Transcript
Good morning and Gut Chodesh, Chodesh Tov, משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה, it's not just any ordinary month, it is the month in which we enter the month, the month enters us and we're filled with a sense of simcha, of joy. Im yirtzeh Hashem, I want to thank our generous sponsors this morning. Our Emuna series is always sponsored by Avi and Bella Morgan, Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Gabbit and in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Shanz, also sponsored this morning by Estee and Mike Lupin, le'ilui nishmas, in memory of אסתר תהילה בת רב גבריאל פנחס, in memory of Estee Moskowitz. I want to begin by sharing a couple quick emails, Emuna stories, keep them coming. I love the feedback and the messages. Not just that it's entertaining or interesting, but it's inspiring and we see one another, m'chazek each other to apply and to put the Emuna principles into practice. They're not theoretical, they're not abstract, but they're meant to inform and inspire our lives, our daily living and get us through whatever's going on, big or small, major or minor, whatever it is that we need to work on. So this, first of all, last week we spoke about the notion of whatever we're listening to or speaking about or watching while we're cooking goes as one of the ingredients into the food that we're eating. Harav Goldberg, Chodesh Tov, I want to thank you for the inspiring shiurim you put out, most of the nights while I'm cooking for Shabbos I play your Parsha perspectives. I try to play your Emuna shiur while cooking dinner another night during the week. Tonight I literally laughed out loud while listening to Living with Emuna number 259, what gives you chayus, and cooking meatballs. You mentioned the idea that food metaphysically takes in all the kavanos while we have all making it. There were examples about listening to not good things while cooking and giving bad koach to the food. I started laughing because baruch Hashem in my case it's the opposite. My Shabbos food is usually infused with your Parsha and my dinner with the Emuna. This is why the Shabbos food always comes out well. So I'm grateful that I can take responsibility and credit for the good recipes and the good food that are coming out. Sometimes I have to pause my cooking to take notes. It's an even greater flavor enhancer. Just wanted to share that with the Rav. But I really wanted to share with you, because I love this email, and this email comes from our series sponsor, this comes from Avi Morgan. Harav Goldberg, kol tuv, as you know my wife and I are regular listeners of your Emuna 10 minutes and Parsha, they don't write blah blah blah, that's just my getting uncomfortable when people write nice things. What I particularly appreciate from your shiurim is the Emuna-enhancing strategies I can implement immediately. In particular, I want to thank you for the suggestion to start a family WhatsApp hashgacha pratis group. You remember when ad nauseam every week, every month we would talk about, ours is still active, just yesterday several posts. Each family should have a hashgacha pratis WhatsApp group. You could write, you could record voice notes, when something happens in your life that's not coincidental, it's not random, it's not chance, and there's meaning or purpose to it, and you want to acknowledge Hashem in it. And that reinforces for one another, reinforces mostly and most importantly for ourselves, that we don't just talk about Hashem at the Living with Emuna, we don't leave Hashem in the shul or the beis medrash, He comes with us everywhere we go throughout the day. In fact just yesterday I left a message in our family WhatsApp group, it's very important hashgacha pratis stories are not always the positive. Then this worked out, and you won't believe who I ran into, you won't believe how that opened up for me, you won't believe I got the job, you won't believe amazing, Hashem is amazing, thank you Hashem. But everything is hashgacha, even when it doesn't work out. So we were on this two and a half day men's mevakshim fly-in to New York, which was outrageous, outstanding, incredible. I can't wait to share so many of the ideas that we heard from great great people that we spent time with. And I was trying to update my status on WhatsApp throughout to share the inspiration with the people that we met with. And it wasn't easy, painstakingly each time I would write who they were and they're the Rosh Yeshiva and post some pictures and a video, and I had my status was from Sunday evening when it began through yesterday afternoon when it was going on. And then when someone said, "Hey, how come you're not writing, putting anything on your status?" I said, "What do you mean? I haven't stopped posting." And then I checked my status to find it was set to private. So I was doing all that work for absolutely nobody at all in the whole world. So that was aggravating, it was frustrating, and then I remembered this amazing shiur I go to on Wednesday mornings and I said, "Okay, it wasn't meant to get shared over that time in that way, so it was just the way it was meant to be." And then I got aggravated and frustrated, and then I reminded myself it's the way it's supposed to be. So then I left a message in our family WhatsApp hashgacha pratis group because I said, "Isn't Hashem amazing? Hashgacha pratis, it was set to private, I don't know who changed it, how it got changed, why that happened, but it too is hashgacha pratis. It's not only hashgacha pratis when you made the flight, when you got the seat, when things worked out, when the parking spot opened up. You don't just leave the message, you don't just record the voice note when everything worked out and it's perfect and it's amazing, you see the hand of Hashem, and this should be the worst thing that ever happens to me in my life, that it was set to private and I wasted a lot of time and energy, halevai that should be the worst thing that happens in my day let alone in my life. It was nothing in the bigger scheme of things. But it's frustrating, but we've got to..." But listen to what Avi Morgan writes. He says start a family WhatsApp hashgacha pratis group which we did about a year ago. A few months after starting it, my son Jeremy, who's learning at Yeshivat Hakotel, initiated a WhatsApp hashgacha pratis group with his friends called Tales of Faith. The group is baruch Hashem been very successful with over 860 participants. Numerous daily stories being shared from around the world on people's experience of seeing Yad Hashem in their lives. On behalf of the nearly 900 people who are the beneficiaries of the suggestion, thank you for enhancing our mindfulness of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's presence in our lives. PS Feel free to read this at the Emuna Shiur. So if you haven't yet started it, you've got to start it because Hashem is all around us. And he's talking to us every day and he's talking to us throughout the day. And sometimes he's talking to us through the amazing things that work out and that work out well, that work out perfectly. And sometimes he's talking to us through the things that were not meant to be, were not meant to be achieved or shared, we're not meant to continue. It's painful, but yet it too, He is speaking. And the question is whether we are listening. Today's Rosh Chodesh Adar and the Mishnah in Shekalim tells us that באחד באדר משמיעין על השקלים. The first of the month of Adar they would make an announcement. Mashmiin, they would declare, they would pronounce, they'd make an announcement that everyone has to give the machatzis hashekel. They would collect the half shekel from each person. We read last Shabbos Parshat Shekalim preceding this week, the first of Adar, because the practice took place on the first of Adar. They would announce everybody give your half shekel and these were the funds that went to the korbanot tzibur. This is what supported the operation of the Mishkan and of the Beis HaMikdash. But that language mashmiin. Mashmiin, make it be heard that it's time to give the half shekel. Just sort of a funny way to make the announcement. Mashmiin should be make an announcement. Machrizin, make an announcement. Pronounce, send out a mass email, mass text, take out a billboard, announce, announce. What do you mean mashmiin? So the Beis Yisrael, the Heilige Gerer Rebbe writes הלשון משמיעין דאיתא עבדתם נעשה הוי זהירים בנשמע. על זה בא ענין משמיעין שיש בכח אדם לשמוע חרשים שמעו. After naaseh comes nishma. So yes, we were credited with 600,000 crowns for putting naaseh before nishma but don't forget after the nishma, after the pledge and the promise that we're ready to do, you gotta listen. You gotta become a listener. You have to learn how to listen, how to plumb the depths, how to analyze and evaluate, how to see the pnimiyus, how to see the depths of what is happening. There's something so much deeper. And this is the month, the month of Adar is the month of mashmiin, of listening, listening carefully. Listen to Hashem, he's all around us. Look and listen and alert and arouse all the five senses, because when we do then we don't have to remember, oh yeah, there's Hashem, I forgot. But he's all around us, he's talking to us, and he is revealing himself to us. And that is the mission of Adar. Aluf dar, the Aluf is dar. God is more present, he's more dwelling, he's more intensely revealed, he's more intensely felt. We have to be listening. Mashmiin al hashekalim, ve-al hakilayim. Are we mashmiim, are we shomim, are we listening to Hashem, to Hashem all around us? And the way that we eliminate him is the koach hashmiah, the way that we eliminate Amalek. He goes on and on about this idea, but that is the month of Adar. That is what we're getting busy, what we're working on this month. Mishenichnas Adar, don't just enter the calendar. Mishenichnas Adar, let Adar enter you. Aluf dar. And then marbin besimcha. You want simcha, you want joy in life? You want not to get frustrated or fly off the handle when your settings were set to private or when you missed a flight or didn't get the parking spot or someone disappointed you or something aggravated you? How do you maintain and preserve your sense of simcha nonetheless? Mishenichnas Adar, not just when you enter the calendar but when Adar enters us, when we make that effort to see, to find, to talk to, to feel, to hear Hashem in our lives. Megillat Esther, megalleh hanistar, when we reveal the hiddenness. We are in Tiv Ha-emuna, הייליגע רב גמליאל רבינוביץ, wonderful sefer on emuna. We're on page Ayin-Hei. The mitzvah of Ahavas Hashem, the mitzvah of loving Hashem, and anyone else want source sheets they're up here, and how we see that through Shema. Ita be-Gemara, the Gemara Berachos tells us כל הקורא קריאת שמע בלא תפילין כאילו מעיד עדות שקר בעצמו. A person who reads or declares Shema without wearing tefillin, they have offered false testimony. Why? Ki hu omer because it says in Shema וקשרתם לאות על ידך והיו לטוטפות בין עיניך. By the way we made new cups. Pour your cup of coffee, caffeinate with kavanah. We made better quality, higher quality cups with an insulated sleeve, the same message on both sides, caffeinate with kavanah. Shehakol niheyeh bidvaro. You get them if you come to the Emuna Shiur, you can't get it on YouTube, but if you come live in person in the back. I won't look if you want to take an extra one home with you to have for coffee tomorrow. But caffeinate with kavana. Hashem, are you listening? Hashem's in the cup of coffee. It's unbelievable, he's inside the cup of coffee. Coffee is the second biggest commodity that's traded in the world. You know what the first is? Oil. And afterwards, coffee. The world runs on coffee. I don't know which flavor, which brand, I'm not going to endorse any particular company. But the world... if you haven't slept much, if you've been traveling a lot, if you've been pushing yourself, Hashem is mamash, he's in the coffee. Caffeinate, but don't just caffeinate because you're trying to get your day started. Caffeinate with kavana is mashmiya, listen. Listen in the... oh, the taste, and the smell, and the... alertness and the little impact that you get afterwards, mamash with kavana. ברוך אתה ה' אלהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen. So כל הקורא קריאת שמע בלא תפילין, כאילו מעיד עדות שקר בעצמו. Because it says וקשרתם לאות על ידך ולטוטפת בין עיניך. One is supposed to wrap the tefillin on them. By the way, the tefillin correspond with na'aseh v'nishmah. The arm is na'aseh, it's the place of action. And the head is the place of nishmah, it's the place of listening and processing and learning and believing. So na'aseh v'nishmah. When a man puts on tefillin every day, na'aseh v'nishmah. Why don't women wear tefillin? It's a subject for another time. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan writes in his book on tefillin that men need that external physical stimulus, that reminder to find that connection. Women have an internal... the arm tefillin are symbolic of the umbilical cord that connect us to the makor, to the core. Women, im yirtzeh Hashem, those who long to and want to should be blessed with healthy beautiful children, but women whose very body, whose very anatomy carries the tefillin inside, they don't need the tefillin externally imposed on them to achieve these values, this message, but more internally, more instinctively, the umbilical cord connecting to the makor, to the placenta, to the source of life, it's more internal to them. So here we recite this pasuk, whether you're reciting it because you do it or you're reciting it because we believe in it and subscribe to it, but a man who says shema without wearing tefillin is a liar, is a liar. הרי ובפועל אינו מניח תפילין. אבל הבו נתבונן הרי באותו פרק קריאת שמע אדם קם ואומר ואהבת את ה' אלהיך בכל לבבך ואם באותו רגע אינו מרגיש אהבת ה' האין זו עדות שקר. Mishnah Berurah wonders, here the Gemara concludes that if you say shema without wearing tefillin, page ayin hey, 75, if you say shema without wearing tefillin, you're a liar. Midvar sheker tirchak, we read in last week's parsha, Midvar sheker tirchak. It's not enough that you have to speak the truth, you have to get away from falsehood, stay away from lies. The Rebbe Reb Zusha says something so holy. The Rebbe Reb Zusha says midvar sheker, when you're connected to lies, to deception, to distortions of truth, midvar sheker, when you're comfortable bending the truth and lying and exaggerating, tirchak, then you're far away from Hashem. Not Midvar sheker tirchak, stay far away from sheker, but midvar sheker, from something of sheker, if you're connected or attached to lies, deception, to dishonesty, to a lack of integrity, the result of living such a life, tirchak, you will be far away from Hashem. Midvar sheker. You give away your olam haba? It's worth it for that to give away your olam haba? Because you didn't declare it as... you declared something a business expense that wasn't? Because you paid in cash, you were trying to avoid the taxes? That's worth your olam haba? I don't remember which shiur I told the story recently about a certain vendor we did business with who said, "Don't forget to bring the cash to the simcha." So why? To save on the taxes. I said, "Well, why would I do that? Dina d'malchusa dina. Hakadosh Baruch Hu says you can't cheat and lie and steal." He's a very religious neighbor, you're a very religious person, why would we do that? And is that worth olam haba? Whatever you're going to save. If it were a billion dollars, maybe. Whatever you're going to save, is that worth your olam haba? Midvar sheker. Is it worth your integrity? חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא, the signature of Hashem. You know how he signs his name? Emes. That's the signature. He signs his name, the Gemara says, Chazal say, חותמו של הקדוש ברוך הוא אמת. The sign, the signature of Hashem is truth, integrity, honesty. It's a lonely word. And when people lie and they deceive and they bend the truth and they manipulate and they lack integrity, some of it sort of innocuous and innocent and benign, people exaggerate a story, people exaggerate what time they're going to be there, people exaggerate... I don't want people come to me and they say, "You know, Rabbi, people are saying X." So I've learned to say, "How many people?" It's not that many, it's just I want you... a few. So how many? Five, six? Who'd that? I'd love to talk to them. Okay, it's just me. This is how I feel, you know? Midvar sheker, it's a sheker. It's a sheker. If you say I'm on my way home and you're sitting behind your desk, if you say I'll be there in two minutes and you're 20 minutes away, it's a sheker. Midvar sheker. If you exaggerate the story because it makes you feel better, Midvar sheker. If you say it's a business expense when it was a personal expense, if you pay in cash to avoid the taxes, it's cheating, it's sheker. Midvar sheker. It's not just Midvar sheker, tirchak, stay far away from sheker. The Rebbe Reb Zusha says Midvar sheker tirchak. So you go to the emunah shiur and you daven and you shuckle and you say the Tehillim and you read Pitum Haketoret on a klaf and you say parshas hamon every day and you want to get close to Hakadosh Baruch Hu and yet you exaggerate and you lie and you cheat and you're dishonest and you have no integrity and your word is not your bond when you make a deal. Midvar sheker, I don't care how many Tehillim, I don't care how much shuckling, I don't care how much davening, tirchak. You're gonna be far away from Hashem, He's allergic. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is allergic. tirchak. He can't be connected because His chosam, His signature, His seal is emes. He is the source of truth. Midvar sheker tirchak. So a yid's gonna say Shema, וקשרתם לאות על ידך, and he's not wearing tefillin? Can't be, can't be. Since the Gemara already says in Berachos yud daled that V'kshartam l'os you have to wear tefillin and you're not wearing tefillin, so it can't be. Tosafos and Mishnah Berurah there discuss, but there's another problem. If it can't be... Excuse me. Excuse me. Thank you. God should bless all of you too. Mashmi'in, Hashem is found in a sneeze. A sneeze is a dangerous moment. Even in science, medicine sees a sneeze, you could your internal organs could explode when you sneeze. Most dangerous thing while you're driving is a sneeze because when you sneeze your eyes close. So your reaction time, it's every time you sneeze in a car, you should bensh gomel afterwards. It's mamash a miracle. Do you see Hashem? Do you feel Hashem? Hashem is unbelievable. He's all around us. Mashmi'in. One of the... I know I'm all over the place today, but just come on this journey with me. It just it is the way it is. There hasn't been a lot of sleep lately. It just is the way it is. So you could come with me, you could get lost. I'm sorry, it's just the way it is. So one of the people who we met with in Lakewood was רב שמחה בונם כהן. You know all the Artscroll books? He really, really was the beginning of the genre, towards the beginning of the genre. But רב שמחה בונם כהן, the Artscroll Radiance of Shabbos, Shabbos Kitchen, Yom Tov Kitchen, oh he wrote all these books. Muktzah, Raising Children, all these books. So I thought we were going to meet with him and it was going to be this hardcore like halacha and shailos and details and minutiae, but instead all he wanted to talk about was how amazing Hashem is. His wife's a granddaughter of Rav Avigdor Miller and he was just telling stories of Rav Avigdor Miller. And he asks, does anyone here know how many teeth they have in their mouth? Do you thank Hashem every day for your teeth? Thank Hashem for your teeth. Talking about Rav Avigdor Miller was 92, he still had all his teeth. Wow. The doctor didn't understand, "How can you still have all your teeth?" He was in the hospital and they said he brought a little bowl of water at night to put your teeth in. He said, "How? They're all attached to my mouth." So the nurse said, "You're 92, how's that possible? No 92-year-old has all their teeth." He said every single day I looked in the mirror, I counted my teeth, and I thanked Hashem for my teeth. Every day I chewed, I was grateful for the teeth. So then he looked at us, "Does anyone here even know how many teeth you have in your mouth? How many teeth do you have? How many teeth do you have?" And the next morning Rabbi Brody said he tried to count his teeth last night, he couldn't, he needs to go to the dentist to figure out how many teeth are there. So you gotta look at Hashem as Mashmi'in. Are you listening? Every time you chew and you were able to chew and you had your own teeth to chew, did you hear Hashem and say, "Wow, thank you Hashem." It's unbelievable. Thank you Hashem. It's incredible. It's incredible. Anyway, so how could it be, the Gemara wonders, you're not allowed to say Shema without tefillin because you're a liar? You're not wearing tefillin and it says you wear tefillin. You know what else it says? ואהבת את ה' אלהיך. You have to love Hashem your God. How could you say this paragraph if you don't love Hashem? Just like the Gemara says you can't say Shema without tefillin, we go to the ends of the earth to wear tefillin before we put on Shema. When Chabad stops somebody... we met with Dovid Lichtenstein, the halacha Headlines, so he was talking about the Aleph Institute, how amazing the Aleph Institute is, Rabbi Lipsker, Rabbi Boyarsky, Rabbi Boyarsky came to meet with him. And Dovid Lichtenstein is a very busy man, very successful man, very accomplished man, very influential man, and he runs on a very, very tight schedule. So Aleph, Rabbi Boyarsky asked to come to his house to meet with him. He's looking at the clock, it's late and it's late and where is he and why is he late and he's got to go and what's the story with this meeting? So he goes to look out. And he looks out the window and he sees the rabbi's putting tefillin on his gardener. Unbelievable. So you put tefillin on. So every time Chabad puts tefillin on somebody, what do they have the person say? Shema! It's a big inyan, it's a big idea that you say Shema. Shema has the tefillin. You can't say Shema without wearing tefillin. Why? Because you look like a liar, and midvar sheker tirchak. So wonders the Mishnah Berurah, so how could you say Shema if you don't love Hashem? Because Shema also says ואהבת את ה' אלהיך. You have to love Hashem your God. Isn't it eidus sheker? You're talking all about Shema, ואהבת את ה' אלהיך, to love Hashem, קבלת עול מלכות שמים, there's Hashem and I love you, but do you love Him? Don't just say you love Him, do you love Him? וכיצד עלינו לאהוב את ה'? And how are we meant to love Him? Bechol levavecha. We're supposed to love Him with all of our hearts. Not all of our heart, all of our hearts in the plural. I don't mean like Yiddish, like hertzig, all of our hearts. How many hearts does a person have? There are four chambers in the heart, but one heart. So how do we love Hashem with two hearts? So the Mishnah wonders that. Bechol levavecha. It should say bechol libecha. Bechol libecha means with your heart, your one heart. What is bechol levavecha? Your two hearts. How many hearts do we have? So the Mishnah says bishnei yetzirecha with both your yetzer hara and your yetzer hatov. We direct both, our good inclination, that's easier, our positive and our good inclination towards the service of Hashem, but also our yetzer hara. Whatever we have a yetzer hara for, we can re-channel it and re-direct it towards Hashem. Whatever the yetzer hara drives us, whatever that appetite, that insatiable appetite, is it for money? Is it for licentiousness and promiscuity? Is it for gossip? Is it jealousy, anger? Is it passion, flying off the handle? Whatever our struggle, our yetzer hara, that yetzer hara can be channeled and directed, that energy towards Hashem. Bechol levavecha. So we have to love Hashem. וכיצד עלינו לאהוב את ה'? We have to love Hashem, uvechol nafshecha, bemesirus nefesh mamash. Mesirus nefesh. We have to be willing to be moser nefesh. What are we willing to give up? What are we willing to sacrifice? What are we willing to sacrifice? Throughout our history there were people who died al kiddush Hashem. They were willing to give up their lives to die as a Jew. What are we willing to give up? Our favorite restaurant? A little sleep? Our Saturday? The juicy lashon hara? What are we willing to give up? What are we willing to be moser nefesh? Uvechol me'odecha, bechol chaspeinu uverichusheinu. Mishnah says bechol me'odecha is all of our resources. Me'od. Whatever we want more and more and more of. Are we willing to take the very thing that we want more and more and more of, that which we want to accumulate and amass, the thing we want me'od, me'od, me'od? Bechol me'odecha. Take it and give it and turn it to Hashem. האם אדם חושב ומתבונן מה הוא אומר כאן? Says Rav Gamliel. Does a person ever stop and think, what am I saying here? ואם כן הלא פעם שהוא רחוק מקיום מצוה זו כרחוק מזרח ומערב. We just in the morning and at night and in bed, we just mutter and we swallow Shema. ואהבת את ה' אלהיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך. We spend time with Rav Reizman, ראש ישיבת תורה ודעת. He taught us, I won't take the time now to tell you, but the rules of grammar. It's not ve'ahavta, it's ve'ahavta. And there's two different meanings to the word if you say ve'ahavta versus ve'ahavta. Mil'eil, milra. Ve'ahavta is past tense, but ve'ahavta is future tense. We're being commanded, love Hashem. So the way we pronounce it changes the meaning of the word. There are five examples of Shema: ve'asafta, ve'ahavta, dibarta. So ve'ahavta. So ve'ahavta. Do we know what we're saying? Do we even know what we're saying or we just swallow it, we mutter it, we fly through it, put a checkmark next to it, said Shema, shein, good, move on. Do we know what we're saying? If we don't know what we're saying, we don't believe what we're saying, we're not practicing what we're saying, it's eidus sheker! A bunch of liars! A bunch of liars! Just like you can't say Shema without tefillin because eidus sheker you're lying, how could you say ואהבת את ה' אלהיך and we don't love Him? הרי זו מצות עשה דאורייתא שכל יהודי מחויב בה. As much as we make an effort to order matzah, to sit in a sukkah, to shake a lulav, to hear the shofar, to light the Shabbos candles, there's a mitzvah to love Hashem. It's no less important or significant or important. So how could we say it and not believe it and not practice it? Ve'ahavta. To love Hashem. Saying it's the easy part. Don't just say it. You have to do it. You have to do it. It's easy to say it. It's easy to say it. I told you the story a million times, one of my favorite stories Rav Avi tells. flying back in, called his son, I need a ride from the airport. You know the story. Says I'm flying in, I'm landing at this time, this was before Uber and Lyft and any of the easy ways to get around. Son says, Abba, I love you so much, but unfortunately I'm busy then, I can't pick you up. He said, listen, I tried everyone else, your mother's busy, appointment place I need to be, I really need you to pick me up at the airport. Abba, I love you like no son's ever loved a father. My love for you runs so deep. If I told you how much I love you, I wish I could, I just I can't. He said, right, I hear, I hear, but I just I need you to pick me up. So rearrange your schedule, do what you got to do, but I need you. Said Abba, I can't even put into words how much I love you. I love you, I respect you, I love you so so much. I just I can't. So he said to his son, do me a favor. Love me less and pick me up at the airport. So the Ribono Shel Olam regularly says to us, the Ribono Shel Olam, it's such a powerful story because to say I love you is easy. There are beautiful people who don't say it unless they mean it. We should really mean it because we've totally destroyed this word because we use the same word to describe our favorite food and our favorite song and our favorite place to visit and our favorite parsha and our favorite people. Right? So a song comes out, oh I love Shwekey, I love Simcha Leiner, I love... No you don't. My kids know, since they're little, every time they say they love... I love Cheez-Its. No you don't, you like it. You love me. Because if we use that same word for everything, what have we done to that word? We're done. We depleted our vocabulary. We have no word left to use for the people that we really love, like Hashem. So we shouldn't use the word unless we mean it, unless we feel it, unless it's real. And when we use it, we should not just say it, but we should practice it. Because love is not an adjective, love is a verb. Love is a verb. Love me less and pick me up at the airport. So we say V'ahavta ואהבת את ה׳ אלהיך בכל לבבך ובכל נפשך ובכל מאדך every morning and every night beshochbecha uvkumecha. We fulfill this biblical commandment to say that we love Hashem to mention it every morning and every evening. And Hashem says do me a favor. Love me less and pick me up at the airport. Love me less, don't say you love me, show me, practice. Love my other children, love me, talk to me, give, make time for me. So how could we say it and we don't mean it? mitzad sheni Hakadosh Baruch Hu ohev osanu meforash lo shum sfeikos. On the other hand, Hashem loves us. He loves us explicitly, he loves us immensely without any doubt. וכך אנו מקדימים לקריאת שמע את האהבה הגדולה שהקדוש ברוך הוא לכלל ישראל Ahava raba ahavtanu. In the paragraph that precedes Shema, we say Hashem, a great love you have loved us. Habocheir b'amo Yisrael. What's the very bracha that we make before we say Shema? Habocheir b'amo Yisrael who chooses the Jewish people how? Be'ahava. In Ma'ariv אהבת עולם בית ישראל עמך אהבת. Oheiv amo Yisrael. וכן מצאנו בעוד הרבה מקומות שהקדוש ברוך הוא מראה לנו אהבתו. Hakadosh Baruch Hu in countless other places in Tanach and through our liturgy, through our davening, Hashem says I love you. Are we listening? Do we hear it? Do we feel his embrace? He's telling us constantly, mashmian, and we just have to turn ourselves into people who hear it. Other religions stole this from us. It's a terrible thing. There are Jews who actually believe you're not supposed to believe Hashem loves us. He doesn't have feelings, he doesn't have emotions, he's infinite, omnipotent, and he doesn't. Those are true, we can't relate or understand, he doesn't have those feelings, but we're meant to relate to him as if he does. Because in our love language, whatever it is, there's a love language. So the language we use for Hashem is the language of love. You know which love language Hashem speaks? All of them and more. To each of us he directs the love language we need to hear him. To each of us he directs the love language that we need to hear him. Rabbi Denofsky, who was just here recently, wrote a new book. I forgot what it's called, he gave it to me, I was reading it, it's excellent. He talks about this. He has a whole chapter on Chapman's love languages and the application of Chapman's love languages in the mitzvah of loving Hashem and feeling Hashem's love to us. How do we channel and use our love languages towards him? How do we hear and feel him speaking our love language towards us? If you don't know what I'm talking about, you don't speak this language, you should learn it. Chapman's love, you can't have a relationship if you don't understand the notion of the five love languages. Because then you're married to someone and you're talking, one's talking French, one's talking Italian, one's talking Spanish, Hebrew, Japanese, Yiddish. And yeah, you know, love conquers all and thing is a universal language of love. That gets you so far. You need to learn each other's language. Not only in the human relationships, but our relationship with the Ribono Shel Olam, with Hashem. Maybe I'll share more of this next time we're together. I'll invoke his book. אתה בחרתנו מכל העמים. Ahavta, ahavta, ahavta. There it's ahavta, because it's past tense. You chose us from all among the nations. Ahavta at Shavuos, you loved us. ועוד לשונות מבטאים את האהבה העצומה שהקדוש ברוך הוא בנו. Countless pesukim, countless brachos, countless davening, over and over and over again, Hashem doesn't just say love me, he says reciprocate the love I have for you. וכן איתא בזוהר הקדוש. Zohar says, אלמלא ידעו בני נשא רחימותא דרחם קודשא בריך הוא לישראל הרי שאגין ככפירי למרדף אבתריה. If the people only knew how great Hashem's love is for the Jewish people, we would run and pursue and chase like crazy people to be able to feel it. If we only knew that we could tap into, that we could access, that we could feel, that we could connect with. And who doesn't need it? Who doesn't need it? We desperately need it, we definitely need to hear it. Mashmi'in, we need to say it. That's the month of Adar. We open the Megilla. And Mordechai tells Esther feel Hashem's love. And we read the story and realize he's behind the curtain, he's pulling the strings, he's making it all happen. We have to submit and surrender to him. Mashmi'in. If we just listen, we'll see and we'll feel and we'll find him. Mishenichnas Adar, don't just enter the month, let the month enter us. Because when we do, marbin b'simcha. Life is so much more pleasant and enjoyable and happy. And it's an adventure. And you never know what's next. But mishenichnas alef dar, when you enter a state that Hashem the Aluf, the One, dar, he lives with us, then marbin b'simcha. Whatever's meant to be. Ha, isn't that funny? The status was on private. Ha, missed the flight. Ha, that didn't work out. I'm not talking about profound loss, unbearably painful loss. I'm not talking about moments like that. I'm talking about our everyday. Mishenichnas Adar, mashmi'in. באחד באדר משמיעין על השקלים. It's time. Shekalim also means the weights, the measures. It's time to take stock, to take measure. The scales of life, what matters, what's important, what's unimportant, and what doesn't matter. Are we listening? Do we hear? To know that we love him and that he loves us. Mori v'Rabbi Rav Weinberg, I'll end with this for today. Oh, we're up to a heilega Baal Shem. Rav Weinberg tells a story about a young man who was the best in his yeshiva. Top guy, the metzuyanim. Right, if you were marriageable age, the in-laws would have to pay for all the support because he was one of the metzuyanim. Top guy in learning. Top guy, top guy in the shiur, top guy in the beis medrash, top guy. And all of a sudden his father saw that he was slipping. Slipping. He wasn't asking shailos and kashyas in shiur. He wasn't going to shiur. He stopped going to shiur. He wasn't in the beis medrash of the yeshiva as much, stopped going to the beis medrash altogether. He was pulling back from keeping Torah and mitzvos, observance, less and less and less and less. Father's, mother, brokenhearted. They don't know what to do. They're trying to intervene, they're trying to maintain the inspiration. They don't know what to do, they're seeing him slip, slip further and further and further. And the father went on his phone to see what he's watching, listening. Maybe it gives some insight, glimpse into what's going on over here. And he sees he's listening to galachim, to pastors and priests, to podcasts of non-Jews. And he can't believe what he sees. His heart breaks and he confronts his son. And he says, it's bad enough you're not going to shiur, bad enough you've dropped out of yeshiva, bad enough you're no longer keeping Torah and mitzvos. How could you? What are you listening to? What are you watching? How are you turning to other religions? How could you be? And his son through his tears says to his father, he says, you know, all that Torah, all those rabbeim, all those years in yeshiva, all that intensity, all that accomplishment I had in learning... he said, in one podcast of them, I heard something I never heard in all my years. They talk over and over about God loves you. I need to know and I need to feel and I need to hear that God loves me. And I was never told it, and I never heard it, and it was never said. How tragic. By yenem, by the others, by galachim, they took it, they stole it from us. Last time I wrote about this I got a bunch of emails arguing, there are people who think chalila, how could you say such a? I don't know. You don't daven? You don't say ahavas olam ahavtanu? You don't say הבוחר בעמו ישראל באהבה? You don't say אהבת עולם בית ישראל עמך אהבת? Oheiv amo Yisrael? You don't say... *V'ahavta*, I'm working on it, *Rav* Reissman, I'm working on it. ואהבת את השם אלקיך בכל לבבך, we invoke and we remember we have a mitzvah we have to remember we have to love *Hashem* and He loves us. He says love me less and pick me up at the airport and we say to *Hashem* love me more. Speak my love language. I need to feel your embrace. Every morning when I put on my tallis, I shouldn't say every morning, I try to remember every morning. Put on the tallis, it's a hug from *Hashem*. Who doesn't need a hug? A hug, just wrapped in the arms of *Hashem*. So whether your love language is physical touch or acts of service or acknowledgment, whatever your love language, *Hashem* speaks them all. You have to be listening, mashmi'in. Today's the day we start listening. אחד באדר משמיעין על השקלים, take stock, take measure, see the scales of what matters, what doesn't matter, what's important, what's unimportant, and listen. Tune up your antenna, open your antenna. Nobody knows what's an antenna anymore. It used to be these things, antenna. Antenna you had to lower it when you went through the car wash so it wouldn't snap off, the antenna. Extend your antenna if you know what I'm talking about and take in the signal and listen. Mashmi'in. He's talking, He loves us. He loves us. And when you say Shema, just like you can't say Shema without tefillin because you're me'id ed sheker, umidevar sheker tirchak, *Der Rebbe Reb* Zusha, you don't want to be far from *Hashem*. So just like you have to wear tefillin if you're going to say Shema, similarly you have to love *Hashem* if you're going to say ואהבת את השם אלקיך. You can't say it. It's ed sheker, you're a liar. So before you say Shema every day, next time you're going to say Shema, some haven't daven Shacharis yet. When you close your eyes, when you put your hand over your eyes, שמע ישראל השם אלקינו, don't just קבלת עול מלכות שמים, take that deep breath and say *Hashem* I love you. I know you love me and I love you. Feel and identify the last time, the last place you felt His love. Before you say Shema, press play on the last message in your family WhatsApp group, Hashgacha Pratis. And if your family doesn't have one, then join Tales of Faith. There's a link, I'll post it in our group. Join the 900 people in Tales of Faith who are sharing stories with one another every day of feeling *Hashem* in your life because you don't have enough WhatsApp groups in your life, it should be a kappara. But Tales of Faith, join this one. Start your own. And every day k'ilu, literally or figuratively, press play on a story before you say Shema. Say *Hashem* I feel your love. Tell your own story. Tell your own story. Write down a story so that before you say your next Shema you remember the last time you felt His love, His hug. And when you remember that, now when you say V'ahavta, and say it properly, es Hashem elokecha, you won't be me'id ed sheker. You're not saying something untrue, you're saying something that's true from the bottom of our hearts. Wishing everyone a Gut Chodesh. Stay happy, stay holy, stay healthy. It should be a happy month filled with bracha and simcha and nechama and only the best of everything. Parshas Shiur right now. We didn't have it yesterday but we're doing it 9:30. If you don't have the link join, it's on the YouTube channel. And tonight we're going Behind the Bima, Bernie Marcus the founder of Home Depot.
