Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov. Welcome back to Living with Emunah. Ooh, welcome back to those who haven't been here in a long time. Good to have you back. Our Emunah series is generously sponsored by Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Shanzer. We remain every week amazingly grateful to the Morgans for their generosity, supporting and enabling our Emunah shiur. This morning's shiur is also sponsored by the Hausner and Tenenbaum families in memory of Shimon ben Eliezer's second yahrzeit, נשמה שתהא לה עליה. Anonymously, with heartfelt gratitude to BRS for the inspiration and education that we share. And by my in-laws, Dr. Robert and Judy Brokstein, in memory of the yahrzeit of my wife's beloved grandfather, Arnold Goldsmith, אהרן בן יהודה הלוי, who was a tremendous inspiration. We're learning about Emunah. He talked about Hashem Yitbarach. Those were his words all the time, Hashem Yitbarach. He lost his whole family in the Holocaust. He survived, he rebuilt here in America, and all he talked about was how good Hashem Yitbarach is. He lost a daughter and a grandchild tragically in a fire, and all he talked about is how good Hashem Yitbarach is. He was a living example of Emunah for his whole family, for all of us, and our learning should be l'ilui nishmaso as well as all the other sponsors this morning. We thank everyone for their generosity. So before I jump into the emails, I got more great emails and I thank you, please keep them coming because you give the shiur each week. I just have the privilege of sitting up here and reading them to you. But I want to share with you an insight. All month we have been saying לדוד ה׳ אורי וישעי. The minhag is Perek Chaf-Zayin of Tehillim. Dovid HaMelech's words, לדוד ה׳ אורי וישעי. Hashem is my light and my salvation. Achas sha'alti and so on. And kaveh el Hashem, trust in Hashem. חזק ויאמץ לבך וקוה אל ה׳. If he didn't answer you, just stay true, stay stubborn, cling to Him. Kav is a line. Draw that straight line to Hashem. Never give up. Don't let that line become perforated, don't let that line become broken, don't let that line get severed, that straight line to Hashem. So in this kapitel, we have the words, the words that אם תחנה עלי מחנה לא יירא לבי אם תקום עלי מלחמה בזאת אני בוטח. No matter what happens, no matter what I have to confront, no matter what comes at me on any given day, and for all of us and each of us, those confrontations, that tension, those challenges could be different. Could be God forbid a marriage on the rocks that's frustrating and stumbling and difficult and painful. Could be children who are disappointing, children who are struggling, children who are in crisis. Could be chas v'shalom a person's going to doctor appointments and lab results and waiting for a biopsy to return. All of us are battling and struggling different things. Could be our instinct and our ego, our temptation and our desire is leading us to look at or watch or say or listen to the wrong things. We're facing, we're facing this machaneh, we're facing a camp against us or we're facing a milchama, we're facing a battle that most likely people know nothing about. How do we persevere? How do we triumph? How do we overcome? How do we make it to the end of each day? Dovid HaMelech says, you think you're the only one? You know, we think about Dovid HaMelech, דוד המלך ישראל חי וקיים. Dovid, we think Dovid HaMelech, oh he's a king, he had many wives and palaces and wealth. This summer we toured Ir David. We saw the incredible newer excavations, Ir David, where for a very long time they thought Dovid HaMelech lived in what we call the Old City of Yerushalayim. The Old City of Yerushalayim is relatively new. Dovid HaMelech lived down the hill. He lived all the way in what we call what is Ir David. If you haven't toured it and you haven't seen it, you must. And their new excavations, you'll be able to take what they call the Pilgrims Road, the olei regel went all the way from the enormous mikveh on the bottom of the mountain and you can climb. And on the way up today, there're parts that we saw that aren't yet open to the public, little flex, fine. But that you can actually touch the wall and there's the black ash. You can feel the ash from the burnt Beis HaMikdash, 2,000-year-old ash on your fingertips. We went to the end of where they're where they're digging. They haven't yet dug. And if you just, I won't say who, might be in this room right now, got distracted, wasn't listening to the guide, she was playing with the dirt because every little amount of dirt that you scraped away, more pottery, more coins, more like right at your fingertips, things that they dropped and they left when they were on the run, that pilgrim road with the sewer underneath. Unbelievable what's there. Ir David, Dovid HaMelech, so we think Dovid HaMelech, think palaces and wealth and leadership and royalty and monarchy. How about Dovid HaMelech's father-in-law literally wanted to kill him? Dovid HaMelech's son literally tried to lead a rebellion and kill him. Dovid HaMelech's wife humiliated him. Dovid HaMelech went through a very difficult, difficult, tough life. And how did he get through it? How did he persevere? When he was facing those daily battles and struggles, people slandering him, people judging unfavorably, people falsely accusing. confusing. Literally running and fleeing for his life. What did he rely on? He tells us, we're saying it now, every day, twice a day, bezos ani boteach. In this I rely, in this I trust. What's the bezos? This is very mysterious, this is very ambiguous. What is this? Bezos? When I face my daily struggles and battles, when I'm ready to give up, bezos I lean in and I trust and I rely, my anchor is zos. What's zos? So there are at least a million and one divrei Torah on what zos is. It's bezos is teshuva, tefillah, and tzedakah and the gematria and there's a million divrei Torah. And we shared recently, I think yesterday in the parsha class, bezos ani boteach, bezos hatorah. Zos hatorah. What's the zos Dovid Hamelech says? With all the variables and all the world that's changing and all that's unpredictable and there's a new storm that's forming in the Caribbean and it's coming and there's a new and what's going to be with the economy and the financial markets and what's going to be in Ukraine and what's going to be for Israel and what's going to be with the Corona's popping its ugly head again and what's going to be? The world is filled with variables, the world is filled with enemies we have to confront and fight. Bezos, what is the constant in the world of change and variables? Bezos, zos hatorah is the zos of Torah. Lean in, learn, center yourself, anchor yourself with Torah. Torah learning, Torah living, that is our constant in a world of variables. That's what we shared yesterday. But today is a new day so we share a new insight and it's from the Ibn Ezra. And the Ibn Ezra says, you know what the bezos ani boteach is? You know what the bezos is? Keep reading. What's the very next pasuk? When I face these camps, when my enemies gather upon me, when I'm battling the doctor's office and I'm battling in the pantry and the refrigerator and I'm battling the waistline and I'm battling the slander and the gossip and the false accusations and the posters and the haters and the and the mob online, when I'm battling, bezos ani boteach. You know what the bezos is? What's the very next pasuk? אחת שאלתי מאת ה' אותה אבקש שבתי בבית ה' כל ימי חיי לחזות בנעם ה' ולבקר בהיכלו. Dovid Hamelech says, you know what the bezos is? You know what I can rely on? That all I want to do is sit in the house of Hashem all the days of my life. That's it. With all the people who fail me and all the people who backstab me and all the people who may say nice things to my face but behind my back have whatever to say, ach ashalti, my real one request is Hashem you are reliable, you are dependable, you are always there, your arms are always open, you are my father, you love me unconditionally, you may hold me accountable but you love me. Osah avakeish, this is all I want, shivti b'veilis Hashem. I just want to sit in the house of Hashem kol yimei chayai, all the days of my life. I hear Mordechai Shapiro while I'm saying these words, he's got a great song, Ach Ashalti. Lachazos b'noam Hashem, I just want to see and bask in the noam Hashem ul'vakeir b'heichalo. And there's so many divrei Torah shared on this pasuk, but I want to get back into the Emuna Shiur. But Dovid Hamelech says bezos, bezos! All the distractions, all the temptations, all the failures, all the indulgences, all the giving into my intuition and instinct when I shouldn't have, all the following the animal impulse when I'm better than that, bezos, what can I rely on, what can I come back to? אחת שאלתי מאת ה'. That's what I can always consistently come back to, אחת שאלתי מאת ה'. Dovid Hamelech says ach ashalti, I want one thing, and then he lists like ten. Where did he learn that from? So the Medrash on Tehillim says, you know where he learned that from? Moshe Rabbeinu. Hashem. Hashem says, מה ה' אלהיך שאל מעמך. What does Hashem want from you? And then he lists like ten things. So Dovid Hamelech says, two could play at that game. But really they're one thing that he lists. And what's the one thing that he wants? Shivti b'veilis Hashem. And here there's a contradiction. I want to dwell in the house of Hashem, shivti. I just want to sit in the Beis Medrash, I want to sit in the shul, I want to sit in the Beis Hashem kol yimei chayai. Ul'vakeir, and I want to be a visitor, I want to be a tourist. And you all know the famous dvar Torah, which is it? Want to be a resident or a tourist? You want to permanently reside or you want to be passing through? Which is it? And Dovid Hamelech was saying both. You know often, I just had nieces and nephews who came with their families from Israel and they visited for a week. What they did in that week and what they saw, I've lived here for twenty-something years and I never went to. Because when you live locally, you take it for granted, you don't go, you don't visit, you don't take advantage of. And when you're a tourist and you come through, oh you sit, you have your itinerary and your agenda and it's planned out depending who you're with and how ruthless they are to you on this so-called vacation. You wake up early in the morning to late at night, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. So Dovid Hamelech says I want to live there, but I want the mentality and attitude of a tourist. I want to live permanently in the house of Hashem, but I never want to settle in, I never want it to become casual or too comfortable, I want to bring the energy and the enthusiasm, I want to bring the excitement like I'm just ul'vakeir b'heichalo, I'm just passing through. But I really want to share with you this Sfas Emes. You know what he says? How could Dovid Hamelech say I want to just sit in the house of Hashem all day? Dovid Hamelech doesn't have responsibilities? responsibilities as a king, as a monarch? Doesn't he have to wage wars, doesn't he have to negotiate diplomacy, doesn't he have to collect taxes, doesn't he have to meet with his cabinet? Dovid Hamelech doesn't have to take care of his wives and his children and his family? Doesn't he have poetry to author? Dovid Hamelech has a million and one things to do. So how could he possibly daven ach sha'alti that there's just one thing I want, just want to sit in the beis medrash. I just want to sit in shul all day? I just want to be in Beis Hashem, I want to be in the Beis Hamikdash. How could he ask that? It's unreasonable. It's unrealistic. It's unfair. It's not who he is, what he's meant to do. How could he ask that? Says the Slonimer Rebbe, you know what Dovid Hamelech was asking and what each and every one of us are asking every day morning and evening? Hashem, shivti b'veis Hashem doesn't mean I want to sit in the shul, I want to sit in the beis medrash, I want to sit in the Beis Hamikdash. It means wherever I am and whatever I'm doing, I want to feel I'm b'veis Hashem. Hashem, you're with me at Costco, you're with me at the gym, you're with me at work, you're with me at shul, you're with me in my dining room, in my living room, you're with me wherever I am. Wherever I am becomes transformed to a Beis Hashem. There isn't my religious life and my secular life. There's not my life with God and my life on my own. There's not my life where I'm plugged in and my life where I'm disconnected. Wherever I am, wherever I go, whatever I'm doing, I feel your presence, I feel your love, I feel your support, I feel your embrace, I feel your vision for me, for this world. I feel my mission. Wherever, whenever, I'm shivti b'veis Hashem all the time. The Gemorah says הלואי שיתפלל כל היום כולו. The Gemorah quotes הלואי שיתפלל כל היום כולו a person would daven all day long. You can ask that very same question. הלואי שיתפלל כל היום כולו? How could you daven all day long? You've got places to go, things to do. You've got to earn a livelihood, you've got to pay the bills, you've got to drive carpool, you've got to make dinner. How could you say הלואי שיתפלל כל היום כולו? You can't daven all day long. The Belzer Rebbe said, you know what it means? Wherever and whatever you're doing, you're davening the whole way. I daven the light should be green, I should make it to carpool on time, I should arrive safely in my drive. I daven the cup of coffee shouldn't be too hot, shouldn't make me sick, it should wake me up, it should be delicious, it should be everything I want. הלואי שיתפלל כל היום כולו I would daven I walk into this boardroom, I negotiate a successful business outcome that's a win-win for me and my partner. I daven this operation be successful, whether I'm the surgeon or asleep on the table. I daven the technology works, I could stream this shiur if there are people who are meant to hear it. הלואי שיתפלל כל היום כולו a little tefillah every day in everything that you're doing, with everything that we do. הלואי שיתפלל כל היום כולו. Dovid Hamelech said halavai wherever I am, I've transformed it into a Beis Hashem. I go to a restaurant, I'm eating dinner, I make a bracha before, after, the topics of conversation are enriching and uplifting, I'm regulating myself to not speak things I shouldn't be talking about. Every place can be turned into a Beis Hashem. Ach sha'alti, Dovid Hamelech said that's what I want. I just want to live with emunah. I want to live with emunah and bitachon in you that wherever I am, it's a Beis Hashem. I just want to daven halavai I'm davening to you all day long, whatever I'm doing I'm davening to you all day long. That's the Ibn Ezra's understanding of bezos ani voteiach. So when the world around me is so uncertain, when I have no idea what's coming next, when I have no idea what the next year will bring, when I'm battling and fighting, bezos ani voteiach. You know what I can rely on? That אחת שאלתי מאת השם. If everywhere I turn it into a Beis Hashem, if I'm davening and talking to you and hearing you talking to me all day long, bezos, in that emunah and bitachon ani voteiach. I have bitachon in bitachon that it will get me through. And with that, let's read a couple emails and then get back into our text. Hello Rabbi Goldberg, hello back. I know everybody probably begins their emails to be like this but I want to thank you blah blah blah blah. I never really thought I would have a great emunah story, but I have to say this one was pretty good. Last week on Tuesday night, Wednesday was my birthday. I said to myself Tuesday night I was going to start this new year of my life differently. Yud Gimmel Elul. Usually I'm rushing with the kids and everyone's late and the morning is hectic and I only get my davening later in the morning. I planned out on Tuesday night that I would wake up significantly earlier, which would allow me to daven, say extra Tehillim, which is customary on our birthday. She doesn't say it, but she must be Lubavitch. Make us a nutritional breakfast and lunch for my kids, send them out with a special bracha and be on time to drop them off. So she's like every one of us that every night say tomorrow will be different. Tomorrow will be my ideal day. I'll have done a thousand pushups and situps and squats before anyone wakes up. I'll have finished Shas, I'll have davened, I'll have done chessed, I'll have cranked out all the work and paid all the bills before people's alarm even goes off. Well, despite the fact that I woke up much earlier than usual, nothing in capital letters went as planned. I did not get to daven, their breakfast and lunch was not ready on time, one of the kids forgot their backpack at home, which caused me to go back, and worst of all, I sent them to school frustrated and upset and not with the bracha I originally planned. Sound familiar? Feel familiar? As I dropped them off, I put on your emunah shiur, which was the first one since you returned from the well-deserved... Well-deserved vacation. Not in capital, but should be, well-deserved vacation. As I'm listening, as I'm listening you go into the interpretation you heard for שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד. How Hashem can feel like he is neged or against you or your plans when things aren't going your way. What we spoke about last week. I had my Emunah glasses on and was like wow, Hashem is really talking to me. I needed to hear that. My birthday of all days was not going the way I wanted in any way. I just wanted to give Hashem nachas ruach by davening earlier and yet Hashem had other plans. Negdi samid, he felt like he was opposite me. I immediately smiled and let the guilt melt off me. So then I get home and instead of a 5:00 a.m. davening I davened at 11:00 a.m. but fine. I daven, I try my best to make it meaningful. I ask Hashem to help me give him nachas ruach. After davening I wanted to say extra Tehillim which is customary on birthdays. Since I don't usually say my children's perek I decided the extra Tehillim I would say would be one for each of my children. I began with my eldest child, his perek is 16. As I'm reading I almost lost my breath when I read in his perek that I randomly chose שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד כי מימיני בל אמוט. I have placed Hashem before me constantly because he's at my right hand I will not falter. It was unreal. Like Hashem was speaking directly to me saying it was all okay and meant to be. Hashgacha pratis was the best birthday gift I could have asked for. Knowing that Hashem is with me. Thank you again all you do for Klal Yisrael. Warm regards from such and such a place. We'd love to host you if you're ever here. How nice. Okay. Anyway so many of these emails include I was going through XYZ, I randomly found you on Spotify and pressed play and randomly it was a particular shiur and you randomly said some reference to something. Again, I take no credit. Nothing. It's all your emails and it's all the Torah of others that we are learning and it's all what Hashem chooses to put in my mouth that day but none of it's random. Absolutely none of it's random. It's extraordinary how Hashem is orchestrating and carefully choreographing the world. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Beautiful. Back this past week I met with a child parents, a Bar Mitzvah coming up and the young man has diabetes. And it happens to be the meeting I had right after him was with a person who grew up in this community who's now a father of his own who has diabetes. And I don't know how those two meetings were planned back-to-back but the Bar Mitzvah meeting ended and the next person came in and I introduced them and I realized hey, you know young man, I remember him growing up, he would go into my office with his little kit on Yom Kippur to test himself. And the two exchanged and gave each other chizuk and the now adult said to the young man, if you ever have any questions, if you ever need chizuk and you should know having diabetes was the best thing that ever happened, it made me disciplined, it made me mature, it made me take responsibility and it turned me into who I am and while I didn't want it, I'm grateful for what it did. And I looked and I said Hashem, how'd you plan these meetings back-to-back and that they overlapped and they met each other and it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. So שויתי ה' לנגדי תמיד sometimes Hashem feels like he's in our corner. He's our ezer. Sometimes he feels kenegdo. Sometimes he feels negdi. He's opposite me. Nothing went according to plan, nothing went the way we drew it up, nothing went the way we wanted. But Hashem is still with us. Bezot ani boteach. The Emunah glasses you can rely on all the time. Bezot, whatever we're going through, whatever we're struggling with, whatever we're battling, whatever we need to overcome. Bezot. שבתי בבית ה' כל ימי חיי. Bezot. הלוואי שיתפלל כל היום. That we transform every place we're in into a Beis Hashem and that we're talking to him all day long and we're hearing him talk to us all day long. And here one more email then we'll get back to Rabban Gamliel. Rabbi Goldberg, blah blah blah. I want to share a recent hashgacha story I experienced. I drove my son and a few friends from Baltimore for a four-day overnight basketball camp in Pennsylvania. The camp was four hours away, I had every intention of staying overnight to avoid the additional driving. I had packed my bag. Once I got the boys settled I was second-guessing my decision to stay and just felt like I wanted to be home instead despite the additional eight hours of driving. Two days later I was working from my grandmother's backyard while my kids and their cousins swam. While working, I caught a few whiffs of gasoline. Although it wasn't constant I mentioned it to my mother who was also there. Shortly after she faintly smelled it as well and decided to call the gas and electric company just to be safe. Turns out there was a gas leak, which could have potentially gone undetected had I not decided to come back from Baltimore for those few days. I also got to share the story with the boys when I picked them up and impart the life lessons of hashgacha pratis. Again if you live life with your Emunah glasses, you look around you and you don't say oh what a coincidence and it's a good thing I came home and you realize where'd the thought come from? Where'd the absolute insane illogical irrational thought come from? I'll drive eight extra hours. Why not? Everything is from above, everything is from Hashem, it doesn't always have a happy ending, those are the most impressive inspiring Emunah stories, when it does we should see it coming from Hashem and be overwhelmed with gratitude. Last Shabbos we spoke about in shul, I won't repeat it because so many of you were there, but that the gratitude has to be expressed at the same decibel level, the same passion, with the same enthusiasm, the thank you and the I need you. I told the story of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein who after his daughter had a successful emergency surgery from complications in childbirth and the family was looking for him and couldn't find him, he was still saying Tehillim and they said what's the matter, didn't you hear, surgery was successful, we can go visit her. And he said, you tell me what's the matter with you, don't we have to thank Hashem with the same careful passion crying out with the same enthusiasm with which we said I need you? The I thank you and the I need you. That's why the former bringing Bikkurim goes all the way back to Arami Oved Avi. Hashem, I don't know what tomorrow will bring. Bikkurim is the first fruit. I have no idea what's coming after. I have no idea what's coming later. It's Rosh Hashana. No idea what this year will bring. When we look back on this past year, every year we look back on the year before and we realize the Rosh Hashana before we had no idea what that year was going to bring. And with that uncertainty and that doubt and the anxiousness that comes from it, we pause just to say I don't know what is tomorrow but for today I say thank you. Today I say thank you. And to put on our emunah glasses and to see and to realize what we have to say thank you for and to be overwhelmed with gratitude. Okay let's start. Page Shin Tzadi Hei, we're living learning Tiv HaEmunah, Rav Gamliel who gives our whole shiur a bracha, we had the zechus to meet with him. Shin Tzadi Hei. הנה עיקר עבודת האדם היא הזכירה לפני מי אתה עמל. The core of avodas ha'adam, the core of our mission, our purpose, of what we're working on, I don't think we did this last week, right? We didn't get to this last week. Is to ask ourselves לפני מי אתה עמל. Before whom are you working? Who do you work for? Who do you toil for? שפירושו כוונת לבו באמונת השם יתברך תהיה אצלו ידיעה פנימית. What do you do if somebody wakes up in the middle of the night and says what do you do? The answer is not I'm an accountant, I'm a lawyer, I'm a doctor, I'm a homemaker, I'm a mother, I'm a plumber, I'm an electrician, I'm a rabbi. The answer is what do I do, who do I work for? Oh, I work for Hashem. I report to Hashem, I'm an eved Hashem. לפני מי אתה עמל, before whom do I toil and work? For Hashem. וכדי שתהיה ידיעה פנימית צריך לילך עם מחשבה זו של לפני מי אתה עמל. In order for that to be a core value and a core consciousness and a core part of our identity, it's not just oh when I daven, oh when I open the Tehillim, oh when I go to the emunah shiur, I remember there's a Hashem and he's connected to me and my life is to be of service for him, but it's 24/7. When I wake up till I fall asleep. It's my whole life. My whole life. What's my mission? At every stage of my life. When I'm single and for those who want and are married when I'm married and when I'm a parent. I want to raise children who are ovdei Hashem, who serve Hashem, who stand for his values, who are repairing and redeeming the world in his image. That's my whole life. That's everything I'm doing. That's what it's all about. That's why I personally have the best job on the planet. But every job is that. In every job you're in, you could be helping people and elevating the world. You could be, you know, tonight I'm behind the Bimah interviewing David Fishoff. And David Fishoff is a music producer and a sports agent, shomer shabbos, frum, learns Torah, and he put the Monkees back together, represented Ringo Starr and Phil Simms and the Giants and the list of who he represented and just we'll mention incidentally in all the stories that I'll tell which are incredible, which are incredible. But you know what his real mission is? You have to listen tonight to Behind the Bimah. You may not recognize Rabbi Brody on this episode but you have to listen to Behind the Bimah. I'm giving you a little warning Mrs. Brody, fair warning. But David Fishoff will tell you you know what his main mission was with every artist he interacted with and represented and tried to get to Israel? That he's serving Hashem. That they'll all love Israel and love the Jewish people and fight antisemitism, to experience Shabbos. It's a great story. Again I don't want to spoil tonight when he represented a certain major sports player and the team was negotiating with him and he said the deadline for the negotiations was Saturday night but he said I can't talk Saturday. I won't pick up the phone. And all day the phone rings and his children think there's an emergency, someone's trying to get a hold of us, we have to answer. He said relax, don't worry. I know what it is, just let it ring. And by the time he checks his messages Motzei Shabbos, should I spoil the story? The team said, the team owner on the other side negotiating says, fine, I'll give you the price you wanted, I can't take it anymore. And keeping Shabbos, keeping Shabbos got the better contract. He was uncompromising. I'm giving as an example, we didn't time the guest this week on Behind the Bimah with לפני מי אתה עמל in Tiv HaEmunah, but the timing like everything from above is perfectly choreographed. How can he expose these people to the Shabbos meals and to the beauty of Torah and give a gift of Schottenstein Talmud to Ringo Starr? Tell stories, how can he get them to go to Israel and perform? How can he get them to fight anti-Semitism? So whatever job you're in, it doesn't matter what you're doing, לפני מי אתה עמל. What's the real job? There's how you earn your living and there's living. How we earn our living is not the same as living. Our vocation and avocation are not one and the same. Is it a job or is it a calling? לפני מי אתה עמל. יום יום שעה שעה, every day, every hour. Why are we here? What are we here to do? אינה זו בקשה שהנשמה תעלה לרקיע אלא מבקש ממנו דבר פשוט ביותר שיחיה עם המחשבה הפשוטה שיש בורא עולם ודי בזה. To live with a consciousness and a mindfulness, to live with an awareness all the time, there is a Borei Olam, there is a creator. He's in my life, he's talking to me. He has a mission for me that he created me to be a unique expression of him and there's no one else in this world who can do what I do. The world is waiting for me to volunteer, to lead, to help, to care, to work. Whatever I'm doing professionally, whatever I'm doing voluntarily, whatever I'm doing in my capacity in my family or as a neighbor or friend. But to always live with the machshava pshuta, the very simple awareness, yesh Borei Olam, that there is a creator, that there is a creator. Person is going through a medical crisis. To remember, I have to take the initiative to find the best doctor, the best facility, the best surgeon, the best, the best, the best, the best, the best. But you can't pursue the best in such a way that you forget, yesh Borei Olam. In Siddur Snippets we're up to the eighth beracha of the Amidah, Refaeinu. Refaeinu Hashem veneirafe. You know when Refaeinu, when you remember it's Refaeinu Hashem veneirafe. The surgeon is a shliach of Hashem and the medicine is the graciousness of Hashem that he allows us to discovery these secrets to the universe that can cure. But the only one who can not only treat the symptom, but who can reverse and provide a complete cure, Refaeinu Hashem veneirafe. It's Hashem. There's a yehi ratzon. We'll talk about it in Siddur Snippets we're up to this. There's a yehi ratzon to say every time you go to the doctor, every time you take a medicine. Most people don't know about it, they don't say it. The Mishnah Berurah quotes it. Chofetz Chaim, the Mishnah Berurah quotes it. It's a millisecond yehi ratzon. Takes no time at all but all it does is remind you that I'm not thanking when I take this medicine Pfizer or Sanofi or Proctor and Gamble or Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. Thank them also. I'm thanking them for the discovery, but thank you Hashem. The yehi ratzon you go to the doctor, I don't know if before with the copay, after, the appointment, the waiting room, you have plenty of time to say the yehi ratzon as a famous Jewish comedian says it's called the waiting room for a reason. You go from the big waiting room to the little waiting room to the littler waiting room, but you have plenty of time to say this yehi ratzon. The doctor, endless, boundless gratitude. Thank the doctor. Get a gift for the doctor. Appreciate the doctor. Definitely appreciate the doctor. But also remember the doctor is a shliach, is an agent. The doctor is simply the extension of Hashem but Hashem is the Refaeinu Hashem veneirafe. Wherever, whatever we're doing it's remember this machshava pshuta, the simple machshava, yesh Borei Olam. There's a creator. That's the simplest thought to have in the world, and it's the hardest thought to keep. It's the simplest thought and the hardest thought to hold on to. ואז כאשר מחשבה זו תהיה קבועה ודבוקה בכך תמיד, and when you live with that always, when he's opposite you always, when you want to make sure that the Rosh Hashanah round challahs are going to come out good even though you haven't made them in a year and therefore you say Hashem הלואי יתפלל כל היום כולו shivti beveit Hashem, my kitchen just became a beit Hashem and I'm davening all day long because I'm davening that the roast and the challah and that everything that I'm putting together for Rosh Hashanah comes out good. When I'm sitting at the computer and I'm trying to cook up some good droshes and a Shabbos Shuva drosh, it's it's daunting. Got to introduce Selichos, Rosh Hashanah, Shabbos Shuva drosh, three on Yom Kippur, and then when it's done Succos is just getting started. So you think you got a lot to cook? I got a lot to cook. There's a lot of recipes brewing. There's not a simple recipe to follow. It's it's tough. We all got a lot, everyone's got a lot of cooking to do. Everyone's cooking up a lot. So you could turn everywhere. You turn your office, you turn your kitchen into a beit Hashem and יתפלל כל היום כולו Hashem let the drosh come out, let it flow, give me great sources, ideas, and stories. Hashem let the challah turn out. Hashem let my kids be all set. Hashem let me afford new shoes for my children for Yom Tov. Hashem let the Yom Tov table be filled with people who are healthy. And well. It's a machshava peshuta, it's a simple, it's a simple thought, there's a Hashem, there's a Hashem. Everything, you daven, you talk all day long. I saw a video that came out yesterday, Rav Bender, Rosh Yeshiva of Darchei, one of my heroes, I love Rav Bender. He sent a video out to the parents of his school, but it got out much more broadly, who talked about in New York they just started school. I think we're halfway through the year in Florida. Yeah? But in New York they just started school. So he sent out a video imploring parents on the first day of school to daven to Hashem for their children. Everyone's running around, school supplies and new backpacks and did you sign up for the lunch program and where's the bus stop or did you drive the carpool? There's a million and one things to worry about and bother the school that you're not happy with the class assignment and the friends and why are they always in that class and the friends are in the other and not? There's a million and things, million and one things to do to intervene to advocate for your child on the first day of school. Don't forget to daven. And he delineates, it's a beautiful short video, of all the things you could daven, let my child not be bullied, let them be able to focus, let them succeed academically, let them grow spiritually, let nobody harm them, let them not have any danger during recess, let them not get hurt during... there's a million and one things to daven for for your child. So the first day of school carpool became a Beis Hashem, שבתי בבית ה׳ כל ימי חיי. Your child, you drop them off, they run out of the car, and if you don't get chased off the carpool line, pause for one moment and offer a tefillah for their day in school. It's not only true on the first day of school, why can't it be true for every day of school? And when they get off the bus and they come home, and both their feet are working, both their legs are working, both their arms are working. One of our daughters when she was young was climbing a ladder at school, she had what they call a tib fib, I don't want to gross you out, but her leg got caught and she kept going up the ladder and her leg broke to a 90 degree angle. Tib fib, both, 90 degree angle. School was amazing and helpful, we got her ambulance, Joe DiMaggio, rods were put in her leg and she's better than ever. She had races with her grandmother, both of them had their walker to get around the house. Great-gra... sorry, her great-grandmother, sorry, grandmother, her great-grandmother. She had races. It was adorable. So every child, every day that your child comes off the bus or out of carpool and both their legs are fine and not in cast, thank you Hashem. They weren't bullied, thank you Hashem. They weren't harmed, thank you Hashem. They weren't kicked out? They weren't in the principal's office? Thank you Hashem. Thank you Hashem. Every day. Thank you Hashem. There are things to ask for and things to be thankful for all day. I don't know how you could get anything done if we really live this way. הלוואי שיתפלל כל היום כולו. Shivti beveis Hashem to turn every place that we're in, carpool's a Beis Hashem, the kitchen's a Beis Hashem, the office or the operating room, the boardroom, they're all Beis Hashem. ויעסיק מחשבה זו תהיה קבועה ודבוקה בכך תמיד, machshava peshuta sheyesh Borei Olam. אזי אט אט יחדרו הדברים אל לבבו. When you're mindful, when you're thoughtful, when you're thinking, when you've got the bumper sticker, when you've got the caffeinate with kavana cup, so you start your day with your cup of coffee with kavana, ברוך אתה ה׳ אלוהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen. Thank you. When you've got the sticker on your steering wheel and you've also got it on your mirror and you've got it on your cup and you're just Ein Od Milvado on your wall and you're just all day long flashing messages. Don't forget, simple thought, there's a Borei Olam. Don't forget. Don't forget. It's the simplest thought and the hardest thought to hold. There's a Borei Olam, don't forget there's a Borei Olam and keep flashing it, Borei Olam, Borei Olam. It should be your home screen, it should be your alarm, it should be don't forget there's a Borei Olam. There was a tragic loss of a young woman who died in a car accident, Tisha B'av there was a video her parents were included in it about loss. Her mother talked about when they looked at her phone later they found she had a daily alarm set to daven for Mashiach, to do something good that would bring Mashiach, a daily alarm, a young lady, teenage girl. What are our daily alarms? The simplest things are the hardest things to remember. There are whole apps, there are whole alarm systems to remind you to breathe. Yes. How pathetic are we? How pathetic is our generation that we need an alarm to... could you imagine meeting your great-grandparents and saying, I have this alarm, it goes off every hour. Oh yeah, what does it remind you to do? Call someone important? Do something... it reminds me to breathe. You forgot? Yeah, we're so busy, we're running so fast, we're doing so much that we need to be reminded to breathe. So you know what else is the oxygen that we breathe? That there's a Borei Olam. That is the oxygen that we breathe. You're not alive. Tzaddik be'emunaso yichyeh we learned last week. חבקוק העמידם על אחת. He said the measure of a person, the whole purpose of life, tzaddik be'emunaso yichyeh. It can all be reduced and consolidated to that one thing. So just like there's alarms that remind you, breathe, get up, right, there's alarms for that also. Imagine telling your great-grandparents. Who were busy milking the cows and running to the farm and taking care of the thing and having to go to the river to wash the clothing and having to go to and you say, "Oh yeah, I also have an alarm, it reminds me I can't just sit still all day." Yeah. Those are our alarms. You want to know something about 2023? Our alarms are don't forget to breathe and don't forget to get off the couch and don't forget to stop eating. Those are our alarms today. Does that tell you everything about our generation? Don't forget to breathe, don't forget to get up, don't forget to stop eating. So what should the alarm be that we have? Somebody needs to make this app or this alarm. Boom! Every hour there's a Borei Olam, Ein Od Milvado. Every hour, every hour Ki Atah Imadi. We can mix it up, so every hour it'll be a different three word Tzaddik be'emunaso yichyeh, Borei Olam, Ein Od Milvado, Ki Atah Imadi. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And then maybe we've got a shot. Then maybe ot-ot. Ot-ot means little by little. Ot-ot יחדרו הדברים אל הלב, it'll enter our heart. Maybe then it'll seep into our heart. ומעתה תהיה ידיעה זו שיש בורא עולם לא ידיעת השכל בלבד אלא ידיעת הלב. We're trying to get it from a knowledge of the head to a knowledge of the heart. A knowledge of the head means I wake you in the middle of the night. You know it. You went to a seminar, you heard the Bible codes, you saw the evidence for God's existence. It means academically, intellectually, conceptually, you know that there's a God. It means that Pew Research called you, said we're doing a survey how many Americans believe in God. Do you believe in God? Check. That's knowledge of the head. But do you know it in your heart? When the rubber meets the road, when you get bad news or hard news, when things are frustrating or not going your way, when you're tempted to react with envy, with anger, with arrogance, is it a knowledge of the heart? Do we put on our emunah glasses and say Hashem it feels like you're lenegdi, you're opposite me, you're pushing back at me, but it's you. And therefore bezos ani boteiach. You're what I lean in. Is it a knowledge of the heart, yedias halev? Does it come down and filter down from the head to the heart? והאדם אשר חי מידיעת הלב ידיעה זו תחייהו. You want to be alive? I told you last week and I don't want to keep harping on it, we met with Rav Gamliel. He's a short, petite older man who has more energy than I've ever seen. In a short little meeting he's bouncing off the walls. And he'll tell you all, he listed to us all of his health conditions, all the things that are wrong with him, all the medicine he needs to take, and you never saw such energy and positivity and smile and happiness. Techayeyhu. Because this knowledge of the heart gives you life. It is the source of life. It's life. It's the meaning of life, the purpose of life. It's lifnei she'ta'amol, it's what we work for in life. וזו משמעות עמוקה יותר מדברי חבקוק צדיק באמונתו יחיה כלומר שהוא מקבל חיות מעצם ידיעת האמונה שיש בורא עולם. What's, don't forget to breathe. And what's the breathing that we do? Don't forget take in deep breaths. But the breathing that we do is to breathe in emunah. Don't forget to breathe in neshama, neshima, don't forget כל הנשמה תהלל יה, כל הנשימה תהלל יה. Breathe in that there's God. Tomorrow night, 8:30 on the beach, I hope everyone will join. Hisbodedus. Like we do every year, we're going to sit and learn something and then we're going to spread out in the beach and everybody's going to have a conversation with God. We're going to talk about what that looks like and what to follow, the formula, and then we're going to try to experience it. And some after seven seconds you'll be like that was awkward, that was weird, I'm out of here. And some after seven minutes you'll feel I'm good. And some seventy minutes later someone's going to have to tap you on the shoulder and say, "Sorry, but we've got to go." But hisbodedus, because that's a yedia of the heart that there's a Borei Olam, that there's a Borei Olam. I'm in conversation with him all day. כאשר הידיעה היא ידיעה שכלית אפשר לקבל ממנה מעט חיות בלבד. That's chiyus, that's light. You want to be alive? Breathe. Hisbodedus begins with taking some deep breaths, centering ourselves. Anyone who's done yoga, anyone who's done that exercise, breathing is an enormous part of it. Not just because biologically or anatomically the breathing into the organs is healthy for the organs, drawing the oxygen in is good for them, but breathing for the mind and breathing for the soul is critical to center ourselves. אבל כאשר הידיעה היא ידיעת הלב אזי האדם יונק כל חיותו מן הידיעה הפשוטה שיש בורא עולם. You're tired, you're worn, you're spent, you're battling, you're ready to give up. You know where you get your energy? Bezos ani boteiach. The yedia of the lev, bezos. You can wake up every day with enthusiasm and you don't even need your cup of coffee, you don't have to caffeinate with kavana, you caffeinate with emunah. I remember there's a Borei Olam taka. You woke up and you crawled out of bed and there was a message on the mirror, on the dresser, on the steering wheel, on the coffee mug. Oh yeah, Ki Atah Imadi. Oh yeah, Ein Od Milvado. Oh yeah, there's a Borei Olam. I'm not... I'm not doing it alone and nothing's random or chance and everything is by design. Oh yeah, you're in charge, you're in control. We spoke last night about anger. We spoke last night about mastering midos, anger management. Ego, edging God out. When we express our ego, we edge God out. We gotta bring God in and live with a humility. Speak to everybody בנחת לכל אדם ובכל עת all the time and always. And we make that space and we invite Him into our lives, our lives get better. That is life. Your relationships will become more vibrant and dynamic and enriched. Professionally, you'll be more successful and driven and you feel you're making better decisions, judgment will be clearer, not cloudy. The benefits of emuna and bitachon bizos ani boteach like Dovid HaMelech whatever I'm facing whatever I'm confronting bizos with this ani boteach I trust. We should all be zoche bizos ani boteach to lean in to have bitachon in our bitachon. To put on those bitachon glasses. Keep those emails coming so I have something to say next week. Tonight, nine o'clock, behind the bimah. You could watch it later if you want because also this evening at BRS, we're hosting Rabbi Benzion Twersky for chizuk, which is open to men and women. And until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
