Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov, welcome back to Living with Emuna, our wonderful Emuna support group. We have many sponsors for today. Baruch Hashem, we have many people today, so I'm sorry that we ran out of coffee, but hopefully you can stay awake nonetheless. So I want to thank our generous sponsors. First of all, our series sponsors for our Living with Emuna, Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Schanzer. We remain very grateful to the Morgans. Also, this morning is sponsored by friends of Harriet and the Euclis family in memory of our dear beloved friend Barney, דב יהודה בן אשר זליג, who we miss, was an incredibly kind and generous and outgoing and warm and special person. נשמה שתהא לו עליה. It's good to have you back, Harriet. By Eli and Rena Mendelson for the Refuah Sheleimah of חיה אסתר טילא בת אריה ציפורה, should have a complete and speedy Refuah Sheleimah. Anonymously, in memory of the doctor whom Rabbi Goldberg discussed in last week's Emuna shiur and his funeral Rabbi Goldberg attended, in honor of his family who invited Rabbi Goldberg into their lives. I told that story last week about that funeral. So yes, in his memory, נשמה שתהא לו עליה as well. And lastly, a beautiful brand new organization that just began, Estee Lupin, incredible work, Lev LaKallah, which is a Gemach of Estee, help me out over here, will you? It is a Gemach of flowers and weddings, wedding decor, to make weddings affordable and easy and appropriate and within budget. And where was this Gemach for the last few years? But Baruch Hashem, it's a very, very beautiful thing. Okay, back to Living with Emuna. We have started this new Sefer Tif'eres HaEmuna, Rav Gamliel, and we are on page Samech Zayin. I believe we read through, no, maybe we're on page Samech Vav, second paragraph, Samech Vav. איך נראה אדם שחי בשויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד? We are speaking about a topic that we actually spoke about on Shabbos Shuva, the notion of Hishtavus, the notion of שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. The idea that as we live life, as we experience life, as we process all that's going on in our life, we do it through the prism, through the filter, through the understanding that there's a Hashem, that nothing that happens is random, nothing that happens is chance, that we are not, we are not victims of randomness, but that rather everything that happens is by design, is for a purpose. It's such a different way of being, it's such a different way of life. We spoke about last week that you can, you can have blurry vision and then you stumble and trip and fall. You can have a pair of glasses and when you remember to put them on you can see, but if you don't remember to put them on, everything will be blurry. And you can get LASIK surgery where your eyes are repaired and fixed, your lenses are corrected, then now you just see 20/20 as soon as you wake up, as soon as you open your eyes in the morning. And this is a real metaphor for Emuna and living with Emuna. You could not live with Emuna, in which case all of life is blurry and you don't know how to interpret everything going on around you. Why do others have what I want? Is this really me? Am I responsible for success or failure, or is it Hashem? Should I worry and fear and be anxious, or is everything for a reason and for a purpose? Life can be blurry and can be confusing and you don't know how to experience it, you don't know how to interpret it, you don't know how to process it, you don't know how to receive it. Sometimes you can have a pair of glasses called Emuna and when you remember to put them on, oh, I see clearly, I see Hashem everywhere. I see why this makes sense, or even if I can't see clearly or understand why it makes sense, I see that it will make sense. I see that it's not random. And then you can have LASIK surgery, which is what we're striving for, although if we achieve it, you'll stop coming to Living with Emuna, so maybe we want the middle one. But LASIK surgery, we want to correct our lens permanently, that you wake up in the morning and you look out and you just feel Hashem is everywhere. Everything that's happening to me, it's raining, oh, it's meant to rain, I'm meant to get soaked, I'm meant to, last night it was pouring, Baruch Hashem, גשמי ברכה סימן ברכה, we need the rain, it's wonderful. It's all a question and a function of how we live lives and whether we wear those glasses. So that's the שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. It's the way the Shulchan Aruch begins. A Jew wakes up in the morning with a smile and that Hashem is opposite me always. So someone spoke to me harshly, someone treated me unfairly, there was an incredible success, something came my way, came right, no matter what's going on, good or bad, pleasurable or painful, no matter what's happening in any direction, it's all filtered, it's all seen through those glasses, through that lens of Hishtavus, of שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. You can have a calm and a tranquility and a peacefulness as you go through life, not that you won't have to face and confront challenging situations, but we'll have the tools and the courage and the conviction and the confidence to be able to face it if we live with Hishtavus, with שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. The Ba'al Shem Tov writes in Tzavas Harivash, in the Tzavas Harivash, a collection of the Ba'al Shem Tov's ethical will, he writes פרק י"ג זה מדרגה גדולה שיהיה תמיד הבורא יתברך בעין שכלו. We spoke about this on Shabbos Shuva, that wonderful book that we quoted from that's all about Hishtavus, that the Ba'al Shem Tov writes this madreigah gedolah, this very high level is that a person should always see Hashem be'ein sichlo with the eye of their seichel. כמו שמסתכל על אדם אחד ויחשוב שהבורא יתברך מסתכל גם כן עליו כמו אדם אחר שמסתכל עליו כשתהיה תמיד במחשבה זכה וברורה ad kan. על ידי זה תהיה יראתו פנימי פנימו כאילו המלך עומד לנגדו ונסיח דעתנו מזה. The way to go through life, we spoke about this last week also, is there's a shadow. There's a shadow. ה' צלך על יד ימינך. Hashem is our shadow. He's next to us always. Wherever, whenever, whatever. He's in the waiting room at the doctor, and he's in the birth room of the new baby, and he's at the gym, and the supermarket, and he's in the boardroom where you're negotiating a new deal, and he is at that red light when you're running late, and he's on that airplane as it's taking off with turbulence. He's always by our side. You don't have to go search for him and look for him and imagine him and concoct him. He's there. The more we accustom ourselves to live with Hishtavus, שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. He's there. He's by our side. He's there. He's there with us. He's there with us always. That is the lifestyle. Emuna is not something you acquire or you have. It's not a possession or a thing. Emuna is a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle. It's a pair of glasses. It's a correction to lenses. It's a way of looking at the world. It's a way of living through life. It's a way of living life. עיקר תיקון הדור האחרון הוא אמונה. And now he says, Rav Gamliel, this is the mission and the mandate, this is the challenge particularly of our generation, of this last generation, of emuna, of emuna. That's not to suggest with any historical revisionism that if you go back to our grandparents and our great-grandparents and our great-great-grandparents in Eastern Europe before the war, you know, the Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye is talking to Hashem whole time in the barn. It's not to say that everybody walked around with incredible emuna and life was perfect, but it is to say they lived with a lot more emuna. They lived with a lot more emuna. First of all, you live with a lot more emuna when your back is against a wall, when there are pogroms and persecution and oppression and expulsions, and you can never settle down and you can never feel comfortable and you can never feel you fit in, and there's always harshness against you, you live with a lot more emuna, because you're finding refuge and courage and you're finding protection in Hashem. And we have a challenge that we should feel so blessed that this is our challenge. We should feel so blessed this is our challenge. Of all the challenges a generation could have, our challenge is how to live with prosperity. For countless generations, Jews had the challenge of how to live with poverty, how to live with persecution. We have a challenge of how to live with prosperity, because even those who are struggling, and not to minimize their struggle whatsoever, it's very, very painful to not know where your next meal will come from, not to know how you're going to pay tuition for your child and so on, not to minimize that whatsoever, but I like to say, you know, the family on Tomchei Shabbos today is living a more comfortable, prosperous life than the wealthiest family a century ago. It's not that they or their children don't have smartphones or cars with power windows or air conditioning and a washer-dryer and a dishwasher, and that's not all there is to life. Again, I don't want to minimize this challenge of the people who are struggling to earn an income. But we live in a time of prosperity. And with all the rise of antisemitism around us, of which there's a lot to be careful and worried about and work on, we still live with incredible religious freedom and incredible warm welcome in this country, and bli ayin hara Boca Raton, which is more than 50% Jewish, we have not yet seen, not that we should let our guard down or take anything for granted. We live with incredible, incredible prosperity. And in times of prosperity, as prosperity goes up, emuna goes down. As poverty goes up and persecution goes up, emuna goes up. And we don't have a strong mesorah. We don't have a great, a great precedent and tradition and example of how to live with prosperity, because so much of our, so much of our people's history is living with poverty and persecution. So this is the תיקון הדור האחרון הוא אמונה. This is something that we have to work on, is through our new leased car and most updated cell phone and through our eating out and through our charcuterie platter and sushi and Starbucks triple caramel upside-down latte extra shot of whatever, how do you find Hashem through that, through that? How do you see Hashem in there? When you're packing your belongings and you're running, when you're hiding in the attic, it's easy. easier to find Hashem. But it's harder to find Hashem through our deluxe kiddushes and now Lev L'Kallah will have less deluxe, but as beautiful, more beautiful, more deluxe, less expensive and waste. How do you find Hashem through that prosperity? How do we have emunah? How do we remember it all comes from him? How do we have a sense of priority and context of of what's really hard and what really matters and how do we build resilience? This is a much bigger subject in our living with emunah shiur. I do think it should be on the agenda of the Jewish people. I do think it should be towards the top of the agenda of the Jewish people and I do think that barely anyone is talking about it in the Jewish people. I think that we are focused on many other things, many of them worthwhile, but this question of how to live with prosperity, how to live with appropriateness in prosperity, where should the boundaries be of ostentatiousness, what is the appropriateness, how do we maintain modesty, how do we maintain religious values, how do we interact with the nations around us and not be in the face with our prosperity? All of this I think should be on the agenda of our conversation. ואנחנו צריכים לתקן את האמונה של אבותינו שאחר כל הנסים והנפלאות שהקדוש ברוך הוא הראה להם במצרים ובים סוף ובמדבר בכל זאת לא האמינו למשה רבנו ולכן נענשו דור המדבר. We are really repairing, we are really correcting the shortcoming and failure of emunah of our forefathers when after all the miracles, Hashem did ten plagues in Mitzrayim. There were ten interferences with nature, interventions with nature. Ten times Hashem suspended the rules of nature and did something absolutely supernatural, absolutely miraculous. He split the sea and he took us through a midbar where the bread literally fell from heaven and despite that, לא האמינו למשה רבנו. The people had a breakdown and failure of faith. ולכן נענשו דור המדבר and therefore the generation of the desert was punished. ואנחנו צריכים לתקן זאת and we have to repair this. וחשבתי דאולי משום כך בזמננו אין אנו רואים דברים גלויים והסתרה גדולה מאוד. Says Rav Gamliel, maybe that's why in our generation Hashem's hiddenness is great. We failed to have faith even when he was revealed. Now we're challenged to have faith in his hiddenness, when you can't see him, when you have to take a leap, when you have to believe, when he doesn't reveal and expose himself to us. ועיקר התיקון הוא שמתחזקים באמונה בזמן כזה ועל ידי זה נגאל גאולת עולם. We want that final and ultimate redemption. We want Moshiach to come. We want there to be no more pain and suffering, no more strife and enmity, no more antisemitism and hate. Then we need to live with emunah. We need to bring him into this world. We need to reveal him. We need to spread his light, starting Chanukah on Sunday night. That's our mission as Jews is pirsumei nisa, publicize that miracle. So whole holiday of Chanukah is not just about ourselves, spin the dreidel, eat the latkes, exchange the gifts. All of those are cultural later applications to this holiday. But the core of the holiday is pirsumei nisa. What governs and regulates all about where you light the menorah, how you light the menorah, how long the menorah should last is pirsumei nisa. Hey world, there's a God. He exists. There's order and meaning to this place, not just chaos. He has absolute and objective truth of morality and of values and he has a vision for how we're meant to live and operate and navigate his world. Hey people, there's a God and we answer to him and there's consequence and he is involved in our lives. There's hashgacha, there's providence in our lives and he makes miracles. He makes absolute miracles. And you see these lights, these candles, there's such darkness, we could illuminate that darkness when we bring God in and we bring others close to that God and they see and they learn and they live and they're lit and they're excited by the light. There's a Hashem, the world is more than just me, it's bigger than me. And don't think that you're hurting or harming others by doing that. It's the biggest favor you could do for somebody because without God and without that light, we're living in darkness. The Ramchal writes based on a pasuk in Tehillim that the whole world is similar to a dark hall. We're trying to get from point A to point B but we're tripping over everything and we're stubbing our toe and banging our knee and falling on the floor because navigating this complicated, chaotic, corrupt world is so difficult when the lights are off. And what turns that light on? Torah. The word Torah, the root of the word Torah is or. Ora zu Torah. And when we light that menorah, we're bringing the light of Torah, we're bringing the light of Hashem. We're bringing that light out to the world. We're bringing that light out to the world. There's a beautiful teaching about Chanukah, I wasn't going to speak about this, but there's a beautiful teaching about Chanukah, happens to be Chanukah next week. If you have not bought presents yet, get busy. It's Chanukah next week. Next week? Next week. It's Chanukah. So normally we give precedence to which side, the right side or the left side? In Judaism, which side do we give precedence to? The right side. The right over the left. The right over the left. The right is chesed, the left is din. That's why Chassidim button their shirts right over left. We button our shirts man left over right, women right over left. Ever take a look at a Chassid's shirt? Don't do that in a creepy way, that could not end well. But you've never noticed. A Chassid's jacket, a Chassid's shirt, a bekishe, a kittel, they all button right over left because it's chesed over din. Right over left, right over left. Which side does the mezuzah hang on? The right side. Whatever is the right side of a doorway going in, mezuzah on the right side because the right. Where do you hang the menorah? On the left side. In the times that the menorah was hung on the door, the menorah is hung where? On the left side. Ay, I thought you're supposed to hang on the right side, I thought the right side gets precedence, the preference, the right side is more significant. So the usual answer is that we surround ourselves with mitzvot. The right side already has the mezuzah. So the mezuzah on the right and the menorah on the left and we surround ourselves with mitzvot. That's the usual explanation. But I want to share with you a very holy teaching, a very different perspective. The menorah on the right side coming in because the menorah is proclaiming and projecting the messages on my way into the house. That there's a unity of Hashem's existence, that He's in charge and He's in control. So stay calm, don't raise your voice. We hang a mezuzah. How do we hang a mezuzah? We hang the mezuzah on a slant. Why? It's machloket, Beit Hillel, Beit Shammai, Ashkenazim, Sefardim, should the mezuzah be vertical, should the mezuzah be horizontal? How do we pasken? On a slant. The Rema. Sefardim put it vertical, but Ashkenazim we put it on a slant. Only area in halacha that we don't really fulfill any opinion. If we were to fulfill an opinion, we'd either do up or we'd either do it vertical or horizontal. Which opinion are we following by doing it on a slant? None. None of the above. So why are we entitled to do something that's none of the above? So many suggest because when you walk, at least for Ashkenazim, when you walk into the house and you see that mezuzah in a compromised position, you remember that the attitude, the mentality in that house, be prepared to compromise. It's not your way or the highway. Don't stand upright vertical and demand everything has to go my way. That mezuzah is on a slant, the mezuzah is on an angle. You walk past that mezuzah, you touch the mezuzah, there's no makor but... there is a makor, but the original makor is not to kiss the mezuzah. The Rambam brings down you touch the mezuzah. The Gemara, you touch the mezuzah. The Gemara told the story of Onkelos who converted and the Romans came to take him away. And every time they sent a legion of soldiers on the way out, he would touch the mezuzah. And they'd say, what are you doing? What is that? And he'd say, oh, let me tell you about it. Come back in. And they'd convert. Then the Romans sent more policemen. And on the way out, he would touch the mezuzah and they'd say, what is that? What are you doing? He'd say, let me tell you, Shema, the unity of God's existence, loving God, the light of Hashem. That's amazing. They'd convert. They sent a third and by the fourth they said, leave him, forget it, we keep losing soldiers. And the Rambam quotes this Gemara, based on that we touch the mezuzah. We don't... later you kiss the mezuzah. During corona you don't kiss the mezuzah, whatever, but touch the mezuzah. So when you touch that mezuzah, when you pass by that mezuzah on the way in, you think to yourself by the way the position is, wow, when I walk into this house, first of all, I have to fill it with Hashem. The unity of Hashem's existence, the presence of Hashem, the calm, the tranquility, the faith that there's Hashem, but also the spirit of compromise. Doesn't have to be my way or the highway. Compromise. Be prepared to compromise. I said all of this in a... I did a video about mezuzah a couple of years ago. I tried, I didn't keep it up, but we have Behind the Bimah, we tried Behind the Mitzvah. I did about shofar, I did about mezuzah. Two minutes. It's a two-minute video about mezuzah. It has this idea and some others. You can look it up on YouTube, called Behind the Mitzvah about mezuzah. So mezuzah is on the right. And the classic understanding is the menorah, the chanukiah is on the left. We're surrounded by mitzvot. The right's already taken. However, listen to this teaching. The other way to understand it is the mezuzah is on the right on the way in, and the menorah is on the right. Don't say the menorah is not on the right. It's also on the right. How is it on the right? On the way out. When you're leaving your home, the menorah is on the right. The mezuzah is on the right on the way in, the menorah is on the right on the way out because it's that light of the menorah that we take with us wherever we go. So during Chanukah, maybe not after you lit the menorah that light, some concert you're running to every night of Chanukah, but it means the menorah, if not literally figuratively, as you leave your home throughout Chanukah and always is to take that light and spread it everywhere. To take that light and light the world on fire with faith that there's a Hashem, there's meaning, there's purpose. This world that's living without Hashem, the pre... It was a recent study, recent I think it was Pew study. Americans have less belief in God than ever. Of all the times they've polled Americans of belief in God, there are fewer who believe in God than ever. And, this is not in the same study, but Americans are more unhappy than they've ever been. And I would tell you there's a connection between the two. Somewhat counter-intuitively, somewhat paradoxically, the less you believe in God, the less you believe in him, and the more you try to navigate this crazy world on your own, and the more that you take responsibility for success and failure, the more anxiety and worry and fear that you have because everything is random, the less happy you're going to be. And the more that you fill your life with faith, and the more you wear your emuna glasses, and the more you see him everywhere at all times and everything, the moment you submit and surrender to him, the happier you'll be, and the happier you can, you can live with. So this is our mission. על האדם לעשות אתערותא דלתתא. לעורר עצמו להרגיש את האמונה. We have to awaken ourselves down here from below. We have to create an inspiration that starts here grassroots to feel emuna, לבנות משכן בלבבו לקדוש ברוך הוא, to build a mishkan, a sanctuary in our hearts to Hashem. ולפי זה נמדד כל חשיבות ומעלת האדם כמו שחושב על הקדוש ברוך הוא וכמה אמונה יש לו בהקדוש ברוך הוא כמו שמובא על הפסוק שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד, v'girsat haGra sham, וזה כל מעלת הצדיקים. The Gra says, do you want to know what it means to be a righteous person? Not how hard you shokel, not how long is your shemoneh esrei. To be a righteous person is how much do you live with awareness and mindfulness about the presence of Hashem in your life. This is the lingo, the vernacular, this has to be the conversation that we have. When you meet your friends for coffee, how's your neshama, how's your emuna, how's your faith? Have you been feeling Hashem? Do you see him and feel him everywhere? Does it all come together for a reason? To interpret everything that's going on. When we are confiding in each other and sharing the challenges and the hardship with one another, do we invoke faith and Hashem and meaning and purpose and the reason and submission and surrender to him? This has to be the israruta d'letata, says Reb Gamliel. It's up to us to use that language. He'emanti ki adaber. We have to invoke that language, that vernacular, that vocabulary, that has to be part of the regular conversation. Regular conversation. Regular conversation. I've told you the story, it was many years ago, I was sitting in Starbucks drinking just a plain black coffee. I don't... they look at me like I'm crazy. I don't use their glossary. I just say, "Can I get a small black coffee?" They look at me like I'm nuts. So, I was sitting there and there were two people and they were meeting about something at a table near me and clearly they had run into a wall. Whatever they were meeting and talking about, they were struggling to break through to find a solution. And one turned to the other, I wasn't eavesdropping, they were rather loud about it, somewhat boisterous about it. And they said, "You know what? Let's pray on it." And they stopped and they held each other's hands across the table, they closed their eyes. I didn't join them. But I did marvel at them. I did marvel at them. If I were younger, I would have taken a video of them to try to make it go viral, but I watched and I marveled. They held hands and they closed their eyes and they said, "Dear God, please give us understanding and breakthrough and solution, help us come to the conclusion of what we should do in this moment and with this plan." And I was like, "Wow. I can't picture two Jews doing that." In a million years. Have you ever been to a board meeting of a shul, of a yeshiva? And they're like, "Where are we going to get the money to do the expansion? How are we going to pay the teachers?" You know what, everybody hold hands, let's close our eyes, let's say a perek of Tehillim, and let's ask Hashem to give us the idea, to give us the breakthrough, to give us the donor. And imagine you're the one who would suggest that. Imagine you raise your hand. "Oh, you have an idea? Fantastic. Oh, you're writing a check for...?" "No, I don't have an idea, I'm not writing a check, but here's my suggestion. Let's all say a perek of Tehillim." Say, "Are you out of your mind?" In the parking lot meeting that would follow every board meeting, all they'd be doing is talking about the person who made that suggestion. That's all they'd be doing. Lashon hara about that person. I'll never forget it was years ago that I saw that. But for those people sitting there, not of our faith, their instinct: we ran into a wall, we're confused, things are complicated, we don't know where to turn, we don't know what to do. You know what? Let's pray. Let's talk to him. Let's listen to him. Maybe he's talking to us. And we're like, "No, no, I daven this morning, check. I done. I did that. I closed the siddur, I did Tehillim, even the Tehillim group I'm on, I say every seven..." I did, I'm done, check. What does that have to do with our problem? What does that have to do with the flight or what we should do for Yeshiva week? What does that have to do with our child who we're very concerned about or our parent whose health is failing? What does God have to do with that? Davening I did in the shul this morning. Davening I did from the siddur, the Tehillim. Done, check, done. Until Mincha I don't have to do that again. I did it already. I did it already. Imagine the reaction. But that's what Rav Gamliel is calling for. Rav Gamliel is calling for we have to reignite that language, that conversation, that light of the menorah to spread it, to talk in that language. Now we have to be very careful. Someone comes and confides to us about their challenges and hardships, some insurmountable, some problems that have no solution, the worst kind. Don't, I just came from the emuna shiur, you know this Hashem, everything's for a reason. We don't know why, but there's a reason that Hashem is putting you through this. We should each do it for ourselves. It's not necessarily appropriate to suggest it or impose it on others. It won't necessarily be so welcome. Have to be very judicious and careful with how we share it. But definitely to invoke that language, to say I'm davening for you. I'm asking Hashem, Hashem is right here in pain with us and we're pleading with him, we're storming the heavens, we're storming shamayim in protest and in objection. But to invoke that language. זה כל מעלת הצדיקים. The Gra, the Vilna Gaon in his girsa on the opening of Shulchan Aruch says, this is the defining characteristic of tzadikim. Whether they live with histavus. Histavus is just that calm. There is no whatever your children are doing, whatever's happening with your parents, whatever's going on at work, whatever you're feeling is just it's even keel, it's histavus. Yeah, it's all him. It's all for a plan, it's all for a reason. Okay, I have what I have to do, which doctors, which appointments, which treatments, which plans, what action do I have to take, which initiative do I have to engage? Yeah, there's a lot to do. But I do it. I do what I've got to do without the drama. I don't think I said this on Shabbos Shuva when we talked about this, but I think living with histavus is the ability to live without drama. Drama. We live in a generation of total drama. A lot of drama. Everything has enormous drama. Everything. Can you believe what she? Can you believe he? Can you believe my Wi-Fi was out? Can you believe? And then the car and then the thing and I got the new Tesla but they didn't have the version I wanted and can you believe it's a three-month wait for the new Tesla? Oh woe was me and where is God and drama, drama, drama. Drama. There's drama, we're all starring in drama. We're all starring in drama. There's enormous drama in our generation. And histavus emuna is the ability to eliminate the drama. I never thought about it this way until right now. But it's the ability to live a life without drama. Now if you live a life without drama, it doesn't mean that you don't have complications and challenges and obstacles that need to be navigated. A life without drama is not a life of bliss and joy and pleasure and everything going right. It's just that as you navigate what's not going right, you do it without drama. You do it without drama because שיויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד, he's opposite me always. He's with me in whatever I need to do. So why do I need to be dramatic? Why do I need drama? Why do I need drama? I'm not a drama, I'm allergic to drama. I don't do well with the drama. Let's present the issue, the challenge, let's work on the solution, let's stay calm. Let's even be upset or emotional about it. I know I never cry, I never get emotional, you don't believe that about me. Let's get emotional about it, but without drama. I'm not explaining it well, but I hope you know what I mean by drama. Drama with a capital D. Just drama. שיויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד is the ability to live, eliminate the drama. Histavus, there's a Hashem. Okay, I can be emotional, I can be in pain, but it doesn't have to elevate to drama all around me and all the people. ולפי זה אפשר לפרש הפסוק שאנו אומרים כמה פעמים בכל יום, with this we can explain the pasuk we say several times a day, שמע ישראל ה' אלוהינו ה' אחד שלפי גודל אמונתו בה' אלוהינו ה' אחד כך הוא ישראל. According to we'll end with this today. But listen to this paragraph. According to our ability, this pasuk, Shma Yisrael, we say it several times a day, we have an obligation, a mitzvah to say it every morning and every night. It's in the mezuzah that we talked about that hangs on our door. What does it mean? Says Rav Gamliel, according to the greatness of emuna of ה' אלוהינו ה' אחד, kach hu Yisrael. The very definition as a Jew, דכל ישראל שיש בך תלוי. How Jewish you are, I don't mean how Jewish, is your mother Jewish, do you qualify as a Jew, can you make aliyah as a Jew, right of return, will I marry as a Jew? Not talking about your actual status as a Jew, your Jewishness, what defines and informs and inspires the level of your Jewishness is how much השם אלוקינו השם אחד. So Shema, listen, Yisrael, you want to be a Jew? השם אלוקינו השם אחד. Then live with Hashem with you always and opposite you. ולכן כל כמה שאתה בבחינת ישראל כך אני השם אלוקיך. כמה שאתה מאמין בהשם כך הוא אלוקיך. וזהו השורש של כל היהדות. That is the root and the source and the core of all Yiddishkeit, of everything it means to be a Jew, of everything we're meant to be doing in our homes and teaching to our children and passing on to the next generation with a continuity is all encompassed in this motto of the Jewish people, שמע ישראל השם אלוקינו השם אחד. Shema, listen, Yisrael, you want to be a Yid? What does it mean to be a Yid? It's to live with hishtavus of shivisi, to live השם אלוקינו השם אחד. Gedolei Yisrael, many righteous, the righteous men and women of the Jewish people didn't have drama around them. They were involved in more drama than you can ever imagine in your life. What was on their shoulders, the responsibility they had, the problems that people deposited with them, they were exposed to and involved in more drama than many lifetimes, but they didn't live with drama. I'm privileged, I don't know why I'm worthy to have relationship with many Gedolei Yisrael, great people in our generation. And a common denominator and common theme of all of them is that while you're with them, there's calm. While you're with them, there's peace. That doesn't mean that they don't have enormous amount they have to do and responsibility they bear and pain they've absorbed of others, but while you're with them, there's no drama. There's no drama. There's no drama around them. There's a peace which is almost, almost mind-boggling, a calm that you'd never believe this is a person the whole world is resting on their shoulders, great men and great women, nashim tzidkaniyos. That's our mission, that's the definition, that's what it means to be a Yid. That's what we have to be transmitting to the next generation, a generation who are living with drama, drama, drama, drama. Calm doesn't go viral on TikTok. Calm doesn't go viral on Instagram. Calm doesn't go, not a Tic Tac, a TikTok. It's a, it's a, baruch Hashem, you don't know what it is. nashim tzidkaniyos right here, you don't even know what it is, baruch Hashem. Drama doesn't sell and drama doesn't go viral. I'm sorry, non-drama doesn't sell and non-drama doesn't go viral and non-drama won't make you an influencer. What makes you an influencer is the drama. You're in the car and the camera, you won't believe what just happened at carpool and I have to tell you a story and drama, that's what gets the spotlight. But that's not a life of hishtavus. To be a Yid, Shema Yisrael, you want to be a Yid, kinderlach, children, I know right now it's flustering, it's frustrating, I know right now it's amazing and it's exciting, we don't live with drama. hishtavus, we can be excited, it's good news, it's excitement, baruch Hashem, good news, a simcha, my nephew had a baby boy yesterday, baruch Hashem, a mazel tov, a simcha, there's excitement, there's excitement, there's good news, there's nothing wrong with getting excited, that's not drama. By next week I'm going to, I'm going to come up with a definition of drama because I'm not defining it, but you know what I mean. You can have excitement, you can have emotions, but you can do it all without drama. No drama. If you live with Hashem in your life, there's no drama. That'll be our next, I don't know, that's our next bumper sticker or our next magnet for a car. We got to come up with something. Living without drama. Living without drama, living with emunah. Living with emunah means living without drama. We're going to come, we'll work on it. If you have any ideas, let me know. Going to come up with our next swag, living with emunah is living without, living without drama. So that's the message to ourselves and to our children. That's the mandate of Chanukah, go light, light that candle. By next week we'll be in Chanukah, but we begin on Sunday night. Get lit and light others and take that light on the right side on the way going out and light up the world with Hashem, with emunah, light up the world and dispel the darkness of drama. Until next time, if you haven't signed up for our WhatsApp group, please do. That's how you'll be alerted to our schedule, bonus material, that's how you find everything rabbiefremgoldberg.org/whatsapp. Tonight we go behind the Bima with Ambassador David Friedman, great conversation about the influences on his life, diplomacy, moving the embassy. Tonight behind the bima. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
