Transcript
Good morning, welcome back to Living with Emuna, our weekly study of topics of Emuna, but really to reinforce what we know, what we believe, what we feel, that there's a creator, that Hashem is involved in our lives, invested in our lives, that nothing is random and chance, that He loves us and we love Him. I want to thank our generous Emuna series sponsors for the year, Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella's mother Dr. Ellen Chanzer, thank you so much for your generosity, thank you for your sponsorship. This morning's Emuna shiur as well is sponsored by Adina Lampel in the honor of her wedding. Huge Mazel Tov to Adina getting married tonight to a good friend Yudi Gross, an amazing guy, we're looking forward to welcoming them to Boca Raton as a married couple and to building their beautiful Bayis Ne'eman B'Yisroel. She dedicates today's shiur to her chosson יהודה זלמן בן חיה פיגא, partner in living with Emuna and to her parents אסתר בינה בת פסיל בריינדל and מנחם בנימין בן דבורה, always been and continue to be role models of living with Emuna. What a beautiful way to mark a simcha and a wedding to sponsor a shiur in Emuna in gratitude and in hope for the home they're going to build. So big Mazel Tov to Adina and to Yudi, very excited to celebrate together with you. Also today's shiur is sponsored by our dear friend Linda Gordon in commemoration of the second yahrtzeit of her beloved husband Harvey. Harvey was a wonderful person who lived with Emuna. Linda is a role model of living with faith. Linda, we love you and thank you for your sponsorship this morning. And lastly, this morning's shiur is sponsored by Hencha Gansburg in honor and with gratitude to Hashem for finally making aliyah. Hencha is amazing and Mazel Tov on your aliyah, everything should go smoothly, everything should go well, should be in good health and safety. We're so excited for you, we can't wait to visit with you in the land of Israel. If you'd like to sponsor a future shiur brsonline.org/sponsor brsonline.org/sponsor, made it easy and convenient for you in one easy place. Okay, back to Rabbi Itche Meir Morgenstern's Yam Derechecha. We have been studying the topic of bittul. We've been studying the topic of what does it mean to be mevattel ourselves, to nullify ourselves, to absorb ourselves into God. Not to neglect ourselves to the point of neglect, not harm, not to allow others to stomp on us, but it means to not think that we're the center of the universe. The world doesn't revolve around us. God is the center of the universe, God is the source of the universe, and therefore our lives are dedicated and devoted to His service. Included in His service is taking care of ourselves. God wants us to have pleasure, to have joy, to have meaning, to have happiness, to have purpose. It's not that Hashem doesn't want us to feel and to experience all of that, but we experience all of that in the context of serving Him and living a life of service to Him based on what He wants for us. So there are four, says Rabbi Itche Meir, there are four madreigos of bittul. There are four levels of what it means to nullify ourselves. And we began so far with the first two. The first was bittul of kabbalas ol. The first was the madreiga to recognize there's an omnipotent, infinite creator of the universe. He's all-knowing, He's all-powerful, and we submit, we surrender to Him. So I have an existence independent of Him, there's me, there's I, and then there's Him, there's God. I have an awareness that between the two of us, He's in charge. That I work for Him, He doesn't work for me. That's the first level of bittul of submission and surrender in the context of kabbalas ol that I accept the yoke of heaven. I recognize that I submit to Him, that I work for Him, He doesn't work for me. That's intellectual. It's rational. I have a yom iyun, I have a day dedicated to study, to think about, to evaluate the evidence. Does God exist? Is there proof? Is there evidence? I read books, I evaluate, I question, and I come to the intellectual cognitive conclusion there is a God and I answer to Him. But it remains upstairs. It remains intellectual. The second is bittul b'midos. The second category we saw last week is the idea that not only do I recognize and see God intellectually, not only am I aware cognitively, the first cause argument, the idea that when disorder goes to order there's a designer, the design argument, all the arguments and all the evidence for God's existence, not only I know it intellectually, not only I know it cognitively, but rather it's that I experience it. I am in a relationship. It is a dynamic, loving relationship. I'm engaged in, I'm part of an actual relationship. And a relationship needs nurturing, a relationship needs love, a relationship needs commitment. I read an article this week, you can find it on rabbiefremgoldberg.org. The title of the article is If You Don't Know Where You're Going, Any Road Will Lead You There. And that's based on this week's parsha, a pasuk. It says כי אם אל המקום אשר יבחר ה׳ אלהיכם לשכנו תדרשו ובאת שמה. Look to the place that God has designated, seek out His presence, and get there. No coordinates. There's no address. You can't plug it in the GPS. It's mysterious. The Almighty Hashem by design leaves mysterious where He can be found. Why? Why did He do it that way? Why didn't He tell us? Pasuk seems to be talking about the Beis HaMikdash. So why didn't He tell us where the temple is? Why didn't He tell us where the Beis HaMikdash is so we would know where to go? We take for granted today. We all know Har HaBayis, the Temple Mount, is the holiest place on earth. We know that the Beis HaMikdash is the holiest spot on earth. We know that all we have left of it is the Kosel HaMa'aravi, for us right now, the closest holiest place on earth. But the Jewish people traveling through the desert, who had not yet been to Har HaBayis, who had not yet built a Beis HaMikdash, and God says there's going to be a capital, it's going to be a center of holiness. But He doesn't give the coordinates. He doesn't give the address. He leaves it mysterious. And the question is why? Why didn't He? So the Chizkuni gives one answer. The Chizkuni says because before the Beis HaMikdash, before the permanent place of Hashem's intense dwelling, there was a temporary one. It was called the Mishkan. And the Mishkan moved around. The Mishkan was movable. And therefore the Torah couldn't give us coordinates. There was no address, because for 369 years the Mishkan was mobile, it moved around. But the Ramban disagrees. And the Ramban says that the adverb there is referring to the Beis HaMikdash, not the Mishkan. So why didn't God give us the coordinates? Why didn't He give us the address? And says the Ramban, the answer, listen carefully. The Ramban says Hashem wants us to seek it out. To calibrate our compass towards holiness. To go on a journey of inquiry and discovery and to go find it. So He doesn't give us a specific location. Hashem wants us to intuit the location. He wants us to extend our holiness antenna. He wants us to turn on our holiness radar and to find it. To intuit, to search, to yearn, to look for holiness. He doesn't hand it to us on a silver platter. He doesn't give us the address and coordinates. He wants us to go and find it. And the Ramban says that word shamma, in fact, may not even be talking about a geographical location. It's modifying the word lishchnose to feel Hashem's presence. Lishchnose, shachen, God is our neighbor. He's local, He's accessible. He cares. There's a relationship. And the Torah says tidreshu. If you want to feel Hashem in your life, seek Him. Look for Him. Reveal Him. Connect with Him. You have to go find Him. He doesn't find you, you've got to go find Him. Go look for Him. Uncle Moishy was wrong. God is not here, there, and everywhere, but the Kotzker Rebbe was right. Where can Hashem be found? Wherever you let Him in. We have to let Him in. We search, we go, we look. I have a lot more, you can look at the article. I quote more fascinating insightful divrei Torah of others. What it means to intuit, what it means to have a holiness compass, what it means to go look, uvas shamma, to search, to be yearning, to go look, to search, to search, to submit, to surrender, to be in a relationship, to be in a genuine relationship. This Shabbos we're going to ברך ראש חודש אלול. We're about to bless the new month of Elul, and we're beginning this heightened, high-intensity time of the year where we're working hard on that relationship with God. But the acronym Elul stands for many things. איש לרעהו ומתנות לאביונים. It stands for many things. But one of them, Elul stands for famously, אני לדודי ודודי לי. Elul's a reminder we're in a relationship. It's not just a list of to-dos and don't-dos. It's not just dry law. It is not a burden, but rather it's a relationship. It's an enriching, beautiful relationship. And relationships require nurturing. They require time. They require communication. Relationships require us to be curious and to learn about one another. What Dr. John Gottman, the great relationship expert and guru, says is drawing love maps, curiosity, asking questions, being on a journey of discovery, looking. Just like a healthy marriage and just like any healthy relationship requires drawing love maps, being inquisitive and engaging in discovery and looking to learn about the other, that's what creates the romance, the electricity, the love, so too in our relationship with Hashem. You have to ask the questions, you have to look, you have to go. So I end the article by telling the story. I went to see the Skverer Rebbe several years ago. I enjoy meeting with the Skverer Rebbe for his insight, his advice, his brachos. And he asked me a series of questions about the community. And he said at the end, he said, Rabbi Goldberg, I have one more question. And I was curious, what would it be? What was his last question? The kashrus standards, the eruv, how many shiurim we have, the mikvah, how many schools we have? He had one more question. He said, are there mevakshem in Boca Raton? Mevakshem, mevakesh, are there searchers? Are there seekers? Are there those looking to grow? Are there people on a journey to find Hashem in our community? Proudly, I was able to tell him yes, partly because of the attendees of our amazing shiur together, Living with Emuna. But there are mevakshem. Are there mevakshim in Boca Raton? Mevakshim. Mevakesh. Are there searchers? Are there seekers? Are there those looking to grow? Are there people on a journey to find Hashem in our community? Proudly, I was able to tell him yes, partly because of the attendees of our amazing shiur together, Living with Emunah, but there are mevakshim. And that's the question for ourselves, are we a mevakesh? Are we searching? So that was the second type of bittul Rav Itche Meir spoke about. Not just an intellectual cognitive bittul. Not just evidence for God's existence. I accept all the arguments. I accept all the evidence. I've come to the conclusion intellectually there is a God. But it means to be emotionally invested in a relationship, to feel His presence, to turn to Him, to love Him, to rely on Him, to lean on Him, to feel His love, to feel His support, to have to meet His expectations, to want to give Him nachas, to be in a relationship that includes ahava and yirah and dveikus, love and awe and a desire to cling to Him. I got a great email this week, and as always, I invite you to share your emunah stories with me, how emunah has helped guide your life and given you strength. So someone I know, this is not one of my children, this is not a member of my family, but somebody I know wrote to me. She's in school, she's away from her family. And she said last year was a very anxious year. She struggled with anxiety. There was a lot going on, obviously Corona and others, other significant variables. And it was a tough year, she struggled with anxiety. And once during the middle of the year, she had a terrible stomach virus and she was up in the middle of the night, and she was in pain, she was uncomfortable, she was anxious. And all she wanted more than anything else was her mother. She longed for her mother. Who doesn't want to snuggle with their mother? Who doesn't want to crawl into their mother's bed? Who doesn't want the love, the support, the comfort, the pampering, the nursing back to health from their own mother? All she wanted was her mother, but her mother was far away. So she felt all alone and her anxiety was heightened. She said to me, but I've been listening to the Living with Emunah shiur. I've been working on attaching myself, connecting, feeling God's presence. And all of a sudden, it occurred to me in the middle of the night, just when I was crying, just when I was calling out and I wanted my mother, I remembered that I had my Father. I remembered that Avinu Shebashamayim, that my Father was right there, that I wasn't in fact alone and I wasn't in fact on my own, but that Hashem, that God was right there with me. That even when physically we're far from our biological parents, our third senior parent, our Father in heaven is always with us wherever we are and whatever we're going through. And as soon as she realized that and she embraced that and she leaned into that, her anxiety calmed down. She felt comfortable. She felt confident. She was no longer afraid. Our Father is with us wherever and whenever, not just intellectually and cognitively, but emotionally in our heart and in our soul. We take Him everywhere. It's interesting, today's daf in the Daf Yomi, גמרא סוכה דף כח. Today's daf talks about what is the definition of a katan? Who is the minor? Who is the minor who's not yet the age of education of chinuch, who's exempt from sukkah, and who is the katan who is obligated in sukkah? So the Gemara first suggests maybe the one who wakes up in the middle of the night and calls their mother is a minor. And if you wake up and don't call your mother, then you are mature, you're an adult. But then the Gemara says, but what do you mean? Even a gadol, even an adult wakes up in the middle of the night and calls out to their mother. And the Gemara concludes, the child calls out mother mother twice, and the adult may instinctively call out mother but then they gather themselves and they're able to move on from there. So it was amazing, the story the person shared with me, the timing, nothing is coincidental, exactly when the Gemara confirms for us that we know even adults instinctively call out to their mother. But we can collectively all call out to our Father, whether we have biological parents or we've lost our biological parents God forbid, whether we're in proximity to our biological parent or far away from our biological parent, we all have Avinu Shebashamayim, we all have our Father in heaven whom we can call out to whenever, whenever we need Him. So we continue now with the third level. The third level is bittul hayesh. Bittul hayesh. המדרגה השלישית היא מדרגה גבוהה. This is a high level. This is a level we strive for. It's an ambitious level. ועניינה שהאדם מתבונן במציאות השם יתברך וגדולתו עד שמרגיש שאין לו חשיבות כלל לידו. It means not only do I exist and He exists and I realize I work for Him, that's level number one. Level number two is I exist and He exists and I want a relationship. I love Him. I'm in awe of Him. I want to cling to Him. I want to stick with Him. Level number three is that He exists and in His presence, it's as if I don't exist at all. ketalmid liyad rabbo, like a student in the presence of their master, of their teacher. כילד קטן ליד גדול הדור, like a little child who is in the presence of the greatest of the generation. In that moment, it doesn't matter who you are, how accomplished you are, when you are in the presence of greatness, you're not hungry, you're not tired, you don't have to go to the bathroom, you don't exist. All you feel is the presence, all it takes up space is the significance, the greatness, the presence of the other. So the third level of bittul is to realize that the omnipotent infinite almighty Ribono Shel Olam, Eibishter, the great Ribono Shel Olam, Melech Malchei Hamelachim, the great King of kings is so great He takes up all all the space I don't even exist. In that moment there is no I there is no me there is no my I want but rather I blend into him. מדרגה זו נקראת ביטול היש. My sense of yeshus, my sense of yesh, my sense of anochi, my sense of I, my sense of existence is nullified. I submit and I surrender I'm in his presence I'm the presence of greatness I'm not the center of the universe there's no my need there's no my want there's no my anger there's no my envy there's no my anxiety there's no my arrogance there's no me there's just him and I blend into him which is not to forfeit myself we saw several weeks ago in a footnote that doesn't mean that I am denying myself it means I am realizing the greatest part of myself because who am I really if not an extension of God? So as an extension of God I am realizing and recognizing the greatest part of who I am by blending into him. ומדרגה זו האדם מרגיש את השם יתברך כעיקר ואת עצמו כטפל. On this third level of bitul hayesh we realize that God is primary God is central God is everything and I am secondary I am ancillary. והיינו שאף שהוא חי ומרגיש את עצמו כמציאות even though I exist I'm alive I feel my pulse I feel my heartbeat I feel myself breathing the oxygen in my lungs I know that I exist I know he created me I know I'm here. מכל מקום הוא מבין שלמציאות שלו אין חשיבות. I may exist but I'm secondary I am nothing Hashem is everything I am secondary to him. וזה על ידי שהוא מתבונן ומרגיש how is this how does one accomplish this by contemplating and by feeling איך השם יתברך מחיה ומהווה את הכל that Hashem nourishes and he wills everything into existence. He is מחדש בכל יום תמיד that if Hashem would cease willing us to exist we would cease to exist. We only exist because he wills our existence. ומתבונן על עצמו איך ומתהווה בכל רגע and to be contemplative and thoughtful how I feel at every moment how fortunate how blessed how lucky I am to be here. How people didn't wake up this morning how people can confront illness accidents catastrophes crises collapses of buildings how we could disappear in a moment. So my existence which I am aware of and grateful for I'm aware of I'm not denying my existence but I know it comes משפע החיות מהשם יתברך שזורם בו ומחייהו. Hashem flows his blessing flows he wills and that's the only reason I'm here. וממילא הוא מבין וגם מרגיש and therefore on this third level a person knows and feels שהשם יתברך הוא העיקר. Hashem is the center of the circle of my life he is the center of the universe. Ve'ilu es atzmo and me my life הוא מרגיש כדבר טפל. Secondary I'm here to serve him what does he want from me today? What does he expect of me today? What mission does he have for me today? I am his shliach I am his agent how am I meant to change the world? How am I meant to change my world? For some people their mission is to get through the day. Some people confront physical spiritual emotional mental challenges and their mission is to get through the day. To be a good husband father to be a good wife mother just to be a good human being that's their mission. Others have a mission to be of service to others others have a mission to cure cancer bring world peace others have a mission to sit and learn Torah to be a model of what it means to daven with kavana others have a mission to transform the world with their chesed with their loving kindness. But it means I know I exist but I exist not waking up saying what are my rights what are my entitlements what do I get out of this world? But instead asking what are my duties what are my obligations what am I meant to give to this world? What am I responsible? It's a whole different mentality it's an entirely different perspective or attitude towards this world and towards life. Not what can I take but what can I give? Not what am I meant what are my entitlements but what are my obligations? אין לו חשיבות וישות. It's not about me it's not about my want I am on a mission for him. Now Hashem says within your mission rejuvenate within your mission recreate recreation within your within your mission be entertained relax enjoy that's part of our life and our lifestyle the Torah and Hashem endorse it. But ultimately we do those things not as an ends to themselves. We eat we sleep we enjoy we're entertained in order to position us to have the strength we need to continue in our mission to make a difference in this world. אמנם בכל זאת הוא מרגיש את עצמו כדבר שמקבל חיות מהשם יתברך. So yes I exist and yes I'm aware of my existence but I maintain as quickly as it comes is as quickly as it could disappear, as quickly as it could disappear. Unfortunately we know too well. We know too well. Okay. That is the third level. And now we move over to the fourth and final level. The fourth and final level of what it means bitul b'metziyus. The fourth and final level of what does it mean to nullify ourselves. The first was intellectually cognitively bitul b'kabbalas ol. I realize that there is a God. I don't exist on my own. I didn't come into being by chance. There is a God and I serve Him, I worship Him, I work for Him, He doesn't work for me. Level number two was not only do I know that there is a God intellectually, I know there is a God emotionally and I'm invested in an emotional relationship. I'm a mevakesh. I'm drawing love maps, I'm searching and I'm yearning and I'm looking and I'm curious and I'm investing and I'm nurturing and nourishing and I want to love and I want to be filled with yira and I want to cling to God emotionally. Level three is bitul ha-yesh. Not only do I know intellectually there is a God and not only am I in an emotional relationship with God, but I realize that the world is about Him not me. That my life is being of service to Him. That He dictates what my mission, what my charge is in this world. And the fourth level is bitul b'metziyus. The fourth and final level is המדרגה הרביעית היא מדרגת שלמות הביטול. This is the completion. This is the highest level. This is the ultimate aspiration. ועניינה שהאדם כל כך מרגיש את מציאות השם יתברך עד שאינו מרגיש את מציאות עצמו כלל. Not that I exist, but I'm in an intellectual and an emotional relationship with Him. Not only I exist, but His existence is primary, mine secondary. I don't even exist. In His presence I'm nothing. I am simply an extension of Him. I'm a manifestation of Him, I'm an expression. ומדרגה זו נקראת ביטול במציאות ומדרגה זו היא בעיקר נקראת ביטול. So when we talk about the ultimate, the highest level of bitul, what does it mean to submit, what does it mean to surrender, what does it mean to go through life and to realize that yes I want to enjoy and I want to have fun and I want to accumulate things and I want to have experiences and I want to be enriched by my relationships, but ultimately I'm doing all of that in a context. I'm doing all of that in the context of there is a God, I have a relationship, He has expectations of me. That is bitul. That's bitul. ומדרגה זו האדם זוכה להכרה כל כך עצומה במציאות השם יתברך ויחודו. There is such an intense awareness, such an acute awareness that God exists, He is a source of all, the entire universe is an expression, is a unity of His existence. וזה כל כך חי אצלו עד שמרגיש איך הכל זה רק אורו יתברך. Everything is simply His light, including me and my life is all just His light in this world. It's like a prism. One ray of sunshine goes into the prism and it refracts into several colors, into many rays of light that come out. So the rays of light, picture the other rays of light, the colors coming out the other side of the prism, they think that they're independent, diverse colors, but really they are all just an extension, they're all expressions, they're all manifestations, they're reflections of the one ray of light that came into the prism. So we too, we look like we are diverse manifestations of God in this world. We look like we are each our own personality, each our own life, each our own lifestyle. However we are just an extension of that original ray of light that comes in. וממילא אינו מרגיש את עצמו. So when we realize that we say, I'm not an independent color of light coming out the prism, even though when I look to my right, my left, it looks like there are other independent, separate, distinct colors coming out, I realize all of us are really united in that we are an extension of the one ray of light coming in. Everything is His light. So God's will is the world, us and everything in it, and we don't have an existence that's independent, separate or apart. We are part of a ecosystem of the world so to say, all His light. וממילא אינו מרגיש את עצמו. So if that's the case I don't feel my sense of independence, my identity. אלא מרגיש שהוא נמס כביכול בתוך האור האלוקי העצום. I blend in, I am absorbed within the light of Hashem. So these are the four madregos, these are the four levels of bitul, and these are the four levels of feeling Hashem in our life. וכל אדם בכל מדרגה צריך לעלות בהם לפי סדרם. Each person, each person at every level has to try to climb them according to who we are and according to our lives and according to our peckel, our baggage, our lifestyle, our struggles, our challenges, our opportunities, our assets. Each of us is positioned differently, each of us is positioned uniquely, and therefore each of us have an invitation and opportunity to connect to God. in our own way. He says in the footnote Rav Itche Meir, כל מדרגות יש במדרגות על גבי מדרגות, and each of these levels have levels on top of levels. והדרך היא בתחילה יקח. So let's start at level number one and here is your homework, my friends. Level one: intellectually. Intellectually, have we explored? Are we a mevakesh? Have we spent the time to look for and to find God? Have we looked around the universe and realized it's not filled with random chance and coincidence, but מלוא כל הארץ קניניך, the world is filled with opportunities to make a kinyan. The world is filled with opportunities to acquire God, to acquire God. In the weather, in the nature, in the experiences, in the people, in the goodness, in the blessings that we have; studying biology, chemistry, physics, studying metaphysics, studying, of course, primarily Hashem's Torah, His written diary. The entire world is an invitation to find and to acquire God in our life, intellectually. So let's work on the first level. First level is bitul vekabbalas ol. First level is intellectually to know He's there. Stop living this lie. Stop thinking the world is about you, your happiness, your want, your need, the world revolves around you. It doesn't. It doesn't. It doesn't. Life is very short and, tragically, people leave this world so soon, so unexpectedly. And the longer we continue to live that illusion, the longer we hold onto that farce that the world is about us, our happiness, our needs, our wants, the less our life is. The longer, the shorter we're actually alive, even if we are among the living. But tzaddik be'emunaso yichyeh. The sooner that we submit and surrender, the sooner we recognize that He is here, and the sooner we start to think in that way, explore, be curious, inquisitive, draw those love maps, love maps, discover, discover what your mission is. What's your shlichus? Why are you here? Why are you here? Who was it, Mark Twain, who said the most important two days in a person's life are the day that you were born and the day that you figure out why? Why were you born? Why is this world better with you in it? Why does this world need you in it? Because if you woke up this morning, if we woke up this morning, Hashem has determined, God has declared that the world needs us. We have something to contribute, we have something to give, we have something to do. God left us in this world, it's because there's work that's yet undone. So what is it? What is it? What difference am I meant to make? Could be a difference to my family, doesn't have to be something on a large scale. Could be a difference to my family, could be a difference to my community, could be a difference to my coworkers, and the difference I can make is just living my life to its fullest, trying to make it through the day, being healthy when there are a lot of things that are opposing forces to that health. But we're not here for ourselves. So that first level, that very first level, is to realize I woke up this morning, I have oxygen, I have air in my lungs, I have a heartbeat in my chest. I woke up this morning, bitul to submit, bekabbalas ol. God doesn't serve me. I don't wake up and say God is not fair, why do I this and why am I missing that and how come I don't have what they have and how come this and how come that? I wake up and I say, look at all that I have and what do I do with it? What difference am I meant to make with it? What's my mission? Who do I need to call or check in on? How do I need to volunteer? Where do I need to show up? What learning do I need to do? What volunteering do I need to do? What work do I need to do? What improvement or repair to the world do I need to give? It's a madreiga, the first level. And this is our homework. I'm giving you homework. You gotta submit that homework by next Wednesday morning, 8:45 AM. Your homework, our homework, I'm on this journey together with you, my friends. Our homework is level number one, madreiga number one. Madreiga number one is bitul bekabbalas ol. Not just lip service. You could daven three times a day, learn the Daf Yomi, volunteer for Tomchei Shabbos, write lots of tzedaka checks, but you still haven't accepted that there's a God in the world. You still haven't accepted that there's a God in the world. Yeah, maybe somewhere deep inside yourself, but you're going through external motions. It's a checklist, because this is what we were taught, this is how we were raised, this is what we want to want to believe. But take that leap. Make it. Believe. Submit, surrender, recognize. Take some time to think, to evaluate, to explore about the evidence of Hashem's existence, about His presence in your life. Find Him. Hide and seek. Go on a search. Find Hashem. He's all around us. You won't have to look very far. He's all around us. So that is the first level, bitul bekabbalas ol. The bitul of intellectually taking that leap, that once we realize He's here, the omnipotent, infinite God, then of course we serve Him, He doesn't serve us. Then of course He is in charge. He says jump, and we say how high. So that is the very first level, and when we do, the irony is normally when you submit and surrender, you've given something up. Here, submitting and surrendering, you don't give anything up, you only gain. You gain a relationship with the infinite. You gain immortality, you gain eternity, you gain happiness, serenity, tranquility, you gain satisfaction, you gain everything. gain purpose. So letting go, letting God, submitting and surrendering is not about giving up. Submitting and surrendering to God is not only about not giving anything up, it's about gaining something, gaining what is the greatest thing that could be, a relationship with the Almighty himself. Thank you so much until next time. Don't forget first of all, you can sponsor a future class, brsonline.org/sponsor, brsonline.org/sponsor. One convenient place, you can choose a date in the future. Is there a yahrtzeit, someone's birthday, someone getting married? You can choose a date, you can put in the language, you can make the payment, all in one convenient easy place. And if you'd like to continue to learn together, it is an honor and a privilege to be able to learn Torah together. If you'd like to continue, subscribe on YouTube, you'll be informed in real time every time we go live. You can find classes and articles at rabbiefremgoldberg.org or you can download the app and learn with us on a regular basis. Thank you for the honor, until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
