Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov welcome back to living with Emunah always an honor a privilege and pleasure to learn together grow together and to work on our Emunah together. The Emunah series is generously sponsored by Dr. Zvi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella’s mother Dr. Ellen Schanzar. We remain tremendously grateful to the Morgans for their generosity. The series is also co-sponsored anonymously in memory of the 30 fallen soldiers and alumni of בני דוד מכינה ישיבה עלי who fell on October 7th and during the war and our learning is dedicated in their memory. Today we’re highlighting Major Eitan Urbach killed December 20th, 2023 in a tragic accident after completing volunteer guard duty in the Jordan Valley. He served in the reserves at the security operations officer responsible for protecting local farms. After finishing his shift a vehicle carrying him and a friend overturned. He survived by his wife and by five children. Hashem yikom damo for those soldiers who were killed while fighting and for those heroes who fought for us. Today’s Shiur sponsored anonymously lizchut of Elyashuv Shmuel and Neili Rifka should have strength chizuk and Emunah and by Lois Deutsch in loving memory of Harry Steinberg, Edith Steinberg, Nuget and Matthias Nugat and anonymously the Shiur infused my life with meaning. Thank you. Anonymously לעילוי נשמת חיים מרדכי בן יעקב חנוך. Anonymously lizchut of a shidduch for תהילה ויגל בת אסתר חנה. By Ephraim Friedrich in recognition of the Emunah that everyone is growing with. Anonymously leiluy nishmat my dear father רפאל חיים צבי בן חנניה יום טוב ליפא. Chananya. Thank you to all of our incredibly generous sponsors for helping the Emunah Shiur this morning. We continue to run our BRS global campaign and we will run it till we’re at 100%. We’re at 61%, so we’ve got a little way to go. Huge thank you to those who’ve given. You see the banner behind me. We deeply, deeply appreciate it. We don’t take it for granted. I wrote an article this week published last night about we’re living in a time in which it’s giving us this false sense of entitlement. Gmail’s free and Waze is free and ChatGPT is free and there’s so much that’s free that we feel entitled, we feel we deserve, we have an expectation that it should all be free and we stream and we download and we use and we email and we just expect what do you mean that’s just a given, that’s an entitlement, that’s just one of the privileges that comes with being alive in this day and age. But it’s not true. We always pay. Sometimes you’re paying with your data and your privacy. You are the product. You’re being sold as a data point. But other times there are people who are paying in order to provide and that’s the case here. So we ask for your partnership. If you’re a BRS member you’re doing your part. Thank you. If you’re not a BRS member we ask everyone to do their part. Fact that you have a Shiur instead of all the emails it changed my life it improved my life it impacted my life it got me through my life help us partner with us make a difference. I want to share and you can then be entered into a raffle, freezing cold up north and come thaw out in Boca. Warm up in Boca. Two plane tickets to Florida, experience Shabbos at BRS, meal hosted at the Rabbis' homes. You never had a better meal than Yocheved Goldberg. Maybe the only better meal that you could have is if you give eighteen hundred or more you are entered into a second raffle that I personally will put on my apron and cook you dinner. So you want to do that. You can get your tickets and you’ll be entered into those raffles and that’s why I want to read my first email today. Listen to this email. This actually wasn't an email, this was accidentally posted on the global website, brsonline.org/global which is where you can give. We know who gave previously and if you’ve given yet this year or not. We know if you haven’t given at all and you come and take advantage. We know. We know. Just like all the tech companies are tracking and they have all the data we know and we’re watching and we see. So when you email and you contact and you want the cup of coffee and you want the giveaway of which we have more today, we know if you’ve done your part. Your part could be a dollar if that’s what you could afford, it could be a million dollars if that’s what you could afford, but we appreciate it. But listen to this, somebody posted this actually by accident and she wrote afterwards to me, oh I didn't realize that when you write that everybody can see it. I didn't mean for everyone to see it, but that too was the way it was meant to be. Dear Rabbi Goldberg, I’ve been listening for two and a half years and while I’ve had many stories to share, the one that happened last month led me to donate once again this year. Last month we were zocho to make a Simcha in our home. I’d put away a significant amount of funds in an envelope for shopping, but in the days leading up to the Simcha I couldn't find the envelope. I looked in my pocketbook, I looked everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Finally, I looked to Hashem and I said, okay, this is where the years of learning about Emunah have brought me to. Obviously I’m not meant to have the money. If I lost it and someone found it, I hope the person who found it was meant to have it more than I was. And if it was simply lost, then I was never meant to have it. I continued shopping, bought what I needed, thanked Hashem for helping me find an I guess Hashem didn't want me to see it then, but opened my eyes now. I found it on the same day as I got your WhatsApp about the global campaign. At first when I got the message I had thought about donating at the same level as last year, but I was unsure how I would afford it. Then I realized the money really wasn't for me. It was hidden so I would find it now to donate to the organization that has brought me closer to Hashem and helped me develop my emuna each and every day. Kol hakavod. And with that she gave eighteen hundred dollars. That's what was in the envelope and that's what she gave to our emuna shiur. That might be my favorite of all time. No, isn't that amazing? Set it aside, looked for it, couldn't find it the day she needed it, found it the day she got my WhatsApp, and I wrote back and I said, you know, I get amazing living with emuna emails. But people don't usually pay eighteen hundred dollars for the email. To be willing to pay eighteen hundred dollars. She could have said, I lost it, I found it now, it was mine all along, I didn't need it for the simcha. But you know what? Everybody knows post-simcha, you need to pay for a little therapy from the simcha. So there's retail therapy, and there's manicure therapy, and there's real therapy, but she didn't say I'm going to use it on the post-simcha recovery. She said, I found the envelope, I found it when I was meant to find it, I found it on the day I got the WhatsApp, and here it is and kol hakavod and God bless you and thank you and Hashem meant for you to post it online, maybe others are inspired to do it too, maybe those sitting here right now. Look in your pocketbook, maybe you'll find something. Feel free to leave it. If not, breslovonline.org/global. Okay, Dear Rabbi Goldberg, I've been meaning to write an email for weeks but every time I try I don't know where to start. Each time I hear one of your shiurim, you say something that feels like you're talking directly to me and I think I need to write the email. Then this Sunday I was struggling to finish my monthly half marathon in ten degree weather and I was listening to the emuna shiur. Let's just stop there with that little flex. I was struggling to finish my monthly half marathon in ten degree weather and listening to the emuna shiur. You began to talk about how you can't say you're a runner unless you actually run. And I just thought okay, now that's another nod, I better sit down and write. So first off, thank you for helping me through because it was really a brutal run, not that what this really this message is about. This is a message for all the people going through hardships. It's a story that did not tie into a perfect bow quickly. It began twenty-six years ago. At ten months old, my first child, a beautiful baby girl was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her early years were filled with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. After four years in and out of treatment, she Baruch Hashem went into remission. The years that followed had unique complications that many whose children have gone through something like this can probably relate to. This started before WhatsApp, podcast and all the support we have now, but it was its own emuna journey. It took me to some of the highest heights and the lowest lows and the regular life challenges of having and raising a family, losing a parent unexpectedly in the midst of all the treatments, recovering and recalibrating after traumatic illness has created, has certainly been a journey. All along I felt connected to Hashem, but there were times when it felt He was just piling one thing after another on me, and I wondered what message I could possibly be missing. Sometimes my discussions with Hashem were angrily yelling, other times joyfully thanking, but as long as we were on talking terms, I figured we would survive. I love that insight. As long as we were on talking terms. And I can tell you that as somebody who does a fair amount of meeting with couples and relationships that are in distress, always by the way referring to a competent therapist, I believe rabbis and others have to stay in their lane, but when a couple meet with you and they're checked out, apathetic, indifferent to one another, sitting silently, it's a bad sign. When they're angry and yelling and screaming, it's not a healthy form of communication, but they're engaged, they're still in the game, they're still talking, they're still invested, there's still something there. And so I love that metaphor or that description in our relationship also or equally with Hashem. When you're checked out, when you're apathetic, when you're indifferent, when you don't hear Him talking to you and you have no interest or urge to talk to Him, that's when the relationship might be in trouble. It's not over, inside us is always that pintele Yid, we can wake up, we will wake up. We spent a long time learning, when we finish indexing we'll be able to find exactly where, but we learned about ratzu v'shov and mochin de'gadlus and mochin de'katnus and the idea that we're sometimes closer, we're sometimes more distant, we're sometimes on a high and we're sometimes on a low. And that as long as we're in the game, as long as we're connected, as long as we're in those conversations. So whether our conversation with Hashem is all about how disappointed, how frustrated, how angry, how resentful, or our conversation is about thank You, I'm undeserving and I appreciate it and I can't believe it, but as long as we're in a conversation with Him, then we're going to be okay. Back to the email. A few weeks ago we married off this beautiful daughter. It was obviously a beautiful simcha as any... and your child finding the right person is more than enough to be grateful for, but this wedding in particular was an even more poignant event because the journey that my daughter has had in life has not been simple. We felt Hashem is in every part of the simcha. The Shabbos kalla is something you said in the parsha shiur about why we keep thanking Hashem for taking us out of Mitzrayim because once isn't enough for something as incredible as that and I took that chance to thank Hashem for saving her and bringing us to that day to this incredible point in her life. Another pause. I always tell you, the Torah isn't after the emails, the emails are just a conduit to teach Torah, they trigger Torah, they remind us of Torah. What is she referring to? I say we're obsessed, my kids would say you're obsessed with leaving Egypt. Why are you so obsessed, Abba, with leaving Egypt? All you do is talk about leaving Egypt. We say in our Shma in the morning and at night, Yetzias Mitzrayim. Shabbos is zeicher l'yetzias Mitzrayim. Pesach, Yetzias Mitzrayim. You're obsessed! What's with the obsession? Okay, we left, good, we're gone. It's been a few years that we've been out. Why are we still talking about it? Why are you still obsessed with it? And the answer is, there are landmark, milestone, game-changing events in our lives that are so transformational we never stop saying thank you. We never stop saying thank you. If, chalila, a person had a heart attack on the side of the road and somebody intervened, stopped and saved them. Someone was rescued and pulled from a burning car. If a surgeon saved your life when everyone else gave up on you, would you say, I sent a card, I said thank you, I said thank you on the way out of the hospital when they wheeled me out, I said shkayach, thank you, shkayach. When they put me in the Hatzolah and they took me from the firing car, fiery car, I said thank you, shkayach. I even sent flowers, maybe a box of chocolate, okay, genug, gedon, I said thank you. Nobody would ask and wonder and challenge why you're so obsessed with thanking the person who saved your life. You'd say, because I can never, ever, ever, ever adequately say thank you. I'm never done saying thank you. And every day I wake up, I say thank you again. I'm here. Every step I take, I say thank you. I am still here. And every simcha I celebrate, I say thank you, I'm still here. And that's the way we are about Yetzias Mitzrayim. Ribono Shel Olam, thank You. Because if You hadn't taken us out, as we'll say soon, soon at the Seder, I say soon at the Seder, you, the women and I, we know exactly how close Pesach is. The men are oblivious, they think it's still Tu B'Shevat, Chanukah, they're still opening the gifts, they have no idea how close Pesach is. We, we know. We get it. We get how close Pesach is. So soon at the Seder, we'll still be saying thank you because ilu lo hotzianu, because if You hadn't taken us out, we'd still be משועבדים לפרעה במצרים. We'd still be there. Physically, or emotionally, or spiritually, or ideologically, or religiously, or nationally, we'd still be there. So every day we wake up and we say, instead, we're here. Look at what's going on. When you walk on this campus and you see it being built and expanded, you see what's going up, you see how wonderful, magnificent, Baruch Hashem. When you see today, there are countless minyanim plus a bris plus a Kollel Boker plus two shiurim, and so we don't have space. I gave the Tanya shiur this morning in the old lobby in a corner next to the cubby with people taking their tallisos out. Baruch Hashem! You could complain and be miserable and frustrated that there's no space to give a shiur and I was relegated to the cubby, basically peeked my head out of the cubby to say the shiur on Tanya, or you could say, this is unbelievable. This is amazing. Our campus is hopping and bopping and there's no room for anything and Klal Yisrael. And what do I say? Thank You, Hashem, for taking us out of Mitzrayim. We could still be slaves in Mitzrayim. We could still be subjects of Pharaoh. We could still be worshipping those gods. We should still be following those superstitions. And instead, thank You, Hashem, You took us out of Mitzrayim every day. Thank You, Hashem, never stop saying thank You, thank You, Hashem, thank You, Hashem. I spoke on Tu B'Shevat in Boynton and I mentioned that one of the celebrations of Tu B'Shevat is the miracle, davka, we eat the fruit of Eretz Yisrael, the Shivas Haminim, the seven species associated specifically with the Land of Israel, and I said that pretty impressively, seven species associated, that was pretty good, that's a tongue twister. We eat those specifically on Tu B'Shevat. Why? What's part of the celebration, the miracle? Tu B'Shevat is all about in the harshness and the darkness of winter, somewhere buried underneath all that snow or frost, there are buds beginning to form. There's sap beginning to move. There's beginning to blossom. And that's exactly the Jewish people. There's a pasuk in Yechezkel and the Gemara derives from it that the biggest piece of evidence of the Jewish return, of a bright Jewish future, of the light beyond the darkness, of the beginning of redemption is what? When the Land of Israel begins to produce. When the Land of Israel begins to sprout. When the desert begins to blossom. When for two thousand years, nobody could make anything come out of that ground and the Jewish people since 1948 and all of a sudden it's all green and lush and Our friends in Chaluza, our friends who established Chaluza on the border of Egypt, Gaza, and Israel, land that in previous negotiations Yasser Arafat said, \"Are you out of your mind? I'll never take that. You can't make anything grow there. That's desert, nothing's ever worked.\" Okay, until Yedidya Harush goes there and then he plants and all of a sudden it's green and blossoming and beautiful and magnificent. It's a incredible so we're thankful every day, every day we're saying, \"Thank you Hashem. Look at the miracle, look at the redemption, look at what's happening.\" We're never done saying thank you for the things that we're grateful for, that we don't take for granted, that didn't have to be this way, that didn't have to be this way. So back to this email. That's the idea that we taught in the Parsha class and that's what she says, \"I took that chance speaking at the Shabbos Kalla for her daughter, even though here it is 26 years later her daughter's getting married, to thank Hashem for saving her and bringing us to this day to this incredible point in her life. As I truly do thank Him for every chance I get. So I guess this was a way to both thank You for strengthening everyone who listens to Emuna, remind all those people in the midst that there's another side, they'll get there. It might take longer than they expect, but there's a plan, Hashem, when you least expect it. And even with all this, there are many things that come up and I have to dig deep and remember that Hashem is guiding the way even if it feels incredibly distant in that moment. It's a lifelong challenge to keep remembering that He is there with us even when things seem dire, with appreciation, thank you so much for that email.\" Moving right along. Dear Rabbi Goldberg, I used to listen to the amazing Emuna Shiur all the time but I haven't put it on in a really long time. Today I finally put it on hoping it would give some Emuna and help me see Hashem in my life because lately that's been pretty hard. I listened to the one where you're reading an email about somebody who wanted to see a hug from Hashem and saw the Rebbe card fall out of the Siddur and I scoffed thinking, \"How can you tell yourself that's a hug from Hashem? It just seemed far fetched.\" But as I opened my email to write one to you asking, \"Where on earth is Hashem?\" I saw a draft of an email I never sent to you. It was about a hug from Hashem that I received last year and that felt like the biggest hug from Him. Although I'm still really struggling to embrace my place and realize I am where I'm meant to be, this was really cool to experience and it feels like Hashem is telling me to keep trying, not give up. Thank you for the Shiur, I hope to listen now more often. Had given up, went to write an email about where's Hashem, what a joke, found the draft of an email never sent telling a story about when she got a hug from Hashem, reminded her that we are getting those hugs. Got to extend the antenna, we got to look around, we got to find it. I haven't mentioned it in a long time but we have to activate the Hashgacha Pratis WhatsApp groups in our lives or the Hashgacha Pratis journals in our lives. Every day write down, every day at the dinner table, once a week on Shabbos go around and ask, \"Where did you see Hashem in your life? Where did you feel it? Where did you recognize it? Where did you feel the wink, the nod, the hug from Hashem that you can say thank you for?\" There always are so many. Here's another one. \"I thought you'd like this. I've been trying to be more Makpid on taking off Hafrashos Challah each week but this week my family was flying to Bulgaria and I asked a friend to have me in mind since I knew I wouldn't be able to take Challah. There I was sitting at breakfast Friday morning in the Kosher hotel and the chef came out and walked straight to our table, looked at me and said, 'Would you like to take Hafrashos Challah?'\" I started to cry feeling such a hug from Hashem when we want a Mitzvah and have a strong willingness, Hashem sends it straight to us. What a hug. Thank you for the Shiur, always bringing me inspiration. Good Shabbos. The global link works from Bulgaria by the way, just saying. Birkas Online dot org slash global Bulgaria. What language do they speak in Bulgaria? Bulgarian. That's a language. Of course. You knew that was a language, Bulgarian? Okay, Bulgarian. Anyway, global works from there too. Isn't that beautiful? We say in our Davening every morning, אשרי מי שישמע למצותיך. Fortunate, blessed, praiseworthy is the one who hears the Mitzvos. Mitzvos are calling our name. They're calling our name. The Mitzvos are speaking to us. They're inviting us, they're inspiring us, they're empowering us. Mitzvos aren't just a list of to-dos, I got to do, they're errands, they're burdens, I just got to check them off, I just got to do them. They're calling us, invitations, opportunities to connect, to feel His presence, to get that hug. For her, the Mitzvah of Hafrashos Challah, separating Challah, was calling her name and even when she left on vacation it followed her there because it called her name. T.J. Maxx in Garden City, New York, we got a Psalm 23 sighting. They are selling Psalm 23, Psalm 23, Psalm 23 sighting at T.J. Maxx in Garden City, New York. Thank you for that. I was recently visiting Florida with my husband. We really enjoyed attending your class over a year ago. My husband even arranged for a car so we can make the long drive from where we're staying to attend the Parsha Shiur as we're visiting for so short. Did I read this last week? For various reasons it wasn't so feasible and I was really disappointed. Instead we went out for breakfast. Did I read this last week? I was debating in my... debating in my head if I should have pushed harder and felt a little bad that we landed up in a restaurant instead of the parsha shiur. We were busy eating our omelets when my husband discreetly pointed and asked, \"Do you think those are soldiers?\" I looked up and I saw a man with a kippa bentching with a deep kavana. What stood out though was that he had a prosthetic arm. I looked at the rest of the table and they were all young men looking around 18 years old. Only the one was wearing a kippa. They all glowed with holiness. Their eyes were much older. We confirmed with the waiter that yes, they were indeed IDF soldiers. My husband on the spot said, \"Send me the bill, I'll pay, but please don't tell them.\" The waiter did tell them. There went his tip. And they came over to our table to thank us. Instinctively we stood up for them. It turns out they were from an organization Belev Echad which supports wounded soldiers. My husband asked if they come to Canada, these people live in Canada, and the organizer said no, but they were thinking about it. And then he said in Hebrew to us, there are no coincidences, perhaps this is why we met. He wasn't wearing a kippa on his head but his heart was full of emunah. I was really sad we didn't make it to Boca, but this story told me that we were where we were meant to be. And yes, I entered the raffle so I did my hishtadlus to make it to Boca another time. She paid for their meal, and if she wins, we'll have them for our meal. And if she gives enough, maybe she can get my meal. Rebbetzin, how good is my meal? Steak, fries, we went out this week and we had a good steak. Was it as good as my steak? No. Okay, thank you. She's having no part of this. Absolutely no, I am on my own. Okay. Shalom Rabbi Goldberg, longtime listener, consumer of the Torah you generously share. Yes, I will donate to the global campaign. I want to share an account that just happened that my pre-living-with-emunah self may not have appreciated as much. I was at work this morning when I got an email from my daughter in sixth grade, yes annoyingly email parents during the day from their laptops which is a different topic, that she forgot her lunch at home. Baruch Hashem my job is near the kids' school intentionally so if things come up I'm not too far away. I had extra rachmanus in this case because last night she took time to prep a nice lunch for herself. I wrote her back that I could come around 12:15 to drop something off. One thing led to another and I was delayed because of work plus the bad weather makes the streets less passable. On the main busy street on the drive over to school I saw a car with hazards on in the left lane. As I approached, noticed it was my son's first grade morah. She was frantically attempting to clean her car as a massive amount of frozen snow and ice must have fallen forward from the roof onto her windshield. Despite being rudely honked, I pulled in front of her, jumped out and immediately ran to help her. She was extremely stressed and between the two of us we worked for a few to remove the snow and ice so she could safely drive. I ran back to my car feeling like I genuinely helped her and was really in a place I was meant to be. She called me a few moments later to thank me and I told her the credit really goes to my daughter and her forgotten lunch, and of course the orchestration of how Hashem timed this. I know this isn't a major breakthrough in emunah but before the shiur I never would have thought anything about it, maybe not even seen it as meaningful a lens. Thank you for continuing to inspire Klal Yisrael. Framing these things, yada yada, it should be a big zechus for your family until 120, amen. Best, so and so from Alaska, aka New Jersey. So but again, extend the antenna and pick up the signal and the hugs and the winks. It's so annoying, she forgot her lunch, I can't believe I have to drive it. Exactly when the first grade morah was stuck in the snow and the ice and the honking and running late and the opportunity to help. We could be going through life so fast with so much noise that we're missing the signal and we're missing the hugs and the winks and the nods that we so need and that gives us so much strength and that brings us so much happiness and we have to be careful not to. Okay, there are of course many more but let's get back to our Torah learning together. Oh, there's so many more. Couple more. You guys like the emails more than anything else. Okay, one more. We'll do one more. I want to share my beautiful hashgacha pratis story with you as I'm sitting shiva for my father this week. My father had a heart condition over the past several weeks I saw his decline. As my father got up in years I would call him every day every morning and afternoon. In one of those calls, he told me he found some letters my grandparents had written to him and he sent them to me in the mail. For various reasons I was not in the head space to read the letters with the proper focus and concentration. I told my dad I would read the letters when I had time to read without distraction. On one evening of shiva this week, after shiva visitors were over, I sat down with my son and we read the letters together. It was truly hashgacha pratis that I was able to read the letters during shiva because of what the letters were about. First there were a few letters my grandmother had written to my father with good wishes for his birthday. My father passed away a day before his birthday. So reading birthday wishes from his mother shortly after his passing was especially meaningful. Another two letters were written August 1945. It was from my grandmother who was writing about Bubba who was my father's Bubby. My grandmother was writing about how she got to see her grandmother before she passed away from a weak heart. In the letters, my grandmother wrote about how she had sent a nice dress to Bubba and how she wanted to see a photo, but it was not to be because she had passed. It was so touching to read these letters at this time, it was interesting to read my grandmother wanted to send her mother she never received because just before my dad's passing, I sent him a birthday card which he also never received. The other interesting thing, my grandmother when mentioned that her mother had a weak heart, my father also had a weak heart. Seeing the parallel situations through reading letters from my grandmother which were so similar were heartwarming and comforting. I could not have found a better time to read them than during Shiva. I finally believe that the letters my dad had sent me were a hug from Hashem and I read them at exactly the right time to give me the chizuk I needed this week. It's really an amazing image that her father sent her letters and then passed away and she read them to find the comfort she needed in his loss. Finally I want to share I plan to honor my father's neshama after Shiva in a way that's meaningful. My father loved going to shul especially the Chabad. I know that people take on something extra in the merit of a person's neshama after they pass away. What better goal to take on than learning about davening. My goal is to learn Siddur snippets, not from number 700 but to start from number one from the beginning, Modeh Ani. You often say that we listeners of Emuna should listen to other shiurim too. I think that making a commitment to learn Siddur snippets with consistency would be a great zechus for my father's neshama. And I couldn't agree more, his neshama should have an aliya and she should find chizuk and comfort, and I thank her for taking the time to read and I encourage you. Last night we had a wonderful siyum online, a great Zoom siyum, Siddur snippets that we began over seven years ago. We started from Modeh Ani making our way through the Siddur word by word, line by line. What does it mean? What's the theme? What could we be thinking about? How can it impact us? And we went all the way from Modeh Ani through the end of Shmoneh Esrei. It was 704 snippets to make it all the way. Each one approximately six minutes and I use the word approximately, approximately six minutes. And we're continuing now, we're not done, there's so much more to do, but sometimes you have to pause to take pride. That's okay. Sometimes we're again, we're always in motion and we're moving so fast and there's so much noise that sometimes it's okay we need to press pause in order to take pride, not the unhealthy type of pride, but the good type of pride to be grateful for the opportunity and the learning. So we had an online siyum and people joined from all over, including from Israel at 3:30 in the morning in Israel to make a little l'chaim and then we had a question and answer and conversation all about tefilla. I recorded it, maybe I'll post it, maybe I won't, we'll see. But Siddur snippets is a great limud if you want to take something on. As I said last night, we don't think about it this way. It does actually connect. It's a perfect segue back to our learning because we're learning Rav David Abuchatzira's Shaarei Tefilla and we've been learning about davening for ruchnius, davening for a breakthrough in spirituality, davening for healthy emuna u'bitachon. So I mentioned last night a few things, one of which is, someone said, what did I take away from Siddur snippets? How has it impacted and improved my davening? And certainly the comprehension, the translation, the interpretation, the commentary on the words have impacted me, they've elucidated, I have a greater understanding of them. But really it's the Living with Emuna shiur that makes the Siddur snippets. If you don't have a relationship with someone, if you don't love them, if you don't feel they love you, if you don't care about them, then you're not going to want to communicate with them. Once you love them, once you care about them, once you feel they care about you, sometimes we need to work on communication, need to find the right words and speak their love language and so on. But if you don't have a good relationship, a healthy relationship, then there's going to be no room for communication. So yes, it's important to understand all the translation of the words of the Siddur and so on, but we need to have emuna bitachon. If you don't know before whom you stand, what you're talking about, what you care about, what you're thinking about, you're not going to daven. You're not going to daven. So number one is you've got to work on a good and a healthy relationship. Number two I said is as I've been saying here, you've got to look at your schedule, look at your calendar. Later today I have the privilege of speaking at an Aish conference happening in Miami. So I still have to figure out exactly what I'm going to say and take advantage. I'm speaking for very short, which is much much much much harder than if you're speaking for very long. How to pack a punch and how to leave an impact and how to, so Hashem and I had a whole conversation this morning. We had a whole conversation. I said Hashem this is, I said Hashem it's not about me, it's about you. I'm working for you, I'm working on your behalf. So please help me. Help me find the right words that are going to leave the right message, the right tone, the right impact, the right inspiration, the right motivation. Help me. Let's be partners in this. Help me. Now we sit down, let's work on it together. So if you look at what you have on tap that day that's going to motivate, that's going to inspire, we've been talking a lot about that. I hope you've been employing that. In some ways don't open your phone before you daven in the morning because that will negatively impact your davening. But if there's a way of put your phone on airplane mode and don't look at the messages that have come in, only look at your Look at your calendar. Look at your calendar, or the night before, look at or print out your calendar, stick it in your siddur or Tehillim and that morning, again, I don't know what can motivate your davening more than looking at your calendar. I don't know anyone who has a calendar in which they don't have to either ask for any help or express gratitude. If your calendar says have nothing to do today, lie in the lounge chair, sipping piña coladas, collecting money in my account, with my servants waiting on me, with nachas pictures pouring in, if that's what your calendar says you're doing that day, you have the most to daven for to say thank you for that incredible gift. And to daven, please don't let anything happen to it. There's no one whose calendar says anything that they don't have to either ask for, say thank you for. So to me, the great motivator of davening is the calendar, and then taper the tefillah to the schedule. What's happening that I need to ask help or say thank you for in? That's number two. Number three I said last night and I repeat to you this morning is that the siddur is a sefer. Often we have bookcases full of sefarim. And the sefarim are what we underline and mark up and write in the margin. I told you that when we gave out, thanks to our generous anonymous donor, countless copies of Sha'arei Tefillah and Emuna Bitachon of Rav Dovid Abuhatzeira, and I told you: mark it up, wear it out. Your children or grandchildren should not inherit a library of books whose bindings were never broken. They shouldn't inherit a library of books that are covered in dust. They should inherit a library of books that you wonder, huh, I wonder if anyone ever opened this. They should inherit books that are falling apart, that have writing in the margin, that have underlines all over, that have highlights all over, that the binding is broken, it's barely holding on. Those are the books they should inherit. That's the relationship we should have with our sefarim. So that's true for all the sefarim that we have and a home should have. Of all the decor in a Jewish home... I was on Headlines a couple months ago, a month ago, there was a whole conversation about technology and taking a break and the distraction of it, and there was a conversation about the fact that we have so much that's online today including the siddur and sefarim and that's what people look at. Should they be looking at it during davening and elsewhere? And I said, you know, one of the, one of the, I think, negative unintended consequences of having so much Torah that is even sefarim and websites that are online and in our hands is that people no longer have bookcases in their homes. And the Jewish decor, when you walk into a Jewish home, the sign, the signal that you're in a Jewish home, in addition to the mezuzah on the door... which I'll tell you about our giveaway in a moment for today... but in addition to the mezuzah on the door should be the bookcase that you encounter when you come into the home. What makes this a Jewish home? We are the people of the... book... the potato kugel. No. Yes, also. Yes, also. You should smell the potato kugel in a Jewish home. And you should see the perfect potato kugel in a Jewish home. But we're not the people of the potato kugel. We are the people of the book. And that bookcase is the Jewish decor in a Jewish home. And if you want, I'll give you a list of suggestions of what should fill that bookcase. What are the core books every Jewish home have to have? From a Chumash and a Tanakh to a set of Shas, maybe a Mishnah Berurah. The incredible library in English and all languages that we could have today. You got to hold books and wear books through and look at books. And even if you don't open it up and even if you're learning online and in other ways, that's the decor of a Jewish home. That's the most magnificent, that is the most beautiful, that is the holiest, that is the highest, and that signals who we are. That's our decor: the books in a Jewish home. That's the decor of who we are. So don't forget, don't forget: the greatest sefer is the siddur. It's a sefer. Mark it up, underline, highlight. If there's a phrase, there's an expression that jumps out at you, that's calling you... We mentioned today אשרי מי שישמע למצוותיך. Until I taught that when we were up to that in Siddur Snippets fairly early on, because that comes in the Birkos HaShachar... I don't know if I even noticed that line before. You just mumble it, you say it while you're peeling the crust from your eyes, you're still waking up. Sorry for that image. But you're mumbling those words. But then you hit those words and you go: 'Those words are magnificent: אשרי מי שישמע למצוותיך.' Wow, I want to live a life that I can hear the mitzvos singing and calling to me. I want to live a life that if someone needs something, I don't turn the other way or hide under the table or pretend I didn't hear it. They're calling me, that mitzvah's calling my name. The mitzvah of challah is calling my name. That mitzvah of making a meal for a new mother or somebody sitting shiva is calling my name. That mitzvah of we need people for hospitality, that invitation to participate in the global campaign. Somebody texted me or I listened or I saw there's a poster behind me. That's calling my name, how could I ignore what's calling me? אשרי מי שישמע למצוותיך. So if that expression or phrase now means something, take out your pen, take out your highlighter, and underline and write, because the siddur is a sefer and it's meant to be worked through. It's meant to be engaged. It's meant to be underlined. Back inside page kuf lamed beis: כן יש להוסיף לברר בנין המצוה להניח צנצנת בין קודש הקדשים. We're talking about a tefillah for yirat Hashem. Daven, it's counter-intuitive and it sounds paradoxical, but when we're struggling, when we're buffering, when we don't have high speed connection in our emunah to Hashem, daven, daven. Ah, but I'm davening to the person who I'm not even sure exists? I'm davening to daven better when I'm struggling to daven? That makes no sense at all. Exactly. And do it anyway, because that's what it's all about. It's about the relationship. It's about the connection. Daven, tefillah yirat Hashem, daven to Hashem. There was a mitzvah to put צנצנת מן בקודש הקדשים. We just read, we just read about how the man miraculously fell. Jewish people were in the desert, they were hungry. Hungry, we're tired, are we almost there yet? Nothing's changed. And Hashem rewarded us with the incredible man. We just spoke about this, how many people had shalosh seudos this past week? Anybody tap into ra'ava de-ra'avin? Oy vey, what am I even doing here? I'm a total failure. Shalosh seudos. Ladies, don't lose out and that is an opportunity to remind you that this shabbos the Boca Raton Synagogue we have twice a year a BRS women's unity shalosh seudos. Rebbetzin Cassorla speaking. It's going to be beautiful right here actually in this holy room, the Sephardi beis knesses. The Sephardim have generously agreed to hold their shalosh seudos elsewhere. Women can privately sit here and sing and hear from Rebbetzin Cassorla and Rebbetzin Goldberg will be there as well. And you don't want to miss it. It's always very inspiring. Ra'ava de-ra'avin, the holiest time of the week, what the Piasetzner called the neilah of shabbos is shalosh seudos. ואני תפלתי לך ה' עת רצון. This is the eis ratzon. What are you going to be doing? I mean, how many Family First could you read? How much could you sit on the couch reading Mishpacha Ami by shalosh seudos time? Enough already. I'm not knocking it, but enough already. Did you read Yocheved's article a couple weeks ago? The tefillin? You got okay. How much reading on the couch can you do? Get up, sit up and shalosh seudos. It's an eis ratzon, ra'ava de-ra'avin. So this week in particular, huge thank you to Jessica Weiss and her amazing committee for putting it together and everybody is invited. Why shalosh seudos? And are women obligated? Yes. אף הן היו באותו הנס. They also benefited from the miracle of the falling of the man. So that man that fell, it was a miracle. It fell from heaven. It's no more a miracle than when the bread grows from the ground, when the wheat grows from the ground. The only difference between the two is what? Expectation. We expect wheat to grow from the ground, we don't expect bread to fall from the heavens, but they're equally miraculous. We're not necessarily entitled or deserving of either. And when Hashem makes both happen, they're both a miracle. What a miracle. It's an incredible miracle, it's an incredible miracle. So we were meant to memorialize and hold on and capture literally this miracle because the pasuk tells us: ויאמר משה זה הדבר אשר צוה ה' מלא העמר ממנו למשמרת לדרתיכם. Take a measure of this man, put it in a jar, put it in a container. It went in the aron, in the holy Ark that sat in the kodesh ha-kodashim in the Holy of Holies so that the Jewish people when necessary could always pull it out, look at it, and remember nostalgically, Hashem takes care of us. Just like the man fell from heaven, Hashem made it rain for my ancestors, He makes it rain for me. He takes care of me, He sustains me. The envelope I thought I lost in the pocketbook fell out exactly the day it was meant to so I could donate exactly where it's supposed to go. For that letter, that person who posted on our global campaign, that person who posted on our global campaign, so that's the man. That envelope fell from heaven. I guess it fell to me, to us, from heaven. כאשר צוה ה' את משה ויניחהו אהרן לפני העדת למשמרת. בכל בוקר היה נמס המן הנשאר בשדה. Every morning the man that was left in the field would disintegrate. ולכאורה כשציוה הקדוש ברוך הוא להניח צנצנת המן בקודש הקדשים כבר היה כל המן נמס. היה אהרן הכהן מוכרח להמתין למחרת כדי לאסוף מיוחד לשם כך. So that day, that day's man that wasn't collected had already spoiled. So when Hashem told Aharon collect man, put it in a container, save it and preserve it, put it in the aron the kodesh ha-kodashim, he would have to wait till tomorrow till the new portion of man fell so that he could save it. אלא פירש הרבי הקדוש רבי שלום מבעלז אהרן הכהן ידע ברוח קדשו שעתיד להצטות על צנצנת המן וימתין בכל יום ולא אכל חקו בהמן עד הלילה שמא היום יצטוה על כך ויהיה מוכן מיד לקיים המצוה. Says Reb Sholom of Belz that Aharon knew. He prophetically knew that God was destined to ask him save and preserve a portion of man. So every day he would take his portion of man and he would save it and he would only eat it at night because maybe that would be the day that Hashem would command him. So he didn't have to wait till the next day for new man to fall, he was ready from that day's man. because he saved it, maybe that will be the day that Hashem asks him. ולפי דבריו נמצא שדווקא על ידי השתוקקותו של אהרן הכהן לעבודת השם שלמה זכה לקיים את מצות השם שלמה כי רק על ידי התשוקה זכה להשיג ולקיים רצון השם יותר מיכולת האדם. What you see from here, this insight of Rav Shlomo Belz says רב דב בער חצקר, is the idea that we have a tshuka. What's a tshuka? A tshuka is a longing, a craving, a desire, a yearning, a yearning. You ever have a yearning for ice cream? Yeah. You ever have a craving like right now? I want a hot dog. I haven't had a hot dog in I don't know how long, but I smell or I saw, I want a hot dog. I just have this craving. I'm distracted, it's all I could think about. I have this appetite, I have this craving, I gotta find a hot dog. All the trimming, all the toppings, I need a hot dog. That's my tshuka, that's my yearning, it's my craving. It's this craving, don't talk to me about anything else. I can't concentrate on anything else. I have a craving and I've got to fulfill that craving. Holy people, they have craving for mitzvos. They have craving for opportunity, I just can't wait for Mincha. I just can't wait for the Emuna Shiur. I just can't wait for an opportunity to make a meal for somebody who needs. I just can't wait for that Bikur Cholim. I just can't wait. I can't wait for that shiur, that limmud, I just can't wait. Aharon HaKohen had this tshuka. He was hungry and he wanted the man, could taste like anything you wanted, so whatever your craving was, ice cream or hot dog, it could taste like anything you wanted. Did you make a bracha on it? Did you have to wait if it was fleishigs? A lot of very interesting questions. Did you have to take challah on it if you wanted it to taste like challah? How exactly did this man work? Very interesting. Could you imagine it tasting like basar bechalav? Did it have to be kosher? Could it taste like bacon? Interesting questions about the man we discussed it several years ago in the parsha shiur from Otzar Plus HaTorah. But in any case, Aharon HaKohen, the man could taste like anything he wanted but that wasn't his craving. His craving was, I just want, I'm waiting. Any minute now Hashem's gonna ask me to save it and I'll be able to fulfill that mitzvah and that's my craving, that's my yearning, that's my wish, that's my want. That's what I want. That's what I want. Uve'emes, next page. Uve'emes, ובאמת כל עצם מצוה זו באה אליו רק מחמת גודל תשוקתו לקיום המצוה ורצון השם. The whole mitzvah only came to him because he was yearning, craving, wanting, wishing, longing, waiting. What's our ratzon? That's what we spoke about last week. What's the ratzon? Ratzon, the root of the word ratzon, will, want, is ratz to run because what we run to reveals what we want. Not what we want to want. The gym that maybe you joined on January 1st with the rest of the world. Do you want to go to the gym? Do you want to go to the gym? It's a very simple answer to that question. If I call the gym and I ask them to let me know how many times you've been there, I'll know whether you really want to go to the gym. And if you haven't been to the gym or haven't been to the gym often since you joined the gym, then you don't really want to go to the gym, what you want is you want to want. You want to want to go to the gym but you don't want to go to the gym. How do you know the difference between what you want to want and what you want? It's a very simple answer. By what you do. I've told you the story before about the great Rebbe who was walking with his Chasidim when all of a sudden it started to rain. And the Rebbe stopped and he paused while walking and he turned to his Chasidim and he said, how do you know the sky wants to rain? They looked like okay. He said, because it's raining, and with that he continued to walk. And in these stories there's always that bold brazen Chasid who later asks the Rebbe, Rebbe, respectfully, what in the world did that mean? And the Rebbe said, how do you know what you want to do? Based on what you're doing. And if you're not doing it you don't really want to do it, you want to want to do it. How do you know the sky wants to rain? Because it's raining, because it's raining. That's how you know. So in our own lives that first step of honesty is really important to know the difference between what we want to want and what we want. And do we want to live with emuna and bitachon? Because the measure is, are we living with it? Do we hear the mitzvos calling our name? Is our antenna extended to pick up the signal to the hugs, the winks, the nachas from Hashem? Are we setting aside to communicate, time to communicate? You can't really have a relationship if you don't communicate. Not a marriage, not parent and child, not friends, and in work, we're learning as we're implementing EOS, the critical importance of communication in leading and managing. And with the Ribono Shel Olam, you're not in a relationship if you're not communicating and communicating is two-way. We talk to him through davening, he talks to us through Torah and he talks to us through his magnificent world and the messages that are in it. The seeming coincidences and chance and the way things work out, for good and for bad, and in cases where the story hasn't ended yet. Do we want to really live that way? What's our ratzon? That's Shaloshudis. Ratzon she-be-ratzonos is our ratzon his ratzon. Are we running to the things he wants us to run to? שכאשר הקדוש ברוך הוא גודל חשקתו שעשה when Hashem saw how much Aaron wanted it, that's when he gave it to us. When does Hashem meet us halfway? When he sees us running there. That's when he helps us. That's when he helps us. But if we're walking, if it's a shpazier, if we're not even moving, if we're lying on the couch, if we can't get up and begin, then we don't really want it. If we don't want it he doesn't meet us halfway. Hakadosh Baruch Hu follows our ratzon. And that's really the first gut check is what's our ratzon. Who do you want to be? Six months out, a year out, three years out, five years out, what do you want to look like? Who is the future future version of you? What's your ratzon? At Shaloshudis every week I mention in shul in that time of ra-ava d'ra-avin of ratzon she-be-ratzonos, this is the time, we close our eyes and get lost in song, אתקינו סעודתא בני היכלא mizmor l'Dovid yedid nefesh ko achsof and try to calibrate what's my ratzon for this week. This is a week I gotta work on being a better father, I've gotta find that time. This is a week that my marriage needs some nourishment, reinforcement, we're gonna make that time. This is a week I gotta get back to that kol haboker, I gotta get back to that emunah shiur, I gotta get back to that Tehillim, I gotta get back to calling those friends, checking in on those people, volunteering for that chessed, I gotta get back to my sleep has been way off and I'm killing my future self. I need to sleep more and I need to sleep better. Every week at Shaloshudis that time of eis ratzon. What does it mean to be an eis ratzon? It's a time to examine and evaluate what's my ratzon? What's my will? What's my want? Not what's my want to want. What's my want? Not what do I want to want, what do I really want? What am I really gonna run after? What am I really running towards? What will Hashem help me and meet me halfway because he sees me doing my part and my running? That's what that time of the week is dedicated to. That's what it's really for. That's what it's really all about. שהוא רצון הרי רצון יראיו יעשה כבר אמרו חז\"ל רצה הקדוש ברוך הוא לזכות את ישראל לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות השם חפץ למען צדקו שכאשר רצון אהרן היה לקיים מצוה פעל ארץ רצון השם לפיכך הרבה להם תורה ומצוות. When we show Hashem that ratzon, ooh he talks to us, he hugs us, he winks at us, he nods to us, he gives us those opportunities, he elevates us, he empowers us, he helps us. But that's really what it's all about. What's our ratzon? What are we running to? What do we want? I'll leave you with, in the article I put up last night I mentioned. I really believe this. If you want to know what somebody's all about, don't listen to the words that they say. Because so much of that is lip service and hot air. If you want to know what someone values, don't listen to what they say. Look at their credit card and bank statement. Look how they spend their money. If you want to know what someone values, just look at how they spend their money. What they invest in, what they spend on. If a person's credit card statement says, let's see, Netflix, Hulu, I don't even know what these are all called. Tell me more streaming services. Paramount, Disney Plus, you know every streaming service every month and there's no Be'ers Global on your credit card statement, you're all laughing. I want you to know chevra I'll tell you this is emotional for me. I'm not laughing. If you value Mickey and Disney and Paramount and NBC Sports and Hulu and Netflix for that you're willing to pay. For all that entertainment and distraction you're willing to pay. But living with emunah you're only willing to write an email 'change your life' but your credit card statement doesn't show that you're willing to partner to change other lives then don't tell me how much you value it. I'm not talking about Be'ers Global. I'm talking about Hatzalah, the Mikvah, Eruv, Kashrus, the Kollel, your children's school. I'm forget Be'ers Global because I don't want to make this about me. be-ers online dot org slash global but forget the global campaign. I'm talking about whatever it is that you've benefited from. If you value, if it added value to your life, the things that added value to your life and that you claim you value, does your bank statement show that you value it? It's a pretty simple question. It's a pretty straightforward formula. What do you claim has added value to you, what do you claim you value, and does your bank statement reflect that you value it? And the other mirror to hold up not just the words that are on our lips, not just the empty hot air, but the real way to know is your calendar. You claim to value that time, that exercise, that activity, does your calendar show you do it? It's very simple. It's very straightforward. Bank statement and your calendar tell you everything about who you are. Not the words you say. The words you say are easy. Words we say are what we want to want. The words we say are what we want to want but our But only your calendar will tell you whether you ever get on it. So it's the combination of the two that reveal what not we want to want but what we really want. And do we really want emuna bitachon? Do we really want to live with Hashem and feel him in our lives? Are we really invested in the activities which will reinforce and help get us there? I thank all of you for learning together. I thank all those who wrote in even if we can't get to it and the giveaway. We'll end with this and then we'll take questions after we turn the stream off. A few weeks ago someone sent in this movement to put a sticker under the mezuzah and when you touch or kiss the mezuzah, the Gemara only talks about and the Rambam touching. It's a later minhag people have to kiss it. There were actually teshuvos that were written during Corona should you kiss the mezuzah during Corona? But the minhag is to touch the mezuzah, notice it. When we walk in, when we walk out of a Jewish home or of a room we give it more meaning, we're more mindful when we remember the values about that space and the mezuzah reminds us. So someone started a campaign \"Say I love you Hashem.\" A little sticker under the mezuzah, when you touch it, when you remember \"I love you Hashem.\" I love you for the gift of what's in this room, who's in this room, what happened in this room. I'm leaving this room, coming into this room. So then people started sending in if you remember pictures of this under and then one woman sent in that she thought it was a beautiful idea and wanted to have it and she volunteers at the Pinat Cham in Gush Etzion for soldiers and she was going through papers to throw away and she found a whole stack of \"I love you Hashem\" for mezuzahs. Just then, you remember all this? Anyway, last night I was at a shloshim siyum that Richard Ehrlich made for his mother, aleha hashalom, and they had an entire bowl of these and I said to Julie, \"We're learning about this in Living with Emuna, that's amazing, if you have any left over...\" She said, \"What do you mean? I represent the person who's putting them out. We'll make a stand at the shul, we'll give them out. Here's a whole bunch, give them out at Living with Emuna.\" So when we're done feel free to take if you're going to put it underneath your mezuzah in your home, room, whichever one you want, all, one and remember \"Say I love you Hashem\" after underneath. Thank you to Julie and thank you to whoever donated them. We'll now take questions and answers for those who are live in person to those watching online. Stay happy.
