Transcript
Good morning boker tov, it should be a good day, imirtze Hashem, a day of besoros tovos, we should hear good news, ישועות ונחמות לכל ישראל. Big thank you to our emuna series sponsors, Drs. Avi and Bella Morgan, who sponsored in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, in memory of Dr. Alan Shanzer, we remain incredibly grateful to the Morgans. Also this morning sponsored by Andrea, Ari, Lisa, Jay, and Melissa Keenan in commemoration of the first yahrzeit of Jay's mother, Helen Klein, neshama should have an aliyah. By Andrew and Nathan Zucker in commemoration of her father Dr. Martin Lehman's first yahrzeit on the ninth of Shevat, his neshama should have an aliyah as well. Aliyas neshama for פסח דוד בן אברהם on his fourth yahrzeit and והחבר שלמה בן החבר יואל with love from their children and grandchildren. Very grateful to all of our sponsors who enable us to share the emuna shiur as far and wide as we can and hopefully be part of this community that we are just trying to work on feeling Hashem in our lives, on letting go, on surrendering to Him, on letting Him lift us up, on seeing through His glasses to be able to navigate our world, and thanks to all the generous sponsors who enable us to share. There is no shiur next week, probably for two weeks, definitely not next week, so we'll keep you posted if you're in the emuna WhatsApp group, you get some bonus material and you'll also be able to keep up with the schedule and where we're at. So if you're not in it, make sure to join it, you can join it easily at rabbiephraimgoldberg.org/whatsapp, maybe, maybe, or on the homepage somewhere there. Okay, a couple of emuna emails and then we'll dive back into the Sichos Mussar that we are learning. I want to tell you what a tzadeikes my mother-in-law is, you know it already, but I spent the whole shiur last week talking all about Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz's Sichos Mussar in the Six-Day War, in the Six-Day War, in the Six-Day War, in the Six-Day War, and after the shiur she gently and quietly and sweetly said, I think it's possible that it was the Yom Kippur War, not the Six-Day War, because if you look it's ערב סוכות תשל"ד. I said, why didn't you call out and scream out and correct me during the shiur? Anyway, so further evidence of what a tzadeikes she is and I thank her. So I spent a whole week being embarrassed but I didn't know how to go online and fix it. So I want to let everybody know that I now know I was wrong, it wasn't the Six-Day War, it was the Yom Kippur War. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz at the Mir in Yerushalayim gave these several sichos, several speeches, to the Yeshiva who were all feeling and living and davening the Yom Kippur War which of course the Yom Kippur War was much more frightening. Both wars were frightening, the Six-Day War, the amount of dugs they graves they dug in anticipation and there were nissim veniflaos, there were miracles in the first six hours, it wasn't six-day war. We had an expert in Israel history who spoke here several years ago in our Israel week who said Six-Day War is a misnomer, it was a one-day war. In the first day it was already won, first hours of the first day it was won, took five more days to finish it up. That was the Six-Day War. The Yom Kippur War, unfortunately, tragically, was a very different circumstance and that's where this sicha that we're learning comes up. So thank you, thank you Ma. First some emails and then back to what we're learning. Dear Rabbi Goldberg, I live in Beit Shemesh in Israel, I'm a new follower of your weekly emuna shiur, thank you Spotify. I know you like to hear stories of hashgacha, of seeing Yad Hashem, I want to share with one. First a little background. I work for Yeshiva Lev HaTorah in Beit Shemesh and we have a Hesder program for lone soldiers called Lev LaChayal. Over the past 10 years, Lev LaChayal has been responsible for guiding our soldiers through the bureaucracies of drafting, offering them apartments to live in during their service, hosting them for Shabbos and Yom Tov meals, and so much more. I've been working with the organization almost three years and it is nothing short of incredible and what the team will do for our soldiers. On October 7th, like so many around the country, dozens of our chayalim were called back either for miluim for reserve duty or just back to the base if they were let out for Simchas Torah. Only a few days after, one of our chayalim reached out saying he needed some items from his room and his unit needed dozens of other miscellaneous items such as socks, energy bars, which they did not have time to pack when they were called up. You speak to the people who ran that day, many didn't even bring their tefillin. It was Yom Tov, they weren't thinking where they were going or how long they would be there, they simply knew they were called up. It was Yom Tov, you don't necessarily grab your tefillin and they ran. They put on their uniform, they grabbed their gun and they ran. So they needed all kinds of miscellaneous things and in this case from the dormitory of the Yeshiva. Thus the Lev LaChayal war support center was born. For the past three months plus we've received hundreds if not thousands of calls from our soldiers asking for all kinds of gear ranging from hand warmers and first aid kits to tactical glasses and bulletproof vests. It has been amazing to watch as nearly 100,000 individual items, both large and small, have passed through our organization straight to the soldiers who are mamash on the front line. Although we primarily take care of our own soldiers, those who drafted to the IDF through our Hesder program, throughout the war we've been very much aiding chayalim all over Israel. Of course, as is the norm with such an initiative, word spreads rapidly and it's not unusual to receive calls from random people asking for help for their sons, husbands, friends, who are fighting in defense of Am Yisrael. I can only imagine. because I'm a little rabbi in Boca Raton how many calls I've had in the last three months, someone's nephew, someone's cousin, someone's grandson, can we get, we need, is there any way that you can sponsor, that you can send, so this center which is set up for this, we can only imagine. Mi k'amcha Yisrael because it's not that there's one center like this, this is the Lev Ha'Torah war support center, and there's the Eretz Chemda war room, and then there's this organization and that organization, and mi k'amcha Yisrael who've coordinated and come together and given and donated, absolutely extraordinary, extraordinary. I give all this background to introduce the story. So-and-so, a Jewish mother living in Israel connected to Lev L'Chayal because she heard through the grapevine we give out gear to soldiers. As the administrative assistant, I take the calls that come into the office. So, I answered the call and she asked if we can please help her. She has two sons serving in reserve duty. One son hasn't been able to get a hold of, but the other son is asking for a few items to help make his service easier: a sleeping bag and a tent. As I learn, her son serves in the 669 unit. This is a unit that specializes in rescuing injured soldiers and civilians. 669 is a very elite unit because they're their combat special forces who have to navigate a combat zone to go get injured soldiers to get them out to be treated. So they're not simply going in and going to get those people, they have to be able to take on fire, return fire, they have to be able to be able to go in, met with incredible, incredible people from that unit. Her son has been one of the brave chayalim responsible for going into Gaza to rescue injured soldiers, sometimes under live fire to get them into the helicopter so they can be rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment with the hope they can make it in time to save the soldier's life. They're literally responsible for saving the lives of the soldiers hurt in battle against Hamas. She continued and at this point she is totally choked up, with tears in her eyes she says, "My son never asks for anything. He never complains. All he needs is a tent and a sleeping bag because until now he's been sleeping in the dirt on rocks. I'm trying to get him what he needs and I was told maybe you can help." Now unfortunately our support center is limited in funding because I do not run it, I don't have the authority to say yes or no. So I told her give me the information, I promise to pass it along to those in charge and we'll see what we can do to help. I wished her comfort that Hashem should keep her boys safe and we hung up. Initially I assumed we could not help her, because I mentioned we're really limited, we need to focus on our own through the yeshiva. A sleeping bag to her son means one fewer to our soldiers, but I promised I'd pass along the information, so I did. I gave her info to the assistant coordinator of our supply room. Once he heard that this request is for a soldier in the 669 unit, he got a big smile on his face and he said, "Of course we can help someone in that unit." And so essentially said, "Leave it to me," and I trusted he would take care of it. But the story doesn't end there. The next day he came to my office to follow up. He said that after he left my office the day before he tried to work out if he could get the son what he needed. Unfortunately realized they cannot, so he gave her information to someone else, David. David has been regularly involved with the war support center and has been a big help in a lot of cases. According to Dov, he gave David the information on the mother looking for a tent and sleeping bag for her son. Apparently upon looking at the message, David said, "I know her, she's my next-door neighbor." Of course I could help her. At the time the story happened, it's only been a week or so after I started listening to your shiur. When I heard it, I knew right away there was no doubt that Hashem was there every step of the way. Still waiting for an update if they got what he needed, but I trust Hashem found a way through a shliach even if it's not our organization. I get choked up every time I tell the story. Join the club. Thank you for opening my eyes to Hashem in these small moments. So the call came to the right person, the right time, went to the right person, went to the right person who happens to be the next-door neighbor of this boy who deserves to get his sleeping bag. Okay, quickly, I want to get to our learning. Dear Rabbi Goldberg, blah blah blah blah, today I had a disappointment related to Pesach plans, and I'm working hard to use my emunah muscle to let go of my disappointment. So Pesach is, everybody sitting down? You're okay? Pesach is not that far away. People need to be thinking about and making their plans. So this person's saying whatever plans that they had, they had a disappointment. And they're working on the emunah muscle to say that's not where they were meant to be or how it was meant to go or who they were meant to host or who they were meant to be hosted by, and they're working on the emunah muscle to be able to navigate and let go of disappointment in life. It made me think of an emunah story I want to share. It's my daughter's story, she gave me permission to share it, and all the emails I read I now make sure to get permission even though I'm not saying the name. My daughter decided to become a doctor and went to medical school. She married young and had two children by the time she graduated medical school. When it came time to choose a program for residency, she and her husband consulted their rabbi to advise them about applying to a Shomer Shabbos program or a stronger educational program. Her rabbi said it was okay to apply to a stronger educational program and then learn the halachos of a doctor working on Shabbos and Yom Tov. But after agonizing she ranked the stronger program as her top choice, and when the match came out, when the results came out, my daughter was very disappointed she did not get the stronger program, but she did get the Shomer Shabbos program. I use my emunah muscle to to convince her that this is the way it was supposed to turn out. And after a bit, she realized it also. She worked very long hours over the next three years and was on call most Sundays doing 25-hour shifts. She also took on extra call so her coworkers would not be upset that she did not work full weekends, but she was home every Shabbos and Yom Tov and was home with her growing family. They had two more children during her residency. Her residency went by and now it was time to decide next steps. She was offered to specialize and do a three-year fellowship. She was told she did not need to be part of the match. The position was hers. She told the program director she would take the position if he would make the program a Shomer Shabbos one. I guess now she was used to Shomer Shabbos. She was told there were no Shomer Shabbos fellowships and that as much as she was wanted for the position, he couldn't offer Shomer Shabbos. She wanted the position, she'd have to work on Shabbos and Yom Tov. After much deliberation, she decided to turn down the fellowship. She would practice general medicine and not specialize. It's a huge sacrifice. It's enormous. After going through all of that and having that hope and dream and wanting and planning that lifestyle and originally being willing to sacrifice Shomer Shabbos but after tasting a program of Shmiras Shabbos, not wanting to give that up, it's extraordinary, extraordinary gesture, it's an extraordinary statement to make. She did not want to compromise about having to work over Shabbos and Yom Tov. She was disappointed but felt it was more important for her family to be home every Shabbos and Yom Tov. One week later, she was called by the program director saying the program did not match, and if she agreed to come, they would make the program Shomer Shabbos for her. She could not believe that now she could specialize and not work Shabbos and Yom Tov. This for sure was the hand of Hashem. She's now finishing her third and final year of fellowship. She has a fifth child, kein ayin hara, and will now hopefully get a job that she'll also be able to have Shabbos and Yom Tov off. It reminds me that things happen the way Hashem wants them to, and I need to realize that. Given all happening in Israel and around the world, I should not feel disappointed my Pesach plan may not be exactly the way I want. More important is to daven for the hostages to come home, no more fallen soldiers, all wounded a refuah shleimah, and there should be peace. May we be zocheh to hear besoros tovos and 100 percent. So those are two stories where there was a positive conclusion to the stories. You know those are important and we should hear them and read them and revisit them and think about them and look for them in the hashgacha pratis of our lives, but they are not the only stories. It's the other stories. Yesterday in our hashgacha pratis WhatsApp group because I've shared many times, we should not only highlight things worked out and it was amazing and there was a plan and it was, 'Yesh, I got the program Shmiras Shabbos!' and 'We got the sleeping bag back because it turned out to be a neighbor and everything was amazing!' Yesterday my wife and son drove to Hollywood to see our daughter and her kids, I guess our son-in-law too. I didn't go on the trip but mostly for the grandchildren. And she didn't consult Waze and she took the wrong highway and they were in standstill hour and a half traffic. So she left a message on our family WhatsApp hashgacha pratis, 'See, hashgacha pratis! For whatever reason Hashem wanted her to be on that highway stuck in traffic for that hour and a half because even when things feel like they're going wrong, that's also by design. Nothing is by chance, nothing is random. And if we can instead of sitting there smashing the steering wheel and banging our head against the dashboard and being furious at ourselves 'Why did I go this way?' and 'Why does it have to be traffic?' and 'Why is it?' instead we say 'This is where I'm meant to be spending time with whoever else is in the car or listening to whatever I get to listen to or being lost in my own thoughts and getting to just think.' You know, it doesn't, getting frustrated and disappointed and angry never opened up traffic. Never. The more you scream, the more you bang your head against the steering wheel, the cars in front of you don't see that in their rearview mirror and go, 'Oh, she wants to go faster, let's get out of the way!' That never ever accomplished anything. All it does, all it does is strain relationships and sacrifice your physical health, mental health, spiritual health. It's important to feel and express and surrender to Hashem in those moments too. And I'll leave this last very short email from someone I know, so this touches my heart. She writes: 'My mom was diagnosed with very late stage cancer six months ago. I'm sitting here with her in hospice and she loves to listen to your shiurim. It's often on their screen. She isn't very responsive right now but we're still watching. Thanks for making the emunah classes so accessible. May we share simchos.' So that is not a story with a positive outcome. It's a difficult transition time and we daven there should be no pain, there should be only strength and comfort. But seeing Hashem and feeling Hashem and leaning into emunah in those times is also critically important. I have another story but I'm saving it for when we're back together. Someone sent an incredible story. I was with a dear friend of mine the other day and he told me about his son who was in intelligence in the army and an unbelievable story about his having a dream. Say it! I gotta make sure you come back after I come back. So I need to give a little cliffhanger because everyone's going to discover something else on Spotify, they're going to discover something else here in Boca Raton, so I've got to bring you back with that little cliffhanger, but his son in intelligence. unit, a high intelligence unit, had a dream and when he woke up, his dream was responsible for saving a lot of lives. It's an amazing story. I'll share it with you when we get back. Sichos Mussar, Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz, as the Shviger says, the Yom Kippur War, not the Six Day War, Erev Succos תשל"ד, Maamar Aleph. He gave several Sichos. Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz stood in front of the Mir Yeshiva. He did not say... let me put it this way: He said our hearts go out to soldiers. All we do is think about them and daven for them. We have the greatest hakaras hatov to them. And our lives are changed and different and they're not ordinary right now. And as we learned last week, he said, כל המרפה עצמו מדברי תורה אין בו כוח לעמוד בעת צרה. The Gemara says: Whoever lessens or diminishes or weakens their connection, their relationship with Torah, then they will never be able to withstand whatever crisis they face. Where do we find the strength to overcome whatever we're confronting? When we, when we draw from the wellspring of Torah. Of Torah. That means quite literally we find time to immerse ourselves in Torah. But it also means the values, the principles, the priorities, the language, the lifestyle of Torah is what gives us the tools to be able to navigate whatever crisis that we are facing. It doesn't necessarily give it a happy or a positive outcome or ending. Sitting in hospice, you could listen to Emunah Shiurim from the morning till now, it won't change that outcome. It doesn't necessarily change the outcome but it gives us the strength. It gives us the strength. Whatever it is that we're waiting and longing for, whatever it is that we're hoping for, whatever pain that we're trying to overcome, it gives us those tools and that strength. In fact, today's Behind the Bima that's being dropped today, published today, we interviewed Yedidya Harush who is off from Gaza for a few hours and came on Behind the Bima. Yedidya is a founder of Halutza, the Shlomit community. They were both here and Adina Kon. They were both here recently. And Yedidya now is fighting in Gaza. Absolutely extraordinary stories. And Adina Kon's husband Aviad, Hashem yikom damo, lost his life on October 7th, volunteer security force and helping defend a neighboring community. There was only one community in the whole South who went to answer the call to help a neighboring community, the community of Pri Gan, and several soldiers, several civilian citizens gave their lives doing so. And I ask her in this conversation, because she talks a lot about Hashem, I said: You know, you don't have to answer, it's a personal question, I don't mean to cause you pain, but how do you feel Hashem in this moment? You're a young widow. Your children are now orphans. Your husband made a decision to volunteer. He wasn't drafted. He wasn't a reservist. He was a volunteer to go be in security and a volunteer to go to the next community that he didn't have to go and answer that call. How do you feel Hashem in your life? What's that relationship? And her answer is unbelievable. I'll post it in the Emunah WhatsApp group once we publish, but you should watch this interview. She, like last week if you didn't watch Hadas Lowenstern, is just also she is an Emunah Shiur. Instead of getting together every week we should come and I should just press play on Hadas Lowenstern. And when I get back the first week of February, on, on that Thursday morning, Jen Airly is going to speak. And also, who lost her son. These are living, breathing Emunah, they are Emunah Shiurim. We talk about Emunah in the comfort of Boca Raton, in the safety of Boca Raton. We sit here talking about Emunah. We talk about Emunah. They are Emunah Shiurim. And just any exposure, any conversation, anything we can watch, listen or learn from them, it's just unbelievable. So when the Gemara Brachos says that we have to be steeped in divrei Torah in order to be able to, you know, the interview we did last week with Hadas, when we stopped recording but we're still talking to her, lest you think she puts on some personality for these interviews and then when she hangs up, she's angry at Hashem, angry at the world, is miserable, is obnoxious, is cold, is, she's not only the same person, she's an even more remarkable person. We were still talking and she says, you know what's getting me through this? She reaches behind her and pulls on the table, my Tehillim and my Tanach. And that's what gets me through this and I couldn't be anywhere without them. And she, not on camera, not for recording, not for anybody to see, it was, it was really amazing. And that's what it means, כל המרפה עצמו מדברי תורה, if you put down the Tehillim and you put down the Tanach, if you turn off the shiurim and the podcast, if you stop reading the email and newsletter and the, and the posts, then you have no כוח בעת צרה. How can you overcome this eis tzara? And then we learn, Rav Chaim Shmuelevitz reminded us and he's telling these bachurim, because this sicha is being delivered in the Mir Yeshiva, that it is the kol kol Yaakov, the voice of Yaakov, it is our learning of Torah which is the answer, the antidote, the response to our enemies, to Hamas and Hezbollah and Iran and to our enemies the anti-Semites and to our enemies even a senator who may have Jewish origin but not a lot of Jewishness about him in trying to hurt the only Jewish homeland Israel. Thank God his non-Jewish colleagues understand and outvoted him, but one has to be steeped, you see what happens, you see how distorted and perverse a person can be when they're מרפה עצמם בדברי תורה, even to put forth such a such a motion, such a bill. So it is those who learn Torah and those who support Torah, those who enable Torah. We talked about driving carpool is a religious activity, packing that lunch, putting the things back in the backpack is a religious activity, elbowing your husband and turning him over and telling him wake up, get up, you gotta get to the daven, make it to the morning kollel, I support you, it's more burden on me but I want you to learn. That's also. V'amru za, we're in the third paragraph, כשמצא המן הרשע את מרדכי הצדיק לומד עם בני ישיבתו הלכות מנחת העומר. Chazal tell us the Midrash in Vayikra Rabbah, when Haman the wicked in the story of Purim in Persia, in Iran, because Iran oh yes has been a thorn in our side, not always, there was also glory times, Cyrus, when when who was here when the son of the Shah spoke? Do you remember when the son of the Shah came to our shul and spoke? It's amazing. And he reminded us that there were glory days of the Jewish relationship with Persia and how King Koresh, Cyrus, was the one who built the Beit HaMikdash and sent Jews back, and he basically then said in out of debt to Persia for what it did at the time of the temple, we should go and stand with the Iranian people in overthrowing the horrible regime. So Haman, Haman, Persia, Iran, we've had some wonderful times but mostly not. And Haman the rasha, the wicked, saw Mordechai the righteous sitting and studying, learning. Amar l'Mordechai, he said, עומר שלכם דחה עשרת אלפים שקלים שלי, הרי שגם המן הרשע ידע שהצלחת ישראל על ידי לימוד התורה. When Haman saw that, he said, the merit of your sitting and studying, the impact, the influence, the merit, the impact on the on the on the cosmos, on the divine, is greater than all the efforts I've made to destroy you. I can't offset it, I can't fight it, I can't combat it, I can't defeat it. Your studying of Torah, your living of Torah, your proclaiming Torah, your modeling Torah, I can't. B'Eruvin in the Gemara in Eruvin, אמרו דכשבא המלאך וחרבו שלופה בידו אל יהושע. We have a story in the book of Joshua, the book of Yehoshua, that when Yehoshua is going to conquer the conquest of Israel, they're unsuccessful, Yehoshua is Yehoshua is confronted by a by a angel who's holding a sword. Rashi says, וחרבו שלופה מראה פורענות. שאל אותו יהושע על איזה חטא בא ביטול תורה או ביטול תמיד שלא הביאו. And Yehoshua said once second, why is this not going well? Why are you here? What do you need to rebuke me about? In what way have I failed? Is it for the fact that I've been so busy forming a nation and conquering a country that I haven't had time for my learning, that I've been delinquent in my Torah study? Is that why you're here? Or bitul hatamid because the daily sacrifice, the korban tamid was not offered? ענה לו המלאך עתה באתי על חטא שביטול תורה בא. I've come for the fact that you can never be too distracted from the study of Torah. No matter how noble, no matter what else you're occupied with. וברש"י שהיו עסוקים במלחמה ביום ולא היה להם עת לעסוק בתורה אלא בלילה. What happened? All day all day they fought, they battled during the day. The only time to learn was at night. מיד וילן יהושע בלילה ההוא בתוך העמק. But they were exhausted by the time they came to night. They're sleeping on dirt, they're sleeping on the rocks, they're sleeping on the ground. Who has anything left? Who has the energy, the mindfulness, the focus, the zitzfleisch? How how do you learn when all day you've been you've been running and defending and shooting and fighting and you barely have anything? Who has who has time to learn at night? My my nephew's going back into Gaza today so I was speaking this morning to my sister, my nephew was home, she said she didn't know but he's got a burn mark on the back of his neck because it came from a the hot shell of a bullet that grazed his neck. I don't know if his own shooting, someone near him, that's the type of when you're he should be safe, he should be well, he and all the others, everyone. They're all our nephews, they're all our children, all of them we daven with the greatest intensity for them all. And I daven most of my mother's not listening to this, it doesn't hear that story. So, so when you're fighting during the day, hot bullet shells are grazing your neck, who has the energy to to sit down and open a Gemara? You know what it takes, the concentration to sit and make it through a Gemara at night? So Yehoshua was delinquent. They're fighting the day, wasn't learning at night. And the malach came and said, all your fighting during the day can't be successful. You won't triumph, you won't have a victory if you don't also find or designate others the strength to be learning at night. You have to learn. The what comes out of the merit of the study of Torah, miyad immediately, מיד וילן יהושע בלילה ההוא בתוך העמק. The Navi, the prophet, uses the description the words that Yehoshua immediately went to sleep in the valley. ואמר רבי יוחנן מלמד שלן בעומקה של הלכה. Emek means a valley, but it also means the depth, the depth of halacha. He plumbed the depths of Torah. He didn't go to sleep in the valley, the valley, he went to sleep in the valley means he went to immerse himself in the valley, the depth of Torah. לא סתם לימוד התורה אלא תוך העמק של לימוד התורה עומקה של הלכה. He didn't stam, you know, read—nothing wrong with it—but the English and the Artscroll side, he broke his teeth. He went through and he worked hard, he figured it out. It's not easy. וזהו שהצילו מחרב שלופה בידו של המלאך כמו שנתבאר וזו עצה ראשונה בעת צרה זאת. So certain terms of Chaim Shmuelevitz to them in the Mir and he's turning to us and he's telling us and we who are not in the front lines, we who are not exhausted because we're fighting all day, we who are not carrying that gear that we need a massage because of what it does to our muscles, we who do not have burn marks on the back of our neck, we have no excuse not to lean in further, not to find more time, not to take upon ourselves kabbalas. Normally I listen to music, normally I listen to comedy, normally I listen to this podcast, normally I watch the sports, but you know what, as long as the soldiers are fighting all I'm listening to is Torah. Every car ride, every shopping, every cooking, I'm going to find a meaningful podcast, I'm going to find meaningful Torah to listen to. There are kabbalas, there are things we could take upon ourselves, we could institute around the dinner table we're going to learn a paragraph of Shmiras Haloshon. Chofetz Chaim wrote a beautiful magnificent work on how to guard our tongue, how to not gossip and slander, how to improve our interpersonal relationships, how to achieve greater peace and shalom between ourselves in the merit that we have greater peace for our people and in this world. There are no shortage of the examples that we could give of things that we can do individually, personally, as a family, as a community to be able to elevate and raise the merit of Torah. You know I wrote about, I think this week I wrote about, I referenced how in the first month after the war, the first month after October 7th, American Jewry donated, contributed over a billion dollars. And since then it's more, it's much more. It's extraordinary. Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem, and it's needed, many multiples of it will be and is needed already now. But how much Torah did we dedicate? Over a billion dollars, have we dedicated billions of hours of Torah? Billions of dappim of Gemara? Billions of shiurim and billions of podcasts and billions of paragraphs of Shmiras Haloshon of the laws of gossip and slander to take that upon ourselves? There's a leader in our community—he's not here full time, but he's mostly a member of our community, I tell him this is his real residence—and he has Baruch Hashem a beautiful big and thriving company and business and they had a company retreat for a weekend. A large company, and it's mostly but not entirely made up of observant Jews and they were trying to give a gift to the owner of the company who took them away for a big beautiful weekend. I wrote an article about this also, several months ago. Before October 7th—it's hard to remember anything from before October 7th—but I wrote an article about it too then. I could post it in our group as well. And they had to give him a gift, so what do you give a gift to the owner of the company who doesn't need your gifts, anything that you could buy with money? So you know what they decided? They knew that he values and loves the Chofetz Chaim's Shmiras Haloshon, his book broken down into day, daily learning to work on guarding our tongue. Don't gossip, don't speak slander, don't speak ill, don't speak critically, don't speak harshly, don't judge unfavorably. So what they did—and that the owner of the company learns it every day with his wife—so you know what they did? What they did is they bought every employee of the company a copy of the book and the whole company took upon themselves to learn a cycle of the book to guard their tongues each day. And that was the gift and that was the greatest gift he could get. Wow. Not something physical or tangible, not another plaque to hang on the wall, but it was the greatest gift that they could give him. That's the gift that we can give the Ribbono Shel Olam. It's the gift we can give the owner of our company, the owner of each and every one of us, the owner of our lives and the owner of the outcome of this war. Let's give him the gift. Let's give him the gift. Let's all take upon ourselves what are we going to do? What are we going to learn? What are we going to read? What are we going to watch? What are we going to listen to? What are we going to introduce to ourselves, to our family, to our conversations, to our daily conduct and rituals and habits and lifestyle? What are we taking upon ourselves? Because even Haman understood it. When Haman saw Mordechai sitting and learning he said oh boy, uh oh, now I've got no shot. And when Yoshua asked the angel what's the matter? Why are you here? What do you have to tell me? He says all the fighting, all the military strategy, all the military superiority, all the sleeping bags and all the jerky and all the Cliff bars in the world. If there's not also learning, if there's not also learning. As I shared with you several times Ephraim Jackman Hashem Yikom Damo understood that. That's why he woke up excuse me early in Gaza to learn the Daf Yomi before he went to fight. In Gaza, woke up early to learn the daf. before he went to go fight, 'cause he understood this message of the angel to Yehoshua. Va-atah sheinis, all that is number one, the power and the merit and the potency of Torah learning. It's our weapon. It's our weapon. And it doesn't take the place of other weapons. And those who learn Torah are contributing to the outcome of the war, but still our greatest hakarat hatov, they're not risking their lives in doing so. To show up at Yeshiva, to show up at Seder, you know, we just concluded yesterday, ישיבת רבנו יצחק אלחנן and others, Landers, have a break because the college has a break, so they have a bein hazmanim, they have a break. So where'd they go for their break? We held, we do every winter, the incredible Rabbi Simcha Shapiro runs, in addition to the Yeshiva, in addition to our Beis Medrash, in addition to our Midrasha, he runs the Beren's Winter Kollel. So 20 bachurim came and learned three sedarim a day, full time in this room for the winter Kollel. It was amazing. That's how the boys spent their break. They didn't go skiing, they didn't go lie on a beach somewhere, they didn't go try out new restaurants (maybe a little of that they did here), but what'd they do for their break? They sat and learned more intensely without any college, without any distraction. And why'd they do that? Because mori verabbi Rav Schechter and other Roshei Yeshiva there said, there is no break. Soldiers don't have a break. So if you're in Yeshiva, there is no bein hazmanim. If the soldiers don't have intersession, you don't have intersession. So you're not learning in the same normal space, your ordinary space, go learn in the next space. And I want to tell you that there were 20 who came down for this winter Kollel, but do you know how many were on a waiting list? Do you know how many applied to try to come down? Now it happens to be that if everybody was going to spend their time learning, Boca Raton, Florida was not a bad place. I mean jokes on them because they thought there'd be nice weather, but Boca Raton is not a, is not a bad place to do it. But that's Am Yisrael, that's Klal Yisrael. The same was true after Simchas Torah, even though Yeshivas normally are bein hazmanim after Succos still until Rosh Chodesh, the Yeshivas came out and said if the soldiers have been called up, then every, the bnei Yeshiva are being called up too, back to Yeshiva, more learning, more Torah. But more Torah, and I want to make this clear, of course it means opening a sefer in a Beis Medrash and studying Torah. But more Torah means who we are and how we live. The Torah doesn't end at the doorway, the threshold of the Beis Medrash or the shul. It means what's the conversation we have at the water cooler and the coffee machine? What's the conversation at Starbucks? What's the conversation at our Shabbos table? That's what it means Torah. Are they Torah conversations? And a Torah conversation doesn't mean a dvar Torah, a formal Torah thought. It doesn't only mean, of course it means that too, we should be sharing actual formal Torah thoughts with each other, but it means the, the dignity of our conversations. What are we talking about? What are we speaking about? Because you know, you get to know a whole people by what they talk about. You get to know someone by what they speak about. It says with the Meraglim, when the spies were sent to go investigate the land, Moshe Rabbeinu says, come back and bring davar. Go and bring back davar, a thing. Thing? What are they supposed to bring back? Thing? We know that they brought these huge fruit. What are they supposed to bring back? You know, great halva from the shuk? Marzipan, rugelach? What are they, what are they supposed to bring back from Israel? The overpriced spices for the tea that, what are they supposed to bring back from the shuk? From Israel? So Rashi quotes Chazal, you know what the davar, the thing they were supposed to bring back? Don't read a davar, dibbur. איזה לשון הם מדברים. You're going to investigate the land, go eavesdrop and find out what language they're speaking. And the Maharal in his commentary on Rashi called Gur Aryeh, the Maharal wonders, who cares what language they're speaking? We care what kind of helicopters and drones, what kind of tanks and armoury, how many divisions and where are they stationed? How are they fortified and what's the terrain? Who cares, French, Spanish, English? We have people who speak all the languages, we'll translate, we'll use AI. Who cares what language they're speaking? And the Maharal says, no, no, no. It doesn't mean what language, what dialect they're speaking. It means what are they speaking about? Because if you want to get to know a people, their strengths, their weaknesses, then you need to listen to what are they speaking about. What are they speaking about? Was it Eleanor Roosevelt who said that small people talk about people, average people talk about things, great people talk about ideas? Small people talk about people, average people talk about things, and great people talk about ideas. Great people talk ideas, but ideas are not stam ideas. They're Torah ideas. They're ideas that are molded and shaped. They're looking at the world through the prism of Torah, through the values, through the vision, through the priorities, through the principles, through the ethics, and through the mitzvos of Torah. That's how we look and how we interpret the world. The whole world is coming through that prism. Our shprach, our language, the topic of our conversation, the dignity of our conversation, they should be different conversations. So the whole world might be talking about did you hear this celebrity couple they broke up, they got back they got together, they did this, they did that. The whole world might be talking about did you see that video it went viral and this thing that happened? The whole world might be talking about do you notice what came into fashion, what's in fashion, what's out of fashion, what's the fashion? That's not what we talk about. In ordinary times, ideally that's not what we talk about, but in these times, that's not what we talk about. When we get together, what's the conversation, what's the agenda around the Shabbos table? What's the agenda when we get together for a cup of coffee? What's the agenda when we come early or we linger after? What's the agenda while we play Mahjong? What's the agenda while we shop for Shabbos or we're talking on the phone? Divrei Torah. Again, not I have a Kli Yakar, I have an Or HaChaim, I have to tell you a vort. I don't mean formal Divrei Torah. I mean Torah thoughts. How's your neshama? How are you doing? What's happening in Israel? Did you hear? Did you see this video, this clip? Have you heard Hadas? Have you heard Jen Airley? Did you hear Donna Kohn? Have you heard what they said? Isn't it amazing? What does that mean and do for you? How is that giving you strength? Where are you finding strength? These are the conversations that we have to be having. Bais Sara, there can't be כל המרפה עצמו מדברי תורה. If our if we're weakened from Torah and we're talking narishkeit and we're talking silliness and we're talking about things... don't talk about people, certainly. That's shemiras halashon, that's the gift we're going to give the owner. The gift we're going to give our owner is we're all going to work on not talking about people. We're going to practice a little more shemiras halashon. No gossip, no slander, we're not going to talk about people. That's the gift we're going to give our owner. So that's a given, don't talk about people. Don't talk about people during wartime, don't talk about people during peaceful time. Don't talk about people. But don't even talk about things. You could talk about things, it's very hard not to talk about sheitels and men not to talk about I don't know what they talk about, sports or bottles of wine or the single malt scotch or the whatever people like to talk about. Okay, maybe in ordinary times you could talk a little bit about things, but now we have to talk about ideas, Torah ideas, and feelings and experiences and that's what we have to be talking about. That's who we are. איזה לשון הם מדברים? If somebody were to be eavesdropping on our conversations, what would they say about us? If someone overheard that coffee, if someone tapped our phone, if somebody was around our Shabbos table and had to form an impression of us, what would they say? What would they say about us? If they were eavesdropping and listening in, what would they say about us based on what we talk about? What we talk about has to be Divrei Torah, again not the formal sense but the ideas of Divrei Torah. It's who we are, it's our identity, it's our character, it's what we're made of, always, but especially now. And in that merit im yirtzeh Hashem, we should hear besoros tovos, we should see an end to this eis tzara l'Yaakov, this difficult tight time for the Jewish people. It should be a time instead of a geula sheleima, should be a full time of redemption only with good news. There's definitely no shiur next week, maybe there'll be one the next week, not sure yet about the timing, but pay attention to the WhatsApp group. I'll post later when we have the Behind the Bema tonight with with Donna Kohn and Yedidya. If you didn't listen to last week's, I think I posted it in the Emunah Shiur last week's, you have to listen. It's next week. Wednesday morning at 8:45 there's no shiur, press play, there's still a shiur, listen to Hadas, listen to Donna, listen to Jen, listen to the people who are practicing, they are the greatest living examples of Emunah. Listen and it'll have an amazing impact on you. Please stay for Tehillim afterwards, we're going to divide up all of Tehillim. Where are the books? Where are the books is a great question.
