Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov. Welcome back to our weekly living with Emuna. I know I look forward to it every week, gathering together with you to once again remind ourselves that Hashem is in our life, that he loves us, he has expectations of us, that we are lost without him, that we need him, and how much lives, how much our lives are enriched and better when we have him there. I want to thank our generous sponsors for this year, Dr. Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, who was a great model of living with Emuna, and in memory of Dr. Ellen Schanzler, who was Bella's mother, who lived a life of service and Chesed to the Jewish community. Thank you so much for your generosity and sponsorship. This morning's Shiur is also sponsored by Simcha Marchant in observance of the Yahrtzeit of his father-in-law, Menachem Mendel ben Zalman, whose Yahrtzeit was the 27th of Teves and his beloved sister Devorah Leah bas Dov Ber, second Yahrtzeit is the second of Shvat, and in appreciation of the BRS Rabbis for all that we do. Thank you so much for your generosity and sponsorship. If you'd like to sponsor a future class, please be in touch with Lee at brsonline.org, L-E-E at brsonline.org. Okay, we're back to living with Emuna. We're only living if it's with Emuna. If it's not with Emuna, then we're not really alive. We're not really among the living. We spoke yesterday in the Parsha Shiur about the notion of וארשתיך לי באמונה וידעת את השם. That when Hashem introduces himself to Pharaoh, Pharaoh says לא ידעתי את השם. Moshe comes and he says, "I'm an agent, I'm here on behalf of the God of the Jews." And Pharaoh says, "God of the Jews? I don't know what you're talking about. I don't know such a God." Yes, I have a Master's, I have a PhD, I studied philosophy. Yes, I've heard every argument for God's existence. Yes, I am familiar with the notion, the constant, the abstract, the philosophical concept of God. But to know God? To know God, that word Da'as, that word knowledge, is in fact the biblical word for intimacy, for the union of a man and a woman. To know one another biblically means to experience one another in the most intimate, intimate ways, in the Torah's view, something which is exclusive, the ultimate revelation or exposure or knowledge one can have with another. So the idea of knowing God is not just to know about him theoretically or conceptually in the abstract. The idea of knowing God is to know him, means to feel his presence, to be living with Emuna. To know that wherever and whenever, everything is orchestrated from above. To know we're never alone, that we have someone to lean on, to rely on, that God Almighty is in fact going through what we're going through, as he was in last week's Parsha when he appears to Moshe from a lowly thorn bush. Imo Anochi Be'tzara. Hashem says wherever you're at, I'm with you. You're on a high, you're happy, you're joyous, I'm with you. I'm in the middle of the circle dancing, no need to distance, no quarantine. You're in a low place, you're dark down in the pit, I'm sitting right next to you. Imo Anochi Be'tzara. Like a thorn bush, says God, I'm right there right next to you. So men say when we put on our Tefillin we recite the Pasuk as we wind around our finger Ve'erastich Li Be'emuna. God, you are betrothed to me with Emuna. Veyada'as Es Hashem. How do you have that level of closeness, of intimacy, of knowledge, of feeling of I can confide and I can trust and I feel you can trust me? What is the mechanism or the means of Ve'erastich? How are we betrothed? How do we love? How are we intimate with God? Be'emuna. It's the language of Emuna. I was thinking yesterday that people know Gary Chapman's Five Love Languages. If you don't, you should become familiar with it. It's a very powerful book. And he identifies there are five love languages. There are five ways that different people communicate and receive love. It could be acts of service, it can be physical connection and affection, it can be praise and compliments. There are five love languages. And a couple can't have a healthy marriage if they don't know the love language of the other. And that doesn't mean if you don't have compatible love languages or the same love language you don't have a healthy or a marriage that has a bright future; it means you need to know the love language of the other in order to be communicating, in order to be communicating effectively. So let's say someone says, "I don't need praise ever, so I don't offer praise because I don't need it, so why would I think you need it and why would I ever offer it?" But if you come to understand it's a love language of the other and that you need to learn that habit, that act, then what a marriage you'll have. And the truth is with every love language. So what is Hashem's love language? What is Hashem's love language? What is Ve'erastich? How does he feel close to us? How does he know we want to feel close to him? Hashem's love language is Emuna. When we involve him, when we invite him in our lives, when we confide in him, when we unburden ourselves to him, when we trust him and lean on him. When we, you know, the exercise I was with a couple friends last week and one said to the other, "You know, you're probably really bad at that exercise where you lean back and you allow and expect a friend to catch you." You ever do that when you're a kid? That team-building exercise where you just lean back and you fall all the way back and there's someone standing behind you and you trust that they're going to catch you. So you know the type-A alpha male... personality, control, micromanager, I got this person, they could never lean back and let someone else catch them, they're always the one catching others. So we are, how does, what's God's love language, how does Hashem know that we are connecting, that we want to connect with him? His love language is our willingness and our ability to fall backwards and allow ourselves to be caught by him. That's his love language, Ve'erastikh li how? be'emunah. And Veyadata, the only time that you can have an intimate knowledge, not in the head but that trickles and filters down to the heart, a connection is emunah. So that is what we do Wednesday mornings, living with emunah. We're trying to let go and lean back and let God catch us every Wednesday morning and remind ourselves it's okay. We are engaging in that team-building exercise with the Almighty each and every Wednesday morning, but we need it often in between, in between as well. And the way we're doing it is with the great sefer, the new sefer, B'Yadecha Afkid, of Rabbi Shmaya Morgenstern, Darkei Kinyan HaDveikus. We're on the chapter of how to acquire this attribute, this character trait of dveikus. How to cling to God, how to stick with God, how to glue and attach ourselves to God, how to feel God attaching himself to us. So again, just to review, we started out we said, first thing you need is emunah. If you don't have the awareness, if you're not if you haven't put in the thought that there is a God, then you're not going to cling to him. So you need to come to know God, you need to date God and court God, spend time with God and find him in your life. You need to start your hashgacha pratis WhatsApp group. Hisbonenus was number two. You need to be thoughtful, contemplative every day. Set aside time, disconnect from the world and connect to what matters. A read, a d'var Torah for this week, specifically about this topic, I hope you'll read it. The congressman from Texas who announced yesterday on Wall Street Journal that he's taking a sabbatical from social media. That in order to connect to what matters again, and he attributes the Jewish people and the concept of 24 hours of Shabbos that taught him how important that is. What do we take a sabbatical from in order to be able to sit and think, to be contemplative, to consider and to be able to be, to just be and to be present? You're not going to connect with God if you don't make time and if you don't make an effort to communicate. That was number two. Number three was Torah and Tefillah. Number three was the big newsflash that you're allowed to feel close to Hashem through religious activity. That in Torah and mitzvos you're allowed to connect to God. They're not simply empty acts and gestures, they're not simply minutiae and details of law, they are actually means and mechanisms, they're instruments and vehicles to feel Hashem's presence. When you daven, you're allowed to actually think about and talk to Hashem. When you do a mitzvah you're allowed to actually say, this mitzvah I'm going to I'm going to pause for a moment, I'm going to be mindful for a moment and I'm going to use this mitzvah to feel connected. Not just gesture. Can I put a checkbox next to it? Not just a neurosis, did I get it right? But wow, does it make me feel closer? Do I feel more attached? Do I feel more do I feel more connected? Which brings us up to the fourth idea, and the fourth idea is what he calls shemos. And this is a little bit more mystical, a little bit more outside my comfort zone, but we learn it and try to grow together nonetheless. הנה רבינו האר״י ז״ל גילה לנו עצה גדולה ונפלאה. The great Kabbalist Isaac Luria, the Arizal, revealed to us a very powerful insight and advice. איך לזכות להדבק בה׳ יתברך. And this eitzah, this advice, is a new light, a bright light. We're trying to become enlightened, we're trying to see the light, we're trying to illuminate the darkness of our lives. ועצה זו היא ממש אור חדש בחיים. V'hu yesod hayichudim, and it's the notion of the yichudim. What does that mean? כל מי שיש לו רצון אמיתי להדבק בה׳ יתברך. Whoever has a sincere desire, whoever's motivated sincerely, authentically to connect to God. Not just to talk about God, but to connect to God. I told the story yesterday in the parsha shiur, but I'll repeat it because it connects exactly to this. Paroh says, לא ידעתי את ה׳. This God you represent, the God who sent you, the God who you're his agent, I never met him, I don't know him, I don't feel connected to him. So Hashem says, okay, I'd like to introduce myself. It's called ten plagues and through these ten plagues God says, now do you know me? Now do you feel my presence? Now do you have an awareness of me in your life? And that's Hashem says several times in our parsha and the successive ones that that his purpose is the makkos, the plagues are a curriculum to introduce himself to to Paroh. So the story is told ר׳ לוי יצחק מברדיטשוב went to ר׳ שמואלקי מניקלשבורג to be able to to grow, to be inspired. And then he came home to his father-in-law and his father-in-law said, nu, what did you learn? And he said, I learned that there's a God. I learned that there's a God in the world. I learned that there's a creator and he loves me. So his father-in-law said, that's what you learned? You traveled far, you left your family and you went to spend time by this rebbe, and that's what you learned, that there's a God and that he loves you? So he says, hold on, and he calls in the maid from the other room and he says, nu, he calls in the maid, the Polish maid, ich veis, and he says, you believe there's a God? She says, yeah, sure, absolutely I believe there's a God. She leaves the room and he says, that's what you went to learn? The maid also knows there's a God. You had to leave and go travel. to the Rebbe Reb Shmelke of Nikolsburg? So Reb Levi Yitzchak turned to his father-in-law and he says, she says there's a God. I know the God. I have a relationship with the God. So how many people, you know, there are polls in America that still say that most Americans believe in God. But it's one thing to believe in God, it's one thing to hedge your bet and say I believe in God because when I'll be in the foxhole and I'll need him, I want to hedge my bet and already have said he's there, it's one thing to talk about him conceptually in the abstract, it's another thing to have a relationship with him, to talk to him, to confide in him, to rely on him, to lean in him, to feel his presence all the time in your life, to know he's there. And therefore to have no worry and to have no fear. That's another level altogether and that's the level that we're striving for. So share with you I read this story which I thought was perfect for our living with emuna shiur, it inspired me and it's exactly, it's exactly the message that we're constantly trying to relay. It's exactly the idea that we're regularly weekly trying to communicate. There was a visitor who went to the humble home in Zichron Moshe and this is a story about Rav Gamliel Rabinovich, a great tzadik in Yerushalayim today, a contemporary great rabbi, a great chasidishe tzadik, a great rabbi who's not had an easy life, who's not had an easy life whatsoever, but yet lives with emuna, psh, his knowledge of the presence of God in his life, he therefore has serenity and tranquility and calm and love and happiness and joy, children with disability, challenging life, and yet just joy, pure joy. So the story is the following: this man went to the humble home of this great rabbi Rav Gamliel Rabinovich in Zichron Moshe in Yerushalayim and he said I listened to the Rav and because I listened I got a big ticket, so where's the justice? It's totally unfair. What happened? A few weeks earlier the visitor had come seeking a bracha from Rav Gamliel who told him he had to be careful about davening b'tzibur and blessings would come. He said to the man, do you daven alone or do you daven with a minyan? Now leave corona dangers aside, we're not talking about the danger of a minyan, let's say it's a safe minyan, but he said, you know, if you want to see greater blessing in your life, make the effort to go to minyan every day. Gain the merit of not being on your own but being part of a community. So Rav Gamliel didn't hesitate. So this man came irate. He said I listened to you, I started going to minyan and what happened? I got a ticket. Why are bad things happening? I thought if I did the right thing only good things would happen, why did I get a ticket, why did it go wrong if I did what you said and I started going to minyan? So Rav Gamliel didn't hesitate. He said you're like an insane person who runs around with no concept of accountability or responsibility. There is justice and there is a judge. You were speeding. You put yourself in danger and others in danger. It's likely you weren't meant to live, but Hakadosh Baruch Hu perhaps in the merit of your going to minyan had mercy and spared you, allowing you to fulfill the harsh sentence with a fine and a penalty. You got your life as a gift and you come here with complaints, you come here with a grievance, you come here with a tayna against God? This emphasized the mekubal's, the attitude of one not used to living with an awareness of the Creator and the precision of His judgment. Open your eyes and you will see only rachamim. So I love that story because it means to say sometimes we focus on the ticket. What do you mean? I go to the shiur every Wednesday morning, I read the book, I'm trying to practice dveykus, I'm trying to live with emuna, why do bad things happen, why did I get the speeding ticket, why was I in the fender bender, why did I miss the flight, why did something go wrong? So says Rav Gamliel Rabinovich, that's the language of an insane person. What do you mean why did it go wrong? Do you realize how right it is? Everything Hashem does is rachamim. Everything the Almighty does is love and His kindness. And if that's what went wrong, how fortunate, how blessed and how lucky we are that that's what went wrong and not something so much more. And how much responsibility we have to take. He says to this man, you didn't get a ticket because of God, you got a ticket because you were speeding, because you have a heavy foot on the pedal. So where's your extreme ownership? Where's your personal responsibility? You got the ticket because you were driving too fast, but you know, who knows what could have happened when you were driving too fast? So your getting a ticket is not the cruelty of God, it is the rachamim, it is the kindness and the benevolence of God who let you get off with just getting a ticket and not God forbid something so much more and maybe it's in the merit of the fact that you daven with a minyan. So that's what it means to live with emuna, that's what he's describing is the standard or the expectation, that's what we're capable of and that's what we should strive for. To live with emuna at that level that that we have this awareness and we interpret everything going on in our life. I got a ticket, not I'm miserable and woe is me and how could it be and where is God and why doesn't He love me and why did I get a ticket. But to first of all take the personal responsibility, I got a ticket because I was driving fast, and second of all say God if I got a ticket, psh, that's what was meant for me today. Thank you God for the ticket. I'm so grateful for the ticket. I've told you before, I try to post in our family WhatsApp group about hashgacha pratis not only the stories where it all works out, but the hashgacha pratis about the stories where it didn't all work out because that too is from God. You know, I last night I sat in my backyard, it was a beautiful evening, made a little pit, fire pit, I love those fire pits, and I did work late into the night. And I carried my laptop inside. and went to bed. And I came out this morning to realize maybe I carried my laptop inside, but I left my entire briefcase outside. Now, ordinarily that's not a problem, except last night it poured the whole night. So my briefcase that had other technology in it, had an iPad in it and other things, was soaking to the bone wet. So, my first reaction was to blame the person I'd put it on the chair next to me when I was working outside, someone came out to talk to me and moved the briefcase to the floor, and my first reaction was to blame them. If it had been on the chair, I probably would have seen it, I would have brought it inside, I can't believe they moved it to the floor, this is all their fault, and then I caught myself and said, that's absurd, they did nothing wrong in moving it on the floor, and I should take responsibility and ownership over my things, I should have brought it inside. But as I started to get frustrated, upset, panic over the other things in my briefcase, I realized, okay, that's what was meant to be today. My briefcase, it'll dry out, and if it won't, I'll have to replace it, and if that's the damage today, that's what was meant for me today, big deal, big deal. So I'll put that in the hashgacha pratis. Hashgacha pratis, I forgot to bring my briefcase inside last night and it got soaking wet. So my kids I'm sure will ask, Abba, hashgacha pratis? Hashgacha pratis would have been if you went outside for one minute because you had to do something and then you remembered and you saw your briefcase and you brought it inside, and then it rained all night and isn't it amazing that you brought it inside and Hashem caused you to go outside for whatever reason and you... No, it's hashgacha pratis when it goes wrong too. We don't know why, sometimes it's hard to interpret, but let that be the worst thing that happened, that briefcase got wet and it has to dry out. So, it's an example, and I love that story, the tzaddik Rav Gamliel Rabinovich, the reason he's able to live that way at that level and see that light, even with the challenges and hardships in his life, is because when you have dveikus, when you cling and attach yourself to God, nothing phases you. Nothing throws you for a loop. Nothing makes you lose your cool. It's a briefcase. So that person said that thing or they wrote that thing. So what? Big deal. It's all from Hashem. If yesterday I woke up to one of my kids texting me, Abba, did you see what so-and-so posted on her Instagram page about you? Said no, and I won't check, and I don't care. It's, you know, if Hashem didn't want them to be able to do it, Hashem would have made their Instagram not work. Their app or their phone would have been what was left outside and in the rain, but it wasn't. So it's from Hashem, whatever's meant to be. If you live with that level, and I'm striving and struggling, and I'm not telling you these stories because I've arrived, I'm telling you these stories because I'm not only the chairman, I'm also a member. So I'm telling you these stories because I'm part of the group. I'm struggling, striving, and I'm working on it just like you. But if you live that life, what a bracha, what a blessing. Okay, someone wrote that. Okay, your briefcase got wet. Okay, you got the speeding ticket. I'm the one who forgot the briefcase outside, not God. It's not His fault, it's mine. And it was meant to be for whatever reason, because if He wanted me to remember, if He wanted me to go back outside to check on something and see it, I would have. So this is what was meant to be, a wet briefcase. Baruch Hashem, it's amazing, it's what's meant to be. Baruch Hashem, it's fantastic. So like Rav Gamliel, you can never be phased. You can live a life of peace and tranquility, of happiness. Nothing will phase you or upset you, won't lose your cool, your blood pressure, your heart rate, your pulse, your pulmonary, every everything about you, physically, emotionally, spiritually, your relationships, just imagine how elevated and enriched it will all be if you don't seek to place blame and if you don't react and overreact and if nothing phases you and if you feel His presence, no matter whether you get a speeding ticket or leave your briefcase outside or someone posts something, no matter what, nothing can phase you because it's all from above, it's all from Hashem. So back to our text. The heilige Arizal, the great kabbalist says that we should engage in what he calls the yesod hayichudim, the secret of the yichudim. I don't know what that is. Our guest tonight on Behind the Bima, Joey Rosenfeld, he'll know what that means. Joey Rosenfeld, who has an amazing story, typical modern Orthodox upbringing, but now is steeped in Kabbalah and he's a therapist for those in drug addiction, he applies Kabbalah to help people with addiction. He's an extraordinary, extraordinary guy, he's coming on Behind the Bima tonight. He'll know, maybe we'll ask him what yesod hayichudim is. But let's see what he understands, how he unpacks this for us. כל מי שיש לו רצון אמיתי לדבוק בהשם יתברך, whoever has a sincere and genuine desire to attach themselves to God, has to enter this to be able to see this great light. ופשטות ענין היחודים הוא, and what is the simple understanding of the yichudim is לצייר במחשבתו שם קדוש, to draw in your mind's eye, to draw in your mind's eye the name of God. One of Hashem's names, to actually be drawing it in your mind's eye. בתוך כדי שחושב בשם השם הקדוש, and while you're thinking about Hashem, while He's in your mind's eye, while you're focused on Him, יעורר בלבו הרגשה אל השם יתברך, you will awaken and arouse within your heart a longing, a desire, a feeling, a connection to God, לפי מה שהשם הקדוש מורה, לפי שהשם הקדוש מורה. God has many names. Hashem has many names. And those names reflect different attributes or aspects about Him. So depending what mood we're in and depending the perspective we're coming from and depending on the effort to connect to Him in a different way. We choose a different name of his and we're basically imagining, we're meditating. So this sounds pretty out there, it sounds pretty wild, but know that this is what's going on in the world at large. How many apps? Go in the App Store and check meditation. And you'll find how many thousands of apps there are to help you meditate every day. I listen to some productivity podcasts, and these extraordinary leaders of companies and motivational speakers and they'll always talk about what's critical to a successful day and they'll all include meditating. And in meditating you're trying to clear your mind, and you're trying to picture, and you're trying to either repeat a mantra or you're trying to create a picture in your mind's eye, an image, draw an image, and when you connect to it, it centers you and it grounds you and it's therapeutic and it's hypnotic and it's cathartic and it is transformational. So that's what Rav Itamar is telling us, is based on the Arizal, based on the great based on the great Kabbalist the Ari, is this idea that we dedicate time when we're disconnecting from the world and we're trying to reconnect and reinvest in that relationship with Hashem to draw in our mind's eye, in our mind's eye the name of the name of Hashem. He writes here in the footnote והמחשבה בשמות הקודש יש בה כמה אופנים, there's many ways to do it, או להסתכל בהם מתוך הכתב. You could do it through writing. Open a Chumash or Siddur, have a piece of paper where God's names are written and just focus on the letters, focus on the word, focus on the name, או לצייר השמות במחשבתו, or it can be in your mind's eye. Close your eyes and be drawing or picturing God's name, כאילו ראה אותם בעין רוחו, as if you're seeing with your spiritual eye. או אם אינו יכול אזי יחשוב כאילו שומע קול, and if that's not working, you can't read it in the Chumash, Siddur, you're not reading it off a paper, and you are totally distracted, you can't. So then do it as if you're listening, a mantra, or you're hearing Hashem's name being repeated over and over again, שאומר לו אותם במחשבתו. ובתחילה הדרך יצייר במחשבתו אות אות לבדה. At first start and do it letter by letter, עד שיתרגל לצייר כל השם יחד, until you get to a point where you see the whole name of God, like it's flashing. Can you imagine? Like it's flashing. You're closing your eyes, you're meditating. You're reawakening your Neshama through your Neshima, you're reawakening your soul. I know this just got very weird for you. It got weird for me too this Living with Emunah. It used to be we just talked about normal things and now we're like, you know, on some, you know, retreat center, like, you know, sitting with our Indian style or whatever they call it these days. What do they call it? Applesauce? I forgot already my kids don't sit that way. Something something applesauce. Anyway, I forget how we're sitting. But I know it got weird. But stick with me. I'm trying to stick with this, you stick with me. So it's a very very crisscross applesauce, thank you. It's a very powerful tool, it's a very powerful tool to meditate and reflect and think about Hashem's name and through that name connect to him. So we start letter by letter and it can be from writing or it can be from hearing over and over. We start letter by letter and then you get to the point that it's like a billboard. It's like, you know, a neon sign that's flashing at you. God's name. גם תמיד טוב בזמן המחשבה בשמות הקודש לנגן בפה ניגון מעורר. And it's good to be humming a melody that will awaken you. There's a melody that moves you, your eyes are closed, you're breathing, you're awakening your Neshama through Neshima, through breath. And you're humming a melody and you're picturing Hashem's name while you're humming a melody. Imagine if you did that once a day, ten times a day. Imagine if you did that right before you began to daven, before Shacharis, before Mincha, before your Maariv. You closed your eyes, took a few deep breaths, you hummed a tune, a melody that moves you and you pictured God's name and attached yourself to it and to him through it. Wow, imagine. Imagine how that would move us. It sounds absurd to most of us. It sounds new age, funky, weird, out there, you know, again, stick with me don't disappear on me. It sounds insane, right? Because we live in a world that's fast-paced and noise. I got the news on, the radio on, my my smartphone is beeping and buzzing and and announcing and and Siri's talking to me and this one, Alexa's talking, the whole world is talking moving like the idea that there's just quiet and I'm breathing and I'm humming a melody and I'm picturing a name like what in the world are you talking about? The fact that it sounds so strange is evidence of how badly how badly we need it, how badly we need it. Ki hashemot hakadoshim, God's names, hem kesulam umafteach. They're like a ladder and they're like an opening, a door, lehagia lehargashot ulehasagot. They can transport us and they can take us to certain feelings that we want to have. They can take us to certain realizations that we're trying to achieve. כי השם יתברך נתן כוח סגולי בשמות הקודש. Hashem gave a power, there's a true power to these names, שעל ידי שאדם חושב בהם הם מסייעים מאוד להצליח להרגיש להשיג. That when we focus on, when we think about, when we understand the significance of these names, they can awaken within us something very big, something very special. Names are very very powerful. I'll tell you something personal that may be embarrassing. When we were in the naming or thinking of names for our children. There were names I loved, Yocheved didn't love, there were names she loved that I didn't love, so I'll tell you something, I don't know how to make sense of it, and it's embarrassing, but I'll tell you, there were names that she suggested which objectively there's nothing wrong and they're very nice names, but I heard that name and it made me think of a person with that name who I did not want my kid to have that name. Names are very powerful. So there's certain names, I think the more unusual a name but you know someone with that name the more you go directly to think about them, but how often do we hear a name and you can either react like I love that person, that name just brings me out joy, or ugh, that name, immediately I think of that person and no way we're naming our child that name, I don't want it to be like that person, no way. Names are very powerful. Someone tells you a name of someone you went to camp with or school with 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 years ago, and you go so-and-so, I haven't heard that name! Why do you say I haven't heard that name in 30 years? You should have said wow I haven't thought of that person in 30 years, but you say I haven't heard that name in 30 years. A name is a very, very powerful thing. A name evokes from within us. Think about how when we use names, the power that that yields. When you were dating, first time that that other person used your name directly and they said Ephraim, so-and-so and so-and-so, they say wow you used my name? Now my name is Rabbi, so I have to remember sometimes that I have a name, but they say wow you used your name? It's so powerful. Next time you're checking out at Publix, take a moment and bother to look at the person's name tag and unlike everyone else that treats them as if they're invisible, say Scott, Janet, thank you so much for checking me out, I hope you're doing well, stay safe today, have a good day. I promise you, you won't see it because they're wearing a mask, they will have a smile ear to ear. Because when you use someone's name, you know what you're doing? You're saying you're not invisible. You have a name, you have an identity, you have a purpose, you have a mission, you have a description, you have a name. You're a someone, you're a someone. When we don't bother to learn a person's name, what we're telling them is you're not important or significant enough in my life, I'm not wasting time or space in my memory to know your name. But when we use a name, it's such a powerful thing. Try it today. Talk to someone and in the middle of talking to them, even though you're talking directly to them already, use their name and say Shprintza, whatever I'm trying to tell you is when you use a name, it's... that was not one of the names we considered for our children. Nothing wrong with Shprintza, but it was not on the list, long list or short list. So, but use a name. Use a name and it draws and creates a connection. And if that's true with human beings, it's true on the checkout line at Publix, and it's true with whoever you're going to talk to today, and it's true that there's a visceral reaction. Some names will all of a sudden make you go I love so-and-so, or I haven't heard that name in so many years, I have such great memories, or other names, ugh, I don't want to think about that person, that name. So Hashem's name, Hashem's name there's a segulah, there's a power, there's a koach to sitting and to thinking and to focusing. So this was suggestion number four, we're not done yet, but these are all things which will lead to deveikus. They'll lead to connecting and clinging to God, they'll lead to feeling His presence in our life. To find time during the day to disconnect and to connect to Him, to focus and think about His name. You know there are people who will say God, I haven't heard that name in 20 years, God, I haven't thought about that name in 20 years. Think about it every day, His name. And He has so many different names and the names reflect all kinds of things. And the more we think about and we draw that name, the more we connect to Him. And when we get the speeding ticket we don't blame him, we blame ourselves, but we thank Him because we realize how different it could be. When the briefcase is soaking wet, we don't blame Him, we thank Him because we realize I'm the moron who left my briefcase outside in the rain. Thank You God for my challenge being just this and not something so much more. U'ledugma, now Rav Yirmiyah offers an example. כאשר אדם נכנס לחשוב מציאות השם יתברך, when a person enters to think about the existence of the Almighty, והוא הכל ואין עוד מלבדו, Hashem is everything, ein od milvado, there is nothing but Him. שהוא הכל ואין עוד מלבדו. Hashem is everything, there is nothing else in the world but Him. It's not Him and me and me and Him and that and us. There is Him. He's ein od milvado. ein od milvado. Nobody could post something unless He's okay with it. Nothing will get outside, it doesn't rain unless He's okay with it. אזי תוך כדי זה יחשוב בשם הקודש הוי-ה. So while you're thinking that Hashem is ein od milvado, there is no one and nothing but Him, think about the Shem Havayah, Yud then Heh then Vav then Heh. That is the name of God that is hayah hoveh v'yihyeh. He was, He is, and He will be. We don't pronounce the name, that's the tetragrammaton, that's in our parsha. God says they can't know My name, here's My name, and so on. But that is the Shem Havayah שמשמעותו ששם יתברך הוא כל המציאות. That name hayah hoveh v'yihyeh, He was, He is, and He will be, that name is the description of God that He is the source, the essence, He is absolute. absolutely everything, there is nothing but Him. He is everything. והמחשבה בשם הקדוש נותנת כוח להכרה והרגשה להתלהב ולהעמיק מאוד. Just think about that name, focus on, picture, see it, see it letter by letter, see it flash in neon, think about the name and what it represents and means: He was, He is, He will be, He's outside time, He's all-powerful, He's all-knowing, *Ein Od Milvado*, there is nothing but Him. And therefore whatever I'm afraid about, whatever I'm nervous for, whatever result I'm waiting on, whatever might happen to me, *Ein Od Milvado*, *Ein Od Milvado*. There is nothing but Him. *Ein Od Milvado*. I think I told you last week or two weeks ago, one of my kids, we sang it on the line at the roller coaster, and it's already years later and she wrote it to me in my birthday card this year: *Abba*, I'll never forget how you taught me to sing *Ein Od Milvado* when I'm nervous, when I'm worried, when we're on line at the roller coaster or anything else, when I'm anxious, just sing *Ein Od Milvado*. There is nothing but Him. *Ein Od Milvado*, *Ein Od Milvado*. So when you think of that name of *Hashem*, when you picture it, when you're meditating, when you're reflecting, when you're lost, when you're getting lost in that name, when you're trying to awaken and create connection, intimacy to God, when you're thinking about that name, think about it in the context of *Ein Od Milvado*. There's nothing and no one but Him. וכוח היחודים הוא מפתח עצום להצליח לחיות בדבקות. So this process, this exercise, again, feels far out and way out, but try it. Don't knock it till you try it. This exercise of taking deep breaths and humming a melody and thinking about a name and thinking about what it represents and attaching ourselves to that name of God, it has tremendous, it's a *mafte'ach atzum*. It is a tremendous opening to, key, to success, to live with *dveikus*. כך שמי שרוצה לזכות לדבקות אמת כדאי לו מאוד להתרגל לחשוב בשמות הקדושים ולהרגישם. If you really and sincerely want to connect to God, then this has to be part of the repertoire. You have to be doing this. Not just *davening* from the *siddur*, not just check on the *mitzvos*, but spending time every day in meditation, in reflection, in attaching oneself to His names in this deeper way. Let's just finish today by finishing these footnotes he has here, these footnotes he has here. He says it's not enough באותיות השמות לבדו בלי הרגשה. If you're just going to be like, it's going to be another thing that you check off: I thought about God's name, I spelled it in my mind's eye, check, check, check, check, check, check, check, back to Netflix. I thought about God's name, check, check, check, check, check, back to the radio, back to the noise, back to the playlist, back to the conversations, back to the, then it's not going to work. It has to be a *hargasha*. You have to be capable of feeling, of emoting. Take off that shield, take off that armor, take off that protective insecurity, inhibition, and feel, and be, and be real. And if there's no one in the world you can be real with, you can be real with Him. And I'll tell you why: because He knows the real you whether you're real with Him or not. So just be, take off all that protective armor that you think is protecting and insulating you, but in fact all it's doing is causing you more pain because you're not able to be. And just be, allow yourself to feel and to emote, to have *hargasha* that goes with this picturing it in the mind's eye, otherwise it's a counterfeit experience and process. It's not real, it's not real. The *Gra* says about the *Shem Havayah*, he writes: נמצא קיים כעין שהוא היה הוה ויהיה. עיקר עבודה לזכך הגוף מהחומר והנפש מחטאיה כי הנשמה מצד עצמה חלק אלוקה ממעל וכל מה שמונע מיהודי הרגשה באלוקות הוא רק חומר ועבירות. וכוח השמות גדול מאוד לנקות את האדם ולזכך גופו. How does it work? We'll start with this maybe more next week. But what he's describing the way it works is: our soul by definition is pure. אלקיי נשמה שנתת בי טהורה היא. The soul that you created and put in my body, it's pure. The soul on its own is pure but the body, the body's a vehicle for impurity of the soul. The body has temptation and desire and indulgences, and the body is the vehicle when it makes mistakes for the soul. So when I'm breathing deep and singing a melody and pausing, I'm trying to elevate my soul outside my body for those moments. I'm trying to say I'm not a body that has a soul, I'm a soul that has a body. So I'm going to take a few moments every day to be a soul. Not a body. When you *daven* the body is still *shuckling* and wearing *tefillin* or opening the *siddur* or in the *minyan*, but when you just sit and you connect to a name you're trying to elevate the soul outside the body to make contact with the soul and to reattach and reconnect the soul to its source, namely to God, to God. And that's what we're trying to do, to feel a sense of *hargasha*, to feel, and the feeling happens in our *neshama*, to be real and to be authentic, even just for a little bit. So we'll leave it there today. Hopefully it didn't get too weird. Come back again next week. We're going to try to get normal again, but that's your homework. Your homework is to post in your *hashgacha pratis* group, not just when it all works out and not just when it seems right, but to post in your *hashgacha pratis* journal, group, wherever you put it, share it with others or just for yourself. Not sure why they did that or what they said, but who cares? That's also hashgacha pratis, that's also from Hashem. That's homework number one. And homework number two is between now and next Wednesday, try this: sit, turn your phone on airplane mode or leave it in the other room, take a few deep breaths, hum a melody that moves you, picture a name of God, and think ein od milvado, there's nothing but Him. And try to attach yourself and connect, almost create an imagery of your soul elevating outside. It's going to go back in the body; we're not ready to go upstairs permanently yet. Please God, we should all live to a hundred and twenty. We're not running to take the soul out of the body; that happens when we die. We're just trying to, even while the soul's in the body, experience the soul, make contact with the soul even at the same time. I hope you'll join us tonight for Joey Rosenfeld for more of these kinds of conversations. He's really an amazing guy. Nine o'clock, go behind the Bima with him. Until next time, stay happy, healthy, and holy. Have a fantastic day. Please subscribe to us on YouTube. You'll become aware of every time we go live with another shiur and message from above. Have a fantastic day.
