Transcript
Good morning boker tov, may it be a good morning, may it be a boker tov, a yom tov, a good day for Klal Yisrael. Yeshuas venachamas we should hear sweeping victory and wonderful salvation from Eretz Yisrael. Want to thank our generous Amuna series sponsors for the year, Avi and Bella Morgan, who have sponsored again in memory of Rabbi Doctor Brian Galbut, in memory of Bella’s mother, Doctor Ellen Schanzer. We’re very grateful to them. This morning’s shiur is also sponsored by Sherry Levant in commemoration of the first yahrtzeit of her beloved father, Sidney Baum. His neshama should have an aliyah. Thank you, Sherry. Thank you to the Levants for that generous sponsorship. Once again, we’re going to stay afterwards to complete all of Sefer Tehillim, Tehillim mechulak. If 30 people stay, it’ll take literally a few minutes to finish all of Sefer Tehillim in honor of our precious soldiers. The least we can do is spend a few more moments, and these Israeli car flags, they’re available in the lobby. We’re asking everyone to make a donation, but those who come to the Amuna shiur take one for free. So go outside in the lobby. Wow, you never got so excited in your life. Five dollars because I told you you saved five dollars. The five dollars, by the way, go to the soldiers. So if you want, you can still give it. But five dollars... We ordered also American flags. Our cars... You’ll notice if you see the pro-Hamas, pro-Palestinian rallies across this world, you never see an American flag. Ever. You know why? Because they hate the values of America. We at every pro-Israel rally, you see Israeli flags and American flags. So we also ordered American flags. Our cars, wherever you’re parking, whatever parking lot, whatever supermarket, whatever gym, whatever workplace, everyone should know, "Oh, that car, they’re proud patriotic Americans who love Israel." Those two go together and hopefully that’ll be the impact we have. So if you go to the Amuna shiur, you can take a Living with Amuna cup. I got to see the Gerrer Rosh Yeshiva the other night drink a tea from a Caffeinate with Kavana cup. I wanted to get a picture, but it didn’t feel right. But you get the free cups and you get the flag for your car. So we’re going to learn a piece this morning from the Gerrer Rosh Yeshiva who we merited to have here the other night, his father, who was the previous Gerrer Rebbe, the Pnei Menachem. We’re going to learn a maamar, a piece that he said when he was Rosh Yeshiva before he was the Rebbe, the Pnei Menachem, and he said it during the Persian Gulf War. Another time when those in Israel were in the face, in the target, threatened by rockets, living in fear. Those who remember, maybe some of you were in Israel during that Persian Gulf War. In retrospect, we look back and we realize there were no chemical weapons, chemical warheads. Those gas masks were all for nothing. Men shaved their beards, people couldn’t fit them on. I have a first cousin. My first cousin got married the night of the first Scud missile attack. Oy. The pictures from his wedding, they’re dancing, everybody with the gas mask on their arm. And that night was the first siren, was the first missile. And so he spent his wedding night with the whole wedding in a sealed, in a sealed room. In a sealed room. So there was a tremendous fear. They didn’t know. Today we know that there were no chemical weapons, Baruch Hashem. And there were no direct strikes. I think there was one casualty the whole Persian Gulf War, and it was from a heart attack, not from the missile strike, I think. I think, I could be wrong. So we’ll learn this piece in a moment, but first to catch up on some emails and then we’ll dive into Living with Amuna. So I don’t know if she’s here this morning, if she is, she’ll tell me, I won’t use her name unless... but she sent me an email yesterday. I’ve regularly attended the Amuna shiur since I moved to Boca just a few weeks ago. Tomorrow bezras Hashem I plan to bring my grandmother, a survivor of the Holocaust, who traveled to Boca to see her great-grandson receive his first Chumash. You hear? Oh, oh, Sholom Aleichem, welcome. When I think of Amuna, it's okay, I'm reading it? Go ahead. Okay. When I think of Amuna, I am continuously inspired by my grandmother who despite seasons of adversity and pain in her lifetime holds on to a deeply embedded, unshakable faith. She published her memoir, A Candle in the Heart. We have a copy for everyone who goes to the Amuna shiur. I don't know. Oy oy oy. Published her memoir, A Candle in the Heart, referencing the memories of her mother’s Shabbos candles which she carries in her heart until today. While we face these dark and difficult days, I lean on our belief in Hashem to carry us through much like my grandmother did as she watched her parents and siblings taken to Auschwitz. For someone who was orphaned at the age of five and survived, the message of faith over fear and hope in the face of hate is as clear today as it was then. This is the resolve of the Jewish people. What better way to prove our commitment to Jewish continuity than to celebrate the transmission of Torah throughout the generations? Very dusty in here. It is the key to our survival. It is the key to our survival and the moments that we value especially during these times. So thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for visiting. Mazel tov on the Chumash play, your party, and the first Chumash. Should be a source of tremendous nachas. And that’s the piece we’re going to learn, that’s the Pnei Menachem, what gets us through, what gives us the resilience, the resolve, if we didn’t think. that our story mattered. It's been a fun ride for the Jewish people. Let's just give it up. Let's go to Uganda, let's blend in in Paris and London and Boca. Let's hand it over and say fine. You want the country, you want no Jews? But what gives us the resolve, the tenacity, and if you've been to Israel and please God we'll all go back very soon, you see it in the eyes of everyone. The soldiers, those who are at home, the network of chesed, everybody, citizen, civilians, simple people. That focus, that fearlessness, that faith, that mission, that purpose, that, that's what got us through. That's what got us through in Inquisition and Crusades and exiles and expulsions. That's what got us through the Holocaust, and that's what gets us from a Holocaust to a chumash party. The chumash party, the vision, the image of the chumash party is what gets us through a Holocaust and what will get us through this. So I'd love to read A Candle in the Heart, happy to buy my copy, but I'd love to read A Candle in the Heart. And thank you for being here, and thank you for sharing, and a big welcome to Stephanie, we're happy you're in our community. Next email. Story about we've had several times where people randomly put on Spotify or I always thought people listen on Apple Podcasts or my website, but it turns out it's Spotify. Here's a story about choosing the right Living with Emuna episode. There was no new class last week, this goes back a few weeks. So I asked Siri to play the podcast and she picked number sixty-seven. I didn't know I have to, I have to pay Siri. It was about Purim, and here's what struck me. It's really hard now to have uplifted hopes for the future of the current matzav. The war's expected to be long and costly, chas veshalom, anti-Semitism is reaching terrifying levels, people are using terms like World War III and chevlei mashiach. In class number sixty-seven, this is class number I don't know what, so it's a lot past that, you mentioned the Maggid of Mezeritch on הקורא למפרע לא יצא. That was a class I guess around Purim time, and we were learning if you read the Megillah out of order, if you read the Megillah backwards, you're not yotze. That one who thinks the type of hidden miracles in the Megillah only happened in the past misses the point of Purim. If you read the Megillah retroactively, backwards, out of order, you didn't fulfill the mitzvah because don't see it as being something that's in the past. It really gave me a brighter view and reminded me even with the dire situation, potential for calamity, where we can't see how there could be a way out, Hashem really can have a solution beyond our greatest dreams. All we can do is our part of bitachon, tefillah, mitzvot. We've already forgotten our fears at the beginning of the Gulf War. Who would've imagined that with hundreds of Scuds fired, the fear of chemical weapons, in the end, one Israeli was killed? Although the situation now is far more serious, Hashem can totally turn it around in an instant. So this email writer invoked the Persian Gulf War, which is exactly what we are going to learn together today. So you should have in front of you, if you'd like to follow or you could simply listen, this is a maamar of the Pnei Menachem. Who was the Pnei Menachem? Pnei Menachem was the last Gerer Rebbe, the previous Gerer Rebbe in Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh. He was a Ger Rosh Yeshiva before he became, succeeded as the Gerer Rebbe. His son is now the Ger Rosh Yeshiva, who was Rav Shaul Alter who we had here the other night, whose Torah we quote often, who is extraordinary. So this was Milchemet Hamifratz, the Persian Gulf War, a maamar that the Pnei Menachem, that the Gerer Rebbe, then the Rosh Yeshiva said. And you have it here in front of you, we'll learn it together and we'll translate, we'll go through, and the strength that they drew at that time, the message that he said to not only a chasidus's chasidim, but he said to a country, to anyone who would listen. The message that he said then is true now and unfortunately is true often, too often. בני ישראל שרויי בפחד רואים לדאבוננו מקרים קשים. The Jewish people are sitting in fear, in anxiousness. We are attached to the news. I, I struggle to give shiurim because it means for these forty, forty-five minutes I can't check Times of Israel and Jerusalem Post and i24 and every other rotation of I'm sure you all have also, every app, every website, every everything. Maybe something, has someone new? Maybe there's something different. The family WhatsApp group, my nephews, we're obsessed, consumed, and to certain ways appropriately so. It reflects and it reveals how connected we feel, but also it's very debilitating. It's very paralyzing. It's causing us to not function. It's putting our life on hold. It's spiking all kinds of mental illness and, and struggles. In some ways it's very unhealthy. You have to be connected. Maybe you saw yesterday an image, the face was blurred out, but a soldier in his uniform who was appearing before the Beis Din in Israel whose giyurus was accelerated because he's serving in the IDF and he said if something goes wrong I want to die as a Jew. So they accelerated, they fast-forwarded his conversion. So I shared it with our Beis Din for conversion, to which the great we should ask candidates right now, the candidates who are in our system in the process, how often are you checking the news on Israel? Are you bothered by what's going on in Israel? You want a litmus test of how connected you are to the Jewish people? You want a litmus test about whether really amcha ami like the great convert, like the great convert that we think of, Rus? Your people are my people. Check, are you checking the news? Are you connected? Or have you moved on with your life? And I don't mean if you check too much it's unhealthy. I'm not asking are you consumed and unhealthy? Have you made yourself sick over it? That's not the question. We shouldn't be sick. But but if a person says, 'Yeah, I heard something about something going on in Israel. I heard there's something,' then then we need to check the candidacy. If you want to be part of this people, it means the good, the bad, and the ugly. It means that these times as well. So it's an amazing image if you saw it. I'll try to post it in our Emunah WhatsApp group. For extra bonus things like that, join the Emunah WhatsApp group for these kinds of great things. Yocheved should post regularly, she has on her status all kinds of amazing emunah things going on right now in Israel. But you see, you see this soldier who's wearing the olive uniform of the IDF who says, 'I'm fighting for Israel, if something were to go wrong I want to die as a Jew,' and the beis din said, 'Come, we gotta do this.' He also has to know halacha and be prepared to follow it. But but whatever timeline there is just got accelerated and it's... So this is a zman sharei bapachad, the Pnei Menachem said, the Gerrer Rebbe said. We're we're all consumed, we're tied to this news. In some ways a beautiful reflection of how connected we are to our people, in some ways too much. We have to pull back, we have to regulate ourselves. We can't be sick over it. רעום לדאבוננו מקרים קשים we see to our great pain and chagrin and challenge, difficult times והציבור עומד חדל אונים and we see and we feel helpless. We feel helpless. Our soldiers are fighting the fight, we can do things for them. Things are happening, we just put on the calendar for tomorrow night, Sergeant Benjamin Anthony is bringing us someone else whose family was killed and someone whose family is being held hostage. They're going to speak tomorrow night or at least soon. Motzaei Shabbos and Sunday night, 8 to 10 both Saturday night and Sunday night, we're having tzitzis tying. We committed to tie 2,000 pairs of tzitzis. There are soldiers in the field desperate to wear tzitzis. They need the tzitzis that can form with the army uniform. We took on to tie 2,000 pairs. So Motzaei Shabbos and Sunday night, letter writing and tzitzis tying. There are things that we can do, but we're not we're not taking a gun, we're not putting on a parachute. Right? The rally, there's a rally here Sunday corner of Palmetto and Palmetto. There's a rally in Washington next Tuesday. Many of us are going, we're still exploring other ways to bring more people. There are things we can do. But none of them include going into Gaza to take care of what we need to take care of. None of them include that. None of them include that. We want to be back in there. We want to be on that front line. We want to be defending our people. And in that way we feel chadal onim, we feel we feel helpless. On our family WhatsApp group this morning somebody posted a picture of a soldier in Gush Katif holding a sign, 'We're back in Gush Katif.' So I forwarded that picture to Yedidya Harush, our amazing hero Yedidya whose family were first evacuated from Yamit and told to go settle Gush Katif. They settled Gush Katif, they were told to evacuate Gush Katif and go settle Shlomit. They settled Shlomit and they lost four members on October 7th defending Shlomit. So Yedidya please God is going to come for our JNF weekend with when we have Brett Stephens in December. Hopefully it'll work out, he'll be allowed to come. He's hopefully going to come. So I sent Yedidya the picture because I thought of him, Gush Katif, he lived in Gush Katif. Rebbe, you bring tears to my eyes. That's that's his home that he was forced out of and now we're back. We want to be in Gaza, we want to be in Gush Katif. Told him they should put the flag: Future home of Boca Raton Synagogue East, Gush Katif. Yes! We should, we're on the water, we're we're a beach property. We come from Florida, we go from coast to coast, from coast to coast, the future home of BRS East, Gush Katif in Gaza. But we feel chadal onim, we feel that we're helpless. באוזלת יד מבלי יכולת התגוננות ראויה. How do we protect ourselves? How do we protect our people? How do we protect our fear? We never had this fear. We never worried. College campus, Jew had to walk with fear? This conversation, somebody asked me a question I never heard. 'I'm going with my spouse to New York. My wife says I have to wear a baseball cap, she's very afraid to walk around with my yarmulke. I want to wear my yarmulke. What should I do?' Shalom bayis. Did a Jew think in Tashpach Dalet, 2023, these were the questions that a rabbi would be asked? There's a conflict in my marriage, in my family, she insists I wear a baseball cap, I want to wear my yarmulke. חשוב אם כך במצב הזה להבהיר מה היא העמדה אותה צריכה לנקוט שלו מאמונת ישראל המאמינים על אמונת השם ואמונת הצדיקים. Said the Gerrer Rebbe, the Pnei Menachem, it's important in these moments. You know what the news's job is? The news's job is not everyone relax, the next segment we're all going to take deep breaths together, we're going to spend a few moments saying to each other everything's going to be okay. That's not the news. The news is panic, be afraid, it's terrible, it's going to be terrible, listen to the latest terrible thing. That's because the news is in the business of getting eyeballs to watch it so it can sell ads. But that's not our job. Our job, right, the Gerer Rebbe pivoted us, he repositioned us, he's recalibrating us, he's giving us an anchor. Whoa, one second, turn that off, take a few deep breaths. The word neshama and neshima as we've said a million times in the shiur, neshama our soul, we restore our soul, our neshama, when we take some deep neshima. Neshima means breath, neshama means soul, we originally received our soul through the breath of Hashem and we restore our soul through those breaths. So when you feel yourself tightening up and anxious and your and your blood pressure is going up and your breathing is shallow, just whatever you're doing, disconnect, turn it off, go on airplane mode and take a few deep breaths. Restore your neshama. So the Pnei Menachem is helping us do that. He's talking again to Jews in the Persian Gulf War and he said, you're all having to make sealed rooms, you're all using, do you remember those days? Right? The plastic and the Scotch tape and the duct tape and the tape and and you're making sealed rooms. We lived it differently. There was no social media, there was no WhatsApp, we didn't see it in real time. Your cousin who you spoke to at $400 a minute told you we're Scotch taping up the room, sealed room. We didn't see it, it was a very different world. It was a different world. But the country was panicked, millions of Jews were worried. Does it fit? Do I shave my beard? Is there one for my kid? Does the crib have a cover? You remember those days? And the Pnei Menachem said there's fear, fear, fear, anxiety levels are through the roof. Everyone take a deep breath. Let's remember who we are and where we come from. Let's remember what we've survived. Let's remember our mission and purpose. Let's remember who we serve. Let's remember where this all comes from. Let's remember how we get through things. He said it to them, but he's telling it to us now. It's the same message, it's the same mission, it's the same challenge. דובר כבר בעבר כי מובטחים אנו מפי צדיקי הדור ונשענים אנו המקוה ישראל מושיע בעת צרה. We're speaking now in the past, we relied on the security, we listened to our righteous leaders. They gave us a perspective, they gave us a vision and we lean on the hope of the Jewish people, the one who saves us be-eis tzara. כי כאן בארץ הקודש לא יקרה חלילה אסון לעם ישראל כרצונם של שונאינו ימח שמם. Said the Gerer Rebbe in the Persian Gulf War, here in our holy land there will not be an atrocity, there will not be a decimation, there will not be a destruction of Klal Yisrael like our enemies want yimach shemam ve-zichram. עומדים אנו איתן באמונה זו בלא שום פקפוק. We stand here with uncompromising, unyielding, perfect faith, with no chink in our armor, with no doubt in our mind, with no hesitation in our heart. We have a faith that as much as we grieve and we cry and we mourn whom we've lost, as much as we legitimately worry about what we face, we also stand with complete confidence that if we've made it 2000 years in exile, if we've made it nearly 3600 years or 5784 years, Hashem has a plan. אלא שהמצב הוא מצב מלחמה. But as much as we have complete confidence and faith, as much as we know we have a bright future, as much as we know he's gotten us to here and he'll get us through this moment, we're still in a war. כזו וכזו תאכל חרב אף אחד איננו סוכן ביטוח מפני סכנות יומיומיות במצב מלחמה. None of us is the insurance agent, none of us can guarantee anyone's safety during this time of war and this time of difficulty. So it's a challenge. Someone asked me last night, a lot of people are taking advantage of the Second Amendment rights and purchasing weapons. I want to know, can I carry it on Shabbos? Can I carry my gun on Shabbos? So are you part of the volunteer security team that you've gone through extensive training, that you're being relied on and you're positioned in the community that you're needed? No, I just have a gun and I'm worried. Can I carry it on Shabbos? It's muktza, a gun is muktza on Shabbos. Can't carry it on Shabbos. So do you have reason to believe, is there statistical evidence that we're in such danger, are events occurring, are you even confident you know what to do or how to or how to use it? If you're at the point that you can't walk to shul on Shabbos on Montoya Circle without a gun, then pack up and leave, which it's time to do anyway, but but pack up and then pack up and leave. We had a whole conversation, a whole debate. So in this time that all the images and ideas and all the enemies waving their flags and chanting their chants, and I'm grateful that Congress is voting hopefully to rebuke one who called for called for the death of all Jews in Congress, yeah, including by the way our Congressman who I want to acknowledge, Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat who's been unbelievably outspoken. Our community next week, those who are flying to the rally, we're first meeting with him in his office before we go to the rally, be a meeting with him. He voted to censure, very few Democrats crossed the line to vote to censure. I don't even want to say her name, Yimach Shemah, I don't want to say her name. And the enemies, so when elected members of Congress can chant a chant that means death to Jews, it's natural to live with fear. Nobody's guaranteed. So how do we get through this time? One of the Pnei Menachem. Ne'emar beMishlei: סוס מוכן ליום מלחמה, the horse is ready for the day of war, veLaShem hatshua. Meaning the army, the military is ready for war, the weapons are ready, the chariots are ready, but to Hashem is the salvation. יש אמנם להכין סוס מוכן. You got to have the weapons, you got to send over the tactical gear. You have to arm, you have to have military superiority. להישמר במידת האפשר ולהתארגן בכל האמצעים הניתנים לעשות. Aval hapasuk mosif: sus muchan. Get the chariot ready, get the army ready, get the tanks and the cavalry, get it all ready, get the artillery and the paratroopers and the intelligence, get it all ready, get it all ready, but the pasuk doesn't end there. It doesn't say סוס מוכן ליום מלחמה. A Jew, a Jewish army, a Jewish nation, arm yourselves and get ready, that's not where the pasuk ends. The pasuk continues: veLaShem hatshua. הישועה תבוא מהתנהגותנו על פי התורה. Get ready. Hashem wants us to take our initiative, make our effort, and celebrate our heroic soldiers. Daven for them, pray for them, think about them. There's another campaign in our community Stewart Wax is working on, which is to get a picture of each soldier and each child in every school daven for a specific soldier. Have them in mind, their name and their image, and daven for that soldier. That's our job. We have to do it. They have to do their job, they protect us, we protect them, we have to do our job, but veLaShem hatshua. In the end of the day, we realize that with all of that, that's our effort. Any more than the surgeon's going to do the surgery. You search out the best surgeon, you look at the diploma on their wall, did they actually finish medical school? You check out their rating online, did they do a pretty good job? You investigate, use all your connections, you do everything you can to have the best surgeon, but don't be a fool. In the end of the day, the surgeon is a shaliach, is an agent of Hashem. If the surgery's going to be successful, the greatest surgeon in the world, because Hashem guided their hand. And if it's not meant to be successful, they could have the greatest training, they can be the greatest surgeon, but it's not what's meant to be. שומה עלינו לכלכל צעדינו על פי התורה המסורה לנו מדור דור ולדעת כיצד להתמודד עם רגש הפחד. Throughout our history we have confronted and faced this anxiousness, this worry, this fear, this reality, that עשו שונא את יעקב. That anti-semites are just waiting for the opportunity, boy did they organize quickly, just waiting for that opportunity to rear their ugly head, because they're out there. התוקפים את הציבור בעוז ובתעצומות. There's a power, there's a might, there's a legitimate fear that we should and could have. הפחד היא תופעה טבעית ואין מה להתבייש בה. On my copy, I underlined that line. The Pnei Menachem, the great Gerrer Rebbe, was turning to Am Yisrael during the Persian Gulf War and saying, being afraid is natural and there's nothing to be ashamed of. It's important to hear that, because people mistakenly think I guess I don't have emuna, I guess I failed the emuna test, I guess I should drop out of the emuna shiur, because I'm a little nervous and if I really believed in Hashem I wouldn't be nervous. And here the great Pnei Menachem, the great Gerrer Rebbe is turning to Klal Yisrael and saying: הפחד היא תופעה טבעית, it's natural, ואין מה להתבייש בה. Don't be ashamed and don't be embarrassed by it. Amra Chasidus yedu'ah, there's a famous Chasidishe saying, מסבירה דברי גמליאל תלמידו. Rabban Gamliel taught his students: יהי מורא שמים עליכם כמורא בשר ודם. It's in Avos, it's in the Gemara Berachos. Rabban Gamliel taught his students, may your, may the fear of heaven be upon you like the fear of basar vadam, like the way you fear human beings. כפי שאדם מפחד על בשרו ודמו הוא. So the simple understanding is kemora basar vadam means your fear for your own life, your fear, you're confronting your own mortality, or maybe kemora basar vadam, you're afraid of Hamas, you're afraid of terrorists, you're afraid of enemies, you're afraid of thieves and burglars, you're afraid of of strong people, that fear, אלא שצריכים להפנות את הפחד לאפיקים הנכונים. The Chassidishe way of understanding this what Rabbi Gamliel was teaching his students is: you're afraid, that's good. Good, bottle that sense. Take that fear and now redirect it, channel it, let it manifest in the right way. ידועים דברי הצדיקים בספריהם שכל מידה המתעוררת באדם אהבה יראה וכיוצא בזה יש להטותה לצד עבודת השם ולנצלה כראוי. The Chassidishe way of understanding is that every human emotion that we have, the entire range and spectrum of human emotion that we feel, it's all wonderful and it's beautiful, take it and figure out how to express it in the healthiest way. We've studied this in the past together also. The Piaseczner Rebbe's Hakdama to Chovos HaTalmidim. Stubbornness, is stubborn good or bad? Yes. Stubbornness is bad when you refuse to apologize or hear the other perspective, stubbornness is bad when you don't want to give in. Stubbornness is great when you stubbornly cling to being a Jew and Jewish values and standing with Israel and Jewish pride, stubbornness is fantastic. It's a virtue. It's a virtue. Take every human quality, good or bad, it all depends how it's channeled. It all depends how it's used. Two exceptions to that rule we've studied a lot. What are the two exceptions to the rule? Anger has no place, don't ever channel anger. You can act angry, but don't ever be angry or feel angry. And arrogance. You have to be exceedingly humble and exceedingly calm, don't ever get arrogant, don't ever get angry. But every other quality, jealousy, is envy good or bad? Yes. If you're jealous of your neighbor's car or wife or children, you think I should have it, not them, then it's a very bad quality. If you're consumed by jealousy and envy, you can't be happy with what you have, you've robbed yourself of your whole life, of all serenity, peace of mind, of any quality of life. But if you say, you know, that neighbor of mine, they do such chesed. I want to do chesed. You know, they're so connected in this moment to the Jewish people, to Hashem. I want to get a little bit of what they have. I want a little more of what they're doing. And you're driven, you're motivated, you're inspired by them, then that's fantastic. So the Pnei Menachem says every emotion, love, fear, envy, stubbornness, it's all a question of how you channel it. And the same is true about worry. You're feeling a little anxiety, a little anxiousness, a little worry, a healthy a little dose of fear, take that fear and redirect it. Don't be afraid of Hamas, don't be afraid of the Palestinian down the block, don't be afraid of the lab result, don't be afraid of whatever is the source of your fear, rechannel it and redirect it to the One in whom if we have fear, it relieves and resolves every other fear. If you channel and direct that fear into Hashem, You run the world. This is Your world, You're in charge, You're the Creator, You're control, You're intimately involved in my life. I'm going to take my initiative, I'm going to do everything I can and everything I should, and at the end of it, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to let go and let God. And a person who can channel and redirect their fear and their worry to conversation with Hashem, one who can get to the place of I can let go and let God and put myself in surrender and be in Hashem's hands, if you can change all that fear. I mentioned earlier in the shiur earlier, Rabbi Soloveitchik taught us because he was approached by a psychiatrist in his community in Boston. He came to him and said this is quoted in Al HaTeshuva, in the book a collection of Rabbi Soloveitchik on repentance. And the psychiatrist said to Rabbi Soloveitchik, what are we doing? I spend my whole career trying to get people to overcome their fears. We spend all this money and all this time and all this therapy and all this medicine all to overcome fear. And then what do you do? You get together and you davven Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur, ובכן תן פחדך ה׳ אלקינו על כל מעשיך. Hashem make us afraid, give us fear. What are you davvening for fear? ובכן תן פחדך ואימתך על כל מעשיך. Make us tremble, make us afraid, make us fear. He says what's going on? We got a whole industry, mental health, psychology, psychiatry. Shouldn't we be davvening to not be afraid? So Rabbi Soloveitchik writes that he told him, you don't get it. You're right, your career, your area of expertise, it's critically important helping people overcome their fears. Fear of height, fear of planes, fear of public speaking, fear of public crowds, fear of Hamas, fear of a carjacking, fear of getting sick, or fear of an earthquake, a fear of a hurricane, a fear of a tsunami, you afraid yet? Give me some more fears. Come on, let's come up with some more fears. Fear of getting old, fear of children disappointing you, fear of small places. Any anything else? Any other fears we didn't cover yet? Heights, mice, lizards, spiders. Whatever fear. So the rav turned to the psychiatrist and said, 'All those fears, you're right. You're doing good work, that's your career, get rid of those fears.' He said, 'Here's the thing. There's one fear that if you can replace any of those fears with this fear, it gets rid of every other fear. If you lived that this is Hashem's world, he's in control, he's in charge, I do what I need to do and then I let go and I let God, now you have nothing to be afraid of about the plane or the height or the spider or the crowd or the public speaking or the lizard. There's one fear that if you can channel and direct all your fear into fear of him, you can relieve and let go of every other fear. Let go and let God. That's יהא מורא שמים עליכם כמורא בשר ודם. Says the Pnei Menachem, that's what Rabban Gamliel was teaching his students. Take whatever fear you have of mere mortals and redirect it, channel it into conversation with Hashem. And then you'll let go and let God. And then you say, 'Yes, my nephews, my cousins, in some cases my husband, my son, my grandson is putting on a gun and a uniform and going into Gaza and I can't sleep and I can't think and I can't eat and I can't do.' It's legitimate. אין מה להתבייש בה, there's nothing to be ashamed of. It's totally understandable. But take all that angst and all that worry, take all of that nausea and sleeplessness and channel it into a conversation with Hashem. Hashem, I know you're in charge. I know you're in control. I know you're in control and there's miracles happening. Now there are 31, I think the number is 31, Rachmana litzlan, there's 31 worlds that have been destroyed, 31 families that will forever not be the same. There's 31 bright souls that have been extinguished, 31 soldiers have lost their lives since the ground operation. It's unimaginable, the pain. 31 is way too many. But I read this morning that one of the retired generals who talked about the danger of going in said before we went the ground operation, said taking Gaza City alone, just surrounding Gaza City is going to cost 700 lives. That's what he had said. And אל תפתח פה לשטן and bli ayin hara, but the article was that there are miracles that are happening, miracles coupled with the bravery, courage, brilliance of the IDF and the American Navy SEALs who are helping, American intelligence that shouldn't be lost on us how America has stood with us, bringing in ships and nuclear submarines and the president's support and the combination. But there are miracles. So you could look at the number 31 and your heart is and should be broken and say 'Why?' and 'Where are you?' and 'How could you?' and those are all legitimate questions. But you could read the article that said it'll likely cost at least 700 lives just to surround Gaza City if we go into Gaza and say there are miracles. There are unbelievable miracles that are happening. So the fear and the unknown and the uncertainty, let go and let God. I'm going to channel every fear of everything and this picture I'm not going to paint about what could go wrong and there's endless amounts of things to worry and fear of what could go wrong in Israel and for soldiers. But instead of thinking about 'What if this?' and 'What if that?' and 'That other thing could happen' and 'This one's happened' and 'That could happen' and 'Imagine if that happened', take all those fears and say 'Hashem, I'm putting it in you. I'm placing it on you. I'm directing it towards you. I'm letting go and I'm letting God. I'm letting go and I'm letting God.' And we're going to continue this ma'amar in one second because then he talks about in a moment a pasuk in Tehillim where he says we're really facing two enemies in this war. We're facing Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran and Harvard and Yale and Columbia and Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar and AOC and the Starbucks union, but not the Starbucks and the thing and the thing, whatever. We're facing enemies. We're facing enemies. But there's another enemy that the Pnei Menachem brilliantly points out that we're facing. And you know what that other enemy that we're facing is? Our own fear. We're facing this, we're facing this enemy within ourselves that is paralyzing us and debilitating us and robbing us of our lives, putting our lives on hold, putting us on edge, dividing us, creating an impatience and infighting with our own family or people around us. So there's the enemy without and there's no shortage of them right now. Some we already knew before this happened. Before a month ago, on October 6th, we already knew about Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. But since October 8th, we've also come to learn about Harvard and Yale and Columbia and Cooper Union and Cornell and so much more. The enemies from without we know, but we need to be thinking about the enemy within, the enemy of our own doing, the enemy that we are. Okay, we'll continue just the next paragraph. הפסוק שהצגנו ככותרת למאמר. He says the *pasuk* that we've taken as the title for this *maimer* is a *pasuk* from *Tehillim*. David *Hamelech* in *Tehillim* *Samach Daled*, *Kapitel* 64, *Melamed rabos*, it teaches an enormous amount. This is the name of this *maimer*, the title of this of this essay: מפחד אויב תצור חיי. From fear of the enemy, give me a life, save my life, fashion my life. דוד המלך אינו מבקש על הצלה מאויב, said the *Pnei Menachem*, the *Gerrer Rebbe*. David *Hamelech* in this *pasuk*, in plenty of *pesukim*, David *Hamelech* is beseeching the Almighty, "Save me from the enemy, spare me from the enemy." But not in this *pasuk*. In this *pasuk* he's not saying "spare me and save me from the enemy." What is he saying? אלא על הצלה מפחד האויב. Spare me and save me from losing and forfeiting my life in fear of the enemy. There's two fronts we fight on. There's two enemies we have to overcome. There's the external physical enemy and the enemy of fear, the enemy of the unknown, the enemy of hopelessness, the enemy of despair, the enemy of despondency, the enemy of this darkness. There's that enemy. David *Hamelech* *choshesh yoser*, which one is the bigger enemy? Which is David *Hamelech* more worried about? David *Hamelech* had a father-in-law who wanted to kill him, a son who wanted to kill him, an entire *Plishti* people who wanted to kill him. David *Hamelech* had a difficult life. We think about, "Oh, he had a palace and wealth, he was David *Hamelech*." Forever we think about the warrior and the poet. He had lots of wives. He lived in fear. David *Hamelech* had a tough life. And which fear was he, which enemy was he more afraid of? Which was he more worried about? חושש דוד המלך יותר מן הפחד מאשר האויב גופו. He said, "The enemy, *Hashem's* going to make me overcome. I can defeat the enemy. Whatever *Hashem's* plan is for this enemy, that's going to be His plan. I'm worried about the enemy, but I'm not nearly as worried about the enemy as I am worried about my worry about the enemy. I don't want to lose my life in thinking about the enemy, in being debilitated, in sabotaging my own life because I'm focused on this enemy." לימוד נוסף שאנו לומדים מפסוק זה: *Titzor chayai*. So this is a *pasuk*, the *Pnei Menachem*, the *Gerrer Rebbe* says, "I chose it as the title of this essay because it's so instructive, it's so enlightening. We have to know that we face two enemies: Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran. But the enemy within ourselves about this fear, uncertainty, obsessing over news in a way that's not showing how connected I am to *Am Yisrael*, but that's robbing me of my sanity and my mental health. There's that enemy. *Titzor chayai*. הפחד יכול להוות סכנת חיים ממש. וכן גם אנו מתפללים בתפילת הושענא: *Hoshana nefesh mibehala*. We *daven* on *Succos*, on *Hoshana Rabba*, we walk around with the *aravos*, and we *daven* *Hoshana nefesh mibehala*. *Hashem*, save me from my soul from panic. Save me from a life in which I am panicked, in which I am panicked. We know people like that. That's basically the whole world actually like that. Before corona, anxiety levels were through the roof. Before corona. With corona, anxiety levels burst through the roof. Take the general spike of mental illness, due probably to social media and technology, couple it with corona, couple it with *Klal Yisrael* now in a war of its life, and who doesn't, who's not, who's not feeling this anxiousness, this anxiety? We *daven* for that. It's not new, that phenomenon. *Hoshana nefesh mibehala*. *Hashem*, if I don't have serenity and peace of mind and happiness, then I have nothing. You could have your physical health, you could have wealth, you could have family, but if you're so anxious and suffering from such panic and so debilitated, then what do you have? All of it doesn't add up to a life. So we *daven*. Not that person with mental illness in the corner, not that weirdo, that outlier, that exception. We all *daven* because we're all the weirdo. We're all the outlier, they're inliers, not outliers. It is legitimate. Every one of us, feel validated right now that you wake up at three and four in the morning and you look at the news, that you can't concentrate and you can't focus because you're filled with anxiousness, that you're worried and you're so overconnected. And that's what we're *davening*. Not now. It's not a new *tefillah* that was composed in 2023. because there's a war. We're going back to Hoshana Rabba for the last two thousand years. Hoshana nefesh mibehala, Hashem save me from from being so scattered and fragmented, from living with panic and fear, Hashem save me from the anxiety. מבקשים אנו על הנפש שתינצל מבהלה because it's understandable because we all suffer from it because it's relatable. So I want to end by reading to you something else. We'll pick we'll continue with this piece next week Im yirtzeh Hashem. We'll continue with this piece next week. Next Wednesday next Tuesday's the rally in Washington. Here's my tefilla. Yehi ratzon that the rally will still be on to celebrate the miraculous victory and that the war is over. Amen. Please God, we'll have a million people rally in Washington next week to say thank you the hostages are home, thank you the soldiers are home, thank you we want a sweeping victory and and we'll have double the amount of people who were going to come for the great victory parade. And then we'll meet next Wednesday morning for the next emuna shiur and we'll pick it up from there but I want to read one last thing because it comes from an unlikely place. This is a true story from the Yeshiva in Ramat Gan that hung on the bulletin board of the Yeshiva in Ramat Gan. Someone sent it to me I said I don't like to share things unless they're confirmed. He said he knows for it's confirmed. The Nefesh, so you say the Pnei Menachem, the Gerer Rebbe didn't put on a uniform. The Pnei Menachem didn't strap himself with a gun. The Pnei Menachem in the Persian Gulf War wasn't on the front line although if you remember the Persian Gulf War nobody was there we weren't fighting the war. There was an this is also the story of the Jewish people. There was a war somewhere else and they said you know how we'll get let's go kill all the Jews. Jews said what what do we have to do with it? Leave us out. We're not involved in this. But Saddam said if you come get me I'm going to kill your friends the Jews. And that is the story of our history. So the Persian Gulf War we weren't fighting, we weren't involved, in fact America said please stay out. But nevertheless millions of people had to build sealed rooms and get fitted for gas masks. By time we went to kollel for two years in Israel we were still getting gas masks. They were in boxes and collected dust Baruch Hashem but we had to wait on line, could tourists get, could tourists not get, it was a whole question if you remember. We got we got fitted for gas masks still by time that we went that we went. So this is what's so the Gerer Rebbe you'll say so it's easy for him, it's easy for him to talk about don't be panic don't be anxious don't be afraid, fight the panic from within, he's not going in. It's all Hashem, you have to know where it comes from, transfer every fear into surrendering to Hashem, let go let God, don't be afraid of people, you say it's easy for the Gerer Rebbe. So I want to read it to you from another source. אתמול התקשר אלי אחד החברה שלנו שלומד בישיבה מגבעתי וסיפר לי. Someone wrote in the bulletin board in the Yeshiva in Ramat Gan and said yesterday I got a phone call from one of the members of our Yeshiva who's serving in Giv'ati and he said the following. אתמול בלילה בזמן הערכות הייתי בחמ"ל ניגש אלי מפקד ואומר לי. He said last night we were fighting we were prepared to go in to fight and the mifkad officer came over to me and told me the following. יש לי משימה בשבילך. I have a job for you. I have a request of you. I have something I need you to do. You'll excuse me if I'm mispronouncing the modern Hebrew. Ata dati nachon? This officer turned to the soldier and said you're religious right? In kippa, you're wearing a kippa, you're religious right? Lech titpalel. Please right now go and pray. Amarti lo mah? I said excuse me? מדובר במפקד חילוני לגמרי שגר עם הבת זוג שלו בתל אביב הוא אומר לי. I said excuse me come again? What did you say? He said I'm talking about my officer my higher ranking mifkad, my mifaked, my mifaked who lives in Tel Aviv with his partner who אומר לי שמע מה שאני אומר. Listen to what I'm telling you. עכשיו זה רק תפילות. Right now this is a time of prayer. This non-religious maybe on October 6th anti-religious mifaked from Tel Aviv turned to his religious soldier and said I have a job I need you to do something for me for us. Please go pray right now because עכשיו זה רק תפילות. אנחנו כבר זמן ארוך עם כמה מרים תקולים באמצע שטח חשוף יכול להיות פה קטסטרופה ולא מצליחים לתקן אותם. We are in a very difficult circumstance we're right now in the field in the shetach in an impossible you could read this article I think it was on Times of Israel. I think it's again whoever the publishers of Times of Israel never heard of ayin hara. אל תפתח פה לשטן because there's an article about how the war is going better than expected. Bli ayin hara. And it was about how all the army experts American and Israeli said to do a ground operation in Gaza. and to be a week, two weeks into it, let's not even finish the sentence. What they need to do, the guerrilla warfare, there is no more densely capital populated capital of terrorism in the history of the world than in Gaza. American military are saying that what America faced in Iraq and Afghanistan is child's play compared to what Israel is trying to get done in Gaza City and in Gaza, and in Gaza. So said this mefaked: what could be or מה יכול להיות פה קטסטרופה, what could be is a catastrophe. Lech tispallel, או שיתקנו אותם או שחמאס לא יתקוף עכשיו. Anachnu bematzav kasheh. Something terrible could happen and we could be taken hostage, it could be a catastrophe. You need to go pray. לקח לי זמן לעכל. It took me time to digest what he said. ובכלל אני לא מצליח להתרכז על עכשיו, and I still can't make sense of it. Aval yatzati lehitbodedut. But I left. My mefaked told me, "now, get your gun, come run with us." Here's the job he said, "I need you to go and pray right now." I still don't understand it, but I went hitbodedut, I went to go privately pray. אמרתי להשם שזה בנים שלו. I told Hashem these are His children. ושירחם ושלא יחלל השם וכדברים כאלה. I said, "Hashem, I'm not coming asking You for a favor. These are Your children. They're Your children." You know, if somebody hypothetically were to send me a text and say, "Rabbi, I'm worried about your son, I saw him scootering in the parking lot," right? So he's, I wouldn't say, "Fine, I'll do you a favor, I'll tell him to be careful." I'd say, "It's a favor for me, it's my son. Thank you." So this soldier said, "In my hitbodedut, in my private prayer to Hashem, I said, 'Hashem, don't do me a favor. These are Your sons. These are Your sons. And every soldier that's lost is a chillul Hashem, is a chillul Hashem.'" לא כל כך התרכזתי אבל בסדר. אחרי רבע שעה חזרתי לחמ"ל, after a quarter of an hour I came back. תוך כדי מבקש השם ישמע את התפילה שלי איך שהיא. הגעתי לחמ"ל מגיע אלי מפקד. I went back to my unit, I rejoined this mission, and the mefaked came to me. Kulo be'orot, all with his face with light. אמר לי אתה לא מבין מה קרה פה. You don't understand what just happened. Dakah acharei shehalachta, a moment after you walked away to turn to Hashem, to pray. Hanamari rishon tukan, אחרי קצת זמן עוד אחד, עכשיו כולנו כולם תוקנו וממשיכים בלחימה. We basically we were successful in each advance, in each operation, with everything we needed to do, and it's going right. אתה לא נכנס לעזה אני צריך אותך פה לתפילות. You're not coming in the ground operation. You, religious member of our unit, your job is not to come in with us. Your job is to stay here. We need you right now to come pray. And that's what was hung on the bulletin board of the Yeshiva in Ramat Gan because one of the students of Ramat Gan in his unit called back to the Yeshiva to say, "Listen to this story." The Pnei Menachem, a Chassidishe Rebbe who doesn't put on a uniform, can say, "Turn to Hashem, this is a moment we have to direct all the fear to Hashem, channel all of it to Hashem and then let go and let God." But some mefaked, previously anti-religious mefaked from Tel Aviv, says to this soldier, "You have a kippah? You're religious? I have a job for you. You're not coming in. I need you to stay right here and I need you to pray to Hashem." These are the stories that should inspire and motivate. These are the stories that drive each and every one of us. Im yirtzeh Hashem it should be a good day for Klal Yisrael, Am Yisrael. And im yirtzeh Hashem we'll see you all Tuesday. We'll see you all tomorrow night for the program we're going to run. We'll see you all Motzei Shabbos and Sunday night to tie tzitzis and write letters. We'll see you Sunday at a rally, and we'll see you Tuesday at the victory parade, im yirtzeh Hashem. Please stay for Tehillim now.
