Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov, welcome back to Living with Emuna. Thank you for your flexibility this week, moving to Thursday. Baruch Hashem, so many simchas and traveling, it should just continue, but I appreciate everybody's flexibility. The Emuna shiur is sponsored generously by Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Doctor Brian Galbut, in memory of Bella's mother, Doctor Ellen Schanzer. We remain incredibly grateful to the Morgans for their generosity. This morning's shiur is also sponsored in commemoration of my bubby's yahrzeit, my grandmother's yahrzeit, which was yesterday, ינטא רחא בת שמואל, my beloved bubby, who had a huge impact on me. Her neshama should have an aliya. It's also sponsored לכבוד ראש חודש ניסן in memory of Doctor Jacob M. Hiller, who exemplified and modeled how to live with simchas hachaim and emuna. So thank you to all of our generous sponsors. Lastly, we are running out of our Caffeinate with Kavana incredible cups. If anyone would like to sponsor for our shiur and the shiurim here, so that every time someone makes a bracha on their cup of coffee at the beginning of a shiur and they look at the Shehakol and they remember to caffeinate with kavana, they do it in your honor or in the merit of someone, please speak to Lee. We would welcome and appreciate your generosity. Okay, before we dive back into Tiv Ha'emuna, before we get back into this beautiful learning we've been doing, the beautiful Torahs of Rav Gamliel Rabinowitz, the tzadik of Yerushalayim, just to share a couple more stories, because I'm convinced you don't come for the Torah or me or my good looks, you come for the stories that I share. So this one made the rounds last week. Unfortunately, the circumstances were such it made the rounds, only it wasn't current to last week. I don't know why someone dug it up and sent it around again. It goes back to July of 2014. You might have seen a picture of the cover of a newspaper that said the following: there was a July 18th, 2014 edition of the Jewish Telegraph, and it seems like every summer, every other summer, our enemies around us in Israel shoot rockets at the Jewish people. Just last week, over a thousand rockets rained down. I think this morning another rocket was shot. Unfortunately, you know, the notion of a ceasefire is that we cease and they keep fire. That's their understanding of a ceasefire. And certainly our brothers and sisters in Israel, as we are on the eve of Yom Yerushalayim, this miraculous day, are very much in our thoughts, on our minds, and in our tefillos. So last week, when the rockets were raining down once again, this picture made the rounds. It was the cover of a newspaper from 2014, and the headline said the following: 'Their God changes the path of our rockets in mid-air.' This was an interview in Ma'ale Adumim. Barbara Ordman, who lives there, her exact quotation was, 'One of the terrorists from Gaza was reported to say when asked why they couldn't aim their rockets more effectively, quote, "We do aim them, but their God changes their path in mid-air."' And when you think about a thousand rockets rain down and you'll say, 'Well, it's not God, it's the scientist who invented the Iron Dome. It's the rocket scientists who invented David's Sling.' Who do you think gave the ingenuity? We had one of the inventors of the Iron Dome spoke at our shul several years ago on a Shabbos, and he shared how America and the world's greatest scientists, physicists, told him it could never be done. You'll never figure it out. You take this very primitive rocket that is very hard to predict where it's going, and in an instant, you try to anticipate the velocity, the trajectory, the direction, the distance, and you're going to meet it in mid-air? And this is not a precision rocket, this is like a flimsy make it in your backyard on a YouTube video rocket and you're going to make it blow up? 'Can't be done,' they said. So who gave the ingenuity to the Israeli scientists to do it? And first did it with Iron Dome, and now doing it with David's Sling and continue to increase the accuracy of it? So that's Hashem. That's Hashem too. That's Hashem too. So the theme of today is that sometimes you get mussar from the most unlikely sources. And the first one is a terrorist. A terrorist who says, 'We're aiming them, but their God keeps redirecting them.' And halevai that we, the targets of that terrorist, would also conclude our God keeps redirecting them. Shehakol niheyeh bidvaro, everything that happens in this world is from Hashem, it's all from above, and we should express our gratitude and feel His protection. Certainly, as I said, tomorrow's Yom Yerushalayim, the Six-Day War. However you commemorate, however you mark it, is a religious question, is a halachic question. Hallel, bracha, no bracha, those are halachic questions. But to pause and say, 'Thank you, Hashem'? I wasn't alive in '67. I know I don't look it, but I wasn't alive in '67. But those who were tell me and remember well how many hundreds of thousands of graves were dug in Israel, how much they predicted it would be the end of the Jewish people, how people wanted to send their children to America so a part of their family would survive, there would be another genocide, Israel, Jewish people would be wiped out again. And instead, it wasn't six days; within the first six hours of the war, we had won it. We had won it. It took five and a half more days for cleanup and to finish some things, including taking Yerushalayim and making it the undivided eternal capital of the Jewish people and giving us access to our holiest sites and if a- And if a person doesn't think they have to stop and say thank you Hashem, wow, what a miracle, what an absolute miracle! Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the Almighty, is constantly giving us miracles. Got the following email. We were just listening to the Emunah shiur several weeks ago, my wife and I decided we could use extra boost of emunah. Started listening from the beginning of the series. After binge listening the first six or seven, we've gone back to the most recent ones of the last two weeks, so first thank you. When you mentioned in this week's shiur about recognizing where your paycheck come from, we've said that several times over the last few weeks. It's not ours, it's Rav Gamliel's. If someone says, where's your paycheck, you shouldn't say Boker Tov Synagogue, you say Hashem. Oh, who does He choose to send it through? Oh, it says on it Boker Tov Synagogue. But my livelihood, my parnasa, my paycheck, it comes from Hashem. So when you mentioned that, it's not bi-resh-uso from Hashem reminded me of a fantastic interaction I had last week. I was running a conference in Israel, and we were running late at the end of dinner. So we asked the restaurant to pack up the dessert to take it upstairs to our conference space so we could continue the evening session. While waiting at the restaurant to get the desserts, I was talking with the restaurant owner, and my boss was standing there with me. So I introduced my boss and I said, Niv, zeh haboss sheli. Apparently boss in Hebrew is boss. Now, just to give you background, this restaurant owner did not outwardly look religious. He wasn't wearing a kippah, but without batting an eye he stared at me and very seriously and he said, זה לא הבוס שלך הבוס שלך למעלה, meaning Hashem. I was very moved not only because I was getting mussar from a non-religious Jew, but obviously very God-fearing and faithful restaurant owner, because even after 13 years living in Israel, it's these kinds of only in Israel moments that make living here so meaningful. And a good reminder of who's really in control of our lives and our paycheck. Feel free to share anonymously, which I just did. A very beautiful idea. So, story number two of mussar and emunah from an unpredictable source. Now when I say unpredictable source, Hakadosh Baruch Hu, Harbei sheluchim lamakom. Harbei sheluchim lamakom, Hashem has many agents, many ambassadors, Hakadosh Baruch Hu has many messengers, and He is messaging us all the time. The question is are our antennas extended, are our eyes and ears open, are we listening? He's talking to us, He's messaging us. It can be from a terrorist, it can be from a seemingly non-religious restaurant owner or worker who says haboss shelcha lemala. That's not your boss. That's our boss. Or I'll give you one more. So, I was flying last week to a wedding, and I was on JetBlue and the TVs weren't working. Fine, better for everybody's neshama. I was sitting in the TVs weren't working. So the woman sitting next to me, she's pounding it, hitting it, thinking if she keeps touching it, it's gonna start working all of a sudden. And it wasn't working. And she was clearly very frustrated. And the flight attendant came by and she grabbed her and she said, nothing's working. Nothing's working. The flight attendant stopped. I love this. Flight attendant stopped. First of all, every time you fly, you're good for at least an emunah story, a drasha, an article. That's why I fly so much. Every single time you guaranteed something. When I dry up and I have nothing to write or say, I just book a flight to nowhere just so I'll have something. So the woman's pounding the TV and she says, nothing's working. And the JetBlue flight attendant stops and she says, nothing's working? The plane is working and that's the most important thing. It was wow. We were mid-air flying in a metal box through the sky at whatever speed, 30,000 feet in the air, going to not on horse and buggy make it from Florida to New York in three months, but we were gonna get there in two hours and 22 minutes. And the flight attendant just reminded her and me and all of us that the main thing's working. The main thing's working. Don't say nothing's working because the peripheral thing that you never dreamt you'd have, that wasn't invented until recently, people used to just read a book, or a magazine, or close their eyes, or even talk to the person next to them. And then someone came up with the fact that there's TVs, there's Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi, whoever thought? And then when the thing that we never dreamt of, never deserved, never felt entitled to stops working, we say nothing's working. This is bogus, I want my money back, this is ridiculous, nothing's working. And the flight attendant reminded the main thing's working. You're gonna get from point A to point B? The plane's working. Everything's okay. And I just thought to myself isn't that all of us when something peripheral in our life that we'd like, that's nice to have, that adds comfort, but it doesn't work so well, we say Hashem, where are you? There's no God. Nothing's working. And He's like, is your heart beating? Are you still breathing? Your lungs are okay? Yeah, the main thing's working. The main thing's working. Okay, the Wi-Fi in your house is slow. Okay, the ich veis. I don't even know what. You had many red lights and you got there late, you couldn't find a parking spot, you screaming up at Hashem He doesn't exist, you so frustrated angry at Him because something that's not perfect? You have a little krechtz, you have a little back pain, a little hip, a little knee, a little, I'm not minimizing that. Trust me, I'm not minimizing that. But is the main thing still working? The main thing's working. The main thing's still working? The main thing's still working! You're here, you're alive, you're well. The main thing is still working. So that was the third unlikely source for mussar and emuna. A terrorist, a non-religious restaurant worker, and the JetBlue flight attendant. And what's my point? That's a good question. No, what's my point? What's my point? My point is, again, someone else could just hear the flight attendant say that and be annoyed. The main thing's working, but I want my TV. I'm bored. What am I supposed to do now? Right? But you could listen instead. The thing, my point is, just listen to the messages of the world. Just open your eyes and ears. Just take it in. Just extend your antenna. Just pick up the signal. Just listen. And He's screaming. He's like, hi, I'm here. I want a relationship. Talk to me and hear me talking to you and spend time with me and be grateful that the main thing is working when it's working. I'm here. I'm here. So whether he's redirecting the rockets out of the mouth of the terrorist, and that's what we say in Hallel, הללו את השם כל גוים. What does it mean הללו את השם כל גוים? All the gentiles, all the non-Jews, they praise Hashem. Why are we focusing on them? They could do them, we do us. So we praise Hashem, we sing Hallel. What do you mean הללו את השם כל גוים? So the mefarshim explain, it means that we have enemies who plan all kinds of nefarious activities, who seek our demise, and Hashem foils their plans. We don't even know it. We can't even say thank you for it. Three weeks ago, Yossi Cohen, the head of the Mossad spoke. We have any clue what the Mossad is doing on a daily basis, what they're averting? This past Shabbos, Danny, Dani, what's his last name? Limor, Dani Limor, a great hero. The Mossad guy who the Mossad, the resort, what's, what was the name of the book? The Red Sea, the Red Sea Resort. He was the one. He was the Mossad guy who the movie's about him, the book is about him. Unbelievable. We have any idea what they avert, what they do, what they foil? We have no idea. So only they, הללו את השם כל גוים, the terrorists praise God, because they say he's redirecting our rockets. We say, what rocket? I didn't notice. I'm good. Never hit, nothing landed. I was good. So they're the ones who could praise God because they plan and he foils their plans and we never even know about it. Do we have any idea? We walk down the street, a branch fell behind us, we have no idea how close it was. How many car accidents that we were almost in that we were averted, that we don't even know that we avoided? But the extra red light or the little bit of traffic or the two minutes that our kid made us run late leaving the house that we're so annoyed by was all part of some master plan that we don't even know, that we don't even appreciate, that we didn't even see. That's why just go for the ride. Just go along with it because it's what's meant to be, it's what's meant to be. It's how we live. Okay, back inside page pei, page 80, there's more source sheets up here for those who would like to follow along inside. We're in Tiv HaEmuna, Rav Gamliel Rabinovich. ואכן עבודה קשה היא עד מאד לקיים את דעת אלקי אביך ועבדהו. This is a difficult avoda. It's incredibly challenging. It is so hard to fulfill, know the God of your father, what Dovid HaMelech told Shlomo his son. You need to know one thing. One thing to be a king. One thing to be a monarch. One thing to be an Eved Hashem. Here's what you need to know. Know the God of your father. Know my God. Know him through me. I'm telling you. Pei, the third paragraph of pei. Elokei avicha ve-avadehu and serve him. ושיויתי השם לנגדי תמיד and serve Hashem. Hashem should be opposite you always. Right? As we've spoken about many times. You're never, ever not a mother, a father if you have children. That identity comes with you wherever you go. They're on your mind, in your thoughts wherever you are. And le-havdil, even more so, Hashem, front and center, on my mind, wherever I am. He's my conscience. He's my courage. He's my conviction. He's my confidence. He's my confidant. He's every other word that starts with the letter C. כמו שכתוב בשולחן ערוך be-hagah, like the Shulchan Aruch writes, k'lal gadol ba-Torah, this is the main principle, ומעלת הצדיקים אשר הולכים לפני האלקים כי אין ישיבת האדם תנועתו ועסקו והוא לבדו בביתו. You can't operate. You can't simply walk, move, go, accomplish, achieve, do if he weren't by your side. He's always with us. כי ישיבתו ותנועתו ועסקו והוא לפני מלך גדול ולא דיבור והרחבת פיו כרצונו והוא עם אנשי ביתו קרוביו כדיבור מושב המלך. We ended with this last week. You can't act casually and you can't act indiscriminately and without judgment as if you're on your own and no one cares and no one sees and it doesn't really matter. Hashem is always there. He's always there. And that creates a sense of accountability, that creates responsibility, that hopefully elevates our behavior and our conduct because he's always there. But it also creates a sense of support that you're never on your own and you never have to feel you're by yourself. He's always... always always always there with you. Always there. כשישים אדם אל לבו שהמלך הגדול הקדוש ברוך הוא אשר מלא כל הארץ כבודו עומד עליו ורואה מעשיו when a person puts in their heart that the great king, that the almighty, coronation that the whole world just put their eyes on. Next week I'm by the bima we have Chief Rabbi Mirvis, he'll tell us what it was like to be at the at the coronation, United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. So להבדיל אלף אלפי הבדלות, lehavdil, I can't say enough times lehavdil, but this king the whole world has their eyes on, the pomp and the circumstance and if you got an invitation and the king acknowledged you and the king knows you and the king and the king and the king, and this king is a pure, no offense to anybody from England, he's just a figurehead, he's no power, he's no nothing, no contribution, he's, he's, he and his family are just the source of the ultimate reality TV series. That's, I'm not knocking him, I have nothing against him, no prejudice against him, Charles the Third, King, Your Honor, whatever we're supposed to call him, forgive me, I have nothing against you, I'm happy to live in America but and glad that we have our independence, but I have nothing against you whatsoever, I'm happy for you, but I'm saying if that excites you and if you followed that and you're one of the billions of people who watched that and you would be excited if he knew you or invited you or hosted you or welcomed you, he's gornisht. Melech malchei hamlachim, the king of king of king of king of kings, the source of all kingship and all kingdom, the monarch of the world, the almighty, the Ribono shel Olam says, come to my coronation every day. I'll tell you what, don't come to my coronation. I'm coming to you. Let's hang out in your kitchen, your living room, in your dining room, I'm with you, I'm with you, I'm in the car, I'm on the plane, I'm wherever you go. But King, don't you have like a lot of people? Don't you have a whole kingdom? Don't you have a palace? What do you mean you're with me? He says don't worry, I can be with everyone at the same time. So how does that work? Says I'm the King, leave that to me. I'm with every one of you. He's with us everywhere. אם יסתר איש במסתרים ואני לא אראנו נאם השם מיד יגיע אליו היראה והכנעה בפחד השם יתברך ובושתו ממנו תמיד. וכשמתבוננים בזה הרבה ביישוב הדעת וחי עם זה ממש. And Rav Gamliel writes, he says, misbonenim. That's a tough word. You know what misbonenim means? If you contemplate, if you're mindful, if you think about it. Now those are easy words, right? No one here needs a dictionary to understand them, but they're hard words to put in practice. They're hard words to live by. We are never misbonen. Do we ever, are we ever contemplative? Are we ever thoughtful? Do we ever just sit and exist? If you'd see someone doing that, you'd think weirdo. Could you imagine you're at Starbucks and someone's just sitting there sipping their coffee and they're not looking at a phone, they're not scrolling, they're not typing, they're not talking and there's nothing in their ears? They're just sitting there thinking as they sip their coffee. You might Baker Act them. You might think we have a crisis on our hands. Imagine you're on a flight and the person TV's working or not, doesn't turn on TV, they're not reading a book, they're not typing, they don't close their eyes, they're just sitting there. They're just using that time to be, to exist, to think. You'd say flight attendant, you gotta switch my seat. I'm sitting next to somebody, I don't know what they're capable of. This person's totally deranged. What is it, what did you see, what makes you think they're deranged? They're just sitting here thinking. They're deranged, there's something wrong. Who sees that anymore? Who does that? We have noise playing all the time. This background noise animating our lives all the time. We're in conversation, we're listening, we're doing. We're so uncomfortable in our own skin. And Shabbos comes and you have to walk to a Shalom Zachar. And none of your kids want to go with you. And now you have to do something which is face your worst fear. I have to be by myself? I have to go walk ten minutes, fifteen minutes by myself? What am I going to do? I can't read while I'm walking, I have no one to talk to, what am I going to do? I'm just going to be? Just going to think? Wow. We have to restore that. We need to bring that back. That's our mental health, that's our mental hygiene. We have to renew that capacity to just be, to just exist, to just think. I don't know if you know this, it's okay to drive and not put anything on. It's alright, it's allowed. You're allowed to drive somewhere and not have something playing. Music, a podcast, a shiur, news, a phone call. You're allowed. It's in the rules. No one's been pulled over ever. Officer, what was I doing? You were driving and it was totally silent, you were just thinking and we're going to have to cite you for that because that's erratic, abnormal, dangerous behavior. But, but we have to restore, we have to bring that back. misbonenim b'zeh harbeh. But the tzaddikim, they know how to, the tzaddikim were misbonen. The tzaddikim are not tethered to some device. Their life is not about pinging, ringing, vibrating, beeping, hopping, bopping. Just to be. Just to be. Kshe-misbonanim be-zeh. So that's why I just I stopped at that word and got stuck on that word because that word assumes, oh yeah, you know, you know how you set aside time to think and you think about different things, you should probably think about this. No, no, no, one second. First, you have to renew that ability, the capacity to think. כשמתבוננים בזה הרבה ביישוב הדעת. Yishuv hadas means with a sense of serenity, tranquility, with a calm, the ability to sit and to be and to think and to think in an environment of calm. Not to think while scrambling, not to think while flustered, not to think while you have a long to-do list, but to think with take a few deep breaths, whatever I have to do I will get to, this is what I'm meant to be doing right now, there is nothing else in this world and right now I'm just here. I'm just here. Biyishuv hadas. וחיים עם זה ממש and to live with this in reality, in truth, איך שהקדוש ברוך הוא עושה הכל ואין בילתו. If a person is misbonein to every now and then just think, you know, Hashem does everything. He's in charge, he's in control, he is everything. Ki atah imadi you are with me wherever I go שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד your opposite me always ein od milvado there is no one and nothing but you. We have mantras, we are the original source, the OG meditation is Judaism. Ki atah imadi, ein od milvado, שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. Whatever expression that you want to use maybe something from davening jumps out at you and you just start, you do. When I went to New York for the wedding this week I was picked up by a dear and close friend who I never met really spent time with in person till now who was kind enough to pick me up. He listens to a lot of our shiurim and and we text and we become close in that way and he printed out from the Emunah shiur and he has taped on his steering wheel and he told me elsewhere and he gave me a beautiful acrylic frame of it and it sits on my desk, ki atah imadi because Hashem you are with me. And on the other side of it Nishmas, the whole Nishmas. But on his steering wheel, taped to a steering wheel, ki atah imadi because Hashem you are with me. Every time he gets in his car, usually we get in our car I'm running late, I gotta go, I'm so late, I'm running, I'm going and get in the back and did you buckle and we gotta go and where were you and why you taking so long and you didn't throw out your garbage from last time and he gets in his car, he looks at his steering wheel and he remembers wherever I'm going, whatever I have to do, whatever I'm about to listen to, whatever phone call I'm about to make, ki atah imadi. You are with me. Imagine if that was on the fridge and on the steering wheel and or mix it up, ein od milvado on the fridge, ki atah imadi on the steering wheel, whatever you want. Misbonein. But we need to create disruptors to our day. Our day is just on autopilot, our day is just momentum, our day is just moving at light speed, and we need to disrupt, disrupt. Oh yeah, taka there's Hashem. So that anxiety I'm feeling, that anxiousness I'm feeling, that worry I'm feeling, that scrambling and rushing I'm feeling, oh yeah, ki atah imadi. I'll get it all done, it's gonna work out, however it works out is for the best, I'm on this ride in this adventure with you, ein od milvado, ki atah imadi, we're in this together Hashem. So we need to put signs and symbols and messages and disruptors. We have that through the Torah, it's called Shacharis, Mincha, Maariv. It's called the bracha on each cup of coffee, the whole Torah is a platform to disrupt the routine of life and remember ki atah imadi. So every time you eat, oh yeah, I forgot you exist and you made me the coffee, this lunch, this snack, it's all from you. ברוך אתה ה' שהכל נהיה בדברו, המוציא לחם מן הארץ, Borei minei mezonos. We have disruptors every time a Jew comes out of the bathroom and everything worked and the greatest factory that exists, the greatest plant that exists in this world is the human body that's able to absorb what it needs and able to discard what it doesn't and it happens and it happens successfully and seamlessly and you say oh yeah Hashem, it's not just biology, it's not just nature, my body, this factory, it worked, it processed, the plant processed properly, Asher yatzar. Thank you Hashem. So really programmed into our day without needing to print and tape anything anywhere are the disruptors, it's called Torah, it's called halacha, it's called mitzvos. 613 disruptions to our day that say don't just get caught up in the routine of life, remember, remember He's here, remember He's in charge, remember He's in control, remember He's sitting right next to you, remember He loves you. We're going to talk about that on Shavuos. Our theme for Shavuos is love. Love, the power of love. Loving people, loving yourself, loving Hashem, loving the convert, loving children, family members who are not on the same derech as you. Love, it's all about love. And one of the big themes is Hashem loving us. Does he love us? Is that a Christian idea? Jewish idea? Does he love us? Do we feel his love? How do we feel his love? His love. His love is a big, is a big theme. So it's a good idea, print out, print things. It's a good thing, on your steering wheel, on your refrigerator, on your bathroom mirror. Print out things. Print out things. But also take advantage of the things that are automatically every time you make a bracha, every time you come out of the bathroom, each time that we davven, when we wake up and we say Modeh Ani, when we fall asleep and we say Shema. Each of these are disruptors to say, "Hi, I'm here. Remember. He's in charge, he's in control, he's everything." Misbonen. They're all disruptors to get us to be misbonen. Be contemplative, be thoughtful. Don't just be on autopilot. Don't be scrolling and texting and talking and listening and going. Stop and think. Stop and think. Stop and think and be grateful. Stop and think and see what is. Stop and think and say, "Thank you. This is amazing." Take it in. Take it in. We happen to have all of our children with us right now and baruch Hashem and bli ayin hara, it's such a bracha. It's also a big mess, but it's a big bracha. And every time that you're frustrated and want to talk about the big mess, you remind yourself how many people davven for such a mess? How many people would kill for such a mess? What a bracha of a mess, what a great mess it is. I love the mess. Kids, still clean up the mess. You drive me crazy. But it's a mess. It's a great mess. I came out early Shabbos morning and three of my grandchildren were sitting and playing. It's a little playgroup in my house. I could have run by and I have to go out and I got to get to shul and I got to go make a cup of coffee. I just stopped and I stared and I spent a moment, I just misbonen. Just like, "When did this happen? I just got back from my year in Israel. What is going on here? Who are they? Where'd they come from? And what is going on here? And how did this happen? And wow." I won the lottery once, twice, three times. Again, I say that bli ayin hara and I say that not to flex and I say that with sensitivity to those who are davvening and please God should know that nachas and I say that only as an example of baruch Hashem it was Shabbos. If it was a weekday, I probably would have been on my phone, may not have even noticed them sitting there, would have been gone and would have lost that moment. Baruch Hashem it was Shabbos. So I actually saw what was happening around me. But stop and be misbonen. It's okay in life, be that weirdo. Just stop and think. It's okay. Stop and think and observe and contemplate and take it in and see wow, it's amazing. It's amazing. Hashem is amazing. My Bubby, whose yahrzeit this shiur was sponsored for among the co-sponsors, my Bubby's favorite pasuk טעמו וראו כי טוב ה׳. Those were the words on her lips. That was her favorite pasuk. She lived with this emuna and bitachon in her life. טעמו וראו כי טוב ה׳. Taste and you will see that Hashem is good. "But I don't like it, I don't want to eat it, it looks yucky, I don't..." My kinder, just taste it. Zies child, just taste it. You'll see it's delicious. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. It looks weird, the kugel, but it's sweet, it's delicious. You're going to love it. Just taste. Hashem says, "Just taste me. Just taste the life with me. Just taste what it is to talk to me and to hear me talking to you. Just taste what it is to feel me, yourself leaning on me and supported by me." Taamu u-re'u, just taste it and you will see ki tov Hashem. You're going to see it's delicious. טעמו וראו כי טוב ה׳. Just taste it and you'll see it is delicious. K'misbonen. But to taste it, you have to think. You have to think. You have to experience, you have to be present, you have to be mindful, you have to be contemplative and you'll realize, oh, your life... you want to live life in black and white, or you want to live life in color? You want to live life with all of its delicacies, or you want to go through life in a minimal way? With Hashem, all of a sudden your life becomes in vibrant, living color. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable. וידוע שתחת כל ההסתר יש מי שמנהל את הכל. Underneath all that which is hidden, there is somebody pulling all the strings. There's an operator. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is in charge, nothing's random or chance, it's all by design. זה שלימות אבל מי שאינו כך אף שודאי יקבל שכר מעשיו הטובים. But a person who doesn't live this way will certainly get reward for their good deeds. You made the bracha and didn't think about it, at least you made the bracha. And you did the mitzvah, but you weren't mindful and present, but you did the mitzvah. Beautiful. Still valuable, still worthwhile, still do it. It's not all or nothing. Aval barur, next page, זה איננו השלימות האמיתית אלא אליה צריכים להגיע. But that's not what we're striving for. That's not the shleimus that we're yearning for. That shleimus, that completeness, that wholeness. We're achievers, we're high achievers. We're never satisfied being underachievers. We're not satisfied being half-baked. We push ourselves and our children: "Do more, study harder, get into a better, get a better grade." Overachievers. "Get paid more money, move up in the company, get a promotion." Overachievers. More and more. Why when it comes to emuna and bitachon and religion we say, "What's the bare minimum? What can I get away with? What's the least I have to do?" All of a sudden here, this is where we're underachievers? By the way, everything we have ambition and strive to be overachievers is only successful with him. All that we want to overachieve in and with needs and relies and... depends on Him. So in the relationship with Him, that's all of a sudden where we become the underachiever? Be an overachiever in emunah and bitachon. Push and teach children to be overachievers in emunah and bitachon. Talk about Hashem, think Hashem, turn to Hashem, surrender to Hashem. כל יהודי צריך להגיע להיות מרכבה לשכינה הקדושה. Every Jew needs to be a chariot for Hashem. We are His ambassadors. We are His stewards. שיריגש שמלא כל הארץ כבודו to go out and preach and teach and scream to the world, the whole world filled... we have to be the flight attendant. Don't be the terrorist, but the message of the terrorist. Be that waiter or the owner of the restaurant. Why? Why is it the terrorist and the restaurant owner and the flight attendant on JetBlue? They're proclaiming the message of Hashem and we're not? We're afraid? We're reticent? We're shy? Each of us need to be that ambassador. The king's coronation is filled with all of his ambassadors. And the coronation ends and he sends them out and he says, now go represent, go open up the embassy, go teach and preach and scream from the rooftops with patriotism and pride of who you represent. And we are Hashem's ambassadors. Go open up the embassy of Hashem and teach and preach and scream from the rooftops, I'm an ambassador of Hashem and I have patriotism and pride in my religion and I want the whole world מלא כל הארץ כבודו see that Hashem is everywhere. הוא מלא כל הגוף ukemo she'amru Chazal. Our rabbis say the Gemara in Berachot daf yud, מה הקדוש ברוך הוא מלא כל העולם אף נשמה מלא כל הגוף. Hashem fills the whole world and our neshama fills our entire body. וזו עבודה גדולה ועמוקה עד אין חקר. This is such hard work. 70, 80, 120 years, you're not done yet. You've never mastered it. You've never mastered it, you're never finished, you're never done. It's גדולה ועמוקה עד אין חקר. It is deep and profound and difficult. וייתכן ששני אנשים מתפללים ואף מכוונים אותו דבר אבל הבדל גדול יש ביניהם במדרגת האמונה. Two people standing next to each other in shul. Their Shmona Esrei's is the exact same length. They shuckle at the same rhythm and the same pace. They say the same words, they squeeze their same eyes, and yet they're two totally different davenings because one has a conversation, a relationship with the shepherd and the other is just going through the motions and saying the words. Which one do we want to be? You want to come to know the shepherd? Do you want to come to know the Almighty? Do you want to come to know the King and be His ambassador and open up an embassy for him and represent him and teach and preach and scream about him? Who are we and what will our relationship look like? We're going to be underachievers in this area? Every other area we want a nice house and a nice car and a nice marriage and we want to look great and have the latest styles and we want to have the latest version of the phone and we want the latest software and we want to achieve, achieve, achieve, overachieve. Get into this school, get the best grades, get the best job, get the best name, get the best... achieve, achieve, achieve. Emunah, bitachon, religion? What's the least I can do? What's the latest I can come? How short can I stay there so at least I can say... what's the least I can... this is the area where we underachieve? You want to be an underachiever or an overachiever? So replace the bumper sticker that says, you know, 'I believe or bust' with Ki ata imadi. What messaging do our children hear and see? What do they hear us talk about? Ein od milvado. What's all over our house? What do we care about? The report cards? Care about their report cards, it's important, it's beautiful, good grades. Is that what's hanging on the fridge? All that matters is if you got an A? Or all that matters is Ki ata imadi? Every night at dinner do we say, tell me about a good grade you got? Or tell me a story where you felt Hashem in your life today? Tell me a story, Ki ata imadi. Tell me an Ein od milvado story. Tell me a שויתי ה׳ לנגדי תמיד story today. Where do you see Hashem in your life today? It will change the quality of your life, your happiness, your holiness, it'll absolutely transform the quality of your life, your calmness, your serenity, your peace, your blood pressure, your mental health, your physical health, your spiritual health, your emotional health, and it'll change your relationships. It'll change everything. And once you live it, it's so obvious, you don't understand where it was all your life. But it's hard. It's hard. And as easy as it is once you feel it and live it, is as hard as it is to continue it. We revert back. So we have to remember the next day, Asher yatzar, shehakol nihiya bidvaro, shacharis, mincha, maariv. To see the sticker on our steering wheel, Ki ata imadi. Every day we start this anew, that, that effort, that journey to remember all over again. I forgot? I forgot you're there? I forgot you're in charge? I got all anxious, I got all flustered, I got all angry, I totally forgot. But now I remember. You're here, you're in charge, you're in control. I surrender to you and please God you will bring great things. Should we have shiur next week? It's erev Shavuos. People coming next Wednesday morning? Okay, well hear... if you're here, I'm here. When is Shavuos? Thursday night? Thursday night. So Wednesday's plenty of time. So Wednesday morning, our usual time, we'll see you next week. Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
