Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov! Welcome back. We hope for besoros tovos. May this new zman, the summer post Pesach, bring with it besoros tovos, we should hear good news from Eretz Yisrael and good news from around the world. Great to be back together again for Emuna Shiur. Our Emuna series is generously sponsored by Dr. Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, in memory of Bella’s mother Dr. Ellen Schanzer, very grateful to the Morgans for their continued generosity. We are deeply, deeply appreciative. We are going to begin learning something new together now, in a moment I'll give you the background of what we're learning, but first, first I don't have any new emails to share because it's been Yom Tov. Apparently when people are making Yom Tov they don't have time to send me emails. A little chutzpadik. A little chutzpadik, what can I tell you? But I'm sure by next week please God we'll have a flurry of new Hashgacha moments from over Pesach. All the Hashgacha pratis of people who didn't kill each other or members of their family and they survived and they had a beautiful Yom Tov and they didn't encounter eat chametz. But I want to share with you a Hashgacha moment of Klal Yisrael, the Jewish people, a Hashgacha moment which sadly and maybe borderline tragically I think was a little bit lost on all of us in a way which is really very very sad. There are two enormous Hashgacha events that happened, I mean every single day to the Jewish people, to Klal Yisrael. We wait for, we long for, we desperately daven for more. We want the return of the hostages and the end of this war and campuses and streets to be safe for Jews everywhere. There is so much to daven for. Lest your davening dry out and you feel uninspired, Hashem is sure to send us every day new images and new things that should inspire or motivate our davening. But the sense of Hallel v'Hoda'ah, of gratitude, of boundless gratitude to the miracles of Hashem. The Hashgacha, the providence is not only for us when we're driving around and the perfect parking spot opened up. Providence is not only for us that the self-cleaning oven worked in time to kasher it for Pesach. The providence for us is not that please God this Shabbos the shlissel challah will turn out perfect and just right. It's not, those are not the only little micro moments of providence. There are some macro moments, some enormous moments, some moments that are Klal Yisrael moments. So we spoke about the miracle of Iran launching over 300 missiles at Israel, drones and missiles, and knocking all of them out of the sky. The likelihood and the probability explained by physicists is no less than if somebody shot a gun and someone else standing nearby shot the bullet that they had shot out of the air. Someone shot a gun and a bullet was traveling and someone else took their gun, aimed and shot the bullet out of the air. You’d say that's impossible, that's miraculous. Well, knocking all those missiles out of the sky was no less miraculous. And sadly we moved on so quickly instead of pausing, commemorating, singing Hallel, instituting a new holiday, something to say we've lived through a miracle, a miracle no less significant than the Six-Day War, a miracle we mentioned on Shabbos HaGadol. Rav Yaakov Emden writes in his Siddur, Rav Yaakov Emden writes several hundred years ago in his Siddur, he says the miracle of the survival and continuity of the Jewish people is no less miraculous than the ten plagues and the splitting of the sea. We just spent eight days, if you’re watching from Israel lucky for you seven days, celebrating these miracles of Yetzias Mitzrayim, of the exodus of leaving Egypt, of ten plagues, of splitting of a sea, the revelation of Hashem intervening and interceding, interfering with nature, suspending its rules in order to manipulate the world to display His power and His providence, and we celebrate and we mark that and it's miraculous. And says Rav Yaakov Emden, you think that's impressive? You know what's even more impressive? Surviving the Crusades and the Inquisition and later a Holocaust, a founding of a State of Israel, a Jewish army defending itself, knocking 320 drones and missiles out of the air. Says Rav Yaakov Emden obviously writing before some of those things, but writing in his time already, a victim of his own persecution of his time, that the Jewish people's very survival, what's happened since Yetzias Mitzrayim is more miraculous, not less, is more worth marking and celebrating and expressing gratitude for. So do you know on Erev Yom Tov in Romema in Yerushalayim, two terrorists in a car had a car ramming, drove into three Yeshiva bochurim? I have the video someone sent me, of them flying through the air, thank God they were okay. They got out of the car, you can see this in the video, they get out of the car, maybe I'll post it in our WhatsApp group, they get out of the car, they take a gun, and there's a huge group shopping before Pesach, a very religious neighborhood in Yerushalayim, takes out the gun, aims it, and what could have been a massacre of Erev Yom Tov, the gun jammed. And he tries and he tries and he tries and the gun jammed on him and he throws it down, he starts to run away and of course they caught these terrorists. That's an incredible miracle. You talk about a Hashgacha story? The same gun that could have created a massacre, a tragedy of enormous proportion, we would have always remembered Pesach תשפד for the massacre of Jewish shoppers preparing for Pesach and the gun jammed. And you know what happened? We hear, we read, we saw that headline. Oh wow, what a coincidence. Isn't that amazing or isn't that great? Hashem did that, but we move on, gotta get back to Pesach preparation. Gotta go shop for the for the matzah, the matzah meal. But we should stop and pause and sing Hallel and Hodu and realize miracles, we are living through miracles. We said in Hallel, we sang in Hallel, הללו את השם כל גוים. The nations of the world, they sing praise to Hashem. Our praise isn't good enough? Now we gotta start invoking the praise of the nations of the world? הללו את השם כל גוים, that the non-Jews, they praise God. You know what the answer is, the commentators say? We have no idea how many other times the gun jammed. We don't know. So these terrorists, these, these other enemies of ours who had their nefarious plans that backfired, they can praise God and say, oh, the God of the Jews, He keeps stopping me. We don't even know. We don't know what we don't know. We don't know how many times the gun jammed, how many times the missile launcher blew up on themselves. You know, there was a video out today of a, of a fire in Rafah that of course some were distorting and saying, we spoke about on Shabbos Hagadol, that galus is the sheker of lies. We're living in this upside down, backward world of lies, lies. You know, Iran claimed it hit Israel and shared a video that turned out to be a fire in Chile. Yes. Yes. So now they share this fire in Rafah and say, look, Israel's killing innocent civilians, but it was a rocket launcher in Rafah that ended up blowing up on itself. The lies, the sheker. And geulah is emess, is truth, is truth, and that's what we cling to and that's what we're going to learn together today momentarily. But we have no many idea, we have no idea how many guns jammed, we have no many idea how many rocket launchers backfired. We have no idea how many plans of our enemies where they plotted and ployed and planned and it backfired and it blew up literally or figuratively in their face. So הללו את השם כל גוים. The non-Jews of the world, they can acknowledge and praise Hashem, they know what they tried that didn't work. We don't even know. We don't even know. But when you see what we averted in Romema, Yerushalayim, on Erev Pesach, when you read the details and you hear from physicists the improbabilities and the unlikelihood of the ability to knock these missiles out of the sky as miraculous as shooting a bullet that was shot from a gun, you say, wow, Hashem, You're incredible. So these are hashgacha moments. These are hashgacha moments. These are emuna moments. These are moments of profound and deep gratitude and to appreciation to Hashem that we can't just move on in life. Like Rav Yaakov Emden writes in his Siddur, we're living the very survival, the existence, the modern miracle of Israel. These are miracles, miracles, miracles, miracles. And if we just spent a week of our lives marking and celebrating and commemorating miracles, and these miracles, as Rav Yaakov Emden, are even greater, are even greater, then we should pause to say thank you, thank you Hashem. We have a few things to that we'd like you to do. We want you to finish them off. We want you to bring our hostages home. We want you to keep our soldiers safe. We want you to make our campuses safe. We want you to take down all of these wicked people. We got a few things left on the checklist for you if you're interested in our opinion, which He is, He invites us to share it three times a day and every moment in between. But, but that doesn't mean even though there's still more things on the checklist that we don't pause and say thank you for what You've done when it's extraordinary and it's miraculous and it's incredible. I want to learn with you something that I had in the source sheets of Shabbos Hagadol. Shabbos Hagadol, the drasha, we won't say how long it lasted, but let's just say it was several emunah shiurim long, combined. Yeah, that's also a miracle. I'm grateful for that, that people sat there. That's a miracle. That's a modern miracle. They didn't slip into a coma. They didn't slip into a coma, they weren't unconscious, they didn't get up and protest, nobody threw rotten fruit at me. It's a miracle that anybody comes. It's a miracle. I'll tell you something you're not going to believe. In the moments before I begin when I'm looking over those source sheets, I say to myself, I don't, I don't have enough. I'm going to finish so early, it's going to be embarrassing. What am I going to do with the time? I'm doing this for 20-something years and I still think I'm going to finish early, it's going to be humiliating. I don't have enough material here. I promise you, each and every time, each and every time I'm still, I'm still saying that. So we spoke all about this notion that we're living in this Olam Hasheker, we're living in a world of lies and distortions and perversions and whether it's, whether it's members of Congress accusing Jews of supporting genocide, which is nothing short of a modern blood libel. It's a modern blood libel. And it is dangerous and damaging and threatening and they should be held accountable, more than censured but expelled from Congress. Terrific. Horrific. So whether it's members of Congress, whether it's what's happening in college campuses, whether it's what's happening in enemies around Israel, the lies, the blatant, explicit lies, and the bigger the lie, the more it's accepted, the more it's repeated, the more it's believed. The notion that the word genocide could be associated with Jews perpetrating it, the most ethical and moral army who are carrying out the most ethical and moral war in history. The civilian to terrorist ratio and the efforts, the lengths to which Israel drops leaflets, sends text messages, makes phone calls, tries to warn civilians, relocates them, it's extraordinary. The gall and the brazenness of these lies. It's an Olam Hasheker. It's an Olam Hasheker. And the Olam Hasheker that the internet, that is such bracha. How many people are watching right now or the ability we have to learn together because of the gift of technology, but the curse of technology is a mass and it is the most accelerated form of spreading lies in all of history, of history. So much of social media is about curating a life that is a misrepresentation of the truth of how one lives offline. They curate the perfect life online just to make people jealous or have FOMO or compete or compare or keep up. And AI, artificial intelligence, all of this we shared in the source sheets, what artificial intelligence is doing to literally create, create lies. Someone shared with me after that drasha a story of a university that fired a professor because the professor was caught on tape saying horrifically racist and homophobic and biased things. Only later it was discovered it was produced through AI, he never said those things. AI technology can take one's voice, one's image, you can't imagine what it could do. So again, there's a lot of bracha in it. The technology can accomplish a lot of good, but it's also scary what it could do. And that's Galus. The Galus Mitzrayim was a place of sheker, lies. We're not going to repeat the whole Shabbos Hagadol drasha. That's what we said. Pesach night at the Seder, we review the story of Lavan and Yaakov. Yaakov is Titein Emes LeYaakov. Yaakov is the, the paradigm of truth, and Lavan is this snake, the sneaky snake of lies and deception. And Yaakov empowered within us this ability to navigate a world of lies by clinging to the truth. And what is the truth that we cling to? Hashem. Our belief in Him, our surrender to Him, our submission to Him, our acceptance of Him. And more than that, that Hashem gave us truth in the form of the ultimate GPS. He gave us this navigation tool called the Torah. The Torah is the blueprint of creation. The Torah is the instruction manual for life. And the Torah tells us in this world of lies how can you navigate, cling to the truth, and how can you bring redemption. Geulah, redemption. When Moshe says the people want to know, God, what is your name? I came to represent You and I told them I'm going to redeem them and liberate them in Your name, and they said what's His name? God, what name of Yours should I use? And the Ramban said which middah, which character trait? And Hashem's used the name Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh which we saw, which we saw the beautiful interpretation, that name Ehyeh times two equals emes, truth. You want to know who's going to redeem them? Truth. Truth will set them free. Truth will redeem them. Truth brings redemption. Truth is Geulah. And that's—so in the source sheets I had this excerpt, but like everything else in the source sheets we didn't really get a chance to learn it together. We make reference and allusion and I provide it and I share it so people can learn it on their own, but I want to learn it together. This comes from a sefer called Re'eh Emunah, Re'eh Emunah, which is the thirteen principles of faith. Rav Moshe Shapiro zt"l. Rav Moshe Shapiro was an incredible, incredible talmid chacham and a brilliant scholar, familiar not only with Toras Haniglah, with all of Shas and Poskim, with all of the revealed Torah, but also the hidden Torah in Kabbalah. And his capacity to communicate it in a clear way, in an inspiring way, to give a vision for this world. He was an extraordinary, extraordinary person. There's a new book that came out recently by Rav Menachem Nissel called The Staring in the Sun, I think it's called, about Rav Moshe Shapiro. It's a worthwhile book, I'll put it into the WhatsApp group as well. It's a, it's a worthwhile book to read that gives his biography and quotes much of his Torah and it's really fantastic. So he gave a series of classes to baalei teshuvah, I think it was in Ohr Somayach. There were those who were returning to an observant way of life, who were growing in their Judaism, and he gave a series of talks, of classes, on the י"ג עיקרי אמונה, on the thirteen principles of our faith, which we said in the Shabbos Hagadol drasha is what the Seder night's all about. Pesach night is all about instilling in ourselves, in our family, in our children, the thirteen principles of faith. You You find all thirteen of those principles in the Exodus and the story of leaving Mitzrayim. You find them all alluded to in the Haggadah at the Seder and the goal of the night, you only graduate the night, you get a certificate at the end of the Seder, at the end of the night, if you have identified, you've seen, you believe, you subscribe to, you affirm the thirteen principles of our faith. So in this book, in the introduction to this book, he has this chapter, Shir Beis, called Emes Ve-Emunah. Emes Ve-Emunah. So again, we're not repeating the Shabbos Hagadol Drasha, but that was the notion of Emes. Why Hashem Elokeichem Emes? Shema, Yetzias Mitzrayim is Emes. We add the word Emes to the end of the third paragraph of Shema. Why Emes? Truth, truth, clinging to the truth, the primacy of truth, the importance of truth. So I want to learn this together with you. מושג האמונה אינו מפורש כראוי בדעת רוב בני אדם. The notion, the concept, the idea of Emuna. That's this class, living with Emuna. And we've now spent, I don't know how many couple hundred, three, I don't know what number we're up to, defining and exploring and analyzing and most of all trying to live and practice Emuna. We talked a lot about the difference between Emuna and Bitachon and Dveikus. We use them interchangeably, but they're not interchangeable and they're not synonyms. Emuna, faith, Bitachon, trust in God, Dveikus, clinging to God. We've explored over these hundreds of Shiurim many of the differences between. So Rav Moshe Shapiro says the word Emuna, faith, is misunderstood by most people. כדי לעמוד על המשמעות האמיתית של אמונה נתבונן תחילה בפירוש המילה. In order to really understand and to practice what it is, let's spend a little time defining what is Emuna. שימוש המילה אמונה בלשון הקודש הוא על דבר קיים בר סמכא. What is the word Emuna? What is the word Emuna? We use the word Emuna in modern Hebrew, we use the word Emuna in our vernacular to describe someone who's faithful, someone who's trustworthy, someone you can lean upon, someone you can rely on. She-eino mishtaneh. They're not flaky, they're not going to blow with the wind, they're not unreliable, but we use the word Emuna, a Ne'eman is to describe someone something that's trustworthy, that's faithful, that's reliable, that's dependable, and then we can build on that. Kakasuv, as the Pasuk says, as the Pasuk says, וקבעתיו יתד במקום נאמן. Place the peg in a trustworthy and a reliable, in a place where it's going to hold, where it'll stand, where it'll remain. אם תוקע דבר במקום רופף הוא זז ונופל בסוף. You try to put a nail into some Jell-O or vanilla pudding, is the nail going to hold? No. Where do you have to hammer the nail? מקום נאמן הוא איתן ונותן קיום קבוע להסמך עליו. If you hammer the nail into something sturdy and steady, then the nail's going to stay. So the word Ne'eman, the word Emuna means sturdy and steady and reliable and dependable and something that will hold. כמו כן כשאומרים על אדם שהוא נאמן הכוונה היא שאפשר לסמוך עליו שלא ישנה את דעתו ודבריו. Who's a person who's Ne'eman? They're believable, they're dependable, they're reliable, their word is their bond, they're going to do what they say, they're going to show up when they say they're going to show up, they're going to follow through and practice and carry out what they told you they're going to do. וגם בפני לחצים וקשיים. And even in the face of pressure, even if it's hard, even if it's difficult, someone reliable and dependable is going to come through. You know who is reliable and dependable? כמו שנאמר על אברהם אבינו, ומצאת את לבבו נאמן לפניך. The Navi Nechemia describes about Avraham, we say this in our Davenen every day, ומצאת את לבבו נאמן לפניך. You found his heart was Ne'eman lefanecha. Hashem says: You know why I love Avraham? Because he's not inspired today and uninspired tomorrow, he's on fire today and he's ice cold tomorrow, he's practicing today and he drops it all tomorrow, he's into it today and tomorrow he moves on to the next thing. Avraham is Ne'eman. He's in it. He's in it. By the way, he doesn't refer to this, but what's our wish and our hope for the young couple at Aufruf and the Shabbos Kallah and the wedding under the Chuppah and the Sheva Brachos? What do we say about them over and over and over again? What do we write in the response card? What do we write in the card we give with the gift? What do we wish them? They should build a Bayis Ne'eman B'Yisrael. What's a Bayis Ne'eman B'Yisrael? A Bayis, Bayis is a house, a home. Ne'eman, now we understand what the word Ne'eman means. It should be a faithful and a trustworthy and a dependable and a reliable and a consistent and a sturdy and a steady home B'Yisrael in the Jewish people. What do we mean? I don't know, we could mean a lot of things by that. It could mean between the two of them, it should be a bayis ne'eman. They should be faithful to one another. To be faithful to one another doesn't just mean doesn't just mean you didn't have an affair, you didn't cheat, you know, the ultimate act of infidelity. To be faithful to one another means that you can be vulnerable and trustworthy, that you are kind and compassionate, always speak respectfully. It means that when you say you're on your way home from work, you actually left the desk and you've left your office and you're on your way home from work. It means to be faithful. It means to be faithful, to have equal access to the finances. It means for your word to be your bond. It means to be reliable and dependable. It's to be faithful. So first to build a bayis ne'eman means ne'eman between the young couple, between the two, they should be ne'eman to their children. It should be a home which is dependable, reliable, predictable, consistent, sturdy, steady. It means ne'eman, a bayis ne'eman to the community. Oh, that's a home you could rely on. I get questions, I hate these questions, someone gets invited out to a meal, what do they do? They text the Rabbi, "Can I eat there?" What's the question? Is it a trustworthy home? They'll ask, "My child was invited to a playdate. Do you think I should let my child go?" The question, is it a trustworthy home? What are they asking? Is it a bayis ne'eman b'Yisrael? That's essentially what they're asking, because today, unfortunately and tragically, you don't know. What are they watching? What are they smoking? What are they drinking? How are they speaking? What are they talking about? Is it a home that I want my child having a playdate at? Is it a home we want to accept a Shabbos meal to? I hate those texts. How do you answer? I say, "Text the Rebbetzin." Oh, that's mean! Well, that's what she deserves for not being here today. I tell her text the Rebbetzin. That's what she gets, that's what she gets. But what are they essentially asking? So now, now, say about ourselves. If someone were to text the Rabbi, the Rebbetzin about you, is that a trustworthy home? Not only the kashrus of the food, but the kashrus of the environment, of the values, of the speech. What would the Rabbi or Rebbetzin answer? Are you fulfilling the bracha that you got under your chuppah? Have you built a bayis ne'eman b'Yisrael? Is it ne'eman? Is it dependable? Is it reliable? Is it sturdy? Is it steady? Is it consistent? Is it trustworthy? Is it faithful? Is it ne'eman? Is it a bayis ne'eman? Bayis ne'eman could mean yet more. When we get the call for hospitality, someone has a loved one down here in the hospital and they need a place to stay for Shabbos, someone's visiting a loved one who's not observant and they're ba'al teshuvah, they're observant, they need a place to stay for Shabbos, someone's checking out the community, they're thinking about moving, they want to come for Shabbos. Are you a bayis ne'eman? Can we call you and rely on you? Are you like the Weisses? Can we call you and say, "Could we put someone up? Can you make a meal?" We know, we have a very unfortunately, just to tell you, it is a tragically short list of ne'eman homes who when you call and say, "Can you put someone up? Will you have them for a meal?" will say, "Absolutely, no problem, happy to." Is this a bayis ne'eman? Is it reliable and dependable for hospitality, to do chesed? So bayis ne'eman can mean a lot of things, but the common denominator of all of those things of ne'eman means faithful, reliable, dependable, consistent, sturdy, steady, predictable. Is it ne'eman? So all of this is by way Rav Moshe Shapiro's trying to help us, which is his path. He was an expert in Maharal and one of his themes is the Hebrew language and a sensitivity to the Hebrew language to get to the root and to get to the core and that opens up vistas of what meaning is when you understand the depth of the language and of what it means, of what it means to really appreciate. So how do you understand what emunah is? You know, when Rav Akiva Tatz was here, for example, he spoke about this. Hebrew language, Lashon HaKodesh, is not like other languages. The language when you get to the root you open everything up. So a desk or a chair is called a desk or a chair not because there's intrinsic meaning to the word desk or chair, but so that we're all on the same page talking about the same thing, we made up arbitrary words to speak the same language of a desk or a chair. But Lashon HaKodesh, the word itself is a description. It's not just an arbitrary word. So he gave as an example the word av. You know why a father or a parent is called an av? Because aleph, when you become a parent, it turned you from an aleph into a beis. You went from one into two, the extended who you are. And there are many, many examples. So here the word emunah, says Rav Moshe Shapiro, the word emunah if you want to understand the word emunah, you have to understand the word ne'eman. And what does the word ne'eman? Reliable, dependable, sturdy, steady, consistent. We describe a person that way, we describe... The wall. Is that a ne'eman wall? Can I hammer a nail into that wall? So is it a good place to put up the painting? Can I put a nail? Will it hold? Is it ne'eman? Will it hold? Will it hold? Avram is described. ואמרו עליו חז"ל על הפסוק אם חומה היא נבנה עליה אם עמד דבריו כחומה נבנה עליה. אמר לפניו ריבונו של עולם אני חומה ומאמין אני דברי שדי כמגדלה Chananya Mishael v'Azarya. The Midrash on Shir HaShirim we just read on Shabbos Chol HaMoed Shir HaShirim. The Midrash on Shir HaShirim describes if it's a steady and sturdy as a wall build upon it. So ani choma, I am a wall. My word is trustworthy. My word is trustworthy, reliable, dependable. Chananya Mishael v'Azarya who we spoke about on the eighth day Pesach were among the five offspring of Nachshon ben Amminadab who who emulated his courage and conviction. Nachshon was ne'eman. When everyone else stood around and wondered and looked and waited for someone else, he started walking. He was ne'eman. Avraham Avinu שהוא ראש המאמינים שהוא שמו בכתובים הוא איתן האזרחי. והכוונה לאברהם שהוא איתן חזק כצור. זה הפירוש הפשוט של מילה אמונה מלשון חזק חוזק וקיום. So says Rav Moshe Shapiro reducing the word emunah down to ne'eman. Avraham Avinu is described as ne'eman and at the core of emunah what is at the core of emunah? Like a rock. Avram is the rock. The rock. Why do we describe Hashem as a rock? What's a rock? Solid, dependable, solid as a rock. Solid as a rock. האמונה עליה מדובר בה בשלב שני. But the emunah that we're talking about when we think about Hashem, believing in Him, trusting in Him, having faith in Him, we're talking about a second level. קודמת להידיעה השייכת לתחום האמת אחרי האמת באה האמונה. And this is the yesod I want to learn together. Says Rav Moshe Shapiro so brilliantly, first comes truth, then comes faith. Emes v'emunah. האמת מתבררת בדעת כאמת. Emes is truth. What's truth? What's real? What's true? And then after you know what's true, now you could put your faith in it. But if it turns out to not be true, what you put your faith in is sheker. So that's not faith. In order for it to be faith, reliable, dependable that you can lean on it, it has to be emes. It has to be something true. האמת מתבררת בדעת כאמת ומביא את הדבר שהוא מוכח ומובן. אחרי שהדבר מתברר כאמת באה האמונה. Once something reveals itself and establishes itself as true, now you can have emunah. שעניינו הוא ההסתמכות על האמת הזאת. So he's defined for us what's emes and what's emunah. Emes is truth. The evidence of God's existence. That's emes. That's not emunah. So if you sit and study, you go to a seminar. Back in the day I was a madrich on the Discovery seminar, Aish HaTorah. I told you it used to be two and a half days long because people used to have attention span that would last for two and a half days. Now it's less than two and a half hours because people don't have an attention span that could last for two and a half hours. So what was the Discovery seminar? With brilliant speakers and a brilliant curriculum, you examined all the evidence of God's existence. And I witnessed with my own eyes that summer, eight or ten weeks in a row of sitting in the Discovery, I was a madrich, I recruited people to go to it and help set up the drinks and the food, I put in my time doing those things. And I witnessed with my own eyes people who confronted and saw the revelation of the truth and it blew their minds. They changed their lives. Some ran out of the room crying, they couldn't take it, believe it, they didn't want to deal with it because it just radically changed and transformed everything they thought they had known and believed and how they were living. That's confronting the emes. That's emes. Emes. By the way, you know, things like Bible codes, a little controversial, but certainly for those who subscribe to it, has so much as embedded in the codes and when you see it and it's revealed, it can blow your mind. But more than that, the seven wonders of creation and the history, the laws of history and nature and Rav Matti Burger going through all these things and it blows your mind when you see the emes. That's all emes. Emes. The evidence of God's existence. There's not proof, just like there's not proof of anything in this world, but there's overwhelming evidence and the same overwhelming evidence to do anything that you do exists that there's a God. Many of you are drinking coffee this morning. You're drinking it from the beautiful Caffeinate with Kavana cup and hopefully you remember to caffeinate with kavana this morning. And how do you know? How do you know that that coffee's not poisoned? It was picked up from Dunkin' Donuts special for you, post-Pesach, first morning, first coffee after Pesach. Special Dunkin' Donuts. What's their slogan? America runs on Dunkin'. America runs on Dunkin'. Okay, eight days we ran without. poison it? How do you know the worker at Dunkin' Donuts didn't poison it? How do you know whoever picked it up and delivered it here didn't poison it? How do you know? How do you know? Why'd you put it in your mouth? Why'd you drink it? Some of you have a very fearful look on your face right now. How do you know? How do you know? Did you have proof that it's not poisoned? No. You don't have proof. What do you have? An abundance of evidence. There's regulations, there's good people, there's oversight, there's supervision, there's no motive for someone, there's a history of people bringing the coffee and not being poisoned. There's an abundance of evidence enough that you were willing to drink the coffee, that you buy the products at the supermarket, that you take the medicine you picked up at the pharmacy, that you cross the street and you trust your eyes. We make decisions from the moment we wake up till we fall asleep at night based on a preponderance of evidence, not an absolute proof. And the same level of evidence that enables us to do everything that we do during the day, the same amount of evidence exists to know that there's a Hashem. And I think in the past we've explored some of these pieces of evidence together in the Emunah shiur. Maybe one day we'll come back to them again. We're not going to do it right now, but take my word, there is the same evidence that enables you and empowers you to make other decisions in your life and feel safe and secure in them, there's a similar amount of evidence, a preponderance of evidence that God, that God exists. That God exists. That's Emes. That evidence is evidence, is Emes. That's why, by the way, we say in our Davening. Does Judaism expect us to take a leap of faith? Hashem doesn't say, "believe in me." You know what Hashem says? "Know me. Know I exist." וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך. Know today and put it in your heart. אתה הראת לדעת כי ה' הוא האלוקים. You were shown to know that there is a God. You weren't shown to believe. You were shown to know that there is a God because if you pause and analyze and consider the evidence and you'll see the preponderance of evidence, you will know that there is a God the same way that you know you could drink the coffee, same way that you know you could drive your car and the brakes won't give out on you in the middle of the highway, same way that you could know you could take the medicine you picked up at the pharmacy. I just, I'm either making everyone very anxious or making you believe in God, one of the two. But the same amount of evidence that you can drive your car, pick up the medicine, Vechulu, exists that there is a God and God tells us that. Not you were shown to believe, to take a leap of faith, you were shown to know, Ata horeisa lada'at, וידעת היום והשבות אל לבבך. Know, consider the evidence and know. How can you consider the evidence and know? Because that's the Emes. The Emes plain and simple is the evidence is that there is a God. That's the Emes. That's the Emes. That is the truth. You don't believe it? 320 missiles were launched at Israel and they were all knocked out of the sky. There's a God. That's the Emes. There's a force field over Israel, there's an iron dome literally and figuratively. The Emes is it's a miracle that Israel's enemies helped Israel defend itself from Iran: Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and others. The Emes is that is a miracle of epic, epic proportions. That is an enormous piece of evidence, the Emes is, that there is a God. That's the Emes. Emes is the evidence. Emunah is now what do you do with it? What do you do with that? How does that change you? How does that impact you? Will you lean on that? Will you rely on that? Do you depend on that? Does that influence and impact your life? That's Emunah. Emes and Emunah. Emunah is built on, it's predicated on Emes. First there's truth, you confront the truth and the truth is revealed. And once you embrace and confront the truth and it's revealed to you, now Emunah is, what does it mean for you? What does it do for you? How does it change you? The Emes is smoking will kill you. You can read all the evidence. That's Emes. The Emunah is, okay now what? Do you give it up? Do you stop smoking? Emes are the facts and the truth, but how the truth transforms and changes and impacts your life, that's the Emunah. אזוי זאגט רב משה שפירא. That's his principle. האמונה באה אחרי שהדבר כבר קיים בשכלי. אין לומר אני מאמין שהשם יתברך נמצא. Don't say I believe Hashem exists. שהרי היותו נמצא זה ידיעה אמתית וברורה. He doesn't need you to believe he exists. Shkoach. I believe God exists. I don't need you to believe he exists. He exists whether you believe it or not. His existence doesn't depend or rely on your belief. He's not waiting for you to take that leap. He doesn't ask of you to believe in him. So says Rav Moshe Shapiro, אני מאמין שהשם יתברך נמצא, I believe that Hashem exists. It's a foolish statement. eino tzarich emunah, it doesn't take emunah. It doesn't take emunah. אלא יש לומר אני מאמין בו. I believe in him, I rely on him, I trust him. You don't want your child to say, I believe you're my father. shkoach, we have to do some DNA testing? I believe I'm your father, that's a fact. I don't need you to believe it. That's a fact. I want my child to say, I believe you love me. I believe I can rely on you. I believe you're looking out for my best interest. I believe you care about me. I believe you protect me. Hashem doesn't want us to say, I believe he exists. He exists whether we believe it or not. And he doesn't need our belief in order to feel confident in his existence. That's a truth, that's an emes. God's existence is emes. Emunah is the faith we put in him. שאותו הנמצא נאמן עלי אני סומך עליו ולעולם לא אזוז באמונה זו. That no one will ever, nothing can ever make me move from my faith, my belief, my clinging to that truth. He's reliable, he's dependable, he knows, he cares, he's involved, he's invested in my life. זאת היא מצוות אמונה תפיסת האמת באופן שהיא לא תימוט האמת חלה במקום נאמן. So what is the mitzvah of emunah? The mitzvah of emunah that's so misunderstood, he says. The mitzvah of emunah that's so misunderstood is not to have faith in God's existence. That doesn't need you. That's not a mitzvah. That's a fact. That's a truth. That's an emes. What's emunah? Emunah is now what. The fact is God exists. Good. Now what? Do you believe he's reliable and dependable, sturdy and steady, consistent? Do you lean on him, do you depend on him, do you trust him, do you surrender to him, do you submit to him, do you feel his presence in your life? Are you invested in a relationship with him? That's emunah. When someone says, how's your emunah, they're not asking how's your confidence that there's a God. When someone says I'm working on my emunah, they're not working on I'm reading more books with more evidence whether there's a God. All of that is a question of the emes. You're holding by the emes, are you living in sheker, are you holding by the truth or not. That's emes. Emunah is the now what. What do you do with it? What do you do with it? אנו מוצאים בלשון הכתוב שאמונה היא לשם לברית בספר נחמיה ברית שכרת בזמן הקמת בית שני נאמר ובכל זאת אנחנו כורתים אמנה וכותבים. The first word emunah we find, a synonym for emunah, connected and correlated with emunah is the notion of a bris, of a covenant, of a contract, of a commitment. חז"ל רמזו לעניין זה במאמר קצר אי הוא אמת אי אמונה אמת היא בחינת זכר ואמונה בחינת נקבה המהר"ל מבאר זאת ואומר כי אמונת איש לאיש יותר מאמונת האיש לאשה כי אמונה לשון נקבה. The word emunah is the feminine. Women are more trustworthy than men. That's why the word faithfulness and trustworthiness is in the feminine form, not the masculine form. It's belashon nekevah, not lashon zachar. And the Maharal says why, כי אמונת אשה לאיש יותר מאמונת האיש לאשה. A woman's faithfulness and trustworthiness to a man is more reliable, dependable, predictable than a man towards a woman. On behalf of men, I'm offended, but Judaism is a biased religion towards women and we're already used to that. ואין כל כך נמצא אמת באשה כמו שנמצא אמונה ותבין זה כי האיש מותר באחרת ואין אשה מותרת באחר. And you see this expressed from the biblical perspective of polygamy, we're not going to get into this right now. But the capacity to be faithful and have fidelity, women innately have a greater sense than men. That's why the word emunah is in the feminine form, not the masculine form. But again you see that the word emunah has to do with contract, a commitment, a covenant. What is marriage? What is fidelity? What is faithfulness? It's a contract, it's a commitment, you made a commitment, you made a commitment. And maybe we don't use these words under the chuppah but they were taken from us, essentially they're in the kesubah, in sickness and in health till death do us part. This is a commitment, this is the commitment that we make towards one another. במסגרת הנישואין עצם מהותה של האשה הוא לעמוד בנאמנות קצתי לאחר הפגיעה בנאמנות מבטל מסגרת הנישואין ומכאן שאמונה הקשר העדי ובלתי משתנה עם האמת קשר כזה הוא נקרא אמונה. All of this was his introduction, emes ve'emunah, emunah predicated on emes. So God's existence doesn't need your emunah, that's the emes. But now that he exists, what do we do with it? Are we in that commitment, are we in that contract, are we in that covenant? Did we stand under the chuppah with him? Are we reliable and dependable and trustworthy? Is he towards us, are we towards him? That's what emunah is really all about and im yirtzeh Hashem we'll pick up with it next time. Have a good day, may we hear besoros tovos. Please remain to complete all of Sefer Tehillim for our brothers and sisters in Israel.
