Transcript
Okay, good morning, boker tov. As always want to express our gratitude to the sponsors of the Emunah shiur, Dr. Zvi and Bella Morgan, in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Shanzer. Tremendously grateful to them for their generosity and sponsorship. Take a moment also. If you are not a BRS member, I'm not going to embarrass you and ask you to raise your hand. If you're sitting at home watching or listening live or later, I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand, although if you're alone you could raise your hand. If you're not a BRS member, but you benefit, you enjoy, you show up, you're drinking coffee, you're listening to Torah, your life is enriched by our Living with Emunah or anything else we do, you have to do your part. You have to say thank you, you have to contribute, you have to enable and empower us to continue to share more. So, we're not going to begin until you take out your phone. I'm just joking, we're going to begin, but take out your phone, brsonline.org/global, brsonline.org/global, and you have to do your part. How could you live with yourself and benefit and enjoy and not give or contribute, not do your part? So please give to our Global campaign, please be part, the sooner you give, the sooner we hit our goal. We're at 15%. The sooner we hit our goal, the less you have to hear about it from me. So that's an incentive, I don't know what is, but please do your part so that we can contribute to share and spread Torah far and wide. Got a few Emunah emails I want to share with you this morning, beautiful stories of living with emunah. We'll start with my friend from Chicago. I'm writing to you from Chicago where I arrived late last night for industry meetings. My morning routine is always to work out before I start my day. Did I read this one last week? When I'm out of town, I follow workout videos on YouTube. This morning was no different. When I clicked on YouTube, one of the first videos I was offered up was Living with Emunah. I correctly decided that my workout could wait. I have that effect on people. So I tuned into your live shiur. A few minutes after I joined, you began speaking about a 92-year-old Rabbi and the remarkable fact that he had all of his natural teeth. Remember we talked about that last week? Rav Avigdor Miller who thanked Hashem, he looked in the mirror, counted his teeth, and thanked Hashem every day for his teeth. And the dentist attributed his having all of his teeth for that gratitude. You asked how many of us knew how many teeth we had and that this Rabbi counted his teeth every day, thanked Hashem for them, and that is why even at his age he retained his natural dentition. New word. The answer to the question is 32. Why do I know that? Because the industry that I work in is the dental industry. I have the incredible privilege and bracha to run our family's fourth-generation dental business where we develop, manufacture, and distribute innovative consumables for the oral health professionals around the world. Basically, the things your dentist or hygienist use in your mouth. I continue to learn that there are no coincidences. How is it I decided to tune into the shiur when I had to work and workouts to do? How is it when I did, at the very moment you were speaking about teeth and oral health, there can only be one answer and that is Hashem. Thank you for starting my day with a smile, with emunah, and the lessons of learning and leadership. That was one great email. Just in time, hashgacha pratis to tune in and didn't do a workout, hashgacha. Wow, that's great. Next one's another great one, another young man. The best part is I don't know the people who send me these emails, but I want you to keep sending them because they're remarkable illustrations and examples of applying what we're learning. Every week we say the same exact thing. There's Hashem, He's involved in our lives, nothing's a coincidence, it's all by design, it's all from above, it's all from Him. And these are illustrations of putting that into practice, seeing and feeling and recording in your Hashgacha WhatsApp group. I forgot to post last week the group that has 900 people that began as a result of our shiur. I have to post it for those who want to join. But here's another great example then we'll dive into the Torah. Today I had to go to the bank in the morning buy breakfast and wanted to be back in yeshiva. You knew that when you say bank in the morning, buy breakfast, and wanted to be back in yeshiva that it would be yeshiva. For when seder started. So during Shacharis I was thinking to myself I should leave a little early from davening I could get back in time for seder. I went back and forth with myself but in the end I decided to stay until the end. If Hashem wanted me to come back on time, that's what would happen. In other words, he was grappling, should I leave davening early so I can get to the bank and make it back for seder, or do I stay till the end of davening and if Hashem wants me to be back in time for learning, I'll be back in time. After I finished praying and wrapping my tefillin and tallis, I quickly went to my room to gather my things and I headed off to the buses. Once I was on the street where the bus pick me up, I saw one of the buses I could take by and I said, I won't chase it down. If I was meant to be on it, I would get on. There are four buses I could have taken so I wouldn't be waiting long anyway. As I continued walking down the street, I saw two more buses going down the street and I didn't see the fourth one coming anytime soon. So I decided I would run to catch one of those buses. I wasn't running out of nervousness, but rather I wanted to have a faster trip so I could resume learning as soon as possible. When I reached the third bus after a quick sprint, the driver wouldn't open the door and ended up leaving. I did my best to not be bothered by it and I said to myself, if that's what Hashem decided, that's for the best. If he was meant to get on the bus, the bus driver would have let him, so the bus driver slammed the door in his face, clearly Hashem did not want him to be on that bus. Eight minutes later I was on the fourth bus and on my way to the bank. Around halfway there. Around halfway through the trip I saw multiple ambulances and police vehicles flying up the street with lights and sirens. As we went forward in heavy traffic and commotion, I saw there was a bus in the middle of the road with a completely shattered windshield and all the ambulances were surrounding it. Behind the bus with the shattered windshield were two other buses that were stuck, all three of which were the ones I could have or would have taken. Not only that, the people on those buses were taken off the bus and weren't let onto my bus because we had to take a detour to continue on the bus's route. I go to the bank shortly after and I got back to Yeshiva only fifteen minutes later. Who knows how long it would have taken otherwise. There are multiple points of Hashgacha Pratis in this story. If I would have left Shacharis early, I would have been on that first bus and God forbid might have gotten hurt. Second is if I'd made the bus that I ran after, I would have been stuck and taken off the bus and what it would have been delayed much longer. Emuna is not knowing what the future holds, but knowing who holds the future. It's a great line. Emuna, I don't know who he is or if he's single or how you can introduce him to your granddaughter. I don't know, but he's a good chap. Emuna's not knowing what the future holds but knowing who holds the future. Thank you Hashem. Then he writes another text to me he wrote a little while later. A few days later I was flipping through my little notebook where I write ideas and questions I come up with and I saw that on Zos Chanukah, on the eighth day of Chanukah I wrote, quote, I heard Rav Gamliel, who we're learning, says on Zos Chanukah you should write down a kabbalah you want to work on and Hashem will give you extra Siyata Dishmaya. I bli neder will work on not leaving early from Minyan. He said and I totally forgot about it. So here, what led to his Hashgacha Pratis that he didn't leave early from Minyan, that was the kabbalah he made and who inspired him to make it, what we're learning, Rav Gamliel, Tiv Ha'emuna, not leaving early from Minyan, kept him from going on one of those thirty-three buses, he didn't get hurt, and he made it back more or less on time for his learning, all Hashgacha Pratis, thank you Hashem, Emuna's not knowing what the future holds, but knowing who holds your future. I changed it, he has the future, but who holds your future. Such a beautiful, beautiful thought. So, if you're listening, watching, and you've gone online to breslovonline.org/global and you've made your contribution, now send me a text or an email with a great Emuna story. We love to continue to share them. And that's really the story of Purim. Today's Zayin Adar, seventh of Adar, Haman thought an inauspicious day on our calendar the day Moshe died, that was the day he was going to exterminate the Jewish people. He forgot it was also Moshe's birthday. An auspicious day on our calendar, new beginnings and a fresh start, and the Av Ha'nevi'im, the father, the greatest of all the prophets, would give us the Torah Kedosha, the Toras Chayim, the timeless Torah that would inspire and inform and elevate and enrich our lives in such meaningful and such beautiful ways. So Purim is coming up next week, this Parshas Zachor this Shabbos, and the Gemara tells us, the Mishnah tells us that one of the rules of Purim is Hakorei Lemafraya, if you read the Megillah backwards, if you read it backwards. Why would you want to do that? I don't know. You read the Megillah backwards. So maybe that means you read the tenth perek, then the ninth perek, then the eighth perek, then the seventh perek, each pasuk you read the words out of order, backwards. However you understand it, Lemafraya backwards, lo yatza, you're not yotze. You're not yotze if you read it backwards. But there's a beautiful teaching from the Sar Shalom of Belz. Sar Shalom of Belz says הקורא למפרע לא יצא doesn't mean that you read it backwards. But it means Lemafraya means if you think that Megillah, that Purim is only a holiday that happened thousands of years ago, Lemafraya, you read the Megillah as if it's an ancient, outdated, old, expired story, you've not been yotze reading the Megillah. The Megillah is a modern story. It is a contemporary story. It is the story of your and my lives. It is the story of finding Hashem even when He feels hidden. It is Megillas Esther being megaleh the nister, revealing His hiddenness. Hashem doesn't appear anywhere in the Megillah, His name, and yet every time we read and we proclaim the name Hamelach, that's Hashem showing His hand. And similarly in our lives, sometimes, most often, for almost all, Hashem doesn't explicitly reveal Himself. He doesn't announce I'm here, He doesn't suspend the rules of nature and make a miracle, He doesn't explicitly appear, but we have to read it into our lives. Megillas Esther megaleh the nister, we have to reveal that hiddenness, אדר א אלוף דר, Hashem dwells. Amalek, Amalek is the gematria of safek, Amalek who introduces us to doubt and uncertainty. Who says there's a Hashem? Who says that what's happening is really Him? Maybe it's a string of coincidences. Maybe you happened to turn on the workout video, Living with Emuna came instead, talking about teeth, you're at a dental conference, ah, it's just chance, it's just random. Maybe you stayed in Minyan, you missed three buses that you would have gotten delayed, you made the fourth, that was your kabbalah after all all along, ah, it's coincidence, random, chance, maybe, maybe not. Our job, Amalek says it's safek, it's doubt, it's uncertainty, it's unlikely, it's random, it's chance, but we have to destroy Amalek, that's this week's Parshas Zachor. from our mentality and from our and from our mind. What does Amalek want to do? He wants Kois Ko tried to destroy God from sitting Kais is kisei his chair his throne. What's missing from the word kisei? Kois Ko aleph. The aleph is the one and only the unique and single Hashem the Aluf the master of the universe. So we replace that aleph. Amalek removes the aleph from kisei Kois Ko and we put the aleph back. How do we put the aleph back? Adar. Aluf dar by giving Hashem a dwelling place. Dar means to live. Hakadosh Baruch Hu has dira betachtonim. We try to give him a dwelling place down here on earth. He doesn't just live on high. Hashem is not theoretical he's not abstract he's not academic he's in our lives. He's when we miss a bus and catch a bus. He's what comes up when we turn on YouTube. He's in every aspect of our daily lives. Aluf dar Adar. When you live with Adar mishenichnas when you enter a state a mindset of Adar of Aluf dar of adding the aleph back onto the kisei then marbim besimcha. Now your life is filled with joy. You miss buses you say can't wait to see where this adventure leads not I'm annoyed and I'm frustrated and I can't believe it and how could I miss those buses so that's where I was meant to be I was meant to not be on those buses I can't wait to see why and how this turns out. You live life Aluf dar you give Hakadosh Baruch Hu a dira betachtonim we give him a dwelling place down here on earth. Down here on earth that's up to us. He can't impose and he can't force himself. We have to invite him we have to reveal him we have to be megaleh the nistar Megillas Esther we have to reveal his hiddenness. We have to write him into our megilla we have to proclaim HaMelech. So we clap and we bang at Haman and we cheer inside or externally at HaMelech. HaMelech the king is all around us. The king is all around us and he's waiting and looking for us to see and to acknowledge him and to submit and surrender to him and to give him a dira betachtonim to give him a dwelling place down here. That's what we're reading in the parshas last week and this week Terumah Tetzaveh ועשו לי מקדש ושכנתי בתוכם. Hashem says make for me a mikdash and I'll dwell in them it should say in it why in them? How does he dwell here on earth? In us. Hashem reveals himself in us. When we say Baruch Hashem Im Yirtzeh Hashem Chasdei Hashem Be'ezras Hashem please God thank God if God wills when we use his name when we acknowledge him when we defer to him when we thank him when we protest him when we talk about him we're giving him a dwelling place here on earth. And when he's invisible and he's never mentioned and he's erased from our lives then he only lives on high. We are the ones who reveal him. Aluf dar Adar dira betachtonim the aleph of kisei Kois Ko we put the aleph back in kisei and we eliminate Amalek who wants to introduce safek doubt because we live with certainty. We've no doubt. I'm certain that what happens happens for a reason and a purpose. I'm certain my life has meaning and order. I'm certain that he has a master plan even when it's difficult and painful but it's all part of his plan it's all orchestrated from above. And that's what we're trying to do by living with emuna. We're living with emuna. Emuna's not a cop out. Emuna's not opium of the masses. Emuna's not just a drug that we use to get through the day. Emuna's emes. It's the truth. There is a God he created the world he's intimately involved in our lives and that's the holiday of Purim that everything happens from him. It's all from him. It's all orchestrated the picture comes together. Sometimes like the story of Purim you get to the end of the Megilla and you could read it and see how he revealed his hand. How nothing was a coincidence. That Mordechai overheard the plot to kill the king that Esther won and she was the prettiest woman and chosen to be Achashveirosh's wife. All these seeming coincidences and chance were a string of events that were ordained from above. And the same is true with our life. Nothing's random or chance it's all ordained from above and that is our mission during this time and during these days. Back in Teiva Emuna Rabbi Neuburger. We were learning Shema the mitzvah of ahavas Hashem and he taught us something so powerful. Just like if you try to say Shema you're not wearing tefillin it's a lie you're a fraud it's not true. How could you say וקשרתם לאות על ידך how could you say that you have to wear tefillin you're not wearing tefillin? What else do we say in Shema? ואהבת את ה' אלהיך. You have to love Hashem. And if you don't love Hashem then you're not in earnest you're not sincerely or authentically saying Shema. And we left off last time that we have to love Hashem what are we reciprocating to him? His love for us. That notion God loves you. God loves us. It is not... It's not a non-Jewish concept. It's not a Christian concept. They stole it from us. Hashem loves us. Hashem loves you and he loves me and he loves all of us and that is the essence of Torah that we have Avinu Shebashamayim, we have a father in heaven and he never gives up on us no matter how far we are. We have the parsha shiur right after this, if you're here in person or watching or listening online, I hope you stay at 9:30 for the parsha shiur, I'll give you a preview. It says that the Kohen would wear, Kohen Gadol wore the me'il, had the bells on the bottom. nishmah kolo, it would hear the sound when he walked in there. Three places you hear that word nishmah appears in the Torah. Hearing the sounds here and na'aseh v'nishmah and the third place nishmah. Why those three places? We'll get to a beautiful insight of the Gerrer Rosh Yeshiva. Sometimes Hashem hears you when you're up close to him, but Hashem hears us even when we're far away. When we feel we're distant and we failed, even when we have disobeyed, Hakadosh Baruch Hu still hears our pleas, he hears our call. If you have a child who's disappointed you, if you have a child who's been disobedient to you, if you have a child who's not listening, but they come to you and they say "I need your help now, I want you, I long for you, I want to be connected to you," would you say "No, because you didn't clean your room when I asked you to? No, because you don't call often enough so now I'm not taking your call?" I don't know such a parent. No matter what a child does, no matter how distant they are, you crave, you crave their connection and when they reach out and they want to connect, you welcome it. It doesn't mean you don't have things you have to work through or reconcile, important conversations that have to be had, but you long for that relationship and Avinu Shebashamayim, our father in heaven, he craves and he wants and he longs for that relationship with us. It doesn't mean that we're not accountable for decisions we've made, choices that we've expressed, but he wants that connection. We're never so far away. We'll get into this more shortly in the parsha shiur. But why is that? Because he's not just a scary king, a scary employer, he's not just a scary master in heaven. He's Avinu Shebashamayim, he's our father. He's our father and he loves us. He loves us. We need to know that, our children need to know that, no matter how far we've fallen, no matter how distant we've become, no matter how much we think we've disappointed him, he never gave up on us, he never gives up on us. He believes in us. Rabbah emunasecha, his faith, his belief in us is great. He believes in us. He loves us and he's waiting for us. ahavtanu mikol ha'amim, ahavtanu, ohev amo Yisrael, אהבתי אתכם אמר ה'. Over and over again the pesukim tell us Hashem loves us. He loves us. Feel his hug, feel his love. You walk outside, I don't know, my daughter in New Jersey school was canceled today, the snow was falling, they've got many inches. I don't mean to rub it in your face, but you walk outside here in Boca Raton today and you feel the rays of sun on your neck and you feel the cool wind, I would say in your hair, but not all of us are so lucky. You can feel the cool wind and I don't know, there's no better feeling. But we're always in a rush or we're running or we're scrolling or we're looking down or our thumbs are working, so we don't even notice. Hashem's like "Hi, here, I'm giving you a hug. I'm giving you some love." You feel that warmth on your neck of the sun while you feel the cool air of a cool day? That's me. I love you. That warmth, that vitamin D, that's me. Just stop and put your phone away and look around and close your eyes and take a deep breath and restore your soul and feel my love. Feel my affection, feel my warmth. You ever need a hug? You ever near someone who needs a hug? A hug, sometimes there's no words, it's the embrace, it's just the hug. Someone needs a hug, we need a hug, we need that connection, that energy exchange. Hakadosh Baruch Hu on a day like today in South Florida, he's giving you a hug. So you walk by somebody, your parent or your child says "Can I have a hug?" and you say "Yeah, whatever," and you walk right by them. Hakadosh Baruch Hu's like "Hi, I'm enveloping you, I want to give you a hug," and we're looking down and we're scrolling and we're distracted and we're not... just feel that hug, receive that hug, give that hug, reciprocate that hug because he loves us. וידוע בשם הבעל שם טוב on the bottom of page Ayin Hey, 75. It's known in the name of the Baal Shem Tov, the Heilige Baal Shem, Tzava'at haRivash, שכל עולם האהבה שייך בעצם לעניין אהבת הבורא לישראל ואהבת כנסת ישראל לבורא כפי שמתגלה בשיר השירים והקב"ה נתן לנו גם אהבה גשמית כדי שיהיה לנו מושג מהי אהבה. The entire notion the Baal Shem Tov said of love, the entire feeling of love, the institution of love, what is love? The definition of love is hours and hours of conversation in its own right. But love is not an adjective, love is not an emotion, love is not a feeling. Those all do an injustice and a disservice to the notion of love. Love is not an adjective. Love if anything is a verb. You don't feel love, you exhibit love. You act lovingly. You perform love, acts of love. You love. You don't feel love. And in fact that's the order. You don't wait to feel love and then act, if you act lovingly, you will feel love. That's why Rav Dessler writes, we love when we give, not when we receive. Children love parents more, parents rather love children more than children could ever love parents. Because parents give and children receive, certainly at the beginning of life. So love is the result of giving, not the result of receiving. And love is not an adjective, it's not an emotion, it's not a feeling. Love is a verb, it's an act, it's something we do. Love is an existential connection and bond. So when you say I love pizza or I love Chinese food or I love sushi, you're describing your existential bonds, your soulful connection with a food. So you like those foods, you don't love them. You like them. You love, hopefully, your spouse, your children, Hashem. That's love. That's love. Love is something bigger and greater. So every feeling of love, we just said it's not a feeling, but what we call or describe as a feeling was all designed as a metaphor for the most authentic love and that is the love of Hashem for us and our love for him. קדוש ברוך הוא נתן לנו גם אהבה גשמית כדי שיהיה לנו מושג מה היא אהבה ועל ידי זה נדע כיצד לקיים מצוות אהבת השם. I don't know how to fulfill loving Hashem. Oh, now I have a child, now I know what it means that Hashem loves me. Now I know. I've said this before that I've told my children when they say I love you, I say you think you love me. You have no idea what love is. The love I have for you, that's love. What you have for me is also love but it's not love. But when you'll have a child, when you'll have a child and they'll be your everything and you take a bullet, you'll give your life for theirs. And you wake up in the middle of the night and just stare at them. When they're a little baby you want to make sure they're okay, when they're a little older you can't believe they're here and they're yours. And when they give you nachas in that moment, there's just you swell with a pride and a joy like you won the lottery, bigger than anything in the world. Those who don't know those feelings should be blessed to have healthy children, children who give them nachas we give everyone the biggest bracha. Give the biggest bracha. But that's the greatest. That's the greatest. So that's real love, when you have a child you know what love is. You know what love is. And why did Hashem create that relationship and that connection and that possibility? Because now we know what Hashem feels for us. When we give him nachas, when we give him pride and pleasure, now we know his unconditional love for us as our father. Now we understand love because when we have children, we are children, so we know the perspective of the love of a child for a parent what we're meant to feel for him. And those who merited to be parents know the love of a parent to know what Hashem feels for us. And said the Baal Shem, both of those aspects or dimensions, both of those directions of love are only there as metaphors for what we feel for him and he feels for us. ועל ידי זה נדע כיצד לקיים ומה קורה בפועל כל האהבות האחרות מנוצלות עד תום ואהבת את השם מה תהא עליה? What do we have? We have all the other loves. Hashem, love of Hashem, when's the last time you thought about loving Hashem? It's a mitzvah. It's a mitzvah d'Oraisa. Talking to in-person and online, local and our globe, did I mention the global community? If you benefit and you enjoy, if you like the content what you read, what you watch, what you listen, shiurim, panel discussions, articles, how can you go to sleep at night and not do your part and give something? beiersonline.org/global. Yes, you're going to keep hearing it. I'm sorry you don't like it. Cough it up and then you don't have to hear it anymore. So whether you're in person or you're part of our Baruch Hashem cherished, cherished global community, we're scrupulous and vigilant about mitzvos. We wouldn't turn the light on or get in a car on Shabbos. Make a bracha before we eat. We're careful to put on tallis and tefillin, we light the candles. We're going to observe the mitzvos of Purim. And we don't think that loving Hashem, we don't think of it in that context, it's one of the taryag. There is a biblical commandment, a Torah mitzvah, you have to love Hashem. It's as real, it's as binding, we are accountable, as accountable for that mitzvah of loving Hashem as we are for other mitzvos. We have an obligation and a mitzvah to love Hashem. So who here has not yet thought of mishloach manos? What's the theme, what are you making, how many do you have to make, who are you going to give to, did you make your list? You thought a lot about that mitzvah already, no? I'm going to scare everybody. Who here has not yet thought about Pesach? Shatzer, there's no shatzer matzah, other matzah's more expensive, where are you going to get the matzah? The Costco matzah. matzah, it's cheaper but it tastes like cardboard, where are you going to go, no offense, Costco. We've thought about Pesach, right? Nu? You thought about mitzvos. We put a lot of thought and planning and spend resources on mitzvos. When is the last time you thought or planned, strategized for the mitzvah of loving Hashem? Hashem, I want to love you. Let me think about that. What does that mean? What does that look like? When is the last time I did it? When is the next time I can do it? How would I fulfill that? What is the mitzvah to love you? When's the last time we thought about it? There is a mitzvah to love Hashem. And if we say Shema and we don't and we don't do it, then we don't mean it. Then we don't mean it. And you know, there are few things that are worth less than hearing I love you and the person doesn't mean it. You gotta mean it. It's gotta be real. It's gotta be authentic. It's gotta be genuine. ואדם יכול לבחון את עצמו היכן הוא אוחז בזה על ידי שיתבונן and a person has to have self-awareness, self-reflection, introspection, cheshbon hanefesh. שאם יאמרו לו שיש כעת הזדמנות להתקרב להקדוש ברוך הוא בשעת דבקות ממש אבל לשם כך עליו לעזוב את העולם הזה מיד ולעבור לעולם שכולו טוב האם יסכים לכך ללא שהיות. One is Rav Gamliel, look, we know what love is in the physical world. Right? we know what love is. If someone says we're going to your favorite restaurant for dinner, we're going to order your favorite foods and favorite wine, you look forward to that because you know what it means to love food and wine. We're going to your favorite place. You're getting together with your einiklach, your children. You know what it means to love your grandchildren, your children. You know what that means too. You know what that means too. Jack Gazar just lost his sister. kenaynahara, I think she was, not kenaynahara, she just lost her, she was 98. She had great-great-grandchildren. Not one, but several. We know what love means. You're going to spend time with children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, baruch Hashem in our time. We know what it means to love, to look forward. You'll hear people say, I just got a new car, my Tesla, I love it. I can't live without it. I love it. I love it. So we know what it means to love gashmius. We know what it means to love material or physical things. To love, to love the physical things. Do we know what it means to love Hashem? Do we apply that same love? And here's the test, says Rav Gamliel. If you had a choice of loving one, which would you take? You could spend time and bask in the light and the glory and the love and the embrace, the intimacy of Hashem, but you gotta give up the Tesla, you gotta give up your favorite food, you gotta give up your favorite things, your favorite people, your favorite places, but you could be in bask in the glory, the light, the embrace, the love of Hashem. Or would you say Hashem, I'll get to you later, first let me go out for dinner at my favorite restaurant. Let me spend time with my favorite people, let me drive my favorite car, let me wear my favorite outfit, let me do my favorite things. Which would you trade for which? That tells you what you really love. שישכיל לחשוב על אשתו וילדיו שישארו כאן ולהיפרד מההורים והחברים אם אדם מרגיש כך סימן שקודם כל הוא אוהב בכל לבבו את אשתו וילדיו אחרי כן הוא אוהב את הוריו ואת חבריו ורק בשלב השלישי אפשר שהוא גם אוהב השם יתברך. haksheila hanokeves ad tehom, על זאת יקרא ואהבת את השם אלקיך בכל לבבך. Every day we say Shema beshachvecha uve'kumecha, when we go to sleep and when we wake up, and every day we are challenging ourselves, do we really love Hashem? You take a bullet for your child, no? You jump in front of a car for your child, no? What about for Hashem? What sacrifice are you willing to make for him? What bullet do you take for him? What compromise are you willing to make for him? That's love. Love is compromise and sacrifice. Love is having milchigs for dinner when you want fleishigs. That's love. That's love. The verb love. That's love. Love me less and pick me up from the airport. That's love. Don't talk about love, show me love. That's love. So what love are we willing to show Hashem? I really, I really want to sleep in but do I wake up to daven? I really have juicy lashon hara and gossip I want to share but Hashem wants me to be a type of person who can't gossip. I really love my money and I want to keep it all for myself, but I love the Global BRS community and I want to support what it does. I love food, but I have to keep kosher, that's what Hashem wants. I love to eat now, but you have to make a bracha. I love, but I have to wait between fleishig... whatever the example is. What do you do for love? I love dressing or looking this way, but there are rules of modesty that I want to carry and practice and I want to present myself in a certain way. Do we love Hashem? Because love is a verb. Love is not an emotion or a feeling, love is not an adjective. Do we express, do we show, do we show that we love him? Now, the greatest way you could show love. Love is time. You don't, you can claim to love someone, but if you don't, if you don't allocate any time to be with them, if you're not focused while you're with them, you don't really love. And the same is true with the Ribono Shel Olam, and here we come back to Purim, Parshas Zachor, Zayin Adar, Parshas Tetzaveh. Do we love Hashem? Do we make time? Do we give him a dirah betachtonim? Do we talk to him? Do we spend time in conversation with him? Hisbodedus? Or are we in conversation with him? Are we in conversation, are we talking to him? Filling him in, objecting, protesting, thanking, asking? Content of the conversation is up to you, and it changes every day because we are different every day, every moment of every day. Are we in conversation with him? Do we take a few moments to talk to him? Submit, surrender, thank, object, ask. Do we make time for him? If we don't make time for him, we don't really love him. So chevre, when we say every day Shema, ואהבת את השם אלוקיך, we have an obligation to love, and we pledge and promise we will love. What does that love look like? When is the last time we've loved? How does that love compare to other things that we love, like our favorite food and our favorite car and our favorite outfit? And are we willing to sacrifice and compromise? Do we make that time? Do we express that love for him? Do we give him a dirah betachtonim? Do we see that even when we missed those first three buses, that wasn't by accident? That was Hashem shining love on us. When it works out and when it doesn't work out. When it's for good and when it's for bad. When it's pleasurable or when it's painful. It's all from him above. Do we pause on a magnificent day outside where there's not a cloud in the sky and this cool air and there's the warmth of the sun on the back of your neck and you say, that's you. Take a deep breath. כל הנשמה תהלל יה, with every breath I see and I feel you Hashem. Every breath in my lungs I affirm my soul is connected to its source, which is you, and I feel your hug. I love you. Thank you. Thank you. I feel and I love you and that worked out amazingly and I feel your love and I reciprocate it, and I reciprocate it. 9:30, continue with Parsha. Everyone's invited to stay and to join. If you're watching online, you can go to the other link and join us if you have not yet. In all seriousness, please go to brsonline.org/global and do your part. Stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
