Transcript
Good morning, good morning, boker tov, welcome back to living with emuna. So great to be together and to live with emuna, to work on our emuna muscles and see through our emuna glasses, and to live life with emuna. Our emuna series is generously sponsored by Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of her mother Dr. Ellen Schanzar. We remain so grateful to the Morgans for their generosity and sponsorship. Also sponsored anonymously in gratitude to BRS for all the Torah brought into my home and countless others and anonymously in honor of the upcoming shloshim of Eliza Cohen, Eliza bas Ezra, may her neshama have an aliyah. And sponsored by our friends Lisa Gladstone and Leslie Abadi, Abady, Abady, whichever way you know her as, for a refua sheleima of Jordan Blum of Yardena Liba, we’re davening every day that ירדנה ליבה בת שרה פנינה has a complete speedy refua sheleima and gives tremendous nachas to her beautiful parents and grandparents Faye and Jeff Wolkowitz. We should hear good news and besoros tovos, successful outcome and a complete refua sheleima. Okay, as you may have seen or heard, we are in the midst and almost hopefully the home stretch of our global campaign, of our global campaign. I got one very strongly worded email from someone yesterday who’s sick and tired and how dare we and why would we and basically I just took him off all the lists but I said I don’t know when you watch YouTube and there's an ad do you yell at YouTube like this is the do we charge you are you entitled do you deserve everything has to be free this is life this is life this is the way it goes so if you have not yet given if you watch read listen follow join benefit I have to tell you if only every person who emailed me saying the emuna shiur has changed my life contributed we’d have a campus here a campus in Israel on the Riviera we’d be okay so we just need the people who say this impacted my life doesn't impact your life I hope less than Netflix or Hulu or your gym membership or your Costco membership or your doesn't impact your life less if it doesn't don't give but if it impacts your life as much as your membership at the acai bowl store then give us by the way if you give us what it costs to get an acai bowl we’d also have several campuses God bless the acai bowl people no you know they deserve what they can get anyway please join us brsonline.org/global we have a very ambitious campaign yesterday and today to get to six million dollars that's a lot of acai bowls six million dollars we have three million of matchers and we’re trying to match it and many have answered we're well on our way we’re halfway there but today we've got today so if you've not yet there's a form in front of you you could click the link you could go on the QR code you could fill out your credit card number if you've given you've given and we appreciate it we deeply appreciate it many of our members have given meaningfully but I’ll just end with this BRS is not a local community there is a global movement of people around the world who listen read watch connect with and and we’re trying to build something we're building it together and we’re not building it none of this campaign goes in my pocket we’re not getting a bigger house we’re not getting a nicer driveway I've got to pay if you heard I've got my kids competing with each other who can bring in the most money and if I told you what the award is this whole campaign's costing me a lot aside from what we gave to the campaign aside from what we’ve given to motivate my kids it’s costing me. I'm surprised you're not soliciting for money. I'm surprised yeah if they haven't texted you you're one of the lucky few on the planet my kids are beasts beast mode they’re at it God bless them never been prouder of them and their mother's doing pretty well herself on her page she actually hit her number so we just doubled it so but we get nothing out of it but we're a global learning community and if you're part of our global learning community then help enable other people all the money's going to produce more Torah more panels more podcasts more conversations more meaning more inspiration more light more content more not just offline more more more more I shared last week that two people just last week told me they named their babies emuna because of the emuna shiur that got them through difficult times and one of them I mentioned on Shabbos someone we've had a relationship a correspondence with I don't know has ever been to Florida or BRS but actually sent out that in lieu of gifts for the baby that she waited a long time to have baruch Hashem she should have many more and a lot of nachas from them she sent out to friends and family in lieu of a gift for this new baby emuna please donate so that the emuna shiur can go more places so if you want to be an ambassador we'll make you a page if not everybody donate on Yocheved’s page let her beat my daughter so we don't have to get them a gift and save the money although I think she wants that gift too so if she looks a little different on her head when she comes in next time it’s because she won it's because she won okay let's start with some emails and then get back into our text emuna bitachon the great Rav David Abuhatzeira yeah she's not having any work done it's a sheitel okay I just want to clarify I just want to clarify for everybody the winner doesn't get Botox or plastic surgery that's not the winner the winner's not getting hair plugs or anything else it's perhaps a new hair Yocheved don't... A new hair accessory. Yeah, a sheitel. You know how expensive this thing is for me? You can't imagine how expensive this is for me. One of my sons-in-law so smart he figured it out that if he donates to his wife's page, it'll cost a lot less and then she wins the... it'll cost less that less than to buy the sheitel. Good business people. Okay. Anyway, before we get back into the text, Emuna Bitachon, a few emails. I got this one yesterday and it was fascinating. Hi Rabbi, we had a meeting and he was referencing the meeting. Thank you for the stickers. I gave out the stickers, hope people have them in their windshield and we have more coming. And we got... I want to a big thank you to Alana who's back today for designing that and everything else Behind the Bima that we do, from a Behind the Bima Emuna Shiur from Behind the Bima logo to the Emuna Shiur logo to the Caffeinate with Kavana logo to the... to the... you're never stuck, embrace your place, you are where you're meant to be. And thanks to her we got luggage tags coming, we got cell phone cases coming. Embrace your place, you are where you're meant to be. יש ה' במקום הזה. It's a motto in life. So I gave it to this person, a sticker. We had a meeting and it was to solicit for the campus and the sticker was a small price to pay. Baruch Hashem he and his family are giving a very, very nice contribution, very grateful for his $36,000. So he put the... put the sticker in his windshield and the next day he tells... texts me the following: He was driving and he had a son in the car and he got pulled over for a speeding ticket. Pulled over for a speeding ticket. And he says he was so annoyed and he was going just a little bit, 15 miles an hour over the speed limit, which everyone knows you can't go more than 9 miles an hour, the unwritten rule. You shouldn't go anything. Don't go over the speed limit, my kids are watching, under the speed limit, under the speed limit. But anyway, he got pulled over, he was very annoyed. And after 30 seconds his son looks at him and says, points to the sticker I put in the windshield last night after our meeting. I'm not saying it saved me from getting a ticket, I got the ticket, but it kept me grounded and put things back on track. No need to get angry, to be short-tempered or bad mood, it's all from Hashem. Believe you me next time I'll drive slower, but as we know it was a test and a lesson to learn going forward. It helped me embrace my place. But the story goes one step further. I not only received a speeding ticket, I was so flustered I couldn't find my insurance card. Guess what? I received a ticket for that as well. So, I called the insurance company once I boarded the plane, he was on his way to the airport, to get copies for the rest of the family and make sure the premiums were paid up. I began reviewing the policy and the amounts. This is crazy. I'm going to shop it around. I ended up getting the same coverage for $6,000 less. So this speeding ticket was a tiny price to pay to save $6,000, which never would have happened. I don't think I would have shopped it around if I didn't get the speeding ticket just 45 minutes prior. PS I made it to my meeting with extra time, Baruch Hashem, and thank you for being whatever, whatever, whatever, blah, blah, blah. So embrace your place, you got to love it. You put it in the windshield and your own son calls you out for it, says "What are you getting bent out of shape, it's for a reason?" And he only had to wait 45 minutes to find the reason. Sometimes, most often in life, living with Emuna Bitachon means that you never find the reason. You don't know. We don't know why we go through, why we are where we are, why that moment happens, why the policeman pulled us over, why he was in that spot. We don't know. But 45 minutes later he found out why because that speeding ticket, which he says he'll drive slower, never get again, we have to be responsible, but that speeding ticket saved him $6,000. He should put it on top of his contribution to the campus. Okay, maybe that's part of... that's part of the way he's paying the contribution. So very grateful. I'll tell you that we just put out this morning our new Behind the Bima, we interviewed Zevi Samet, fantastic basketball player and even greater Ben Torah and Yeshiva Bocher. He is the superstar in Yeshiva University's team that hit the winning fadeaway three to win the whole division championship game and is the player of the year for the whole division. This is not Yeshiva league. Once you get to college, you're not Yeshiva league kids playing against each other. I'm talking he's... these are secular non-Jewish colleges, Division III basketball and Yeshiva University, a bunch of Yeshiva Bocherim won the championship game and he was the player of the year for the whole division and they're on their way to the big dance, the NCAA tournament. That's very big nachas. Anyway, but what's I think most impressive about him was not what he did on the court. It's that a couple hours later, a picture went viral of him sitting in the YU Beis Medrash learning Torah. And he went from winning the game to the audience of one, the championship of sitting and shteiging of learning with Hashem and we had him on Behind the Bima. He's a big Ben Torah, a big masmid. We talked about balancing basketball and the Beis Medrash. He learns 10 hours a day plus he has his regimen of practice and exercise plus college on top of that. He's incredibly driven, incredibly disciplined, balances it all. That's not why I'm sending you to listen. It's available already online. But he has a whole piece, we had a conversation about Emuna Bitachon where he's trying to influence the whole team and all the guys, many of whom were not as religiously inspired as he is, but a lot of Emuna Bitachon talk, and including in the game. What's extraordinary about this championship game that they lost each of the last two years is this year they were down 16 points. So he lets you into his head a little bit and his conversation with Hashem, Emuna Bitachon, what's a fadeaway three? Oy vey. Your sister knows exactly what a fadeaway three was, star of the Stern basketball team. Oy vey. Anyway, a fadeaway three. He hit a long shot from far away while falling down with little time on the clock down by two to win the game. You're welcome. Okay, everybody relax. Anyway, it's worth listening to him talk about Emuna U'Bitachon. Okay, a couple quick more emails and then back to the text. Dear Rabbi Goldberg, I hope the email finds you well. I've been wanting to email you for years now, but I never had the guts. But I guess Hashem had me save my email for the best opportunity. On Chanukah you read my brother's email, and I knew right away it was him from the context and details. I didn't tell anyone in the family, I decided to keep it to myself. I couldn't control myself and texted my brother right away that I'm so proud of him, his Emuna was inspiring. He responded the best way possible with the following text: I knew the only possibility of somebody figuring out was you. LOL. Later that night, I saw him at a family Simcha, we gave each other a big hug. I told him how his Emuna email inspired me, I was so proud of him. I also told him I won't tell anyone else in the family he sent an email to Rabbi Goldberg, I'm keeping his privacy. If my email ended here, it would have been enough of a story and a cute wink from Hashem moment. But the story gets even better. You remember last week in yesterday's Living with Emuna shiur, you started reading an email about a woman who had recently started listening to the shiur. I thought, that's funny, I just had a conversation with my sister this past Shabbos how she just started listening to Living with Emuna on her way to work. As Rabbi Goldberg continued reading the email, she described how Spotify happened to play her a random Living with Emuna on Chanukah, she realized Rabbi Goldberg was reading an email from her brother. At this point, I paused the shiur and thought to myself: Am I hearing things or is this now my sister? I never told my sister about our brother's email, but maybe she figured it out too. Rabbi Goldberg, I rewound this part of the shiur five times to make sure I wasn't hearing things. I couldn't believe it. Here I am listening to the week's Living with Emuna shiur, hearing another one of my siblings emailing you. I texted my sister right away, again me being the little baby annoying sister that I am, and I asked: Can I ask you a crazy question? Did you write Rabbi Goldberg an email? My sister responded she sure did and she was waiting for me to text her since she knows I listen every week. So here I am, sibling number three, writing to Rabbi Goldberg. By the way, I try to get permission, I read anonymously, nobody should hesitate or worry who's going to figure out what they write. I try to always leave out the details of where the place is and so on and so forth. Besides the fact that it's a funny and cutest story I was able to pinpoint my siblings, I see the incredible Hashgacha that took part in this. I've been listening to Rabbi Goldberg's shiur for years and never thought twice about the identity of any of the amazing email writers, yet twice within two months I heard two of my amazing siblings' emails and was moved by both. Spotify didn't happen to play her a random shiur that happened to be our brother, everything is orchestrated from Hashem and today I can say I was truly able to feel that. Mirtzeh Hashem we should always be able to truly feel everything in this world is orchestrated by Hashem. Thank you and a גוט ערב ראש חודש, sincerely, sibling number three. If I had all the money in the world, I would send them three t-shirts: sibling number one, sibling number two, sibling number three. Alana, if you want to design the logo: Living with Emuna sibling number one, sibling number two, and sibling number three. We have a lot more quickly. I'm a big fan of the Emuna shiur, blah blah blah. Reason I'm writing to you is because I wanted to let others know anonymously about the power of giving Maaser. I didn't put this author up to it. The timing: brsonline.org/global or charity.com/brs. Help us meet our campaign. I did not put the writer of this email up to it. My husband and I are in our mid-30s and embarrassingly enough we've never been super careful about giving Maaser. Sure we give tzedakah, but we've never been meticulous about giving 10% of every paycheck, bonus, gift. It is something that has bothered me for a while, yet our expenses have been so crazy like everyone else's. I want to tell you and I said this before, I'll say it again: every problem in the Jewish world that could be solved with money would be solved if Jews only tithed like non-Jews. In other religions they pass around the basket and they have a culture of really getting people to tithe, 10% of your after-tax income. And if we did that, we would solve every single problem. Now the answer is always, oh, we have to pay Jewish day school. Well guess what? State of Florida is now paying a part of your Jewish day school. There's more money to give to tzedakah and sadly we don't see it flowing in, instead there's more other things happening with that money. And God bless, everyone should enjoy it, it's wonderful, you're entitled to it. But if we'd only tithe, if we'd only tithe. You know how many Jewish billionaires, millionaires? I find the people who make less money are more careful with tithing even though it hurts more than the people because it's a much bigger number, it's hard to part with it, but it's the same 10%. If you view it as a percentage responsibility, 10% of your after-tax income is not yours. As we spoke on Shabbos, Hashem is the senior partner in all that we do. He is responsible for 100% of the success and yet he says: keep 90%. Could you imagine you had a partner who without his connections, her connections, he's responsible for everything. Their hard work, their ingenuity, their creativity, their entrepreneurship, you'd never get off the ground, you'd never make money. They are a hundred percent the business, and yet they say to you, ah, you keep ninety percent. Enjoy it. Just ten percent. Don't even give to me. Give to my kids. That's what Hashem says. Ninety percent? Enjoy, it's all yours. Ten percent? Don't even give me. Give to my other kids. Take care of a community. Build community. Build Torah. Share inspiration. That's what he says. Ten percent. It's a percent. It's a percent. And if you make a hundred thousand dollars a year or a hundred million dollars a year, it's a scarier number, or you feel so much more philanthropic. The person who makes a hundred million dollars a year after tax and gives ten million dollars away a year feels like איך בין א גרויסער צדיק, I give ten percent, I give ten million dollars a year. But guess what? The person who makes a hundred thousand a year and still has to take care of their family and put food on their table and buy matzah for forty-four dollars a pound and gives away ten thousand dollars a year, it hurts a lot more than the person giving the ten million. Don't look at how big the number is, look at the percentage. If we'd only tithe, we can solve every problem in the Jewish community. Back to the email. It is something that bothered me for a while. Nonetheless, after having emuna mindset that this money is literally not ours to keep and was given to us, I needed to make a change. I was done with the excuses. About a year ago my husband received a significant raise. I told him, as a way to say thank you to Hashem, we must start calculating our ma'aser on a monthly basis by keeping spreadsheets, making a separate tzedaka account, which is the best way to do it. If you have a separate account, I don't just mean a donor-advised fund, which is a wonderful way to do it, but I just mean make a separate checking account. And before you could ever think it's yours, ten percent of your after-tax income put in that account and now all of a sudden you just became in charge of a foundation. And it no longer feels like you're giving away your money and it hurts, now you're just in charge of someone else's foundation and it's fun to give away the money. And that's what they do. I told my husband he must be as meticulous with this as he is with his work-related Excel spreadsheets, color-coded and all. One year later on our ma'aser anniversary, we won a ten thousand dollar raffle. I told my husband that the amount of ten was no coincidence. Additionally, my husband's job gave him a ten thousand dollar bonus a few weeks after that. His industry typically does not give bonuses. Hashem has shown us that when we keep this mitzvah carefully and have emuna, he will take care of us. He most certainly does. Not only has Hashem shown us the monetary blessings, there's no greater gift than to be a giver. It just makes us want to continue to keep giving. I hope this email can encourage others to take the plunge into ma'aser masters. The bracha awaits. This isn't just the author of this email making this promise, she didn't just become a chasidishe rebbe overnight, this is Hashem's promise. עשר תעשר עשר בשביל שתתעשר. Chazal, our rabbis, say the one area of life that you can test Hashem. Don't test Hashem. Don't test him. Don't mess with him, don't start with him, don't test him, except when it comes to tzedaka giving because Hashem said whatever you give, not only will I replenish, not only will I repay, I will provide multifold. And here this woman writes, we weren't careful all these years, we made a determination to be careful, ten percent, we won a ten thousand dollar raffle and got an unexpected ten thousand dollar bonus and Hashem fulfilled his promise. Aser t'aser, you give and Hashem gives back. And whether it's Boker Tov synagogue and you want to help us spread light, inspiration, or whether it's somewhere else that's well-deserving, because I'm not just making this just for myself, certainly it's Israel, it's soldiers, it's hostage families, it's all the mental health work that's going to need to be done there, it's displaced families, of course. And the people who say to me, Rabbi, you're doing this here, we need to send the money to Israel, I say, you're right, if it were either or, absolutely send to Israel, but you and I both know you can give to both. So give it up to us also. So we absolutely, wherever you're giving it, but aser t'aser Hashem fulfills that promise. Oh, I have so many more emails, but let's get to the text and we'll save these im yirtza Hashem for next week. The hugs and winks from Hashem that he provides for us on a regular, on a regular basis. Okay, we're on Emuna Bitachon page lamed bais. Lamed bais, lev, heart, the heart of emuna. Zu peirush hapasuk, the bottom right-hand column, Rav David Abuchatzeira up in Nahariya. Zu peirush hapasuk רבות מחשבות בלב איש ועצת השם היא תקום. This is the meaning of the verse: רבות מחשבות בלב איש, there are many thoughts in the heart of man, ve'atzas Hashem and Hashem's advice is takum. So we already saw that the word hi, hei yud aleph, is an acronym, it's rashei teivos for im yirtza Hashem. How have you been doing on your homework? I assigned homework last week. Homework. Everything has to be with God willing, please God, with God's help. Everything beforehand. I'll meet you for coffee, God willing, please God. The campaign will go, God willing. And afterwards, how was it? Thank God, it went smoothly. Thank God, carpool worked out. Thank God, the flight went on time. Everything God willing and thank God. Hi, hei yud aleph, im yirtza Hashem. You know the other pshat in that pasuk? I'm about to get in big whole world of trouble. The other pshat in the pasuk is, when there's a newborn baby at home waking up every three hours, רבות מחשבות בלב איש. There are a lot of thoughts in the heart of man, who should wake up, who should diaper, who should feed that baby. There's a lot of thoughts, a lot of debate, a lot of questions, rabos machshavos, a lot of thoughts, who should be the one to wake up. Atzas Hashem, you know what Hashem says? Hi sakum, she should wake up. No? Okay. Anyway, some reject that. Okay, that's one pshat. But the other pshat is, האדם מרבה לחשוב מחשבות ולהגות תכניות, man makes many plans. I'm going to drive to the airport and I won't get pulled over. Things will go on time, there won't be any red lights or traffic, I won't get stuck at any train. We make a lot of plans. אבל אין קיום והצלחה למחשבותיו אם אינו מערב בהם שם שמים. But there is no fulfillment or success to our thoughts if we don't mix in God's presence. Everything that we do, we're about to invest money, we're about to start a new business, we're about to suggest or accept the suggestion of a shidduch, we're about to start a, a extension on our home. Whatever project, whatever plan, we wake up in the morning and we have plans. We have plans. The plan can be who we're going out for lunch with. The plan can be, right, I spoke last week about what's on tap today. Every day starting out in a healthy marriage where the couple caring enough to ask, what's on, once one stops caring about what the other one's doing, it's a bad sign, it's a red flag. What's on tap today is a sign of a healthy marriage. What's on tap? Again, too much what's on tap today can destroy them, but what's on tap today? What's on tap? What do you have? What's on your plate? What's on your schedule? Come on, let me in your life. And then afterwards, that night, how was the day? How did that thing go? How did that work out? Of course maintaining confidentiality, appropriateness, not being a nudzh, and not going overboard, but a general interest and investment in each other's life. So what's on tap today? What's on tap today? So everyone has plans of what's on tap today. I gotta take the car in for an oil change, I'm going to the doctor, I'm going to, the kid has an issue with this, I'm going to meet with the architect and the designer. Whatever's on tap that day. I'm going to the gym, I've got to buy food to make Shabbos, it's Wednesday. Whatever's on tap, everyone's got things on tap. I'm going to consider a new big investment, we're going to open the new business today. We all have big thoughts, big plans, we all have things on tap. Ein kiyum v'hatzlacha, but whatever's on tap won't be successful אם אינו מערב בהם שם שמים. Every answer to what's on tap have to include im yirtzeh Hashem, God willing, with God's help, if it please God. ליהיה שם שמים שגור על פיו להשליך על השם יהבו, so that the shem shamayim, the name of God, should be on the edge of our lips, always quoting, always talking, always referencing. And in the most subtle, nuanced way, you could transform, you could change a world. Zevy Samet talks in this conversation about what it means in a locker room before a game, there's a dvar Torah. After a game, let's take a moment, daven, thank Hashem. The minyan, the, the team has its own minyan. Very subtly and not so subtly, when you involve God in every conversation, there are people who weren't putting on tefillin, now putting on tefillin on the team. There are people who've taken on all kinds of things, commitments together. Shem shamayim, by talking about Hashem. Can you imagine the impact on coworker, colleagues, friends, neighbors, family members, children? Children's a big one. A lot of people talk to me, we started recently a support group in our shul in conjunction with an amazing organization for people struggling, having children who are not on their derech, and not on their derech can mean so many things, who are struggling in life in many ways: identity, religion, orientation, relationships. And people talk to me often about this issue, about navigating life and children and what to do. When do you push a child? They don't get up and they don't come to minyan. They don't put on tefillin. They leave the house not dressed the way that you would want or wish or the standard you've made. So do you police and do you come down and do you punish? How do you navigate that? How do you navigate that? I certainly don't have all the answers, but the gray in the beard gives me a little bit of life experiences at this point. One of the new podcasts, please God, when we can finish this campaign, that we want to start: The Rebbetzin, the Rabbi, the Rebbetzin and Real Life. Would you like to hear that podcast? The Rabbi, the Rebbetzin and Real Life, and talk about some of the issues, how to navigate with whatever wisdom we've learned from others and we're trying to practice ourselves. So do you come down hard? Do you punish? Do you scream? Do you yell? And the answer I, I try to say is, when it comes to our children, you gotta practice the long game. You're in it for the long haul and long term. And don't freeze the frame on any particular moment and lose your cool in a way which will set that child back. Instead, nuance, שם שמים שגור בפיו. If your child grows up in a home, and it's never too late, if your child is grown up and has their own home, and only now, if your child is a grown... grandparent and has the children who have their own home, it is never too late to start using the Shem Shamayim. They may think like what kind of Kool-Aid, what drugs are you on, where you going, who, what happened to you? But in your next phone calls and conversations and family get-togethers and Yom Tov tables, start talking about Hashem. God willing. With God's help. Oh, thank God. And very subtly, in a nuanced way, when you invoke and you mention and you drop Hashem's name, it changes other people around you. להשליך על השם יהבך, to cast onto God, that's the pasuk, Dovid HaMelech, Tehillim, throw onto Hashem all your problems. שיסייע בידו להוציא מחשבתו אל הפועל, so that Hashem will help us from the head to the heart. Zevi Samet had the wherewithal, the mindfulness in the middle of the game, down 16 with 15 minutes, down 2 with a few seconds left to say, Hashem, I don't know how you're going to make it work out, but I'm throwing all my problems on you. I'm casting it all on you. השלך על השם יהבך, throw all your issues on him. כמו שסיים הפסוק ועצת השם היא תקום על ידי היא שיאמר תמיד בפה מלא אם ירצה השם אז עצתו תקום ותצליח בסיעתא דשמיא. If you can live with the mindfulness and the consciousness and the presence to whether it's putting the kugel in the oven or whether it is putting the extension on the house or whether it is starting the new business or going to the doctor or whether it is whatever it is you have to do that day, whatever's on tap that day, Im Yirtzeh Hashem, God willing, God willing it should go well, God willing it should go well. Everything is God willing and everything afterwards is thank God. And so often, so often we remember the first part. God willing, God willing, God willing. If you want to increase your davening, if you want to improve your concentration for davening, I have a fantastic suggestion for you. You ready? Announce that you're going to raise six million dollars in two days. And I promise you, you will be focusing for the weeks and months before, davening your heart out. Now again, thank God, that's all you have to daven for. If that's the biggest challenge in your life, you are blessed. Any challenge that money can solve is the greatest blessing in the world because there are so many, too many challenges that money can't solve. And those are the real heartfelt tefillos that we have. So we are in a blessed position that this is the tefilla that we're concentrating on. But if you want to improve your concentration, publicly announce that you're going to raise six million dollars in two days. I promise you, you will be more focused in davening. So constantly, please let this meeting go well, let this solicitation go well, let that person find in their heart to give, please let people give on their own, please let ambassadors set up teams, please let it go viral and be set up, please let people hear it's coming from our heart and want to give from theirs. Please, please, please, please, please. Okay, if, when, and failure's not an option, so when we meet our mark and we are successful, do we remember to say thank you? What are we going to do to have a huge thank you to Hashem party? Thank you. Whatever it is, on the way to the doctor, on the way to the laboratory to draw blood, please, please let it be a good outcome, let it all go well, please, please let the test, let the procedure, let the therapy work, please, please, please, please, please. What about afterwards? Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. So Im Yirtzeh Hashem, God willing, please God, with God's help, please, please, please, that we're pretty good at. But how about afterwards? So taki that went well, the shot fell, we won the game, the money came in, the lab report came back, the, I would say positive, but positive news, which is negative, which I don't know who ever came up with that, but the news, the lab report came out with what we wanted. Do we pause, stop, and say not only the beforehand Im Yirtzeh Hashem, but the afterwards, enormous thank you Hashem? We need both. More Hashem. שם שמים שגור בפיו. Because as we've shared so many times, He'emanti ki adaber. What increases emuna? Ki adaber. You want to improve the emuna of the people around you. Not everyone in this room, not everyone in this community, not everyone in this world is aligned in emuna with their spouse, with their children. Sometimes there's a misalignment where one is entirely into it and the other less so. So again, what do you do? Buy them books? Make them listen to podcasts? Lecture them all day? Proselytize emuna? Make them sit through a Bible Codes evidence-based class? Absolutely not. I promise you that will, all that will do is drive them further away, drive them further away. That is the number one thing that will drive them further away. If you ever ask somebody close to you who you thought would do better off if they skipped the dessert and you suggested they skip the dessert, I promise you they'll have two pieces. They're going to eat two pieces. So the person who's not yet where you wish they were with you on this journey of living with emuna and seeing and living the benefits of it, don't lecture, don't indoctrinate, don't proselytize. Put a little decal in the window of their car and talk about Hashem and before something say God willing, yeah, God willing we'll meet, we'll go on vacation, God willing this will work. work out, God willing I'll take your dry cleaning in, God willing you'll remember to put your socks in the hamper, God willing, just drop God's name every chance you can and show them, because they'll see they'll be with you, and you'll be pulled over by a police God forbid, stuck behind a train, sitting in traffic, the flight delayed, and they'll be losing their cool and you'll be sitting there saying, I'm embracing my place, we are where we're meant to be, it's all good. Say who are you? What happened to my wife? Where'd you go? Everything okay? What are you on? And you'll say no, no, no, it's just this is the benefit of when you, when you realize that you surrender to Hashem, that we make all our plans, we do all we can it's up to him, this is how I'm not telling you how to feel, I'm just showing you that did you hear my blood test came back and I no longer have high blood pressure and I no longer have high cholesterol and I no longer have high sugars because I've been living with emuna and using the ice bath and now I'm perfectly and now I'm perfectly healthy and they're going to say you know what, they're going to be like the other husbands we're now up to two who've emailed me that later at night while their wife is asleep and they won't find out and they clear the cache and the cookies afterwards, they're not sneaking to the other room to watch something they shouldn't watch, they're sneaking to listen to living with emuna but they won't give their wife the satisfaction of knowing. Two men have emailed me, they're now hooked on living with emuna but they won't let their wives have the satisfaction of saying I told you so, so they do it in the middle of the night without their wife knowing and deleting and erasing the history of what they were listening to on podcast. But you know what, who cares? Who cares whether they tell you or not? So whether it's with our children or our spouse and it's the other direction too, there are men on fire with emuna whose wives are not where they are. Don't indoctrinate, don't lecture, absolutely not it will backfire and it will not work, they'll have two pieces of cake. I'm telling you. Instead live it, שם שמים שגור בפיו, talk about and drop Hashem's name. Now I must come back to that reference, this past Shabbos we had two extraordinary people speak in the afternoon in this conversation, and if you didn't come shame on you. And you'll excuse me for saying it, but we have almost weekly at BRS hosting incredible historic heroes of the Jewish people. People who have experienced and sacrificed and are leading extraordinary things and the least we can do is show up and listen to them, give them the honor and the love of supporting them. And yes a shluff on Shabbos afternoon, oh there's nothing better, but give it up for what they've had to give up and come and listen. The shul was full don't get me wrong we had a beautiful crowd, but it should have been overflowing with people who came to hear Simcha Greiniman and Vered, Simcha Greiniman in the first 12 hours of October 7th as a volunteer for Zaka personally collected and transported 350 bodies. Not all full, men women children, some burnt and charred, some stuck together I don't even want to describe what he saw what he lived through and Simcha will excuse me for saying, you see it in his eyes. His eyes are the saddest eyes I've ever seen you see it in you can't live through what he lived through as a volunteer who was dodging bullets while he was doing it. You can't. You can't. And he described another one of the volunteers, a big strong guy named Menachem who waited seven years to have a baby and had a baby and his wife a baby girl and he hasn't been able to hold this baby and he hasn't been able to come home at night. And his wife doesn't know where he is and doesn't understand after seven years of waiting how he can't hold this baby. And then and then Vered who's the therapist, a psychologist who's been working with released hostages and with these Zaka volunteers talked about her her rehab group therapy sessions with these Zaka volunteers she's focused now on Zaka to better understand and to have them open up and to share. This Menachem they had that baby right before October 7th and when he went into I think Nir Oz, Nahal Oz, Be'eri I don't remember which one and he walked into the room and he found a child a baby it was the same crib he had just built for his new child. So he was unable to hold his baby because all he saw was the remains of that baby. And Simcha who is a carpenter and an architect hasn't been able to open any plans because every time he opens plans all he sees is the layout of these homes in these in these border towns and all the bodies he found in the different rooms that's all he sees. So they went to this therapy session with Vered who's amazing has her own incredible stories her own right. But I just the reason I'm bringing this up is because I just want to share that Simcha voluntarily without probing or prodding and having absolutely no idea because he's never listened to one shiur I've ever given said I want to tell you, I want to tell you what gave me the breakthrough. What enabled me to heal and to be able to open plans again, and Menachem. And he said the answer is when we got together, this thing called an ice plunge. I said amazing. And he described how it's freezing cold and you can't breathe, but you breathe through it, and the whole experience is that while you're breathing through it, you say, I'll never survive this and I can't stay here in this condition, and I can't feel this feeling, I need to get out, if you learn to breathe, you can breathe through anything. And after 20-30 seconds, then you're able to sit. He did five to seven minutes. That's impressive. You're able to sit. And he learned through that, and that's why it's a great thing in life, not that I make any money, although Alana, we have to brand ice baths, Living with Emuna, a logo, get a little side hustle, the Living with Emuna ice bath. But when you sit inside it, and you say I can't be here, but you breathe through it, כל הנשמה תהלל קה כל הנשימה תהלל קה. With every breath I praise you Hashem. I can endure, I can live, I can sustain, when we have a sense of im yirtzeh Hashem, היא עצת השם היא תקום. So whatever's on tap today, whatever's on your schedule calendar, whatever you have to get done, maybe overwhelming, and it may seem simple and straightforward, the laundry, start to cook for Shabbos, which is also not so simple and straightforward ever for anyone. Whatever we have to do can feel overwhelming for us in our place. Start out im yirtzeh Hashem. Atzas Hashem, that's his advice. And then sakum, you will find hatzlacha, because he'll be present, he's doing the laundry with you, he's going into the big meeting solicitation with you, he's heading to the doctor's office and will sit and wait in the waiting room with you. He's in the ice bath with you. There's room for him everywhere. Hashem is with us when we invite, when we welcome him in, and then sakum, he gives us, he gives us the courage, the conviction, the energy, the faith to take on, to persevere, to succeed in whatever we have on tap that day. כן הדבר גם בשלמות, let's just begin the next paragraph. כן הדבר גם בשלמות רוחנית שאדם מבקש להפיל אליה ופעמים נראה לו שמעכבים בידו לעלות ולהתעלות גם כאן יחזק בלבבו אמונה תמימה שהקדוש ברוך הוא נמצא ודואג לכל מחסורו. This is the solution, the formula, the recipe for life. This is the prescription that we need to endure, overcome, whatever is coming our way. Bishleimus ruchnius, it's not only true in physical gashmius, till now we're talking about the physical world. How will the kugel turn out? How will the carpool turn out? How will the meeting turn out? How will the whatever project turn out? im yirtzeh Hashem, thank you Hashem, God willing. But now Rav David Abuhatzeira turns to the world of ruchnius and he says, what about my soul? What about my spirit? Remember we've talked about in Emuna Shiur a lot, when you get together for that coffee, don't just say, how are things? How you doing? What's new, what's going on? A good friend asks, how's your neshama? Wow. How's your neshama? How's your neshama? What are you doing to nourish your neshama? What are you doing to nurture your neshama? How are you taking care of your neshama? What are you doing for your neshama? And reciprocate, ask me how my neshama is, because that's going to, you know what, and be honest, and talk about what we need to do. Sometimes the people feel broken. Sometimes the neshama is through the roof, I'm on fire, I'm feeling it, connected, high speed, and other times, feeling a little broken, I'm feeling a little disconnected, I'm struggling to hold on, I'm wondering where is God? Thank you for asking, I'd love to talk about that. What works for you, what could work for me? You're even just asking that question is making me think about that. What do I need to do to take stock, to measure, to protect, to nourish, to take care? But here too Hashem will help in our heart with emuna in Hashem, וכאשר יעשה הוא המוטל עליו בהשתדלות השגת רוחניות. And when a person does what's necessary for them to grow spiritually, you go to the class, you daven from your heart, you use the right words God willing, yizkeh le'birchas Hashem, we'll merit the blessing of Hashem בכל אשר יעשה ויצליח לעלות מעלה מעלה. We've talked about this before too. It sounds paradoxical, it makes no sense, but when you're struggling with emuna, if you're struggling with doubt in God, daven to God to have more faith in God. It sounds bizarre and paradoxical and makes no sense, unless you understand. It makes perfect sense. Daven to God that he give more clarity, that he reveal himself more transparently, that he give more winks and hugs and nods, that he make his presence more felt, that he gives us that those moments, those breakthrough to see, to feel, to recognize he's there. That's also a form of tefilla. Hashem I want to daven to you right now to tell you, I don't know where you are. I'm not even sure I believe you exist, and I'm frustrated and disappointed and I'm protesting some of the decisions you've made for me and my family. And now, get me out, because I need you to hold me in your arms. And I need to collapse, and I need you to make me feel better that this is going to be okay. And I don't, I don't feel it, and I don't know where you are, and I don't know why you're doing this, but I want to, because I know I can't do it without you. So it's an unusual form of a tefilla, but it's a tefilla to Hashem in a place of doubt and uncertainty to. to feel close and connected. It's a feeling from being low to climb high. רמז לדבר מצינו אצל אברהם אבינו. We find this with Hashem with Avraham Avinu, מתחילה היה נקרא שמו אברם ולא הגיע לשלמות מדריגתו. Avram begins his career missing the letter heh. He's Avram, not Avraham. והיה זה בבחינת רבות מחשבות בלב איש because he had all kinds of plans and goals and mission in life, ולא עלתה בידו להוציא כל רצונו אל הפועל but he wasn't successful, he wasn't having that breakthrough, he wasn't living that best life. להשיג בעבודת השם לפי ערכו to fulfill according to what he was meant to be accomplishing and doing. Omnam, however, לאחר מכן נוסף אות ה בשמו, Hashem added the letter heh to his name. וכך יכול היה להשלים עבודתו כרצונו. האות ה במלואו יכול להיכתב ה"א ויכול להיות ה"י או יכול להיות ה"ה. Heh, heh. Heh tzere aleph or heh tzere yud or heh tzere heh, and all three, however you spell it, spell heh, the letter. הרי לנו אותיות אם ירצה השם. So the letter heh that was added to Avram's name, what was added to Avram's life? A little God awareness, a little God speak, a little he'emanti ki adaber, a little God willing, thank God, please God. וזו אות שנוספה לשמו של אברהם אבינו כשרוצה להשלים נפשו לבוראו. When Avram says I'm not, it's I'm, there's resistance, I'm hitting a wall, I'm not breaking through, I'm not having my best days, I'm not living my best life. Hashem says, let me help you. I'm giving you the letter heh because the letter heh, heh-yud, heh-aleph, heh-heh, these are the letters of Im Yirtze Hashem. You know what's holding you back? Invite me. Invite me to be next to you. Wherever you're going, whatever you're doing, whatever's on tap today, invite me. You know you make a date with somebody they say, send me a calendar invite. Hashem says, send me a calendar invite. Invite me, whatever you have on tap today. I want to come with you and you will see an altogether different outcome. You will find success. Not necessarily in the particular endeavor. I'm very careful to always clarify, it's not that if you say Im Yirtze Hashem while you invest in that you're guaranteed to get a return. I wish life were that simple. If you say Im Yirtze Hashem while you go buy the lottery ticket you're guaranteed to win the Mega Millions. I can tell you I tried, it doesn't work. It doesn't necessarily work. And with all respect to Zevy Samet, just because you say Im Yirtze Hashem after the timeout doesn't necessarily mean you're going to hit the fadeaway three and win the game. That's not the way life works. If it was, we'd all have everything we want and it'd be a perfect pleasurable world. That's not the way life works. But I'll tell you the way life does work. If you say Im Yirtze Hashem, however it goes and whatever the outcome, you will feel better about it. You'll be able to get through it. You'll know what's next. You'll learn to fail forward. You'll learn to persevere nonetheless, nevertheless. Like Avraham had the heh and it changed it. He broke out, he became Avraham Avinu, he transformed a world. When we live with a little more heh, heh-yud, heh-aleph, heh-heh, we live with a little more Im Yirtze Hashem, we will be successful. If, if the way people will know if you go to the Living with Emunah Shiur or listen to it, is you start talking about Hashem in your life. That's how we'll know. Basically, you gotta do your homework. Do your homework. I've got enough kids who don't do their homework. I don't need more. Do your homework. Do your homework. I can't babysit you. Do your homework. Although we'll meet again next Wednesday, but do your homework. Before everything. Before everything. Many of you are going to walk out together. First stay and say all of Sefer Tehillim. Let's complete all of Sefer Tehillim till all the hostages are home and the soldiers are safe. We're still davening from the bottom of our hearts. Stay. Stay because Talia's in the back and she's going to barricade the door and not let you leave if you've not contributed to the global campaign and to helping spread Torah. But at some point when you break through and get past Talia, many of you are going to walk out together and you're going to say, what do you have on tap today? What's next? Where are you going? The success, the determination, whether you were really listening, but not just listening, whether we're really practicing, is Im Yirtze Hashem. Oh, next I'm going shopping, God willing. Next I have to get to work, please God. Next I have to meet the so-and-so, if God wills. Let's use it in our vernacular, in our language. Let's be distinguished and identified. Let's be known that I go to, I listen, I'm part of the Living with Emunah community and anyone who meets me knows it and now they are also. That's what the men who are listening in the middle of the night, nobody knows, it's going to slip because they're going to say Im Yirtze Hashem and their wife's going to say gotcha. I caught you. I know it now. So let's do our homework and like Avraham Avinu by adding the heh to our lives, letshe-akum. Let's be able to see the success, celebrate the success, and please God only have בשורות טובות ישועות ונחמות brsonline.org/s BRSonline.org/global or charidy with a D .com/brs. Put it on Yocheved's page or Talia's page, help them meet their goals. Until next time! Stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
