Transcript
Good morning, welcome back to Living with Emuna. I want to thank our generous series sponsors Dr. Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, in memory of Bella’s mother Dr. Ellen Schanz, and of course in honor of our heroic Israeli soldiers, Air Force pilots, in honor of the return of the hostages, and the safety and security of all those in Israel, including the Morgans, as all of Israel now is the front lines. Until now for a year and a half, we’ve davened from the bottom of our hearts for soldiers who’ve been going into Gaza and into Lebanon and fighting on front lines, but over the last few days all ten million people in Israel, the whole Israel is the front line and we daven for the safety and security of all. Also sponsored by a fun couple in LA in honor of their wedding anniversary, by Howard Konig in honor of his father’s yahrtzeit David Konig, neshama she’tehei aliyah, by Jenny Schwartz in honor of her father for Father’s Day, her mother for her birthday, both of whom exemplify emuna, and by Sarah and David Kazdan to recognize the yad Hashem. Her brother’s apartment in Tel Aviv was hit Monday morning, but things can be replaced and mizmor l'soda her brother was safe in his bombshell shelter, which is extraordinary and we add our voice to the gratitude to Hashem. And lastly also sponsored by Ellie Walden, her grandson Moshe baruch Hashem who was in that horrible car accident is home and healing and recited a birchas hagomel and she should continue to have a refuah shelaima, complete healing, and you should have only only nachas. Okay, I want to sort of do a special edition of the emuna shiur, which is geared to all of us wherever we are, wherever a Jew is in the world, we need these emuna messages and we need to reinforce and we need to come together and we need to remind ourselves and but also particularly geared towards the countless people who have reached out to me, heroic people, people I am absolutely in awe of in Israel, those ten million I described who are on the front line who are running in and out of bombshell shelters. I just published this morning my newest article and I began that over the last few days I’ve had several conversations interrupted with my daughter, with my sister, with someone else I know in Israel, where each of them said, listen, I gotta run, we just got an alert, the siren’s going off, I gotta get my kids and get into the shelter. And as commonplace as that has become, just to state what we know and is obvious, there is nothing normal about ever saying I need to get my kids and run to a bombshell shelter because there are ballistic missiles headed my way, that can never ever ever be normal. We can’t ever adjust, we have to remain maladjusted to such a statement, such a comment, we have to never tolerate, never tolerate, and that’s what the heroic Air Force pilots and IDF are doing, they are ensuring that never again means never again and that we don’t have to tolerate ever having to utter such words. Such a sentence should never come out of a Jew’s mouth. 80 years after the Holocaust, here we are again running to hide, to protect, to secure ourselves from attacks. It can’t be, it can’t be, and that’s of course what we daven to Hashem from the bottom of our hearts. So countless, countless people I am in awe of have reached out, I’ll read a couple of the emails, but about how some of the messages that we learn together each and every week, and we try to incorporate, and whether the decal in our windshield or the sticker on the back of the phone that reminds us to embrace our place, יש השם במקום הזה, we are where we’re meant to be. You know, that means one thing when you’re at a red light that’s taking too long, it means one thing when your flight’s delayed but eventually will take off, and it means another thing when you’re running to a bombshell shelter and you don’t know what’s going to be or where that missile will land. So I want to direct our learning this morning and some thoughts in particular very very very humbly here from Boca Raton in the safety and security sitting under our palm trees. I’m not so presumptuous to think that I have a message or anything to say to heroes who are living it in real time. So it comes me'omek libi from the depths of my heart, just a fellow Jew who cares, who loves, who wants to send the biggest hug in the world. And these are just some thoughts because I was asked, but not because I feel I'm in a position to share. So it's really with tremendous humility. So let me share with you a few emails. Shalom aleichem Rabbi Goldberg, I want to thank you for all the shiurim, the emuna shiur, it's really had an impact on my life. My safta and I always listen to the parsha perspectives and discuss together after, thank you so much. I'm currently learning Shana Bet seminary in Israel and as a result of the current situation may Hashem speedily bring the yeshua, all our flights have been canceled and we're having seminary extended indefinitely even though it was supposed to end yesterday, and I got this a few days ago. We're still debating whether to call it Shana 1.5 or our seminary in overtime. Many of us are struggling with the challenges posed with the current situation that Klal Yisrael is going through. Between our fears for our safety b'gadol and on personal levels what's going to be with our flights and our summer plans. Many of us listening to the shiurim and she asked, her seminary, her friends asked, maybe I could, maybe I could. together an emunah. So I invited come on. I don't know if they're watching live now, will watch later or not at all, but I invited her and her friends to join us for this conversation because I organized some thoughts that I want to share. This is another email. Hi Rav, how are you? I'm an Olah bodedah writing to you from my cousin's bomb shelter in Petach Tikva during Iranian missile attack. Again, no words anyone should ever put in an email. I'm writing to you from a bomb shelter during an Iranian missile attack. It can never be normal. As commonplace as it's been for a few days, and it's shocking how quickly something can become a new normal. Those words, that email, that interruption to a phone call can never become normal. I haven't been to my apartment in five days cause I don't have a mamad. I don't know where I'll be able to, when I'll be able to go home. I miss my home, my friends, my life. I sit in the bomb shelter at 3 AM with such loud booms and all I want is my parents, but there's practically no way to be with them. I'm with the most loving family in a beautiful house, yet tachlis I feel so alone. How on earth do I embrace my place? Why is this where I meant to be? We're meant to be at war? I'm meant to leave my apartment? I know this isn't an extraordinary email, but feel free to share it in the emunah shiur for anyone in a similar situation. Thank you for the chizuk and life-changing Torah. Baruch Hashem I made aliyah three weeks ago and I'm not exaggerating, there's no way we could have done it without the emunah shiur. But those are very legitimate feelings. And then a follow-up email, the same person: also they speak only Hebrew, so the language barrier adds to my loneliness. I'm not fully able to express myself and be me. Baruch Hashem I know my situation is great relatively, but it's still difficult for me. How can a person embrace their place when their place is a bomb shelter? How can a person feel that's where they're meant to be if where they're meant to be is in the target of ballistic missiles? How does one execute or employ everything we're learning and talking about, not when it's at a red light or a delayed flight or a carpool that's annoying, but when it's literally life and death? Dear Rabbi Goldberg, love the ongoing talk about believing where we're meant to be. Sadly we're at war, which is ongoing even though we've been miraculously successful in our mission to Iran. They will continue to barrage us in every way possible until the IDF completely demolishes their ability. We live in Ramat Beit Shemesh. We have a mamad, a safe room in our apartment. So far we've been spared, however we're extremely vigilant, extremely cautious whenever we hear the sirens. Suffice to say there are many, actually too many. We follow the guidelines in accordance with the Home Command, a directive of the IDF. And we daven and say Tehillim with a tad more kavana. On another note, hence my email, we were in New Jersey for a few short days last week to celebrate a grandson's high school graduation. We have just made the last flight out of Newark landing in Tel Aviv. My daughters who live quite close were not quite ecstatic to welcome us back as they usually do. They were hoping our flight would have been canceled and I would end up being in Boca where I reside half-time. They would rather we have showers of rain as opposed to showers of missiles. Just think about that sentence next time you complain about having to get to your car in the rain in Florida. However, Hashem decided otherwise and here we are. And as new olim and as proud citizens of our beloved Israel, we're grateful. Why might you ask? Because I take this opportunity to knock on my elderly neighbor's door to do grocery shopping. I take this opportunity to help my grandkids with their children, to come over to watch them cartoons, giving their parents a slight reprieve as there's no gan. As there's no shul, my husband has taken the opportunity to be the tenth of needed for a minyan. I went shopping down the street on Friday before noon. I was taken by surprise when I saw others do their pre-Shabbos fill-ins. Was amazed how calm and orderly all were, like an ordinary Friday shopping. Did they know that we're at war with our greatest enemy? And then I overheard her conversation between two men in Hebrew which I actually understood. Shout out to Ulpan. And basically they conversed regarding the upcoming threat. And one said to the other to the effect of: yes, but we have Hashem on our side. And then we finished and then we wished each other Shabbat Shalom. It was at that precise moment I knew with all my certainty that I am where I meant to be and quietly thanked Hashem. I left the store with my elderly neighbor's and my own groceries although with a lighter step. Yes, the matzav is dire and scary, there'll be destruction and worse loss of life, I don't say that haphazardly. Is it destined for me to be in a war zone to daven and say Tehillim with a tad more kavana? Maybe. My neighbors and grandkids would be okay regardless where I am, but I know Hashem has given me the opportunity to do chesed and for that I'm incredibly grateful. Each of these emails are Mi k'amcha Yisrael emails. Like what other people, tens of thousands of Jews are trying to get back to Israel? Who else is trying to fight their way back into a war zone? They're paying to go on boats for 20 hours and ride the seas from islands near Israel to find their way back. It's like the Book of Exodus. I mean it's like it's like the pioneers. originally settling the state. Mi k'amcha Yisrael? The Jewish people are just unbelievable. Hi Rabbi, recently started listening to the Living with Emuna. My family lives in Israel, owns a camp in the states. We travel each summer and the camp is our parnassa. As you know, the Iran attack has shut down the airport. We have no way of getting to America. Not only that, but most of the staff also lives in Israel, and we're having a lot of trouble. Thanks to the shiur, I realized this is truly just Hashem sending some sort of sign. I don't know what He's trying to tell us, but thanks to the shiur, I'm extremely calm. I have full belief in Hashem, I know what He's doing is right, and I'm trying my best to calm my family. Thank you for the shiur from the city he lives in in Israel. Hi Rabbi, last Thursday night we got the wake-up call 4 AM letting us know Israel's attacking Iran, so we could prepare ourselves for an imminent retaliation. As many have said, like couldn't they sent an email? Did they have to wake everybody up? The Home Front Command said the schools are canceled. And Erev Shabbos didn't bother me too much, but once they said school was canceled for a whole week, and now for the rest of the year, I went into a bit of shock. Reminded me of the trauma of corona lockdowns, and with seven kids bli ayin hara, it's a lot for me to have to deal with. My sister sent me a meme going around Israel. What did it say? It's like corona and October 7th had a child. That's what this feels like. Corona and October 7th had a baby called this Iran war. Schools closed, running to bomb shelters, the worst of both. Then I remembered that we are right where we're supposed to be and I need to embrace my place. I need to be a strong positive mother for my children. I have the same thought every time we have to go to our safe room in the middle of the night. This is where Hashem wants us to be right now. May we only hear besoros tovos. Hi Rabbi Goldberg, only have a minute to sit and write, keeping it short. We live in a yishuv in Israel, like everyone else, woken up this morning by the siren letting us know we had attacked Iran. We spent the next few hours in the safe room with our three small kids, and then it came. My husband got called up to miluim in the Air Force. My immediate reaction was to have a complete meltdown. How could he be leaving me and the kids in the middle of an incoming attack from Iran? What was going to be? When will he be back? The whole morning was busy and stressful. We were supposed to go away for Shabbos, so I quickly had to whip up Shabbos because we have to stay home. After listening and trying to distance myself from the situation with random YouTube videos and podcasts, I decided to put on last week's Living with Emuna. Thanks for reminding me it's okay to have anxiety, but ultimately we need to recognize it's all up to Hashem. Boy, has He shown us some crazy nissim, miracles, already in the last 12 hours. Trying to recognize the zechus we have of being part of writing the history of the Jewish people. Besoros tovos for all of am Yisrael. I'll just read just one more, but I can't tell you how many came in. Incredibly humbled. Here we are in our comfort, learning Living with Emuna, and the people who are living it in real time, applying it in real time, and applying it in life and death, in the most dire, consequential, meaningful, not in theory, not hypothetical, not to calm their nerves over something relatively insignificant, inconsequential, but writing this in the middle of this. Thank you, this one came in just this morning. Thank you for sharing your recent blog post and for the chizuk, the article I mentioned that I wrote this morning. Reminded me of something someone had just sent me this morning and frames it in a different way. So the person shares: I thought of when they announced new guidelines for missile alerts. Instead of just having a siren, there would be an early alert 20 to 30 minutes in advance, an alert 5 to 10 minutes before and then the actual siren, which is what they do, the Home Front. They actually just changed this, I think they just got rid of the 30-minute one. They're down to the 10-minute one and the real-time siren, but originally it was again—if you wanted to write up something that would increase—I wrote in the article, is it any wonder the Jews disproportionately suffer from gastrointestinal diseases, which as countless research and I can testify is 100 percent true? Not only Ashkenazim, Jews in general, but 2,000 years of running away from pogroms, 2,000 years of running and hiding in attics and in haystacks and now in bomb shelters, 2,000 years of exterminations, 2,000 years of expulsions, and here we are 80 years after the Holocaust and still running, now to bomb shelters. Is it any reason that despite—and I said I'm in awe of our brothers and sisters in Israel who smile and they're positive and they have a healthy sense of humor and they're incredible—is it any wonder it's absorbed into the kishkas, into the literal kishkas of the Jewish people? So could you imagine how to make people more anxious than 30 minutes before say: you got 30 minutes, finish up what you're doing, then you're going to look in the sky and see it's raining missiles? As someone who now jumps and heart races at every ding, an alert on the phone, is it another early alert for missiles or just a normal message? I at first wondered why they need for so many alerts. Of course it's great to have extra time to physically prepare, especially if you need to run down the street to a public shelter. You're driving, you need to find one. Waze in Israel has a new feature to find the closest shelter if you're driving. Again, these are not normal things. Waze should tell you where the policeman's hiding. You shouldn't need to know where the policeman—I got it—but Waze should tell you where the police is hiding with his radar gun. Waze should tell you where the traffic is to avoid it. Waze should tell you where there's a pothole. You should never need Waze to tell you where the closest bomb shelter is. That is not normal. And no other people on earth would ask or tolerate such a situation. There's nothing normal about that. Or if you just want to have a quick shower or prepare your mamad. Could you imagine? I'm just going to jump in the shower on the way to the bomb shelter. And you know how heads up, but then on Motzei Shabbos I realized, it's not just about the physical prep time, it's a gift from Hashem to daven. זמן להתחנן ולחנן להשם. The deadly missiles may already be in motion, but Hashem is saying, you got 20 minutes, get physically safe and be spiritually safe. Say some Tehillim. While they did away with the 20-minute warning, we still have 5 to 10 minutes, still enough time for a quick tefilla as we physically prepare ourselves. Mi k'amcha Yisrael. How many would say if I have to run to a bomb shelter, God, you're the last thing on my mind. Where are you and why you and I have nothing to say to you. And instead, this individual in Israel is saying, ah, I figured out why. You know why we have so long to run? We could say some Tehillim. While they're in the air, we could daven, they're intercepted. When we gathered on Friday, this past Friday night, for extra Tehillim and a most heartfelt, incredible davening, I mentioned the image I try to have when I'm saying my Tehillim, especially every one of those alerts comes in, is that Tehillim, our Tehillim are making their way, Tehillim and tilim, tilim are missiles, Tehillim are our Tehillim, our Tehillim, they're ascending on high, we're shooting them into the sky, and on the way to Hashem they're going to knock out the missiles. They're going to take out the ballistic missiles. Your Tehillim will take on a new meaning, a new concentration, a new focus. You'll say them differently if you're picturing that if the Iron Dome or Arrow or Sling don't get it, your Tehillim might be what makes the difference. That's what we believe. We don't believe that to the extent that you shouldn't go to your mamad. Of course. And again, that's what we've been learning all these last months, the balance between initiative, bechira, our effort, and our faith. Hashem says, even in Bnei Brak, they released a kol koreh after a tragic death because of a missile that landed in Bnei Brak, and the rabbis reminded everybody, this isn't the Chazon Ish's time, the missiles aren't the Chazon Ish's missiles, and if there's a siren, get to your safe room. I don't care how righteous, religious, I don't care how deep and profound your faith, I don't care who you are, get to a safe room. That's our responsibility. But we need to know, particularly those outside of Israel, that our tefilla, our davening, it matters, it means something, it makes a difference, and that we can intercept those missiles, our Tehillim can help the Sling and the Arrow and the Iron Dome and the Air Force to do everything they need to do to intercept. So can you imagine the perspective of a Jew who's running to his bomb shelter with his family, who's getting an alert even earlier, and instead of being angry and taking it out on God says, thank you for giving me enough time to have a conversation with you on the way there. To not only ensure I'm physically safe, that I'm packing the snacks for the latest round of the barrage of missiles, because again, these are not normal things anyone should ever say to kids. What snacks would you like while we're waiting for ballistic missiles to fall on our head? What would you like to eat? What snacks would you like? What do you want to watch? What do you want to do? In our family WhatsApp groups, and baruch Hashem, I'm so proud to have so many family in Israel, siblings, children, cousins, Yocheved and I, in the WhatsApp every time they post a picture from a bomb shelter, everybody's smiling. There's little kids, it's intergenerational, it's in pajamas, it's middle of the night. It's like a can you believe we're doing this again? But Mi k'amcha Yisrael, the Jewish people are mind-bogglingly strong, extraordinary, nothing normal. I would say there's nothing normal about the situation, but the abnormality of the situation is matched by how not normal the Jewish people are. As not normal the situation is, is as not normal the Jewish people are. So I want to send a few words and this is a biggest virtual hug and I wish, I know my wife wishes, but I wish, the second that first siren went off, I want to take the first flight to Israel. In those moments, I don't want to run away, I want to be there. I have a dear friend in Israel and he texts me, says how you holding up? Says how am I holding up? How are you holding up? How am I holding up under the palm trees in Boca? Doing just fine, how are you holding up? So he said, no, I mean how you getting through this? I said, you know, to be honest, the only hard part is I so badly want to be in Israel. He said, I know, that's what I meant, how are you holding up that you can't come? Maybe I'll hire a captain, take a boat, or bring whoever, whoever could go. So I want to, I want to just send the biggest hug virtually through this, I wish it could be in person, and I want to do it with these words and they're the humble thoughts of a small Jew in chutz la'aretz who desperately wishes he could be there with you, but understanding that that this is your story and what you're living and you are our heroes and we have an endless gratitude and you are what make us undefeatable, impenetrable, unbreakable. You are you are what make נצח ישראל לא ישקר. רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, the Heilige Rashbi, on Lag Ba'Omer we just celebrated his Yahrtzeit and leaving the cave, the Heilige Rashbi writes גמרא מגילה דף כט בכל מקום שגלו שכינה עמהם. Wherever the Jewish people are exiled, Hashem himself comes with us. רבי שמעון בר יוחאי, who did spend his life in running, running and fleeing from Romans who wanted to execute him, having to hide in a cave, he understood that wherever a Jew is, he hid in that cave, he hid in his shelter, he had to go to his ma'amad. And when he was there, what was his message? What did he take away? How did he feel? כל מקום שגלו, wherever we have to run and flee and hide, wherever we have to take cover and safety, שכינה הקדוש ברוך הוא, the Almighty himself is with us. He doesn't say I don't need Iron Dome, I'm good to go, no missile can touch me. He doesn't say I'm the infinite, I'm the omnipotent, I'm the source of all existence, good luck to you, I'll be watching from afar. He says wherever you go, I am with you. So while we are searching for him, while we're looking and trying to feel him and find him, if you're in a bomb shelter, just look over, he's right next to you. These moments are opportunities to feel his presence more intensely than any other. To feel his love, to feel his embrace, to lean on him and to lean into him. These are moments where he says I am more accessible and I am more available and I am more with you than ever. כל מקום שגלו, wherever you're forced to run and take cover, wherever you're forced to flee and exile, שכינה הקדוש ברוך הוא, what does the word Shchina milashon Shachen mean, a neighbor, a close confidant, accessible, available? He's right there. That Hashem who ordinarily is so distant and far, that Hashem who we cannot understand, that Hashem who sometimes we can't feel, but he's a Shchina, he's a Shachen, he's right there, when? כל מקום שגלו. Hashem doesn't watch from a distance and from afar. Hashem is not following the news of what's happening. He's in it. He's a target. This is his war. So we said on Shabbos when we take out that Torah, ויהי בנסוע הארון ויפוצו אויביך וינוסו משנאיך מפניך, Zogt Rashi משנאיך אלו שונאי ישראל. Who are our enemies? These are those who hate the Jewish people and are dedicated to our demise. Zogt Rashi, if you hate the Jewish people, then you are שונא מי שאמר והיה העולם. Then you hate the creator of the world. This is not a war between Iran and the Jewish people. This is a war between Iran and God. It's not the Houthis firing on Israel, it's the Houthis firing on the Almighty. And if a Jew has to run to a bomb shelter, בכל מקום שגלו שכינה עמהם, the Almighty himself is with us. There's a pasuk in Yeshaya, the pasuk reads בכל צרתם לא צר. With all their pain, Lo Lamed Alef, no anguish to Hashem. But we're told to read it differently, not Lo Lamed Alef no tsar, but Lamed Vav, Lo, he has tsar. With all of our tsar, with all of our pain, with every siren, with every struggle, with every campus protest, with every member of Congress who doesn't get it, too many of them Jewish somehow, Bechol Tsarasam with all the tsar, every network, every media pundit, every person who doesn't get it, with each of them לו צר. Hashem has tsar. You know that you can get through anything if you're not alone. To feel I'm not alone. One of the writers, one of the authors of an email describes Ani Boded, I'm alone, and they speak Hebrew Ani Boded, I'm alone. No, you're not alone in that shelter, displaced from your apartment or home, not with your loved one who's on miluim or stuck outside of Israel. You're not alone because כל מקום שגלו, wherever a Jew has to go, Shchina. We in chutz la'aretz we're looking, we're searching, we're trying to find, man in search of God, we're trying to find him everywhere. But if you're in a bomb shelter, you know exactly where he is. He's sitting right next to you. Lo Tsar. And to the degree we're in pain, we're in pain with you, for you, we're watching, we're in our own pain, the rise of anti-Semitism, we're in our own pain, protests and marches, we're in our own pain, members of Congress who don't get it, we're in our own pain, fake news, misinterpreting what's happening, לו צר. Not that Hashem doesn't have pain, but Lo Lamed Vav, Lo, he he doesn't leave the shelter. Until the Jewish people are home, he's not fully home. He's with us through thick and thin from beginning to end, he's with us all the way. He's doing it from a sense of Imo Anochi B'tzara. He's doing it from a sense of Hashem says I'm with you. When Hashem first appears to Moshe in the bush, the sneh, the fire, the bush that's on fire but not being consumed, Rashi there says, what kind of a bush is it? It's a lowly thorn bush. It's not a rose, not a bed of roses. It's not violets, it's not bougainvillea, it's not any other beautiful magnificent landscape. He's not sitting in a magnificent centerpiece from a wedding or school dinner. Where is Hashem? In a thorn bush. Talking about the Almighty, the master of the universe, the creator of the world, and when he's going to make an appearance, he does it in a thorn bush? Not magnificent flora, in a thorn bush? Says Rashi, you know why? Imo Anochi B'tzara. Hashem says if the Jewish people are in Egypt in servitude, suffering, subjugation, then I'm not in a bed of roses, I'm in a thorn bush with you. If Jews are running to shelters, Imo Anochi B'tzara, Hashem says I'm in a thorn bush with you and I'm not leaving till you can leave. I'm not in the clear till you get an all clear. You're looking for me, you want to find me, you'll never find me more easily, you'll never feel me more intensely, than when you're in distress because I'm in distress and I'm right by your side. And for us we should know that could be God forbid in a hospital room, that could be in a rehab center, that could be in a doctor's office, that can be online for unemployment. Anytime a Jew, that could be being treated for fertility, anytime a Jew is בצרה בכל צרתם לו צר. It's the rest of the time when all's going well that we have to look and we have to search and we have to try to find. But when we're in pain and distress, when we're in crisis, we can find him most easily, he is most available and accessible, his presence is most intense. Bekhol tzorosom with all tzar לו צר, Imo Anochi B'tzara, Hashem says I'm right there with you. But it's more than that. It's not just that Hashem is right there with us in this moment. Hashem says I'm not going to defeat Iran as a favor for you, I'm not doing it because you're my children, I'm not doing it because you're my chosen, I'm not doing it because we've been through a lot together. Hashem says I'm doing it for me, because they're not just attacking you, they're attacking me. Any enemy of the Jewish people is an enemy of the Almighty. Iran, the modern personification of evil and wickedness, the modern, the modern Amalek, they're trying to diminish Hashem's יד על כס יה, they're trying to diminish Hashem's presence. Hashem says this is personal for me. I'm not just like a hired assassin, I'm not just going to fight for you because it's a favor, because we're allies. Hashem says I'm not just your ally, this war is against me. And that's why Hashem's going to do everything he has to do to take them out. So what do we have to do? What's for us? And for us, I'm not so brazen or bold or presumptuous or pompous to talk about our brothers and sisters in Israel, we are in awe. And every Jew outside of Israel should nonstop be sending messages and checking in and, someone shared with me yesterday a beautiful idea, just send, they have Uber Eats in America and they have, what's it called, Wolt, Wolt? Wolt in Israel, just the people you know, just send surprises. Ice coffee and donuts, and for no reason deliver hamburgers and French fries. Let the people you know in Israel get a knock on the door and answer, have cupcakes and donuts for no reason because there was a Jew in Boca or somewhere else who thought of them. That's your job. You don't have time, you don't have the app, you don't want to put in your credit card, you don't want to spend the few dollars or shekel? Too bad, shame on you, shame on us. Shame on us if we can't. That's our job. I'm not telling those in Israel their job, but a general statement in the spirit of our emunah shiur and for anyone listening for whom this is meaningful, because it's also the message of our parsha. As we spoke about last week, the Alter Rebbe said, a Jew has to live with the times. Living with the times doesn't mean the New York Times certainly or even the Times of Israel. Living with the times doesn't mean wearing the latest or listening to the latest, living with the times means that we interpret what's happening in our lives and in the world through the prism of the parsha. It's not a coincidence, it's never random what we're reading, we're reading it when we do because that's what we're meant to read, because that's There's something in it that's for us. There's a message for us that was true last week's Parshas Behaaloscha, where several times Hashem makes a promise in that Parsha that when they go to war your enemies with you, I will take care of you, I have your back. And it's true this week as we're trying to make our way Shelach Lecha, we're trying to make our way up into the holy land. And ten spies, ten of the twelve didn't get their mission. They were Nesiim, they were great people, wonderful people. They were leaders of our people, but they misplayed, they didn't understand, and they came back and they reported the very first maybe at least in the Torah case of fake news. They came back and they gave fake news. There's giants, it's a land that eats its inhabitants, we can't do it, we can't go there. How do you understand and interpret such great people could make such a fundamental mistake? We've talked about it in the Parsha class, it's for another time, how could it be? But I don't want to focus on the ten who got it wrong, I want to focus on the two who got it right. The two who got it right. Because Joshua, Kalev interjects and Kalev announces עלה נעלה וירשנו אתה כי יכול נוכל לה. Let's go up! We got this! We can do this! כי יכול נוכל לה. We can certainly do it. We can certainly do it. He openly opposes, he takes on these other spies, insisting despite the military prowess of the others, despite their nuclear ambition, despite their stockpile of missiles, despite their proxies that are spread all over the tentacles that reach far and wide. Despite all that. It's true, Efes. The point of the Meraglim was accurate, was true. It was the conclusion that was mistaken, that was erroneous. And Kalev gets up and he announces Alo Naaleh, let's go up, we got this, כי יכול נוכל לה, we can do it, we can do it. The Piaseczna Rebbe, Hashem Yikom Damo. The Heilige Rebbe of Piaseczna, רב קלונימוס קלמן שפירא of Piaseczna, who was the Rav in the Warsaw Ghetto, who lost his life, who was killed by the Nazis, Hashem Yikom Damo. In that time, we've learned much of this before, he gave somehow unimaginably, as a rabbi who speaks regularly, I cannot begin to imagine to be tasked or charged with standing up in front of people in a Warsaw Ghetto, skeletons who've watched their loved ones murdered, die of starvation, corpses lying all around them, no hope for the future, and to have to be tasked with every Shabbos getting up and giving a Drasha, making sense of what's going on, living with those times through the Parsha. Can't imagine. But the Heilige Piaseczna did. He did. And he himself was an extraordinary person, a composer, a musician, a Rosh Yeshiva, a Rav, a Rebbe, an extraordinary, extraordinary person. And he scribbled the notes and buried them with the Oneg Shabbos archives, and they were recovered and put together in others, Dr. Henry Abramson did a great job putting together a beautiful book that correlates that Drasha with what was happening historically at the time. So you don't read it in a vacuum, but you understand it in its context. So the Rebbe, the Piaseczna Rebbe, addressed these words of Kalev: עלה נעלה כי יכול נוכל לה. Let's go up! We got this! We can do it! We can do it! He addressed it in 1940 in the Warsaw Ghetto. And what was happening then? The news had broken that the French army had fallen to the German forces, and that set the stage for the Nazi domination of Europe. That if yet another front had fallen, the French had fallen, the Nazis were going to march their way to the conquest not only of all of Europe, we know they had ambition for Israel and beyond. And so the mood in the ghetto, you can imagine, was of dread and total despair. And the Piaseczna Rebbe gets up against the backdrop of that news that the French had fallen, dread, despair, hopelessness. And he notes that Kalev in his response doesn't at all address what the other ten had said. Ten get up and they make a presentation. Ten get up and they have a PowerPoint. Ten get up and they say: there's giants, it's a land that eats and look at the size of the fruit and they've got military fortifications and they've got... Kalev gets up and he doesn't talk at all how far they are in enrichment, he doesn't talk at all about how many sites, how far it is underground, he doesn't talk at all about what we have compared to what they have. All he says is Alo Naaleh! We've got this! We can do it! We can make it happen! Listen to the Piaseczna Rebbe's words, I want to learn with you this morning: כך צריכה להיות אמונת איש הישראלי, such must be the faith of a Yid, of a Jew. לא בלבד בשעה שראה מבוא ודרך לישועתו, not only when you see the way and the path forward of how, of how you can be saved. That's not the only way. גם על פי שכלו ובדרך הטבע יאמין בהשם שיושיעהו ויתחזק. Rak. Don't just have faith when you can see the way out. Yeah, I can see the way out. If we do this, and then you do that, and you do that, yeah, I can see it all working out. Yeah, if we change flights and then we change over over there and we'll catch over there, I see we could still make it. We'll still make it to the... yeah, it could work out. So now you gotta daven hard that all the things... yeah, if we take that medicine, if we get that treatment, you could heal. There's a decent recovery, right? Yeah, if I meet that shadchan, yeah, if I see it, yeah, okay, I see the path, I see the way, I see the way forward. Now I have to daven that all the things connect, all the dots connect. Yes, says the Piaseczna Rebbe to these Jews in 1940 in the Warsaw Ghetto. What Kalev was communicating then and what Kalev is still telling us now is that emunah doesn't just mean when you can see the way out, now you daven that Hashem take you through it. It means even when you see no way, even when it feels impossible, even when you're prepared to despair, even when all feels hopeless, lean in. That's the moment. That's the moment. ואדרבה בשעה זו טוב שלא יתעקש למצוא איזה שכל ומבוא על דרך הטבע כי כיון שעל פי פשוטו לא ימצא אז חס ושלום חס וחלילה תוכל אמונתו על ידי זה להפגם. It's a brilliant insight. He says don't try to figure it out when it seems impossible, because if you can't, then you won't have emunah. So sometimes let go and let God. Say Hashem, I'm not the pilot, I don't need to be briefed on the mission, I don't know exactly how many centrifuges, I don't know how far underground, I don't know whether it takes a bunker buster, I don't know exactly what it takes to do it. All I know is you got it, and if you've got it, we've got it. ופגם באמונתו ובטחונו בהשם יכול לעצור ישועתו חס וחלילה. The moment your emunah's weak, the salvation could be delayed or compromised altogether. So says the Piaseczna Rebbe to a group of corpses and skeletons in 1940 in the Warsaw Ghetto, that davka in this moment, don't try to figure it out, don't try to find the way out, don't try to come up with the plan, because when you fail, your emunah will suffer, and if it suffers, it becomes taka hopeless. How do you maintain, how do you elevate, how do you lean in, how do you have even higher emunah than ever? When you say, I don't need to know exactly. I'm sure you like I have been tied to the news every three seconds. All we're looking for is some expert, someone who knows more than we do, someone who can predict the future. No, no, this is how it... and when Israel says, yeah, based on our pace, we're ahead of schedule, we only need one or two more weeks. Oh, okay, now I... one or two more weeks, now I can see. Oh, and if America gets involved, then it'll be done overnight. And if this, and I think that's gonna happen, and here's the probability of that, we're desperate. Says the Piaseczna Rebbe: stop. Yeah, not if you're the pilot, right? Not if you're in charge of the mission, you need to be briefed, you need to know the plan. But if you're sitting in Boca Raton, it's okay. Your better use of time is open a Tehillim or send some cupcakes and some coffee to someone you know in Israel. That's an infinitely better use of your time, cause that obsession and that sense of entitlement to be able to know how this ends or how it happens or what's the path or to predict the future is in the end only going to compromise the emunah, not help it, not reinforce it, not lift it, not lift it. If we expend our efforts to find the logical, natural solution to a crisis that seems to have none, then you're likely to have more despair or more hopelessness. And instead, the Piaseczna Rebbe says, this is what Kalev was doing. What was Kalev doing? He doesn't take on their points. They get up and they give a whole three-hour PowerPoint. Well, they've got military fortifications here, they have these weapons there, here the reasons it's going to be difficult, here's why we're going to struggle, here are going to be the challenges. Kalev gets up and he says, turn off your PowerPoint. I have one thing to say. Alo naaleh! Let's go! Let's do this! We've got this! Ki yachol nuchal! Because we have Hashem on our side, because he's in this war with us, it's a war against him, we can do this. And that was his message, says the Piaseczna Rebbe. Sometimes don't try to figure it out with logic, don't predict, don't understand the politics, don't be a pundit. Sometimes just say, alo naaleh. We've got this. That's what Klal Yisrael, that's what Am Yisrael are in fact saying. That's what every Jew who's in a shelter right now is saying. That's what the pictures in our family WhatsApp groups are portraying. כי יכול נוכל עלה נעלה. We've come to this land and yachol nuchal, we've got this. You could shoot ballistic missiles, you can attack us from all sides. You can vote against us at the UN, you can rally on campuses and you could share fake news about us. But it's not going to stop us. We're not going to address those one by one. All we need to know and feel, all we're demonstrating is עלה נעלה כי יכול נוכל. And you know why? Because our people, our heroes, our brothers and sisters in Israel, you, if you're listening, like Calev. Where does Calev get his name? Chazal tell us Calev's name is an acronym or is the etymology of his name, Calev, kulo lev. He's all heart. He's all heart. Sometimes when your logic—well, explain it to me. How's it going to work? Explain it to me. What's the way forward? Where's the formula? What's the path? Explain it to me. I need to know, I need to understand, I deserve to know, I'm entitled to know, I need to know. Then you get stuck. But when you're a Calev, when you're kulo lev, when you're all heart, you could get up and proclaim עלה נעלה כי יכול נוכל. We've got this. We're going. We have what it takes, we've got the heart, we're lions. Heroes roar, watch us rise. We're lions. We're lions. And that's the name of this mission. And all I've been thinking and picturing is that, you know, when the mission was named for Rising Lions, it was the Air Force pilots. But the rising lions are the kids who are sleeping in the bomb shelters. Because the pasuk Bilam continues not only am kelavi yakum, that we're a nation that rises like a lion, but karashachav... also Bilam continues that even when we're sleeping no one dares to make us to wake us up, to rouse us. Kelavi mi yekimenu. So on the one hand we rise like a lion Bilam observed, and the other hand he said, and when we're sleeping no one dares touch us. And to me those are the dual images. The Air Force pilots flying nonstop relentless missions, 1100 miles brazenly over airspace, refueling in the air, they are rising, roaring lions. And the sleeping lions that nobody dares awaken are the kids and their parents and grandparents sleeping in bomb shelters who no one dares awaken them because kulo lev they've got all heart, aloh na'aleh. Mrs. Cannon, what are you trying to tell me? Because I can't—I'm 50 years old now, I can't see that far. What does it say? Calev? Kelavi? Oh Calev, kelavi, yeah, 100 percent, thank you. Thank you for coming. Calev, kelavi. Calev, that's we are the nation that is rising and roaring like a lion and that's Calev, kelavi. Aloh na'aleh like a lion says, you don't have to explain it to me. I don't have to see the way. That's what the Piaseczner was saying in 1940 Warsaw and we know how that sadly ended. He and most of those with him did not find that way out. Hashem yikom damam. But born out of the ashes of the Holocaust is the modern miracle of the State of Israel. He was right, even if he didn't live it. He was right for our people. Out of the ashes of Warsaw ghetto came the modern miracle of a state of Israel, an Air Force that is the envy of the world right now. I don't know if you've seen when the news puts it up at all, when you see the image of the map of Israel versus Iran. You're literally seeing David and Goliath. You're seeing this tiny little sliver that you have to like, can you zoom in? Where's that? I can't see it! Versus this enormous Iran twice the size of Texas, Israel the size of New Jersey. And yet, I don't know, you don't get goosebumps or swell with pride when you see some newscasters when they're interviewing military experts who are saying, we don't understand how Israel pulled this off. What they achieved in those first few hours, what they coordinated, how many they assassinated—scientists, military experts. They did it again, they keep doing this. These are different groups of enemies and they're not learning. When they get together, when they expose where they're sleeping, and pinpoint assassinations, targeted assassinations, nobody could be accusing Israel of genocide in Iran because there are no civilian casualties because they've been so precise in who they've been taking out. So they took out the head of whatever the IRGC, he was replaced, the next day they took him out. You think it's a long line of applicants? I cannot imagine. Because Calev, kelavi, kulo lev, that's not just the Air Force pilots, that's all of us. 10 million sleeping in shelters and please God no more, they shouldn't have to enter it again. We should be able to take apart the bomb shelters all in Israel and take away the shelters in the south that so many of us have sponsored to get painted that they should look pretty. Israel deserves to live a life where there's no such thing as shelters. Bus stops turned into bomb shelters, homes that require bomb shelters, Waze telling you where the closest bomb shelter—there is nothing normal about that and that cannot be tolerated any longer anymore. And so to— And so to our brothers and sisters, to the Kalev, to the Lavi, the lions, the Aryeh Gibbor of our generation, when they're awake they're roaring and when they sleep nobody can touch them 'cause they're all heart, alo naaleh, you're paving the way for all of us for which there are no words to thank you. And our job is clear, we've got to send the Tehillim to knock out the Tillim, we've got to launch our davening to knock out their missiles, we've got to launch the food deliveries and the text messages and the check-ins and the love. We've got to be prepared that the second the airport opens that's all we want to do is go home and give a hug and be with our family there to thank them for all that they've been through. That's our mission, that's our job. So I wanted to, I apologize, take a break from what we were learning to really address these incredible emails that we'll bind together and one day in history they'll look back and study and say, really, people in shelters were writing that, they were embracing their place, they knew they were meant to be. They understood that kol makom shegolu wherever your exile shechina imahem, the Shechina goes with you. Wow. Mi k'amcha Yisrael, what a nation that taka roars like lions. Absolutely extraordinary and amazing and we just davened from the bottom of our hearts that the sweeping triumphant victory should be today, should be now. That by the time the shiur is over, I press end in one moment, we should hear news of the hostages' return because whatever's happening in Iran hasn't made us stop for one moment thinking about and davening for the hostages, for the soldiers still in Gaza, we're still having Kedoshim next to the Kisei Hakavod from Gaza. That war needs to end and all deserve to live in the safety and security together, being able to visit, being able to hug and being able to be together. We're going to end the stream, got a couple minutes still for question and answer, the new format of our
