Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov, welcome back to Living with Emuna. For those watching online, I apologize that we are a minute late. We strive to be on time. One of the gifts of Corona because we pivoted to be online, we've been much more on time, but we had a little technical difficulty. And if Hashem wills, we will not have technical difficulty and you will be able to watch and join us from a distance from afar. I want to thank our generous sponsors on the Emuna Shiur for the year, years now, Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan, who sponsored the Emuna Shiur in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut. I told Brian's uncle last week when I saw him, I said what a privilege it is every Wednesday morning I get to use Brian's name, invoke his memory, and think about him, and to learn Emuna from someone who was such a source of strength of Emuna is a great privilege. So we're grateful to the Morgans for all that they do, for their generosity, also in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Chanzer as well, who was an example of living with Emuna. So morning shiur is also sponsored by Hena and Abe Loeff. Thank you very much on the Yahrtzeit of her father, Jack Walder, on their wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary. Does Abe get a piece of jewelry? Does he need a good... I have a good jeweler. I know a good jeweler. And by Anna Cohn in memory of her beloved father, Nathan Wasserman, whose neshama should have an aliya. By the Saka family, commemoration of the 50th Yahrtzeit of Yosef ben Selim. And by Abigail Apprem for the Refuah Sheleima of her brother אברהם ברוך בן זיסל גיטל. Thank you all for your generosity. Should be l'ilui nishmas, should be for refuah sheleima, and for all that good stuff. We are back in Rav Wolbe. We've been learning the sefer He'aros, the light of and the ideas of Rav Shlomo Wolbe zatzal, the great Mashgiach of Yerushalayim. We last left off when we were discussing הושענא שלוש שעות הושענא. The idea that before Mashiach there'll be a period of darkness, and even in that darkness we have to see the light, we have to believe in the light. And here we are again, entering another period of darkness. And relative to the darkness of our ancestors, this is mild. Relative to those who've lived through crusades and inquisition and holocaust, relative to those who struggle with terminal illness and crisis, financial devastation and crisis and the like, having to put a mask on again or distance again or figure this out again is relatively mild. And yet, for those of us who felt we were past it, turned the corner, went back to some level of normal life, here we are back in the dark. We had stepped out into the light and it feels like we're going back into the dark. And I don't know about you, but I've been having a lot of conversations with him, just wondering, what's the plan here? What's the game plan? What's it all about? When Corona first struck, I Googled about the Spanish flu. I was curious, how long do pandemics last? Spanish flu lasted seven years. And I'll never forget I said to you, chevre, I said to myself, ha, seven years? This thing won't last seven weeks, maybe seven days. Look who we are, look how we've advanced, look what we can do today. Of course, you know, forget about it, right? Now it's hard to imagine it lasting less than seven years. Variants and variants, the light, the dark, oy, oy. So this is the good news is that we're close to Mashiach. If we're finding ourselves in that darkness, we're getting closer and closer to the period of Mashiach. But we have to see Hashem's guiding hand even within that darkness, to feel that light even within the dark, to recognize that even sometimes when something negative happens, there's a guiding hand. So before we delve back into Rav Wolbe, I want to tell you something from the parsha. I didn't get to in last year's parsha shiur on Shmos, and I didn't get to yesterday in the parsha shiur on Shmos, so I gotta get it out one way or another and I'm gonna tell it to you. And if you're listening to Living with Emuna and it's not parsha Shmos, you're catching up some other time, it's still worth listening to this idea. Pasuk says ולכהן מדין שבע בנות. The high priest of Midyan, Yisro, had seven daughters. What's better than six daughters is seven daughters. ותבאנה ותדלנה ותמלאנה את הרהטים להשקות צאן אביהן. And these shepherdesses came, they were tending to the flock of their father. ויבאו הרעים ויגרשום ויקם משה ויושען וישק את צאנם. Hashtag MeToo. These shepherdesses, Yisro's daughters, come to the well and they're being bullied, they're being abused, they're being assaulted by the other shepherds at the well. And Jewish people have always stood up even among corrupt societies. We of course have our own challenges and we have to confront them, but on the whole, Baruch Hashem, the Torah helps calibrate our compass. Baruch Hashem, the Torah helps hopefully elevate Jewish men to live a different way. And that began with Moshe. Vayoshian. Moshe comes to the well and he rescues them. He sees these women, they're being assaulted, they're being abused, they're being attacked, and Moshe stands up and he rescues them. ותבאנה אל רעואל אביהן. They come to their father Reuel. ויאמר מדוע מהרתן בא היום. Why are you home so quickly today? What's going on? The day's not over yet. Why are you home earlier than usual? Vatomalna ish Mitzri. And they say, and here are the keywords, you ready? They come home to Reuel and he says, what happened? Why are you home early today? So they said, ah, something happened at work today, something happened at the water cooler known as the well. Vatomerne ish Mitzri. איש מצרי הצילנו מיד הרועים. There was an Egyptian—what happened is Abba, Tati, dad, I don't know what you call your father in Midian, they said we were getting abused, we're being assaulted at the well. Those bullies, these lowlife shepherds, they keep coming, they have a big kiddush club at the well, they're intoxicated, then they lose their sense of appropriateness and boundaries, they're abusing us, but listen to what happened, dad. Ish Mitzri, there was an Egyptian man, hitzilanu miyad haro'im, he saved us from the hands of the shepherds, וגם דלה דלה לנו וישק את הצאן, it wasn't enough that he saved us, but then he helped draw the water from the well, he fed our flock, we're more efficient than ever, and here we are, we're home. Unbelievable, what do you want for supper, what do you want for dinner? Unbelievable. ויאמר אל בנותיו ואיו למה זה עזבתן את האיש, this hero, where is he? You didn't invite him for supper? Do you know how hard it is to get shidduchim these days, girls? You just let him walk away? You had a winner? He's a hero, he's strong, he confronted the bully, and he drew you the water, and he spoke to you nicely. What are you out of your minds? You let him get away? Where is he? So the big question, what should jump out at you in this whole story, these psukim I just read you, what jumps out at you? How do Yitro's daughters introduce who Moshe was to their father? An Egyptian man saved us. So what's the simple understanding of an Egyptian man saved us? He's from Egypt, he spoke Egyptian, he had an Egyptian accent, he was wearing Egyptian clothing, he walked like an Egyptian, so they said, so they said, an Egyptian man. So the Midrash Tanchuma says, וכי דמות איש מצרי היה משה? Really? Did Moshe walk like an Egyptian, did he look like, did he talk like an Egyptian? Moshe Rabbeinu, true he grew up in the palace of Paroh with the king, אלולי איש מצרי שהרג משה לא היה נכנס למדין. Rather, the Midrash says something amazing. The women were not talking about Moshe. You know who saved them? Do you know who saved them, an Ish Mitzri? Who's the Ish Mitzri who saved them? Rewind the story, back up the truck. In Mitzrayim, why is Moshe in Midian to begin with? How does he make his way to Midian? Because he leaves the palace to go check in on his brothers, and he sees an Egyptian man who is smiting—nobody uses that word 'smite' other than when you're translating Parsha Shmos—but he sees an Egyptian man who was assaulting someone else, and Moshe can't bear to watch this corrupt behavior, so he steps in, he intervenes, he saves the Jew, and the Egyptian, he kills the Egyptian, and now because of that he has to run. So these girls, these women around the well, when they come home and report to their father what happened, they say, not Moshe saved us. You know who saved us? The Egyptian man who's buried in the sand in Egypt, but who was assaulting the other person that led Moshe to intervene, that Moshe then killed him, that Moshe then ran. This whole chain of events only launched, only began why? Because it's unbelievable, Ish Mitzri hitzilanu. Amazing, amazing idea. So Rav Druck, Rabbi Yisroel Meir Druck says, שכך אמרו בנות ישראל למשה יישר כוחך שהצלתנו מיד הרועים. So the daughters of Yisrael say to Moshe, thank you for saving us. So Moshe says, אותו המצרי שהרגתי הוא הציל אתכם. How did these women know about it? How did they know to go home and report to their father about it? How would they have known what precipitated, what led to the chain of events that brought Moshe to Midian? The answer is, Moshe himself, when they're thanking Moshe, Moshe says, what are you thanking me? The only reason I was in the right place at the right time, the only reason I was here in this moment to help save you, is because of this Egyptian man. This wicked, terrible, ill-intent, wicked man in Egypt, but he's the reason you were saved. Because of what he did, it got me involved, which led me to run here, which led me to be there, which led me to save you. Unbelievable. So therefore when they go home and report, quoting Moshe, they say, Ish Mitzri, there was an Egyptian man. It's an amazing idea. And then the Midrash goes on, quotes Mashal leachad, think of it as a parable. So what happened? A snake, some kind of animal, bit, וניכנס בנהר וראה תינוק אחד שהוא שוקע במים. When the man runs down to the river to soak his leg because he was bit by a snake, what does he find in the water? A baby, a child is drowning. He sticks his hand in and he saves the child. Amar lo hatinok, the child says, לולי אתה הייתי מת, if you weren't here I would have died, I was drowning, I wasn't able to stay afloat. Amar lo, the man says, what are you talking about? Lo ani hitzalticha, I didn't save you. You know who saved you? The snake. The snake. ובריחתי ממנו היא הצילה אותך. כך אמרו בנות ישראל למשה, now it's the same thing, the daughters of Yisrael say thank you, and Moshe says, don't thank me, thank the snake, this Egyptian man, that's the only reason I was in the right place at the right time, positioned to be able to, to be able to save you. It's an amazing, amazing thing. First of all, it's the humility of Moshe. Moshe could have said, you're welcome. You have any dinner at least? Offer me something. You know, I saved your lives. But he doesn't. Such humility and such faith. His whole life is centered around not me, not I, not my ego, but Hashem put me in this position. Hashem enabled me. Hashem allowed me. Hashem took care of everything, everything about this. Everything about this. שבזכות שהרגו את המצרי כל הסיפור because he killed the Egyptian it led everything. ולכך אמר לבנות ישראל אין להם כל מה להודות לו. No reason to be grateful to me, I didn't do anything. It was all the Egyptian man. Now you have a great contrast. Paroh. Parsha begins with פרעה אשר לא ידע את יוסף. Paroh who should have been so indebted to Yosef for saving the economy, for saving Egypt, for saving the world. לא זכר שעיקר מלכות וכוח מצרים יסודו בטובה הגדולה שעשה יוסף למצרים. Lo yada, he forgot Yosef. He chose to forget Yosef. Moshe Rabbeinu is the opposite. Moshe doesn't see himself and he orchestrates, he sees the whole thing the way it began. And Paroh, who should have seen Yosef is the one saving him, thinks he's the one who's in control, he's the one who's in charge. And we have that choice about how we live our lives and what we and what we see. It’s amazing, amazing. So yesterday we had a funeral for one of our beloved members, Marcus Witstum. Marcus Witstum of blessed memory, a big character and a wonderful person and a sad, sad loss. And his son Nathan said at the funeral the following amazing story: Marcus was a baal teshuva. Marcus’s father died when he was eight years old. He grew up in Ireland. He was named after his uncle Marcus Witstum, who had a factory in Ireland during the Holocaust. And who because of his factory, his uncle Marcus Witstum was a Polish Jew who moved to Ireland and during the Holocaust he had a factory and he was able to at a great personal expense secure visas to bring Polish Jews to Ireland claiming he needed their expertise in his factory and he was dubbed the Irish Oscar Schindler. He saved dozens and dozens of Jews. That was his uncle Marcus Witstum for whom he was named. And at eight years old his father died. He went to London. He was in an orphanage, a boarding school. His story was fascinating. He became a baal teshuva. You know how he became a baal teshuva? Nathan told the following story: If you’d ask Marcus why are you observant, why are you frum, the answer is a broken tooth. A broken tooth? The answer is when he was in this boarding school in England, a young boy, a young man, he broke a tooth. And he had a cousin who was a dentist and the cousin was observant. So the cousin said, I'll take care of your tooth on one condition. You have to spend Shabbos with me. You have to come to me, I want you to experience Shabbos. Come to my house for Shabbos. No problem, meet me at the office, I'll take care of your broken tooth. Marcus thought it was a small price to pay: a good meal, a hot shower, a nice bed, family for a weekend, why not? And that Shabbos led to his becoming observant and learning in yeshiva and having a beautiful family and the rest of the story. But what led to his becoming observant? A broken tooth. It’s the same thing. Moshe Rabbeinu says, don’t thank me, thank the mitzri. The baby says you saved me from drowning. Don’t thank me, thank the snake that bit me. So Marcus, how did you become observant? Not my cousin, thank the broken tooth. Had he not had the broken tooth and not called the cousin the dentist and not spent the Shabbos and who knows what might have been. Why am I sharing all that with you? Because הושיעה נא שלוש שעות הושיעה נא that in this period of darkness we don't know what feels like darkness in that moment, what feels like a snake bite, what feels like a broken tooth, what feels like for Moshe having to run away from Egypt, from his home and fleeing to Midian. What feels like darkness and what feels like difficulty and what feels like a challenging time in the moment, we don't know what chain of events it launches. We don't know. Sometimes we get to understand retroactively. Sometimes we get to look back at life and try to dissect and analyze and evaluate how’d we get here and what had to happen and isn't it incredible and thank God that worked out that way. Sometimes we never know. We just had a broken tooth or we just had a snake bite or we just had to run from our home. But what it means to live with faith, what it means to be living with emunah, what it means to be living with Hashem-centric life is also when you break the tooth, not to get angry, not to get resentful, not to panic but to realize this broken tooth is a good thing. I don't know why right now, I don't know what it’s going to lead to, who it will introduce me to or how it will transform my life, but Hashem doesn't make me break my tooth unless it's for a good reason. Hopefully we’ll discover why. Marcus looked back at life and understood why and passed that on to his son so that his son spoke at his funeral and said my father attributed his becoming observant to a broken tooth. He looked back and said the best thing that ever happened to him was breaking that tooth. So it means that when we break our tooth, stay calm and carry on and realize Hashem broke our tooth because who knows why. When we get bit by a snake, who knows why. When the flight is delayed, when we get stuck at the red light, when we burn the kugel, when we much more significant... Significant consequential things, who knows why. Who knows why. לפעמים עניינים מתחיל להרגיש חלישות בעבודה. Ma'ayan Ot Tes-Vav. We're back in Rav Wolbe. ברוך אתה ה' אלוהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen. Right, that's my second cup of coffee, but still, brachas still have to be good. So Rav Wolbe says something I find so reassuring. The Wolbe, the great mashgiach of Yerushalayim, the great Rav Wolbe. He says, you know, sometimes I begin to feel chalishus ba'avoda. Sometimes I begin to feel weak in my service of Hashem. I'm not so passionate, I'm not so on fire, I'm not so plugged in, I'm not so connected. אך אז אני חושב לעצמי I think then to myself, כי הנה מתחילה שעת חושך ומיד מתחזק בעבודתו I think, this is my period of darkness. Just like the day cycles between light and dark. Why did Hashem design the world that way? Why not just be light all the time? People like me would never go to sleep, would be a disaster. We'd die chalila very young. You needed to get dark so you know there's night so you go to sleep. But why didn't He just make it light all the time? We could be more productive, more efficient. Why not make it light all the time? There are places, never for a fast day find yourself in those places, right? Where it's like light for like twenty-two and a half hours of the day. Your whole sleep cycle, fast days, Shabbos, Antarctica, yeah. So it's, it's a long, long day. Why did Hashem create a world with light and dark? Because the significance, the symbolism of light and dark is also part of the cycle of life. Not just environmentally, not just naturally do we go through light and dark, day and night, but in our lives we go through those cycles. We go through periods of light, there's great joy and great blessing and great simchas, there's great success and great accomplishment, there's good health, there's happiness, there's nachas, and then there are dark periods. There are dark periods. You know, there are people who can tell you, nineteen seventy-two, nineteen eighty-six, twenty twenty-one, what that year was. Some people can talk about a year they made three simchas, three weddings in one year, and a bas mitzvah and a bris and a, what a year it was, what a year it was, the light was unbelievable, I got sunburned from the light, was unbelievable. And people will talk about a year in which they suffered devastating losses. They lost people and they had a financial collapse and they got divorced and a child, it's a dark. So we have to know though, the same way that if you make it through the night, the sun will come up tomorrow, the sun will come up, you have to know that the sun will come up, it will be light again, just like the day cycles, so too our lives we have these cycle. So says Rav Wolbe, when I feel like I'm entering a period of darkness, I strengthen myself, and I have to prepare, I have to be able to secure, I have to double down, I have to be resilient to be able to ride this wave of darkness, to get through this night in order to wait for the sun to come up again. Agamara amara, the Gemara says בעקבתא דמשיחא חוצפא יסגא. The Gemara says that when Moshiach is coming, there'll be an explosion of chutzpa. והיוקר יאמיר ומלכות תהפך למינות ואין תוכחה בית ועד יהיה לזנות והגליל יחרב וחכמת סופרים תסרח ויראי חטא ימאסו והאמת תהא נעדרת נערים פני זקנים ילבינו זקנים יעמדו בפני קטנים ועל מה לנו להישען. It's a very depressing Gemara. Gemara says that just prior to Moshiach's arrival the world will be upside down. The world will be inside out. Everything's going to be backwards. Instead of it being that honor and dignity are what define the day, chutzpa yasga. I just wrote an article for this week, Wall Street Journal had an article a couple days ago that the pandemic has brought a proliferation of profanity. They measure online the use of curse words and profanity and people just don't have what it takes to even speak with dignity and with class and the level of profanity, the level of cursing, and the article quotes all the different reasons why because we're tired and we're spent and we have a casual thing and we're in each other's living rooms because of Zoom and all of these comfort and casual and whatever the reasons are. chutzpa yasga. And malchus te'hafech l'minus, royalty will turn into heresy, and בית ועד יהיה לזנות and homes that were honorable places will be filled with promiscuity, and there'll be a dissolving of wisdom, and truth will be hidden, and the young will challenge and embarrass the older, and the older will be standing up, זקנים יעמדו בפני קטנים, the older will be afraid of and fearing the young. All these things may sound familiar. They're all a very accurate description of what's happening, which is depressing, but it's also very hopeful. That maybe we're ot ot, maybe we're right there. Maybe he's coming. So says the Gemara Sotah Mem-Tes, על מה לנו יש להישען? So what do we rely on? What do we rest on? What do we lean... על מי לנו להישען על אבינו שבשמים. All we can have left. We look around and we say this world is inside out and backwards and upside down. We don't even know who anyone is, what they are. We're living in a crazy world. A professor is fired, has to apologize because he talked about when a woman has a baby. Has to apologize because he said when a woman has a baby and he should have never of said that. He should have said when a person has a baby. And you say, this is this Gemara. What world are we living in? We're back in the dark ages, we don't know anymore. Upside down, right from wrong, who we're canceling and who we're promoting and who has millions of followers online and who we say... what? We're living in an upside down, inside out, backwards world. ונערים פני זקנים ילבינו. Younger people have no respect for authority. Older, accomplished people are bowing down, are submitting and surrendering, are afraid of the younger people. The Gemara is mamash an unbelievably accurate description of what's going on. על מי לנו להישען? So what do we rely on? What's left? The Ribbono Shel Olam. Barur kayom says Rav Wolbe, it is as clear as day אנו נמצאים בתקופה זו של עקבתא דמשיחא. It's as clear as day says Rav Wolbe. Rav Wolbe is writing, he passed away already many years ago, but he's writing in his time. It's clear as day, we're living in the period of ikvesa d'meshicha. We are on the verge, we are ut ut, we're in that last time period. דברים רבים ממה שנשנו בגמרא אנו כבר רואים בקיומם כגון חכמת סופרים תסרח כמה שנאה יש כלפי לומדי תורה. There's such an assault on religion, there's an assault on religious values, there's an assault on religious personalities, there's an assault on religious ideology. כשמגיעים אנו למצב זה, when we arrive in this position שכל סדרי החיים הפוכים מבית ומחוץ, where the whole world is inside out. דור של שחיסות כזו, we're living in such a world of... ma nish'ar la'asos? What's left? חייבים לחיות באמונה וצדיק באמונתו יחיה. The answer is the pasuk Shlomo HaMelech tells us tzaddik be'emunaso yichyeh. And you say, how can I live like this? How can I live in this world of political correctness? I don't know which words I can use, I don't know who I can talk to, I don't know what's right, I don't know what's the law... how do I live like this? The answer is be'emunaso yichyeh. Dip in and double down and remember there's a Ribbono Shel Olam. Ribbono Shel Olam and unapologetically stand for His values, His ideals, sensitively. We're not insensitive and we don't rub it in anyone's face and we don't use religion as a weapon. We should be sensitive. We're living in complicated times. There's a lot of people in pain because there is a lot of confusion and the world is contributing to that confusion. So we have to have enormous sensitivity when we're dealing with many of these issues. I'm not advocating or suggesting that we use religion as a club to bang people on the head. Tremendous sensitivity, but also unapologetically standing up for what we know is true, for what we believe on, without compromise, without watering it down and without adding to the confusion. דור שאין בו ממידת האמת צריך חיזוק רב לדעת שאין לנו בעולמנו אלא הקדוש ברוך הוא לבד ועליו נשען. In a generation where we know we don't have truth anymore. What's truth? Things that we always knew were true from the beginning of time. zachar unekeiva bara'am. Things that we knew were true from the beginning of time are no longer true. How do you live in this world that we don't know what's true anymore? Simple facts, simple biological, anatomical facts, things that we knew. Again, I say with sensitivity. We have to have sensitivity when we discuss and specifically when we talk to people who are struggling or not struggling or don't know they're struggling with these issues. But while at the same time that we have sensitivity we also have to have truth. Who's left as the ambassadors of truth in this world? We hope the pendulum will swing back in the other direction, and there are signs that it's beginning to. But even if it doesn't, what's left? הקדוש ברוך הוא לבד. We answer to Him, we work for Him, we report to Him, and He is what informs and inspires our sense of truth. ve'alav nisha'en and we lean on, we lean on Him. עלינו להאמין בו עד כדי התקרבות אליו יתברך רק על ידי זה ניתן להגיע לכל המעלות. Only by connecting and grabbing on to Him can we get to all of the high levels. You know there's a panic, there's an earthquake, children go to find their parent. You're on the boat and it's rocking, they go grab on to their parent. There's a blackout, the lights go out, they go grab on to the parent. So the darker it gets, the stronger you have to hold on to the tatte, the stronger you have to hold on to the mamme, the stronger you have to hold on to Avinu shebashamayim, Hashem. It's not that it's darker so therefore it's harder to find Him, so therefore figure it out without Him. A person might be tempted to say we're living in such a dark, confused, inside out, backwards world, it's harder to find Him than ever, so I'll figure it out on my own. It's the opposite. The darker, the scarier it gets, the bigger the threat, the higher the earthquake is on the Richter scale, the harder. The greater the category of a hurricane, the greater the danger, the threat, the darker the blackout is, the more you have to hold on to the parent, Avinu Shebashamayim. They grab on. Have you ever had a scary moment? You walk off a roller coaster with your child and your arms black and blue. You're mamash black and blue afterwards. The scary part of the roller coaster, they grabbed you, they held you so tight, they dug the fingernails into your skin and you're black and blue because they held so tight. They held so tight. You take a child to the doctor and they're going to get their shot and you say squeeze my finger. You're screaming louder than the kid getting the shot. The scarier something is, the harder, the tighter you hold on. So that says Rav Wolbe is the message for us. Scarier the world is around us. Omicron sounds like a transformer. Omicron is coming to get us. So whatever the latest variant's going to be, you got tornadoes in Kansas, you just the world every day you wake up and you say, will there be a deal with Iran, is Iran are they going to bomb us every day you say what am I going to find today? What am I going to find today? You come home from a vacation there was a fire in your air conditioner. What am I going to find today? You wake up you say you have no idea what today is going to bring. Who's going to test positive, how is it going to change, I'm going to have to quarantine, it's going to change my whole schedule, my plans, my that's a best-case scenario because everyone's healthy and well, just inconvenienced. How am I going to change my life and my schedule? The darker it gets, the tighter you have to hold on. Don't be distracted and don't give up, don't have despair, the darker it gets, the tighter, the tighter we hold on, the tighter we hold on. מה שתיארנו כאן אינה ירידה. We're on lamed zayin. Bottom of page pey zayin. מה שתיארנו כאן אינה ירידה. זה מצב של ימותו כל מוסדי ארץ, התמוטטות החיים הכלכליים, החברתיים והמשפחתיים, המוסריים והמדיניים, מפליא הוא איך חז"ל ברוח קדשם ראו כל זאת לפני אלפיים שנה בבהירות כזאת. How is it? The more, you know, I haven't seen people write about this. It'd be a fascinating study. I wish people it's not a safe space for anyone to actually talk about this. We're living in an unprecedented time of progress. In some ways, we measure the progress in some ways. We have automated cars and they're getting only better and better and there'll be a point where you take a nap in the back seat and your car gets you from point A to point B and wakes you up when you get there. It's going to happen in our lifetime. It's getting closer and closer to it. And people can now, not astronauts, stam people who want to take a ride to the moon can khap a ride to the moon. And and I've told you this, that if you don't know this feature you should because if you have children who live in New York and in Israel and elsewhere and you're all in a family WhatsApp group, you could press one button, the little video camera, it says group chat and now multiple screens and everybody pops up and you're having a big conversation with everybody who lives everywhere. This is George Jetson stuff. This is incredible crazy stuff. This is Disney World of progress stuff that's now outdated and you know. This is we're living in a time of insane progress. Omicron came, so in the lab they're like don't worry we'll have a new antibody infusion treatment out within a few weeks. We know how to tweak it to the latest variant. It's unbelievable mind-boggling stuff. It's mind-boggling stuff. Mind-boggling stuff. The progress in our time is mind-boggling. And yet when it comes to morality and ethics, we're going backwards to the Dark Ages. We're going backwards to Greece. We're going backwards to Egypt, ancient Egypt. We're going backwards in promiscuity and moral decadence and moral decay and moral confusion. We're going backwards. I haven't seen anyone talk or write about this. I don't even mean from a Torah perspective, I mean from a general perspective. That how we could simultaneously be warp speed going forward in one direction and warp speed going backwards simultaneously when it comes to others. So you feel like hopeless despair. If you're not concerned about your children and grandchildren, you're crazy. Who knows who can get caught up in what and who will end up where and who will get smitten by what idea and value. So Chazal our rabbis knew the answer. Our sacred Torah knew the answer. Double down and hold tighter to Abba, to your father. Grab onto that life vest. Grab onto that anchor. The winds are blowing like unprecedented speeds. Hold on, hold on. שבעינינו אנו רואים איך מתאמת כל דבר בדייקנות נוראה. גם במצב שהיינו ישנים בביטחון מוחלט על אבינו שבשמיים. So our rabbis Masechet Sota was 2,000 years ago. Ravina, Rav Ashi, they closed the Gemara, it was 2,000 years ago. And 2,000 years ago they described exactly what we're going through now. And they told us the problem and they told us the solution and what's the solution? Avinu Shebashamayim. Now I'm not advocating withdrawing necessarily from the world around us. As confused, as complicated as it is, it's a beautiful world and Hashem wants us to engage it and He wants us to extract the beauty from it and He wants us to contribute to it. Society is still filled with a lot of beauty and a lot which enriches. I'm not advocating withdrawal. But we have to be more vigilant than ever as we confront that world and as we try to draw the best from the world and we have to feel Avinu Shebashamayim looking over our shoulder. He's with us. He's with us. I'm going to get in trouble now by ending with this. Maybe I should quit while I'm ahead. I got a voice note from a woman in Israel, I never met her, I don't know her, yesterday, and she had a group of seminary girls at her Shabbos table. I won't tell you the two seminaries, but from two typical classic non-Orthodox seminaries. And at the Shabbos meal, they told her how angry they are. And why are they angry? Because as they've had this growth spurt in Israel in seminary and they've discovered values and ideals and lifestyle choices and what is important, they are registered to go to universities in which it will be almost impossible to live those values and ideals and they are very angry. How come nobody told them when they were applying to colleges? How come no one warned them or cautioned them? How come no one told them who they are and who they're meant to be and made sure they'd be in an environment which would protect and help them be that? And how are they registered and might end up in a place where they can't be true to what they've discovered is the most authentic version of who they are? So this woman called me and said, this was the conversation at my Shabbos table in Israel. I don't know why she ended up on my WhatsApp group thinking I could make a difference with this, but said, how could be at the end of a 12-year of education, parents spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, that we're equally celebrating, considering, and getting into and attending places that in the world today, I don't know that we sufficiently understand what's happening on these campuses? They're not neutral. It's not just that there's not like a Gemara shiur going on. It's not that there's not necessarily a great minyan or a Shabbos meal or a mussar shmooze. It's not that it's a parve place. You cannot imagine the assault and the values and the pressures when it comes to modesty, morality, when it comes to Israel, when it comes to anti-Semitism. And again, this is not a wholesale, it's assur to go and you can't go and there are exceptions and I'm not, that's not what this is. That's not what this is. But it's having an honest evaluation of who we are and where we're sending and how are we preparing them and are they ready? And what does it look like? And what are the results? Are we doing the research to understand the data? That our kids we spend the 12 years and the hundreds of thousands of dollars and what do they look like on the other side? In four years, do they undo 12 years or 13 or 14 years? Do they undo 20 generations? What's happening? Again, this is not a wholesale rejection. There are people who should go and who thrive and do better in that environment because they have to stand out. I understand every situation is different and I'm a big advocate of nuance in life. I don't believe that anyone should just stand up and say anything is entirely wrong or entirely right. There's nuance with it. But are we really, are we being mindful? Are we being aware? So this woman left me this long voice note. There was nothing wrong with it, but one of the great gifts Hashem has given me in the last year is that on WhatsApp you could listen in multiple speeds. I feel like Hashem did that for me. There's nothing wrong with the long voice note. Baruch Hashem, it was beautiful. I just could be more efficient in listening to it. And I hope and pray she's not listening to this. It was, I'm glad that she left the long voice note because it's raising this awareness and it woke me up to that. And she wasn't shrying a gevalt like I moved to Israel and I frummed out and now I'm yelling at you rabbis in America. She was repeating a conversation from her Shabbos table of seminary girls who are sharing that frustration, that disappointment. So they're saying 2,000 years ago the rabbis in Sotah saw that we're going to live in a time in which the winds are blowing, in which up is down and down is up and inside is out and Avinu Shebashamayim, we need to double down on our Jewish identity and our Jewish pride and our Torah learning and our Torah living because it's the only way we're going to come out on the other side. The only way we're going to have a Jewish continuity. Look at what's going on, 70% intermarriage rate. Look at what's going on with assimilation. And when I talk about assimilation, I'm not talking about assimilation among the unaffiliated. I'm talking about assimilation among Orthodox Jews, shomer Shabbos frum Jews, assimilation in our values. Flip through the frummest Torah magazines right now and assimilation is on every other page. What's being advertised in terms of the ostentatiousness and in terms of the materialism and consumerism, and is these aren't Jewish values. We're assimilated Torah Jews. The pressure to keep up and the emphasis on the consumerism, materialism in the frummest so to speak, those aren't Jewish values. We're assimilated in all these directions. And this is what Chazal warned us. They said the closer and closer and closer you come to Mashiach, the stronger the winds are going to blow. The higher on the Richter scale the earthquake is going to rock you. And there's only one thing that's going to keep you stable and safe and secure and that is hold on tighter and tighter. Giv Hashem a black and blue mark. Let your fingernails pierce His skin. Hold on tighter and tighter and tighter. It's not a time to let go. It's not a time to hold on loose. It's not a time to explore and let them discover for themselves—another conversation with a parent choosing certain school options for their child, says, "I want my child to choose religion." I said, "That's beautiful, and if they do choose it'll be a richer life, but are you ready if they make the other choice? Are you prepared for what that means if they make the other choice?" By the way, did you give them the choice whether to brush their teeth or not when they were three years old? Did you say, "I want them to choose, let all the teeth fall out and be filled with cavities because I want them to choose the beauty of brushing your teeth." Did you let them cut school? "I want them to go to school because they chose to go to school." Or did you strap them in the car seat and get them to school and drop them off and hand them off? So where's our responsibility and where's our vigilance and where's our role that the stronger the wind is blowing and the harder the earth is being rocked, to hold on tighter and tighter and to grab the people we love to hold on tighter and tighter? קורא הדורות מראש קרוב גם הדור הזה ואדרבא ואחרונים אני הוא השגחה פרטית וסיעתא דשמיא מיוחדת נמצאת דווקא בעקבתא דמשיחא. We need a greater Siyata D'shmaya. We need a greater providence. We need Hashem's greater intervention. And so Chevra, friends, as we're going through this period of darkness—omicron and corona and assimilation and assault and challenge—we have more prosperity than ever before. It's easier to live as a Jew than ever before. It's easier to live as a Jew than ever before, and we are a more prosperous Jewish people than ever before. In fact, this is a very big challenge that we have. We have 2,000 years of practice of how to live with nothing. 2,000 years of practice, we have a mesorah, we have a tradition of how to live with persecution and oppression and taxation, how to live with expulsion. 2,000 years of practice. We don't have a lot of practice of how to live with prosperity, and it's killing us. It's killing us. How to live with prosperity, how to live with Jewish wealth, how to live with Jewish safety and secure—we don't have a lot of practice when the host nation says, "Shalom aleichem, welcome. Be just like us. Join us. Integrate. No problem. Enjoy." We don't have a lot of practice. So these are very, very challenging and very dark times in many ways. And if we want to make it through the night to get to the sunrise rising in the morning, we gotta hold on tighter and tighter and tighter. Tighter in mitzvos and tighter with Torah learning and tighter with emunah and tighter in talking about Hashem. Talking about Hashem. And if our child is going to that place because it's right for them—for some it is correct—but every day do we talk to them? "How's your neshama? Tell me, do you see Hashem on the campus? Are you taking classes that promote and increase your relationship with Hashem? How is your Jewish identity and your Jewish pride and your Jewish lifestyle and your Jewish practice? Are you making a kiddush Hashem? Are you lighting the world, are you transforming the world, are you bringing Hashem there to that campus?" Yosef found himself in Mitzrayim, going back to last week, Vayechi. Yosef finds himself in Mitzrayim. But what does he do while he's there? שם שמים שגורה בפיו, he can't stop talking about God. And he makes Paro into a baal teshuva—before the Paro we meet in our parsha. But Paro, שם שמים שגורה בפיו, because Yosef wears his yarmulke to work and around the campus and to classes and he stands up and he confronts a professor who's assaulting Israel or attacking the Jew and he stands up for he says, "These are our values and this is what we stand for and this is who we are, and I'm going to protect it and I'm going to stand for it." So these are the conversations I think that we have to be having. We have to model holding on tighter and then we have to encourage and strengthen our children and our families to hold on tighter. And when we do im yirtzeh Hashem we'll come out the other side to the light. Tonight 9 o'clock Behind the Bima with my childhood friend Joe Gittler, Joseph Gittler, founder of Leket Israel, amazing organization doing great things and he has a great story. And hope to see you then. Stay happy, stay healthy, stay holy.
