Transcript
Okay it should be a good morning, a good day. I don't know about you, I've struggled since October 7th to say good morning, or good Shabbos, or good Yom Tov, or good day as if any day is good. Today's a particularly difficult day if you saw the news and how many soldiers we lost yesterday. Unfortunately, ten soldiers were killed in a difficult operation, including two commanders. So the new greeting is not good day, but it should be a good day. We should have besoros tovos, should be a lichtige Chanukah, should be a Chanukah filled with light and with miracles in those days and at this time, it should be a gut chodesh, it should be a good new month, new beginnings and a fresh start. It should be everything we hope and we wish and we davven for, for our brothers and sisters in Israel and for us and for Jews around the world. I want to thank our Emunah series sponsors, Avi and Bella Morgan in Israel on the front lines of this war who have generously sponsored in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Chanzer. Today's shiur sponsored lekavod Rosh Chodesh in memory of Dr. Jacob M. Hiller, very grateful and with hakaras hatov to BRS for the chizuk and the shiurim provided over the many years and by Essie Barry in memory of her beloved father ברוך מרדכי בן יחזקאל צבי and her dear brother our beloved member Cantor Moshe Geffen whom we miss, their neshamos should have an aliyah. Thank you so much for your generosity. As always, we'll start with some emunah emails, letters that have come in over the last couple weeks. But I'll just share with you first the reason we didn't have shiur last week: Rabbi Moskowitz, Rabbi Brody, and I went back to Israel for three days last week and had another extraordinary trip, incredible experience. The truth is, if you want to hear more about it, tonight Behind the Bima the three of us will talk about our trip and lessons and takeaways and inspiration and special moments. Also tonight, Yocheved will talk about her trip and her special moments and the inspiration and takeaways from that as well. There is so much to share, we could have gone on, could go on for hours and hours and hours. But relevant to our shiur, I'll tell you two sort of diametrically opposed emunah moments. The whole trip is emunah moments. You land in Israel and emunah is just in the air, it's the oxygen that you breathe, it's what the country is living off of right now, it is the source of that resolve and tenacity and fortitude and fierceness and purpose and mission and singular focus. It's all emunah, it's all emunah. I spoke on Shabbos about our enemies wanting to extinguish our menorah. How the holiday of Chanukah celebrates two miracles that are not independent from one another but are directly intertwined and integrated. The miracle of the military victory and the miracle of rekindling the menorah are really one and the same because the drive of the Chashmonaim, the Maccabees, found the fortitude, the few against the many, the weak against the mighty. What drove them to put it all on the line? What drove them against all odds? What drove them to take all those enormous risks was the responsibility and mission to relight that menorah. And that's why when they reconquered and rededicated the Beis HaMikdash, that first year the menorah had been snatched, it had been stolen. What did they do? What did they light? They took seven rifles, seven Uzis, seven guns, שבעה שיפודים של ברזל and they crafted a new menorah and they lit the menorah made out of their guns, out of that weapon that first year as a reminder of what they were fighting for, what they took such losses about, what they put it all on the line, why they did it. So I mentioned on Shabbos, our enemies, be they surrounding Israel and be they the enemies in the administration offices of Ivy Leagues or in some of the offices of Congress or the streets of major cities, I said our enemies are trying to extinguish our menorah, they're trying to put out that light of what we live for, who we are, our lifestyles, our values. Little did I know I meant it figuratively, I meant it metaphorically. The enemies, the light of the menorah is Jewish wisdom, Jewish culture, Jewish knowledge, Jewish philosophy, Jewish ideology. That's what the light of the menorah is. We're trying to illuminate the world, there's such darkness and there's such moral decay and there's such... We're trying to illuminate and light up that world and they're trying to extinguish the menorah and I meant it figuratively until in the parliament in Poland yesterday some menovel oisvorf antisemite took a fire extinguisher and went over to a menorah and literally extinguished it. It's not only figurative, our enemies are figuratively and literally trying to extinguish our menorah, which is why in Poland... Poland, you know, that place of Jewish love and that center and capital of loving Jews and standing with Jewish people and so on. And I don't mean to say today that represents all the parliament or Polish government, many of which have reformed and are standing with Israel, but this... there are not words adequate to describe these people. But he took a fire extinguisher and it's not just metaphoric, they're literally trying to extinguish our menorah and our mission and our mandate, our responsibility is to... Burn it brighter, add more fuel, make the flame grow higher. To be a torch, we have to be on fire, the Jewish people, unafraid, unapologetic. We have to be on fire. It has to burn bright everywhere and that's what you sense in Israel. Again, you can hear I'm behind the bimah this week, more about Yocheved's trip and our trip, that's what you feel on army bases, that's what you feel in the shuk, that's what you feel in the stores that have no tourists in it. That's what you feel in Hebron, that's what you feel about the ordinary—there's no one ordinary in Israel, right? But that's what you feel about the ordinary citizen who are making their way through the day is they are driven by a sense of mission and purpose. They are unstoppable, they are fierce, they are ferocious. And though there are setbacks and there are people paying the highest price, the people are absolutely focused to keep that light of the menorah going. So just to share quickly two experiences, some emails and we'll get back into our source. So and these are diametrically opposed. You know here in the emuna shiur, we love to and are eager to share the emuna stories with the happy ending, it all worked out and it was amazing and there was a plan and it came to be and it was great. We mentioned yesterday in the parsha shiur from Rav Druck that Yosef, when Yosef is falsely accused and thrown in a prison, he thinks he's in a place of darkness. He's low in the pit, it's dark, it's damp, he's despondent, he's depressed and he thinks why? That's my reward for overcoming the relentless, the relentless seduction of the wife of Potiphar, this married woman who is propositioned this handsome young man over and over and over again and he resisted her proposition over and over and over again. Not only is he not rewarded, he's thrown in a pit and he thinks it's all over. Why God? Where are you and why? And yet lo and behold, if you'd be able to zoom out that lens he'd see that it was the greatest thing that ever happened to him because by being in the pit, he met the sar ha'ofim and sar hamashkim, interpreted their dreams, and later when Pharaoh has the bad dream, this sar hamashkim remembers Yosef and Yosef is summoned. And because of that he becomes the viceroy of Egypt, because of that he saves the economy of Egypt, and because of that he's reunited with his brothers and with his father, and because of that the Jewish people come to Egypt, and because of that and because of that and because of that, all of which never would have happened, but while we're in that moment we feel this is the end and why me and how could it be? And if we only understood where that is on the bigger timeline, if we could only fast-forward a few scenes, a few chapters and know where this leads, we would realize that the moment of darkness is in fact a moment of great light. It's a moment of great light. What feels like darkness is often the beginning of the dawn of a new light, of a new light. So that was the story of Yosef yesterday. But on our trip we went to Tel Hashomer Hospital. We met with many injured soldiers. You walk around the hallways there and it's just a different place. It's just filled with with love and loyalty and well-wishes and and unity. And each of the hospital rooms are hanging the flag of the unit that what that soldier serves, and he was injured. Every room, we didn't find any soldier who was alone. They're surrounded by family and other members of their unit and random people, random people constantly coming to the hospital to visit, to deliver, to sing, to—unbelievable what's going on. That energy, that special mi keamcha yisrael energy in Tel Hashomer Hospital was just extraordinary. As with the soldiers and their positivity and their hope and their optimism. You know, we met with a soldier who had a huge metal device coming out of his leg and his arm was in a sling and a patch was over his eye and just a mess, an absolute mess. And we approached him and he said—he made a joke—he said, yeah, I work for the electric company, I shouldn't have touched that electrical line. He's making a joke—I wouldn't make a joke. And then he was positive and happy and I'm gonna fight through and I'm doing well and I'm good and I've got my mother here and she's trying to—mamash—this is a big brute strong soldier, this mother's telling him you have to eat, eat more schnitzel, eat more schnitzel. You have to eat. She's trying to force feed him to eat like a Jewish mother. But that positivity. So we met with a soldier who two weeks, I think maybe to the day before we met with him, he was shot. He had a ceramic vest, but he was shot on the side where the vest doesn't cover and the bullet went through, punctured his lung and grazed his heart. What's it called? The peri-something around the heart? Pericardium? It grazed the pericardium around his heart. So this soldier—no kippah, no yarmulke—I don't think he's observant. Certainly the people he was with, the way they were dressed didn't didn't speak to having just walked out of a seminary. So—and yet what was he saying? Toda lakeil, Hashem, it's a miracle like Chanukah, it grazed my heart, emuna, it just exuded. You don't—there's no such thing as a secular Jew, secular soldier right now in Israel. So that was the miracle with the with the positive with the happy ending. And he's sitting outside in the courtyard of Tel Hashomer and he says I'm doing—it was two weeks after the the surgery to fix his lung and everything else the bullet passed through, but it kissed—I think the language he used, it kissed his heart. It kissed his heart, it grazed his heart, like a millimeter different, wow, it would have been another funeral, another statistic, another soldier we woke up to find. we lost, and he was emuna emuna emuna from Hashem. Wow. But there are a lot of stories without that ending, and and we met with Rav Erli, the father of of Ben, whose uncle and aunt used to live in our community. And he was a soldier went into Gaza who was fighting in a home. Two soldiers led the group in and they were ambushed by Hamas terrorists and he was shot and he was killed. And I spoke about it this past Shabbos, but that father when we asked, "Do you regret making aliyah? Do you regret putting your son on the trajectory to serve?" and he said, "Absolutely not. This is where we belong, this is what we're meant to do. We live as Jews and sometimes we learn the hard way that Judaism is worth dying for as well." But he spoke with such emuna and such faith in Hashem having a plan and and dying for a purpose and dying al kiddush Hashem. The emuna, the emuna is extraordinary. So if you think that you're going back to Israel or go to Israel if you have the ability, the capacity, not everyone does, it's not easy, the the expense of doing it and the connections where to stay and how to get around, I don't mean to take for granted or minimize, it's not easy. If you are going Yeshiva week, BRS is going to plan some activities for us to do as a group over Yeshiva week to give that meaning and that purpose and those barbecues on those bases, please God by then to celebrate the victory over our enemies and everyone being home. Hopefully, please God, if you have that ability you think you're going to give chizuk, you walk away with such chizuk. It's just extraordinary, just extraordinary the emuna that's palpable there, that's palpable there. Okay, a couple of a couple of emails and then we'll dive back into our source. We're learning a piece from Rav Druck that came out about the matzav in Eretz Hakodesh today. "Hope all is well. Wanted to share an emuna story with you from today. My son and I had a doctor appointment in Ashdod scheduled for this afternoon, a 30-minute drive away. I had already I had already pushed the appointment off several times the last two months due to the war and frequent missiles launched at Ashdod by Hamas." Right, we're like, "I can't believe I have to go to the doctor and the drive is so annoying and there's probably a lot of people in the waiting room." This person's like, "Ashdod? Doctor? Ashdod? Doctor? Missiles?" "Since the frequency of missiles has slowed over the last few weeks"—I got this email on December 5th—"and we needed the appointment, not to mention getting a new appointment would be at least a month wait, I decided we would go and be'ezras Hashem would be fine. Yiyeh beseder. This morning I got a text that the doctor cancelled the appointment unexpectedly. And at first I was upset and frustrated, but then I heard your emuna voice in my head saying hakol letova. This afternoon while working I noticed the red alerts flash on my screen with warnings that missiles were falling in Ashkelon and Ashdod. I looked at the time, 6:02 PM, and I realized if the appointment hadn't been cancelled we would have been driving through Ashdod while this siren went off. While baruch Hashem I didn't read of any injuries or damage from that barrage, hopefully there weren't any, the psychological trauma of hearing the siren, having to get out of your car in the middle of a main road trying to find shelter within 30 to 45 seconds or lying on the side of the road with your hands over your head can be damaging especially for children. Not every time do we see the reasons why Hashem does something, but like the pach shemen from Chanukah, the revealed miracles remind us that everything that happens on a daily basis is also from Hashem. Even when it doesn't have a happy ending or clear explanation why He caused something to happen, thank you for helping me continue to grow my emuna muscle. Chanukah sameach and besoros tovos." Last one and then we'll get into the learning. "Yeah, last one? Okay, one more quickly. I was mulling over the timely divrei Torah you shared recently from the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva as well as the previous Gerer Rebbe had said during the Persian Gulf War regarding fear. That's what we learned last if you recall the Pnei Menachem during the Persian Gulf War validating the people who are afraid and filled with anxiousness but encouraging and inviting us to redirect and channel that emotional surge and put it into faith in Hashem. Make our effort, take our hishtadlus, take our initiative and and all of our human effort, but then let go and let God and realize that we do what's in our hands, we do on our part, and after that He's in charge, He has a plan. לב מלכים ביד השם, the heart of kings is in the hands of God." A few weeks ago a protest in Teaneck turned frightening and police were called. A few days later Cedar Lane young people were spotted tearing down Bring Them Home posters. Suddenly fear is everywhere. "Last Thursday my husband and I flew to spend a few days with our kids and grandchildren in another part of the country. Due to available flights we were only able to fly in and out of a neighboring city. I'm usually pretty excited to travel, but these are not normal times. When we got to JFK I suddenly became fearful. My husband wears a kippah the size of Montana and pretty much refuses to cover it up with a baseball cap. He said his kippah is a beacon but now I feel like it's a moving target. I didn't want him to attract the wrong kind of attention in the airport so I asked him to please put on a baseball cap. He agreed to wear it until we got on the plane, after all this is what you do after 35 years of marriage, but my win was short-lived. The plane left at 6:00 PM once aloft he turned to me and said 'I have to daven' and started getting up to put on his tefillin. 6:00 AM, I'm sorry... started to get up to put on his tefillin. Oh no you don't." the city just a few weeks ago. My fear was going through the roof. My husband sighed, okay, but the minute we get off the plane I have to daven with tefillin. I exited off the plane before my husband and lo and behold there are two young Arab guys sitting right by the exit outside the gate. I'm now beyond myself. Will anyone come to my husband's aid should they decide to start up while he's putting tefillin on? I'm waiting for him to deplane just feeling fearful, exposed, vulnerable and then the Gere Rebbe's words came to me. To paraphrase: Fear is normal, just channel it to Hashem. So I did. Nothing fancy. I said, Hashem, please watch over us while we walk through this airport. Send someone who might help us in case we need it. Who do you think came? Not a minute later, a tsunami of Lubavitchers materialized. Materialized in an airport filled mostly with non-Jews. My mouth fell open in surprise. They just kept coming, streaming past us. One of them looked with a big exuberant grin and said, Shalom Aleichem, have a great Shabbos. I actually started laughing. From oy to joy in a blink. We will be okay. But Hashem wasn't done holding my hand. We got to the rental car line and a long line of Midwesterners queued up behind us. People were looking curiously at my husband's head covering but so far so good. The woman behind the Avis counter looked up and in her Midwestern flat drawl said, I just want to tell you how sorry we are for what is happening to your people and your country. We were speechless. She proceeded to want to talk a lot about how Israel is the holy land and we are the chosen people. I looked over my shoulder and the line was really long and we were holding everyone else up. And then a large brusque-looking guy wearing a John Deere cap, flannel shirt, and work boots got out of line and started to make a beeline for my husband. Uh oh, here it comes. I'm thinking he's about to start yelling something anti-Semitic or worse. My husband turns around and finds himself face to face with this giant and my worst fear. And then the Gere Rebbe's voice: Channel the fear, call Hashem. Now he's on speed dial. He looked at my husband and slowly extended his hand. He's speaking seriously slowly, quietly he says, I just want you to know that we are with you. We are with you and your people. They shake hands, he quietly goes back to his place in line. Husband and I froze in place. I look at him, he looks at me. Our eyes filled up. She knows all my lines. You know, suddenly it got dusty on the line. We try but no words come out. We say thank you Hashem, thank you for the Living with Emunah shiur, and thank you for the Gere Rebbe. So here's the deal. My husband keeps on his kippah sans cap, a beacon to the world, and I keep on my emunah lenses. May the hostages return home by the time you read this, amen. Then, because I wasn't here last week so I couldn't read the email last week, she emailed me again this week. P.S. While I continue to think about and put into practice the Gere Rebbe's words, I watched your interview with Moshe Gersht. If you didn't watch that, we interviewed him a couple of weeks ago. Decided on the spot to buy his book, received it the next day and coincidentally or not, opened to the page where he defines fear as fear: False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear is False Evidence Appearing Real. Hope the Rebbe can take a minute to connect the dots for us, the two ideas. Okay, enough emails. They're all fantastic. That's why I come to shiur. I come for the emails. I come for the emails and the tissues that have to be close by. Okay, so we were learning this piece by Rav Druck. Why do I read these emails? I know I tell you this all the time. Why do I read these emails? So I don't have to prepare a whole shiur, I only have to prepare half a shiur. Why do I read these emails? Yes. But why do I read these emails? They give me huge chizuk. Without the emails, this is some theoretical group who meet to learn and study some esoteric topic and analyze the evidence of a God's existence and consider whether in fact he's involved in our lives. And then you read these emails and they're real people in real situations employing the real lessons and executing them and then reporting how much better it makes their lives. Not afraid, channel it into God, let go and let God, and and the feeling that he answers. Can you imagine? They flew into Milwaukee. Nothing wrong, amazing city, great. Try to go to Chicago but they had to fly to Milwaukee. And they did not feel that that was going to be a hub of Jewish life and learning and activity, that airport, that they would not... it's different than flying JetBlue, you know, the route from Fort Lauderdale to JFK. So it's a little bit of a different route and she's so afraid and sees these people she considers might be hostile. No stereotypes, generalizations, we apologize, blah blah blah. But she's afraid. And then all of a sudden a swarm of Lubavitchers. I thought they were going to say did you put on tefillin today? But they saw him... they saw him putting on tefillin. It's just let... it's just the ride is so much more pleasant when you can put down your bags. They get really heavy when you carry them. And when you... It'll just be what it will be after that. Now you're in charge after that. There's just no reason it won't help, it won't be productive. It just it is, you're in charge, you're in control, whatever's meant to be, with whatever's going on in my life. שיחת מורי וראש הישיבה שליט"א בעקבות המצב בארץ הקודש, this was a *sicha* that *Rav Druck*, רב ישראל מאיר דרוק שליט"א זאל זיין געזונט און שטארק, we love *Rav Druck*, that he gave on the second day of *Rosh Chodesh Kislev*, so a month ago he gave this *sicha*. We began it last week, and we talked about the story in the *Gemara* in *Ta'anis*. *Moshe Rabbeinu* and the Jewish people first fought *Amalek*. We are living through a modern-day descendant of *Amalek*. *Hamas* is *Amalek*. We have to wipe them out, we have to eliminate them. So when we first fought that war with *Amalek*, Moshe raised his hands. When he raised his hands we won, when he lowered his hands we lost. I told you the London School of Jewish Music, their song, והיה כאשר ירים משה ידו וגבר ישראל, *Mishnah Rosh Hashanah*, do the hands of Moshe make a war? I was going to post it, I forgot to. Do the hands of Moshe make us win or lose? No, when he pointed up we remembered You're in charge, You're in control, it's all about You, which we were at several army bases. You have soldiers with no *kippahs*, no *yarmulkes*, singing and dancing to אנחנו מאמינים בני מאמינים, כל העולם כולו גשר צר מאוד. And we have nothing to fear because we have You. And that's what they're all singing and dancing and hoppin' and boppin' and jumping and saying, "Can I, do you have *tzitzis*? I need to put on *tzitzis*. *tzitzis* is part of my armor, part of my uniform, we need *tzitzis*." So this war is what happened in all of our wars, is we put our hands up and we look and we remember. Yes, it's about our artillery and it's about our tanks and it's about our paratroopers and it's about our commandos and it's about all of that. It's about all of that and it's necessary. It's about our drones and it's about our scopes and it's about our our ceramic vests. But but it's not about all of that independent or apart from You, ultimately it's about You. It's about that *tefillah*, it's about that *tefillah*. And the *berachah* therefore if a person sees the stone where Moshe got very tired, exhausted, he sat on a rock, on a stone. And the *Gemara* says a person who sees that stone makes a *berachah* that *Hashem* made a miracle in this place. הרואה אבן שישב עליה משה בזמן שנלחם יהושע בעמלק makes a *berachah* שעשה נס לאבותינו במקום הזה. Blessed are You *Hashem* who made a miracle for God in this place, in this place. We visited in Tel Hashomer, Michael, one of the residents of Shlomit, who went out and fought voluntarily to protect the neighboring Pri Gan, the neighboring community, and was shot and is still in the hospital two months later and is recovering. This *Shabbos* at BRS, Yedidya Harush, the founder and leader of that community Shlomit will be here this *Shabbos*. So will Brett Stevens, but but Yedidya Harush as well as Adina whose husband was not so fortunate, he went out to fight and was killed, leaving her a widow and six orphans. The whole family will be here this *Shabbos* and she'll be speaking about that experience October 7th and that loss and how one rebuilds. But Oz, another resident of Shlomit, went back to that spot where he was shot and made this *berachah*, שעשה נס במקום הזה. So the *Maharsha* wonders, Rav Shmuel Eidels wonders: Why? That's where you make the *berachah*, on the rock that Moshe sat? Make the *berachah* *bashetach*, in the field where the battle took place. In Gaza, where Moshe fought *Amalek*, go find go make the *berachah* there on that battlefield. Why are you making the *berachah* on the place where the *Tehillim* was said? After *shiur* today as always everyone's invited, asked to stay, we'll divide *Tehillim*. In just a few minutes we'll finish all of *Sefer Tehillim*. So when Israel wins, you make the *berachah* here because that's where the *Tehillim* were said? Or you make the *berachah* in Gaza and the border of Lebanon and in Jenin and in Ramallah and they make the *berachah* where these fierce battles were fought and won? *U'be'er haMaharsha*, we're on the fourth paragraph. The *Maharsha* explains שאכן הנס היה בשדה המערכה אך שדה המערכה האמיתי הוא ראש הגבעה. Of course the *berachah* acknowledging blessing, expressing gratitude to *Hashem* for the miracle should happen where the miracle occurred. And where did the miracle occur? What was the engine, the driver that made that miracle occur? ראש הגבעה המקום בו ישב משה רבינו והתפלל לישועת העם שם היה הנס הניצחון בקרב עם עמלק. ולכן בראש הגבעה על האבן שם מברכים ברוך שעשה נס לאבותינו במקום הזה. What really brings about a miracle is of course the human initiative and effort, our heroes. *Daven*, *daven*, *daven*. Hug, hug, hug. Support, support, support. Barbecue, barbecue, barbecue. Give cigar after cigar after cigar. Everyone makes fun of me, they laugh at me, these videos, you should see how excited they get. Soldiers love a good cigar. A victory cigar, please God. One soldier put it in his pocket and said, "I'll smoke it when we get Sinwar. I'm not smoking it till we get him. That's when I'll smoke it." But support, give, they are our heroes. I hope someone, I don't know who's in charge, I hope someone for this coming *Sukkos*, which will include *Simchas Torah*, will just make posters of soldiers. Our *Sukkos* should... We already have my nephews, we already have a poster ready to go for our sukkah of them, I'll never look at them the same way again. I always loved them, but they're heroes, they're heroes. We'll never know the battles, the risks, the escapes, the heroism, the courage, the trauma, the absolute trauma that they'll live with. We'll never understand, we'll never understand. One of my nephews was in Gaza who just got out for a little reprieve and a little break, didn't take his boots off for a month. You know what it means to sleep in your vest and your boots and your clothing, not shower, not change, and not be able to let down your guard for a month? Three weeks, a month? Do we know what that means? We don't know. We complain, what seat did you get? An aisle? Did you get a window? Did it lie flat? Did you recline? Did the person in front of you? On our way for our heroic trip where we'll make barbecues, we're concerned about that little trip in our seat, sleeping on the floor, in the woods, in the rain, in a building in Gaza that you don't know could be booby-trapped. Did you see the Yahalom video that came out yesterday? This soldier who a grenade was thrown at him, he was injured and then he got up and went and killed the terrorist point-blank after being injured? You can watch it, he had a GoPro on and you can watch the whole thing and it's not a video game. I don't have the heroism to watch, I was panicked just watching the video, let alone to be in that moment, to be exchanging fire, then a grenade comes in and you're injured and then nevertheless with your injury you charge out and point-blank take out and you see him shoot and kill a terrorist, two feet, two feet in front of him. These are our soldiers, they deserve it all and yet the bracha is said where the Tehillim are recited, where they davened with Moshe. מוטל עלינו חובה ואם לא נקיים חובה זו הרי נחשב חלילה כפורשים מן הציבור. Says Rav Druck, you have to know the power of your tefillah is also a weapon, is also a weapon. So we are making sure they have vests and helmets, we're making sure that America, God bless America, has replenished aside from the thirteen, fourteen billion dollars of aid that we're trying to get, the President is trying to sign and get over there. Aside from that, he went around and said one hundred and fifty million dollars more of this and we've got to replenish the tank shells for the tanks and God bless, God bless America, God bless America, keep calling and thanking those who are making that happen. But you know what other weapon we have? Right here, this is a weapon, this is a weapon. And don't think it's not, oh that's cute, that's sweet, that makes us feel better, it makes us feel we could do something, that's so spiritual, that's so... no, it's a... we have to know it in our kishkas, every fiber of our being, we have to know it matters and it makes a difference, every perek, every chapter that we say, every moment we close our eyes and we mean it, every conversation that we have with Him, every time that we bring Him and draw Him down His light and His sparks and His impact and His influence and His hashgacha, His providence, it matters, it makes a difference and that's where the bracha is said. החובה מוטלת עלינו לצער עצמנו עם הציבור. Says Rav Druck, we have an obligation, we have a responsibility, we are all called up, we are all in this war, we are all reservists. It doesn't matter your age, but you understand how lucky you are? It's like you meet Lubavitchers, this one was assigned like where are you supposed to go live the rest of your life, move one-way ticket, raise your children, what assignment did you get? This one got, you know, Boca Raton, this one got the Bahamas, this one got... and this one got India, this one got... I don't even want to... I don't want to insult people but they're in the middle of Yehupetzville with no food and no living... and you wonder like who got what assignment, right? So there's a war going on and every member of the Jewish people, this is a milchemet mitzvah, this is a religious war, a mitzvah war, which means we're all conscripted, we're all obligated to serve, we're all obligated to do our part. Some have to not take their boots off for a month, go in Gaza and have grenades thrown at them, others get to sleep comfortably in their bed in Boca and all their unit is asked to do is stay for a few minutes afterwards and say some Tehillim. Count your brachas that that's the unit you're in, or you put yourself in, or you ended up in, leave that for another time. But in this war and at this moment, that's our unit, that's what's asked. Strike a check, run your credit card, do without a luxury and give more money to make a difference. Got a call this morning, a family who actually was in Florida on October 7th, who lives in Kibbutz Be'eri and their house was burnt down, destroyed, doesn't exist and now they've been staying in some place in Boca but that place they can't stay there anymore, they need a new place, can we help find a place for them? We toured Be'eri three hours. I'll post the video on our WhatsApp group of a three-minute summary of that. I can't put into words or describe what we saw, what we smelled, what we heard from people who were there, who are still missing and held hostage. Help, make sure they find another place to live now, send what's needed, say more Tehillim, daven. We have to, in the words of the Rosh Yeshiva, in the words of Rav Druck, our job is לצער עצמו עם הציבור, to be a little uncomfortable with the tzibur, כפי שמשה רבנו ישב על האבן ולא על הכר כאשר ישראל במלחמה, when Moshe sat, he was exhausted from davening in that war with Amalek, where did he sit? He sat on a rock. Why? Not extra legroom, not extra padding, not greater reclining, not lie flat. Why on a rock? Because he wanted to feel the tzar. He wanted to feel the pain, the discomfort. הפסוק בישעיהו כי מי נח זאת לי, it says in the Zohar Hakadosh it's called Mei Mabul, Mei Noach, it wasn't called Mei Mabul, שהיה לו לנוח להתפלל על בני דורו ולא התפלל. Noach, poor Noach. Poor Noach. Poor Noach. He saved humanity and poor Noach still has haters. Poor Noach still can't catch a break. Still poor Noach despite unbelievable effort to build an ark and feed the animals in it and run the ark and repopulate the world. But he didn't daven for his generation. He didn't daven. He didn't lobby and advocate and storm the heavens and say God, I protest, I object, don't do it. And because of that, how are they known? The Navi, the prophet Yeshaya, Isaiah calls them not Mei Hamabul, not the waters of the flood, what does he call them? Mei Noach. Oh, these are the waters that Noach brought. Noach brought? Poor guy. He went to Home Depot, Lowe's, bought them out, got all the material, fought with his HOA while he built the ark on his property, filled it with all the animals, fed them, got beat up by the lion because he was late with one meal, was so overwhelmed the PTSD was so bad he got off that ark and all he wanted to do was get drunk. Poor guy. Gave it all. And we know them as the flood of Noach. Why? Because with everything he did, he forgot and left off the most important, the most effective thing, the thing that could have changed it all, which was: he could have davened. He could have and should have davened. He could have and should have turned to God and said I protest, I object, get involved, change it up, do it differently, please, please. And he didn't. So they're Mei Noach, שהיה לו לנוח להתפלל על בני דורו. מוטל עלינו להתפלל ולזעוק ולהריע, says Rav Druck, therefore, learning that lesson, it's incumbent upon all of us. I'm going to say something, it's going to sound very, very, very harsh. It is very harsh. Will we want to one day get upstairs and God will show a fallen soldier and say that's because of you? You could have davened, you should have davened, you could have grown, you could have become bigger and better, you could have been a more proud and practicing Jew, you could have used this moment to transform, you could have been metzareir im hatzibur, you could have linked and connected more with the Jewish people and you didn't. It was about you, your comfort, your need, your happiness, your convenience. You should know they said please stay and say Tehillim and you walked out. They said come to the shiur and you didn't go. They said everyone try to grow a little bit, don't talk during davening but you kept schmoozing. They said choose something to work on and improve, make peace with someone in your life, in your home and you didn't. And you should know that missed and lost opportunity correlates, you can connect the dots, had you done that thing, it could have changed this result and outcome. It doesn't mean Tefillah automatically or always works. It's a difficult complicated topic. There are many people that we davened unbelievably hard for from the bottom of our hearts and we didn't get the answer that we wanted. And I'm not oversimplifying this, I'm acknowledging that and recognizing that and I would say it's for another time, I don't even know if in another time we can make sense of it. That's not to suggest that if only we daven then we always get the outcome we want. And if there's an outcome we didn't want, ten soldiers died yesterday because we didn't daven hard, I'm not saying that, Rav Druck is not saying that. Chas v'shalom, we don't understand the ways of Hashem and it's not a simple formula and it's not so linear, you can't connect the dots that if you daven you get the outcome you want. The world doesn't work that way, if it did we'd be God, we wouldn't need Him. All you need to do is daven and you get your outcome and it'd be about us, not Him. That's not the way of the world, that's not the way it works. But what he is saying is that among the initiative we take, among the things that we have to do, person's sick, you have to go to the doctor and you have to daven. You take medicine and you have to daven. Person's in a war, you have to support the military, you have to have military strategy, you have to go fight and you have to daven. Person's looking to make a parnassah, you have to work hard and you have to daven. Person's desperate to have children, you have to go to the fertility doctor and specialist, you have to do everything that you can to use all the technology that we're blessed to have and you have to daven. You can't leave out the davening. You can't leave out the davening. מוטל עלינו להתפלל ולזעוק. אל יראה בנחמת ציבור and that's what Chazal our rabbis said. If you didn't daven, if you weren't part of the war, you don't get to see the comfort that comes afterwards. You're not part of it. ולכן הפסוק אם יכופר העוון הזה לכם עד תמותון. Listen to the words Chazal said. If you are poresh min hatzibbur, if you pull yourself away from the people, you're not feeling the pain, you're not crying the tears, you're not incessantly, obsessively checking the news, your day is not dictated by what's happening in Israel, how you feel, you're not foregoing certain pleasures of life, suspending them, redirecting them, figuring out how to experience Chanukah differently in this year תשפ"ד, if you're not doing that, then you don't see benechama. You're not part of the comfort, the strength, the solution, you're also not part of afterwards, the miracles. ובאמת אין זה רק להיות שותף עם הציבור, says Rav Druck, the truth is this is not just about being a partner and a member with the tzibbur, שלא יאמר אדם שלום עלי נפשי כיוון שכולנו נמצאים בסכנה. He says this is not just I'm good, I'm comfortable, I'm safe, I'm secure, I'm happy, and it's hard to connect with or feel bad they're 6,000 miles away. The reality and the truth Rav Druck was speaking to everyone in Israel. He was speaking to the people what you call in the center of the country. By the way there is no center of the country. When we were there, we were in Hostages Square in Tel Aviv, and an Iron Dome over our head exploded a missile, the siren never went off, and the people around us didn't even look up, said yeah that happens sometimes. Sometimes the siren doesn't go off, but we heard the boom and we saw the smoke and it was over our head. Where where is the part of the country that's safe? There is no center of the country, right? For many years since 2005 the withdrawal so it was yeah the Gaza envelope. That's what had the sirens and the missiles. The north, that had its troubles, but if Tel Aviv, oh the Jews of Tel Aviv, they're fine. You saw the political opinions of Israel change when Tel Aviv became in range of the missiles. All of a sudden everything changed with attitudes. So Rav Druck is speaking to the people of Israel that there is no safe, secure, no one who is out of trouble. Wherever you are in Israel, you know where your safe is, you know where you are at any moment, you're listening for that siren, and you're worried about an infiltration wherever you are. But I will add on to Rav Druck, that wherever a Jew is in the world today, in whatever airport, walking down whatever street, you saw this past weekend in LA, a couple were smacked and beaten with belts on the street, and in Beverly Hills, anti-semites seemingly with impunity are walking around doing saying whatever they want, and what do you expect? When the presidents of the most prestigious intellectual sophisticated advanced universities in the world are unable to say that genocide of Jews crosses the line? So that's a green light for anti-semites. Go! You're good to go. The most sophisticated advanced minds have your back. You're good to go. Kulanu nimtzayim besakana says Rav Druck. All of us. And I don't mean to make anyone panic, but wherever you are right now, don't take anything for granted. ואין זה שחלק ממנו נמצאים בחזית וחלק אינם נמצאים בחזית אלא כל יושבי ארץ הקודש וייתכן שאף כל יהדות העולם נמצאים כעת בסכנה. We are at a crossroads. We are not a footnote of history, we are in a chapter of history. We are what Rav Rimon says, we are living the next chapter of Tanach, right? The book of the Jewish people is and will tell this story of right now. What will happen next, we don't know. What is the fate of the Jewish people in America and London and Paris and South Africa? What is the fate of the Jewish people around the world? And what will be in Israel? אם כן כולנו חלק מן המערכה ואין אדם יכול לומר שלום עלי נפשי. Nobody could say, I'm good, I'm safe, I'm secure, and you know, your your situation is is getting on me, right? It's contaminating me, it's contagious, it's spreading. Leave me alone, I don't want to catch what you have, the Jewish people. There's nowhere where you don't have it. Aleinu lehitchazek betefila. וידוע הקושיא על התפילה שעשה נח מפני מי המבול שלא התפלל על דורו שאברהם אבינו ביקש על סדום ועמורה שלא יחרבו למרות שהיו רשעים גמורים. Everyone knows the defense of Noach, Noach says to himself, what would have been the point of davening? Avraham Avinu, our great forefather and patriarch Abraham, he davened for the wicked people of Sodom, and did it help? Gornisht geholfen. It didn't help whatsoever. Avraham put it all on the line, he appealed to God, he said God how could you? 50, 40, 45, 40, he entered a good Jewish negotiation with God and he lost. He lost. There weren't even 10 righteous people, he lost, and Sodom was destroyed. So Noach says to himself. Avraham tried to advocate for the wicked people of his community, it didn't work. Well, the wicked people of my generation, what's the point of speaking up? Why bother davening? Why don't I just skip that wasted energy and put it all back into building this ark? That's a pretty good defense of Noach, no? Why bother? וקשה שהרי רש"י בפרשת וירא פירש אולי ימצאו שם עשרה פחות לא ביקש אמר דור המבול היו שמונה נח ובניו ונשיהם ולא הצילו את דורם. So why didn't Avraham daven for less than ten? Why didn't Avraham daven? Noach of course came first, understand chronologically. Why didn't Avraham daven for less than ten? Because he knew that Noach's generation wasn't saved, and how many righteous were there? Eight in his family. So Avraham knew don't bother negotiating or davening or advocating for less than ten, they won't be saved. And where did he know that from? Noach. So Noach for sure wouldn't have been effective. Again, Noach came before Avraham, but Noach's prayers would not have been effective because there were less than ten righteous. So how could you blame Noach? And why are they called the floods, the waters of Noach? Why is Noach go down as a villain? He should go down as a hero, as a hero. So it wouldn't have worked. מאי קל התביעה על נח שלא התפלל? Why in the world are we critical of Noach, he didn't daven? לא הייתה מועילה התפילה. Had he davened it never would have worked. It never would have worked. ונאמרו בזה כמה פירושים. And there are several answers to it. Should we leave it off here or do the first answer? We'll do a little bit longer. You have one more minute? Good. אמנם הגאון רבי חיים שמואלביץ זצ"ל ראש ישיבת מיר בירושלים ביאר שהתביעה על נח הייתה שאין צריך לחשב כלל אם התפילה תתקבל אם תועיל או לא מאחר שחובתו של נח היה להתפלל על דורו לבקש רחמים עליהם ואין לו לעשות חשבונות אם תתקבל התפילה אם תועיל או לא אלא כאשר ישנה צרה גזירה על ציבור צריך להתפלל ולבקש רחמי שמים. The reason we daven is not so that it works. We don't daven so that it's effective. We don't daven as a function. We don't daven transactionally. Why do we daven? Why do we scream out? What is this davening? Tzaka u'zeaka. When Jews are in trouble, when Jews are hurting, when Jews are in crisis, we scream Hashem, no! How could you? Where are you? Please, please intervene. Please step in. And why do we scream? We scream not because we expect it to necessarily or automatically help. We scream because that's how we express our pain. That's the evidence that we're in pain. And if we didn't scream out, it doesn't hurt. When you wake up in the middle of the night and you stub your toe on the toy that your child or grandchild left in the middle of the room, even though you asked them to move it four billion times and threatened no more Hanukkah presents if you don't move it, and you stub your toe, what do you scream? Ow! Why? That makes it feel better? What did that do? Just woke up somebody else who was now screaming at you, not with you. Why did you scream out loud? Because when something hurts, you scream. And if you didn't scream, it didn't hurt. Right? The doctor's giving you the shot and you didn't even wince, you didn't scream, they don't think it hurt. If you scream out ouch, you make a noise, you make a face, you grimace, you wince, they think it hurt. If you don't react, if you don't scream, you're not in pain, it didn't hurt. Sometimes it's a form of davening that just shows and expresses I'm in pain. This hurts. This hurts. And I'm included among those who are in pain. I want to be counted among a community who are in pain, who this hurts. This hurts. Ow, ow. The criticism of Noach is not that he didn't daven because it could have brought about a different outcome. That's up to Hashem. That's his cheshbonot, he'll figure it out. He'll figure it out. He'll figure it out. You know if a parent is punishing a child, sometimes for a parent among the most gratifying things in the world is when their sibling comes over and lobbies on behalf of the sibling. They didn't really mean it, let them out of timeout, please give them the Hanukkah present, let them go to the concert. The parent doesn't say mind your business, get lost. We may say that, but inside we feel this is a moment of great nachas. Siblings caring about each other, fighting for each other. You know what the greatest nachas is? When you're punishing A for doing something to B and then B says it wasn't so bad and don't punish them so badly, and please let them out and don't do it on my behalf. You're like I'm doing this for you, what does it matter? But it's a moment of great nachas. And when the sibling, you punish A and the sibling just goes about their business, doesn't even look up from their device. And you say don't you want to, don't you want to say something to me on behalf, don't you want to advocate for your sister or your brother? They say nah, it won't make a difference. I know you made up your mind to put them in timeout, to take away their device. It won't make a difference. You say well don't speak up because it'll make a difference. Speak up so your sibling knows that it bothers you that they, that they are grounded. Speak up so you show that you care. That's how we express that we care. That's how we express that it means something whether it makes a difference or not. This was the kavanah, this was a thought that I had when we went to the rally in Washington, 300,000 strong. Did it change an opinion in the White House, in the halls of Congress? I hope it did. I hope it made a difference. It was a big number. But if it didn't, it was 300,000 people who said I can't sit still and I can't stand by while we are coming together to be united as a community who say ouch, who say this hurts, who say I'm in pain, who are screaming to whoever's listening, to the news and the media and the social media, to the members of Congress and the White House, to our brothers and sisters in Israel and most of all to Hashem. Ouch! We're just screaming ouch because if you don't say ouch, nobody knows it hurts. So Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz's answer is, you know why Noach was to blame? Ah, it wouldn't have helped. There were less than ten. What would have been the point? It wouldn't have made a difference. It wouldn't have brought about a different outcome. Because it would have shown he was in pain. It would have shown he hurt. ואם כן כאשר כלל ישראל נמצאים בצער, we'll end with this. We went a little longer because we had to make up for last week. When klal Yisrael are in pain, עלינו להיות חלק מן המערכה. Do you want to be included? לזעוק ולהתפלל לקרוא רחמי שמים, to scream, to yell, to storm the gates of heaven, to tear open this decree. ואין לנו לעשות חשבונות שמים. Don't worry about God. Will it help? Will it not help? Will it make a difference? Will it not make a difference? Will He listen? Will He not? That's His business, not yours. Don't play God. He doesn't need your help. Leave that to Him. You do your job. You do your work. You do what's asked of you in this moment. Let Him do His. ולהשתתף עם הציבור בצער. Do you want history to reflect, do you want history to record that you were one of those people who screamed in pain? When your great-grandchildren will ask you in תשפ"ד in 2023 when Jews were slaughtered in their beds and decapitated and raped and murdered and soldiers were losing their lives fighting on the front lines for the Jewish people. So I heard, Great Bubby or Great Zeidy, there was a rally in Washington. Did you go? Nah, I didn't think it'd make a difference. I heard they said Tehillim after every shiur at BRS and every day after each tefillah. Did you stay? Nah, I had a manicure appointment, I had a coffee with a friend, I wanted to go home, I had so much to do. Where were you? What'd you do? I didn't think it would help. There's so much Tehillim other people are saying, my Tehillim I didn't think it'd matter. How do we want to be thought of? How do we want to be counted? Everyone has to figure out how to do their part. I don't mean to debilitate you if you're doing a lot already, do more, not neglect yourself. Everyone has to figure the answer out for themselves. Everyone has to figure the answer out for themselves because you also need self-care. You can't be doing the things for Israel to the point that you're actually destroying yourself, your parnassah, your relationships and your life and your health. We also need to balance. But within the balance, what's driving the decision needs to be not just my calculation. Let me play God for a moment. If I was God, would it matter if he or she stayed for that Tehillim? Don't, let God play God. He's really good at it. He does a really good job at it. He's in control, He's in charge. Stay in your lane. Don't do God's job. Just your job. What's meant for us each day. Who are we, what we're meant to do. And the variable or the measure, the metric is not what will make the difference, it's how do I want to be counted? What community do I want to be part of? How do I want history to reflect about me in this moment? When the story will be told, which side will I be on? Where was I? Did I show up? Did I daven, did I learn, did I support, did I donate, did I give, did I visit? What did I do? Will I be able to look back with pride to say to my great-grandchildren, to history, when I come upstairs to the heavenly court, here's where I was, here's what I did. That's what we have to do. We'll pick up with it im yirtzeh Hashem next week. Please God by then we will celebrate the victory and everyone coming home.
