Transcript
Okay Boker Tov and good morning. Great to be back together again and so glad that we were delayed because of a Bris, we should continue to have Simchas in the community and wonderful to have to reschedule to share good news and a good thing. I want to thank our generous sponsors, our Emuna series sponsors for the year, Dr. Zvi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella’s mother Dr. Ellen Chance. This morning’s Shiur is also sponsored anonymously. I don’t know who it’s from. With tremendous gratitude to Hashem on the recent marriage, and thank you to Rabbi Goldberg for his kind words and this inspiring Shiur. I don’t know which kind words, but you’re welcome. And by Meir and Jeffrey Gograbb, a continued Refuah Shleimah for אפרים יחיאל בן עטרה ציפורה should have a complete, speedy, painless and a full Refuah Shleimah, Im yirtzeh Hashem. Okay, we are continuing where we left off. First of all, did everyone do their homework from last week? Do you remember what your homework was? Your homework was, first Bracha of the day to concentrate. I will admit I struggled with the homework, I forgot on a few days to specifically have intent, Kavana, on that first Bracha of the day, but Baruch Hashem this morning I remembered and we are beginning the production on our disposable coffee cups that will be printed with a reminder, powered by Hashem, that we should make a Bracha on that first cup, every cup of that day, and the significance of remembering Hashem. How did we get into this? Because we’re learning this piece by Rav Wolbe reminded us last week. We have an obligation to make 100 Brachos a day. Dovid HaMelech’s antidote, his answer to the plague the Jewish people were going through was to make no less than 100 Brachos a day. So Rav Wolbe suggested, even though it’s difficult to be mindful, it’s difficult to be fully present and remember all 100 Brachos a day, 10 Brachos we can do. 10 you could do. I said 10, that’s very ambitious. 1 Bracha we can do. Let’s start off with 1 Bracha a day and let it be that first Bracha of the day. If the first Bracha of the day we are mindful, the first Bracha of the day we’re paying attention and we’re thinking, then we will set ourselves on the path for remembering Hashem throughout the day. The biggest challenge, I think, for most people is not believing that there is a God or believing that He’s involved and interacts in our life, even though I quoted last Shabbos in another context a Pew study from right before Corona said that while 80% of Americans believe in God, 56% believe in the God of the Bible, and fewer than 50% believe that God has anything to do with their lives. That means to say that the majority of people who believe in God believe that there’s a creator, there’s a first cause, there’s a designer, and He moved on. He finished the project and He had other things to tend to, and He’s not involved in the petty minutia details of our life. If my cup of coffee is hot or cold, if I spill it on myself or if I don’t, if I’m stuck in traffic or make the flight. God is doing big things, big things in the universe, in the cosmos. He’s creating worlds, He is maneuvering and manipulating the whole world. He’s got a virus and a pandemic that He is deciding to control. My life, my little life, what happens in my life, most Americans don’t believe God is involved in their life. We, of course, do. Not only do we believe, we know. וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך. It’s not a leap of faith and it’s not a belief, but it’s a knowledge. Torah tells us that we can know, we can know as much as we know anything else. We’ve talked about this also. What are we up to? We’re over 200 Emuna Shiurim, so way back towards the beginning we talked about evidence for God’s existence. How do we know? We know with the same level of knowledge that we know anything else. Many of you are enjoying Dunkin’. What’s Dunkin’s slogan? Powered by Dunkin’ something, what’s... nobody here knows? I just drink... The only time you drink Dunkin’ Donuts is when we sponsor it. Okay. America runs on Dunkin’. Shkoach, thank you. America runs on Dunkin’. So America runs on Dunkin’. ברוך אתה ה' אלוהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen. You want a piece of cheesecake? Cheese, no no, let’s not go crazy with the cheesecake. A steak maybe, but cheesecake, it’s not worth it. Cape Cod potato chips, maybe. Ay yay yay, they sent home from the Chopped competition, the leftover Cape Cod for me. Put Kryptonite right into the house, the poison right in front of me, and I passed somewhat, I failed somewhat too, but Baruch Hashem. Anyway, what were we talking about? Dunkin’ runs on, America runs on Dunkin’. Why did we get into that? Bracha every day. What were we talking about? Oh, remembering that God exists. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu is involved in every detail of life. That’s what we’re talking about. We don’t have to take a leap of faith. That’s what I started to say. How do you know in the coffee that’s provided for you in the back room in this box, how do you know there’s no poison, there’s no cyanide, there’s nothing contaminated? Everyone’s putting down their cup right now. How do you know? The answer is that you don’t have absolute knowledge. What do you have? You have overwhelming evidence. Dunkin’ Donuts would be shut down. down if, in fact, it was not vigilant in being careful that the coffee was safe. Boker Tov synagogue would be shut down if we were not careful and we provided you with a coffee that was unsafe. Is that absolute knowledge? It's overwhelming evidence. When you cross the street, how do you know you don't have a blind spot? How do you know there's not a car racing around the corner? How do you know your judgment is not impaired or you're not having hallucinations? The answer is you don't, but you have overwhelming evidence that you're mentally stable and that you're healthy and that empirically your experience has taught you if you look both ways it's safe to cross. And the same is true with countless other examples that we do not have an absolute knowledge of anything in our lives. Anything. There's nothing that we know with certainty. We accumulate and we amass as much evidence as we can, we weigh it, and when we have overwhelming evidence in a certain direction, we make decisions based on that evidence. And what the Torah is asserting, what the Torah tells us is there is no less evidence for God's existence. And that's why atah hareisa lada'at. You've been shown not to believe, you've been shown to know. וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך. Don't take a leap of faith, that's other religions. We don't have to leap anywhere. You could stay put. You don't have to jump off the ground. You don't have to take any leap. You can know, know. Examine the evidence, consider all the so-called proofs for God's existence, and when you examine and you collect all the evidence, you will come to the conclusion like in other areas of our lives and we can know, we can know. So what happens? What's the problem? Why did I forget to have kavanah for my opening bracha on my opening cup of coffee most of the mornings since last week? I'm an honest teacher, so I began by telling you I forgot to do the homework most of the days. Why? If you ask me, do I believe, I don't believe, I know there's a Ribbono Shel Olam, I know there's a God. I love him, I'm invested in communicating, spending time with him, in being devoted to him. He loves me. I'm filled and overwhelmed with gratitude for feeling and sensing the love he has for me. So why couldn't I remember to make a bracha on the cup of coffee? Because what happens? We forget. He's invisible, we don't hear him, and life gets in the way. And that's why we have the 100 brachos a day. Have kavanah for 10, says Rav Wolbe. Says Goldberg, try for the first one. Try for one. Try for one. So that's why we're going to produce these cups of coffee. It's not going to say Dunkin'. Disposable cups, we're going to put some good slogans that will remind us, powered by the Ribbono Shel Olam, that Jews run on God. I don't know, whatever, we'll have to come up with a good slogan. And recognize and start our day by remembering that he is intimately involved. In other words, he's not just aware of what's going on in our lives, it's not just he has expectations and holds us accountable for what's going on in our lives, he is intimately invested in and interceding on behalf of our lives. Those who are blessed to be parents, those who want to should experience that blessing and know it. We want to know what's going on in our kids' lives. We're desperate as a parent. It's not like, "Don't bother me! Why do you keep telling me?" Every time the WhatsApp group lights up with pictures of where they are now and how they're spending money on your credit card right now, okay, the credit cards you gotta, you gotta deal with that, but you're overjoyed. Like you can never get enough pictures of your grandchildren. I don't care if you run out of memory, you run to the store and buy more memory, get a new phone. You could never get enough information of what's going on in your children and your grandchildren's lives. Hashem says, "You think I'm not invested, I don't want to know about your life? Send me pictures, fill me in, talk to me, ask me for help, thank me afterwards, tell me what you're frustrated or upset at me that didn't go right. Just stay in touch with me. Just connect." He's involved in our life and he wants us to involve ourselves with him or invite him to be involved in our life and that's what these 100 times a day to stop and to think and to remember and to make that bracha. Speaking of remembering, what page are we up to? Does anyone remember? Oh, I made a little note, look at that. Baruch Hashem, I made a little note. Hinei, we're up to vav, pey dalet, page pey dalet. We are learning the sefer that came out, teachings of Rav Wolbe called He'aros, and we are to page pey dalet, 84, and os vav, paragraph 6. הבה נלמד מזה למעשה. Let's learn about this in practice. ננסה לטעום טעם רוחני בפרי שברכנו עליו כמה פעמים ביום. So Rav Wolbe developed the idea last time if you recall that we need to eat in order to live. Our life is not sustained, you can't breathe, your heart won't beat, you cannot live if you don't eat. Nebach there are people who starve to death. When I deal with end of life issues, which tragically come up way too often, that's often the most popular question: is it end of life, do we have to provide oxygen, do we need to put in a feeding tube, do we intubate, do we have to put in a peg, do we have to, are you allowed to? And halacha is complicated, I don't want to simplify it right now, other than to say that in a general sense halacha says we don't have to take heroic measures, extra measures. You do not have to continue a dialysis or pressors for blood pressure or antibiotics for infection, but to withhold oxygen and nourishment means that the person will not die from illness, they'll die from starvation or from suffocation. So if illness takes their life, that's Hashem, but if suffocation or starvation takes their life, that's Could be on us; each case is different and again every case needs its own question. My point only is we know that if we don't eat, we will die. We need to eat to live, which means that inherent within all food that extends and gives and sustains life is that life force, is that life energy. Who is the source of all life force? Who is the source of all energy? It's the Almighty, it's Hashem. So where can He be found? He can be found in every breath of air I take in my lungs. Ask those at the early stages of Corona who were struggling. Yesterday I interviewed somebody for a series who is still recovering from Corona from a few weeks ago. He kept coughing, he was struggling. Corona was a respiratory illness, people struggled. Neshamah and neshima. כל הנשמה תהלל קה כל הנשימה. With every breath, with every part of our soul, we thank Hashem because where can you find Hashem in every breath? It happens naturally, we don't think about the breath, our body responds and knows how to do it automatically, but every breath that we successfully take in which the lungs do what they're supposed to do, what comes in is supposed to come in, what goes out is supposed to go out, and we don't cough or choke, is a miracle. That's God. He is sustaining us through our breath and He is sustaining us through our food. So therefore says Rav Volbe, if you want contact with Divine, if you want to connect with Hashem, then when you take a bite of food you are actually absorbing, you are imbibing godliness. That food will sustain your life, it is the life force and the life energy, God is in it. And the bracha we make before it reminds us of that. So this isn't just an ordinary cup of coffee, it's not just a cup of water, it's not just a potato chip, it's not just a piece of a salad, but when you make that bracha preceding it, when you introduce it with the bracha, what you're saying is Hashem, I'm about to make contact with you. Hashem, I'm about to spend a moment with you. Hashem, I'm about to imbibe you, absorb you, I'm about to taste what it is to have a life with you. כמו בכל ענין מעניני עבודה נצטרך להשתלם בזו איזה תקופה עד שנרגיש משהו. And the truth is in any area of life that we want to form new habits, we have to persevere, we have to repeat, we have to be committed and devoted in order to make it an ongoing and consistent reality עד שלבסוף נצליח לקיים ממש טעמו וראו כי טוב ה'. Our goal is to actually be able to experience ta'amu ure'u. I don't remember if I mentioned it in the Emunah shiur, I mentioned it recently in a Shabbos drasha. My Bubbe, aleha hashalom, Ruth Abof, my grandmother, her favorite pasuk in Tanach was טעמו וראו כי טוב ה'. In the hospital at the end of her life, she told her children and grandchildren, don't ever forget ta'amu ure'u, just taste and you will see ki tov Hashem. If you don't think God is good, it's because you haven't given it a taste. You haven't taken a taste. Take a taste of a life with God, take a taste of a life with emunah, live with Hashem for a period of time, talk to Him and be grateful to Him and feel His presence in your life, feel His support and His embrace. Know that He's by your side. Taste it, taste what it's like and you will realize ki tov Hashem. There is no other way. I mentioned, did I mention it in the Emunah shiur? I mentioned it Shabbos morning. We had been in a tour of the Coke factory in Atlanta several years ago, and the history of Coke, which I won't repeat now the entire thing, but basically it was sold first in a pharmacy and it was a syrup that had to be mixed with water and nobody bought it. Did very little sales the entire first year, cost more to produce the syrup than they did in sales in the revenue of that year. And then they had an einfall, a great idea. You know what? So confident in the winning formula of Coca-Cola, still the secret winning formula of Coca-Cola, which is a whole separate topic. How does the OU give it kashrus? How do you supervise and give kosher supervision to a company that has a formula that's secret and won't tell you? So there was actually a teshuvah in Hebrew written a century ago when Coca-Cola formula first began. We studied it one year on Pesach because how did they know if there was chametz? What Coca-Cola does, this is a tangent of a tangent of a tangent, so stick with me and somebody get us back on the highway afterwards. But you know what Coca-Cola does? To the best of my knowledge, if there are ten ingredients of Coke, they actually store fifteen ingredients in the factory and they don't let the mashgiach know which ones are the ones that are really going in and in what proportion. That's how you could know everything going in is kosher, but you don't really know what the formula is. You don't really know what the formula is. So he had an einfall, the inventor of Coke who was losing money in that first year, said, "You know what? I'm so confident that we have the winning formula. I'm so confident that if people only tasted it they would see how good it is. Everyone gets a first taste for free." Now Costco does that. Everybody gives a first taste for free, right? Every bend you turn in Costco there's somebody, I don't know they're doing that during Corona. I'm very makpid, I haven't gone shopping during Corona. I'm not ready to go back yet. No, ever. I'm very makpid for life. So, if a taste, take a taste and then you're going to buy the product, it's so good. So David Hamelech says, "Take a taste, ta'amu ure'u," and David Hamelech says, "I know with certainty ki tov Hashem." You're going to find that Hashem is great. So that's what Rav Volbe says, רבת תועלת היא ההשתלמות הזאת. So Rav Volbe says, literally take a taste. Take a taste, make a shehakol, Hashem, everything comes from you. You're in this coffee: the coffee bean, the grinding, the packaging, the flavor, the Splenda, the stirring, the right warmth, my hands, my soul, it's nourishing me, it's waking me up, the caffeine, shehakol, Hashem, when I put this in my system, I'm putting you in my system. I'm making contact with the divine. I'm speaking, I'm making a connection with you, Hashem, through that cup of coffee. Chazal omrim b'midrash, Chazal say טעמו וראו כי טוב ה'. אמר הקדוש ברוך הוא הוו מקיים כל המצוות שנתתי לך בתורה. Hashem says, I want you to fulfill all the mitzvos in the Torah. Fulfill them all. אם אכלת מפירות הארץ ומן האילן. Have you eaten? I made a beautiful world for you. It's got an incredible smorg. There are incredible opportunities out there. I made an amazing, amazing, beautiful menu. Have you eaten from the fruit of my tree? Have you tried the vegetables from the ground? Hava mevarech aleihem. All I ask you, all you have to do to pay is make a bracha. In other words, here's Publix, here's The Grove, here's Aroma, here's Winn-Dixie, come in and take whatever you want. The way that you pay, the cash register is, just say thank you. Acknowledge and reference where it comes from, and it's all yours, says God. שאכלת ולא ברכת אתה גוזל את הפירות את האילן ואת הארץ. When our children were young, we tried to remind them to make a bracha by saying, you can't steal, don't forget, we can't steal that from Hashem, it's His. You gotta make a bracha is how we ask for permission, that's how we buy, that's how we say thank you. You gotta say thank you. You can't walk out of the store taking something without paying, and you can't take something from God's world without paying. So what do we think, such hotshots, pay God? I paid the cashier at Publix. What are you talking about? I have another good tangent story, but we took too many detours so far today. But you gotta, what do you mean? I already paid at Publix, I paid at The Grove. What do I have to pay God? The answer is, but did The Grove pay? In other words, where'd they get it from? Where does it originally come from? Ulemishum megadlah. Who is the one who invented it? Who is the one who created it? And who is the one who allowed it to grow in a healthy way? ואם אכל אדם ובירך וממליך לבוראם הוי טעמו וראו כי טוב ה'. So that's what the Midrash on the Yalkut Shimoni says on this pasuk of Dovid Hamelech. Just taste and you'll see God is good. And how do you taste? When are you entitled to taste? What is the payment, the currency? You don't Venmo or Zelle God. All you have to do is say shehakol nihiyeh bidvaro. All you have to do is make a bracha. And through that bracha, that is the payment. באר בעל הזיצר ענן. So the Zeiser Anan says the following: מי שמברך על כל דבר ודבר כאילו קיים כל המצוות כולם. If a person makes a bracha, it's as if they fulfilled all the mitzvos. Now, that does not mean you're off the hook. You don't just make a shehakol, God, I'm done for the day, now I can have a cheeseburger, I don't have to daven Mincha, I'm good to go, I made my bracha. But rather, it means it's equal to, it means included within it is as if all the mitzvos of the day. למדנו מכאן יסוד גדול. We learn from here a critically important lesson. שאדם שמברך לפני אכילתו וממליך בברכתו את הבורא יתברך הוי טועם הוא על ידי כן כי טוב ה'. It means that there are 613 different trajectories or steps or paths to connecting to God. And I would have to take 613 different journeys in order to experience them all. But if I make one bracha, I've included them all. It's as if I've taken every journey there is. Why? Because the bracha is the way to to'emu, it's the way to taste God. You want to taste, you want to preview, you want to experience, you want to touch the divine? Be'to'emu God, taste God. And how? By making a bracha, by making a bracha. כמדומה שאין יכולתנו לשער מה הוא כוחה של ברכה אחת. Says Rav Wolbe, for the life of us, we cannot begin, we cannot begin to appreciate what is the inestimable value of one bracha. Last week I shared with you the story from the time of רב יהושע לייב דיסקין, the woman whose colostomy bag was changed once a day, and it was worth living, it was worth fighting for life, it was worth continuity, it was worth suffering the rest of the day for the one moment she was eligible to make a bracha because she said a bracha, one moment a day, one chance a day, I could connect myself, I could connect heaven and earth, one moment a day I could bring Hashem down here, I could say thank you for all that I have, all that I am, one moment a day I could be'to'em, I could taste a life of God. It's all worth it for that. So the value of one bracha, it changes and moves the cosmos. We don't understand its impact on us and on our family. One bracha, one bracha, one bracha in a relationship. In a relationship, you could have a person who's neglected the relationship, abused the relationship, disappointed the relationship, but in one shot, יש קונה עולמו בשעה אחת, there are people who redeem themselves in one moment. In that one moment that they said please or thank you, in the one moment they made that bid for connection, in the one moment they humbly submitted and conceded to the nature of that relationship and appreciation for it, can change the entire relationship. The value of saying the right thing in the right moment, the right time, and the right way. way to the right person, it can change and move worlds. It moves worlds. We know that in the world of diplomacy, world wars began because the wrong thing was said or were avoided because the right thing was said. What a bracha can do, the value of a bracha and the value of an amen which we've talked about maybe we'll talk about more, the whole notion of amen we know groups of women, groups of people gather to make brachos out loud and answer amen to one another because of the value of what that does, how it changes the cosmos, how it changes the entire world. קרבה עצומה כזאת לבורא עולם we're on page peh hey. אפילו על ידי ברכה אחת ויחידה בלבד. You could ignore God, neglect God, disappoint God all day long. You're not allowed to, we're accountable for it, shouldn't be proud of it, we gotta work on it, but with one bracha we can repair that damage. With one bracha. You have a child who was chutzpadik the entire day. You have a child who ignored what you asked him to do the whole day. You have a child who was rude and obnoxious the whole day. And then one moment after dinner they come up and they say I really want to thank you, dinner was delicious, thank you for the work you put into it. They snuggle in your arm and they say thank you for whatever it is or they just a gesture of affection even if there's no words to it. Are you still thinking about their chutzpah, their disobedience? No, you're just grateful. They have repaired and they've changed and now if they go back to being chutzpadik you gotta take away their phone. But in that one sentence, in that one gesture of affection, they've won you over. So the Ribbono Shel Olam, that's the power says Rav Wolbe, one bracha. One shehakol. Maybe we didn't have our best day, spoke lashon hara, didn't really daven, didn't daven with a lot of kavana, didn't do what we were supposed to, meant to, wanted to, could have done. But we then decided one bracha, Hashem I'm coming back to You. And by the way, how long is this conversation with God? As we spoke about last week, a millisecond, one second, three at most, I don't know anyone who takes more than three seconds to make a shehakol. How long is that conversation? We're not exactly significantly interrupting our life. This is not a major gift we're giving. And yet, look at the inestimable impact it can have. מי שמשתדל בזה מרגיש ממש טעם שונה במאכל and the whole food tastes different. The food tastes different. If the food is an atheist agnostic food, is it the experience of eating as an atheist or agnostic? Or are you eating as a believer? Not a believer because we said you don't need faith, are you eating as a knower? Are you eating as somebody who knows there's a God and who feels His presence and who finds Him in that food? Find Hashem in that food. He's in the food that we eat. It sustains us. It's our life force, it's our life source. It energizes us. And that's Him, hidden, cloaked within the food. Now our mission is to peel back those layers, to reveal Him, to find Him and make contact with Him in that food. Now, what food is He in? He's never in kale, but He's in certain foods. He's in certain foods. Doesn't matter, somebody sent me a shaila on Friday, not from Boca, no one who lives in Boca, nobody you know. They sent me a shaila, they forwarded me an article, and they wanted to know are you allowed to massage kale on Shabbos? I didn't know what that was. I was afraid to open the article frankly. But apparently there's something you massage the lettuce that brings out something in the lettuce, you're supposed to massage kale. It softens it? There's nothing you can do to it that will make it taste good. You can massage it from haint till morgen, it's not going to help, not going to help. Unless you douse it with the sugary salad dressing that will make it edible. Anyway, I won't tell you what I wrote back to the shaila: are you allowed to massage kale on Shabbos? It was a man who wrote it to me so the first thing I said is you've got to turn in your man card first of all and then we can talk. You have hereby been suspended just for asking this question and then we could figure out the answer together in Hilchos Shabbos. So I don't know if Hashem's in the kale or not. But whatever we put, halo shemo, kale, maybe maybe he's maybe he's in there. So but but it's a totally different mentality and attitude towards eating. And I don't want to fixate on the eating, again we gave a shiur online a few months ago in Elul about the Jewish hashkafa of eating. But it's true about breathing. There's a reason, you know, we're living in a time where our breathing is so shallow. There are countless articles and research that shows that many of the illnesses and much of what we're suffering today is because we're always running and doing and active and we don't stop to breathe deeply. And we're not getting the oxygenation we need, respiratory, we're not living our best selves. Our breathing is very shallow. Part of why, I saw an article that said you know why it's shallow? Because in order to really take in a deep breath you need to lift your head up and we all the time are like this. And there's actually studies that show that our head is down facing our little device all day long, watching, typing, listening, talking, we're looking down that we're not taking in the oxygen that we need. So it's not a coincidence, neshama and neshima, breath and soul are the same word. We restore our soul when we take deep breaths. So to set that alarm, maybe that'll be your homework. Not yet, we didn't really complete the homework from last week, so we have repeat of that homework: kavana on the opening bracha of the day. We'll add homework as we go. about putting a timer on our phone to stop and take breath. There are apps, you don't need me or a timer for this, this I know, there are many apps for this that remind you to stop and breathe. Could you believe it? 2021 we need apps to remind us to stop and breathe. The more sophisticated and the more advanced we become, the more steps we take backwards and the more pathetic we become. It used to be a time the shepherd was out in the field and they didn't stop breathing a little hitbodedut, just taking in. The farmer was out in the field, the hunter, the person, it used to be a time that life was slow, person was by the river doing the laundry and they were breathing, looking around, taking it in, lost in their thoughts. And we think we've made such progress but we've regressed that we no longer have time to think and we no longer remember to breathe and as much as we've progressed by making all kinds of technological breakthrough that makes life easier it needs to be accompanied by an app that reminds us to breathe. That's how pathetic we have become. We forgot to breathe. Don't forget to breathe. Imagine, imagine growing up your mother, your father sent you to school. Listen, don't forget to breathe today. Everything else you have to do, don't forget you're going to work, don't forget to breathe today. We have apps, we pay to download apps to remind us to breathe. But we do, we need to. neshama and neshima. So when we breathe, we are absorbing Hashem into our lungs. When we eat, we are tasting God in our life. These are contact points we have with the divine throughout our day. What's missing or what we need to bring to the table is the mindfulness to do it. To remember. And when we do it changes our entire life. It changes our life. It'll bring peace and serenity and happiness and joy. It'll take away anxiety and worry and fear. He's right by our side. I was all anxious and I was worried and I was afraid. I just made a bracha. Oh yeah, I forgot he exists and if he exists then I have nothing to worry about. So here's the emuna story for the week. I always encourage our listeners live or who are listening virtually to share emuna stories because it gives me chizuk and I hope it does you as well. So someone sent this in. And when you do let me know whether I should say your name or not because I never know. Since my father passed away writes this person on Kaf Beit Elul, my sister and I have been listening to your Living with emuna shiur instead of the radio. This morning on my way to work the shiur was about how nothing is coincidence and everything is from Hashem. Which by the way is all 200 shiurim so far. While we were sitting shiva my sister noticed I wear an old ring we had both gotten from Hadaya in Israel. Did I say that right? Yes. That says Gam Zeh Ya'avor. That this too shall pass. She went to look for hers after shiva but could not find it anywhere. She was going to order a new one online with a special quote to remember our father. That day she randomly met someone she didn't know before who was going to Israel for Yom Tov and asked them if they could pick up the special ring for her. They said yes and it turned out to be someone who works in the same place as I do. Baruch Hashem I was able to get the ring from them today. This story is truly what you spoke about. Every piece of the puzzle had to fit just right. It can only be from Hashem that this couple was sent to do this special task for my sister to give her comfort. So again, if you live your life with your eyes open then you realize it can either be you know written off as oh look at that coincidence. I just remembered I want the ring, someone was going to Israel at exactly the right time who I didn't know before but he shared that they're going to Israel. Turns out they work with my sister and can give the ring to her who will give it to me. Oh what a string of coincidences cute. Or you could say I was suffering and struggling, I was going through loss, I was looking for comfort in the message that would be on that ring so Hashem said here's a messenger. I'm sending you an angel. Here's UPS FedEx they're going to Israel they'll bring it back. Don't worry you won't have to struggle how you'll find it, how it'll get delivered. They work with your sister who will bring it right to you. So you could interpret or read everything going on in our lives as a string of random coincidences or you could say Hashem you've been sending me angels. You're orchestrating and curating my whole life. Everything's happening the way it's meant to. Now there are moments like the people who send me the emuna stories where you live afterwards and you could say wow I see exactly how that worked out right, I needed it too, otherwise this never would have happened. But most of our life we don't have that luxury, we don't have that privilege. We live life forward even though we can only understand it backwards and parts of life we will never understand maybe in the next world in the Olam HaEmet we will. Until then it will remain a mystery. But we should be searching, we should be looking, we should be wanting to understand because when we do, when it makes sense, when we can uncover and decipher it, then we feel his presence. Mishpacha Magazine had Yehuda Geberer the great historian in his article a couple weeks ago talked about Rav Leizer Silver. Malky Morris's grandfather. How Rav Leizer Silver, great rav from Cincinnati in America, he was in Europe and he was trying to send a message—it was Rav Leizer Silver, right? He was trying to send a message to his family that he was okay but he knew that all the telegrams were being monitored so he took out an ad in a Jewish newspaper and he embedded a cryptic message that when you read the ad you're like this makes no sense whatsoever. I have no idea what's going on. But his family were able to decipher and read between the lines and understand that he was telling them that he's okay. That he's okay. It's a fascinating story, fascinating story. His brilliance and their capacity to understand and decipher it and his intuition and entrepreneurship to use that that mechanism to deliver the message but it got me thinking that Hashem is embedding... What's not included in this email was that really Hashem was doing things for this person all the time, but they used to listen to the radio. Now there's nothing wrong with the radio. I like music, Yocheved's got the best playlist around. Nothing wrong with listening to the radio, listening to great music. I like music as much as the next person, but sometimes you have to shut down the noise and listen to the emunah to remind us to look for and decipher the message in life. Because had had that been the radio playing, maybe the ring story would have just been written off as, ah, what a coinkidink. Instead of wow, Hashem was winking at me. Hashem sent angels to orchestrate comforting me. So there's so much noise and we're moving at such a fast pace, we have to stop and remember to breathe, stop and remember to make a bracha and to have kavana mindfulness for one moment. For one moment. You walked out of a busy meeting and you had to go to the bathroom and you came out of the bathroom, the whole meeting, one hour, two hour, three hour, it's a whole meeting, you're negotiating and you're figuring something out in business or on behalf of the community or on behalf of your child or in life and we can forget God is part of that conversation. We forget, we forget that we are to revolve ourselves around His values and His vision, what He wants for us. We forget that He's a stakeholder in what's happening. We forget to stop and consider what will give nachas ruach to Him, what is the ratzon Hashem. We forget. But we stop to go to the restroom and we come out and we make an Asher Yatzar. So if we do it as a Tefilas Haderech, we're saying Asher Yatzar as we walk back into the room, then it does nothing. But if we stopped for that moment, how long does it take to say Asher Yatzar? God, You created the whole world in Your image and it's a miracle that it exists and we wouldn't be here without You. Everything needs to function just right and You made the most incredible factory called the human body. You're amazing. Now you go back into the meeting, you're like, whoa, I was wondering where's God and how this will work out. I was panicking and I was anxious and I was envious, but that Asher Yatzar just put me back on track, that Asher Yatzar just got me navigating right back on the road. So those hundred brachas a day, and whether it's the shehakol in the cup of coffee, or whether it's even the bracha on kale, or whether it's an Asher Yatzar after going to the bathroom, or whether it is a borei minei besamim on a wonderful fragrance, that bracha, because it's so easy to lose track, there is so much noise and there's so much wind that is knocking us off course, that bracha, that bracha is the anchor, it's the navigation tool, it's the GPS system. The bracha brings us back to living with Him. And when we live with Him, we can decipher the code that we'll see that He's all over our life. We'll see that He's all over this world. We'll see that He's everywhere. We just have to acquire that relationship with Him. We have that invitation and we have that opportunity. And then Rav Volbe has the following question, which we're not going to continue, but believe it or not, we are already out of time, but I'm posing it as the question for next week. Maybe there'll be a baby born today and then we won't have to start late next week. If not, we're back to 8:45 next week. So barring any extraordinary circumstance, we're back to 8:45 next week. But we'll just read his question for you to contemplate and think about: יש להבין וכי להקדוש ברוך הוא יש צורך שהאדם יודה לו. Is God so egotistical, is God so arrogant that He needs man to be grateful to Him? Why does God need our prayers? Why does God care so much? Is God such an egomaniac? Why does God need our prayers? We'll pick up with that Im Yirtzeh Hashem next week. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy. Join us tonight for Behind the Bima with Professor Ruth Wisse. Have a fantastic, fantastic day.
