Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov, welcome back to our Living with Emunah, so good to be together. As always, we begin with our gratitude. Special thanks to the sponsors for the series of the year, Dr. Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut zichrono livracha, in memory of Bella’s mother Dr. Ellen Schantz. The shiur this morning is sponsored by Ariella Stern in honor of the Yahrzeit of יגאל בן אריה לייב on Zayin Shvat, by Hannah Alouf in memory of her brother Alan Wilder, who loved school and books. Thank you very much. And by Nadine and Joan Rosenblatt, Besoros Tovos, yeshuos, and good health for their mother Judith Kotler, יהודית אסתר בת רייזל. Okay, we are back be'simcha. We're back living with great joy and great happiness because we see Hashem's role in our life. We are learning Be'yam Derechecha, Rabbi Itche Meyer Morgenstern. I just told you that I met him recently in Israel and am still processing that experience, still absorbing that experience, and I look forward to sharing it with you at some point in the near future. But he’s been scribing for us the notion of simcha, joy. We've talked about joy; joy is like a pilot light. On the one hand, we're told in the month of Adar, marbin be'simcha. In the month of Adar, we increase and we promote and we expand our sense of joy; we're even happier, we're even more joyful, we share even more with one another. In the month of Av, משנכנס אב ממעטין בשמחה. We diminish and we reduce our sense of joy; we temper our sense of joy in the month of Av. Notice, it never says that we extinguish our sense of joy. We never live without joy, because to live without joy is to not be alive. To live without simcha is to not be living. And so we always have a nugget, we always have a core of simcha, but simcha's like a pilot—you don't know what a pilot—you know what a pilot light is. Now they don't know what a pilot light is. The electric stove, the electric oven, nobody knows what a pilot light is. The pilot light was always lit, and when you turned on the stove, you were able to light a fire from it, or you expanded it, you flamed it, and you would do cooking, you would diminish it, you would lower it, you would shut it. So simcha's that pilot light. It's always on, it's always burning in the background. There are moments that we expand it and there are moments that we reduce it or diminish it, but simcha has to always be going on. A Jew has to live be'simcha. עבדו את השם בשמחה. מצווה גדולה להיות בשמחה תמיד. You have to be be'simcha, you have to be happy and joyful and positive and optimistic, and that has to be our default demeanor. We shouldn't have to manufacture it. We shouldn't have to hear good news or have a great meal or experience a great event in order to be able to be be'simcha. And the default the rest of the time is we're walking around verbissener miserabler, angry, complaining, negative. There are many people that's their default status. That's the—they wake up in the morning, everything's terrible. Why? I'm not sure yet, but I'm sure it will be. It will be. I'll find out momentarily. Give me a minute. Give me a minute and I'll tell you why. But they wake up already, everything's a problem. Usually, it's the person they wake up next to, but everything's a problem. That's who they blame. But everything's always a problem, you wake up. That should not be a Jew's default status. Our default is not I'm miserable, I'm angry, I'm complaining, I'm negative, I'm critical, and, oh, by the way, I had good news, so for a window of five minutes I'll be happy. The default is I'm happy, and if it's interrupted, I had a challenging situation, I had bad news, I had a struggle, so it's not gone, it's not extinguished, but it's diminished until I'm able to retrieve it. So we talked about why isn't it in the Torah? If being be'simcha, being so joyful and happy, where's the mitzvah? We have 613, and we count so many things as mitzvos. Where's the mitzvah? Name the chapter and verse, there's a mitzvah to be be'simcha, to be happy. It doesn't appear in the Torah. So we spoke about Rav Chaim Vital's message that יותר צריך להזהר ממידות הרעות יותר מקיום המצוות. The foundation, the ground floor are the middos, the character traits, the qualities of who we are. We then build up upon it the mitzvos, the positive, the negatives we avoid are all building up, but the ground floor, the foundation is to be—is to have good middos, to have good qualities, to have good character, and to be be'simcha, to be joyful. We're on page Kuf Mem Zayin, 147, at the bottom paragraph. So we asked, here's where we left off. What is the biggest obstacle, the biggest challenge, the biggest problem? Why—why do people struggle to be be'simcha? What is the biggest reason that people struggle to feel joy, to be be'simcha? Because simcha is equated with shleimus. To be be'simcha, to be happy, is equated with feeling whole, with feeling complete. What does it mean to feel whole and complete? It means that everything's good, everything makes sense, everything's for a reason, everything is on—on the trajectory I want it to be. Does anyone feel shalem, though? Does anyone in world and life feel whole? Impossible. Nobody feels whole. There's always something missing, always someone kvetching, always someone who could feel better, always someone who could be happier, there's always more that we could have, there's always a reason to see what's missing. To see what's missing. For everyone, in whatever way, in whatever reason, there's something missing. So how do you achieve shleimus? If feeling whole, of feeling shalem, of feeling complete is the formula to feeling happy, so what do we do? We've got a problem right now. On the one hand, we define happiness and joy as resulting, as stemming from feeling whole. On the other hand, we've said that nobody in this world feels whole. No one's entitled to feel whole, no one should anticipate feeling whole, nobody is whole. We have moments or pockets of feeling whole, of feeling shalem, but otherwise, to wake up and have challenges of the day. There's challenges each and every day. If you don't have challenges, you're not living life. You didn't get out of bed. So if that's the recipe for happiness, and yet nobody can have it, does it mean nobody can ever be happy? That's the question. If to feel happy, you have to feel shalem, you have to feel whole, and people struggle with feeling whole, so does that mean that we can ever feel happy? That's his question. So Izhbitzer says the following, this is where we left off last week. And this is the insight. This is the avodah, this is the work that we have to do. ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen. Ribbono shel Olam in a cup. Okay. The answer is התשובה היא שאמנם האדם מצד עצמו כשהוא לבדו אין לו שלמות. The answer is that a person on their own, page 147, kuf mem zayin. A person on their own, a person living life, who thinks I'm independent, I'm isolated, I'm by myself, there's no God, and there's no reason, there's no meaning, there's no purpose, it's me and me alone, so then I'll never feel whole. Whatever struggles, whatever challenges I confront or encounter, whatever pain I endure, I can't explain it, there's no reason, there's no meaning, there's no purpose, there's no order to it, then I'm not whole. I'm broken. I walk around broken. אבל יש בעולם שלמות אמיתית. But there is someone, something whole that we can hold onto, that we can latch onto, that we can grab onto. Achas ve-yechida. He is the one and only, the unique and exclusive whole. Ve-hi Hashem Yisbarach. And that is Hashem. Hashem was, is, and will be. Hashem is the source of all. He's the infinite, omnipotent, omniscient being. He's all powerful, He's in charge, He's in control, and He's intimately involved in our lives. And when we recognize that and realize that, and when we submit and we surrender to Him, when we let go and let God, then we realize my life is whole too. If He's in charge, He's in control, He's all-knowing, if everything He does is by definition for the good, then even when I feel that there's something lacking or absent, there's a hole in my heart or in my life, it can be filled with Him. It can be filled by grabbing on and latching on and holding on to Him. האדם יכול להרגיש שלמות ושמחה. Person can feel whole and joy. על ידי שיתחבר אליו יתברך וישמח בו. Attach ourselves to Him and be joyful and happy in Him. He's the answer. He is the answer. God is the answer. People try to fill that hole with all kinds of other things. There's an epidemic in this country, it's not being spoken about, of drug overdoses and drug addiction and addiction in general and the spike of mental illness because people have a hole in their heart. Does anyone feel whole? Omicron is carving, chipping away. There's a hole in everyone's heart. And there's bad news, there's already another variant. And it has a name, but I won't say its name, mostly because I don't remember its name. But there's a variant. There's another variant. I said yesterday in the parsha shiur that my dear friend Ari told me a vort. Paroh went through nine plagues, this parsha he comes to the tenth plague. Went through nine plagues and he still doesn't believe that there's God? He doesn't believe Moshe's message? How could it be? My buddy Ari told me, you know why? Because Paroh thought it was really one plague with nine variants. Now we know. Now we know. So what plague are we up to now, if you count? What plague, somewhat, somewhat a real plague, somewhat self-imposed? But that's not for now. That's neither here nor there. But the point is, who right now is shalem? Who's shalem? The decisions we have to make and the calculations and the coordinating and the testing and who's shalem? Who's shalem right now with what's going on in the world, what's going on in our lives? So there is an answer. You know how you could feel whole and you could feel complete? Not with drugs and not with alcohol, not with gambling, and not with acting out online or offline. We fill that hole in our heart not by numbing ourselves at Neiman Marcus or shopping on amazon.com. That'll make you feel better for five minutes till the credit card bill comes. But that's not going to make you feel good. To fill the hole in the heart is to fill it with Hashem, is to latch on and grab on and realize whatever is. Whatever this is, it's not for naught. Whatever this is, it's for a reason. I submit, I surrender, I let go, and I let God. I'm not in charge, I'm not in control, I can't micromanage, I can't overpower, I cannot control the world. I have to let go. It is what it is. If you have to fly anywhere right now, nebach on your head. Because flights are canceled left and right because the staff is canceling left and right because they're testing. So you could... I saw an interview yesterday with some nebach, some girl trying to get to... three flights were canceled. She was at the airport, the news was there. It was the fourth flight that she was trying to take within a few days. Okay, so you'll... that's not shalem, you'll go crazy, you'll go out of your mind unless you say to yourself, I wasn't meant to be on those flights, I wasn't meant to get there at that time, this is the way it is. What's the alternative to that? Anxiety, worry, depression, anger, resentment, rage. Like what's the alternative? Show me how the alternative... take a train. Tell me how the alternative... tell me how the alternative will make things better. You won't get there faster if you fly off the handle. You won't get there faster if you fly off the handle. Yocheved and I went to Israel, we had an, for us, unprecedented 17-hour delay. Our flight Wednesday night at 8:05 PM took off Thursday at 1:00 PM. Which meant we got there a day later and we missed something we were going for. Whatever. So there were people, there were people flipping out. I'll bet. It was not a pleasant terminal to be hanging out in and sleeping over in, whatever, camping in. But it didn't get you on the plane faster. It didn't get the plane to Israel any faster. In your email to the airline customer service you can express your disappointment. But in the moment we just kept saying to each other, this is Hashem's will, this is when we're meant to get there. First of all, be super enormously grateful you can get there at all today. But this is the will, this is the will, this is the will. You may have received a postcard in your mailbox yesterday. Yeah. Not going to get into it, I sent out an email about it today. We have an amazing event next week, you should all be there, a night celebrating Israel. Governor DeSantis is speaking virtually, the keynote speaker's Ambassador David Friedman, Ben Shapiro is speaking, special envoy for antisemitism Elan Carr is speaking. It's an amazing event. We're doing it with Latino Coalition for Israel. How blessed we are that there are non-Jews who care about Israel, we're so blessed. Some get it, some don't. Those who don't have launched a campaign, they put a postcard. They're doing a lot more and a lot worse than that. It's okay. So you say, this is Hashem. This is Hashem. So I said to a friend the other night, I said to a friend on Monday night, what's bothering me most about this, I'm not emotionally bothered, whatever, I'm not emotionally bothered by the negative attention. I'm bothered how much time it's taking away from me. So many better things to be doing, and having to respond or plan or whatever it is. The time. So the person said to me, they gave me great mussar, and they're 100% right and I'm indebted to them. They said, it's not a waste of time by definition, because if Hashem made this happen and it requires you to respond, then that's what you're meant to be doing with that time. So when life challenges us and puts us in a position where we have to spend time on something we'd rather not, instead of saying, that's a waste of time, who are you to argue with Him? He decided that's not a waste of your time. He decided that's how you should be spending your time right now. Why? I'm still, believe me, we're in the middle of a big conversation about... I'm not exaggerating. We've been having a lot of conversation... I've been doing most of the talking so far. But we're in the middle of a big conversation. Trying to figure out, Hashem, why? Why is this the use of my time? Why is this the the content of the attention being given right now? Why is this something that needs to be dealt with? Why? Okay, maybe I'll find out, maybe I won't. But either way I have to go into it knowing... so what? I could either hide under the bed, be depressed, cry to Yocheved and say, why me and it's embarrassing and it's... or you could say, this is from Hashem. First of all, thank you for helping promote our program. We didn't have to pay for the glossy postcard. They helped us promote our program, we didn't have to pay someone to deliver it. So you can look at it and you can say, thank you Hashem. This is how I'm meant to be spending my time. I'm not telling you that right now for sympathy. I'm telling you right now because I want to give you a real-time example of my working, my avodah in the area that we're learning. Besimcha, I'm still besimcha. Happy, happy. Because it's what's meant to be, it's what's... I'm... it's how I'm meant to be spending my time. It's what... it's what it is right now. Because this person and that campaign couldn't happen if He didn't want it, if He weren't to allow it. That doesn't mean we don't need to do what we need to do to hold people accountable and to act responsibly. Of course we do. But it couldn't happen if He didn't will it. You have a fender-bender, somebody bumps you in the back of your car. So on the one hand, you collect their insurance information. You deserve for them to pay for the repair of your car. You don't say... imagine the person who... bumped your fender, gets out, you say, can I have your insurance? He says, no, no, no, I just came from the Emuna shiur. You're supposed to realize that this is from Hashem that I bumped your car. Let me forward you the link. So why isn't that correct? Why isn't that right? Why don't we have a right to say, I won't be paying for your fender because that's what Hashem wanted to happen to you this morning? The Emuna shiur. Why is that not right? Because that's not what Hashem wants. Hashem says there's rules, there's regulations, there's laws, operate within them and they include holding people accountable. However, as far as we're supposed to accept and receive and absorb, it's from Hashem. So can I have your insurance information? And then I'm going to go talk to Hashem about why it was right for me to have a fender bender this morning. What am I meant to learn from it? How am I meant to grow from it? Why did I need to experience it? Not only to not be angry about it, be grateful, because this is what was meant for me. But by the way, you're paying for my new fender. It's not a contradiction to do what we need to do to hold accountable and simultaneously to realize for ourselves that this is what's meant to be. So what am I going to do, get angry, get anxious? Is that going to help? Is that going to resolve? Nothing. Am I going to be negative, verbissen, and miserable? Is that going to make things better? Only much worse. וזו עיקר מצות השמחה and this is the core of the mitzvah of simcha, lismoach B'hashem Yisborach. So simcha again is not, you know, did you see my new jewelry? Did you see my new shoes? Did you see my new bottle of single malt? Did you see my new bottle of wine? Did you see the Amazon package at the door? Simcha's not even just, did you hear the news, my kid is engaged, a baby was born, im yirtzeh Hashem. That is a source of simcha, but within each of those simchas, what is the simcha about it is attaching, connecting, identifying Hashem. Hashem, you know what? Whatever was missing, wherever there's that hole in my heart, you fill it. That knowledge that you're in charge, you're in control, there is a reason, that's what fills that hole in my heart. That's what gives me the strength, the energy, the koach to get through the day. I don't know why, I don't know if I'll ever know why. But Hashem, what gives me the strength to get through the day is the knowledge that what I went through, as painful, as unbearable as it is, it is your will. It's what you want. It's what you want. Our beloved Mr. Judovits, Martin Judovits, zecher l'vracha, when at the Holocaust, when on Yom Hashoah he spoke and he said it in several occasions in several different contexts. But when asked, you lost your parents, you lost your family, you lost your community, you lost everything, everything. I often think that whatever we're going through in this world, and I mean there are people who've gone through horrible things, horrible loss of loved ones, horrible loss of children, victims of abuse, assault, they're horrible things people go through. But when we think about what one Holocaust survivor went through, they went through the tragedies of everyone we know put together. We don't know people Baruch Hashem today who say I lost my parents, my siblings, my spouse, my children, and my entire community was wiped out with only a handful of others. We don't know. So we ask Mr. Judovits, right, I lost my money, I started from scratch, I became an immigrant in a country I didn't know the language, like we can't fathom. We literally can't fathom or comprehend it. We don't understand it. So we asked Mr. Judovits, how do you have faith in Hashem and simcha? Right, not just faith, because survivors, we would never judge any who were different, but the survivors I knew, including Yocheved's amazing grandparents and many others, it's not just that they lived and continued to have faith, they had simcha. They had a joy for life. Yocheved's grandfather had to sleep with the radio on his whole life. If he'd close his eyes and there wasn't something playing, he was back in those, in those, in those places of Gehennom. So life, every Erev Shabbos, Shabbos, Yom Tov, because he couldn't. So this is a person who every night when he closed his eyes went to Gehennom, but when he opened them in the morning you'd never know it, besimcha. Wouldn't speak about it, didn't talk about it, and didn't walk around miserable, so happy. He'd see you, how are you, what's happening? He was always concerned, they like you at your job? Always. When you came from the, when all the children, grandchildren, when you came from when you lost everything and you rebuilt, there was always a fear of, of are you stable? So that was always, they like you at your job? It's okay? You're doing well? That was always a question. But besimcha, happy. Nobody was happier at a birthday party, at a simcha, at a Shabbos, at a Yom Tov table, besimcha survivors. So we asked Mr. Judovits, how? You lost it all, how are you not only with faith, how are you with simcha? So he said, you know, I lost my mother, I lost my father, I lost everyone. I had one Father left, I should lose him too? I have one Father left. He didn't just say that, he lived it. He lived it. It was extraordinary. Really extraordinary. And that simcha. So we latch on and we attach ourselves when we have that hole in our heart, we're going through that difficult day and we're going through that challenging time and there are victims all over the world of behavior who the latest news has triggered them and peeled off the scab or the scar of their pain and they're revisiting it right now. It's unfathomable and for many of them unbearable and there's a hole that's reopened in their heart. We should fill it with our sympathy, empathy, love and support and unequivocally clear and amuna, faith, Hashem. Far be it from us to say to that victim, well this was Hashem's plan, but part of feeling strength and healing is to realize that as unjust, as unfair, as accountable as we have to hold chas v'shalom terrible perpetrators, as much as we have to do to protect, as much as we have to do to be on the right side, we don't understand, but whatever we go through in life like a Holocaust survivor, we're capable of simcha. It could become a part of our life, it doesn't have to define our total life, our entire life, who we are. זה עיקר מצות שמחה לשמוח בהשם יתברך כמו שכתוב ישמח ישראל בעושיו שגל נפשי באלקי להכנס לשמחה על שיש לנו את השם יתברך. How can you be so happy? How can someone be so happy? I have Hashem. What do you mean how can I be so happy? I have Hashem. This shiur is dedicated to memory of Brian Galbut. Till his last day, till his last consciousness he would say Hashem is amazing. Say Brian, Hashem is amazing, you're on your deathbed, you're in your mid-forties, Hashem is amazing? He felt it. He didn't say it so that I would talk about it for years to come every Wednesday morning at the amuna shiur dedicated in his name. It's who he was. B'simcha. You never met a more b'simcha person. You never met a more מצוה גדולה להיות בשמחה person. Hashem is amazing. So we forget it because you think right now American Airlines is not so amazing, and right now this lab report is not so amazing, and right now the news is not amazing. So we forget. So we have to attach ourselves and link ourselves and grab on and ride the coattails of the people who are capable of living b'simcha because they know Hashem is amazing. They fill that hole in their heart and that hole in their soul with Hashem. You can't be shaleim without Him. It's not a coincidence and I know people think I talk a lot about this. I do because I think there's a lot of wisdom there. There's a lot of wisdom there. I'm not part of the program, if I were I wouldn't be ashamed to be because I think it's brilliant, and the little I've been blessed to learn about it. But the 12 step program, which is the most successful program of recovery, includes as a fundamental step submitting to a higher power. And if you've ever been there and you've watched enormous diverse people in a room who are all declaring out loud that I cannot control this unless I submit to a higher power. There's a hole in my heart, there's something missing, I used to numb myself with this addiction but I need to fill that hole with something healthy, not the addiction, and what is it? Submitting to a higher power. What does the atheist or agnostic do? It's a sugya in recovery. Not for now, not for us. But the fault of the program is one of the critical fundamental steps is זה עיקר מצות שמחה לשמוח בהשם יתברך כמו שכתוב ישמח ישראל בעושיו שגל נפשי באלקי להכנס לשמחה על שיש לנו את השם יתברך. They don't use those words, but one of the fundamental steps is submitting to a higher power. I can't do this alone. Whatever hole's in my heart I can't navigate this world if I think I'm in charge. It's not going to happen because there's so much we can't control, so much we can't predict, so much we can't anticipate, so much we're not in charge of, so much that we can't endure. So how do we fill that hole? Only with Hashem yisborach, only by submitting to a higher power. I would love to, it would never work, I'd love to before we start brochos, every davening, we should all announce out loud we submit to a higher power. Ashrei, mincha. Submit to a higher power. Sit around dinner, before we eat dinner or make a brocha, we submit to a higher power. Whatever it is. לשמוח כך שהשם יתברך תמיד עמנו בכל מקום ובכל מצב. Hashem is with us all times and all places. Wherever we go and whatever we're doing, He is with us. ויתבונן וירגיש איך שהשם יתברך אין עוד מלבדו. There is no one, there is nothing but Him. That's it. We go through the illusion, we live a charade, we do our part because that's how the world was programmed. But afterwards, we do not buy into the illusion. We don't buy into the hype. We know in the end of the day who's in charge, who's in control, and where it comes from. If postcards are in mailboxes, there are disturbed people doing it and we have to address it, but we don't become bent out of shape because it's from Hashem. Hashem was the mailman. Because if not, it couldn't have happened. It wouldn't have happened. So what are we meant to learn? So instead of being bent out of shape, crying, curled up in the fetal position, hiding under the bed, woe is me, instead you have a big smile and happiness and a simcha because you're not broken, you're whole. How are you whole when there's brokenness? It's filled with Hashem Yisborach. Ein Od Milvado. נמצא עמנו בכל עת. He is always with us. Always, wherever, whenever, he is right there. Even when it feels like he's abandoned us, even when it feels like he's far away, sometimes that's when he's closest. That's when he's closest. Was it the Kotzker who said, there's nothing as whole as a broken heart? There's nothing as whole as a broken heart. You know when you feel whole without Hashem, you're the most broken because you're... it's dangerous. Whatever's making you feel that whole while you're really broken, it's dangerous. It's counterfeit. It's fake. It's dangerous. So it's when you realize that you're broken that you're the most whole as long as you fill it with the right thing. There's nothing as whole as a broken heart. עמנו בכל עת ושומר עליו ועושה עמנו רק טוב. He does only good for us, he watches over us, he guards us. So we don't understand it. We don't understand it. No more than our kids understand why we don't let them go to the party or hang out with those friends or experiment with that substance. They don't understand it or run in the middle of the street or stick their finger in the outlet. They don't understand it and they say you hate me and I hate you and you're making me miserable and what's the matter and why are you doing this to me? To which we respond, I don't expect you to understand it right now and maybe you will or won't one day, but I want you to know I'm doing it because I love you. That is the only reason. And whether you'll see or understand it or not one day, know that I'm doing it only because I love you. And Hashem asks us to do the exact same thing because he loves us. ובזה ירגיש הרגשה שלמה. You want to feel whole, then realize you're broken. You want to be broken, then live like you're whole. If we realize that whatever challenges or obstacles or tensions or people or challenge... whatever's going on in our life, he is the answer. Submitting to a higher power is the answer. It's where we derive our strength and our courage and our resilience and all the ingredients necessary to be able to overcome whatever's coming our way. That's it. We just tend to forget. We forget. It is intoxicating to think we're in charge. It is our instinct and our intuition to think we're in control, for good and for bad. We swell with false pride when things go right and we panic when things go wrong because we forget about him. We forget about him. But the more we spend time talking about him and remembering him and thinking about him, involving him and including him, seeing him and identifying him, being grateful to him, then the more it will kick in. So you get a flurry of texts because, and I love everybody, but every member of the shul felt they were the first to tell you, "Did you see the postcard that came in my mailbox?" which is beautiful and I'm grateful and everybody's loyal and loves you, but it's a lot of texts. But if you're working on your emuna, you just look at it and you laugh. Okay, today's challenge. Alright Hashem, today's challenge. Today's challenge Hashem. Let's figure this out together. Bo el Paroh, not leich el Paroh. Bo. Whatever challenge Hashem gives us, he doesn't say okay here's today's challenge. You don't feel like you wake up that day, which kid's not going to feel well today and what are the domino effects on the rest of your family? If you have children at home, that's how you've been living for the last two years. For the last two years. And the mental health consequences are beginning to show now and chalila they're only going to show even worse. But if you've been living at home with kids for the last two years who go to school, every day you wake up wondering which one's going to tell you this morning, "I don't feel well." That was never fun when a kid said I don't feel well, but it meant maybe a doctor's visit, maybe a sick day, maybe a mental health day. It didn't mean, uh oh, who else needs to be tested to be able to get back, how is the impact, how do we lock you in your room and quarantine you from everyone else, what does it mean, how long will we wait online to get a test? So if you have kids school age at home, you wake up every day for the last two years with that angst, with that anxiety, with that pit in your stomach. So if we think we're in charge, we're in control, and life is so unpredictable, we don't know what will be, then it's eating you up inside. You wake up every. But if you wake up every day and you say Hashem, what do you got for me today? Let's see, I'm going to open my email. What do you have for me today? Let's open WhatsApp. Let's see what's happening online. What? Yeah, yeah, some days it's quiet. That's when you worry the most. Some days there's good news. Some days you open your email and you say wow. Some days you open your email and you say wow, there's great news. I didn't know, I didn't hear, an opportunity, a connect, whatever it is. But often we wake up and we say Hashem, what do you have in store for me today? What's today? What do you got for me today? But if you wake up and you say world, what do you have for me today? I can't take it, I'm challenged, it's miserable, it's impossible, woe was me, I'm a victim, I'm a martyr, you can't get through the day. If you wake up and you say Hashem, it's an adventure. What do you got for me today? I wouldn't have predicted mailbox and postcards. Just like two and a half years ago we wouldn't have predicted Q-tips up our nose and whatever else we have to do and wait for every day. Hashem, what do you have for me today? What do you have for me today? And Bo el Paroh. Hashem doesn't say lech. So we're supposed to feel Hashem, whatever you have for me, it's not what do you have for me today, it's what do you have for us today? Arm in arm, hand in hand. What are we going through today? What are we waiting online for today? What are we overcoming today? What are we planning for today? What are we responding to today? What do you have in store for us today? When you live that way, you can be besimcha. It's besimcha. What do you have for us today? That's it. You know, if you have to wait online to get tested and you're waiting alone, you're miserable. But if you go with your best friend, who hopefully is your spouse or someone else who you enjoy spending time with, so you say okay, we're spending time. We never get time. It's quality time online. So Hashem, you're with me wherever we go. You're my best friend. I'm never alone. So what do you have in store? Oh, a seventeen and a half hour delay on our flight. Fun! Such quality time together. What do you have for us today? What are we going through today? So we could be besimcha. No one could rob us of that simcha. Life can throw us all kinds of curveballs. People can throw us all kinds of curveballs. They can take a lot away from us. But Martin Judovits and many others taught us they can't take away our simcha. No one and nothing. Not cancer and not the people who are cancerous and not delays in flights and nothing can take away our simcha. We and we alone are in charge, are in control. We'll pick up with that next time. But we are in charge and we are in control. We define our demeanor and who we are. Don't hand the keys to that to anyone else. It's the most precious thing you have. It's the ground floor, it's the foundation of everything else. Do not give away the keys to anyone else for that. It's what we hold on to. 9:00 tonight we're going behind the bimah with Nissim Black. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
