Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov. What a great day. You know how I know it's a great day? Because we're alive, we're here, we woke up this morning. We're here for another day. Hashem still believes in us. There's more to do, there's more to accomplish and we're one day closer to being able to trim the beard. So therefore it is a great, great day. I want to thank our Emuna series sponsors, so deeply, deeply grateful. Dr. Zavi and Val Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Ellen mother, Dr. Ellen Chanzer. So thank you very much for your generosity. Also today's day of learning at BRS is sponsored by the Kraus-Moskowitz-Dalfen family for Refuah Sheleimah for Alex Kraus, רפאל אהרן הכהן בן רבקה should have a speedy and a complete and a painless Refuah Sheleimah. Thank you to our sponsors. If you'd like to sponsor a future class at BRS, please email Lee, L-E-E at BRSonline.org. Thank you for coming back and joining our weekly essentially support group to remind ourselves that we don't live independent, we don't live on our own, we don't live in a world in which we are alone responsible for all that happens to us and all that we are meant to do, but there is an infinite omnipotent being, there is a Creator, there is a higher power, there's a Ribbono Shel Olam. Most importantly there's Avinu Shebashamayim. We have a Father in heaven who loves us and who's intimately involved in our life. He's not just aware of what's happening, He's involved and curating and orchestrating what is happening. And therefore nothing that happens is random, it's for a reason. And with that knowledge and with that faith and with that confidence we can take on whatever the world throws our way. We don't have to be anxious or envious or arrogant or angry, but rather with a sense of calm and tranquility and serenity we are ready to conquer any given day. כי בשם קדשך הגדול והנורא בטחנו because we put our Bitachon, we put our faith in Ahava Rabbah. Siddur snippets you can subscribe for a six-minute snippet every day. We've been going through the Siddur and we're up to Ahava Rabbah and in that we have the statement לא נבוש לעולם ועד. We've been talking about, let us never be humiliated, embarrassed or ashamed. Why? כי בשם קדשך הגדול והנורא בטחנו. When we put our faith and our trust in You, God, when we lean in in that relationship with You, when we are invested in not just going through empty actions and motions and not just putting a checkmark next to what is demanded or expected of us, but there's a relationship. Relationships require time, they require conversation, communication. Relationships require vulnerability. When we have a relationship with Hashem, when we are in an ongoing conversation, a dialogue, we're speaking to Him and we're listening to Him regularly speak to us, then לא נבוש לעולם ועד. We don't have to worry that we'll be ashamed or embarrassed, but rather we recognize that all that happens comes from above and comes from Hashem. So thanks for joining as we remind ourselves of what we know but we often and easily forget each and every week. We are learning Be-yam Darkecha, Rav Itamar Morgenstern, the great Tzadik in Eretz Yisrael. And we are on the Perek, the chapter of Dveikus, how to cling to, how to glue ourselves to, how to stick with God, that no matter what life throws our way we remember that God has our back, that we're sticking with him. And we have been talking about first of all the Or, Rav Itamar's language, we have to learn his vocabulary and in his vocabulary not uniquely his own but the vocabulary he's using, he talks about Or, the light. To see the light is to feel the presence of Hashem in our lives. To see the light, to feel the light, to be enlightened, for our lives to be illuminated. A person who's living without God, without a higher power, is living in the dark. So much of the recovery world, recovery movement, recovery from addiction includes the critical step of submitting to a higher power, because if you don't believe in a higher power, if you don't realize that we are helpless without Him, if we don't submit and surrender to that higher power, we're living in the dark. And when you live in the dark you need to numb yourself from all the obstacles that you'll bump into living in that dark. And so at the root, at the core of so much of addictive behavior is the concentration on the self, is thinking it's all about me and I'm responsible and I'm obligated and I'm accountable and I'm to blame. All that emphasis on the self leaves one needing to numb themselves or escape the world that they're at the center of. But when you submit or surrender to a higher power, you don't need to escape. You're not the center of the world, He is. We're simply a spoke on the wheel instead of being at the center of that wheel. Then you don't need to turn to something to numb you. You don't need to engage in something that will help you escape, but rather we can escape in Him, in God, that we turn to Him, talk to Him, invest in Him, and most of all we cling to Him, which is this Midda of Dveikus. So we spoke about the light. There are moments that you feel the light and there are moments that it feels that there's darkness. There's a blockage. There's a, what's that called when the moon passes in front of the sun during the day? See, that's the problem of doing YouTube live, you can't talk to me. But what's that called? An eclipse. When there's an eclipse of the sun. So there's moments in our lives where we feel there's an eclipse of the light of Hashem, of the light of Emuna. Sometimes we feel like we can't see, we can't feel, there's an eclipse, there's a blockage. We're unable to make contact with, with Him, in awareness of God. him. So in those moments we have to lean on and rely on and draw from the bank account that we have invested so much in of Emunah. It doesn't mean we abandon the relationship, just like in any other relationship when you run into a rough patch, when you have a hard moment, you don't abandon, you don't walk away, you double down, you invest, you fix, you correct, you repair, and in fact you use that darkness to not only recover light, but to have greater light than ever. In moments of darkness or distance then one understands what caused it, and one understands where it's from, then not only can you eliminate it and recover from it, but you can improve and grow to be even better than ever. It's a whole other conversation. Most recently we spoke the last B'yam Darkecha, Rav Itche Meir's been telling us the critical importance of when you see that light, when you feel that light, when you have that breakthrough, capture it, concretize it. You have to take upon yourself a Kabbalah. You have to make it not something fleeting, not something which will disappear, not what one of my Rebbeim, Rav Blachman in Kerem B'Yavneh used to call the Hot Maariv Syndrome. The Hot Maariv Syndrome was that you hear a Mussar shmooze right before Maariv in yeshiva. A rabbi gets up and he gives the most inspiring stories and he paints the most aspiring picture and you are on fire and that Maariv is unbelievable. But ten minutes after Maariv you're back to who you were. Once the Maariv wears off, once that Mussar shmooze wears off, you're back to where you were. So how do you bottle it? How do you capture it? How do we make sure and ensure that it's not fleeting, it doesn't dissipate, it doesn't dissolve or disappear, but we are able to employ it, engage it, and execute it in our lives on a daily basis? And the answer is a Kabbalah. We have to take upon ourselves a practice, a change, something real, something lasting, something that will manifest. So that even when an eclipse comes and even when the light gets blocked again by darkness, we're still at it, we're still going. That's what we have to do, that's what we have to do. So continuing where we left off, we're on page Kuf Aleph, anyone who's purchased the Sefer and I highly recommend it, has not yet been translated into English, B'yam Darkecha, Rav Itche Meir Morgenstern, if you have it and you're following inside, we are on page Kuf Aleph. כל אור והרגשת אלוקות צריך שיהיה לו לבוש וכלי. Every light and every positive feeling, every contact with the divine needs a Levush. It needs, right, our soul is connecting with the spirit, the spirituality of Hashem. All of that is ephemeral, all of that is spiritual, all of that is intangible. So how do you capture that? It needs a Levush, it needs a garment, it needs a Kli, it needs a vessel שיהיה בר לאדם מהאור הזה ומאיר לו בחייו. So it can't just be academic, theoretical, spiritual, pie in the sky. I think that's what we talked about last time. Why not cake in the sky or babka in the sky? But pie in the sky works too for the right kind of pie. So it cannot just remain pie in the sky, it's got to be brought down. It needs a vessel and it needs a Levush, it needs a garment in order to be able to appear in the world. לתרגם את האור למעשה, to translate the light into action. To translate the light into action. ולחבר את ההרגשה לענייני החיים בפועל, and to unite and to connect, Lechaber, the Hargasha, the feeling, this feeling, L'inyanei hachayim, to our real lives and our lifestyle, B'poal, in actuality and in practice. How many times have you met people, how many times have we ourselves said to ourselves or others, you know, I may not be the most scrupulous, vigilant, I may not be the most observant myself, but I'm very, very spiritual. Very spiritual. I may not practice, but I'm very, very spiritual. Okay, what does it mean to be spiritual? You have thoughts every now and then that are spiritual? You close your eyes and you're moved? You listen to music, you sing Kumbaya? What does it mean to be spiritual? That's nice. How does the spirituality translate into action? It's the equivalent of saying to your wife or husband, I may not practice it very much, I may not be very responsive to your needs or what you want, but I need you to know I love you more than words. I love you very, very much. In my heart it's overwhelming with love. So in practice I'm not very good at practice. I don't observe very much what you ask of me or what you want, but there's nobody who loves their spouse more than I do. I'm a very, I'm a very loving person. So when a person says I'm a very spiritual person and I have a lot of spirituality, but you say, so tell me, how does that manifest itself? And I'm not even talking necessarily in Taryag mitzvos, even not necessarily manifesting itself within scrupulous Halacha, but just tell me how. Do you set aside time to regularly in a fixed way pray? What is that spirituality? Do you volunteer, do you give, do you study, do you learn, do you repair, do you improve yourself, others, the world around you? How does it manifest? Because if it can't be measured and it doesn't manifest in a lifestyle and in a real-world way, then it's just pie in the sky. Then it's just words. That which is being described as a feeling, maybe yes, maybe no, there's no way to measure it. כי צריך לקבל את האור עם דעת דהיינו לחבר אותו להבנה שלו. We need to receive the light Im da'as. You need to receive the light not just as some spiritual overwhelming or overflowing experience that again is pie in the sky, but it has to be connected l'havana, with an understanding, with an evaluation, with a plan, with a resolution, with a strategy and with an execution ולהשגת נפשו בחיים המעשיים, and with an understanding of our lives, what makes me tick and how do I live and how am I perceived and what do I want my legacy to be? How will living with emuna manifest itself in my life so I look different than if I weren't living with emuna? I've quoted before, and I like to quote Rav Eli Sadan, the Mechina b'Eli. The Mechina b'Eli is a very special place in Israel. The Mechina b'Eli has produced some extraordinary people, many of whom lost their lives defending and fighting for the people of Israel, for the state of Israel. And they learned a mesirus nefesh, they learned a selflessness, and they learned about leadership, and they learned about faith and trust in that very special place. Rav Sadan is the founder of it, and I've met with him and we brought him to Boca because he's a tremendously spiritual person. But he told me, and I think it's a very powerful exercise to engage in. He said the first day of the mechina—mechina is a place that after high school young Israelis go to to prepare themselves for the army. So it's a yeshiva, but rather than be titled a yeshiva, they study text, not necessarily as much of an emphasis on Gemara as texts that will promote and increase living with emuna, learning Jewish view of leadership, what it means to be moser nefesh, what it means to be able to self-sacrifice for something bigger than ourselves. That's where the emphasis is. So on the very first day, these young high school graduates come in, and he gives them a pen and a paper and he says to them, ma she'ifot, what are the goals, what are the aims, what are the ambitions for you in your life? He has them write it out and he says to them, I want you to describe in five years from now what your life will look look like. What do you want your life to look like in five years from now? That is the exercise opening day at the Mechina b'Eli. Young high school graduates, gung-ho to get ready for the army, get a pen and paper when they come in on day one and he says to them, 17-year-olds, what do you want your life to look like in five, seven years from now? Describe it. So they all hand it back and he says, he reads through them and they all say the same thing. I want to be married to a nice person, I want to be in love, I want to be building a family, I want a nice home with a white picket fence, I want a good job where I want to make a nice amount of money, I want to be a good person with nice neighbors and good friendship, I want to volunteer and give. That's what I want my life to live. And then he says back to them, and he says inevitably, invariably every single year it's the same result and he poses back the same question and it's the question that Rabbi Itshak Meir is posing to us right now, which is: When you think about and when you talk about and when you describe your life now and your goals and ambitions and aspirations of where you want it to be, how is the answer you give different because you live with emuna, because you live with Torah? He hands them back the paper and he says, what on this answer is reflective or an indication that you are a Torah-observant Jew, that you live with emuna and that God has a role in your life? Does anybody, did anybody, will anybody answer when they're asked five, seven years how do you describe your life, do you say, I know more Torah, I'm closer with Hashem, I talk to him more often, I let him more into my heart, I see that light more, it transforms me, inspires me, motivates me, drives me? Where does that part of our personality, where does what is supposed to be that core and central part of our identity manifest itself in our ambitions and aims and in our lives? I'll pose to you the same exercise or challenge in a different way. In exit, in exit interview with children when they graduate our home, when they're heading off after education, after living at home, going to yeshiva, going to seminary, going to college, where they're going, if asked, what did you take from your home? What were you asked or encouraged for regularly? What are your parents' dreams and hopes for you? Is the answer Ivy League or bust? Is the answer that I make the most money? Is the answer I live in the biggest house? Is the answer I'm the best person, most honest, have the greatest integrity? Is the answer that I'm kind and good and giving? But all of those even an atheist would answer and encourage. Is the answer what our children graduate our homes tell someone if asked, what did your parents emphasize? What are your parents' dreams for who you become? Of course successful, of course healthy, of course happy, but does it also include deeply faithful, deeply spiritual, deeply practicing, deeply filled with Jewish pride? Does it include caring about the total Jewish people? Does it include designating time every day for the study of Torah? Does it include consistently davening? Does it include having a sense of emuna and dveikus, living with yiras Shamayim? Does it include having an acute awareness of an awe of God and being accountable to him, being in conversation with him, living with gratitude for him? Is that the, is that what we communicate to our children before they graduate our home? Is it what we would write on a piece of paper are our ambitions and aspirations for the years to come? So you'll say, of course, that's obvious, that's part of me, look at my life, I go to shul, I'm a member, I spent enormous amounts of money on Jewish education, of course I care about that. But there are no of courses. We know what we really want to do by what we're doing. And so... And so says Reb Itche Meir, this notion of this spirituality, this deveikus, this faith, this ongoing relationship with Hashem, if it remains as light but there is no vessel and there is no levush, there's no garment to wear it and to live it and to have a lifestyle that includes it, then it's not real. Then it's not real. The most authentic version of it, the most real version of it, the most lasting version of it, the version of it that gives us the greatest confidence in its future is when it is incorporated into our lives and our lifestyles. כך שהאור לא יהיה דבר מופשט עליון שנאמר מחוץ לחיים. When you talk about the light, oh yeah, no I love life, I go to work and I exercise and I have a home and I make money and I go on vacation, I have a whole life. Oh, the spirituality, that's Neila once a year I have that. That's the kumzitz. I love when that Rabbi comes to town, that Rebbetzin comes to town. That's when I travel in the summer for five minutes, that's what—no. That's not real. It can't be elyon. It's not lofty and above and distant, transcendent, we don't climb to get there. Chutz lachayim, it's outside our lives and outside our lifestyle. אלא יהיה חי ומתחבר בתוך המציאות. It has to be lived, it has to be part of our core identity, it has to be put to practice, it has to pass the test, it has to be able to be measured, it has to be articulated, it has to be obvious. ובאופן כזה השגת והרגשת האור תתן כוחות לאדם לנצח במלחמת היצר. And when it's with us and when it's part of us and when it informs and inspires us and when it's clearly our identity, then it also empowers us and enables us and strengthens us to be able to combat the yetzer hara in us. When it, what's the it? When a life of emuna and deveikus, when an awareness of the presence of Hashem, when he's next to me and his arm is around me and he's looking over my shoulder in every business meeting and as I walk into the gym, when I come home and he's standing next to me while I'm davening and I'm having that conversation with him, and he's in the room in my chavrusa and he's listening to our learning, when he's watching what I'm choosing to entertain myself with, when he's always there, when I invite him to be present, then I'm going to be able to overcome the yeitzer. I think I told last time: imagine you took your trainer or nutritionist to the supermarket shopping with you, it's going to be very different things in your cart when you check out if your nutritionist or trainer is shopping with you versus, oh I go twice a week to a gym, oh twice a week I have a trainer come. But is the trainer with you when you're shopping? Is the trainer with you when you're ordering from the menu at the restaurant? Is the trainer with you when you're filling up your snack cabinet or paying it a visit late at night? If your trainer, if you paid or hired the trainer to be at your side 24/7, you're going to live a healthier life. Well, our trainer in all things is the Ribbono Shel Olam, the Almighty. He trains us, he empowers us, he elevates us, he lifts us, he strengthens us, he gives us the courage to do what's right. And through dveikus when we invite him to be present always, then we're going to be better. If 24/7 he's with us and his presence is felt every time we choose what to say, where to go, what to look at, what to think, what to listen to, how to behave, then we're going to elevate ourselves. We're going to be better. Velachen lemayseh and therefore in practice, בכל פעם שזוכה לאור צריך לכוונו. Says Reb Itche Meir, here's the bottom line: every time you experience the light, every time the eclipse lifts and you see the sun, every time you feel the light of emuna, there is an undeniable knowledge, there is a complete confidence, there is a God, he has a plan for me, I'm grateful to him, I woke up for a reason, I'm here on a mission, I have no doubt, I have no uncertainty, I have no confusion, there is no Amalek in my life, but I feel and I know that there is one Hashem and he loves me and he's intimately involved in me and I'm feeling that right now. Bottle it. Capture it. Come back to it. Concretize it. בכל פעם שזוכה לאור צריך לכוונו ולהרגיש את האור האלוקי בתוך עניין בחיים. How am I going to change my life? What will I do differently because of this? This kumzitz, this shiur, this article I read, this conversation the person I met, the experience, the trip I took, now what? You come back from a visit to Poland, a kid goes on March of the Living, now what? I come back from Eretz Yisrael, the opportunity to put my hand on the Kosel, now what? I come back from a chesed where I touched something inside myself and I feel completely different, I met a hero of Israel, tzaddik or a tzadeikes, an extraordinary person that makes me reevaluate, rethink my life, great, now what? It can't remain just the experience of light, you can't just be something you tell others you once had. How will it change your life? How will it transform things? What are you going to do differently now as a result? דהיינו אם יש לו עבודה על דבר מסוים יכוון את האור לזה. If you have an avodah in a particular area, direct the light, direct that experience, direct being enlightened to that area. ויתבונן באותו עניין שעובד עליו ויאיר אותו על ידי האור. You can take a prism and we can direct the light, you can take a... and direct the light and that's our mission, that's our goal, that's our purpose here is to experience the light of Hashem and then take it in and direct it, and direct it. So there are children, this very cruel, I don't encourage it, we condemn it, and it's wrong, but there are children who take a magnifying glass, let's say it's not an animal or ant or creepy crawly, but a blade of grass, they'll take a magnifying glass out with the sun and they will have a blade of grass, direct the heat, intensify the heat from the sun through the magnifying glass, they'll focus and magnify it on a blade of grass so that the blade of grass will burst into flames, will light on fire, will intense heat on the blade of grass. The magnifying glass you take the light and you intensify it, you magnify it through a magnifying glass, and now you've transformed it, that which it's directed on. So says Itche Meir, when we have an experience the light of the sun is clear and visible, there are no clouds, there's no blocking it, and so you see the light of Hashem clear, grab that magnifying glass and figure out which area of life, which blade of grass you want to use the light of the sun to magnify on to transform and change its nature. Here in a footnote he gives several examples that I want to share with you. V'zeh b'harbeh ofanim, and this is in many areas of life, u'ledugma, here's an example: אם אדם עובד על התאוה או גאוה, person's working on the area of temptation or arrogance, אזי תוך כדי שהוא מרגיש את האור while you're feeling the light והוא מתענג על הרגשת מציאות השם יתברך, and you're enjoying it, it's pleasurable, you are basking in the sun, not the sun that's accompanied by the humidity of the heat of Florida in the summer, but in the winter. Let's say it's a January day and let's say it's 65 degrees out with a cool breeze and you feel the warmth, the heat of the sun on the back of your neck, on your cheek, in my case on the top of your head, you feel the warmth of the sun. Oh, it's geshmak, there's nothing better. When you feel the cool breeze and you need to wear a little bit of a fleece or sweater and yet the sun, you feel the warmth with the cold, it's mamash geshmak, it's unbelievable, what a feeling. So you're in the middle of feeling that light, you're in the middle, there's no block, there's not a cloud in the sky, there's no denial, there's no uncertainty, there's not a cloud in the sky at that moment. והוא מתענג על הרגשת מציאות השם יתברך, and you're just enjoying the heat of the sun on your neck, oh it's gevaldike geshmak, wonderful, beautiful, pleasurable. צריך שיחשוב וירגיש מחשבות נגד הגאוה מכוח האור. So let's say you say, you know, arrogance is a weakness, arrogance I struggle, I'm starting to believe everything they say about me or I get these praise and it makes me I'm actually buying into it, I believe it. I'm struggling with arrogance, thinking my time is more valuable, I'm superior or better, people are lucky to know me, person's struggling with arrogance and now right now you're having a moment where you feel the sun, where you feel Hashem, where it's undeniable, there's not a cloud in the sky, take the magnifying glass out and hold it up to the sun and point it towards the arrogance in you. צריך שיחשוב וירגיש מחשבות נגד הגאוה, u'lemashal, ולמשל אני מרגיש שהכל אלקות אז ברור שאין לי כלום להתגאות. In that moment you say, you know what, while I'm experiencing the sun, there is no me, I need to minimize myself, and I need to recognize I need to be mevatel myself. I'm a nothing, I'm a gornisht, I don't exist, I will be not a blip on history, nobody will remember me, I come from the earth and I'll be returned to the earth and I control nothing, I know nothing, and I could disappear in a moment's notice. So you take that sunlight on whatever area you're working on. או אם עמל על קדושת האכילה. Let's say a person says, you know what, I'm struggling with my eating, I eat like a pig, I eat like an animal, eating for me is a hedonistic decadent act, there is no holiness in the eating, I'm not transforming or elevating eating and I'm not finding God in food and the experience of eating, I'm not nourishing my body so it can serve my soul, I'm serving my boich, I'm serving my palette. Person's working on kedushas ha'achila, person's working on elevating their eating. Azai yachshov, so they should think to themselves הנה אני מרגיש איך הכל אלקות. So right now it's a sunny day, there's no cloud, I'm feeling God's presence, there's no doubt or uncertainty, I'm confident and it's clear that there's a Hashem, he loves me, I'm accountable to him. הנה אני מרגיש את הכל אלקות. הנה אני מרגיש את מציאות השם יתברך באורו. I'm feeling and I'm aware that everything in existence is from Hashem. ומזה נהיה לו כעת יותר בירור and right now I have a clarity sheha'ochel eino klum that food is nothing, food is going to decay and food is going to rot and food is going to spoil and food's going to disappear and it's really not about the food אלא כל עניין בו וכל ההנאה בו הוא רק הנקודה האלקות שבו, and I'm reminding myself that every time I'm eating, I'm finding God in that food, I'm finding God in that food. Someone just sent me a little clip from Joey Newcomb, Reb Joey Newcomb, my good buddy Joey says a cup of coffee, gevaldike geshmak. I'm not going to try to imitate Joey, there is only one, but he says the coffee, coffee has within it inherent contradictions. The coffee, coffee's bitter, but then you add a little sweetener. and it's sweet and it's bitter. And the coffee's hot, but then you could have it ice cold. And the coffee is this, and the coffee is that. Coffee has all these contradictions. And so you hold it up and you say shehakol nihiyeh bidvaro. All of it, all the contradictions of it, shehakol nihiyeh bidvaro. It all comes from you, Hashem. It all comes. So you could drink a cup of coffee and you can say thank God for the coffee it wakes me up, thank God for the coffee it gets me going, or you could look at the cup of coffee and you could say God, you're in the cup of coffee. You, you thought of and created and designed the coffee bean, and you created the grinding of it, and you created the coffee of it, and you gave me this emotional feelings, emotional connection, you gave me this comfort of drinking a nice hot beverage every morning called coffee that also wakes me up and has certain health benefits although too much has a health health threats. So God is in the coffee. Shabbos food. A meal. You're going to wash, you're going to bench, it was Pesach Sheini this week, get some matzah, I hope on Monday. So God is in the matzah. The matzah is not just an excuse if you're one of the weird people like me who enjoy matzah to go eat it without any any guilt that you're having a carb midweek, but you say God you're in this matzah. What is the story of Pesach Sheini, what is the story of matzah, what does matzah represent in the food. So it's a second example, that when you're feeling the light, when there's no eclipse of the sun, when there's not a cloud in the sky, when the light of Hashem is coming directly and there is no barrier, it's not being filtered, it's not being blocked, but you feel oh, without doubt, without denial, there is a Hashem. Take out your magnifying glass and give it some thought for a moment, what area am I working on, how do I need to improve, in what way do I want to be better, first of all, that's the battle right there. If you are such a person that you live your life saying, what am I working on, how do I want to be better, what needs improvement, that's half the battle right there. It's unbelievable. You're engaged, you're engaged in introspection, you're engaged in the process of trying to understand yourself, you're engaged in the process of self-improvement, that's the battle right there. So on any given day or week or however often we are going through that evaluation and introspection we have to ask ourselves, what am I working on right now? And then when you have that clarity grab the magnifying glass and direct it, intensify that sunlight, enlighten right what we're working on. So the first example he gave was taiva or gaiva, temptation or arrogance. Second example is food. The next, dugma nosefes, another example says Rav Itche Meir. אם עובד על אהבת ישראל, you're working on loving every Jew. Who shouldn't be working on that right now? Sefiras Ha'omer. We're about to come to Lag Ba'omer, Rabi Akiva, twenty-four thousand students died in a month, a thousand funerals a day, a thousand. Who's not drained after one funeral? A thousand funerals a day. Why? שלא נהגו כבוד זה בזה, because they couldn't respect one another. They didn't love each other. What does that mean, how do you understand that, not for now. So let's say someone's working on ahavas Yisrael, I'm working on being less judgmental, I'm working on being less hypercritical, I'm working on doing less marginalizing or criticizing or being holier-than-thou or condescending towards others. I want to see the good spark of God in everybody, I want to connect, ve'ahavta lere'acha kamocha, ahavas Yisrael, I want to see every Jew not as a stranger, but every Jew as a member of my family. Yachshov bechoach ha'or, so take that magnifying glass out on the day that has no cloud. שכל יהודי פנימיותו הוא עצם חלק אלוק ממעל, and I'm going to magnify that glass on the people who I struggle the hardest to find the God in them. To realize that everybody, every animated, every living being is a spark, is a manifestation of God in this world. ורק על זה צריך להסתכל, that's all I have to look at. ויחזק את המחשבה הזאת, and I need to strengthen that. So yeah, in shul, I can't stand the way that person dresses or speaks or behaves. I don't like how they vote or who they root for. I don't like the choices that they're making. I just, it bothers me, it aggravates me. I don't understand how they could approach corona differently or come to different conclusions politically. I don't understand hashkafically how they're different, they're not in the shaar hakollel with me, but they have to lock themselves in to one hashkafa or one type. I don't like it. I don't like it. Says Rav Itche Meir, the antidote the answer is to find the God in them. To take out that magnifying glass and shine the spotlight, the light of the clarity of Hashem on them and say you know what, those are the things I don't like but what do I love about them? Maybe I don't like those aspects but what do I love about them? Where is the God, what's redeeming, what's noble, where is the God in them, what are their skills, their attributes, their traits, what can I connect with, what can I be inspired by, and what can I be what can I learn from them? ויחזק את המחשבה בכח הרגשת אור אלוקי שמרגיש את מציאות השם יתברך בחוזק ובהירות. dugma nosefes. Example number four. אם מרגיש אור באמצע תפילה, you're in the middle of davening you say ooh this is a great davening. Most davening my mind is wandering and the phone is vibrating in my pocket and I'm thinking about all the things that I was supposed to do and needed to do, the conversation I had and what I should have answered back. My mind is wandering to everything else under the sun, but now I have a davening where the light breaks through there is no eclipse. This is not some davening where I can't wait for it to be over. This is not davening where I wish I weren't wearing a mask. This is a davening where I lose myself. I don't know where I am or what I'm wearing because all I know is I'm in the presence of my father, of the almighty, and I am unburdening myself on him and I'm leaning on him and I'm grateful to him and I'm asking him for things. The light, the certainty, the clarity, the confidence of God is coming through. מנמשך כולו להתענג ההרגשה ייחוד השם יתברך. And it's gevaldig. It's amazing. You're feeling great about it. אזי אחרי שנגמר האור עולה לו לא שלא יהיה לו טעם להמשיך בתפילה. When the light passes, you feel, I don't want to continue with davening. אבל אם כשמרגיש את האור. But imagine in this last example, that while you feel the light, the clarity, the confidence, hu gam mesargem, hu gam metargem, הוא גם מתרגם אותו אל תוך ענייניו, you're translating it, you're incorporating it, you're executing it in your daily life. ולמשל להחזיק בהרגשה כי השם יתברך כאן עמי. And you say, I don't want to just feel connected and leaning on and grateful to him while I'm here in shul with my siddur open, while I'm saying my Tehillim. I want to carry him with me wherever I go. I want to realize he's with me all throughout the day. Yachshov, think in that moment. There's a burst of sunlight. The clouds have lifted. You have clarity for the moment that there's a Hashem, he loves us, he's involved, he's invested in my life. What do I do with that? I take a moment and I meditate on it. I lean into it. I reflect on it. I capture it and I think to myself, הנה אני מרגיש כל כך חזק את השם יתברך. I'm feeling his presence so intensely right now. אזי מזה אני לומד. I've learned from this כמה שיתברך נמצא אתי תמיד. He's with me all the time. I may be feeling it right now, but it's really available to me all the time. ואז על ידי האור שהיה לו הוא ירגיש עכשיו בעוד יותר את מציאות השם יתברך. Through that light and through that experience, now you know that we're capable of it and it's accessible to us whenever we want it. Whenever we want it. The Wi-Fi is always going on. Did you turn the Wi-Fi on in your device? Your device is only going to be connected when you turn the Wi-Fi on. It doesn't mean that the greater Wi-Fi in the atmosphere and environment is only on when your device is connected to it. The Wi-Fi is working. The question is have you engaged the Wi-Fi in your device? We are that device and we have that antenna, we have the capacity to contact the Wi-Fi of the presence of Hashem. The question is have we turned it on? Is it engaged? Is it connected? וממילא הוא ירצה להמשיך ולהתפלל לדבר אתו בפשיטות כבן אל אביו. So Reb Itzchok Meir gave us one, two, three, four, five, five examples of how to apply this principle: that when we are inspired, when there's a burst of inspiration, that when the clouds lift and we feel the intense presence of Hashem, that in that moment make a decision, take upon yourself a kabbalah. Don't let it disappear, don't let it dissipate, don't let it be fleeting. Capture it, bottle it, concretize it, execute on it. Make a decision: how is this going to change me? How is this going to transform me? How will I be different as a result of it? What will I do differently? What will I do differently? That's my question and challenge to you. I welcome your feedback. Email me. REG@brsonline.org. Tell me your stories. We haven't read an emunah email in a while. I love your emunah emails. They give me such, such chizuk. So if this emunah is having an impact on your life in a way that can inspire others, anonymously or with your name, share it with me and I'll share it in this class. If you've had this experience where you've felt the light, the clouds lifted, the the eclipse lifted and you felt the intense presence of Hashem and that you bottled it, you captured it and you changed something about your life or lifestyle as a result, tell me. I want to learn, I want to grow and I want to share it with others. REG@brsonline.org, REG@brsonline.org. Thank you again to our generous sponsors for today. We continue tonight 9 o'clock. We're going Behind the Bima with my dear friend Matthew Hiltzik, fascinating individual. If you don't know him, you'll want to come learn all about it. You can subscribe on our YouTube channel, be notified in real time every time we go live to learn together, to grow together, so please press subscribe and you'll be notified in real time and share it with others. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
