Transcript
Welcome to this episode of Living with Emuna. To stay up to date, subscribe on YouTube, listen on your favorite podcast player or mobile app, or check out at efraimgoldberg.com. Good morning and welcome back to our weekly Living with Emuna series, our Living with Emuna Shiur. So good to have you back together again to work on our sense of faith, our knowledge, our confidence, our connection with our creator, with the Almighty. I want to thank as always our dear sponsors, Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan, who sponsored the Living with Emuna series this year in memory of Rabbi Doctor Brian Galbut and Bella's mother, Doctor Ellen Schanzer. Thank you so much for your generosity. Also, if you'd like to sponsor a future episode, please email Lee, L-E-E at brsonline.org, Lee, L-E-E at brsonline.org. We continue Living with Emuna, how to feel Hashem's presence in our life each and every day, to live with an awareness that no matter what we're going through, no matter where we are, no matter what's happening around us, we're not alone, we're never alone. Hakadosh Baruch Hu, the Almighty, is always by our side, his hand is on our shoulder, he's always supporting us, loving us, he's always directing our lives even when it feels like we are on our own figuring it out for ourselves. And so we're trying to achieve a level of Dveikus. We've been learning the wonderful Sefer of רב איטשע מאיר מורגנשטרן, Darchei Kinyan HaDveikus, the chapter that deals with the way, the path to acquire the quality of clinging to God, of feeling his presence, of gluing and attaching ourselves to him on a regular basis. And we've talked about the different methods. Number one, to think about and to talk about Emuna. So you're Yotzei, put a check next to number one. You come on Wednesday mornings, you're thinking about Emuna. We are renewing that sense of confidence, knowledge that there is a God, there is a creator of the universe, of what it means to live with his presence. Number two, we said was Hisbonenus, being contemplative, setting aside time to think and to be, to feel and to emote, to feel a sense of love, a connection, an admiration and awe for God, a lust, a longing for him. The Rambam describes when you come to know God, you love God. And just like in the courtship period or phase when a couple are coming to learn about one another, they're drawing what Gottman calls the love maps, מתאוה תאוה גדולה לדעת את השם. The Rambam says you're filled with this lust, this longing, it's all you can think about. You walk around and you look like you're in outer space. Have you ever been around somebody who's in love? They're obnoxiously annoying, it's impossible, you can't get far enough away from them, they're all consumed and they're seeing stars. And the Rambam describes that that phase is something we're capable of experiencing with God when we're in that journey to discover God, to learn about God, to look at his world, when we're trying to identify with Hashgacha Pratis, his the feelings that he's involved in our life and to thank him for all that he's doing. A person can get to the point of Mis'ava Ta'iva Gedola to feel a longing, a lust, a great desire to know God, to connect with God. And so one needs to set aside time, said Rav Itche Meir the second, namely Hisbonenus, to be thoughtful, to be contemplative, to shut down, to disconnect from the things around us and to be able to connect with what matters, to be able to connect with what is truly the most, the most important. Number three was Torah U'Tefillah. Let's not forget when we're doing Torah and Mitzvos, let's not forget when we're actually doing religious activity, don't forget that you're allowed to be connected to God. We sometimes forget that when you're Davenning, you could walk away having thought of God. We sometimes forget that when you do a Mitzva, you're allowed to be mindful that this is a bid for connection, a means for connection, that I'm supposed to walk away transformed and enriched and feeling closer to God than I was beforehand. We forget when I learn Torah that יש אלהים במקום הזה ואנכי לא ידעתי. There's a God even in the Daf Yomi or the Nach Yomi or the Halacha Shiur or whatever learning I'm doing, it's not just about the information and the minutiae and the details, but I'm also learning about God. We said yesterday in the Parsha Shiur, the end of the Parsha, after we received the Torah at Har Sinai, Hashem says, Lo Sa'asun Iti, don't do that with me, Elohei Keseph, Elohei Nechas, Elohei Zahav, don't make gods of gold, don't make gods of silver. And Rabbeinu Bachya, the great Spanish commentator, medieval commentator, had a magnificent explanation. Said Rabbeinu Bachya in understanding this Passuk, he said what does it mean? לא תעשון אתי אלהי כסף ואלהי זהב לא תעשו לכם. Lo Sa'asun Iti, so the simple understanding is don't do with me, don't, I'm the only God. This is a unique, monogamous relationship. We have a one-on-one, says God. You confide in me, I can confide and trust you, there's a sense of intimacy, a connection, a closeness. And if you're going to start to worship other things, if you're going to start to worship money and power and fame, if you're going to worship idols, which all those we've turned into modern-day idols, then you're cheating, you're practicing infidelity on me, don't do that to me. But Rabbeinu Bachya reinterprets the verse and he says, Lo sa'asuni iti, when you're with me, don't make אלהי כסף ואלהי זהב. So what does that mean don't do that when you're with me? says Rabbeinu Bachya. When you're davening, don't be thinking about your trip to Nordstroms or Neiman Marcus or going on Amazon and what you're going to be able to download and order. When you're davening, when you're learning, when you're doing a mitzvah, when you're iti, when you're supposed to be with me, don't be thinking about the stock market or closing your next deal or money because if you do, then you've turned that money into אלהי כסף ואלהי זהב. You've turned it into a religion, you're worshipping at the altar of possessions and material things rather than having a relationship with me, rather than leaning in to connect with me because after all says God, I'm the source of your livelihood, I'm the source of your wealth, I'm the source of all your material possessions. So Lo sa'asuni iti when we're meant to be with God, be with God. Now a life of dveikus what we're working on is all about being with God throughout our day wherever and whenever from when we wake up till we fall asleep to feel he's in the room. You're about to choose what to watch, know he's sitting on the couch next to you so choose wisely. You're about to choose what to say, what to share with a friend over coffee, he's also there for that coffee clutch, that coffee meeting, whether it's on Zoom or in person so choose wisely, filter carefully what you say. You have a business decision to make, you're about to whatever it is in life to feel he's in our he's with us each and every moment of every day. However, in particular during those religious activities davening, learning, doing mitzvos, then he's even more intensely with us, we can feel his presence even more intensely. So says Rabbeinu Bachya, Lo sa'asuni iti, when we're supposed to be with God, don't be thinking about the physical world, physical indulgence, physical pleasure, physical pursuits, physical ambitions because then אלהי כסף ואלהי זהב, we've turned those into gods, we've turned those into gods. But it's hard you know, I'll tell you be honest for a moment, I'll make a confession. Some of my best thoughts come during davening. Have you ever noticed that? When do your breakthrough thoughts come? I keep a little piece of paper and a pen on my shtender because when a thought comes to me while I'm davening, I want to get it out of my head as quickly as possible, I want to get back to God. I don't want to be juggling it or carrying or figuring out how to remember it even when I'm done. So if it's whether someone I have to call back or something I want to do or something that I need to an idea for what I want to write about, I try to jot it down and get it out of my head. Why does it happen during davening? Why does it happen during davening? Because that's a time we're disconnected from technology. That's a time that we're actually setting aside to think. So Rav Itchamayer said number two, hisbonenus. You got to think, you got to set aside time to think. You got to set time to be contemplative, to feel, to emote, to have breakthrough moments. Vayivaser Yaakov levado. When did Yaakov wrestle with himself? When did he emerge stronger and better? When did he improve? When he was levado, when he was by himself. So we have to experience sometimes being by ourselves and the only time we're by ourselves these days is when we daven. We're not by ourselves, we're of course in conversation with God and if you're a shul you're surrounded by other people but we're by ourselves because we're disconnected from the usual technology. So that's when we often have our best thoughts. That's when we can be distracted and that's when we can be thinking about other things but that's a mistake because God says Lo sa'asuni iti. You ever talking to someone and all of a sudden they say, you're unburdening yourself, you're unloading, you're sharing or confiding, you're saying something about what you think about the world and they say, you know just one second, I just I gotta send this text. Which makes it clear that all along they weren't listening, they were thinking about something else and now they've got to write it down or send the text. How do you think God feels when we're supposedly in conversation with him and the truth is we're doing these other things, אלהי כסף ואלהי זהב, we're making gods out of these other things, all at the expense and all while ignoring God himself. Then we talked about the notion of names, shemos, of drawing and picturing the name of God and the power of connecting to a name, Kiddush Hashem and Chilul Hashem, the name of God, our mission is to expand and to promote God's name in this world. And the wonderful email I read to you last time about somebody who used a name and then that person who felt the connection because they used the name actually did a favor. Okay, but let's keep on going, then we talked about hasmadas hadveikus, something that you've got to do consistently. And that's what we're up to. That's what we're up to. אזי להבדיל כן הוא גם ברוחניות. So we talked about in friendship, we talked about did you lose the volume? Can't you hear me? Everybody lost me. Hold on. Can you hear? Sorry about that. Can you hear? Somebody give me a thumbs up if you can hear. No, still don't hear, no sound. Okay, hold on. Technical moment. Can you hear now? Somebody give me a thumbs up if you can hear. Okay, how about... how about now? No. How about now? Can you hear me now? Yes. Okay, thank you so much. You see, whatever I was about to say or whatever I thought was important to say, Hashem decided didn't need to be said right then. Everything is from Hashem. Even when you lose the sound and technology is always on loan, it's never permanent. So, I think we're back. I don't know what I was saying that you missed, but obviously it wasn't that important or wasn't meant to be heard. So we were talking about hasmadah, the last thing we left off with was... the last, I hope you can hear me now. Okay, the last we had left off with was hasmadah, was that a person needs to be invested to spend time. The measure, the metric, how do you know that you really care about a relationship is how much time you give it. If you tell somebody all day long how much they mean to you, so they say, 'So make some time, let's get together, let's talk, let's experience, let's travel, let's go out.' If you don't spend time, then you don't really value the relationship. There's the, you know, the theory of relativity, e equals mc squared, or there's a theory of relationships. And I don't know exactly what the formula is or what the acronym should be, but it involves time. If a person doesn't make time in the relationship, they don't really value the relationship. Relationships demand time. And they demand undistracted time. They demand focused time. They demand quality time. And the same is true in our relationship with Hashem. We cannot claim to love Hashem, we cannot claim to want to connect to Hashem, and yet we don't make time. And yet we don't make time. There is no time. אזי להבדיל כמה גם ברוחניות. אי אפשר לומר על אדם שהוא אוהב את השם יתברך באמת כי אם כאשר הוא מקיים לשמך ולזכרך תאות נפש והוא לא שת ליבו להבלי העולם. So God, I'm sorry, I have no time for you, I'm binge-watching Netflix. Sorry God, I have no time for you, I'm going to be invested in the Super Bowl from 11:00 a.m. till 11:00 p.m. this Sunday. Sorry God, I have no time for you, I've 17 magazines and 14 newspapers who all say the same thing, but I've got to read every inch of every column. Sorry God, I have no time for you because I'm constantly at the mall checking out the latest fashion, the latest fad. Sorry God, I have no time for you. And you can list all the things that we claim we have no time for God, or we claim we have no time for our spouse or our children or our friends. But if we took an honest inventory of our time, including how we spend it online, one of the greatest אוי לי מיום הדין אוי לי מיום התוכחה moments, when Yosef revealed himself to his brothers. Yosef says, 'Ani Yosef, I am your brother Yosef.' And our rabbis say, 'Wow, what a potch in panim, what a smack across the face, what a profound mussar moment.' And you say, profound mussar moment? All he did is say 'I'm Yosef, your brother.' But yeah, you know when the biggest mussar in the world is, you know what the biggest smack in the face is? When you have to confront the reality of your choices and your life and the illusion that you sell yourself that no one else is buying, when you have to confront the reality and the illusion and delusion fall apart, that is the most harsh, harsh moment. So we have that moment in our lives. Open up your phone, don't do it right now, and your phone or your laptop is tracking how you spend your time. It'll tell you exactly how much time you spent on Facebook or Twitter, how much time you spent surfing Amazon, how much time you spent watching Netflix, how much time you spent doing whatever you do on your device. It is tracking and dividing and provides for you the details and data of exactly how you spent your time. So I want you to look at that and then come and tell God, 'Sorry God, I really love you, just don't have time for you.' 'Sorry kinderlach, my beautiful children, I love you, just don't have time.' 'Sorry my spouse because my marriage is the most important thing on the planet, I don't have time for you.' Well that's funny because your phone said that you had four hours to look at echo chambers of social media of people yelling at each other of which you got nothing better out of it, all you did is raise your blood pressure and lose years on your life. That you had time for. So says Rav Itche Meir, the metric, the measure, in all areas of life but including with God, of the quality of the relationship and how much you really care about the relationship is how much time you give to it. How much time you give to it. You know there's an exercise when I was first becoming the rabbi of BRS, I had a mentor, Stewart Harris, alav hashalom, who was an extraordinary man, an incredibly brilliant and wise man and he gave of his time generously to try to mentor me. And he sat and he talked to me, he put me through the following exercise. It's not directly related to emunah, but I think it's worthwhile for me to share anyway. He said to me, 'What do you want to be spending your time doing? How do you want to be spending your time? What matters, what's important, what do you think your job, your responsibility, your role?' Okay, so we created a pie that involved of course my family first and foremost, that included myself, because one of the relationships we have is bein adam le'atzmo. We have a critical... So what, was he kidding? He said yeah, carry a pad and pen and write down how you're spending every moment of every day from when you wake up till you fall asleep. What were you doing of every moment? How much time was spent in meetings, how much time was spent counseling, how much time was spent teaching, how much time was spent with family, how much time was spent with your learning, how much time was spent with your exercising? What did you do? I see Linda shaking her head because she may have remembered that exercise. She was probably in charge of writing it up or looking at it or helping me get up off the floor when I had to recover from it. So the exercise is to write down how you spend every moment. And does what you do in reality match what in your mind you think you're doing? Does what you do in truth match, does it correspond with what you claim you should be doing with your time? It was an invaluable exercise and an enormous reality check of how we think we spend our time and how in truth we spend our time. And so coming back to dveikus and to רב איצ'ה מאיר מורגנשטרן, Byamdecha, he says that how you spend your time is the evidence of the relationship you have, of how much you really care. Of how much you really care. So if you make no time for God, you're late to daven and you rush out of daven and you fly through your daven and you're cleaning up the room while you daven and the daven, you're doing other things while you're doing it. And supposedly that was the time you were talking to God. Supposedly that was the time that you set everything else aside and you said, God, let me tell you about my day, let me tell you where I need your help, and let me tell you what I'm grateful for, and let me tell you why I love you, and let me try to listen to you in me talk to me about what I should be thinking about. And then you're distracted and doing a million other things and you fly through it and you get out of there as quickly as possible. Oh, but you really care about your relationship with God. Any relationship we really care about, we make time for. And if we don't make time for it, then maybe we want to care about the relationship, but if the reality doesn't match what we believe and what we say, then all that matters is the reality, not what's in our mind and what's in our head. אלא בכל כחו כולה לדבקות ובזה יזכה לקדושת אמת שהשכינה הקדושה תשרה בו ותורת השם בקרבו. That's how you confront truth and reality and that's when you begin to change it and adjust it. As long as we live in a cloud, we live in a world of illusion and delusion. As long as we convince ourselves either that we don't have time or we disproportionately and inaccurately report how much time we think we spend with our spouse, our children, or God, then we'll never change. But if we actually have to look at the data and confront the reality of how little we exercise and how little we daven, how little we learn, how little we sleep, how poorly behaved we are with our eating habits. If we have to confront the reality because we record the data, then that will kickstart us to change, that will jolt us into transformation, and that will allow us to measure our progress. וזה סוד ההצלחה בדבקות. And this is the secret, the critical key says Rav Itche Meir to success when it comes to clinging to God. שישתדל לפי מדרגתו ועניינו שלא להסיח דעתו מהשם יתברך. To try and to attempt according to our level and according to where we're at and to the best of our ability to cling to God and to never break away, to never stop thinking. I've said this example before, I'll say it ten times more again. Just like I'm never not married when I'm married. There are people who are not married, but when one is in a marriage, you're never in the state of not being married. Now I have work I have to do and I have to sleep and I'm davening and I'm learning, in those moments, I'm not necessarily thinking about my spouse, otherwise I can't I can't genuinely be and authentically and earnestly be doing those other things. But somewhere in the back of my mind, somewhere in the recesses of my heart, of course I'm thinking always about my status as a married person and my love of the other. And that's the level we strive for. As a parent, the same thing. A parent the same thing. You're only as happy as your least happy child. Nothing truer has ever been said in life. You're only as happy as your least happy child. So who's not always checking in and learning about the happiness of your children? And then that's what carries or dictates or determines your day. You're only as happy as your least happy child. And so yes, meanwhile you're going to work or you're davening or you're doing the other hundred activities you have to do, you're not necessarily talking to your child or your grown children throughout the entire day, but they're in the back of your mind. You're always a parent, you're always loving them, you're always concerned about them, you're always worried about them. That's part of the status and the identity and the profile and the biography of who we are. So if you're a true eved Hashem, if you have a real relationship with the Almighty, if you're really trying to practice dveikus... activity I need him. I ask him, I reach out to him. Last week on *Behind the Bima*, we had Shulem Lemmer. Shulem Lemmer, the great *Belzer Chasid* with a magnificent voice who's been signed by Universal Records. Shulem Lemmer, the first Chasidic or Jewish superstar signed by a secular record label, and he sings the totality of music. It's worth listening to that episode because he sang a little bit on *Behind the Bima* last week. And Shulem Lemmer has performed in, in Lincoln Center and across the globe in countries in Europe. And he has performed everything from Yiddish and *Klezmer* and *Chazzanus* to Billy Joel, Elton John, opera, and everything else in between. And Shulem Lemmer shared last week on our show that every time he performs, every time he performs, he says a *Perek* of *Tehillim* beforehand and asks God, "Please help me find my voice." Now, that's not surprising. You go stand on stage at Lincoln Center in front of thousands of people who paid a lot of money to hear you, and you have to fulfill your contract with the record label, and you're nervous, so you say to God, "Please help me succeed." I get it. But here's the amazing thing he said. When he's asked to go to visit a hospital room and to sing for a patient who can be uplifted by his voice, and it's mano a mano, it's one on one, it's him and the patient in the hospital bed, he's being paid nothing, he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart, he still pauses for a moment before he walks in the hospital room, and he says that *Perek* of *Tehillim*, and he says, "God, please help me sing successfully." He walks around all day with the awareness and the knowledge and the mindfulness that this voice and this gift, they are on loan, they are never permanently owned, and God could take them away any moment. And therefore, each time I use it, I better pray for it. Beforehand I better ask for help, and afterwards I better say thank you because it's on loan, it's not permanently owned. And that's the level we should be walking around in our lives. That I hope I'm successful. Every time I get in the car, let me not get in an accident, let me not get a speeding ticket, and let nothing go wrong. Every time, every activity we do in our life, a life of *dveikus* means each thing I do, whether explicitly or implicitly, whether out of loud or in my heart, I take a moment to say, "God, I need you. I need you for this cake to turn out well. I need you for this *drasha* to turn out well. I need you for this conversation to turn out well. I need you for this negotiation to turn out well. I need you for this car ride or this airplane trip or this journey to turn out well. I need you." Each and every time and each and every activity. Now, we're pretty good at that part because you know there's no atheists in that foxhole and those moments we get desperate and we need him. Are we as good afterwards at saying thank you? When we arrive at the destination and we pull back into the driveway, do we say, "Phew, thank you, God. That went smoothly, that went well, we're all here safe and in one piece." After the negotiation goes well, and after the *kugel* or cake tastes delicious, or after the *drasha* we feel like we found our voice and it turned out well. So a life of *dveikus* is asking for help before and saying thank you right after and always remembering, always remembering that we can't do it without him. And to ask him and to feel his presence in our life, in our life. And so it's part of the definition of who we are. We're a spouse, we're a parent, part of the definition of who we are as a child. As I look at some of you, you're in the sandwich generation, where both thinking about and concerned about children and simultaneously thinking about, loving, concerned, and supporting parents. And tell me, in the back of your mind, is there a moment of any day that you're not thinking about your parent? Let them not fall, let them not get hurt, let them not continue to deteriorate, let them not get exposed to somebody with COVID. Again, does that mean that it paralyzes and debilitates you that you can't do other things during the day? Of course, you're doing other things during the day. But while doing other things during the day, there are people who are in a position in life, that sandwich generation, who while doing other things during the day are also thinking about children, parents. And so the one we should be thinking about simultaneously is God. והנה בודאי אי אפשר לאדם רגיל להסיח דעתו בכלל. Now, it's impossible, says *Rav Itzche Meir*. Of course, he concedes, it's impossible that you're not going to have to break away and think about other things. כי רק צדיק גדול וגמור יכול להצליח בזה. אבל כל עובד השם יתברך יכול להשתדל שלא יעבור עליו איזה ענין ביום שלא חשב בו על השם יתברך. So you're right, it's not 24/7. You're not going to be sitting thinking about God, God forbid, while you're in the bathroom or while you're in other activities in which one should not be focused on God. It's part of the definition of who we are, but there are moments that you're not going to be thinking about him. But what's the goal? What's the ambition? The ambition is שלא יעבור עליו איזה ענין ביום. There's no issue of the day that you weren't thinking about God. כגון בכל סעודה ובכל דרך שהולך יחשוב על השם יתברך. I mean, think about it. If I told you there should not be anything you eat where you don't think about God, you'd say, "Come on, I can't do that." But we do do that. How do you do that? It's called a *bracha*. It's called a *bracha*. My delicious cup of coffee that I'm still... one coffee, it's just 20 ounces instead of a smaller. It's a great trick, you can try. I'm not patenting it. Try it at home. Still one coffee, I'm up to 20 ounces, then I'll go to 30 and 40, but I only still have one cup of coffee to start my day. So everything you eat and drink, you make a bracha beforehand. So is that not saying God, both thank you and please? Please let this cup of coffee help me, not harm me. Please let it all go well. And thank you afterwards. God, thank you. Thank you for the incredible factory called my digestive system, my body. Thank you for the gift of coffee and caffeine. Thank you for everything you do. So bechol seuda, every meal begins and ends with God. Oh, I'm either eating by myself, I'm not by myself, I'm with a companion. But you know who's present at every meal that you take? You know who's present whether you're eating in your car or you're eating on the go, you're eating at a restaurant, you're eating at home? God is at that meal. Acknowledge him. Acknowledge him. Thank you for the capacity to have this food, to have shopped and cooked and provided it, to have bought it. Thank you for a world in which it's produced. If you have a garden, thank you for growing it. God is one of the people present at every meal, if you invite him, if you acknowledge him, if you welcome him, if you have gratitude to him. Bechol derech sheholech, every mode of transportation, whether you're in a car, whether you're on a boat, whether you're in a plane, God's with you. Veyidaber imo, speak to him. Veyidabek bo, and cling to him. Lefachot paam achat, at least once. וכל שכן בכל לימוד ותפילה, and certainly every time you learn and every time you daven, God is there. Last week over Yeshiva week we went swimming with the manatees. If you've never gone swimming with the manatees, I highly recommend it. You want to find God? Put on a wetsuit, get underwater and start looking at the world under the sea. It's an entire world down there. We live above the sea, we don't see it, but there's a whole world and I don't mean Disney and cartoons under the sea. I mean put on a snorkel and get under there yourself. We have the gift, we have the capacity to do it. It's not a far drive if you live in South Florida, and you know, I think God will have a taina if you come upstairs after 120 and he says, "What did you think of my manatees? What did you think of my outstanding fish? What did you think of the coral reef?" And you said, "Nah, I didn't see it." Why? I didn't have time. And then he's going to hold up your screen time and he's going to see you had time to binge watch Netflix, but you couldn't go see my manatees? You had time to watch things and vicariously see other people's lives? You watched grown men throw a leather ball and beat each other and pulverize each other, but you didn't have time to put on a snorkel and check out my manatees? There's only one place that's legal in the entire United States to swim with the manatees and it's here in Florida. Not a far drive. Put it on your radar. If you feel it's safe, do it now, when it will be safe, make sure it's on your bucket list because it's worth it. You put on that, you put on that snorkel, I couldn't pull Yocheved out when it was time when we were done, had to get back in the boat. She was loving it, she was checking it out. The manatees come up an inch away from you. You swim with them. First you gotta watch a little video and they tell you there's laws, the manatees are protected. So there's laws and they tell you that, oh my kids had to watch this, we all had to watch this before we could jump in, they tell you that if the manatee touches you, you're welcome to respond and touch it. Otherwise, leave it alone. Certainly if the manatee's resting or sleeping, you're not allowed to wake it. For the most part, don't aggravate the manatee. So I turned to my kids afterwards and I said, "I'm the manatee! Whatever the rules you just heard, they apply to me also. So don't bother me, if I want to hug and kiss you, reciprocate, otherwise if I'm sleeping, don't bother me. The protected species, I'm the manatee. I am the, they're the cow of the sea, I'm the cow of the land. Don't, don't bother." So get under there and see the manatee, there's God. How do you not talk about God before you jump in? If you've never snorkeled before, how do you not think about God? And how do you not thank God afterwards when you've just spent time with his creation, most of whom you've never met before? And you get to give a real shalom aleichem. Shalom aleichem, magnificent colored fish. Shalom aleichem, magnificent manatees. These huge manatees, they come inches away from you, they're peaceful, they're loving, they're there, and you can go interact with them. It's amazing, it's amazing, you have to do it. yachshov lashem yisbarach. So when you're down there, what are you thinking about? Certainly you're thinking about let water not come in the top of my snorkel. But once you pass that thought, you gotta be thinking about God, looking around, taking it in. Veyidaber imo, speak to him. Veyidabek bo, cling to him. Say God, I feel you down here. I'm connected to you down here. Wow, what a world you've created. And God, you have a relationship with every blade of grass and every inch of the coral reef and every manatee and every all the water. וכל שכן בכל לימוד ותפילה וצריך להרגיש וצריך ללכת בזה לאט לאט. A person has to feel and we have to know that we've got to go slowly. veyatshil behashka-ah kevuah, and to go incrementally. Our parsha also has, you're not allowed to run up the ramp. You couldn't run up the ramp of the altar. You know what happens if you run up the ramp of the altar? You reveal your nakedness because in those days even men although they did have something underneath their garment, but if you run up the ramp, if you if you run too fast so your steps are too wide you'll reveal your nakedness to others. And homiletically our commentators tell us what that means is if you're moving too fast religiously. If you take steps that are too big then you will reveal your nakedness. You show that you know the emperor's naked so to say. You show that on the outside you're moving quickly, but you're moving too quickly. It's not genuine, it's not authentic and it won't last. So you have to go לאט לאט יתעלה עוד ועוד, little by little climb a little bit more. So pay attention during davening and try to pay attention during eating and try to pay attention when you say your asher yatzar and you come out of the bathroom and try to thank Hashem when things go well and try to be conscientious and conscious of Hashem when you travel each time you go in the car. Little by little, not overnight become this big tzaddik who can't stop thinking about God 24/7 because that won't be real and it's never going to last. You'll just annoy the people around you really quickly and then they'll tell you I told you so when you drop it and you move on. But little by little, slowly. Determine times and periods and points in life and during the day where you can think about and connect to God because your life will be so enriched as a result. כי מאד צריך להזהר שלא לקפוץ מדרגות. Don't jump steps, don't skip steps, move slowly, move incrementally, move methodically, move strategically and be able to measure and track that progress. Start a spreadsheet. Start a spreadsheet. We talked about earlier what gets measured gets managed. Peter Drucker. Peter Drucker the great management guru said what gets measured gets managed. So look at your life how do we spend our time. And are we really doing the things that we claim we want to do. And does that time include spending time with God, being contemplative and meditative and disconnecting and just being and thinking and feeling His presence in our lives. So what's it going to be this week? Here's your homework my dear dear Living with emunah friends. Here's your homework. What's it going to be this week? One thing. One thing. When is the extra effort to think about God going to come in? Coming out of the bathroom? Cooking in the kitchen? Getting in the car? Which activity will we make an extra effort to take one moment, one moment, say God like Shalom Lemmer before I sing, God I need your help, God I want to be successful, God thank you afterwards. Because the more God-conscientious we become, I'm not telling you to live this life, I know I've said this a million times, I'll tell you a secret, everything I'm saying I've said a million times, I don't know how you why you all come back, we just say the same thing every week, we just find a different story to insert inside it to say it. Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski who passed away this week, an enormous loss to the Jewish world, an outstanding person. He wrote over 60 books, but he famously said I really wrote one book about self-esteem, I just said it 60 times. So we say the same thing each and every week until it will penetrate, until it will get through, until finally we'll be able to live that life. The reason we're trying to live this life of emunah is not for God. It's not a sacrifice, it's not a concession, it's not a compromise. We're not doing it because God needs it. We're doing it for ourselves. Because the more we know that He's there, the more we know that He's in our life, the more we know He's in charge and He's in control, the more we surrender and submit, the healthier physically, emotionally, spiritually we'll start to see our improvements, our relationships improve, you'll start to see your health improve, you'll start to feel less envy, less anger, less arrogance, feel God in our lives and our lives will simply get better. And therefore, just like taking care of your health it takes work, it takes discipline, but the results make it worth it, the same is true in this area of life. So that's your homework. Name yourself, what is that area you're going to work on? Which will it be in which area of life will we feel His presence? Will we ask for His help before and feel the gratitude after? Is it each and every time you get in a car? Is it each and every time you eat a morsel of food? Each and every time you come out of the bathroom? Each and every time you're going to cook? Each and every time you're going to prepare a drasha or shiur? Which will it be? I'm with you, I've got to think about mine and pledge mine as well. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy. Tonight 9:00 PM we go Behind the Bima with our congressman Ted Deutch and his wife Jill Deutch. A-political, we're going to talk about Behind the Bima's all about inspiration not politics. So we're going to talk about how Judaism informs what they do and why he chose to go into into politics to begin with and some other inspirational ideas. Maybe have special surprise guests tonight as well. Join us tonight, we go Behind the Bima at 9:00 PM. Subscribe on YouTube to get notified each and every time we are going to learn together. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy.
