Transcript
Good morning top of the morning to everyone and welcome back to Living with Emuna our weekly shiur / support group to remind ourselves of Hashem's role in our lives that we're not alone as we spent the last several weeks on talking about no matter what level of bidud, no matter what level of quarantine, no matter what level of shutdown, no matter what life throws our way, a Jew, a human being, is never ever alone; we are with Hashem all the time. He is wherever we let him in and if we talk to him and lean on him and feel his presence and his love, if we depend on him, rely on him, and thank him, and protest to him and object to him, then we are always with him; he is wherever we are found. I want to thank our generous sponsors for the year, Dr. Zvi and Bella Morgan, in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut ברוך צבי בן ראובן נתן and in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Shanzar, who lived a life of Jewish community and chesed. Today's particular class is generously sponsored by Yvette and Dr. Aaron Kaulblum, dear friends, in memory of Jean Cohen in honor of her shloshim. Jean was a beloved member of our community; Jean was a very special woman who had tremendous emuna, lived with great faith as did her husband Leon, and were really pillars of our community for a very long time and we miss her and her neshama should have an aliya through our learning together. We're still going through this wonderful sefer Chovas Ha'Adam Be'Olamo; we do not know the author, it's anonymous authorship as I mentioned, a contemporary author who has many many volumes, and I want to move over to a new perek today in which he discusses the following. He begins by introducing with a comment of Rav Steinman zatzal who said ממידת הביטחון אנחנו רחוקים מאוד. We struggle, we feel very far away from bitachon. It's very hard to live life in that way; we're filled with doubt and uncertainty, we are to a degree blinded to the absolute knowledge that Hashem is involved in our lives. It's hard; you can't see him or feel him or smell him or touch him, it's very very very very hard. It's hard; we have a concept that out of sight, out of mind. It's been very challenging during this pandemic; there are people who are staying home, of course, doing the right thing because they're in a vulnerable population, and it's a challenge because they're out of the sight of others and therefore out of the mind of others. We connect with and relate to the people that we see and the people that we know are right in front of us and the people that we have validation and affirmation that they hear us while we're speaking; that's who we connect with most. And so Hashem, who's invisible, Hashem, who unless you're really looking and looking hard, you can't literally see him before our very eyes, you can't hear him, if you do there's something maybe wrong with you, you can't smell him, you can't touch him, so it's very difficult, rechokim me'od וגם בדרך כלל לא חושבים כל כך לחזק את העניין הזה. Moreover, there's not a lot of emphasis placed on working on this attribute. You can go through twelve years of Jewish education and more; you graduate Jewish high school, you go to yeshiva two years in Israel, you go to Jewish college, you continue with Jewish studies, and you know what everything's about: let's learn about the lamed tes melachos, the thirty-nine categories of creative labor on Shabbos, let's go through the details of lashon hara, let's analyze the psukim and understand how Rashi and the Ibn Ezra and the Sforno and the Ramban interpret this pasuk very differently, let's follow and trace the development and evolution of halacha, let's investigate the origins of where did tashlich come from? You'll go through and you'll study Mishna and Gemara and Chumash and Navi and Ivrit and every subject under the sun, but did anyone ever talk to you about Hashem? You're in a relationship; he loves you, you love him, what does it mean to be loved by him and what does it mean to express love to him and how do you know he's involved in your life? Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Jewish tuition and years of Jewish education and you come out with an incredible amount of information and you know knowledge and you know facts and you know people, you know places, you know dates, and you know rules and regulations, but do you know Hashem? Do you know him? Not know about him, not that you know about him, but do you know him? Do you know him? Are you invested in a relationship with him? Do you talk to him and do you feel and hear him talking to you? זה חלק שבזמננו נחלש מאוד said Rav Steinman who was a great gadol who died several years ago in Bnei Brak. He says this is a weakness of our generation. Our ancestors, those who came before, didn't have this in their curriculum either; in their curriculum in the yeshivas and in Radin and in Baranovitch and in the Mir, in the Chasidishe courts, it wasn't part of the curriculum of the yeshiva. They too went through Chumash and Mishna and Gemara and Halacha, but they didn't need it in the curriculum, you know why? They lived and breathed it and they saw it in their homes. You know the image of Tevye, Fiddler on the Roof, of talking to God, that's what it was like. I remember not only my grandparents but my wife's grandparents who were European and survivors and the way that they spoke to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the way he was a real presence in their lives. You would think if anyone felt alienated or distanced, if anyone had felt abandoned or given up, and yet so many of the survivors felt Hashem had accompanied them on their journey, was responsible for their survival, and while they may have had tainos and questions, while they may have had challenges that plagued them deeply, they at the same time felt extraordinarily close. And it was a genuine and a real relationship. And you could observe them having real conversations. There was a true closeness that they had. You know, I think it was my friend Steven Burg, Rabbi Steven Burg, who wrote an article where he talked about that today's high school graduate can tell you on the pasuk in Tehillim what does the Radak say, and what does the Metzudos David say, and what does Rashi say, and what does the Ramban say, can give you 17 interpretations of every pasuk of Tehillim. And our grandmothers didn't even know what the words of Tehillim meant. But our grandmothers cried when they said Tehillim. And our daughters don't feel so connected when they're in a moment of crisis to grab their Tehillim. So, we have to move from the only speaking to the intellect to the experiential. From talking about Hashem to talking to Hashem. To developing this relationship with Him. And our generation, says not me, it's Rav Steinman, zmanenu nechlash me'od, we're very weak, we're weak in this area. And we need to improve, we need to grow. ולא עובדים על זה כל כך. We don't work on this. We work on the 17 interpretations of the pasuk. And we work on the development of the halacha. And we work on, we work on memorizing the lamed tes melachos. ונמצא שהאנשים חיים היום בלי בסיס. So what happens, what happens, people are living today without a basis, without a foundation. And if you don't have a strong foundation, you know what happens to the building? It collapses. I'll give you a shameless plug for my WhatsApp group where on day 12 or 13 of our 30-day challenge to plank every day. So far so good, I'm there. I can't tell you that I've been adding every day. I've had a couple days of setback. Do you know what planking is? Planking is when you lean on your arms and you hold your body directly level as a plank. So you'll say what's the big deal, how hard is it to do that? So I challenge you, you could do it right now or when we're done, probably do it when we're done or at least turn your camera off, but I challenge you to do a plank and you will find when you engage your core, your foundation, your stomach, your core and your back muscles, you do a plank and you haven't ever done it before, 20 seconds in your entire body will be convulsing. You will wake up muscles you never knew you had. As one of the members of our WhatsApp group says, he's now planked, it's now he's grateful that he's up to a minute and a half of planking and he's down to needing only four minutes to get up off the floor afterwards. So a plank is very, very difficult. We have a beautiful WhatsApp group where you offer a little dvar Torah, inspiration to plank, people post how long they've planked, and 30 days, 30 days of planking it will change your body. Now why is planking? I'm not some exercise guru, I'm the last person to be preaching fitness or teaching it, but why am I taking it on and why am I encouraging it of others in our Mind, Body, Soul 30-day challenge? This is one of my three groups. Because a plank results in a strong core. And if you don't have a strong core, if it doesn't create a strong spine and backbone, you cannot stand up straight. If you don't have a strong core, a little wind will knock you right over. And if you want to be able to withstand the winds of life, if you want to withstand the pressures, if you want to withstand when someone tries to push you down or life tries to push you down, you need to strengthen your core. It's not enough to have strong biceps. It's not enough to have strong pecs, the muscles that you show off that people see. Your core is what needs to be strong. It's your foundation, it's what holds you steady, it's what's going to hold you stable. And what's true in the world of gashmius, what's true physically, your core, is true spiritually. Our spiritual core, said Rav Steinman, the spiritual core is emuna, bitachon, knowing there's a Hashem talking to Him, to having a relationship with him. That's the point of this all. That's why we daven and why we're going to hear the shofar and why we shake the lulav and why we light the candles and why we put on the tefillin and why we're keeping kosher and why we're... It's really, it's the core and the source of everything we're doing. So to have a weak basis, to have a weak foundation, to have a weak core, you'll topple right over. But a strong core will enable you to hold steady. A strong core will enable you to be healthy. And so we have to work on our core. We have WhatsApp groups for that too, by the way, lest you think that we've moved over to the world of fitness. We have a WhatsApp group to turn your phone off when you daven, and we have a WhatsApp group to record three things you're grateful for each day. We have beginner, intermediate, and advanced, three stages for each mind, body, and soul, nine groups for the 30-day challenge, brsonline.org/elul, not too late to join, we're not even halfway through yet, and you can still join this challenge and grow in them each and every day. וזה פלא באמת איך חיים על אף שלא עובדים על בטחון הרי זה ממש נס. Says Rav Steinman, observes Rav Steinman, how is it possible that the Jewish people are standing upright? How are there observant Jews? How are there Jews, how are there human beings who have not toppled over, who have not tripped over, who have not collapsed on themselves when they have no foundation of bitachon and emuna, when they don't have confidence that there's a Hashem... and they don't talk to him and connect with him and feel his love? It is הרי זה ממש נס. It is nothing short of an absolute miracle that people who have such a weak core don't collapse and fall over, don't break their spiritual hip, don't end up spiritually in decline. It is nothing short of a miracle. But that is the mission and challenge of our generation to wake up our core and to wake up those muscles and to do a spiritual plank every day, to do a spiritual plank daily to be able to, to be able to stay strong and to be able to withstand whatever life throws our way, whatever life throws our way. And so he writes the following. And by the way, if you're taking notes, all my classes I've been asking if anyone's taking notes, if you could share them with me they'd be an enormous help. I'd love to have a written record of what we're learning together and it will enable me to share it in other contexts as well. Please email me R-E-G at B-R-S online dot O-R-G, R-E-G at B-R-S online dot O-R-G if you happen to be taking notes, I'd really appreciate it. Continues Chovos HaLevavos, be-Gmara muva, it appears in the Gmara כי אחת מהשאלות שישאלו כל אדם ליום הדין, one of the questions that we'll all be asked on Yom HaDin. It happens to be that Yom HaDin is coming up, the Day of Judgment, Rosh Hashana, Aseres Yimei Teshuva, Yom Kippur. Objects in the rearview mirror are much closer than they seem; in this case, objects in the windshield are much closer than they seem. Rosh Hashana is rapidly coming up and we will still try to figure it out by the time we get there. So on Rosh Hashana, Yom HaDin. Now the Gmara here is not talking about the Yom HaDin of Rosh Hashana, the Gmara is talking about Yom HaDin means after 120, when we get upstairs and meet our Maker, when we get upstairs and meet our Creator, then we will be asked a series of questions. We're going to be asked a series of questions and among them we will be asked tzipisa liyeshua, tzipisa liyeshua. Tzipisa, litzapos, the tzofim. Tzofim are scouts. Why the scouts? They scout, they look out and they scout out the territory. They're looking out. Those are the scouts. Tzipisa means to look out, to hope, to long, to scout out. Tzipisa, did you look for and did you long for liyeshua for the salvation? What does this Gmara mean? Gmara in Shabbos דף ל"א עמוד א', a series of questions: were you honest in business, nasata venasata be-emuna? And did you try to create Jewish continuity, asakta be-pirya ve-rivya? And among the questions is tzipisa liyeshua. Did you long for, did you hope for, were you invested in the geula, the yeshua, tzipisa liyeshua? Now what does that mean, tzipisa liyeshua? By the way, how do you fulfill tzipisa liyeshua? How do we fulfill the obligation of tzipisa liyeshua? I think it was Yaakov Emden who said when you say es tzemach David, when you say the words in Shemoneh Esrei, es tzemach David, we ask for the flowering of redemption, that's when we can fulfill this commandment. We can answer that question in the, in the positive, in the affirmative, if in fact we davened every day. So the simple understanding of tzipisa liyeshua is did you long for and did you daven for the salvation? That means there's a pandemic, it's gripping the world, the globe. Do you daven that it ends? Do you daven for redemption? It means that there are battles, it means that there are tensions, it means that there's anti-semitism and there's people who hate Jews. Do you daven for redemption, for peace, for an end to it all? Tzipisa liyeshua, do we long for and do we daven for the end of all that and for a geula? But listen to the Pele Yoetz. The Pele Yoetz writes in erech tzipui, but it also appears in the Beis HaLevi and it also appears in the Chofetz Chaim and it appears in many places that the question of tzipisa liyeshua and the answer we give to it is not some global salvation, is not, you know, in the words of the Navi that appear on the Liberty Bell that everyone will lay down their weapons and the animals will lie together and we'll be able to Kumbaya with one another. That's not the tzipisa liyeshua, this some global or universal redemption or salvation. But rather the answer to that question, אין הכוונה שיסתפקו בבית דין של מעלה בשאלה אם אותו אדם צפה לישועה כללית של עם ישראל. It's not that we'll be asked in the heavenly tribunal or heavenly court, did you long for, did you ask for, did you look for some global salvation? That too. ela yishalu oso, you know what we're going to be asked? After 120, when we ascend upstairs and we will appear before the heavenly court and we'll be asked that series of questions: were you honest and did you have integrity? Were you committed to Jewish continuity? All kinds of questions. And one of them will be האם צפה לישועת השם מכל הצרות הפרטיות שהיו לו. Tzipisa liyeshua, the question will be asked when we get upstairs is when you found yourself in crisis, when you found yourself in trouble, did you call out to Hashem? Did you turn to Him, did you look to Him, did you wait for Him, did you rely on Him? What was your go-to list? What was your go-to behavior? What was your go-to reaction? What did you do when you were in a moment of crisis? Did it include turning to Him and saying I need Your help? Please step in, here's what I need, I know You're my partner, I know You care, You care about my children. as much or more than I do, you care about my well-being or health as much or more than I do, I need you. Tzipita l'yeshua, the question will be asked when we get upstairs according to the Pele Yoetz and the Bais Halevi and the Chafetz Chaim is not just did you long for some global redemption, some worldwide salvation, did you look forward to Yemos Hamashiach, the eschatological era of the arrival of the Messiah? But it means much more specifically and much more personally. We will be asked when we get upstairs, we will be asked, when you were in a moment of crisis, when you felt the pressure, when the walls felt like they were caving in, when you felt like you were in trouble or someone around you or someone you loved was in trouble, there was a health crisis or a financial crisis or a relationship collapse, did you stop and ask for help from above? Tzipita, did you look like the tzofim, did you scout, did you look, did you long l'yeshua for salvation from Him? Did you only go to the doctor or when you are on your way to the doctor did you ask the רופא כל בשר ומפליא לעשות, did you ask the doctor of doctors to intervene? Did you only meet with the lawyer or on the way into the lawyer's office did you also ask God, the greatest orech din in the world, in history, the source of all justice, to intervene and defend on your behalf? When you met with the accountant, when you stepped into the crisis manager, when you walked into the therapist, when you made the appointment with the rabbi, wherever you went and however you reacted and whatever the crisis is, did you reach out to all the normal means or did you include among them not only the physical but the metaphysical? Did you also reach up and reach out? Did you reach to Hashem? Tzipita l'yeshua, that is a question we will be asked on Yom Hadin. And although the Gemara in Shabbos lamed-aleph is talking about after 120, the Gemara is referring to when we get upstairs, I would suggest that in this month of Elul as we are counting down to our Yom Hadin, Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, Yemei Hadin, that this is a question we ask ourselves too. A gut check on our bitachon and emuna. Do we only talk about God or do we talk to God? Do we have a relationship with Him? Do we know the Shepherd ה' רועי לא אחסר? The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not lack. V'samachta b'chol hatov we spoke about yesterday in the parsha class, b'chol hatov. If you feel kol tov that everything is good and everything is from above and everything is for design, then v'samachta, then you're going to go through life happy. And you're not bent out of shape because FedEx still hasn't found your sheitel. And you're not so upset because you still didn't get your refund on the 10th. And you're not so concerned about what's going to be with the high holiday seating or how it's going to work out or what will be the weather because you know that there's a plan and it's all meant to be and you're going to put in your effort and you're going to do your due diligence and you're going to take your initiative and you're going to do everything that you can and then you're going to let go and let God. And when you do b'chol hatov, when everything is good. I love that, people ask me what's happening, I say, it's all good, it's all good, never better. It's all good, never better. When your attitude in life is it's all good, never better, then v'samachta. How are v'samachta? Who doesn't want happiness? Our whole life is dedicated to that pursuit of happiness and how do you discover it and find it? V'samachta when you live life b'chol hatov. How are you? All good, never better. What do you mean all good, never better? X, Y, or Z is happening or happened. Yeah, and with it it's all good. I have a lot to do, a lot of stress on my plate, a lot to get to, not me, people, but nevertheless it's all good, never better. B'chol hatov then v'samachta. Don't just talk about God, talk to God. Don't just talk about Him in theory, develop a relationship with Him. Don't talk about the Shepherd, come to know the Shepherd and to feel the Shepherd's love. Tzipita l'yeshua, we will be asked, what did you do? Did you just go to the lawyer or the doctor, did you just call the hotline, did you just take the medicine, or did you also involve Him? Did you invite Him into the room? Did you seek wisdom from Him? Did you ask Him for enlightenment and advice? Did you ask Him to bail you out? Did you ask Him to be your crisis manager, your therapist? Did you ask Him to be literally your savior? ישאלו אותנו איך הנהג כשהיה לו מינוס בבנק. You'll be asked when you get upstairs, this book was obviously written in Israel, how did you react when you had a minus ba'bank? When you looked in your account and it was in the red. What did you do? Did you scramble around? Did you raise funds? Did you borrow from family? Did you take a 17th job? Or did you also look up to above? איך הנהג כשהיה לו בעיות בריאותיות? What did you do when you had a health crisis? האם היה מלא ביטחון שה' יושיעו, were you filled with trust, did you put your trust in Him that b'chol hatov, that everything from above is by design, that there is no coincidence, there is no chance, there is no randomness, that whatever is happening is by design, and lean on Him to bail you out? או שעבר את אותם הצרות בדאגות עם הרגשה רעה? Did you panic? Were you filled with anxiety? Did you collapse from worry? Did you become hopeless and helpless and despondent? Then you cannot answer Tzipita lishua in the positive. Or did you keep your calm, and did you keep your confidence, and did you keep your peace? And therefore vesamachta. We said yesterday in the parsha shiur, I won't repeat it, but the great story of the Rebbe Reb Zusha and the Maggid of Mezeritch. And how the Rebbe Reb Zusha, who lived a life of crisis and suffering and struggle and travails, but when challenged by somebody, how are you always able to be happy? The Maggid of Mezeritch sent me to ask you, how can you be happy even when you suffer? And Reb Zusha said, I don't know why he sent you to me, I've never suffered a day in my life. Because when you live with bechol hatov, then you never suffer a day in your life. You never suffer a day in your life. My good friend Matthew Ackerman likes to quote his father of blessed memory, who used to say, when you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life. And when you believe that everything is from above, everything is from God, then you never suffer a day in your life. Does that mean you never have hardship or travails? Does it mean you never go through anything that's painful, unbearably painful? Does it mean you don't go through loss? Of course you can go through all those things. And the Torah prescribes and designs a way to feel that pain, to mourn, to grieve, to acknowledge, to validate. And yet with it all, nevertheless, to recognize and realize that it's from our father above, that it's by design, that it's not random coincidence or chance, that bechol hatov and therefore vesamachta. That not to panic and not to collapse because we don't have a spiritual cord to hold us up, not to implode and not to collapse upon ourselves spiritually, not to give up, not to become hopeless or helpless, but to realize that there is one above. And so we will be asked, we'll be asked after 120 when we get upstairs, and we will be asked in a couple of weeks when we come before the Almighty on Yom Hadin, indoor minyan, outdoor minyan, at home by yourself. We will all ask and be asked: tzipita liyeshu'ah. This past year, how'd you do on bitachon and emunah? Fantastic. I'm so happy that you have 400 interpretations of Tehillim and 30 divrei Torah on the parsha, and you know exactly how Tashlich began, and I'm glad that you know the shofar—400 interpretations of the shofar blast. You know the 39 melachos by heart. Beautiful. All that information is great. How's your relationship? How's your relationship? It's like what do you know about your spouse? I could tell you their height, I could tell you the color of their eyes, I could tell you their hobbies, I could tell you their interests, I could tell you their pet peeves, I could tell you their education, I could tell you... that's great. How's your relationship? My relationship? We barely talk, I don't really feel connected, I don't confide, I don't listen to them, but I could tell you everything you need to know. How often do I counsel couples and they'll say, one about the other, I know them better than anyone in the world knows them. I know them better than they know themselves. That's lovely. Knowing someone's great. Knowing someone—that's great. That's academic, it's theoretical, it's conceptual. Lovely that you know them, but how good is your relationship with them? You can know God, but do you have a relationship with him? And the answer, the gut check, the metric to measure how well we're doing in that relationship is this question: tzipita liyeshu'ah. When you find yourself in crisis, when the walls feel like they're caving in, in the moment that you're about to lose your breath, when you are tempted to instinctively or intuitively react with panic or anxiety: tzipita liyeshu'ah? Do you then tap into your bitachon and emunah? Do you flex that bitachon muscle? Do you look through the glasses that say it's all by design, or do you turn with a sense that it's all random? כדי לקנות ביטחון לא מספיק לקנות ידיעות. In order to acquire bitachon, in order to grow in a relationship... right? How do you grow in a relationship? Not just academically, theoretically, or with information. You know, you don't have a relationship with someone because you got their resume. In the shidduch world, there's these ridiculous things called resumes. I've written about why I think they're ridiculous, I think they're absurd, I think the name resume is so demeaning and counterproductive. I understand the idea that you've got, you know, a fact sheet about a person trying to make a shidduch, you need to know a little bit about them. But the notion that it's a resume as if you're applying for the opportunity for them to date you. But anyway, so imagine, imagine all I do is read the resume. I don't have a relationship. I've never actually met or spent time or felt an intimate connection or confided in the person, but I know their resume by heart. I can tell you where they went to school, and I can tell you all about their siblings, and I've called their references, both their teachers, their rabbis, and now they give references of friends and peers. I can tell you every piece of information about them. Everything about them. I know their favorite food, I know their favorite color, I know their pet peeves. I know everything about them. That doesn't mean you have a relationship. כיצד אפשר להתחזק במידת הביטחון מבחינה מעשית? How do we acquire an actual relationship? האם יש דרך דרך בה יוכל האדם לייצר רגש של אמונה וביטחון? So not just information and facts. How do we cultivate and breed and build an actual relationship with Hashem? עבודת קניית הביטחון קשה היא. Very very difficult. As the Baalei Mussar have written and now the Chovos HaAdam quotes several Baalei Mussar who acknowledge this. In the sefer Yesod Ha'Avoda he writes, da beni know, my child, שאמונת השכל לאמונת הלב רחוק יותר מאשר מן הארץ לשמים. From an intellectual knowledge that there is a God to an emotional knowledge, an investment and relationship with the God, is the distance of heaven to earth. It's farther than the distance from heaven to earth. We put man on the moon. We're trying to put man on Mars. But can we make man connect with God here on earth? It's an even further distance. It's an even greater challenge. Rav Itzele Blazer, one of the great Baalei Mussar writes, ikar amal ha-adam, the core goal or effort of a person, להביא את האמונה והיראה בחוש, to make emuna and bitachon and yira to cling to God and to trust in God and to have faith that God is here be parts of our actual inclination and our personality. To make them part of who we are, not just what we know, is challenge. It's ikar amal. It is the core of our effort of what we're trying to do. כמרחק בין אי ידיעה לידיעה כך המרחק שבין הידיעה להרגשה. Like the distance between two intellectual things is the distance between knowing and feeling and believing. The head to the heart is the farthest distance between any two things on earth. It's so impossible. It's so difficult. It's so so difficult. So that's where the introduction and now he's going to get into how to do it. And that's what we're going to continue with next time. What are some of the practical pieces of advice? What are some of the practical methodologies that we could try to grow and cultivate and build our sense of bitachon? Yom yom, every single day. Not just when we need it, because it won't be there when you need it. Again, you're trying to stand up against a big wind or someone runs into you, if you don't have a strong core and you haven't been building your core, you're going to get knocked over flat. It's nice that then you're going to decide to start doing sit-ups, then you're going to start working out your core, then you're going to start planking, but it's too late, you got knocked over. What will prepare you for when that wind or when that person or when that object is going to bang right into you, when you work out that core in advance. And so whether you join my plank group or not, whether you decide to stop, drop, and plank right when we're done or not, whether you walk the plank with us, which I promise you won't regret. You'll regret it while you're doing it because you'll be vibrating and shaking, but you won't regret when you literally feel yourself standing up straighter and you won't regret it when you feel your core stronger and you won't regret it when you feel that you are more balanced. And the same is true spiritually. Don't you want to stand up straighter spiritually? Don't you want to feel more grounded, more stable, more balanced spiritually? To work out that spiritual core is to work out the bitachon and emuna in us. Yom yom, every single day. It doesn't come from intellect, from knowledge, from information, it comes from exercising it. And so here's your homework for next week. Talk to Hashem every day. Talk to him every day. Hisbodedus. Just talk to him. Talk to him like he's your best friend. Talk to him like he's right in front of you. Talk to him in the words of the Siddur, of course, you can talk to him with the words of Tehillim, but talk to him outside. Whatever challenge you're going through and whatever help that you need, whether you're filling out forms to go to a grandchild's bar mitzvah in Israel and the effort and obstacles they put in your way to be able to go make you want to pull whatever hair you have left out, whether you're concerned for health or for finances, whether you're concerned about preparing for the high holidays, whether you've had it with, you have fatigue from this pandemic, talk to him. Ask him for help. Ask him to bail you out. Ask him to feel your pain with you. Ask him. That's the homework for next week, is to work on it day by day. To build that bitachon core, to hold that bitachon plank by thinking about and reflecting and meditating and most importantly by communicating with him. Don't just talk about God, talk to God directly. Confide in him and trust in him, even protest and object to him and you will feel your core growing stronger and stronger each and every day. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy, wishing everyone a wonderful, wonderful day. Join us at 9:00 tonight as we go behind the Bima with Nachi Gordon, the founder of Meaningful Minute. A young man who left a career as a sports agent to build a career sending out a meaningful minute every day. He's up to 30,000 subscribers. It's really an amazing story. I hope you'll join us 9:00 tonight to hear about it. We also have a new series that's beginning at BRS at 8:00 p.m. tonight where we are drawing from contemporary self-help books with a Torah twist. I'm teaching tonight at 8:00, a great book, The War of Art. The War of Art. It's a great, great book. Join us at 8:00 tonight. Until then, wishing everyone a wonderful day filled with great bitachon. Work out your physical and spiritual core. Take care of a great day. I'm going to be teaching tonight at 8 o'clock, a great book, the Art of, the War of Art, the War of Art, it's a great, great book, join us at 8 o'clock tonight, until then wishing everyone a wonderful day filled with great bitachon, work out your physical and spiritual core, take care, have a great day.
