Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov welcome back to Living with Emunah a difficult, difficult day for Am Yisrael for Am Yisrael funerals in Israel today that we all feel around the world wherever we are and we join with the Bibas family with our brothers and sisters leaning into that Emunah 'cause there's no other way on difficult and painful days like this. I want to thank our generous Emunah Series sponsors for the year Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan; we're so grateful to the Morgans who sponsored in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, in memory of Bella's mother Dr. Ellen Chanzer. A big thank you to the Morgans. Also this morning is sponsored anonymously in gratitude to BRS for all the Torah and also sponsored by Faye and Jeff Walkowitz and Eddie Bloom for a speedy refuah sheleimah of Yardena Lipa; we should hear besoros tovos good news and Yardena Lipa please God should have a complete speedy painless recovery and be a source of tremendous nachas to her whole whole family. We are running, every year we do a global campaign for those who watch and listen and read and follow and connect and feel connected. If only everyone who sent me an Emunah email would participate in the campaign we'd be done. So maybe we should make that a little, a little tag on the bottom of the Emunah emails. This year we're doing something a little bit different which is not only asking people to participate but to participate more and deeper than they ordinarily do. Next year we'll go back to the regular amount; we're not raising the bar going forward just for this year. We are building our campus we're doubling our campus and we're building it so that we can build Am Yisrael, build Emunah, build Chesed, build Torah, build Tefillah, build outreach, build Jews and we're running a campaign next week in order to finish up this project and we really need everyone's help. So we're looking for 250 global ambassadors 250 people around the world who watch read listen follow and enjoy and benefit and are enriched and connect with our Torah community who are willing to give or get $1800. You could give the $1800 make it easy or we'll make you a page and give you a link and you could send it for everyone who tells me "My friends my family my cousin my niece my..." I was at an aufruf a couple weeks ago someone from our community and he had a friend who spoke Friday night who was hilarious he was fantastic his timing his delivery he was great you know these aufrufs have turned into roasts whether that's good or bad or right or wrong is not the point right now he was great so he decided he was going to go after me he says "We have Rabbi Goldberg here tonight" I said "Oh no" okay I've been the subject of roasts at a lot of aufrufs. "It's not my kid I'm not related I did nothing I don't know why I'm on the hot seat" and he says "If I have to hear any more from my mother my grandmother my sisters about this Living with Emunah shiur" he said "Every shidduch date I go on I hear Rabbi Goldberg's Emunah shiur I'm only dating girls with no Emunah going forward" it was a great line. So you could give the 1800 you could set up a page and get all the girls you went out with to give to your page and get to the $1800 and the Rabbis at BRS are going to New York we'll be in Israel and here in Florida we're having three dinners to show appreciation and gratitude for free to invite you to anyone who helps to give or get the 1800 plus giveaways of our Torah little booklets exclusively for those who do. You don't have to give only 1800 you could give a dollar anywhere from a dollar to 1800 or 1800 to 18 million we won't cut you off we won't say no but we're looking for 250 global ambassadors who will help us. We'll be done we could just turn back to our Torah. You could find it easily at brsonline.org/global brsonline.org/global. So last Wednesday we didn't have shiur last Wednesday last week we did shiur on Monday instead of Wednesday because Baruch Hashem we had the we had the bris of our grandson last Wednesday morning and thank you thank you thank you Baruch Hashem we should all have many many simchas many healthy babies should be born and we should all have nachas only. Anyway at the bris there was not only a place to get your bagel but there was a machine; when you cut the bagel in half you put it in and then it goes on this little it's a toaster a little conveyor belt toaster and it comes out. So I put my bagel on top but there were like bagels that had come out and they were toasted and nobody took them so I thought maybe what you do is you take one that came out and you put your one on top you pay it forward I thought and that's what happens. So I took the newly toasted bagel and whoever would come next could take mine and as I grabbed the newly toasted bagel one of my daughters said "Hey Abba" walked up at that moment "that's my bagel" and it was on my plate she said "Why is my bagel on your plate?" and I said to my daughter "Your bagel is exactly where it's meant to be." So I'm now paying it forward I was told last week about my car not in the driveway that your car is where it's meant to be now I paid it forward to my daughter your bagel is where it's meant to be which is on my plate so anyway this is our new embrace your place everything is where it's meant to be if I have to say we've Baruch Hashem I don't even know... we've originated any of them, but we have shared the expressions and phrases from the Torah Ein Od Milvado and that Hashem is always with us wherever we are. We've shared countless expressions of Torah and let go and let God and embrace your place and but of all the expressions, most emails and contact I have are with people who say embrace your place. So I'm thinking about writing a book called embrace your place. יש השם במקום הזה embrace your place because I think that's the one that has the biggest impact. Dear Rabbi Goldberg, I'm a new listener from New York and I've become a big fan of the Emuna shiur. This week with all the devastating news occurring in Israel I've been making a conscious effort to have emuna and trust in Hashem's plan for Klal Yisrael. Yet, the sadness and pain have been overwhelming and painful. The tears just don't stop. As I woke up from a night of Tehillim and crying myself to sleep, I asked Hashem to help give me strength. I needed an emuna hug from this nightmare. It feels like October 8th all over again. My Spotify tends to play your emuna episodes out of order, but because I listen while driving to work, I can't always go back to the actual episode I was up to. Today, my Spotify decided to play an episode from Chanukah. Someone who needed emuna and Spotify, my greatest shadchan, played her an emuna episode back from Chanukah. And you happened to read an emuna email from my very own brother. I'm 110% sure it's him based on the details. I couldn't believe my ears. I didn't even know he listens to the shiur. He probably does it at night while his wife's asleep and nobody knows, sneaks it in like the men tend to do. I've gotten several emails like that. Anyway, not only did my brother's email give me chizuk that I needed, I felt it was also a sign from Hashem. Klal Yisrael are all family, literally and figuratively. And with our brotherhood and achdus, we will be okay, even though we're hurting so badly right now. We're all connected. When we feel each other's pain, we're united. Hashem gives us a hug and reminds us he has the ultimate plan, the perfect plan. We're all brothers. Thank you for the podcast. Shabbat Shalom, only besurot tovot. So again, an amazing, just when she felt she needed it and which random episode, the one from Chanukah, but right before Purim. And what was it? She heard an email I read. I never say who wrote it. And she realized it was her brother and then realized we're all brothers. And what a beautiful insight. Rabbi, and this person actually wanted me to read this email and probably I have permission to use the name but I still won't. I'm a frum woman who reluctantly followed my husband's job to South Carolina. I struggled here a decade to maintain frum children. Baruch Hashem, it is a miracle they keep Shabbos and mitzvos. One especially is a giant talmid chacham in Queens. I would cry and not understand why I was stuck in this place. As you often remark, a Yid is never lost. Late 2023, I took upon myself three specific chesed projects. I volunteer and she lists the things that she volunteers for. One case in particular, the child surgery needed to be paid upfront. To the parents' surprise, I looked up and said quietly, Hashem, please reward my family with a shidduch for my oldest daughter. I charged my credit card a fortune and was repaid within 48 hours. Right? So this person, one of the things she does is she's a physician and she often volunteers in that capacity and someone needed a surgery, didn't know how they'd pay for it. She took out her credit card and paid for the surgery and said to Hashem in that merit, let my older, my oldest daughter find a shidduch, find her husband. And was repaid in 48 hours. Shortly thereafter, a handsome young Texan appeared at our shul. And I immediately adopted him. A complete mensch who had been an October 8th Jew. Rabbi, he came from such a distant spiritual place. I saw a genuine neshama and I set right to work to be mekarev him. The deadline I had was Pesach when my daughter would be returning from seminary. I gave him Hebrew lessons, planted many seeds. I introduced him to your podcast and he's a regular listener now. Soon after, he independently decided to wear kippah and tzitzis. I created a Shabbos room for him at the shul. He started keeping Shabbos. Kashrus followed along with daily minyan attendance. He davens with incredible kavanah and runs to shul with zerizus. He has four chavrusas and loves learning Torah. The time had come. My daughter returned from Israel to find the phenomenal young frum man. The wedding is Sunday, March 2nd. They'll be living in Virginia while he's assigned to the USS New Mexico nuclear submarine in charge of the nuclear reactor. He is the only frum submariner in the US Navy and here is the young, here is the young couple. So, this is a woman who knows what she wants and goes and gets it. I'll give her 10% of whatever she brings in for the campaign. You're hired. In South Carolina, text everyone you know and you don't know and keep 10% of whatever you bring in to do your mitzvos and it's a deal. I have so many emails I want to get to, our text, we'll read just a couple more. Dear Rabbi Goldberg, this is the second shiur I heard from you about the importance of today. I want to share with you an incredible story of how this impacted me in a huge way. I listen to your emuna shiur in the car on the way to work. I have a 50-minute drive so I listen on parts. About a few weeks ago, it was a Monday morning and I had just finished the shiur ending with the lesson that we only have to get through today. We've been speaking about that, hayom, today. Emuna is not projecting tomorrow, next week, next year. What will be, how it'll be, will it be? work out? What's going to—Emuna is today. Do I have what I need today? Get to the end of today. Get to the end of today. So that Monday was the beginning of a life-changing situation. I had chest pain on and off, but mostly off and I just assumed it was indigestion. I was taken to the doctor that day and an EKG came out fine so I figured I was okay. After I got home from work I felt the pain again. I went to the urgent care who said I need to go to the ER. In the ER the doctor said they had to keep me there because there was a number in my blood that was elevated. Next time they checked my blood for a heart condition it went through the roof. I had to take I had to have a test done to find out what the problem was and there were three blockages. Although I partially put out for the procedure I heard the doctor say I need a triple bypass surgery. I heard him consult with other heart doctors who agreed I was in total shock when I heard the news. Surgery was set for the next morning. Having heard your shiur just before the incident gave me the chizuk just when I needed it. On the morning before the surgery I kept telling myself and others that I just need to get through today. It's four to six week recovery I've had constant pain in my chest every day since. As I recover I'm supposed to walk and do exercise for endurance but the pain is so great it's hard to push myself. The main point I want to share with you is that I don't need to perseverate a word I learned from you. About how strong I will feel tomorrow or when I can drive or get back to work shiur is a great reminder I only need to get through today. Thank you for the lesson I love the emuna shiur especially on days I'm down because it always lifts me out. Thank you for the uplifting shiurim. So whether it's a triple bypass or whether it's reconcile with a family member or whatever it is in life we just have to get through today. We just have to get through today. Okay I have many more emails but it's going to be hard to get through them. I did get two yesterday and this blew me away. I'm so moved and grateful and proud but two people shared with me yesterday who had taken me through their journey of some of the challenges that they had with having children. Two babies were born in the last week that were named Emuna because of the shiur. Mazel tov. As it got them through and that's unbelievable unbelievable. That's better than eighteen hundred dollars. I mean also give the eighteen hundred dollars but it's but it's a lot better than the eighteen hundred dollars. It's incredible. I want to share one last thing before we dive into our text together before we continue to learn about and live and practice and execute not just the emes that there is Hashem who controls the world but the emuna to put it in our lives. At the eight o'clock minyan there was a man davening and on his tallis bag and his tefillin bag was a bumper sticker. It's a picture of a soldier and it says אם עושים את זה אז בחיוך. If you're doing something if you're doing it already do it with a smile. And it says Eyal Mevorach Twito 2001 to 2024. It was on the man's tallis bag and the gabbai of the minyan who happens to be my brother-in-law noticed that the same man who had this on his tallis bag was saying kaddish. So he went up to him to say you have this bumper sticker do you know and he said yes that's my son. So I brought me in there and I just gave him the biggest hug. I hope he's okay with it and won't get a restraining order against me because I didn't let go because I wanted him to just feel the energy from our hearts and our community and all of Klal Yisrael. And it's so powerful and so I asked do you have more of these and he reached into his tallis bag so happy and so grateful to give them out. In Israel for all these fallen soldiers this is what's been happening and there are walls in many places where stickers are put up. And one of the things that the family of fallen soldiers gives them strength and comfort is to know that their child is not forgotten that their sacrifice and the price that they paid for our protection and our future and our people was not in vain. So I have a pile of them here please take them post them keep them look at them אם עושים את זה אז בחיוך if you're going to do it do it with a smile. And that was clearly look at this Hakadosh Baruch Hu only took as a great Jewish poet said only the good die young. The most handsome and sweetest and the biggest smiles and the kindest and the the ones that the most amazing stories are being told about. So please take and please think about and please when you don't feel like smiling on his way into Gaza and didn't come home and if you're going to do it already do it with a smile. So if you have to take out the garbage do it with a smile. If you have to cook for Shabbos do it if you're driving carpool do it with a smile. If you have to go to work if you're doing a chesed do it with a smile. And he gave me also and I have a pile of these to give out that words written by Captain Eyal Mevorach Twito before entering Gaza. What I'm fighting for. This is what he wrote. Take it stick it into something that you'll look at and you'll read and you'll think about. For my country the place where my entire past is found the essence for which I live. For my land the views the Negev Galil Hermon every piece of earth in this beautiful land of mine the most beautiful place in the world. For my nation my brothers and sisters those... Those who live in Israel and the entire family of mine that lives in every place I'll never be in the world. That's why he went to fight. That's what he wrote on the way into Gaza for my brothers and sisters in Israel and my entire family that live in every place I'll never be in the world. Those who be in times of distress will always be there by my side. For my friends, the people who I love who bring me joy and push me forward. The compass of my values in my sight. For my unit, my little brothers, the people who I love most in the world. Those who I'd be willing to take a bullet for and more than that I'm willing to live for and on their behalf we're all together until the end, going out and coming back all together. For my family, my mother and father, grandmother and grandfather, brothers and sisters, the vision of my childhood, the people who raised me and grew up with me. They are everything for me. And for my grandfather. My grandfather made aliyah as a true Zionist. He built his home in a small moshav with a huge dream to build the land. He raised a beautiful family with values for love of each other and for the love of the land. My grandfather fought to be able to live here and my job is to fight that we will remain in this land forever. What are you fighting for? This is what he wrote on his way into Gaza 2001 to 2021 oh sorry 2001 to 2024. So please take one of these and one of these and think and remember אם עושים את זה אז בחיוך if you're gonna do it, do it with a smile. Do it with emunah, do it for our family, do it for our people, do it for our future. This is really what it's all about and this is the story right now of our people. A random man sitting in a back row of a shul happens to be saying Kaddish and if this weren't sitting on his tallis bag, no one would know what a giant, what a hero, what an angel his son is how he's sitting next to the Kissei ha-Kavod. And how many hundreds of these families are anonymously just blending into the back row of shuls or other places in Israel and around the world and our heart and our love and our comfort and our commitment go out to them and they're giving us strength. אם עושים את זה אז בחיוך if you're doing it with a smile. So there's so many reasons you don't want to smile. So many frustrating things. We talk about them all the time. The traffic, the delayed flight, the Wi-Fi is out again, the kugel had burned, the husband he left his socks on the floor, the things that didn't happen or do happen, the challenge of trying to raise money for a campus and all you're trying to do is le-harbot kvod shamayim and make a Kiddush Hashem and transform the world. Some disappointing meetings and difficult meetings just do it all if you're going to do it, do it with a smile. Do it with a smile. If that could be his motto, Eyal Tweito, if that was his motto, certainly it can be ours. We're on page lamed-aleph in Rav David Abuchatzeira's sefer Emunah u’Bitachon, page 31 lamed-aleph. And we're on the left hand column the bottom side and I posted this if you're in the WhatsApp group I posted the text last week so you can follow it there. If I didn't repost it, it's the same, we're up to the same page. And the chapter is called Ha-Bitachon mevi bracha that when you live with faith and you live with trust, when you live with Hashem in your life, it brings great blessing. It is the key that opens the door. Hashem has such blessing waiting for all of us. We won the lottery and there are winnings, but to transfer it into our account you have to collect, you have to turn in the ticket. How do we transfer the blessing that Hashem designated for us? How do we make that blessing descend? How do we bring it down? How do we cash it in? The key that turns the lock is called bitachon emunah. It's a relationship, it's trust in Hashem just as it is in every other relationship. A lot of parents have presents in their closet for their children, whether it's Chanukah or for some other reason, but you don't get the present until you earn it, until there's a relationship, until there's a closeness, until there's a connection, until you come. So it's there, it's bought, it's sitting, it's waiting, it's ready, but you don't get it. So Hakadosh Baruch Hu says I have so much bracha, shefa bracha, I have so much blessing waiting for you, designated for you, but you gotta come collect it and how do we come collect it, what's the key to get it? Is emunah and bitachon. יהי חסדך השם עלינו כאשר יחלנו לך. When is chesed of Hashem on us? ka'asher yichalnu lach, when we trust in Him. Baruch ha-gever, when is it baruch, when do we get the bracha? אשר יבטח בהשם והיה השם מבטחו. And in these pesukim over and over again, that's what we need to do in order to tap in, in order to get these blessings. And that's why we saw from the Shlah HaKadosh, I hope everyone did their homework. I sent you home last week with homework. It's been more than a week because last week the shiur was on Monday. So I sent you home with homework and what was the homework? The Shlah HaKadosh who said עצת השם היא תקום, hi is im yirtzeh Hashem. hi, אותיות ה-י-א, im yirtzeh Hashem, if Hashem wills it. Everything we say, God willing, im yirtzeh Hashem, God willing. Because then we’re... oh, doctor's appointment, the surgery scheduled, God willing it'll be successful. You're living your entire day and integrating prayer and faith into your day, subtly, with nuance. You're not indoctrinating, you're not lecturing, you're not preaching. We're simply living our day to others and, more importantly, to ourselves when we incorporate im yirtzeh Hashem. God willing, for the things we're looking forward to, we're going on vacation, God willing. To the things we're sad about or we're worried about. I get back the lab results, God willing, in the next day or two. Everything we say, im yirtzeh Hashem, b'ezrat Hashem, chasdei Hashem, or go with the old-fashioned English: God willing, if God wills, God willing, God willing. And then aydei zeh sakum. Atzat Hashem, what's God's advice? Hee. You have to say im yirtzeh Hashem, then sakum. If we turn our faith into Hashem, ברוך הגבר אשר יבטח בהשם. So that was the Shlah HaKadosh, Yeshayahu HaLevi Horowitz, the Shnei Luchot HaBerit, the Shlah HaKadosh said, if we incorporate im yirtzeh Hashem, which the Yiddish is im yirtzeh Hashem, but it's really three words: im yirtzeh Hashem, im yirtzeh Hashem. Say it however you want, God willing, Baruch Hashem, say it however you want and then sakum, then please God, God willing, stand up, rise up, he'll be there, he'll be there for us. Which brings us up to the new section, bottom left-hand column. Omnam, צריך גם האדם להשתדל במעשים גשמיים לקבל הברכה. Now, you can't sit back and say, I'm going to be rich tomorrow, im yirtzeh Hashem. Really? How? Do you have a job? Do you go to work? No, I go to the Emunah shiur. And then I go home and sit on my couch and I wait for Ed McMahon to knock on my door. Is he still alive? No, probably not, he'd be like a thousand. I wait for him to knock on my door and say... I... you don't know what I'm talking about. I'm the lucky winner of the raffle, of the lottery. I go to the Emunah shiur and all I have to do is sit on my couch and say im yirtzeh Hashem. Is dinner ready? im yirtzeh Hashem. You know? The laundry done? im yirtzeh Hashem. And then you got to do the laundry, you got to make dinner, you got to work, you got to bring home a paycheck, you got to exercise, you got to take care of yourself. You have to do hishtadlus. The im yirtzeh Hashem, the hee of sakum doesn't work if you don't do your part. We do our half and he does his, ki beolam hateva, because according to the natural order, the way of the world is, the natural order, צריך להתנהג מעט בחוקי הטבע כדי להכין כלי לקבל השפע, because Hashem says, you need an account. I have all this blessing waiting for you. How do I transfer it? You gotta turn in the ticket. You gotta show me that you have the winning ticket. What's the winning ticket? Living with bitachon. He says, great, you have the winning ticket. Where do I send the money? If you don't have an account that's open, there's nowhere to send the money. How do we open an account? What's the kli kibul, what's the vessel that can house, that can hold, that can receive the blessing Hashem has for us? We make the vessel through hishtadlus. When we make an effort, we create the vessel, כי הכל מאתו יתברך. Everything's from him. אלא שאין הקדוש ברוך הוא משנה לחינם סדר הטבע שבעולם, but Hashem doesn't perform open, revealed miracles. I mean, he did last week when he made five buses blow up and not injure anyone, and we should say thank you for that revealed miracle. And he did several months ago when he made beepers blow up and break the back and heart of Hezbollah, and he has throughout the year and a half done open and revealed miracles, but generally speaking, they're all explainable through nature because Hashem doesn't, doesn't intervene or suspend or end nature in that way. Hashem always operates within nature. And the natural order is, if you want to get better, you gotta go to a doctor, you gotta take care of yourself. And the natural order is, if you want to have money in your bank account, you gotta go to work, you gotta have a job. It has been said, the biggest segulah for parnassah is having a job. It's having a job, the biggest segulah. It's the biggest segulah. Tried and true, proven. The biggest segulah for parnassah is get a job. That's the way of the world. So when we do our effort, we create the vessel that receives the blessing. Now, this is very important. Does the blessing always or even often correspond with the effort? I can tell you personally, no. And you might mistakenly therefore conclude, what's the point of the effort if I receive the blessing and it didn't correlate or connect with the effort? Because the answer is, the effort creates the vessel and now the blessing can come. What do I mean? What am I talking about? I'll tell you right now in this campaign. By the way, did I mention we're building the campus and you can join, brsonline.org/global? Everyone sighs and moans and groans, just write me the check and we're done, and we don't ever have to bring it up again. And until then... This is my hishtadlus. This is the unfortunate, miserable, I mean with a smile, effort that I have to make on a regular basis. You have meetings and people you anticipate or plan or hope or believe might have the capacity and the will to give you X, and very generous, and there's no judgment, and we love anyone no matter what they do, but they don't. And all of a sudden someone else who you didn't think would participate at all says, "Hey, I see what's going on, I'd like to meet with you about it about what I can give." What—one second, where—I met with you, and then it came in from here? A brother, a relative of mine, who's a lawyer in Israel, has told me for years that sometimes when he wants to drum up more business, expand business, make it rain, he knows he has to network, he has to send out emails, make phone calls, come on a networking trip to America, and invariably, inevitably, every single time when he gets back and business comes in, it almost always has nothing to do with the meetings and the effort and the emails that he had. So why do it next time? Why not just sit back and say to Hashem, "Really? Have you seen the price of El Al tickets these days? Do I have to go in? If Hashem, You're going to give me the bracha anyway, let me just say another perek of Tehillim. Let me just ask You for more help. Why do I have to network? Why do I have to have the meetings for the campus in business?" The answer is, says Rav Zev Abuhatzeira, why? Because Hashem has—He's going to make it rain. He's got lots of clouds of parnassah. There's all kinds of precipitation and clouds of parnassah, precipitation of parnassah. It's the name of another book or a Jewish band or something like that. Precipitations of parnassah. He's got it up there. But what's going to make the sky open up so it rains into your bank account? You need a—you need a bank account. And how do you open up a Yiddishe bank account? Hishtadlus. Our vessel, our kli kibul, to receive that blessing is the effort that we make. וזהו רצונו שיתנהג העולם בדרך הטבע וזה זוכה אדם לברכת שמים כמו שכתוב as the pasuk says in Devarim, וברכך ה' אלקיך בכל אשר תעשה. Hashem will bless you with everything you do. You have to do and then He'll bless you. First we have to do. הרי שברכת ה' תחול על מעשה יד האדם אשר הם הכנת הכלי לשרות בהם הברכה. He'll bring the blessing, He'll make it happen when we first show the effort, but we have to start. u-verachecha. We have to start. We have to have the bank account. u-vizeh yisba'eir ha-kasuv ויהי נעם ה' אלקינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו she-b’ma’aseh yadeinu through the work of our hand, through our effort, through our initiative, through our action, מכינים אנו את הכלי לקבל את נועם ה' וברכתו. So when we go through the effort, don't do it miserably. First of all, as Eyal Twito taught us, do it—if you're going to do it already, you're going to go to work already, you've got to make the kli kibul already, do it with a chiyuch, do it with a smile, do it with a smile, do it with a positivity, do it with a joy, do it with a skip in your step. What's the alternative? If you walk away around miserable and frustrated... someone just said to me earlier this morning, they know like—not just mine, many of us have very busy schedules, we're out every night Baruch Hashem at many simchas and other things that we have to go to and it's just relentless and endless and you've got to stay positive. So he said, "You know, you seem happy to always be going out and being there. Are you?" And the answer is no. Even when I don't display it, I don't want to pretend that it's not sometimes challenging and overwhelming. Yocheved will tell you, some days and times I need a moment and regroup and gather and process and experience and disconnect. But what I try to do, the way I try to live—I'm not always perfect at it—is once you're there, do it with a smile. Once the work has to be done, if you're going to be there, be there. And if you're going to be there, be there with a smile. And if you have to do it to make that kli kibul, because it can't happen on—if you have dreams and you have vision and you have plans, if you want to build, if you want to get things done, if you want to help people and you love people, and that's in any profession, career, calling, it's in your personal life with family and friends and neighbors, if you're going to do it, if you signed up for the meal train and you're making the meal, do it with a smile. Drop it over—"Oh, I—is tonight that night? I signed up for that stupid meal train, and why do they have two weeks, and didn't they already just have it, and didn't they come back from there, and why?" Then don't sign up. If you're going to sign up, do it with a smile. Do it with joy, do it with positivity, do it with love, do it with energy. Because that's the energy that we're putting out into the universe and into the world. And that's the kli kibul for the bracha, the initiative we make. If you have to go to work already, go to work with a smile. And don't see work as this unfortunate, unfortunate necessary evil of life: "I have to go to work." I get to go to work. I get to provide for my family. I get to mold and shape and impact Hashem's world. I get to wear His brand and represent Him, and I have a great platform to make a Kiddush Hashem. I—I love work. If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life, but even if you don't love what you do, you should love work, because it's a platform to make a difference, to make a change, to see it as an opportunity, to see it as an opportunity. וברכך ה' אלקיך בכל אשר תעשה. If you have a smile with everything that you do and you create that kli kibal, that vessel, that Hashem will fill that vessel with light and with love and with energy and with blessing. And that's what it means, says Rav David Abuhatzeira: מעשה ידינו מכינים אנו את כלי לקבלת נועם ה'. Our actions don't bring about the results. What they bring about, what they open up, is an account. What they create is a vessel. אך ישים בטחונו בה' שיהיה העסק הזה סיבה ראויה לקבלת ברכת ה'. So that means is, says Rav David Abuhatzeira, the kavana that I have, every meeting I go into is, Hashem, I don't know where you're going to make it rain, where my business, my client, where my income's going to come from. I know I have to do this effort, take this initiative, but I'm not confused at all. I have clarity that it's not going to come from this meeting, it comes from you, it's just that having this meeting is what's necessary for you to open up the parnassa precipitation and make it rain. I know that. So think about the level of mindfulness and kavana you can have when you're walking into a meeting. So now every meeting is actually a religious experience instead of a mundane meeting: a client, a customer, meeting with your staff, meeting with your team, instead of another meeting. I can't tell you how many podcast... I love productivity books and podcasts. So many of them are dedicated to how to minimize and eliminate meetings in your life. Meetings are enormous consumers of time. Elon Musk, for example, has a famous practice in any of his companies. He seems to have been pretty successful at building them. If you're at a meeting and you feel you're neither contributing nor gaining, you're not only allowed, he wants you to get up and walk out in the middle. That's a slippery slope and a dangerous thing to tell the people to measure on their own, but if you're at a meeting, for whatever reason you're invited to, you're at that meeting, and if you evaluate, you assess in the middle of that meeting, I'm neither contributing nor gaining from being in this meeting and there's other things I could be doing, get up and walk out. That's his philosophy. I'm not saying institute it, that's his philosophy. So much about getting rid of or eliminating meetings. But there are meetings you have to have. And if you walk into a meeting in work, in life, the meetings you have to have, parent teacher conferences are meetings, no one likes. One of the only good things that came out of Corona and should have for all schools but did were Zoom parent teacher conferences. I hereby call on all schools to immediately, if I had an executive order, I would issue an executive order: move parent teacher conferences only to Zoom. But anyway, okay, now back to your regular scheduled program. So whether it's a parent teacher conference or it's a meeting with your team at work or it's a potential client or customer or you're trying to help bring reconciliation in a conflict or you're trying to build a campus, any of those can be transformed into a religious experience if at the threshold of that meeting, before you walk into that room, you say: First of all, Hashem, I know you're in the room, I know you're in this meeting, let it be successful. Second of all, Hashem, let me find the right words. I mentioned at the shiur earlier this morning on the Ramban, Igeret HaRamban. ואתחנן אל ה' בעת ההיא לאמר. I daven to Hashem that in that moment leimor, give me the right words to say. Hashem, give me the right words. But not only Hashem, let it be successful and a positive outcome, Hashem, give me the right words to say, but Hashem, I know I'm going through the motions of this meeting and I'm going to give it my all. And while it looks like here in this world that's a matrix that we're having a meeting and that will determine the result, I know it all comes from you and this is just what I have to do. Now you've transformed that meeting into a moment that is a religious experience, is a religious exercise. You walk in, you say: Im yirtzeh Hashem we'll be successful. Let's start our meeting, God willing, God willing we'll be successful. It transforms. There is no mundane moment in life. Every moment, macro and micro moments of emuna. Every time you say Im yirtzeh Hashem is a micro moment of emuna. What time are you picking me up? 3 o'clock, Im yirtzeh Hashem. Boom, micro moment of emuna. Everything, everything is a micro moment of emuna. Put the kugel in the oven. Hashem, let it come out well. Micro moment of emuna. Im yirtzeh Hashem, let the potato kugel have the right amount of salt. Im yirtzeh Hashem, micro moment of emuna. Our day is filled with emuna, macro and micro moments. By the bedside in a hospital of someone recovering from illness or giving birth, those are macro moments. Waiting for lab results, those are macro moments. Desperately wanting the hostages home and peace in Israel, those are macro moments. But walking into a meeting, pulling out for carpool, putting a kugel in an oven, meeting a friend at Starbucks, those are micro moments of emuna. to create the vessel to receive the blessing. But we really know that שעסק זה סיבה ראויה לקבל ברכת השם. This is all really just what we have to do. It is the precondition, it is the prerequisite, in order to receive the beracha of Hashem. ואם הרויח והצליח בעסקו, and if we profit and are successful by our efforts, yomar, הרויחתי בעזרת השם יתברך. And the same way the Shelah said before everything we do, say God willing, after the outcome, particularly when it's successful, say thank God. Thank God. Oh, I heard the meeting went well. Thank God. Again, it's sad and it's unfortunate that in many cases we've incorporated this into our vocabulary, but in a way that's meaningless. We say all the time, thank God, but do we mean thank God? Do we mean thank God? How'd the meeting go? It went well, thank God. But do we mean thank God? Did you come home? Did you make the flight? Did you make the connection? Yeah, it all went smoothly, thank God. But did you mean thank God? How was the kugel? Delicious. Whether it was or wasn't, it always is. Thank God. It always is, always, particularly potato kugel recipe. We're not putting it in the Emuna WhatsApp group. Maybe we'll throw it in for the $1,800 global ambassadors, you get Yocheved Goldberg's potato kugel recipe, and I have to tell you, we have people who visit from around the world, scholars, speakers, dignitaries, one thing they always say when they try that kugel... oh, oh, thank God. Thank God. There are people who became religious because of that potato kugel. We have people who converted to Judaism because of that kugel. So, 1800 bucks, you get the recipe, maybe even a little kugel in the mail. No? Cooking demo? Oh, you'll be invited to a live cooking demo for potato kugel. You have to know when to add the oil, how to heat the oil... I'm not giving it away right now. Mushy, solid, how to do it... I'm not giving it away. I'm just telling you, hands down, by far the best. So when someone says, how was the kugel? It was delicious. Thank God. Before everything we do, im yirtzeh Hashem, God willing. After every outcome, how'd you sleep last night? Thank God, I finally got a good night's sleep. Thank God. Thank God. Or I slept like a baby, up every three hours. Thank God. Thank God. Thank God there are people who don't wake up ever at all, so thank God. It's all thank God. It's all thank God. Just imagine what your life looks like. Imagine your smile, your positivity, imagine your relationships, if before everything you bring Him down, and after everything you bring Him down, you connect. Each of these micro-macro moments of faith, trust, perspective... perspective if you're going to do it, do it with a smile and live for today. For today, thank God and God willing. You know, how was today? Today, you know, one of the things that Sheryl Sandberg taught all of us to do in her incredible book, Option B, is when someone's going through a hard time, don't say, "How are you?" make them feel like a nebech, make it be awkward, "How are you?" Someone who's experienced a terrible... oh, I just met the family, you lost your son who's a soldier, "How are you?" Someone's in a hospital, someone's fighting and recovering from illness, someone on a triple bypass surgery, someone's waiting to get married, someone's waiting to have a child, "How are you?" oh nebech, how are you? One of the things she taught us in her wonderful book is to say, "How are you today?" "How are you today?" It reframes and it changes the entire question. Oh, today? Today's a particularly hard day. Or today? Today, thank God, today so far, relatively today. So one of the things to again, hayom, today. Not tomorrow, next week, next year, next decade, not next life, today. How are we? How do we get through? What do we need to do? Today. So the right question to ask is not "How are you?" but "How are you today?" But however today is, it's thank God, God willing, and thank God. And how different every day looks if before everything we have to do that day... imagine, you look at your calendar every morning you wake up. What's on tap today? One of the questions my wife asks me each day, we have a conversation, what's on tap today? It's a great question, let me into your life, let me into your life. What do you have coming up today? Meetings, shiurim, are you leaving town you forgot to tell me, when are you coming back? What's on tap today? What's on tap today? It's a great question. And if you go through what's on tap today and with each thing you say, this God willing and that please God and this if God allows with God's help... you just had an emuna shiur together. You just had a religious experience together. You just had a religious Kumbaya. It's all God willing. And at the end of the day, how was your day? All the things you had on tap now came out of the tap. How'd they go? Oh... And maybe we'll end with this. It's a new perspective on failure because if you don't see failure as failure, what you see failure is creating the kli kibul to get the blessing from somewhere else then it's never a failure. I don't remember which great coach or sports personality who said we never lose, we learn. There's no such thing as losing a game, it's not a loss, it was a learning opportunity. You have to look through life, any meeting you walk out of, any solicitation, any future client, anything that feels like a loss was not a loss, it was a learning opportunity. But it was more than just a learning opportunity, it created the kli kibul. It was the initiative, it was the effort, it was what we had to do to be able to bring the blessing from everywhere. So, you know, I can't sit back, I have to tell you I've tried. I keep trying and He keeps saying no. I don't want to do this effort. I like learning Torah, teaching Torah, spending time with people. I hate this. Some people go into fundraising, God bless 'em. I didn't, I don't want to, it's not what I want to be doing, not what I want to be doing. So what do I try to do every now and then to skip it? I stop at the gas station and I buy a lottery ticket. Mega Millions, Pick Six, Lotto, I don't know what. Like when the sign says a hundred million, that's never good enough for me. It's only when it's like five hundred million and up, I'll buy a ticket. I don't want the money. I want to do amazing things. I have a lot of dreams, I have a lot of plans, I have a lot of big things I want to get done and it needs the money. So I say Hashem, like let's just skip right to it. Right, but that's the problem that Rav David Abuchatzeira says Hashem doesn't work that way. You know what the odds are of winning the lottery? They're supernatural. They're basically revealed miracle it would take to win. That's what it takes. That's why I never buy more than one ticket. If you buy more than one ticket, did you double your chance? You doubled your chance, but your chance was zero and two times zero is zero. That's why you see nebech like people who have no money, they can't afford the gas outside but they spend their entire paycheck on a hundred Mega Millions tickets, they haven't increased their chance of winning statistically in a meaningful way. Now you need to buy one ticket because you got to be in it to win it. If you don't have one ticket, you can't win. So you got to buy one. But Hashem every time I do it says nice try, buddy. Sometimes He teases me and I win one number, I have one number. Sometimes I even get a number that my two-dollar ticket yields four dollars and those times I tell Cheved about it, I don't tell the other ones because I say I bought a ticket and I doubled our money. Two dollars to four dollars. Never buy more than one ticket, it's a waste of money. You need one ticket in order to win and even then Hashem is going to say no. You know why? Because you got to make the kli kibul. And the kli kibul are the retail one-on-one meeting everybody. That's the retail. I met somebody at 6:50 AM this morning and we'll meet at late tonight and all day long. I'm not asking you to have pity or sympathy or compassion except maybe a little bit of it and join our BRS Global Ambassadors, but and by the way, I'm not an exception in your life and what you have and what you have on tap today, I'm sure people have on tap today things that are many, many, many, many, many fold, many fold more difficult and challenging than anything I have to do. But whatever it is that we have to do, Hashem will not give us the results and the outcome unless we create the vessel to hold the blessing. And how do we create the vessel to hold the blessing? Through the initiative and effort. So if that initiative and effort feels like it was a failure, it wasn't. It was another building block in creating the vessel for blessing. Don't walk out of a meeting that didn't go the way you wanted. Don't walk out of an investment. Don't walk out of time that you spent and it didn't yield what you hoped for and feel what a failure, what a waste of time. That was the initiative, that was the initiative and the effort to create the vessel that can bring the blessing. So I'm continuing, I'm giving you the same homework for next week as you had this week, except I'm adding on a piece to your homework. Last week the homework was before everything you do, first of all, wake up every day and whether it's your spouse next to you or a friend or a family member, what's on tap today? You'll be much closer if you share what's in your life, what's on tap today, what's on tap today? And then at the end of the day, how'd your day go? Take an interest. How was your day? Tell me about your day. How did that go? But the homework last week was before everything, im yirtze Hashem. Atzat Hashem hi, im yirtze Hashem then takum please God we should see success. Before everything, God willing, if God wants, im yirtze Hashem, be’ezrat Hashem. And then after everything, say thank God. After everything, Baruch Hashem. After everything. Before and now we're adding on after and it should be a day that we can say a lot of please God, thank God, a day that we please God see בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות.
