Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov welcome back to Living with Emunah, a Gmar Chatimah Tovah to all. Want to thank our generous Emunah Shiur sponsors, Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan, who sponsored the Emunah series in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Gabbot, in memory of Bella’s mother, Dr. Ellen Schanzer. We are always grateful to them for their generosity and their sponsorship. This morning, this Emunah Shiur is also sponsored by Karen Ben-Friedman in memory of Karen's amazing mother, Helen Cohen, on her fifth Yahrtzeit, whom we miss tremendously, who was a beacon of Emunah, had an ongoing, very real, palpable relationship with Hashem and we miss her terribly. נשמה שתהא לה עליה. Thank you. Thank you for that. There are more copies if anyone would like to follow what we’re going to learn inside. We’re going to learn from a new Sefer today. It’s called Avra DeDashya. It is a Sefer from the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Shaul Alter. Very excited that Rav Shaul Alter, the Rosh Yeshiva, the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva, is going to be coming to Boca in November. It really is an outstanding Zechus, an incredible opportunity and privilege and merit for our community. I had the privilege of meeting with him this summer in Israel, had an extraordinary conversation. You can actually watch it online, there are English subtitles too, if you want to hear his wisdom and the answers he gave to the questions that I asked. So he’s a huge Talmid Chacham and a very special Tzaddik and a very special person. We’re very excited to be able to host him. So we’re going to learn a piece in his Sefer momentarily, but first, as always, an Emunah email. Hi Rabbi Goldberg. I know you're super busy during this time of year. I want to share the Emunah Shiur is giving me the fuel to keep on growing. I grew up traditional on Long Island but didn't keep Shabbos. I had a living example in my home. My Oma was a hidden child of the Shoah, what it meant to be a Mentsch and why it was important to carry on Yiddishkeit. While at university I had the opportunity to reunite with three Holocaust survivors who had not seen each other in over seventy years. It led even closer to Yiddishkeit and Frumkeit. I knew that I couldn't have family survive and reunited them without the hand of Hashem. All those events occurred after my grandmother passed away and were inspired by a box of old photos that she left me. While I was socially religious at university, I'd like to say that my Frumkeit was with a big emphasis on the m, not so much on the orthodox part. After Brandeis, I happened to stumble upon the Manhattan Jewish Experience and I don't want to give away too many details, I don't have permission from the author to read her name, but I do want to give credit to my good friend Rabbi Mark Wildes and MJE, the Manhattan Jewish Experience. The family played a tremendous role in my journey. I've been Shomer Shabbos, Shomer Kashrus for the last ten years, even went to seminary. Since I had a later start than FFBs, Frum from births, I got married later in life, which whatever age she put and defined as later in life, and my wedding was postponed due to the pandemic. About seven years ago, Joaz referred me to the Emunah Shiur. For so many years I Davened for a husband and Baruch Hashem I'm married. Emunah Shiur gave me the hope that I would get married. Unfortunately, now my husband and I have had some fertility struggles. Like most educators who are employees at the time, I've been super busy and stressed. I left my class at such and such school a few minutes early yesterday to make a doctor appointment in the city. First, Google Maps said I was going to be thirty minutes and it quickly turned into an hour and a half. Yet another reason not to live in New York. That was not in the email. That was just my commentary. There was nothing that I could do. I was in standstill traffic and I was going to miss an important appointment. I thought about calling my twin sister, my mother, I could hear you in my head, "Call Hashem." He wants to hear from you. Talk to Hashem. Right? All the people that we want to call. Not that calling any of those people would have removed the traffic. Traffic would still be there, but we want to call someone because at least misery likes company. So the company that we call are the people we're most comfortable with. So we call, different people have different instincts who they call, a spouse, a child, a sibling, a friend. But misery likes company. So when that flight is delayed or canceled or when we run into that traffic or we get that bad news or we're frustrated by whatever behavior of the other person, so we call. So she says she could hear me in her head say, 'Call Hashem.' Call Hashem, I asked myself, I have nothing to say. I haven't held up my bargain. I don't learn enough. I used to Daven three times a day, now I only Daven once or twice a day. I'm teaching all day, preparing groups and I don't have time. I'm exhausted. Isn't Hashem busy right now? It's probably His busy season too. He's getting ready to open the book. Does He really want to hear from me? I love how real and relatable this email is, right? It's real. In all seriousness, I thought to myself, Hashem is so distant. Doesn't Hashem know that my grandfather, a religious man, Davened every day to have religious grandchildren after surviving? Doesn't He know that I want nothing more than a child to carry on my grandfather's name? Doesn't Hashem know that I yearn to be closer to Him? Despite all these thoughts in my head, I remember what my Zeide used to say, Hashem gives you two ears and one mouth. now for a reason. In order to learn, you have to listen. I thought of my Oma's words: Let your keppi rest. I couldn't rest, I was stuck in traffic, I must have had the courage to turn off the radio because who talks to the Almighty with Taylor Swift in the background? That's what it says. Putting all jokes aside, I had the courage to say four words: Please Hashem help me. That's it. That was the whole conversation with Hashem. Please Hashem help me. Within two minutes the receptionist of the doctor's office called and asked where I was. I explained the situation, I was coming from the such and such and I was in standstill traffic. She heard the urgency in my voice and said don't worry, let me see what I can do. She called back and said I moved some people around, I got you an 8 AM appointment on the other side of the city tomorrow. It was a small miracle. Our fertility struggles are not over. And now you know why I'm reading this email, because I don't love the emails, I love the emails that have the great ending. They're great, they're what movies are made of. They're wonderful, the Hollywood ending. But the powerful and I think the truly inspiring emails are the ones that say I don't know how this turns out yet, I don't know how it ends, it's not a storybook Hollywood ending, but still I'm sticking with Hashem. Our fertility struggles are not over. I still have a procedure on early such morning and if it goes well, we'll finally have, implant a healthy embryo after Yom Tov. The point of this email isn't to provide you with a happy ending and more reading material during this busy time. It's to remind you that the Emunah Shiur is like a seed, you plant the seed, you remind your listeners even when the weeds flourish and there seems like no hope, Hashem is the creator. We have a duty to tend and keep the land but Hashem decides when the flowers bloom. He does everything in the right season and in the right time. Shana Tova. Okay. Amazing. So please keep sending the emails because they're just inspiring. The people who, it's so easy to sit here on Wednesday mornings, I get to just look in the camera, speak into the microphone, sip the coffee, teach other people's Torah, read other people's... it's easy. To be in your car and stuck for traffic and you know, it took you a while to get married, you davened so hard, now you want children desperately and you're stuck in traffic and you're going to miss the appointment that's going to help you get and you talk to Hashem and you say I don't know how it ends but he'll make, you know, you plant the seed and he'll make it blossom in the right time, in the right place. It's unbelievably, incredibly inspiring and I thank the author of this email and all the emails and I hope that you keep coming. I don't know if I told you somebody sent me an email offering to work on publishing a book of the emails and Emunah Shiurim together, the Emunah ideas with the Emunah emails. In the right time, in the right season, that person planted a seed but who knows if it will ever sprout and germinate. So, Ibra De-Dasha, this is the wonderful Sefer of the הילגא גורער ראש ישיבה, Rav Shaul Alter. Again mark your calendars sometime in November when he's coming. בתפילת ימים נוראים אומרים מלוך על כל העולם כולו בכבודך. In our davening on Rosh Hashanah and again we're going to say it next week on Yom Kippur, we sing, we express the phrase מלוך על כל העולם כולו. I just hear Rav Shlomo singing it in my head every time I read that pasuk, maybe I'll post the video in our WhatsApp group so that you can listen to it some point later today and as you countdown to Yom Kippur, מלוך על כל העולם כולו בכבודך. Translate the words. Meloch means? King. Melech is king, Meloch means rule. Reign. Rule al, on, kol, all, ha-olam, of the world, kulo, all, bi-chvodecha, with your glory. מלוך על כל העולם כולו בכבודך. Any of those words superfluous? Any of those words redundant, repetitive? Rule over the whole world, all of it, with your glory. Well, over the whole world means all of it. All of it means the whole world. V-chasav Ha-Levush, so the holy Levush writes, אין צריך לומר כל שהרי אומר אחר כך כולו הרי כפילות ומיותר. So the Shla, Levush rather, the holy Levush asks: it's redundant. If you're מלוך על כל העולם, if you're ruling over the whole world, then you're ruling over kulo. You could have said מלוך על העולם כולו or you could say מלוך על כל העולם. But why do you have to say it and what do you add by saying מלוך על כל העולם כולו? The song wouldn't work out. But other than for the song, why does it have to say kol ha-olam kulo? Azoy de kasha, that is the question of the Levush. U-vi-Taz, the Turei Zahav, a commentary in the Shulchan Aruch כתב שבכל הספרים הנוסח כן ומתרץ דכיון דמצינו הרבה פעמים רובו ככולו ועל כן כדי לאפוקי שלא נפרש תיבת כולו רוב מוסיפים לומר כל לומר כולו ממש. Oh. So the Taz has an interesting answer. He says we have a principle in halacha. The principle in halacha is rubo k-chulo. Sometimes we apply rubo k-chulo. If you have most of it, it's like you have everything. Rubo, if you have most, k-chulo. Rubo is k-chulo. rubo kekulo. When do you apply that principle, when do you not apply that principle? rubo kekulo. If the cup is mostly filled, we view it as if it's filled to the top, rubo kekulo. We don't say if you have eight, seven, ah, it's a minyan, it's close enough, rubo. Why not? There was a period when I was in high school, I stayed late for mishmar. I don't remember why, but I'd get a ride home with the principal. And then he would ask questions like this in the car. And then I said, Mom, can't you pick me up? I really have to get the ride home with the principal. I want to talk about the sports scores and not Taylor Swift, but you know, other singers. I didn't want to deal with those kinds of questions. But it was a good question. I'm glad that I had the ride, if he's listening, I'm grateful for that special time, and I'm glad that he challenged me with that question. If you say rubo kekulo, why don't we say that when it comes to a minyan? Why don't we say when is the fast over on Yom Kippur? I don't know, 7:50 something? Yeah, when you get to 4:00, 5:00, rubo kekulo. You made it to most of it. kekulo, it's like all of it. So when do we apply that principle, when do we not apply that principle in halacha is a good question, but we do apply it. So you might have thought rubo kekulo, so when you say, when you say this nusach kulo, maybe you don't really mean all of it, you mean rov, so therefore we say kol ha'olam kulo, that kulo doesn't mean most, it means all of it. That's the answer that the Taz gives. ופירשנו מכבר שמלבד כל העולם יש עוד עולם נוסף, but Rav Shol Alter, the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva, and here just through this little insight you'll get a glimpse into his great mind and get excited for his visit. The Gerer Rosh Yeshiva says, no, let me tell you another answer, another interpretation. You know why it says kol ha'olam kulo? Because kulo means the whole world, but of one world. kol ha'olam and kulo can mean multiple worlds. And what are the multiple worlds? Hakadosh Baruch Hu has dominion, He has providence, He has sovereignty, He is the king and the monarch over all the universe, all the worlds, all the galaxies. Maybe you followed the congressional hearing about UFOs and aliens. Hashem is in charge of them too. Do they exist? Do they not exist? Do we believe that? Is there room in Yiddishkeit to believe that? First of all, the answer is yes. Torah does talk about worlds and beings before man, maybe after man. It's possible, potentially, to believe, I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't really matter, at least not right now, they're not knocking on my door. I don't know. So is that what it means, kol ha'olam kulo? Why do we say kol twice? Because there are multiple worlds. What worlds is the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva talking about? Is Rav Shol Alter talking about Mars and Pluto and Earth and the aliens and the UFOs? Maybe. But you know what he says? No. כל האדם הוא עולם קטן. Because every human being is a world unto themselves. Each of us are our own universe, each of us are our own galaxy, each of us are an entire world. We're an entire world. והאדם בעמדו בתפילה בראש השנה מוכן להמליך את הקדוש ברוך הוא על כל העולמות ועל כל יושבי תבל ושוכח את עצמו וחושב שהוא בן חורין. But you know what happens this time of year? We tend to be willing to coronate God as the king on all of the world and all of the worlds outside of our world. God, You're the king at the UN right now, on the sidelines from the main podium, You're moving nations, You run the world. God, You decide if it will rain, what drought, what nature, what weather, what crops will grow, You run the world. God, the aliens, the UFOs, will man go to space? You run the world. But how I react when I'm stuck in traffic? My world? How I receive it if somebody has harmed me or hurt me or injured me? How I navigate the frustrations, the disappointments, when I'm jealous or envious? My world? Yeah, not so much. You're not the king of that world, I'm the king of that world. Taking credit for success and achievement and breakthrough and prosperity? Yeah, no, God, stick with Your worlds. That's my world. We tend to be willing to coronate God as the monarch and the king and the sovereign of all these other worlds around us, but when we think about our world, our perspective, our view, our vision, our interaction, our experience, our world, then we leave God out. Right? When the rubber meets the road, when it's time to put it, what happens? Rosh Hashana we stand, the shofar is the trumpet, I think we spoke about it last week, the coronation ceremony of Hashem, we're blowing the trumpets. And malchuyos, we're singing melech, melech, hamelech hakadosh, hamelech hamishpat, melech, You're the king, You're the king, You're the king. And then aseres yemei teshuva, this week between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, we're still growing envious and jealous and arrogant and anxious and, I thought God's the king. I thought God's the king, I thought he's in charge, I thought you're ready to surrender, I thought you're ready to submit, I thought you're never envious or jealous because we're happy with what we have. We're never anxious or worried because he's in charge, he's in control, we let go and let God. We're never arrogant because it's not about us, he's in charge, he's in control. So where's the manifestation or expression, where's the fulfillment of all the davening, all the shofar blowing, all the dipping the apples in the honey, all the holiday that Hashem is the Melech, he's the king, and you lose it all if in that moment that you fly off the handle because your kid left a toy, your husband traifed up the pot, or didn't come home when he said he's going to come home, or you got stuck in the traffic, or you missed the appointment, or what happened to God's the king? Where'd it go? Where'd it go? Rav Sholom Alter, it's a brilliant insight. מלוך על כל העולם כולו בכבודך. The multiple worlds. Don't just be the king and the dominion and the sovereign over the worlds out there. It's Hashem, this is my statement, my affirmation, my proclamation, you are the king of my world. Of everything that's going to happen in my world, of my experiences, of my lot in life, of all that will happen, you're the king. You're by my side, you're holding me up, you're my support, you're my best friend, you're my confidant. I may protest, I may object, I may grow frustrated with you, which is also an expression of deep and profound emuna we've shared many, many times. But I realize and I recognize it's all from you, it's how I interpret, it's how I experience everything that happens in my world because there isn't just the world, there's also my world. My world. I shared with you before but I'll repeat just by this based on this insight that Mishna in Pirkei Avos, I learned this from a seventh grade girl when I was on the chinuch staff in Camp Morasha in 1902. No, what year? 1999. Might as well have been 1902. 1999. So I posed a question, I learned Pirkei Avos with those young ladies and throughout Pirkei Avos, על שלשה דברים העולם עומד. On three things the world stands: Torah, Avodah, and Gemilus Chasadim. שלשה דברים מוציאין את האדם מן העולם. Three things remove a person from the world: kina, taiva, and kovod. If you're filled with envy and you're filled with kina, taiva, lust, and kovod, arrogance, honor, then it removes you from the world. So we went through multiple interpretations about what does it mean "the world"? What does that mean? What do you mean, earth spins on its axis. The greatest physicists can't find the three legs of Torah, Avodah, Gemilus Chasadim holding up the earth. It's spinning on its axis. So what do you mean the world stands on those three things? And what do you mean three things remove a person from the world? We know arrogant people and we know envious people and we know lustful people and gravity still keeps them on earth. It's not motzi. They act in those ways, they don't like float off. Wouldn't that be amazing? That'd be so cool, right? That'd be so cool. All of a sudden somebody would follow their lust or be filled with arrogance or honor or they would be envious and all of a sudden like they'd have to hold on, gravity wasn't working, they'd float off, and it's מוציא את האדם מן העולם. They disappear from the world, they're gone, sayonara. To be ground... so what does that mean? But it doesn't work that way. So what does that mean? So I learned that summer with many interpretations. Some say it means, I think Rabbeinu Yona writes, it means it removes you from the world or it is the legs the world stands on, it means it means the purpose of the world. Why did God create the world? The foundation of the world, the purpose of the world, the engine of the world, Torah, Avodah, Gemilus Chasadim. Learning and living Torah, Avodah serving Hashem, and Chesed, noticing and caring about the people around you. That's the reason for the world and if you don't live those three principles, you've violated the very purpose of creation. There's no reason for you to be here. You're not really here in this world because you're not living the reason for this world. And if you follow your lust and the pursuit of honor and envy, then again it removes you from this world, you violate the purpose of this world. That's how the Rabbeinu Yona understood. But a seventh grade girl said to me: "You know, maybe it means every person is a world onto themselves. Every person is their own world. Every person comes from their own background, their own family, their own personality, their own struggles, their own assets, their own strengths, their own blessings but also their own challenges. Everybody's made up of their own psyche, their own chemical makeup, their own physical features. Everybody has strengths, everybody has weaknesses, every human being, no two people are duplicated, everybody's different. Everybody's different and everyone is a world onto themselves. And maybe," said the seventh grade girl, "who I regret I don't remember her name, she deserves to be quoted, she said, maybe when the Mishna throughout Pirkei Avos refers to the world, it's talking about each person. And it means that you want a meaningful purposeful life, the world" rests on Torah Avodah Gemilut Chasadim. If you want a day in which you had an equilibrium and a balance in which you were healthy mentally, spiritually, physically, then that day has to be made up of three ingredients: Torah, Avodah and Gemilut Chasadim. Any day that has no Torah, you didn't learn, you didn't engage, you didn't have pride in the values of Torah, then your day was incomplete. You're out of kilter, you're off balance. Any day there wasn't Avodah, you weren't talking to God, you weren't in a conversation with Hashem, you weren't Avodah, you weren't in service of God, it's incomplete, your world is out of kilter. And any day that doesn't have Chesed, you didn't do something kind, something nice, something caring about someone else, your day, your world is incomplete. The world rests on three things, it means your world. No matter what else is going on in your world, no matter how many meals you've got to cook up for Yom Tov, no matter how much laundry you have to get done, no matter how much work there is to do, no matter how much there is on your list, it must include those three ingredients because any day that didn't include Torah Avodah Gemilut Chasadim, your world didn't spin, it was off kilter. Beautiful insight, right? Similarly, she said that in order to have health, you can't have Kinah Taivah and Kavod. What does it mean מוציאה את האדם מן העולם? It means God created you, you're a world onto yourself, you're filled with potential and capability and you're filled with power. You're חלק אלוק ממעל ממש, you're a piece of the Almighty, you're a shining bright light in this world, you're here for a reason, there's work to do. And if instead you're so confused and you're comparing and you're competing with someone else, you're envious, you're jealous, that just removed you from your world. Stick with your world, you have your world. Who am I? What are my strengths, what are my weaknesses, what are my assets, what are my liabilities? Why am I here? What am I meant to do? And you're so busy looking in your neighbor's driveway and you're so busy looking through your neighbor's window and you're so busy looking at what your neighbor's wearing and you're so busy looking at your neighbor's spouse and children, you absolutely forfeited your world, you abandoned your world, you left your world. Get back in your world, get back in your world. That's where we belong. It removes you from the world. Envy. And similarly, Kavod, honor. You're so busy worrying about being an influencer, you're so busy worrying about how many friends and followers, you're so busy wanting to go viral, you're so busy wanting to have honor and be given the credit for whatever the work was, it removes you from your world. Just stay in your world, do what you're meant to do. And Taivah, lust, you leave your world of what's healthy for you and you follow, you indulge your lust, you act compulsively, it removes you from your world. I'm sharing all of this just to tell you this pshat that this young girl said, that the world, olam, means each of us are our own world. That's what the Ramchal begins Mesillat Yesharim, מה חובת האדם בעולמו. יסוד היסודות ושורש העבודה, the Ramchal begins, Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, several hundred years ago says: you want to live a meaningful purposeful life, you want to live a happy and a healthy life, it's not about how much money you have in the bank. Granted, it's good to have money in the bank. It helps you remove some worries, it helps you pay the bills. There's nothing wrong with having money in the bank. There's nothing wrong with working hard and having a lot of money in the bank, but if you think that money is the secret to happiness, you know nothing, including know very few very rich people because there's no correlation. If it were so simple, everyone rich you knew would be incredibly happy, everyone poor you knew would be incredibly unhappy and paradoxically it's often the opposite, that the wealthiest people you know seem to be the most unhappy, most hollow, the most empty inside. And you can find people who have nothing and they feel like they have everything, they're so happy and fulfilled. It's not so simple, it's not so simple. So Ramchal says you want a meaningful life, a purposeful life, a happy life, a balanced stable life, then the answer is ask yourself מה חובת האדם בעולמו. We're not going to prolong this because I've spoken about this so many times because this inspires and touches me deeply every single day. The Ramchal says don't ask what are my rights, what am I entitled to, what do I get? Ask ma chova, what's my duty, what's my obligation, what's my responsibility, what can I give, what can I do, who can I be, how can I redeem and repair and change the world? You want a meaningful life, don't ask what can the world give me, ask what can I give the world, what can I do, what can I do? This is not just our Torah and it's not just altruistic, like we're striving to be heroes who want to give instead of receive, it's actually now research has caught up to what the Torah always knew, this is the basis of mental health. Don't believe me, look online later, you can Google it and you will find that among the most successful treatments for depression is volunteering. In addition to sometimes needing medication and needing therapy is volunteering. You'd say volunteer? I don't want to volunteer, I want to go to Lord & Taylor, I want to go to Nordstrom, I want to shop away my problems. I feel depressed, I want to go on the Amazon, I want to on a visit to the Amazon and I want to buy up the Amazon. That's how I'm going to get rid of my depression, I'm going to buy my way out of the depression and the packages and the packages and the packages are going to come and then I'll be happy. And maybe you will for a moment when you open the package, but you know what comes after the package? It doesn't come to the front door, it comes in the mailbox, it's called a bill. And when the bill comes for the packages, then at least maybe your father makes him unhappy. In some cases, I think we have a dedicated Amazon delivery person for our house. No? It's possible. A dedicated Amazon delivery person just for the Goldberg home. It's possible. It's possible. Sometimes you can't get to the front door. You have to start moving, you need to bring in like through to other people's worlds. I'm just telling you that in my world, in my world I sometimes need to bring heavy equipment to move the packages just to access the front door. Not you, it's not you. It's our children. But anyway. Exaggerating a little bit. A little, a little bit. Rabbinic license, rabbinic license. So it's not the more packages you get the happier you get. Google this and you'll see that a person is feeling depressed, go volunteer. Go volunteer. There's nothing that feels better in the world. I wish I could send you the pictures. Maybe I'll post them in the group and the people who weren't here really won't know what went on today. But I have pictures on Erev Rosh Hashana, this army of kids came. How you showed up. We seated 16, 1800 people on this campus on Rosh Hashana. And if you included BRS West and Rabbi Brody's 400 people for outreach, almost 2500 people. BRS. You showed up and there was a chart and you had a seat and your name was typed on a sticker on it. And there was paper and there were machzorim that were put out and there was a million things. The paroches was white. All that stuff. How do you think all that happened? Poof, you showed up and that's your job. There's no criticism, right? We have the luxury of just showing up. There was an army of kids who came who spent their Erev Rosh Hashana, in some cases with their father, so beautifully, labeling chairs and straightening and steaming the paroches and putting out the machzorim and ensuring the... It's beautiful. I took pictures. It was beautiful. And you know what they got for it? Pizza. They got pizza. But okay, that was all. There was no paycheck, there was no like how much are we paid, how much per hour, you know, I'll take it in Bitcoin. There was no negotiation. There was no negotiation of how much they got paid. I promise you those kids went into Rosh Hashana, they were on fire. Felt so good. Others were playing, you know, the game box or whatever that thing's called. Others were playing video games. Others were having triple caramel latte, Star whatever. Others were sleeping in. And they were here, the army for Jeffrey, turning over this campus. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable for those kids. They won, they won out on their because when you give, when you do, so the Ramchal says, you want to live a meaningful life, we only did one line so far in the Ramchal, we gotta get back to this. You want to live a meaningful life, a purposeful life, mah chovat haadam? Ask yourself not what can I get from this world, but why am I here? It's a new year. It's a brand new year. So chevra, my dear friends, what are you going to give the world this year? How will the world be better because you're in it this year? Your friends, your family, your community, your profession, your hobby. I'm not telling you in what way. I'm not saying sit and say Tehillim all day long and that's how you have to make the world. There's nothing wrong with that, but I'm not asking you to leave your comfort zone or do something you don't like doing. Hey, take one for the team, that's... I'm saying just ask yourself what's my mission, why am I here, what difference am I meant to make, how will this be my year that when I come next year this time I will look back and say this year I made a difference. I got out of my own comfort zone, I got out of my own skin, and I made a difference to other people. There was a committee, there was a project, there was an effort, there were people I checked in on, I hosted, I took care of, there was a problem I became the solution, there was someone I showed up for, I was fully more present in the lives of those who need me. The answer will be different for everyone. That's the hard work. Giving this shmuz is the easy part. Looking in the mirror and deciding given who I am and my world because everyone's their own world. So that's how the Ramchal ends that sentence, that charge, that opening to Mesillas Yesharim. mah chovat haadam? What's the next word? beolamo. Translate the word beolamo. So some translations have the mistranslation. They say they translate the Ramchal challenges us what's our obligation, our duty, our responsibility in the world. But that's not what the Ramchal writes. He doesn't say in the world. What does he say? In beolamo. In his or her world. Why would the Ramchal write that? Do we live on different planets? Do we have residences on different planets? Why would he say everyone in their own world? The answer is because everyone is their own world. Now you can't live in your own world in a way that you're oblivious to other people. Our worlds intersect and our worlds overlap and sometimes our worlds collide. Our worlds have to be interconnected. You can't live in your own, oh they're in their own world. How come they didn't show up? How come they don't care? How come... nah, they're in their own world. That's a bad being in your own world. We don't mean that, being in your own world so you're oblivious of everyone and everything. around you. That we do not mean. We mean you're in your own world because don't compete, don't compare, don't measure yourself. Each of us is our own world. We come from our own place, we have our own background, we have our own socioeconomic status, we have our own gifts and talents, we have our own weaknesses and challenges. We are each our own world, מה חובת האדם בעולמו. And that's what Rav Sholom Alter's answering here. מלוך על כל העולם כולו. You know why it says it twice? כל העולם כולו. Why does it say it twice? Why is it repetitive and redundant? Says the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva, you know why? Because it's easy to coronate God the King of all the worlds out there. It's also easy to coronate God as the King of other people's world. Oh no no no, they're suffering because God feels they need to this. Oh no no, they have that because you think that's their achievement, they're so smart, they're lucky. God let them hit the lottery. Believe me, they're not so smart, they don't deserve it, they didn't achieve it, it's... It's so easy to coronate God the King of everyone else's world. Bei'einom. It's easy to make God the King of other people. How about our world? Our world, our life, our lifestyle, our daily lives. כל העולם כולו. To make God the King of all of us. הוא האדם עצמו כי כל אדם הוא עולם קטן. Because every person is a miniature world. והאדם בעמדו בתפילה בראש השנה מוכן להמליך הקדוש ברוך הוא על כל העולמות ועל כל יושבי תבל ושוכח את עצמו. He coronates God the King of all the universes and all the galaxies and all the worlds and all the planets, וחושב שהוא בן חורין. And he says everyone else has a King. What does it mean to have a King? What does a King have? Subjects. If a King doesn't have subjects, I have bad news for that King. They're not a King. Right? If I put on a crown and sit in my room and declare myself King, but I can't even control who's ordering from... I'm just joking, I'm not... If I sit and put a crown on my head and declare myself King, but nobody is willing to be my subject, you're not a King. You're not a King. What makes a King? Having subjects. So we want to coronate God the King of other subjects. You should be a subject, you're a subject, you should be a subject of the King, you're a subject of the King. Me? I'm a Ben Chorin. I'm free. Nobody rules over me. אבל העיקר הוא לשעבד את רמ"ח איבריו ושס"ה גידיו למלכותו יתברך שמו. But the real mission of Rosh Hashanah, Aseres Yemei Teshuva, Yom Kippur, and whenever you're listening to this, because one thing we've learned from these emails, Spotify chooses when you listen to what, not me or you. That's one thing we've learned from these emails. So I know someone's going to be listening to this on Chanukah and turn it off because they say, what does this have to do with me? This is true for the whole year round. That we dedicate ShaSa and RaMaCh, all of our organs and all of our limbs, we surrender as subjects of Hashem. Hashem, I take my initiative, I take pride in my achievements, but in the end of the day it's all You. Everything's You. So I don't panic and I don't get anxious and I don't get too worried and I don't take too much pride and I don't swell with arrogance and I'm not envious and I'm not jealous because Hashem it's all You. You're the King. Declaring Him the King, people mistakenly think that, you know, Emunah, I don't want to give up my autonomy. I don't want to give up my success, my pride. I don't want to give up. I don't want to declare Him the King. It's my life. They don't realize that declaring Him King is the best thing in the world you could do for your life. You want peace, you want serenity, you want happiness, you want joy? Declare Him the King. The moment we don't just declare Him the King, but the moment that we live as His subjects, is the day your life gets so much better. The day that you can get stuck in traffic and think you're going to miss such a critical appointment and yeah, it's the King's plan, it's no problem. He's in charge. Kede'amrinan BeGemara, the Gemara says, כדי שתמליכוני עליכם. ובספרי מערך לאמור מלכויות תחילה ואחר כך זכרונות ושופרות. Why on Rosh Hashanah the Amidah is made up of three major sections? First we coronate God King, Malchiyos. And then Zichronos, God remembers everything. Then Shofros, the Shofar. Why do we start with Malchus? המליכוהו עליכם תחילה ואחר כך בקשו מלפניו רחמים כדי שיזכור לכם. We start with first, we accept Him as King. We can't understand anything in the world, we can't position ourselves properly vis-a-vis Him in the world, if we don't start with He's the King. וזה שכופלין ומבקשים מלוך על כל העולם כולו בכבודך להמליך את השם יתברך גם ובעיקר על עצמו. Ooh. It's an entirely new understanding of this sentence. And from now on, whether you're singing it with Reb Shlomo or you're saying it in the davening or you're listening to the song anytime of the year, now you know. מלוך על כל העולם כולו בכבודך. Hashem, I'm ready to call You the King, not just of everyone else's world, and not just on all the galaxies and UFOs and ET and extraterrestrials. I'm ready to make You the King over my whole world. Not part of my world, because it doesn't work to be the King over part of the world. You're not a King. If the person is not entirely your subject, you're not a King. If they say, I'll be your subject regarding this, but I'm maintaining my independence. regarding that, so they're not a subject and you're not a king. To be the king and you a subject, you have to subject yourself, surrender yourself entirely. So מלוא כל העולם כולו means Hashem, I am ready to make you the king over every part of my life. Over everything. Over everything. You're responsible for the success I have and you have a reason, there is a purpose for the challenges I struggle. It's all from you. Everything that's happening. Everything that's happening. ובסגנון אחר יש לומר דאף שהאדם מאמין שהקדוש ברוך הוא שולט על כל בריה ונברא מכל מקום אין די בזה כי יש מי שידמה ויטעה שאף שהקדוש ברוך הוא מלוא כל העולם אין זה רק מלכות מרחוק. The other way of understanding this, why do we repeat it? Melo kol ha'olam, kulo. Why do we say it twice? The other way to understand it is because there are two levels of emuna and bitachon. Or put it differently, there's emuna and there's bitachon. There's I know there's a God conceptually, in theory, academically, I know there's a God. There's a first source, there's a creator, there's a God. I believe, I believe. Belief in God is at an all-time low in America, but even that poll that asked the average American do you believe in God, all they meant was do you think there's a higher power somewhere, something, something bigger than us. Yes. Does that impact your life? Does that translate into your life? Do you have a relationship, do you talk to him, do you surrender to him? I don't know what you're even talking about. You just asked me is there a God and yes, somewhere in a book somewhere there's some proof, some evidence, there's some higher power, there's some thing, yes. That's emuna. Emuna is like amen, we spoke about in the parsha shiur yesterday, from the parsha, amen, emuna means yes, I affirm, ditto, I believe, yes, I acknowledge, there is a first cause, a higher power, there's a God. But who says that God has anything to do with me? Did this building we're sitting in have an architect? The building tomorrow night that please God, please everyone come, if you're in favor and excited about our campus expansion. If you're not, feel free to find another activity. No, come and ask all of your legitimate questions that you have. We welcome all of the legitimate and constructive questions that people have. But we're expanding our campus, very, very excited about it. It's going to be a game-changer. More people will learn and live emuna, please God, on our, on our state-of-the-art amazing campus. So the people who will live in 50 and 100 because we're building it for future generations, not for today, so they will not have met the building committee and the building chair, they will not have met the donors maybe, they will not have met the architect and the builder, the contractor. Will they know that all those people existed? Yes, because if you're in a building, disorder came to order, materials took on the form of a building, there must have been an architect, there was a designer, there was a builder, right? So it's pretty foolish to look around this world. If I told you this book that you're reading, the ink on the page, nobody wrote this book, there is no Gerrer Rebbe, Rav Shaul Alter I made it up, it's a figment of my imagination, you know where this page came from? You won't believe it. I knocked over a bottle of ink and there was a blank page and puff. Why would, that's absurd. And why would we categorically, automatically reject that possibility, every one of us? There's not a human being alive who would even entertain the possibility that I knocked over a bottle of ink and that's how these words came on the page. Why? Because the likelihood of that is not small, it's impossible. It didn't happen. When order comes to disorder, when, when ink takes the form of words and sentences and ideas, there was someone behind it. So if that's true for ink on the page, it's not true for the human body? It's not true for the world we live in? There's a creator, there's a creator. But until now you don't know the Gerrer Rebbe, you just have his words on a page. Just because you can acknowledge that there's an author, that there's an architect, that there's a sculptor, that there's an artist, just because you acknowledge they exist doesn't mean that you know them, that they know you, that you have a relationship, that they're invested in your life. So that's not emuna, that's the next level which is bitachon. Bitachon is not just I believe he exists, but I also know that he knows everything happening in my life, I have a relationship, we talk to each other, we listen to each other, we care about each other's needs, there's a relationship, that's the next level. And that's what the Gerrer Rebbe says next. Maybe מלוא כל העולם כולו בכבודך means why is it repetitive, redundant? Because there one stage is you're melech, God, you're the king, I surrender to you, that you exist. Merachok, at a distance, from the heavens, you're operating the world from all the way up there. You're far away. You don't write, like the initial thought, the author of this email wrote in her initial thought, right? Hashem's busy right now, it's his busy season. He's got to open the books and write people in it and sign them and seal them. He's so distant. These were actually her language, I didn't even do that on purpose that the email fits exactly with what we're learning today. In all seriousness, she writes, I thought to myself Hashem is so distant. That's what we think. Merachok, that's look at the Gerrer Rebbe's language. We think, I'm willing to make the melech merachok ve'ein mashgiach u'manhig. אך כשמרגיש האדם שכל הקיום הוא מכוחו ואתה מחיה את כולם ממילא יאמין ויבין שמלכות שמים אינה כמלוכה מקיף וחיצונית בלבד אלא מלוכה פנימית ומשגיח ומנהיג כל פרט ופרט וזה מה שכפלנו לומר מלוך על כל העולם כולו כי צריך לדעת עד היכן מלכותו מגעת על ידי התבוננות זו ממילא ירגיש ויבין האדם שגם הוא עצמו בכלל. So the reason we say it twice, מלוך על כל העולם כולו, is don't just be the King from out there, from up there, from a distance, so busy you don't have time for me. You're the King, but you're the King I have a relationship with. You're the King who knows me and loves me and is involved and invested in me. You're the King who has an intimate connection to me. That's what we're declaring, that's what we're believing, that's what we're leaning into, and most of all that is what we are, that's what we are living. So that's our mission, that's our goal, that's our mandate. Are we on next week? Between Yom Kippur and Succos, next Wednesday morning? Show of hands. Anyone here? Anyone coming if we meet next week? Darn it. Okay, so we are meeting next, just joking, we are meeting next week, regular time. Until then, your homework is don't just declare him the King for others. Don't just declare him the King of the galaxies. Declare him our King of our world. Recognize where each our own world, that in our own world, מה חובת האדם בעולמו. That's part of, that's our thought. Aseres Yemei Teshuva, that's what we're supposed to be thinking about. Mindful of, contemplative about, is why am I here? God, what are we asking God? Please renew my contract for another year. We're getting the answer back Monday night. Neilah, the gates are going to close, the books are going to be signed, and we're going to get the answer. I don't know if we get the answer, the answer will be determined. And what's the argument? What's the question? Hashem, renew my contract. Renew my contract for another year. So he's going to ask why. Why should I renew your contract? What do you bring to my world? How do you bring your world to my world? What do you offer? What do you do? How do you transform? How do you repair? How do you redeem? How do you why? That's what we're supposed to be thinking about. All of our work in anticipation of Yom Kippur is formulating our argument. This is why. Renew my contract and provide me the resources I need because here's what you're going to see. You're not going to believe what, here's what's coming. It's going to be unbelievable. If you renew my contract and give me the resources to be able to do it, Hashem, wait till you see what comes next from me. You're not going to believe what I have in store. It can't be, I don't know, I never thought about it. You know what I'm going to do for you? I'm going to watch as many Netflix series as I can in the shortest amount of time possible. That's my mission for this year. It can't be. Who would renew such a contract? Enjoy life appropriately. But who's going to renew such a contract? If you say Hashem, I have an idea, there's a problem I want to solve, there's a campaign, there's a project, there's a committee, there are people who need me, I'm going to take on certain practices in my life, I'm going to transform, wait till you see what comes next, renew my contract. I promise you, Hashem, it'll be worth it. I'm going to give you the biggest return on your investment, invest in me again, invest in me another year, I'm going to give you your biggest ROI yet. Just invest in me another year. Most people don't think that way, they don't come to Yom Kippur that way. They just come to Yom Kippur, they haven't thought about anything. They're just grepsing and burping from stuffing their face before Kol Nidrei. That's the big prep before Yom Kippur. But the real preparation before Yom Kippur is to ask ourselves, what, okay, I got 25 hours to make this argument. I got 25 hours I'm appearing before the bench, before the judge. What's my argument? Renew my contract, give me the resources because here's what I'm going to do. Fill in the blank. How do you answer that question? What's he going to see? What's the fulfillment? What's that promise? That's your homework. Next week, we'll have our answer. It'll be between Yom Kippur and Succos. Im yirtzeh Hashem, our contracts will be renewed, we're going to sit in the Sukkah, friends and family, and we sing, and we eat, and we drink l'chaim, and we enjoy because we got our new contract for a new year and we're going to get paid well with great resources to be able to empower us to do what we and then Succos ends and it's time to get to work to make good on that promise and the pledge of who we are, why we're here and what we're going to do. So all of us should be signed and sealed, all of us should have our contract renewed, all of us should be given abundance of resources to fulfill the mission that is our world and to be able to say with a full heart מלוך על כל הארץ כולה בכבודך. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
