Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov to all. May we hear Besoros Tovos, please God let it be a good day that we hear good news. Hostages should come home, a sweeping victory over our enemies, good news for Am Yisrael, Klal Yisrael and what better day than Pesach Sheni? Today is the 14th of Iyar, it is Pesach Sheni. The minhag some have to eat Matzah today. Tachanun was omitted. The second Pesach is the holiday of second chances. Second chances. Those who were tamei, those who were impure, those who were ineligible to bring the Korban Pesach, to bring the Paschal Sacrifice on the original date, had a second chance, a new opportunity. Why were they impure? The Gemara records a debate why they were impure, but one of the opinions is because these were the individual who were carrying the bones of Yosef. Is there a greater model of second chances than Yosef? Did anyone ever give anyone in their life more of a second chance than Yosef gave his brothers? So this is the holiday. Because Yosef gave his brothers a second chance, God gave the Jewish people a second chance, sometimes the Jewish people kivayachol give God a second chance, which is really what our shiur is all about, emuna, even when we've been hurt, even when we feel he failed, even when we've struggled or even when we have some resentment, to nevertheless give God a second chance. So that's Pesach Sheni. That's today. That's today. Every day is pregnant with possibility, every day has a unique energy, hopefully tap into it today, Pesach Sheni, second chances, don't give up. Don't give up on yourself, don't give up on others, don't give up on Hashem, believe in it all and take advantage of the second chance. Our Emuna series is generously sponsored by Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella's mother Dr. Ellen Shanzer whose yahrtzeit is the 10th of Adar. נשמה שתהא לה עליה. Thank you very much for her incredible, incredible generosity. The shiur this morning is also sponsored by our dear friends Fay and Jeff Wolkowitz in memory of Lev Yisrael. They should find comfort and they should find strength, and please God, they should have only simchas. We should hear of good news and hear of simchas bekarov. Okay, before we dive back into what we've been learning from Rav Moshe Shapiro, Emes v'Emuna, the difference and the importance of emes, the facts and the truth, which don't care about your feelings, and emuna, how you apply it to your feelings, to real life. Before we get back to that, a couple of emuna emails. I'm very grateful to all those who submitted and who sends, we'll please God get to them, can't read them all one week, so thank you for your patience if you did send an email. But here we go. Motzei Shabbos, 13th of April, Israel had 300 missiles aimed at it from Iran. Ben Gurion Airport shut down and airlines canceled most flights. The next morning, April 14th, even though the Iranian threat subsided, most flights had not resumed and there was zero communication from the airlines as to the status. I had pre-booked weeks earlier over 20 seats on Bluebird Airline for our kashrus catering team to head to Greek Isles to prepare and set up for our Pesach program with 700 guests arriving one week later. The author of this email is a tour operator from Israel, I happen to know him, he planned and was in charge of operating an entire Pesach program in the Greek Isles and he had saved 20 seats for the catering team to head there before the 700 guests arrived. You can imagine the stress and in spite of all attempts and efforts throughout the day Sunday to find alternative flights and travel options, all came to naught and to no avail. No flights on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. We left no stone unturned. No charter boats, all private jet companies were fully booked. The next possible commercial flight were Wednesday afternoon and even so, 20 seats were not available, and even those flights were subject to change under the circumstances. By six p.m. Sunday evening I was drained and my head mashgiach called and asked what will be. With a catastrophe looming, I turned to him over the phone and yelled out from the depths of my soul, "This is what Hashem wants. I've done the best all day to find alternative ways to fly the team and released myself of all attempts to change the reality. Now, it's entirely in Hashem's hands and it's up to him to determine if 700 guests from around the world will have a kosher Pesach program, which they were all relying on." I hang up, and no later than five minutes, I get a call from my oldest son who knew of the situation. He had just remembered he had served in the IDF six years earlier with a pilot friend whom he believed went on to become a private pilot for a charter jet company. He searched high and low for his number and finally found it and suggest I give him a call. I called and explained the situation and he said he'd revert to me within fifteen minutes. He called back and said he can arrange a private charter flight for 20 seats at six a.m. Monday morning for twenty thousand dollars. I asked for the bank details, wired the money, and our team arrived at the hotel by nine a.m. Monday morning and made up for the lost time. As a joke, I told my friends, "I'll send the bill to Tehran and make a claim." Too bad the president's no longer available to pay that claim. Sorry, not sorry. That story, but the message I take away was the minute one resigns himself that all is in Hashem's hands, you really are reliant on him and all is for the good. Feel free to share, all the best. So, in that moment he let go and he let God, and that then was when the Yeshuah came. And it doesn't mean it always will, as you know, and as we emphasize each and every week, Emunah is not an uncondition. Emunah does not mean automatically or by definition that it's going to have a good ending. It's not, oh, when I let go and let God, when I submit and surrender, when I realize it's entirely and all up to him, then he'll all automatically come through. Because if that were the case, I wouldn't really be surrendering to him, I would just be performing as if I'm surrendering to him. And as long as I perform and display as if I'm surrendering to him, then I can bank out and count on he's going to come through. It's not so simple. It doesn't work that way. You have to be prepared that it's not going to work out, and that also is because of him. But the author of that email is right that sometimes we talk to Hashem or we ask for his help only as yet another item on our checklist. Gotta go to the doctor, gotta take the medicine, gotta do the rehab, gotta do the acupuncture, gotta take the Chinese medicine, gotta take the herbs, gotta Google WebMD, oh, and also I've got to say Tehillim. Just another thing on my checklist that when you add it all together, hopefully it brings the result that I'm looking for. But that's not how Emunah works. The way Emunah works is I do the other things because they too are forms of Emunah. Emunah's with my lips, but Emunah's also with my actions. But in the end of the day, I know all along it is entirely, exclusively, only up to, up to him. It's up to him. You know, last night there was an AIPAC event with our BRS Pillar Society because AIPAC entirely pivoted its methodology. They had to, and they're winning. And if you don't think so, look at last night's results. They won yet again last night. Current member of the squad whose sister was running to join the squad, who was many points ahead in the race, and there are many other examples like this. When AIPAC put together its resources from the community, pro-Israel community, Jew and non-Jew across the country, and entered these races, they have defeated our enemies. And make no mistake, if they didn't or if they don't, that squad will only grow, there'll be more people voting against. You know, this year Israel's getting 18 billion with a B, 18 billion dollars from America. Now's not the time to get into the importance, the role that the US plays and our role in encouraging the US relationship with Israel. To put that in perspective, the entire military budget of Israel annually is 18 billion dollars. And America matched that budget this year because Israel needs to double it with the war it's fighting on multi-fronts with 18 billion dollars. But that doesn't happen if the wrong people are in Congress. So there's an entire strategy and there's an entire methodology and you have to figure out who you can in the primaries back and who can defeat and when do you put the money in and when do you buy the ads and when do you want the other candidate to know they have the backing and when do you want them to not know they have the backing and be caught by surprise. And there's an entire methodology and strategy and it was an amazing evening. We learned a lot. We didn't know the results during the program last night, but late last night or woke up this morning to find out ברוך השם בלי עין הרע yet another victory. And we're hoping and davening from the depth of our being for two more, two of the most, I don't even know what words to describe, vile members of the squad who AIPAC is taking on in their primary, hopefully will be defeated as well in another few weeks from now. But one thing was missing last night and I thought about throughout the program and that is לב מלכים ביד השם. We do all that we can. We put all our resources together, we employ all of the greatest strategists, all the greatest consultants, we come up with all the greatest plans, we do everything we can to defeat those who seek to defeat us, to eliminate us, but the most important thing we have to do is daven, daven. You could put together the biggest war chest in the world to back the right candidate. You could take out the biggest ad buys in the world. You could knock on as many doors as you want. But if Hashem wants that wrong person in, they're going to be in. If Hashem wants to defeat that person, he doesn't need you. We need to take our initiative, but we can't ever forget that it's all up to Hashem. Don't let the initiative get in the way, don't let the initiative be friction or a barrier to remembering in the end of the day it's all up to Hashem. So a person has to sometimes sit back and say I did all that I could and I now resign myself to the fact that it is in your hands. I made every phone call, I made every appointment, I took every effort, every initiative in whatever area or realm of life and now I surrender. It's up to you. The rest is entirely and utterly and exclusively up to you. And that is the moment that we are displaying not only the emes that he's in charge and he's in control, that is the moment that we are displaying the emunah we're putting into practice and that's the second email that I read. That is the second email I want to read to you. Dear Rabbi Goldberg, I hope all is well. Yada yada yada. A number of my good friends have been listening to your shiurim. I also began to listen. I enjoy the shiurim. I came away feeling inspired. Blah, blah, blah. I'd like to share with you something that's happened to me over the past few months as it fits into what you discussed in the emuna shiurim. I was in Israel at the beginning of this year for Shana Bet. In January, I had to make a decision: either to stay in Israel and make aliyah or to start college in America. It was an impossibly hard decision to make. This is because from before I could remember, I had planned to make aliyah after seminary. But also for multiple reasons, I was having a really hard time making the final decision about aliyah. I felt as if many things were holding me back. As you say in the emuna shiur, I kept trying to frame my thoughts that whatever I would decide was where Hashem meant for me to be. But it was very hard for me because I felt that both options were wide open. So I couldn't figure out where Hashem wanted me to be. I desperately wanted to stay in Israel, but I also felt that being with my parents in America would allow me to feel more grounded. After many tears and many conversations, I made my decision to come back to America for the semester, postponing my aliyah for some time later when I felt more stable. I was unsure about my decision, and even as I was getting on the plane, I was still unsure. Once I got back to America, I only had a few days before starting college. It was a whirlwind. I felt as if I was just going through the motions of life. I was struggling with whether I made the right decision. Then, on my first day of college, I heard from someone that one of my good childhood friends was probably about to be diagnosed with cancer. As the days unfolded, I found out that my friend's diagnosis was even more serious than originally thought, and it was going to be a really hard fight for her. Having been in Israel for the past few months, it had been a long time since I had seen her, and I didn't even get a chance to tell her yet that I was back in America. She thought I was still planning on making aliyah. I made sure to tell her that I was in the country, and I made sure to go spend time with her as soon as possible. I continued to spend as much time with her as possible, and at one point, I remember her telling me, "I'm so happy you're in America." And all of a sudden, it hit me. Up until December, I truly thought I'd be making aliyah in January. Instead, I was in America. Being in America gave me the opportunity to visit her, see her in person, and keep her company. I don't know why Hashem does what He does. I don't know why my friend has to be diagnosed with something so serious, and I daven every day for her to have a complete refuah sheleimah. However, now my perspective on decision-making has changed greatly. Because when I made the decision, I could never have known what would be about to happen. I had to make the best decision I could with the information I had, but ultimately, Hashem was the one who put me in the right country at the right time. I couldn't be more grateful for being in America now, as I've been able to spend a tremendous amount of time with my friend and keep her company. Going forward, as I now decide whether or not to make aliyah in September, thinking back to this decision about how many unknown factors go into each decision helps me remain calm because I know Hashem has the greater plan. It was so unfortunate something so terrible was giving me that perspective. I hope it will never happen like this again. But now I'm able to better trust in Hashem and put me in the right place at the right time. I just have to do the best with the information I had. Thank you so much. Have a good Shabbos. We daven from the bottom of our hearts her friend should have a refuah sheleimah, complete, speedy, and painless refuah sheleimah, and that she should be able to fulfill this dream, make aliyah, and continue in the holy, in the holy land, in the holy land. But again, you see from this email, and something that we're all trying to live and practice, that we do the best that we can at that moment with what we have. But afterwards, don't perseverate and don't get stuck and don't be paralyzed and don't second-guess and don't get regret. Realize wherever I am, it's where I'm meant to be. And sometimes we find out quickly why we're there, and other times it remains a mystery and we may never find out. But it gives us the peace of mind and it gives us the calm that we crave and it gives us the serenity that we need to live life. I get all the variables, I consider all the options, I consult with all the smart people, and I come to a decision. And once I come to it, I am where I am meant to be. And maybe we'll find out, maybe we won't, but that's what it means to live with emuna. We are on page chaf alef. There are more copies up here. We are on page chaf alef. And Rav Moshe Shapiro again had been developing the idea of emes and emuna. Emes, the truth that God exists, the truth doesn't need your help. Whether you believe in Him or not, Hashem exists. It's His world, He controls it, He is the source of it. Emuna is, now that I know and I live, I submit and I surrender, I recognize I am where I'm meant to be, I have what I'm meant to have, I have what I meant to, to need. So he continues: האמונה היא כוח הכולל את האמת בעת בירורתה. Emuna is what collects the emes in the time of clarification. When we have a breakthrough and we see the truth and we know the truth and now we're ready to apply and execute and manifest and live the truth. You could have all the emes in the world. This girl just came back from seminary. A year and a half, two years, Shana Beis. Two years of Torah learning. And I'm pretty confident she had classes on Emuna and Bitachon. And she probably went to the Kotel and went often and Kever Rachel and Tiyulim all over Israel. And she probably met with amazing Rabbis and amazing teachers and they were all so amazing, Baruch Hashem, and they were incredible and they were so special. And her Emuna expanded and grew off the charts. Her emes that there's Hashem, no doubt. Maybe she took the discovery seminar at Aish, maybe she heard special teachers and she examined the evidence for Hashem's existence and all of that provides the emes. But when the rubber meets the road and it's time to make a decision and do you panic and do you have anxious anxiety and do you live with regret and do you second guess, that's where the Emuna is. emes is in the classroom at seminary. Emuna is in the kitchen and the carpool and at work and in the boardroom and at the airport and it's in every decision that we have to make. emes is somewhat easy. Examine the evidence, take the seminar, read the book, listen to the tape. emes is somewhat easy. Emuna, Emuna when you're waiting for the lab report, the lab result, Emuna in the doctor's office with the appointment and the follow-up. Emuna when you don't know what's going to be with your child whom you love so desperately and just want their well-being and you don't know what will be, that's where Emuna comes in. Emuna when you don't know where your next paycheck or your parnassa and you're trying to make a deal, Emuna when you don't know if you've made the right decision and if you're in the right place, that's where the Emuna comes in. והעושה אותו לדבר יציב וקבוע אצל האדם מבלי שום התחשבות אם כרגע אני מבין את האמת כמו שהיא. And Emuna is executing whether I get the emes or not. גם אם לזמן מסוים המערכת של האמת גבוה ממני ואיני יכול לחשוב עליה כראוי. Sometimes the emes is beyond us, the truth and the greatness is beyond me, I don't understand the intricate detailed laws, I don't have access to the understanding. The emes is beyond me. The brilliance, the complication, the minutiae, the details, the emes is beyond my grasp. אבל אמונה משאירה אותי בתחום של האמת לעולם. Sometimes the emes is complicated. The emes, the truth, the facts, they're complicated. They're complicated, they're beyond my grasp. But you know what's always available to me? Emuna Peshuta. Emuna Peshuta is what so many of our grandparents had, our great grandparents had. You know what Emuna Peshuta is? Tevye on Fiddler on the Roof. In the barn flipping the hay, having a conversation with God. I don't know Fiddler on the Roof well so I'm not ranking on it, but I have no idea whether Tevye was even literate. I don't know, do they revisit that in the movie, in the play? I have no idea. My daughter is starring in Tevye in high school, I could ask her. I have no idea. She was Tevye. I don't know if Tevye was even literate. Tevye probably didn't go to Aish Torah's discovery seminar. Tevye couldn't tell you the Bible codes. Tevye couldn't recite Shas ba'al peh, he couldn't tell you the Talmud by heart. Tevye might not have been literate, be able to recite the thirty-nine Melachot, the categories of creative labor. Tevye didn't necessarily have access to all the emes. He couldn't tell you all the pieces of evidence for God's existence and all the detailed minutiae complication parts of Hashem's Torah and his blueprint for his world. The emes is sometimes beyond our grasp. The emes sometimes is highfalutin, complicated, up in an ivory tower, we feel we don't have access. But you know what Emuna Peshuta is? It's when you simply talk to God. When Tevye unloaded and unburdened himself and talked to God, if I were a rich man, I'm not going to sing it for you. You got to pay extra for that. I'm not going to try. If you see Atara in shul, ask her to do if I was a rich man for you, she does a good Tevye. But I'm not going to do it for you. But you know what Emuna Peshuta is? Emuna Peshuta is when you talk to God. Help my child not intermarry, help me have a living and a livelihood, help me milk this cow, help me turn over the hay. Emuna Peshuta is I can't tell you the evidence for his existence, I can't recite the detailed laws of his Torah, but he's my best friend. I feel his presence, I feel his guiding hand on my shoulder, he is with me all day long, I talk to him from when I wake up until I fall asleep. Emuna Peshuta. I was once at the Kotel, the Kosel, whatever you call it, and I heard maybe the greatest expression of Emuna Peshuta in my life. Of course it was a Sefardi. I was standing next to a Sefardi and he was davening and I felt so guilty and terrible, I wasn't eavesdropping, he was just davening so loud. But he wasn't saying words from a siddur and he wasn't saying words from Tehillim. He was talking directly to Hashem. Not as if Hashem was right in front of him, Hashem was right in front of him. Not as if Hashem was his best friend, Hashem was his best friend. And he was telling Hashem. By the way, would you mind fixing that? Could we work on that? A little more of this, a little less of that? Thank you for all of that. He was having a whole conversation. Hisbodedus, he was in this personal, private, just him, me, and God conversation, conversation. Thank God he didn't reveal anything too private. But I was like, I had my siddur, I was just like: wow, there are really Jews who do that? There are really Jews who talk to Hashem? Right? I don't know. If I would have put a Gemara in front of him and said: read. Could he read? Could he make a leining on Zevachim and Menachos? Could he make a leining on the daf today, Bava Metzia? I don't know. Maybe, probably. A holy Jew, I don't know, I don't know. But I know this: emuna peshuta, the emuna he lived with, there were just no questions, there were no questions. I'm reading the biography now of the Klausenberger Rebbe, ArtScroll put out a new biography. There was a previous one, but ArtScroll right on Erev Pesach. Klausenberger Rebbe buried 11 or 13? 11. 11 children. He was married, he lost his wife and all 11 children. All 11 children. They were great people. A wife, in-laws, parents, siblings, everybody. And they lived and they lived with emuna peshuta. They rebuilt after the war. The way they lived. You gotta read, you're struggling with your emuna, we've talked about a hotspot. The Klausenberger Rebbe biography is a hotspot. If you're struggling with your emuna, you're going through a hard time, you don't know how you're going to make it through some difficult period, read a biography of a great man or woman: Rebbetzin Machlis, Rebbetzin Kanievsky, the Klausenberger Rebbe, there's no shortage of them. And let's assume, I don't want to say it's true, it's 100% accurate, even if you want to believe it's 50% exaggerated, it is still outrageous, extraordinary, the fastest, most high-speed hotspot you can connect through and to, that will increase your emuna. And you remember your mother, your father, you remember your Bubby, your Zeidy, you remember the people that we knew and that we know in our own lives who also went through, are going through, and the emuna peshuta. Emuna peshuta. Don't start to talk to them about how do you know He exists and how... theodicy, I'll use a fancy word to impress you. You know what theodicy is? Why do bad things happen to good people? Theodicy is the study of evil. Why is there evil in this world? Why do bad things happen to good people? The fancy word if you go to college, which used to be a place for smart people, not anymore, they'll talk about, they'll talk about theodicy. The divinity school of that horrible place whose insignia says in Latin Emet, but it is the capital of sheker, and they'll talk in divinity school theodicy, why do bad things happen to good people? You know the Klausenberger Rebbe, he didn't ever talk about theodicy, he had a PhD in theodicy. He didn't have to talk about it. Emuna peshuta, survivors who rebuilt. That's emuna. Emes is the truth. Sometimes it's beyond. For Tevye, happens to be the Klausenberger Rebbe was an enormous gadol baTorah. He knew the emes and he lived the emuna. He had both. But what Rav Moshe Shapiro is telling us is that sometimes when you struggle with the emes, I can't explain it, I don't have access to the complicated part of it, it's high-falutin, it's complicated, it's complex, it's beyond me, it's beyond my grasp, I'm lost, the emes I'm lost, but the emuna, there's no question. I talk to God at the Kotel, Tevye in the barn, I'm just emuna peshuta. There's nothing to talk about, there's Hashem, this is all for a reason, there's a plan, I'm in His hands, I surrender to Him 100%. הרי האמונה משאירה אותי בתחום של האמת לעולם. The emuna leaves me within the world of emes forever. Turn the page kaf-beis. ובאמונה האמת נקלטת ונתפסת בכל אופן ועניין. With emuna, the emes is gathered and can be collected and can manifest in every way. בין אם נמצאת באותו רגע באותה חריפות של השגה כמו שהיתה מקודם, בין אם היא נעדרת מן השכל. Sometimes the emes is revealed, right? The morning after the Iran missiles all were intercepted, the emes was the emes. It was every headline. Even the enemy media, the headline was the emes, that against all odds, miraculously, beyond comprehension, all the headlines and all the data was that Hashem helped us and an extraordinary collaboration knocked all those missiles out of the sky. That was the emes. Sometimes the emes is clear as day. Helicopter went down. It's unbelievable. The country that wants to destroy us is being destroyed and self-destructing. It was the emes. Sometimes the emes is visible, discernible, measurable, undeniable. The emes is clear as day, clear as day. And sometimes the emes is hidden. And sometimes you read even between the lines, you still can't find it. It's not the headline, it's not the subtext, it's not under the fold, it's not in the back page. The emes you're searching, you're yearning, you're looking, you're reading, you're trying to find, where's the emes in this diagnosis? Where's the emes in this what this child is struggling with? Where's the emes in my difficult parnassa? Where's the emes in this long wait for a shidduch, a bashert? Where's the emes in this in this wait for fertility, secondary infertility? Where's the emes in it? Sometimes you can't find the emes anywhere, that's where the emuna kicks in. That's where the emuna is. Emes is sometimes clear and sometimes hidden. Emes is sometimes a headline and sometimes you can't find it anywhere. But the emuna, living with emuna, connecting to Hashem, submit and surrender, let go let God, feel His presence, that is always. ולכן אמונה היא קבועה ואפשר לסמוך עליה. Emuna is set and you can always rely on it. You can always rely on it. And that's why one is zachar and one is nekeiva. We'll pick up with this next week. But emes is lashon zachar. Emuna is lashon nekeiva. Because one is intellectual and cognitive and theoretical and abstract, and that's masculine. And the other is lovely, everything in your ivory tower, but we've got to put it together and run a house, akeres habayis. Somebody's got to get the kids off to school. Somebody's got to make Shabbos. Somebody's got to take all your nice ideas, all your fancy divrei Torah about Pesach, who's making Pesach? Somebody's got to drive the ship. Somebody's got to get us where we're going. Someone's got to make it happen. Someone's got to execute and manifest. Someone's got to bring it into reality. We'll pick up with that next week, which actually correlates what we just spoke about in 10 minutes of meaning. We spoke שמע בני מוסר אביך ואל תטוש תורת אמך. What's the difference between mussar avicha, the mussar of your father, and toras imecha, the Torah of your mother? The father transmits the mussar, and the mother transmits the Torah. What is the Torah of the mother in distinction to the mussar of the father? Which correlates beautifully with what we'll pick up, that emes is zachar, emuna is nekeiva, because it is the masculine energy that's the emes and the feminine energy the toras imecha which is the emuna, and please God we'll pick up with it next week. שיראו בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות.
