Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov to you. Welcome back to our weekly Living with Emunah, the opportunity to join together and remind ourselves what we already know, that there is a God, a Creator, that is involved in our lives, that we love Him and He loves us. We get together to remind ourselves and to hopefully have that reminder last throughout the week. I want to thank our generous Emunah Series sponsor for this year, Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella’s mother Dr. Ellen Chancer. Thank you so much for your generosity, thank you so much for your sponsorship, truly, truly appreciated. Also a special thank you this morning to the sponsors of this particular shiur for the Refuah Sheleima, speedy recovery for Yisrael ben Charlotte, should have a full, speedy and painless recovery. A reminder, you can sponsor any particular shiur or episode by emailing Lee, L-E-E, at brsonline.org, Lee at brsonline.org. Also a reminder, you can be notified in real time of all the classes that we give simply by subscribing to our YouTube channel. Hit the subscribe below and you'll be notified in real time every time we go live and every time we begin another series of learning. Join us for those opportunities. Okay, we are continuing our study of Biamcha Darechecha, the magnificent sefer and the insights of Rav Itamar Morganstern, and we've been learning about dveikus, how to cling to, how to connect with, how to stick with God, not only in the good moments, but in the challenging and in the difficult ones as well, to feel His presence in our life, to know that even though we can't see or smell or touch or feel Him, nevertheless we know that He is there. We know in our kishkas, we see God expressed through people, we see Him expressed through nature, we see Him expressed through events, we see Him expressed through history and destiny, and we feel God speaking from the pintele yid, the neshama that is within ourselves. Simply have to lower the rest of the noise so that we can hear and pick up the signal that He is sending. And when we attach ourselves and when we cling to Him, it strengthens us and it gives us the resiliency, the tenacity, the tools to be able to go through life and to be able to overcome, to be able to navigate whatever life throws our way. To be clear as we've said so many times, a life of emunah does not promise a life without challenges. It's not that if you listen to the emunah shiur and subscribe to the emunah WhatsApp group and learn the emunah sefarim and get the emunah emails, then you'll marry easily and you'll have children flawlessly, seamlessly, and you'll have parnassa in abundance and everything will go well and you'll live happily ever after. No, life has its challenges and life has its struggles, but living with emunah will give us the tools and it gives us the resiliency and it gives us the capacity to navigate and to live with and to even find happiness despite or even within the struggles or the challenges in that we have to, that we have to overcome. It's not simple, it's not simple living with emunah. I've been speaking in siddur snippets, we're up to the second bracha before shema, the bracha of Ahava Rabba. And we're speaking and I've been emphasizing because for myself let alone for others, the reminder that אהבה רבה אהבתנו ה' אלוקינו, Hashem loves us. Hashem loves us. We forfeited and we conceded this to other religions. For some reason, we allowed others to say, "God loves you." And we've raised generations of Jews who don't know and we haven't emphasized and we failed to tell them that God loves them. We say God is scary, 613 mitzvos, lots of laws, lots of minutiae, lots of detail, better get it right or lightning's going to strike. There's a system of sachar v'onesh, there's reward and punishment, there's this world and the next. And these are all core, foundational principles. It's important that we emphasize all of this: sachar v'onesh, reward and punishment, accountability, consequences, expectations. These are core values in our relationship with God and relationships in life and who we are. I'm not suggesting we abandon them. They're important and they're core and we have to teach them and we have to inculcate them. But we also have to remind ourselves and those around us that parallel and simultaneously to having reward and punishment and consequences and accountability is that God loves us. Not only does He expect or ask us to love Him, which He does. We have a mitzvah of V’ahavta l’reiacha kamocha. We have a mitzvah to love God. And it's a big discussion, we'll get to it in siddur snippets. If you don't subscribe, join the WhatsApp group and you'll get the siddur snippet delivered to you daily or you could find them online. But the siddur snippets will get to: What does it mean ואהבת את ה' אלוקיך? We say in shema every single day: Love the God, love the Lord your God. You can tell me what to do. Tell me, shake a lulav, listen to a shofar, eat the matzah. Tell me what to do or what I can't do on Pesach or on Shabbos, what I can eat and I can't eat. Tell me what to do. I understand that God can demand to regulate my behavior. But tell me how to feel? Tell me what to feel inside? Right? How could he tell me that? By the way, the same question applies to the mitzvah that we're learning. Dveikus is not just a neo-Chassidic heebie-jeebie neo-new nouveau riche language we're using. Dveikus, clinging to God. It's a mitzvah. ואתם הדבקים בהשם אלקיכם חיים כלכם היום. V'davakta, we have this word dveikus in the Torah in several places. To cling to God, to practice dveikus, devek, to glue and attach ourselves to Him is a mitzvah. So I understand that you can command action. How could He command emotion? We'll get to. But in the meantime, we talk about and we analyze and we offer suggestions, how can I fulfill the mitzvah of ואהבת את השם אלקיך? How can I fulfill the mitzvah to love God? But we forget to talk about that not only do we have an obligation to love God, but we have an obligation to know that God loves us. Hashem loves you. He loves you. So if He loves me, where is He? I had an exchange I posted yesterday on social media online. I posted something about this ואהבת את השם אלקיך and אהבה רבה אהבתנו השם אלקינו that God loves us. Not only do we love Him, He loves us. And how Rav Soloveitchik in his sefer U'vikashtem Misham writes the Torah and the Nevi'im, Devarim, Yeshayahu, Malachi, they are filled with descriptions of Hashem's love for us. They describe that He chose us and He loves us and He wants us. And I wrote a whole thing about it. How Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer quoted his rebbe, the Netziv, on a day that the Netziv wasn't moved to tears, wasn't emotional from the recitation of Ahava Raba, he didn't succeed in Torah learning. And how Rav Chaim Brisker described the mussar seder, the time when they really studied personal growth, they didn't learn it from a book. It was when they watched the Netziv, they watched Rav Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin the way he said Ahava Raba. To remind ourselves with emotion, with deep passion, that not only are we obligated to love God, but to tap into, to tune into the feeling that Hashem loves us. And so if you're feeling down, if you're feeling despondent, if you're feeling unloved, if you're feeling invisible, if you're feeling hopeless and helpless, know that Hashem loves you. Even when it doesn't feel like it. Even when you can't see Him or find Him. He believes in you. And if He didn't, and if He didn't love you, you wouldn't be here. So someone I went to high school with who I haven't spoken to in many, many, many, many moons, maybe since then, which was not just yesterday, commented on this post. Back and forth about Hashem. I don't think He really cares, all He wants is to be praised, He's jealous of other gods that don't even exist. We went back and forth a little bit. And after the back and forth he wrote, I guess that's a good point, I'm just really angry with Hashem these days, that's all. And it really hit me. I'm just really angry with Hashem these days, that's all. And I feel for his pain. And who doesn't have it? The other day I went home after a difficult morning, I went to have lunch at home to relax, to chill out, to disconnect, to just eat something for a few moments to catch my breath, and our housekeeper came over to me, an amazing woman, a righteous religious woman, and she says to me, she doesn't ever talk to me, it must have taken her great courage to come over and talk to me, and she says, Rabbi, can I ask you a question? Okay, I came home to steal a few minutes. I said, of course, sure. She said, this pandemic, so many people have died. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why would God do this? A light, simple conversation, small talk for lunch. Obviously an incredibly complicated and difficult question. So between an amazing housekeeper, between Katya asking that question and between my high school classmate, it's clearly on people's minds what they're feeling. And who isn't feeling it a little bit? Looking around at the pain and the struggle and the suffering, looking around at the loneliness and the isolation, looking around at the mourning and the grieving of the people who've lost loved ones, looking around at the people whose simchas have not been able to be celebrated fully, and who doesn't wonder where is Hashem and why would He do this? Who doesn't feel a tinge of frustration if not borderline protest or objection or anger of where is Hashem? But we need to know that these emotions are complicated but not contradictory. To know that Hashem loves us is not inconsistent with at the same time wanting or expecting more from Him. In fact, I would argue to you this fine morning that not only are they not contradictory, but they actually complement each other. Why do you feel frustrated? And why do you feel angry? If you didn't believe Hashem loved you and loved us, then you wouldn't have any expectations of Him. Then you wouldn't be frustrated. You're not frustrated in the Satan, you're not frustrated in the devil, you're not frustrated in the Sitra Achra, you're not frustrated in the evil or negative forces. One is frustrated in the one they have expectations of. One is angry or disappointed when they thought that the other cared and loved. So the very feeling of frustration, the very feeling of anger, the very feeling of objecting or protesting, itself extends and results from the expectation or the assumption Hashem is my father, Avinu Av Harachaman. In fact, even... Shelah HaKadosh and others bring down that when you say Ahava Rabbah, I know I'm double dipping on Siddur snippets right now, but Ahava Rabbah, the Shelah HaKadosh, Shnei Luchot HaBerit, Rabbi Yeshaya HaLevi Horowitz, he says that a person who is a parent and those who long to be parents should be zocheh, should merit to have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. But a person who has children, grandchildren, in Ahava Rabbah when you say the words, says the Shelah, אבינו אב הרחמן המרחם רחם עלינו, our father, our compassionate father have compassion on us, one should daven, one should think about, one should have in mind their children and their grandchildren. So why is it, why is it that we have expectations of our parents? Why are we disappointed if our parent doesn't intervene or rescue or helicopter in or help? Why is it that a person would be terribly disturbed and upset if their parent sat on the sideline when they could have gotten involved and helped? Because a person says, my parent's supposed to love me, my parent's supposed to take care of me and protect me, my parent is supposed to be there for me. So the very expectation that comes from the sense of closeness or the assumption of the love from the parent is what generates the disappointment. So if one is disappointed in God, it's because they love God and expect God to love them back. And the answer is does God still love us even when these things are happening around us? Yes. Is it difficult to see and to feel? Absolutely. But you know what? When my child, I tell them you can't go out on Saturday night with your friends because I'm not comfortable with who's there or what they're doing or where they're going. When I tell them you can't put your finger in the outlet or run in the middle of the street, or you can't eat that food or eat that food at this time of night, are they disappointed, are they angry, are they frustrated, do they protest? Yes. Does it mean I don't love them? It means I love them incredibly. Are they able to understand and translate that the reason I say you can't is because I love? It's difficult for a child. We're more mature, we're more sophisticated, we have much more life experience, and therefore the undeveloped immature mind is not able to understand that my parent is not doing that in order to prevent or in order to block my happiness, my parent is doing it specifically because they crave my happiness, my health, my well-being, and they're trying to protect me. The Ribono Shel Olam Almighty, even when we don't understand and we can't feel, all that he does, it may not be pleasurable, it may be painful, but it's all good, it's all good. Bad things do not happen to good people, painful things happen to good people. And even though there's a lot of pain around us, it doesn't mean he doesn't love us any more than it means that I don't love my child when I choose to place boundaries or when I do things that for them feels like a punishment, but I know and I hope and I know one day they will know really come from a sense of love. And so I just wanted to touch on this this morning because it's resonating deeply for me between the conversation I had at home at lunch and this former classmate online who are saying, you know, I guess you're right and I understand it intellectually, but I'm just so angry with God right now. I'm just so frustrated with what's going on. I just have such fatigue, I've just run so out of steam. But we have to know that if we woke up this morning and if we have our health and well-being, if we can see and feel, if we have a roof over our head, if we have people around us who we love and we are loved by, then Hashem loves us. He loves us. He's our father. His love for us has expectations but it doesn't have conditions. Yes, just like a parent, and we as parents have expectations of our children. If you don't meet those expectations then you don't get the reward. There's a system of reward and punishment. It's called allowance, it's called Amazon password, it's called certain systems of reward and punishment. But it doesn't mean that if you didn't earn, it doesn't mean that if I'm teaching you consequences I don't love you. The whole reason I have consequences is because I love you. And the same is true in Hashem's relationship with us. There are consequences, there's accountability in our lives, not because he doesn't love us, specifically because he does love us and he wants what's best for us. So if we'd only extend our antenna and if we'd only look and we'd feel, and if we'd only concentrate and focus, we'd feel that love in the Bruchos that we have every single day. I have visited people on their deathbed when they have still been able to identify and feel the blessings from Hashem and feel his love in the most extraordinary of ways. I have spoken to people who have nothing, gornisht, they live in poverty, they live with nothing, and yet whatever little they have they feel comes from above and they feel Hashem's guiding hand. They feel his embrace and support, they feel his presence and his love. No matter what's what, no matter what one's going through, financially, in health, in relationships, in life, we have the ability to feel that love. We have the ability to tap and to tune in to his affection if we simply allow it, if we simply listen to it, if we simply extend our antenna and pick up the signal he is expressing. He is expressing that love to us regularly, but sometimes we dismiss it because we feel entitled, because we feel that we deserve, because we take for granted. But it's a terrible, terrible mistake. Instead of feeling entitled, instead of taking for granted, instead of having an expectation, instead of feeling we deserve, we should stop and pause and look and say, wow He loves me. And I'll come back to our Hashgacha Pratis WhatsApp group. Start one for your family, keep a journal for yourself, put it in your phone, and you put it in a pen and paper, or record it in an audio message, however you want to capture it. But live life every day looking for the guiding hand of Hashem and realize there are no coincidences, everything is by design and everything works out for a reason. And when you look and when you listen, you will find and when you find and you identify and you focus, you will feel His love. With all the pain and with all the challenge and with all the struggle, but if we simply focus we will find those expressions of love all around us and we'll feel the presence of love. One of our amazing listeners, one of our dear beloved friends who's living in a assisted living facility and it's not easy and during Corona there's a lot of loneliness and she's such a special neshama and a special wonderful person whom we miss and hopefully please God will be with us for Yom Tov. But she sent me a picture yesterday that in her room the light was coming into the window and the light projected onto the ceiling of her room the letter aleph. I wish I could share my screen and show you this picture because it looked exactly like the letter aleph. I don't know if it was going through some tree branches or twigs, I don't know exactly how it got filtered through the cloud, but the light from the sun came through the window of her room and it was projected on the ceiling of her room the letter aleph. And imagine you're sitting in your room and she wasn't necessarily, she didn't tell me she was, but imagine you're feeling lonely or you're feeling despair or you're wondering what will be and how difficult a year and all of a sudden you look up and the letter aleph. Aleph is the one and only Hashem. Aleph stands for the aluf, the powerful, mighty, the providential God. And you look up and you say, Hashem I'm not alone, I see the light, literally, I see and I feel the light. An aleph made out of the light that came through the window. Wow, what a feeling. But you know many people wouldn't look up and many people wouldn't notice it and many people who noticed it wouldn't see it as the letter aleph and many people who saw the letter aleph wouldn't understand or tap into the symbolism and many who noticed it, looked at it, saw the letter aleph and understood what it stood for wouldn't realize it was a sign, that it was an expression of affection of Hashem's love. In this moment, Hashem loves me. And that's what she wrote to me, in this moment I feel Hashem loves me. Wow, I was blown away. She took a picture, she sent it, and I felt His love through her. Not only does He love her, He loves me because He sent that aleph to her and she shared that aleph with me. And wow, what a great image in that moment. But how many of us are going through life with blinders? We're not wearing our emunah glasses. Our antenna is not extended and we're not picking up the signal and so we say, He doesn't love me, I'm just angry at him, I'm frustrated with him, he's nowhere to be found. He's really found all around us and he's found in us and he's found in the people around us, but we have to extend that antenna and look and we will feel. Start that journal, record it audio, write it by hand, type it into your phone or computer, but every single day try to identify and see where you feel His presence and to take it with us. Okay, back to the sefer, B'iam Darechecha, Rabbi Itamar Morgenstern. Sorry for the little detour, but based on the conversations I was having was very much on my mind. Kshe’adam zocheh l’hidavek, we're on page tzadi ches. Again, those who want to can order the sefer online and follow along. It's available, Rabbi Itamar Morgenstern, B'iam Darechecha, we're on the chapter on dveikus, it's page tzadi ches 98. כשאדם זוכה להידבק באמת בהשם יתברך, when a person merits to genuinely cling to the Almighty, הוא מרגיש תענוג עצום וחיות עצומה. You feel a physical pleasure. You feel alive. You feel dynamic and vibrant. You feel energized. יותר מכל התענוגים ששייך בעולם. More than a gevaldig slurp and more than a five-course meal with matching paired wine and more than whatever delicacy and more than any physical or in physical indulgence and pleasure. If you want to feel alive, feel God. If you want to feel alive, feel the light. I told you the story, my daughter walking out of Neilah, Abba, I don't need to eat for another 24 hours, I wish Neilah didn't end. When you feel and nourish that soul inside, when you go through that spiritual and when you understand and you nourish that neshama, you feel chayus, feel alive, feel vibrant, can take on the world, more than any other pleasure available. כי כל מה שיש איזה עונג וחיות בעולם. You do a chessed and you selflessly extend beyond yourself and you're there for someone else, you feel alive. What do you mean I feel alive? I just gave my money, my time, the meal I cooked, you feel alive. I just volunteered. Why do I feel alive? I just gave away something. Why do I feel like I have more? Because the moment a person nurtures and nourishes the neshama, when we are in touch with and make contact with and nourish our soul, when we give away, we gain more. We become alive. We remember what is most important. We tap into the part of us which is eternal and timeless and immortal. And is there a greater feeling of being alive? Death, all of life, you know, everyone is dying. We're all dying. You know when we begin dying? The moment we're born. All of life is a process of dying. For some it's expedited, for some it's slow. For some, God forbid, it's young, and others have a long and fruitful life. But we're dying from the moment we're born. And so we feel down and out when we make contact with our mortality. This is why the Rambam talks about when you lose a loved one, someone who is grieving and mourning starts to think about their own mortality. Person loses a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a son, a daughter, a spouse, they start to think about mortality. I never ever pull away from a funeral, one that I officiate or one that I'm a spectator or participant in, I never leave a funeral without thinking about my life. What kind of parent they were described as, how would I be described as a parent? Their legacy, what do I want my legacy to be? Every time we make contact with death, we confront our own life. And hopefully we're inspired to live our own life more richly and more meaningfully and to mold and shape the legacy that we want and not just to allow it to happen passively. So contact with death brings about mortality, but contact with immortality brings about the feeling of being alive. How do we make contact with immortality? The soul. The soul has been here since creation and the soul will be here forever as an extension of the Almighty when it goes back and when we return upstairs. So the soul is immortal. And when we make contact and when we express our spirit and our soulfulness, when our neshama is nourished, then we feel a chiyus, we feel alive. So when you have an amazing davening, and when you're moved by incredible singing, and when you witness an amazing sunset, and when you do an extraordinary chesed, and when you pause and you feel the presence of Hashem in your life, anything that makes contact with the neshama, one feels a chiyus, one feels alive. כי כל מה שיש איזה עונג או חיות בעולם הוא ניצוץ קטן מזה ונחשב כאפס ואין. We understand the context of what is real and what is an illusion, of what is lasting and what is fleeting, of what is immortal and what is mortal. We understand, we reprioritize, we feel alive and we feel devoted. Okay, moving along. Good cup of coffee also helps to make you feel alive. אמנם צריך לדעת שמה שהוא מרגיש את האור ומתענג עליו, a person needs to know that that which we feel the light and we derive a pleasure from it, zeh lo ha'ikar, this is not the core and this is not what's most important. אלא העיקר הוא עצם מה שהוא דבוק בהשם יתברך וחי וקשור איתו. So the byproduct is I feel alive, I feel healthy and well, I feel immortal, I feel that I'll be forever. That's a byproduct, it's a benefit of it. But that's not why we do it. We do it because we're meant to be davuk to cling to God. So yeah, when you walk out of the gym and you had a good workout, you feel alive. And feeling alive, feeling accomplished is a great byproduct, it's a great result, but it's not why you work out. The reason you work out is to have a healthy heart. The reason you work out is to take care of your joints and your muscles. The reason you work out is to be able to be in a position of being of good health and wellness. So similarly when we work out the soul by clinging to God, the byproduct, the result, the consequence, which is lovely and beautiful and embrace it, is a feeling of being alive, it's a great feeling of spiritual goosebumps or even physical goosebumps. But that's not why we do it. We do it, the ikar, the main reason of why we do it is because to be davuk baHashem Yitbarach is the point of it all. All of Torah and mitzvos are a platform to propel us to cling to God, to know we're in a relationship, to nurture that relationship and to talk to and to feel His presence. דהיינו עצם זה שהוא מקושר ומחובר בהשם יתברך במחשבתו ולבו, that the etzem, the very essence that you are attached and tied to God in our thoughts and in our hearts, mitoch emuna, because I have faith, because I have faith. Zu hi deveikus, this is what it means to cling to God. I'm not trying to navigate the world on my own. I'm not by myself. I'm not subject to randomness or chance or nature. But He's by my side and He's in control and it's by design and it's the way it's meant to be. ואין זה משנה כלל אם הוא מרגיש אור ותענוג. So yes, if you feel a light in your heart, if you see the light and feel the light, and you get the spiritual or physical goosebumps and you feel alive and vibrant and amazing and you're on a genuine spiritual high, great, more power to you, wonderful, lovely, not the reason for doing it. Not the reason for doing it. And not a necessary condition of doing it. Because it should never be the expectation that if I don't see or feel the light, and if I don't feel alive and I don't have the spiritual high, then I'm not going to keep doing it. Because that's not the reason I keep doing it. Sometimes you take out the garbage for your spouse or you cook a meal a Shabbat for your spouse or you do some errand or meet a need of your spouse, and you're so in love and it's so romantic that you're taking out the garbage while you skip and you whistle and you say: through this act I'm connecting, I'm attaching, I'm meeting the need of my loved one, I'm making them happy and it's so romantic and I love it. But that's not why you took out the garbage. You took out the garbage because they asked and they said: tomorrow's garbage day, would you mind taking out the garbage? It would be a big help to me, to us. That's why you do it. And if the only reason you do it is because you expect to skip and to whistle and to feel some romance, then when you don't you're going to stop, and that would be bad, because that's not why we do it. So we practice dveikus because it's what's meant, we practice dveikus because it's right, we practice dveikus because it's correct and it's why we're here, to attach, to cling, to feel, to see, to know that God is by our side. Does it make you feel great? Wonderful, love it. That's a great byproduct, but it is not why we do it. It's not why we do it. וצריך מתחילה עבודה לא לרוץ דווקא באורות והרגשות ותענוגות. And at the beginning of our avoda, we have to know, לא לרוץ דווקא באורות והרגשות ותענוגות, we should not be running after and we should not be demanding or expecting and we should not be focused or living off of the feelings. אלא לרוץ להידבק באמת בהשם יתברך. What we're running for is not the high, but what we're running for is the clinging, ולהיות עמו בקשר עמוק, and to be with him in a very deep and profound and real and general way, גם בלי האור והתענוג שבזה, even without the light and even without the pleasure that comes from it. In marriage, particularly in the beginning of marriage, do you say, as you meet the needs of your spouse, as you have the conversations, as you confide and be vulnerable and open up, it's going to feel great, and that's what you should be focused on, your feeling, and how great it feels for you and the pleasure you can derive? No. Then you're missing the whole point. It's not about you and your pleasure. It will feel good and it should feel good, and that's an amazing, amazing result of being in a highly functional, fantastic relationship, but it's not why you do it. You do it because to be in a relationship means to put the other first. To be in a relationship means to be willing to compromise and sacrifice. To be in a relationship means to be aware of the needs of the other and to want to meet them. So therefore, where's the emphasis and where's the focus and what are we chasing and running after and what is the most important is not the feeling that will come, which if it comes it's wonderful, great, enjoy it, but rather is the experience of clinging to God, of connecting to God, of knowing he's there and of relying on him. The feelings are amazing and the feelings are the benefit. We've spoken about a couple hundred times, every class we speak about it, we speak about that if you live effectively with emuna and dveikus more specifically, you have no reason ever getting angry. Whatever happened was meant to be. You have no reason to ever be envious, what you have is what you need. You have no reason to ever be anxious. What will happen is what was meant to be. Please God next week, one of our daughters and our son-in-law and our little grandson are coming home im yirtzeh Hashem from Eretz Yisrael from Israel if they can get out. So everybody knows that right now travel from Eretz Yisrael from Israel is very complicated. Are flights going to be canceled? Can they get back? What will happen with travel? Will the airport stay open or closed? So we haven't seen our grandson, forget the kids, we haven't seen our grandson in many, many, many, many months. We're missing his whole childhood growing up. Desperate to see him. I'm sure like many of you and those who want to be grandparents should be zocheh, should merit quickly to be grandparents. So we could sit all day and panic. What will be? Counting down to their flight next Monday. Will the airline fly? Will the airport be closed? Will they be able to get on? Will they have the necessary negative test? Will it all work out? What will be if we can't hold him and see him and he won't be on my lap for next week's emuna shiur? What will be? Or you can lean back and say: dveikus. Clinging and attaching to God. We booked the ticket, we have the necessary test scheduled, everything is set up the way we have to. There's nothing left for us to do. It's in his hands. So it will be the way it's meant to be. If they'll be with us for Pesach, magnificent. And if they can't and have to figure it out, also magnificent. It's Hashem's plan. So if we pause, you know, there is a little bit of a moment, there is a pause in between the anxiety and having to be anxious. You can have the thought, you can have the concern. learn, but it doesn't have to translate or express or manifest itself immediately in the sense of anxiety or anxiousness. There is a pause in between in which we can stop and collect ourselves and say, I go to that class, I listen every week to living with Emunah. We've been talking about Deveikus, it's not just theoretically and hypothetically, I meant to practice it. So I'm just giving you this example because it's relevant to my or our lives right now. But whatever it is I have a concern about, or I'm counting down towards, or I'm very anxious about, don't be anxious, let it go. All you'll do is destroy whatever happiness you can have between now and Monday. All you'll do is have sleepless nights, all you'll do is have higher blood pressure, all you'll do is worry and not be fully present in whatever you're doing because all you're doing is focusing on Monday what will be. Or you could let go and say, I don't need to give it another thought. Everything's done, check, check, check, check, all the initiative, everything we could have done is done. Then, it's in God's hands. Please God it will work out, that's the way it'll be meant to be. And if it doesn't, that's also the way it's meant to be. So the ball's in our court of whether we're anxious or not, of whether we're angry, envious or not, we have that ability to let go and let Hashem in. That's Deveikus. That's why we're in it. Is there a positive benefit, a positive feeling? I feel alive and spiritual and on fire and I have spiritual goosebumps, it's amazing, it feels fantastic, I'm in this romantic, love, affectionate relationship with Hashem. Enjoy it, God bless you, it's great you have those feelings. But in marriage if we only responded when we have the feelings, we'd be in big trouble. So here too, Deveikus is the default of where we're meant to be and how we're meant to live, if it generates those feelings, great, but even without them it's how we're meant to live and to feel and to be nonetheless. Mirtzeh Hashem we'll pick up next week, if it be God will, God's will, with the grandson, and if not not, but we'll pick up next week. 9:00 tonight we go behind the Bimah with Jeff Swartz, the former CEO of Timberland and an observant Torah Jew who tells the story, he'll tell the story of how he became observant and amazing, amazing inspiration you don't want to miss it on our YouTube channel. Again, take a moment to hit subscribe, once you do you'll go, you'll be notified every time we go live and every opportunity to be inspired. You can subscribe, you can sponsor a class at brsonline.org. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
