you in an institution for that, but we say we put you on a pedestal for that because that's what we're all trying to achieve. Talk to God. In the car, on the drive, in the kitchen while you're cooking, in the, in the, on the treadmill, at the gym, at work, while going for a walk, in whatever context. Talk to God. You know what a beautiful thing about the mask is? The mask mandate or wearing the mask? Nobody knows what you're doing, that your lips are moving. You know, as a religious observant Jew, it was complicated sometimes. Come out of the bathroom, you got to make an Asher Yatzar, but you're in a public place. How do you make that Asher Yatzar without looking like an absolute freak? How do you daven to Hashem or talk to him in a moment without looking like an absolute weirdo? But now you have a mask. Don't call anybody, but it's one of the great gifts that we have. You have to see the silver lining in some of the times that we're living in. So says Reb Yirmiya, the first suggestion, the first step in this formula of how to live a life of greater Dveikus is Emuna. And the first step of Emuna is to talk to God, Sicha, to speak to Him, לספר את כל אשר לבו, tell Him everything that's on your heart, לפרוק לפניו את הלב, unburden yourself, make a crack, you know how the light gets into your heart when you open it up? כמו שמדברים עם קרוב, the same way that you call a friend and you catch up, the same way that you have coffee with someone and you confide, so too with God. וגם לבקש ממנו ולהתחנן לפניו, ask Him for help, ask Him for help. Develop the habit that everything you do, you involve and invoke God. God, I'm putting the kugel in the oven, Hashem, let the kugel come out well. God, I'm cooking up a drasha, God, give me the right words and help me say it in the right way that your words will resonate, that I'll be able to get your message across. God, I'm driving from point A to point B, help me get there without incident, let me not get in an accident or get a ticket, let it all go smoothly and go well. There's no activity that we're doing in life that we can't spend a moment, a brief moment, by introducing it by saying, God, I know that the determination of the success of this is because of you. So let it go well, let it go well. Whatever we have to do. I'm doing my taxes, God, let it go well. I have to write a report, let it go well. I'm applying for a job, I'm going on a date, whatever it is. This is we saw, we studied once, one of the interpretations of what it means, הלוואי שיתפלל אדם כל היום. Wouldn't it be amazing if a person prayed the entire day long? What does it mean pray the entire day long? You got to get to work, you got to cook dinner, you got to drive carpool. How do you pray the whole day long? And the answer is, not in shul and not from the siddur. But wouldn't it be amazing if all day long with every activity we do, we first introduce it with a prayer? May the cake come out well, may the drive be safe and secure, may I not get coronavirus even though I came out from underneath my bed. May I, wherever you go and whatever you do, is there not something worth praying for? May the shiur go well, may the Wi-Fi not break down, may the, there's nothing that we do that wouldn't benefit and wouldn't center us and calibrate our compass by first introducing it with, and Hashem, I know I need your help. And how about the right afterwards? How many of us ask for that help on the way there, but do we pause afterwards and say, wow, the drasha went pretty well, thank you Hashem. The chuppah speech went well, that worked out. That journey, that trip I had to take, I went and I came back and I didn't test positive and I did everything I could, but thank you for that. How many times after the fact do we pause to say thank you to Him? So conversation, regular conversation. ובכלל זה לספר לשם יתברך על כיסופיו להידבק בו וכל מה שעובר עליו בדרכי העבודה וגם להתפלל לבקש מהשם יתברך שיפתח לו את השער להיכנס ולהתקרב אליו לעבוד עבודה פנימית בכל הלב. Part of the davening and part of the speaking to God is God, please help it become easier to speak to you. Please let it flow more naturally. Please let me remember more instinctively to talk to you. You can daven, it sounds paradoxical, you can daven for Emuna, you can daven to talk to God. So the koach hadibbur, this power that we have of speech, speech creates reality. That's why it's the same word. Ledabeir is to speak and davar is a thing. Our speech creates things. Not just speech recognition, speech recognition which we know in our generation more than any other because we talk into our phone or we talk to our car or we tell an oven what to do and it does it. So we can identify with the notion of speech recognition, that Hashem spoke ten times and He created the world. No generation before ours understood what that meant. God spoke and it created? What does that even mean? But our generation is beginning to understand it, and I'm sure the next generation will understand it even further. The idea that, right, it's not far off that you'll be able to tell your car, take me home, and the next thing you know you'll sit back and read a book, yachap a shluf, and you'll end up in your driveway. Speech recognition. So Dibbur creates a davar, speech creates things. And the same is true in terms of our feelings. The same is true in terms of our attitudes. When we speak, we create that reality. You want to feel love for your spouse, tell them often that you love them. If you're held back and you're not emotive and you don't share how you feel, it's going to be hard to feel connect that reality. But when you say I love you, and I'm not saying that you should say things that you don't feel, but you don't need to feel it entirely in that moment, but you say I love you and the love follows. The speech creates the reality. Confide in someone and you draw a connection with them. Make yourself vulnerable to them or accept their vulnerability to you and you'll feel a connection. So says Reb Yirmiya, the first step is Dibbur, is the power of speech. וככל שהאדם מתרגל לדבר עם השם יתברך אזי מציאות השם יתברך נעשית יותר ויותר מוחשית. itself. The more you speak to God, the more He will feel palpable, the more He'll feel tangible, the more that you will see Him all over the place. In every activity you do, you begin to introduce with Hashem please help me, and Hashem thank you afterwards when it went well, you'll start to see Him everywhere. You'll see Him in the parking spot you got. You'll see Him in the light turning green when you needed it. You'll see Him in feeling healthy when you weren't sure if a cold was coming on. You'll see Him in the new business deal that you closed. You'll see Him in the food that turned out to be delicious. You'll see Him everywhere because you're looking for Him, because you're talking to Him, because you're asking Him, and because you're thanking Him. And our studying this davka this parsha, Parshas Vayeishev, could not come at a better time because the parsha tells us, the parsha tells us that who was the paradigm, who was the role model for this, none other than Yosef HaTzadik, Joseph. Pasuk says ויהי ה' את יוסף ויהי איש מצליח. God was with Joseph and he was a successful person. Now, what does it mean to be successful? A nice car, a big house, a lot of friends and followers online, how do you define success? So in this context we say, you know what success is? Dveikus. When you cling to God and when it brings you the calm and the serenity and the emotional, spiritual, physical balance, well-being, and health, then you're living a successful, balanced life. So it describes how did Yosef achieve that success? What does it mean he achieved that success? ויהי ה' את יוסף, because God was with Yosef. Why was God with Yosef? Listen to Rashi. Rashi on the parsha says, you know what it means ki Hashem ito that God was with him? שם שמים שגור בפיו. Yosef was always talking about God. Yosef was an annoying seminary girl who just got back from her year in Israel. Baruch Hashem, Im Yirtzeh Hashem, B'ezras Hashem, Chasdei Hashem, every word out of his mouth. Hashem, Hashem, Hashem, Hashem, Hashem, Hashem. That was Yosef. Yosef was שם שמים שגור בפיו. Please God, with God's help, thank God, if it's God's will, every way that you can involve and invoke God in a sentence, that was Yosef. Now you'll say, okay you do that, but you're not going to do that in a business meeting because how do you know that potential business partner, the one that you want to negotiate with, how do you know they believe in God? Maybe they'll be offended. What are you imposing your God on them? No, Yosef did it. If Yosef was at the doctor, if Yosef was meeting with his stockbroker, if Yosef was saying hello to the pilot, if Yosef was talking to a potential new boss in an interview, he never hesitated and he wasn't worried, including Paroh, the greatest, strongest person on the world, leading the empire of the world, Yosef never hesitated or resisted. Yosef שם שמים שגור בפיו, he was always talking about God. With God's help, please God, thank God, with God's help, he was always, always talking about God. And you know what that did for him? Tell you an amazing vort from Rabbi Yechezkel of Shiniva, the Shinover Rebbe. You know what that did for him? Later in our parsha, when the wife of Potiphar propositions Yosef, one of the most salacious stories in Torah. You may not know it because your teachers all skipped it, but now it wakes you up every year when we hear this parsha, Vayeishev. We know the story: the wife of Potiphar, a beautiful woman, and Yosef is a very handsome and capable and charismatic young man. And the wife of Potiphar doesn't just try to seduce or make an advance to Yosef, she propositions him. She all but essentially hashtag MeToo violates him. And Yosef finds the wherewithal to resist. In a hostile environment, a foreign land, with no access or communication with his father, with his brothers, he's all alone in this world and somehow he finds the capacity to resist. Where does he find it from? So in the parsha it says Vayema'en Vayomer, he resisted and he said to her, "Get lost. I'm not sleeping with you. I'm not going to sleep with you." It's very explicit, even somewhat graphic. He says to her, "Thank you, I'm complimented, wow, I appreciate that, but I can't do it. You're a married woman, and your husband is my boss, he's trusted me with his household, he certainly trusts me not to violate you, and therefore while I'm flattered, thank you, but no thank you." Vayema'en, he rejects, he resists, Vayomer, and he says. That word Vayema'en has the cantillation, the trop, of a shalsheles on top. It looks like three triangles. Yesterday in the parsha class... sorry I had to put you through that. Yesterday in the parsha class we shared one insight of Rabbi Soloveitchik, but the Shinover Rebbe gives another one. The word Vayema'en, which means to reject or resist, also comes from the root of emunah, emunah. You know how Yosef found the wherewithal? Do you know where he found the strength, the koach, the courage, the resolve, the tenacity to resist her advance? Do you know what gave him the energy and the strength to do the right thing in that right moment when all the odds were against him and when his natural instinct and his flaming desire was to give in? How did he have the mindfulness? How did he have the presence? How did he have the willpower to say no? Because of Vayema'en, he tapped into emunah. You see, he had created this wellspring of emunah because שם שמים שגור בפיו. When you talk about something, it becomes a reality. When you speak about something, you create a reality. So, when you become that annoying seminary girl or yeshiva flip out and you say baruch hashem, im yirtzeh hashem, chasdei hashem, when you say please God and thank God and if it's God's will and everywhere you go, everyone knows that you're going to invoke God. And let's pray on it, let's spend a moment, let's think about it. What does God want us to do? What would God want? And let's thank God for what just happened and you invoke God constantly and regularly when you speak about God, then you create a reality. So vayimaen, says the shinover, he found the courage, the energy to resist, to reject, vayimaen because shalsheles, he three times tapped into, he sat there and meditated, he said over and over again emuna, emuna. You know earlier in the parsha, it occurred to me, I was looking at the parsha this morning that I don't have the pasuk in front of me, but when they bring yaakov the bad news, I know this isn't the parsha class, they bring not yaakov the bad news that yosef, they bring the coat that was dipped in blood and they say that yosef was killed by an animal, the pasuk tells us that yaakov his father was inconsolable. He absolutely refused to grieve, he was inconsolable. He refused. So what does the pasuk say? ויקומו כל בניו וכל בנותיו לנחמו. All of his children came in order to comfort him, to console him and what does the pasuk say? vayimaen lehisnachem. That same word vayimaen, he refused to be consoled. So you know where yosef got that capacity of vayimaen, that same word vayimaen which means to refuse, to reject? In yosef's case, he rejected the advance, the proposition of the wife of Potiphar. In yaakov's case, he resisted, he rejected any words or offer of consolation, vayimaen. Where do you ever get the courage of vayimaen? In yaakov's case, what was he rejecting? When he was inconsolable, he was rejecting, he said, I'll never give up hope, I'll never give up hope, it's never hopeless, I absolutely refuse to be consoled because I refuse to believe that he's gone, I refuse to accept it. One always holds out hope. The impossible is possible. vayimaen. And what gives us the courage or the energy for that? emuna, says the shinover, the same root of the word emuna and vayimaen. So therefore says reb itche meyer, what's the first step to a life of dveikus? We all want it. We all want it. We want to be calm and serene and happy and satisfied and fulfilled. We want our health to be better: spiritual, emotional, mental, physical. We want to go through life with a smile on our face and ready to take on and absorb whatever comes our way, as difficult, as hard as it is. You know what does it? When you live a life of emuna, dibbur. The gateway is to speak to God and speak about God. We've shared many many times chassidishe rebbes, he'emanti ki adaber. We say in hallel, he'emanti ki adaber. We're about to say it in chanukah often, he'emanti ki adaber. I have emuna ki adaber because I speak about God. We learn that from yosef hatzaddik. The more you talk about something, the more you create a reality. When you tell Alexa what to do, she listens. When you tell Siri what to do, it listens. When my son was like four or five years old, it was my proudest moments. Little boy, such a yiddishe kup, he says to me, aba, are Siri and Alexa best friends? Isn't that a great line? That made a lot of sense, right? Siri and Alexa should be best friends. They're both inside devices, you tell them what to do, they never answer you back, they do. So he said to me, are Siri and Alexa best friends? It was like a yiddishe kup, was a great, a great chap. So he'emanti ki adaber, we can speak and create reality. If I can talk to Alexa and she plays music, I talk to Siri and it gives me directions, then I can talk about God and I'll feel connected and close to him. I create reality by my speech about he'emanti ki adaber. vayimaen, when yosef spoke with emuna, he had the courage to resist the wife of Potiphar. When yaakov tapped into his emuna, he had the courage to reject that feeling of hopelessness and to remain hopeful and optimistic and positive and to believe and to see the goodness. And I'll tell you one more thing from the parsha, I'll go back to reb itche meyer, because in our parsha it also tells us that when yosef has been sold down and a caravan of yishmaelim come to be able to take him down to Egypt, so he's, they are spice merchants and normally spice merchants trade in very malodorous spices, things that smell really terrible. So could you imagine, you'd be stuffed in the back of a van with all of their materials and goods and it would smell horrible, but instead it happened to be that this group of spice agents were selling something, transporting inventory which smelled good. And rashi quotes chazal tell us that yosef was very grateful. He felt very blessed. And you look at that and you say, hold on one second, yosef's being sold into slavery. He's being transported in the cattle car, but something smells good, so he pauses and says, thank you God, that smells amazing. And you know what the commentators say? Yeah, that's yosef. yosef's able to even in the midst of hardship, not, yosef felt the hardship when he properly, falsely accusing Yosef. He ends up in prison falsely accused. Yosef wasn't happy. He asks the Sar Hamashkim for help. Yosef understood he was in a difficult predicament. Nobody's asking you to be happy about that which is hard. There are people who have difficult years right now. There are people dealing with illness or financial crisis. There are people very, very, very lonely from this horrific pandemic. And nobody's telling them lean in, embrace it, be happy, put a skip in your step, it's the best thing that ever happened to you that you've spent the last nine months utterly and absolutely alone in a sense of solitary confinement. No one's telling you that. But you know what Yosef tells us? That even being transported in the caravan to loneliness, you can smell roses. You can stop and smell the roses even within the hardship when you believe in God. When you feel the entire world is against you and destiny is against you that you never see anything good. But when you believe there is a God and you don't understand why He's making you endure that hard moment, it's difficult to see His hand in those moments, it's difficult to feel connected or to feel grateful. But nevertheless even within that you're able to stop and say, wow, that's amazing, thank you. And I think it's a big suggestion for all of us, those who are struggling the most in this pandemic, but everybody who's been affected by this pandemic is like Yosef שם שמים שגור בפיו. Never stop talking about God. Heemanti Ki Adaber. Speak about him, speak to him, protest, object, cry out, be angry at him, which is also a form of faith and belief in him. But even within that difficulty and those moments, smell the roses, see the positive fragrance, see the blessings and be able to thank him before you go back to being upset or frustrated by some of the challenge and the misery. That's also part of the story of Yosef that when you speak about God then you have the capacity to see him even from within the hardship, which is something that gives us a lot of, a lot of faith. Gives us a lot of faith. Okay, back to Reb Itche Meir for a little bit more. בכל שעה האדם מרגיל לדבר עם השם יתברך אזי מציאות השם יתברך נעשית יותר ויותר מוחשית אצלו. The more you speak to God and about God, the more you invoke God, the more you see him everywhere around you. And the more you see him and feel him, the stronger you'll be. והוא חי אותו יותר ויותר וזה אבן היסוד לכל עבודת הדביקות. So the foundation stone to a whole life of dveikus, of gluing, of clinging, of sticking to God. The foundation stone, the cornerstone of being able to do that is emuna. Is knowing there's someone bigger and greater than us, that we are not the end-all and be-all and the world is much more than what we just see in front of us, but that somebody's pulling the strings, that there is a creator, there's an omnipotent infinite being and that he loves us because he's also our father. The more we think and reflect and meditate, the more awareness we have of that, the more we'll see him and the stronger we'll feel. גם חשוב מאוד להתרגל לדבר ולחשוב באמונה. Very, very important to habituate ourselves to speak about and to think about emuna. וככל שידבר עם חברו וגם לעצמו דיבורי אמונה. And the more that we talk and confide and think and collaborate with others, the more we subscribe to the emuna lists and we listen to the emuna shiurim, not this one, others as well, the more that we're thinking and talking about emuna then ויאמר על כל דבר Be-ezrat Hashem Im Yirtzeh Hashem ויאמר וישנן שאין טבע בעולם כלל. We can rise above, we can elevate, we can position ourselves that we don't feel like victims and we don't have to feel like we are random statistics and we don't have to feel like we are simply the victims of chance, but there's a God and as difficult as some things that are happening are, it's all for a reason and it's all somehow for our benefit. And even if we're not enjoying or appreciating that moment, like Yosef we can still find the benefit and the pleasure, we can smell those roses, we can pause for a moment within the hardship. הכל השם יתברך עושה. It's all from above. וככל מאורע וענין יפרש אותו לעצמו ולאנשים שעמו במבט האמת. And the more we surround ourselves with people who see that way, it's contagious, the more that we are involved in those conversations, the more that we approach it with that attitude, the more it will strengthen us. And I ask you as I have several times before in our emuna shiurim, because you'll say to me rabbi, you'll say that's very difficult, going through a hardship, people who've experienced terrible loss or a diagnosis of an illness or financial hardship or an issue with their children of which there are fewer painful things than seeing a child struggle and stumble. So how do I believe that's from God? Why would a good kind God do that? And how am I supposed to take that leap of faith to believe that it's from him and there is a reason for it? So I ask you, I ask you, as difficult as that is, is it easier to believe that it's random and chance? Is it easier to believe that it's a coincidence? Is it easier to just believe you're a victim of nature and the natural order? That's easier? I find it and I believe that it's so much easier to understand to say, I don't understand the reason why, but I submit and I I don't have access to know what it is, I long to one day find out, but until then, comforted to know that it's not for no reason. There is a reason and there is a way to grow from it and we can all be enriched by it. וככל שיוסיף לדבר באמונה, and the more that a person makes the effort to speak about emuna, אף אם עדיין אינו מרגיש אותו בשלמות. Fake it till you make it, fake it till you make it with emuna. So you don't believe, you're struggling, you're not sure, you're investigating, you're studying, you're thinking, you're reflecting, so what? In the meantime, He'emanti ki adaber. B'ezras Hashem, Im yirtzeh Hashem, with God's help, please God, thank God, even while you're struggling, fake it till you make it. Talk about it till you get there. כך האמונה תגדל יותר ויותר, because that doesn't make you a faker, it makes you somebody who's trying, it makes you somebody who's making an effort, it makes you somebody who has ambition and an aspiration to be that person to live that way. And like we darshan in the pasuk He'emanti ki adaber, על ידי דיבורי אמונה האדם זוכה לאמונה. As we said, He'emanti ki adaber, that the more that a person speaks about the emuna, the more you're going to get there. So fake it till you make it, talk that way and don't be hesitant, don't be hesitant. How come that when you meet with an evangelical Christian, how come when you meet with a religious non-Jew, they don't hesitate to talk about God? Please God or with God's help or let's pray on it or let's pause and thank God. And we the Jew, even with the yarmulke and the beard or walking around, a man or woman who's identifiable as an observant Jew, shah shtil, we put our hand over our mouth while we mumble a bracha so nobody will see that we're making a blessing. We don't talk about God because we don't want to introduce that into the world. No! That's why we're here, it's our mission. Judaism was not meant for the Jews, we're here to transform the world like Yosef, who by the way succeeded. Yosef wasn't just שם שמים שגור בפיו, Yosef didn't just talk about and invoke God all the time. Yosef did outreach very implicitly in a nuanced passive way. Yosef didn't share the Bible codes, he didn't do the Discovery program, Yosef didn't try to provide evidence for God's existence, all he did was talk about God. And we'll see in next week's parsha that Yosef, when Paroh calls him and says I hear - I don't want to spoil it for anybody, spoiler alert - when Paroh says I hear you interpret dreams, he says no, no, not me, it's not me. בלעדי אלוהים יענה את שלום פרעה. I have no skill set, it's from God. God speaks through my mouth, he enables me and gives me that skill set. It's on loan, it's not part of my permanent collection, I'm grateful to God. And he does so several times to Paroh, and by the end when Paroh says I love this interpretation and I'm installing you in my cabinet, he says because God has given you such great skill - all of a sudden Paroh's a believer. Paroh goes from this pagan or atheist lowlife, but because Yosef talked a lot about God, Paroh ends up talking about God, he ends up being a believer. It's incredible. Yosef does outreach, Yosef inspires, not by again explicitly trying to proselytize, but rather Yosef does it in a very nuanced way, casually, just by invoking God. That's our mission, that's why we're here. Don't be embarrassed, don't be ashamed, don't hesitate or pause, but rather speak about and speak to God. הלוואי שיתפלל אדם כל היום כולו. Does anyone here listening, live or later, not have countless things to daven for today? May this go well, may that go well, help me with this, help me with that. And I'm not talking about some monumental thing, help me solve world peace, help me cure corona or cancer. I'm talking about help me get from point A to point B safely, help me make it into my bed tonight without contracting coronavirus. Help the speech come out well, help the kugel come out well, help the conversation, a difficult conversation I have come out well. Help me with anything. Hashem, I'm restarting my computer, help the Wi-Fi come out well finally. Whatever it is, do we not have a million things a day that we can invoke a conversation with him? Do we not have opportunities throughout the day when talking to others, at work, at the gym, at home, to be able to say how are you? Thank God, you know, as difficult as it's been, I'm so grateful to God for X, Y, and Z. Thank God. Talk about God. Thank God. Invoke God. We have countless opportunities. Let's just finish. ובכלל זה ללמוד בספרים המדברים על חיבה לאמונה. Part of the He'emanti ki adaber is to learn books that talk about emuna. And בספרים המספרים מעשי הצדיקים, sipurei hashgacha pratis. Because you know I'm - you're going to already get nauseous by how many times I've said this, but our family's hashgacha pratis WhatsApp group. Hashgacha pratis, hashgacha pratis. The other day I had a tremendous craving, I'm going to give you - you all know my list of favorite foods and what I struggle with, my kryptonites. So corn muffins at The Grove, out of this world. Corn muffin with a hot coffee, particularly on a cold Florida day. It hit the 40s in Florida today. I want all the northeasterners to have some sympathy for us. It was in the 40s. So corn muffin, so I ran into kosher market, I ran into The Grove to get a corn muffin. It was packed and there were long lines and people who wanted to talk to me and I was like, you know what, forget it, I don't want to wait, I'm not gonna get out of here. And lo and behold, who was at the checkout already on line? My mother! I said, Mom! pay for this corn muffin, I'm running out of here. Gave my mother a kiss, I hope nobody in the Grove thought it was suspicious why the rabbi was giving this woman older than he a kiss, and I was wearing a mask, don't worry, and ran out of the Grove with the muffin. Hashgacha Pratis! Record it and put it in the group. Hashem, isn't that amazing? It wasn't a coincidence. I had the craving, I wanted it right then, she was right there, she was checking out, she was kind and generous enough to cover the corn muffin for me, and I was able to get out of there. No harm, no foul. Hashgacha Pratis! So you could run out and say, wow, what a coincidence, my mother was in the Grove at the same moment. You could not even think about it as a coincidence and just run out of there. Or you could stop and say, thank you Hashem, thank you! That too was you. In that moment, insignificant, inconsequential. Not only would I not have suffered if I didn't get the corn muffin, I'd be a little bit thinner, so it wouldn't have been the worst tragedy in the world. Yet even then, Hashem, thank you, thank you, thank you. Look for the Hashgacha Pratis moments, record them, share them, large and small. ולהתרחק מאד מעתונים וכתבים שמסתכלים על כל דבר במבט של טבע and he ends this section, and really we should unpack it, maybe we'll start with it next time, he says read things that promote that God is involved in our lives and stop reading and watching and exposing yourself to the things which are trying to detract from that idea, which say there is no God and everything is nature and everything is human initiative and endeavor. Stop living in that world that's actually a fraudulent world and start living and surrounding and reading and being supported by the world which is telling us the truth, which is that Hashem is involved in everything. So Vayemaen. Whatever challenge you're going through, whether you're like Yaakov who rejected the hopelessness or Yosef who rejected the wife of Potiphar, Vayemaen, you'll find the strength by living in Emuna. And Heemanti Ki Adaber. Become that seminary girl, become that flip that Yeshiva guy. Don't be shameful, don't be hesitant, talk about God, talk to God, talk to Him every day. We continue nine o'clock tonight, we're going behind the Bima with Eli Paley, the founder and owner of Mishpacha magazine, and until next time, have a wonderful Chanukah, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
