Transcript
Good morning and boker tov, great to be together again, my dear Emunah friends who join us every Wednesday morning, our support group, our chizuk group, to be mechazek, to strengthen one another, to not forget to live with Emunah. It's so easy to forget. We live in a world where we think we are in control, we think that we are in charge. We go on with our day and it is so easy to forget that we are supposed to be living with Emunah. I want to thank our generous sponsors for the series for the year, Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan, who sponsored in memory of Rabbi Doctor Brian Gabet, a profound example of living with Emunah, and in memory of Bella's mother, Doctor Ellen Shanzer. So grateful to the Morgans for the generous sponsorship of the year. I also want to take the personal privilege of dedicating today our learning to the memory of my dear grandmother, my Grandma Rose Goldberg, רחל לאה בת שלום דוד, whose yahrtzeit is today. She was a very special woman. I'm not even sure she hit five feet tall. She was a very small, petite woman, but packed a punch. She confronted the Nazis and took her family out of Germany after Kristallnacht, which really obviously saved our family. She was a special woman and we dedicate our learning this morning to her. We are continuing this magnificent sefer B'yam Derech-cha of Rav Itamar Morgenstern on Dveikus, how to cling to God, how to stick with God, how to feel connected to God, whatever life throws our way, to not give up and to not concede and to not lose hope, but rather to stick with God like glue, to know that God has our back and we stick with him, we have his back and together we're going to navigate and figure this out. So we last left off and he was telling us כל יהודי צריך להאמין ולדעת, every Jew needs to believe, every Jew needs to know שאדם יכול להגיע למדרגה הרגשת אלוקות, that every Jew is capable of feeling the presence of the Almighty in our life. Extend that antenna, perk up your ears, listen closely and carefully and you'll hear Hashem is speaking to you. Go through life with these questions and doubt and uncertainty, go through life with complaints and challenges and you won't see God anywhere. But extend your antenna and look to live with God and you'll feel and see his presence everywhere. That doesn't mean you'll always see and feel his presence for the good, sometimes it's for the bad, sometimes things don't work out. On my family WhatsApp Emunah group, WhatsApp Hashgacha Pratis group that I reference and flex a lot in this class and in others, so we all leave each other these incredible voice notes of when things worked out, when we felt the presence of Hashem, when that coincidence, several of them had to do with the rain over this rainy season in Florida where I mentioned can you believe it, I had to go to the funeral, I had to go, so the other day I had to go out, I think I was going home from shul, it wasn't raining, the second I stepped outside, the sky opened up and then it stopped when I got home. And I left it as a note. I said Hashgacha Pratis, I just got soaked, the rain happened only when I was walking home. So my kids wondered why would you leave that as a note, that's not everything working out in your favor. And the answer is, and halevai that should be the worst thing that ever happens to me, changing clothes because you got a little wet in the rain, but the answer is that Hashem's presence shouldn't only be felt, he's not only talking to us when everything works our way, when it goes in our favor. Hashem is talking to us all the time. The question is whether we're listening. The question is can we decipher the message? But he's speaking to us. He's speaking to us, are we listening? And every Jew is capable, כל יהודי צריך להאמין ולדעת, every Jew needs to know, every Jew needs to believe that we can get to this level, that wherever we are God is over our shoulder, he's listening and he's talking to us, he's holding us up and he's supporting us, he's also holding us accountable. ולהאמין שיש מציאות של חיים בדביקות בהשם יתברך, we need to know there's such a life and such a lifestyle. Maybe it's by reading a biography, I think we spoke about that last week, maybe it comes from meeting such extraordinary people. Attach yourself to a Holocaust survivor and please God we have a long time still, but we're running out of time. Holocaust survivors who went through the atrocities they went through and who maintained and preserved some level of faith, they are heroes. And there are countless stories of our Gedolei Yisrael who talk about the fact that seek out someone with numbers on their arm and get a bracha from them. What they lived through, what they endured, how they were moser nefesh and yet preserved and maintained their faith in God, attach yourself to them. Attach yourself to them, use them as an example, a model, a guide, see in them the capacity to live that life. And we shouldn't have to go through what they went through to live with that same faith. We too ride their coattails, but be able to have it be contagious. We're living in this pandemic and we're talking with dealing with this disease daily which is highly, highly, highly contagious. That's why it's a problem because it's transmitted so easily, it's highly contagious. So it's contagious for the bad and the negative, but you know what, there's also things that are contagious in the positive, for the good. Emunah and faith and Dveikus clinging to God can be contagious for the good. The question is it's up to us. So you don't want to be exposed to somebody who's got Corona. We wear masks and we maintain our distancing and we do everything we can to avoid being exposed to someone with Corona. But my dear friends, you want to be exposed to somebody with Emunah, with Dveikus. Go near them, figuratively, I don't mean literally right now, but figuratively, attach yourself to somebody with great faith, with great Emunah. Don't wear a mask and don't distance and don't avoid. Someone who has great Emunah, again, figuratively, not literally, listen carefully, but figuratively, find that person with great faith and attach yourself to them. Ride their coattails, see them as an example. And when you have those moments of doubt, you know, people have asked me through the years, Rabbi, are you ever filled with doubt? Doesn't it ever happen? I say, of course. Of course it does. You know, one of the people for whom this Shiur is sponsored for the year by the generous Morgans is my dear friend Brian Galbut. The whole end of his life filled, and now, God, it's a, you know, my top questions when I get upstairs. How do you choose your best? How do you choose the very best people at such a young age to take from us? Rabbi Sacks, this world is so bereft, he's so irreplaceable. Of course. So the person said to me, well, what do you do? I said, you know what I do? I go over to Martin Judovits. What do you do? I used to go over to Rabbi Klein, Alav Hashalom. What do you do? I go find a Holocaust survivor. I say, if they lost their entire family, not one person, not one piece of bad news, not one disappointment, whatever we go through, the worst of what someone goes through, a Holocaust survivor went through by a magnitude by exponentially, I don't even know what, what they lost, their whole family, their whole life, their whole world, and if they can find faith afterwards, so can we. So we need to know that יש מציאות של חיים בדבקות. There is such a life. There is a life where you see and feel God everywhere. There is a life where you talk to Him and thank Him. There is a life where you lean on Him. There is a life where you're accountable to Him. There is a life where you're on a mission from Him. שאפשר לנו להתענג על השגת אלקות. I love that language. He's drawing it from Dovid Hamelech. Dovid Hamelech in Tehillim says, Lehis'aneg Al Hashem, to get high on God. Some Rav, I'm not even sure who it was, was giving a public lecture and he's talking about how he met a kid who was high and he said, you get high? What do you get high on drugs? I get high on God! And the kids turned that into some GIF or meme and they have a lot of fun, they put music to it, this Rabbi screaming I get high on God. But Dovid Hamelech was the first to scream it. Dovid Hamelech, King David, in Tehillim said, I get high on God. And then Rav Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, the Ramchal, talks about it in Mesillas Yesharim. God doesn't give us the Torah and Mitzvos in order to cause us to suffer. He's not trying to restrict or constrict our lives so that we have to give up pleasure. God says the opposite: I want you to get the greatest pleasure. And you know how you're going to get the greatest pleasure? Here's how you're going to get the greatest pleasure: You're going to attach yourself to Me because I'm the source of all pleasure. So whatever you enjoy in life, food, intimacy, money, power, music, the beach, whatever you enjoy in life, God is the source and He is the creator of it all. So God simply says, get high on Me by attaching yourself to Me. That is the ultimate and the highest pleasure you can get. ולהחיות את יחודו בחיות ובעונג ובדבקות. So we need to know that we're capable of it. We need to know it's possible. We need to know there is such a thing. And then once we know it, now we can aspire to live it. When you meet a person who lives that level of mindfulness, of conscientiousness and consciousness, a person who lives in that world, in that realm, then we know that we can too. ואמנם שאנו במדרגה נמוכה ובחיצוניות אין אנו ראויים. And if you say, but who am I? I'm at such a low level. I'm such a nothing. I can barely remember to Daven, make a Bracha before I eat. I'm barely getting the basics right. Who am I to think I'm going to aspire? I'm going to stretch and reach, excuse me, to live on that level? Who am I? Ein Anu Re'uyim. I'm not worthy, I'm not capable. Yesh Lanu Avonos. I make mistakes. Do you know what I said? Do you know what I looked at? Do you know what I did? Do you know where I went? Do you know who I am? I'm unworthy, I'm incapable. Who am I to dream, who am I to aspire, who am I to paint that picture and try to see myself in it? לכן עדיין לא זכינו לנבואה אמיתית. We don't have that picture in our minds. We haven't merited to be able to have that vision. Bechol Makom we need to know כל יהודי יכול לזכות לדבוק בהשם יתברך לפי ערכו. Every Jew can cling and attach themselves to God according to their value, according to their situation, Bechol Madreiga Uvematzav. Of course God knows who we are. He's the loving father. I told you a few weeks ago about the person who met with me who had mixed in with drugs and he'd been clean for two years, but had some legal problems and he hadn't Davened in so long. He grew up not only a Frum background, but intensely, very Stark, Frum, Chasidish background. And I said, he's your father. Just pick up the phone and call Him. If you call your father and you say, Dad, I know it's been a long time. And I'm not even sure where to begin or what to say. But I just wanted to talk to you. What father or mother hangs up the phone? They don't say, well, where've you been? Or why haven't you called me? They say, thank God you're calling now. And we can do that with God. Talk to him. I don't even just mean opening the siddur and saying it's words. I mean from your heart. In the car, on a walk, in your kitchen, while taking a break at work, take a moment and talk to God. Unburden yourself. What's on your heart? Confide in him, cling to him, know he's there, protest, object to him. By the way, that kid did that, he davened, that young man, I shouldn't say, that young man davened, and Baruch Hashem, not that it always has a - the stories have a happy ending, but the charges were dropped and it was all dismissed and because of the hard work he's put in in order to transform his life, everything Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem for him has worked out in that way. His father didn't only hear, his father said yes. Sometimes our father hears the question but the answer is no in our best interest. In this case, it was yes and that's such a beautiful, beautiful thing. It should be yes for all of us, for our hopes and our dreams. So Reb Shmaya is saying that every one of us, it doesn't matter what level you're on, it doesn't matter what you did last night or earlier today, it doesn't matter your mistakes or your shortcomings, every one of us have the ability to redefine ourselves, to start again, to start fresh, to start anew. Whatever madreiga, whatever matzav, whatever situation we're in in life and whatever level we're on, talk to him. He is waiting by the phone, even if it's been a very long time. Unburden, confide. Don't get high on substances to numb or distract yourself from the challenges of life, God forbid. When you encounter or confront a challenge, simply get high on God. Get high on God. Lord get me high, as Reb Shlomo used to sing. ומי שחשב שהיום אין אפשר שתהיה לאדם שייכות עם השכינה ועם אלוקות so you'll say today, it's not possible. You know, rabbi, I read the Tanakh, I read the Chumash, I read the stories of the great rabbis of the Talmud. Earlier generations you can connect to God. God did miracles, you saw his guiding hand, you lived with a certainty that he exists. In earlier times you could get high on God but today, ah, it's impossible. Today who can get high on God, who can see God, talk to God, feel God? Today it's not just - it's not going to happen. Zu taus noraah. This is a catastrophic mistake. It's like saying, you know, it's been so long I haven't spoken to my parents, it's too late, I can't call them. It's too late, can never call them. It's never ever, ever, ever too late. Zu taus noraah. And when you make that terrible mistake, when you think it's too late and therefore you don't even try and you forfeit the opportunity for the relationship that you could have in that time, what have you forfeited? What have you surrendered? What have you lost out on? כי הרי זו תכלית כל עבודת השם יתברך. This is the essence of it all. All 613 mitzvot are there in order to propel us and to encourage us and promote us and push us to feel Hashem's presence. Dveikus is the foundation. It is underlying it all. It's what it's really all about. Spoke about it yesterday in the parsha shiur. That sense of anochi. That feeling, that connection to the anochi. There's our anochi, our ego, our sense of self, and that gets in the way, it's a barrier to relationships. And there's the anochi of God, Anochi Hashem Elokecha. That all there is is God, that he is in control and he is in charge and the more we connect with him and the closer we come to him, the happier, the more meaning, the more purpose we feel. כי הרי זו תכלית כל עבודת השם יתברך ואיך שייך שלא יהיה לנו זה הלא כבר אמר השם יתברך אני השם לא שניתי. God said I don't change. I've been here since before creation and through creation and after creation. וממילא מוכרח שזה שייך בכל דור ודור. So because God says אני השם לא שניתי, I've never changed, I've never been altered, I'm not compromised, this is who I am, I am everything, and that's true in every single generation. So it doesn't matter where or when you live, it doesn't matter what you're going through, it doesn't matter who you are. He's our father. He's our father and he's waiting for that connection, for that love, for that affection, for that intimacy. He's waiting for us to confide, and he's speaking to us. He's speaking to us. It's an amazing thing, you know, that when Eliezer goes to be able to find a wife for Yitzchak and he discovers Rivka and now he's negotiating with Lavan to be able to bring Rivka back and the response is from Lavan, from Betuel is: Yeah, yeah, no, we know the whole story, you made the deal and you came and all the things and we saw it all unfold ka'asher diber Hashem. This is a shidduch, this is what's meant to be. Take our sister, take our daughter Rivka so she should go, this is what's meant to be, ka'asher diber Hashem, as God said. And the Ramban, Nachmanides wonders, what do you mean as God says? Where did God say? If you read all Sefer Bereishit, if you read the whole story, which is not short, of Eliezer going to find that wife for Yitzchak, God never speaks out loud. God never has some revelation where he shares that Rivka is the chosen one, that she's meant to be. So what do you mean ka'asher diber Hashem, as God said? So you know what the Ramban says? Listen carefully. Listen carefully. You know what the Ramban says? Ka'asher diber Hashem means God speaks to us through the events that unfold in our life. So when you came with all those camels and with all those possessions, and when our Rifkala she went out to not only give you to drink but gave to the camels, when we saw the whole thing unfold, we knew that God was speaking to us that this was meant to be. And that's Lot and that's Besuel. I mean, just think about for a moment who we're talking about, who we're talking about, and yet they lived ka'asher diber Hashem. They lived with an attitude and mentality that I look at this world and I say, the rain's on me and I just got soaked, God wanted me to get wet. That was from God, ka'asher diber Hashem. God is speaking to us all day. That's this idea of these hashgacha pratis WhatsApp groups, and that's why I ask you, my dear, my dear living with emuna friends, to share your stories with me so I can share them with us because it's mechazek one another. I want to share a story with a dear friend, a member of our shul who has since moved to an assisted living facility. She's a wonderful, wonderful person. I don't have her permission to mention her name, but we miss her and we're so glad that she continues to learn with us. I hope she's on this morning as well because she's so, so inspiring. So she shared with me where I'm living now, we order our meals on a sheet of paper a day before. On Friday, I ordered such and such for breakfast. They weren't really for breakfast, they were meant to come for me for lunch. When Shabbos morning came, my order never arrived and I was wondering what was I going to eat for lunch that day. If you're in an assisted living facility, particularly in a pandemic, where you're in your room and eating in your room and somewhat isolated in your room, and they don't deliver what you ordered to eat, you have nothing to eat. Shabbos, you go hungry. You can't call, you're not going to buzz. I soon had to take a Shabbos elevator down to the main floor. Shabbos elevator is programmed to stop on every floor as it goes down. The door opens for a short while and then proceeds to go further. I got off on the main floor, did what I needed to do, and then I proceeded to go back to my apartment. Shabbos elevator then went non-stop to the tenth floor and the door opened and standing in before me were the people delivering the kosher meals. I quickly told them I never received my breakfast that morning and then the door proceeded to close. I proceeded back to my apartment and a short time, a short time later, the doorbell rang and the delivery staff was there with my lunch. I asked them why they didn't deliver it earlier for my breakfast and they said you forgot to put your name and room number on the sheet of paper you turned in. We didn't know where to deliver it. I felt so much that God was with me and was aware of my dilemma. I literally saw the hand of God. That's what she writes to me. So there's a story and you could say, woe is me, they didn't deliver it, it was supposed to come breakfast, was meant to be my lunch, I worried for nothing, I didn't know where my food would go, I live in an assisted living facility, it's difficult enough as it is. You can look at what's missing in the story and say woe is me, or she chose to look and say, can you believe it? What are the chances that I would take the Shabbos elevator exactly the right moment? And what are the chances it would open at exactly the right time on the right floor where they would be standing there? And what are the chances that it would close but they would know to come and ring the doorbell? And all because I left my name and room number out, but Hashem orchestrated everything so the food would be delivered nonetheless. And as she signed off, I felt so much that Hashem was with me and was aware of my dilemma. I literally saw the hand of Hashem. Isn't that amazing? That's this life of dveikus. No, no, יש מציאות שחיים בדביקות בהשם יתברך. There is such a life, and I just read you an email from a real-life person who I know who this just happened to. And please continue to share your emuna stories, small and large, inconsequential, consequential, because when, when we share with one another living this life and seeing that hand of Hashem, and then it brings you that calm, it brings you that serenity. They didn't deliver it? I wasn't meant to have it yet. If I don't get it, I wasn't meant to have it. Maybe it would make me sick. If I did get it, if it worked out, that was the hand of Hashem. You don't have to lose your cool. You don't have to be anxious or worried. You don't have to be envious or angry. You're able to remain calm. A life of emuna is the greatest life, the healthiest life, the most fulfilling life. Umi shechoshev, so again someone who says that today it's impossible, you need to know in every generation, וכל יהודי צריך להתבונן, every Jew needs to contemplate, למה שלא יהיה לי את אור הדביקות, so if it's possible and if that's the whole purpose of life, and if that's the whole platform of Torah and mitzvos to remember and mindfully live that Hashem is in my life, then where is the light of dveikus? Why aren't I living with it? Why doesn't it come easy? Why isn't it natural? Why isn't it obvious? Why isn't everyone around me doing it? Why is there a whole world of Jews, observant Jews, Torah Jews, bnei Torah who are going through motions? They're scrupulously paying attention to minutia and details, they're vigilantly observing Jewish law, and there's no conversation and there's no connection with God. God is absent from it all. It's also this week's parsha. I mentioned that in the parsha shiur but I'll repeat it, that Yaakov Avinu has his dream and he wakes up and he says, אכן יש השם במקום הזה ואנכי לא ידעתי. He wakes up, vayikatz mishnato, he wakes up from his sleep and he says God is here but I had no idea, I had no idea. And the simple understanding of the psukim... telling us is that Yaakov took a nap and he wakes up and he says wow, I had this revelation, God is present right here, I never would have gone to sleep, I never would have been so callous to take a nap if I knew this was a sacred space that God was here and what was the dream and the interpretation of the ladder binding heaven and earth all for parsha all for another time. But I forgot which chasidish Rebbe I saw it from and I apologize that I forget. But he says no, vayikatz mishnaso the word shena can mean to sleep but it also means to learn Torah like veshinantam levanecha to teach our children. Shena means to learn Torah to review Torah. And he suggests maybe what the pasuk means is vayikatz mishnaso Yaakov woke up from his learning and he says אכן יש ה' במקום הזה ואנכי לא ידעתי. I finished the whole Daf Yomi, I finished Chumash and Parsha, I finished Ivrit, Ivrit's not really Torah per se, I finished all my class, I finished learning Torah. Someone could sit in yeshiva, someone can go to Jewish education and learn the entire day long and not encounter God once. God's name didn't come up, the relationship didn't come up, the connection didn't come up, the providence didn't come up and that's a tragic, tragic education. All of Chumash and all of Navi and all of halacha and all of Gemara is there so that at the time each and every time we're done learning we say how is my relationship with Hashem richer as a result. And it doesn't matter if you're learning Eruvin or Pesachim or Bava Kama, Bava Metzia, it doesn't matter if you're learning about Jewish holidays or Jewish civic law or Jewish criminal law or it doesn't matter what you're learning. It is all a reflection of God's blueprint and vision for His world. And when you close that sefer, the Navi, the Chumash, the Mishna, the Gemara, the Mishna Berura whatever it is that you're done learning, you have to ask yourself how do I understand Hashem and His world better? How do I feel closer to Him? How do I understand my mission more? And even if you engage in intellectual gymnastics the entire day of studying of Torah but you don't talk about Hashem once, you don't talk about His presence, He's not on the page, He's not in that conversation, achen, vayikatz mishnaso Yaakov wakes up from learning and he says wow, I didn't know Hashem is in the Gemara, I didn't know Hashem is in Chumash or Navi. That's what the curriculum of our school should be. That when you tell the stories of Chumash and Navi that the whole goal of the story is how does this promote emunah? Where was Hashem in the story? Where was He in the relationship? Did He show, did He not show, did He say, why did He do what He did? How does it reflect on our relationship, how do we learn and grow from it? That's the point. When we learn this halacha we say oh, if two people, your ox gores my ox and who's responsible and who has to pay, not because we're just learning academic scholarship but rather we're saying how does Hashem see property? How does Hashem understand ownership? How does Hashem see responsibility to safeguard and protect and therefore what's Hashem's conclusion about who owes whom money because that's His vision for this world. We have to bring Hashem back to the conversation. We have to speak that language and introduce that vocabulary. We have to not be embarrassed or ashamed or think that somehow we're unsophisticated when we talk about thank you Hashem, b'ezrat Hashem, im yirtzeh Hashem and thank you Hashem when we talk to our kids and to one another acknowledging Hashem's relationship and role in our lives. That's the purpose, that's the goal, that's what it's all about. And we reinforce one another with those stories. So a Jew says למה שלא יהיה לי אור הדבקות, why don't I have the light of dveykus? Why don't I see everyone around me? If that's really what it's all supposed to be about, why do I walk out of shul and there was a room of people who were muttering words but was anyone really attaching themselves to God? Was anyone really transformed or moved by the conversation? Did anyone really feel in His presence? ומדוע יגרע חלקי מכל הצדיקים שזכו לחזות בנועם האור העליון? And why is it hard for me? Why am I so much less than the righteous and those who came before who were seemingly so easily were able to attach themselves to Him? Why? Why am I struggling? Why am I struggling? Here's a footnote on this and he says צריך להיזהר שלא להיכנס לענווה של שקר. He cautions us be very careful. Don't enter a world of fake humility, of false humility, fraudulent humility. לחשוב שהוא אינו יכול להגיע למדרגות בדבקות והשגות אלוקות. Why? There's some people who will say look the tzadikim, the righteous, the people who came before me, generations, others in my generation but who grew up in a different environment and with different parents, they can live with that emunah, they live with that bitachon and dveykus but me? Do you know my background? Do you know my capability? I have no sitzfleisch I can't sit and learn. I have no self-control I can't regulate my own behavior. I have no ability to concentrate I don't even know what davening means. I don't even know that I have a soul. So therefore I'm a nothing איך בין א גארנישט, I'm an absolute and utter nothing. And as a nothing that's not for me. So I'll admire, I'll write a check to those yeshivas, I'll give to those people, I'll talk about and tell their stories but me? איך בין א גארנישט, I'm an absolute nothing, I'm unworthy, I'm incapable, it ain't gonna happen. Says Rav Itche Meir that is a false sense of humility, that is a humility which is a cop out. לחשוב שהוא אינו יכול להגיע. אלא צריך לדעת שכל יהודי יהיה מי שיהיה יכול להגיע. You have to know... You know there are no excuses and there is no cop-out and don't pretend you're not capable. We are absolutely all capable, every one of us. Doesn't matter what level we're on doesn't matter what situation we're in, we are all capable. Restart that conversation. Dad, it's been a while, but I want to talk. I want to see your presence. I want to lean on you. I want to feel you're in it with me. וצריך שיהיה לאדם אמונה שגם הוא יכול להשיג ולחפש אלוהות You need to have emunah in emunah. You have to have faith that you can have faith. It takes faith to to believe that you could live a life of faith. If your conclusion's going to be it's just not possible, it's not going to happen, it's not going to happen. I forget about God all day long. Even if I go to Shacharis and at the end of the day I go to Mincha and Maariv, all day long I forget about him. I give in to my temptations. I'm so busy negotiating and succeeding and killing it at work. I forget God every day everywhere I go. So it's just it's not going to happen. So if you don't have faith that you can have faith, you're right, it's not going to happen. You're right. It begins with faith that you can have faith. The belief that you can live this life. ולהידבק בשכינה הקדושה ולהיזהר לא לומר אין זה שייך אלי אני איני ראוי או אני בעל עבירה You have to never ever ever concede, never give up or give in, never say I'm unworthy, I'm incapable, it's not going to happen. There are people who whatever you are and whatever situation you are were in much worse and they transformed their lives and they elevated and they grew. It is capable. So the first step of of change, the first step of faith is to have faith in faith. To have faith and believe that we can have faith. Never say I'm a ba'al aveira. You're not a ba'al aveira. You're a good person. Maybe you've done aveiros. That doesn't define you. It's not who you are and it doesn't limit you or hold you back. We absolutely are all capable. כי אפילו אם הוא בעל עבירה מכל מקום אין לו שייכות באמת לרע וממילא אם רק יעשה תשובה כבר יגיע That ra, the mistake or the bad thing that you've done, it doesn't define you or limit you. It's not who you are, it's just something that you've done. And just like you did it, not everything that we do we can undo, but you can undo the impact it has on you. And therefore he cautions us that this description that we're that we're communicating and this picture that we're drawing for ourselves of this life of emunah, bitachon and dveikus. You know you might say that's a beautiful description and I believe, I believe Holocaust survivors and tzaddikim and tzidkaniyos, I've read biographies of others, they're capable, just not me, just not me. But that's a mistake. That's a don't trip, don't fall into into that into that hole. And don't cop your don't cop out with that excuse by saying it's not me. It doesn't matter who you are or what cards you've been dealt or where you are in life, we're all capable of it. We're all capable of it. We've got to get back as Bailey says back into that frame of mind to have that connection. It's hard. You know sometimes you're in a good place and you're in a bad place. Sometimes you're really really regulated in your eating and sometimes you've let yourself go. Sometimes you're killing it in exercise and other times you've let yourself stop. Sometimes you're this, but you know what? It's unhealthy. That roller coaster of life of sometimes you're on a high and sometimes you're on a low. You know the roller coaster could be like this, I go like that, or the roller coaster could be like this, I go like this. So the challenge is to limit it. Of course we're going to have highs and lows. Of course times we're in the frame of mind, sometimes we're not in that frame of mind. But we have to minimize and try to eliminate or consolidate the the how much it fluctuates, how long it fluctuates for, and try to be consistent in the lives that we live, to consistently live lives. Now there are areas of life where it doesn't matter my frame of mind. In marriage there are moments that there's greater love and romance and affection and there's moments that there's some sense of distance and disconnection. But you're married the whole time. And the rules of marriage apply to you the whole time. In parenting there's moments that you feel deeply in love and connected and have swell with pride for your child and there's other moments that you're ready to kill them, that you want to throw them out, that you need a break from them. But you're still a parent, you still have those responsibilities. They're always your child. So in our relationship with Hashem, true, it fluctuates with the frame of mind. True, it's not always entirely consistent or constant. But yet that knowledge, that mindfulness that we are forever the eved Hashem, that we work for him, he doesn't work for us, has to define our lives. It's part of our status and identity always. It's not a membership I ever give up. I'm a member of Costco, I gave up my membership in Costco. I'm a member of BRS, never give up your membership in BRS. I'm a member of God's club, I'm on a little break from God right now. You don't go on a business trip or vacation or be on a break from your spouse and you're never on a vacation or break from God. You have to believe. And when you struggle to believe that you can believe, when you struggle to believe you can believe, then you've got to davven to believe. We've spoken about this before in the past as well that even though it sounds so counterintuitive and in some ways even bizarre, the idea that I'm going to davven. I'm going to daven to the God that I'm not sure exists that he help me know that he exists. It's paradoxical, it's counter-intuitive, it's illogical, it sounds like it makes no sense because in many ways it makes no sense and yet, and yet, it's part of the very Torah attitude of with the eating comes the appetite. Start doing and you'll see that it will follow. טעמו וראו כי טוב השם. Taste and you will know that God is good. You know sometimes I say I don't want that, I'm not hungry. And the person says just just take a taste. take a taste. And you take that taste and you go wow, that's good. All of a sudden you develop this appetite for more. You thought you didn't like it, you thought you were allergic to it, you thought you had no room for it, and you taste it and you realize wow, that's good. Not only do I want it, I have plenty of room for it. Taste God, taste that experience of a life of deveikus of God, taste a lifestyle of the serenity and the peace of mind of the capacity to be happy, of seeing God everywhere and you'll see, ki tov Hashem. You'll say you know what? Not only can I live with that, I have an appetite for more, I want more of it, I'm capable of more of it. Every one of us need to know, so don't cop out, don't excuse, don't live with false humility, know, know that we're capable of it and know that our life will be enriched and enhanced and elevated by it. It's just up to us to take that step and to make that move and to be able to live that life, כי בודאי כל יהודי יכול להגיע לדבקות לפי ערכו. Every one of us can accomplish it according to our individual level. כי העניינים האלו ניתנו לכל יהודי כי זו תכלית האדם לבוא לידי השגת אלוקות וזה מה שיתברך רוצה. This is what he wants and this is the essence of it all. And yes, it takes hard work. And yes, it takes mindfulness, and yes it takes reinforcement. Don't just come to the emuna shiur, belong to every emuna group that's out there, there's no shortage of emuna books and emuna groups and emuna texts and emuna emails and WhatsApp notes and emuna everything. There's there's no shortage. It needs reinforcement over and over and over again. It's not easy, but I'll tell you a secret: most of the most precious things in life, the most valuable things in life, the most pleasurable things in life, they take hard work. They're not easy, but the payoff is worth it. The payoff of that life of emuna makes it worth it. ולכן בפועל ממש כל יהודי יהיה מי שיהיה וישתדל ויתיגע בזה. If a person, whoever you are, if you work on it, whether you're the highest high, you're a righteous person, or whether you're in a place in your life where you feel like you're the lowest low, בודאי יזכה ברחמיו יתברך with Hashem's compassion and with our reaching out to him and with our believing in him, believing in ourselves, and believing in our ability to believe in him, לטעום מאור נועם העליון, taste from the light of this most magnificent of magnificent life, udveikus belokim hayim. כי כל יהודי יש לו הרגשות אמיתיים. Every Jew has true and authentic and meaningful feelings הנמשכים מן הניצוץ הפנימי שבו. We have that spark inside us, there's that pintele yid inside us, we were designed and we've been programmed in our hardware and our software to know that there's a God and to live a life with a connection to him and to feel this magnetic pull towards him, every one of us. How do we know that? Because he created us betzelem elokim. We have that spark inside us. So you know that spark, it can be a roaring flame or it can be barely holding on like a pilot light, like a spark. The difference between the two is whether you whether you turn the knob and elevate it. Do you fan the flame in order to expand the spark and turn it into a roaring fire? So we have that nitzotz hakedusha. Every one of us has that spark inside us. But are we fueling it? Are we fanning it? Are we doing the things that we need to reinforce it, which is the life of torah and mitzvot, a life of chizuk and emuna, in order to fan that spark so that we it can burn, it can rage inside us and we can live that life knowing there's a Hashem. It's what he wants from us, it's what we're capable of, it's what we're here for, and most of all, it's what will give us the most meaningful, the most pleasant and the best life yet. Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and a holy day. Join us tonight 9:00 PM we go Behind the Bima with Malcolm Hoenlein, the great leader of the Conference of Presidents, I think the most well-connected person on the planet: presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, politicians. Very excited tonight 9:00 PM to go Behind the Bima with him. Everyone remember to be thankful, not only Thanksgiving and this week, but always. We're called yehudim. Chiddushei Harim says we're called yehudim because we are a people of gratitude. That should be what defines us, our gratitude. Not taking anything for granted, even in a 2020 year where there's so much hardship, there are still things to be grateful for. Focus on them, think about them, be grateful for them and live that life of emuna and deveikus. Until next time, see you next week. Stay happy, stay healthy and stay holy.
