Transcript
Good morning boker tov, welcome back to Living with Emuna. Thank you so much for your flexibility meeting today instead of our normal Wednesday slot, Baruch Hashem for a simcha. I want to thank our generous sponsors of the Emuna shiur, Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Gabbay, in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Shanzer. We remain enormously grateful to the Morgans. This morning's shiur is also sponsored lekavod Rosh Chodesh, a gut chodesh everybody, in memory of Dr. Jacob M. Hiller who exemplified a mahalach to live with simchas hachayim, and in honor of Shirley Gurnand's recent birthday by her children and grandchildren, Happy Birthday. And by Michelle Diamond in honor of the second yahrtzeit of Chaim M. Diamond which is coming up, so hard to believe our beloved and dear friend Chaim, we continue to draw strength from him, inspiration from him, and we continue to miss him terribly. I want to start off by reading a emuna email, keep them coming. They inspire me and they inspire others as people share their practical application of living with emuna, not only in theory and not only academically, but putting it into practice in life's challenging moments. So the author of this email shares, I just want to thank you for the beautiful emuna shiurim. Just want to share a quick emuna story that happened a few days ago. I've had a few episodes of pneumonia, doctor suggested I follow up with a specialist. Did I read this one? I thought of our classes before making the appointment at the doctor. I wanted an appointment with a supposedly an excellent doctor in the field and I was told it can be months before I will get the appointment. I remembered that we said that whatever happens is what Hashem wants, hashgacha. I explained the situation to the secretary and asked to be put on the waiting list. She told me they don't have a waiting list and gave me an appointment a couple of months away, which is what I expected. And I guess when you have pneumonia you don't want to hear that you have an appointment in a couple of months. About 20 minutes later I got a call back. We just got a cancellation. I know you mentioned you want to be on a waiting list, so I thought of you. Would you like the appointment in two weeks instead? Im yirtzeh Hashem everything will work out with the doctor as the story is not over yet. The hashgacha of making the appointment, the timing of me calling right before a cancellation, the secretary thinking of me and calling me back, all a reminder that Hashem is running the show. So sometimes that has a good ending, sometimes it does not have a good ending, but Hashem is always running the show, there's always a master plan. We do the best that we can, we take our initiative, we make our effort, we do all that we can, the rest we let go and let God. The rest we are in His hands as we spoke about last week, על פי ה' יחנו ועל פי ה' יסעו. All of our journeys and all of our encampments and wherever we go, including the detours and the rerouting of life, the delays and the rescheduling, it's all from above. It is all determined min hashamayim. It is not up to us and the sooner that we stop having this power struggle, the sooner that we let go and we stop trying to wrestle the power away from Him, the happier our life can be. As we said last night, once we're already along for the ride we might as well put down our luggage and not hold it in our lap. We might as well not be carrying it with the burden and the weight. Put it down and go along for the ride no matter what's happening. Last week we left off we're learning Rav Gamliel Rabinovich, Tuv HaEmuna. This incredible sefer reminding us of the basic principles of emuna, things that we already know and yet we tend to forget. Which is why we make a hundred brachos a day and we daven in the morning, afternoon, and night and throughout our day, no less than a hundred times we have to remind ourselves that there's a Hashem, that He's in control, that He's in charge, because we live in a world, the world is called olam. The word olam comes from the word he'elam, ne'elam, which means hiddenness. This is a world of Hashem's hiddenness. He's not on billboards, I mean He is if your eyes are open, if your antenna is extended, but it's so easy. It is so easy to forget that He is there. It is so easy to fall prey into thinking we're in charge, we're in control. It's so easy to subscribe to the rules of nature. It's so easy to forget that He's in charge, He's in control. He is hidden. That's why the world is a place of hiddenness. And therefore when God is hidden we have to go hide and seek, we have to go look for Him. We have to go look for Him. So no less than a hundred times a day, before and after everything that we eat and every time we come out of the bathroom and every time we daven from the morning, afternoon, and evening, we are on this hide and seek, we're playing this game with God. We are looking for Him, we're trying to reveal Him, we're trying to find Him. So last week we saw, the last thing we left off, לא לחשוב מה יאמרו העולם. We don't say as Jews, we don't say what will the world think? What will the world say? By the way after last week I told the story of the two boys who hugged each other outside the chuppah room, the yichud room, the yichud. So I got an email from somebody who wants to know about the boys, who wants to set them up with their nieces. Unbelievable. Isn't that great? Who knows, you never know the shidduchim that come out of the emuna stories. Out of the emuna stories. So a person should never be embarrassed and never be ashamed and never hesitate to reflect and display that we believe in and we love and we talk about Hashem. Like we're not afraid, we're not embarrassed, we're not defensive, we're not apologetic, but we live lives of faith, we live lives where we see Him everywhere, we live lives where we want to reveal Him to the world and we want to mold and shape the world in the image of what He wants. Live lives in which we everything that we say, like the Shlah Hakadosh, God willing, bezrat Hashem, im yirtzeh Hashem, chasdei Hashem, that everything is planned from above, which brings us to this week. בכל נשימה צריך לחשוב מהשם יתברך. We're on page Pei Gimmel, page 83. כל אשר ראה וכל אשר למד צריך לראות בזה אמונה חושית והכרה בבורא. Everything we see and everything we learn, a person needs to experience through the prism, through the filter of emunah vehakara baborei. So whatever we see, whatever's revealed to us, whatever we're present for, whatever we happen to stumble upon, whatever we happen to see or hear or read, whatever we observe or witness, we were meant to see and hear. We shared many times the Ba'al Shem Tov's interpretation. The Mishna in Avot tells us, a person needs to know what is above, דע מה למעלה ממך, know what is above, עין רואה ואוזן שומעת, the eye sees and the ear hears, וכל מעשיך בספר נכתבים, and all that you do is recorded. And the Ba'al Shem Tov said it does not mean simply that God sees and hears all that you do. Don't ever think anything that we can do is hidden. Hakadosh Baruch Hu has access to our browser history, even if you've tried to erase it. He knows the server, even if you've tried to wipe it. He has the laptop, even if you left it at the shop. He has everything. Hakadosh Baruch Hu who is able to see it all, he's got access to all the cameras, everything that we do when we think nobody's around, when we think it's only our inner thought or our behavior that nobody sees, Hakadosh Baruch Hu has access to it all. But the Ba'al Shem Tov said read it differently. Know that ayin ro'ah, whatever you see you were meant to see, and whatever you hear you were meant to hear. Now what are you going to do with it? You were around when you overheard that someone's struggling or in trouble, did you intervene, did you help? You saw something, did it make you recoil, did it fill you with shame? We spoke on Shabbos about the power of bushah, the power of a healthy dose of shame. That Rachav Hazonah she said mecholi, forgive me, with the same rope and window and flax, the same way that her clients snuck in through the window for her services is the same way that she hid the two spies in last week's Haftarah. She says to Hakadosh Baruch Hu, even when I, even when I led this profession, the world's oldest profession, the profession of ill repute, even when I was the world's most famous zonah, nevertheless I didn't hang a shingle, I didn't put up a neon sign, I didn't invite people to come through the front, I still made them climb through the window because I was ashamed, because I was embarrassed. And as long as we do not take pride or celebrate when we indulge our yetzer hara, as long as we remember that even when we can't help but behave in a way because it doesn't conform, Hashem's will doesn't conform with the way that we want to live our lives, but at least minimally we should maintain that healthy sense of shame because השכל הוא הבושה והבושה היא השכל. If we don't have a healthy dose of shame, if we don't blush, if we don't recoil when we feel a boundary's been crossed or violated, if we don't feel that something's pas nisht, it's beneath us, then we lose our seichel, we lose our discernment, we lose our capacity to distinguish right from wrong, moral from immoral, to know what is correct and what is incorrect. We have to have a healthy dose and a healthy sense of shame. So when we're standing there and we hear language which is profane, a joke which is off-color, when we see or hear something which is inappropriate, do we still blush? Only human beings blush. And only human beings wear clothing. We said last week the Hebrew word for clothing is levush because it protects us from bushah. We wear clothing not just to protect ourselves from the elements, we wear clothing to protect ourselves from the shame that would come from nakedness. A person should be ashamed. And we're living in a shameless society and a shameless generation and a shameless time that says there's nothing to be ashamed of, nothing to be embarrassed of, wear or don't wear or act or behave with anyone anywhere anytime as long as it makes you happy. Shamelessness, that's what's promoted. We celebrate shamelessness. And it's the end of society because if you have no shame then you have no discernment. הבושה הוא השכל השכל הוא הבושה. We're going to live in a society that's so advanced in so many ways but it lacks basic seichel in others if we continue down this path of shamelessness. So we need to restore the healthy sense of shame that is the spiritual nerve endings of a person to know something's wrong, something's off, some line has been crossed, this isn't right, this isn't right. We don't live with the shamelessness, we celebrate a healthy shame. So that's what the Rav Gamliel is saying: כל אשר ראה וכל אשר למד, whatever you see and whatever you learn, צריך לראות בזה אמונה חושית והכרה בבורא. So you were present when something inappropriate's going on, should recoil, you should blush, you should be embarrassed, you should be ashamed. You indulged in behavior that you couldn't help it. It's a very dangerous thing. We live in a world where everything is a coffee clutch, you talk about anything, there's nothing private anymore. And you know there should be intimate thoughts that are your own. You don't have to share online and offline and post and make your status every thought, every experience, every moment. There are things that are intimate and private and they're your own. They should stay in the recesses of your heart or they're shared between you and your closest loved ones and they don't have to be shared with the whole universe. There's privacy, there's intimacy. There has to be boundaries. We have to be able to hold back and we don't talk about the most intimate things. People casually speak about very intimate, very private things. It's one thing you have a confidant, it's one thing you need advice, it's one thing you need counsel, but just to casually share, to casually share, there should be things that are private. וכל עניינם העוברים עליו מהבוקר עד ערב ואפילו בכל ענייני הגשמיות והפרנסה יראה רק הבורא. So we're supposed to live in a world where all we see is Him. You know, the world is a matrix. The world is an illusion. The world is a mashal. This entire world is a metaphor. The reality is Hashem. That's all that's real. All that's real is what we can't see. We get it backwards and we think you know what's real? This table, this chair, that camera, you, this delicious coffee, the amazing cups, caffeinated with kavanah. That's all real because I could touch it and I can feel it. The coffee I can smell it and I can taste it. I can see it, I can hear it, so it's real. But Hashem? Nah, He's like the tooth fairy. You know, it's a little shtickel make-believe. Maybe I hedge to lead my life that if He is there because some really smart people believe He's there, but we have it entirely backwards. He is the only thing that's real. He existed before the world, He will exist after the world, He is not affected by the world, He's outside of time, outside of space. He's the only thing that's real. And we're temporary and we're finite and we're mere mortals and we're here today and we're gone tomorrow and we will be in the future worm food that we can't take anything with us and we are so fragile and so vulnerable and we have no idea I wouldn't say what tomorrow brings, we have no idea what the rest of today will bring. So He's the only thing that's real. And the rest of the world is a matrix, the rest of the world is an illusion, the rest of the world He's metzamtzem himself, He restricts himself, He holds back to make space and to pretend that there is a world. If you sit and play with your children, your grandchildren, kein ayin hara, little children. So it's an incredible, incredible thing. Little children can play with little figures, action figures, for hours and hours and hours. Shabbos is endless right now, it feels, baruch Hashem. Can go on all afternoon. You could go to sleep and take your nap and your child is playing with these little action figures. And you wake up four, five hours later, halevai, and the children are playing with the same little action figures. And you say there's no multimedia, it's not some online, it's not some, these little action, they've made a whole world. They've built a whole storyline, a whole narrative, they've made a whole adventure, they've made an entire world. Is it real? In their imagination it's real, but we look at them and we say, "Sweet little child, it's so cute you occupied and preoccupied yourself the whole afternoon by playing this game and by playing with these toys and it's so sweet and adorable that you think it's real, but it's not real. I'm real, and life is real, and the fact that I made you your sandwich and that you have to go to bed and that I got you this clothing and that I protect you, that's what's real. And your little storyline that you were immersed in, that you think is real, that you're surrounded by, it's adorable and it's sweet but it's an illusion, it's fake, it's a figment of your imagination, it's how you've occupied yourself this afternoon." And Hakadosh Baruch Hu looks down at us and He says, "Sweet little child, this little life that you lead with the things that you think are real and the people and the objects and the pursuit and the material and the pleasures, it's so sweet, it's so cute, it's so adorable, you occupy yourself with it and you think it's real, but I'm the only thing that's real. And I protect you and I housed you and I host you and you only exist because I will it and without it you wouldn't be here. And it's so cute you think that you're real, but we get it backwards. We get it backwards. This entire world is a mashal, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is the nimshal. He's the only thing that exists and we exist because He wills our existence. And as the Baal HaTanya says, we've shared it before, the same way if I tell you close your eyes, I want you to picture a red sports car, that's not the Baal HaTanya's example, but it's mine. If you close your eyes and I say I want you to picture a red sports car, a beautiful Ferrari, shiny, and incredible angles and edges and gloss and a magnificent sports car. Does that Ferrari exist? Does the image exist? Absolutely, in your mind as long as you continue to imagine it. But if I say open your eyes and come back to me, return to drinking your coffee, come back to. what we're talking about here, does the Ferrari still exist? No. As soon as you're distracted, as soon as you no longer thinking of it, as soon as your imagination no longer is creating that image, the image only exists as long as you imagine it. We exist, says the Baal HaTanya lehavdil, as long as Hashem imagines us, we exist as the image in his mind's eye. And as soon as he were to stop imagining us, we would cease to exist. So are we real? We think we're real because we have it backwards. What we see, smell, touch, hear, feel, what we engage our senses, we think is real. And he, yeah, maybe, maybe not, I don't know, sort of, hopefully, we'll find out. It's the opposite, it's backwards. He's the only thing that's real. He's the only thing that's real. Now, unfortunately, we don't get a choice of swallowing a pill which will allow us to see the truth, the Matrix that's operating this whole world of illusion. We don't get that choice, we don't get that option, we don't get that alternative. We have to sort of swallow our own pill. We have to ourselves peel back the layers beyond the illusion to see that world of truth that's making it all happen. We have to see Hashem behind it all. We have to pull back the curtain to see the wizard that is Hashem, who is the only thing that exists, who's operating this entire world. Last week, by the way, I had a conversation an hour and a half with Rav Manis Friedman about this subject. It's on the mind of many of our chevra in our shtiebel minyan. We've been talking about it already for over a year. Rav Manis was in town for the wedding of a grandchild, so we met and somebody videoed it and put it up online. If you want to watch this hour and a half discussion about what's real and not real and Hashem and his essence and can we know him or not know him, and much was enlightening, and I learned, and much we agreed, and some we disagreed, and had a healthy discussion, borderline debate, but it was a lot of fun if you want to follow it online. So אפילו בכל עניני גשמיות והפרנסה, even within this whole world of the physical and the whole world of our sustenance and our livelihood, yera rak haborei. Don't see what is before you, don't see the surface, don't see the superficial, see the depth, the pnimiyus. We have to get beyond the surface and the superficial. This life, this world we're living in is more and more superficial and surface. And Jewish people, our whole mission is to explore and to go deeper and deeper. Don't live on the surface, don't live the superficial, go to the pnimiyus. Peel back like an onion the layers and layers and layers and get to the core, get to the foundation, get to the essential, get to the pnimiyus. ויד השם בכל פעולה ופעולה, the hand of Hashem is behind everything that is happening around us, ואת כל העולם יראה רק כבית יד וחיצוניות ליד עצמו שהיא בורא כל העולמים עצמו, and see that everything that's happening is the hand of Hashem. That's part of our discussion with Rav Manis. Torah describes the yad Hashem, the outstretched arm of Hashem. So that's an anthropomorphism. God doesn't have a hand. The Rambam says a fundamental faith is to know that we have hands, God does not. But Rav Manis feels that our hand is only a mashal. Why would Hashem choose to use the metaphor that he has a hand like our hand? Because really our hand is the metaphor for his hand, which is the truest hand. But what does it mean, his hand? So he claims to understand what is his hand. That's where I stop and said he's speaking the language that we can relate to and identify with. He's giving us a vocabulary that works for us. But we can't understand his essence. He's infinite, we're finite. But it means something we can identify with, the power of a hand, which is good enough for me to connect with what he's trying to communicate without having to get to try to the essence of Hashem to think that we have access to his essence. So what does that mean, the hand of Hashem? The same way that my hand from a thousand miles away, what does it mean my hand was in that? So we make a shidduch six thousand miles away. Yocheved baruch Hashem had a shidduch within our community. The wedding is im yirtzeh Hashem couple days away, be-shaa tovah u-mutzlachas. A boy and a girl from our community, but who are both in Israel. So her hand was in that shidduch. Her hand was in the shidduch? That's a long arm, six thousand miles. Her arm can stretch from Boca Raton to Yerushalayim? Six thousand miles? So even as a metaphor that we use ourselves, we say her hand was in that shidduch. My hand was in that business deal. My hand was in that effort, that I had a hand in it. What do we mean when we say I had a hand in it? That the result was my action brought about that result, my initiative, my effort, I'm behind that result. So the hand of Hashem means that whatever is happening to us, it's the hand of Hashem. There's no such thing as nature. There's no such thing as coincidence, chance, randomness. To a certain degree, there's no such thing as human effort. to execute, it's all from Hashem. So when we discuss it being his hand, he had a hand in it, it means it's all from him. ואלו האנשים המחפשים עולם הזה יראו כאנשים חסרי תכלית שאינם יודעים כלל למה באו לעולם הזה. The people who live in the here and now, the people who live in this world, the people who think it's all about this world, how many things can I accumulate, how many things can I amass, how many pleasures can I experience? They're so confused and upside down and backwards, they have it all wrong, have it all wrong and it's so sad, it's so tragic. They are forfeiting and conceding and trading in eternity, Netzach Netzachim, eternity for the here and now and for this world. That doesn't mean that Hashem wants us to live, he doesn't want us to live ascetic lives, he doesn't want us to live without enjoyment, without pleasure, he wants us to tap into the pleasures of this world, eat and drink and enjoy physical intimacy, physical pleasure, go see and go explore the nature of this world, he wants us, but not to do it with an eye to the here and now, to do it in a way that is in fact nourishing, to do it in a way that is enriching and elevating our world to come, our neshamah, our neshamah. אבל הוא יודע ומבין את סוד הבריאה ותכליתה. A person has to know this whole world's an illusion, this whole world's a matrix, and I just want to peel back the layers, I just want to see the matrix, I just want to understand what's happening in the back room, I just want to get behind the curtain and be with the wizard. כמו שכתב הזוהר הקדוש, and all of this is the way what the Zohar haKadosh writes, בגין דאשתמודעון ליה דלזהו בא לעולם לעבודתו. That is why we're here. What? That is why we're here. We are here to see Hashem behind everything. So it's not as we've said so many times, it's not the Sefer Torah in there? Is the Sefer Torah in there in this drawer? I think so, no? Okay, you need to take it, take it. Okay, go ahead. You got it? Baruch Hashem an opportunity for Kevod haTorah. Thank you, thank you, gut chodesh. So it's not as we've said so many times, it's not that we are a body and we have a soul, so we are a soul and then we have a body. I don't know that there's more important teaching in all of Yiddishkeit than that teaching, than that statement, which people think originates with C.S. Lewis, but it doesn't. That statement, that quote, I don't know where it originates. But that quote, people think that we are a body and we have a soul, and it's entirely backwards. We are a soul that happens to for right now for a very short finite amount of time be housed in our body. So which is the real us, which is the everlasting us, which is the immortal us, which is the eternal us, which is the us that's worth investing, indulging, pampering, that's worth protecting, worth nourishing? Both. Because as long as the body's housed in the soul, it's an important vehicle and instrument of the soul, and the soul cannot express itself in this world, the soul cannot make meaningful choices and have the bechirah chofshis it needs to to express itself in this world without a healthy body, so we take care of the body in this world, but ultimately, it's only a vehicle. We should not take care of the body any more or differently than we take care of our wardrobe, our clothing. I need my wardrobe and clothing because otherwise I'm exposed to the elements, I'm exposed to shame, to bushah, my levush protects me from bushah. As we spoke about on Shabbos, some people are confused, they exchange levush for beged. Beged is milashon begidah. Levush is from the language of bushah. We wear clothing to avoid shame. But some people omit clothing as a form of beged because they're rebelling, they're revolting against having boundaries or lines at all. So why do we have a wardrobe? To protect us from the elements and to protect us from shame. But do I think my wardrobe is me? No. What's hanging in my closet's not me. If there were a choice between my life and my wardrobe, don't answer that. Who's that old comedian? Your money or your life, I'm thinking about it. So if there were a choice between our lives, our well-being, our health or our wardrobe, we would hope there would be no hesitation, no pause, no choice to be made. My wardrobe is in the here and now. It's going to wear out, it's going to fade, it's going to go out of style, it's going to fall apart, it's going to rot. It serves a purpose. So I take care of it as long as it can serve that purpose, and the better I take care of it, the better it can serve. serve this purpose, but I never confuse it with who I am. And our body is no different than the wardrobe. Reb Nachman writes that. Reb Nachman says I can't wait for the world of truth where I will be able to disrobe from the body the way I can disrobe from my clothes. Same way I can take off this tie and this straitjacket and this thing called clothing and I can be free, my soul can't wait to liberate and free itself from the body that holds me back. So we're not a body. What we see in the mirror, what we have to feed, what we have to work out and exercise, what we have to clothe, what we have to or don't have to but what we choose to pamper, to indulge, is not who we are anymore than our clothing or our wardrobe is who we are. It's not who we are. We utilize it, we wear it, it serves a purpose, the better we take care of it, the better it can serve its purpose, but we never confuse it with who we are. And we shouldn't confuse the body with who we are. The body just happens to be a more intrinsic wardrobe. It's a more organically connected wardrobe. But it's just a wardrobe. It's going to be removed, it's just the levush of the neshama which is the essence of who we are. So we're not a body that has maybe eppes perhaps somewhere I think once I was in touch with it a soul. We are a soul which is who I am. My soul, my soul which needs its nourishment and its hydration, my soul which needs protection and security, my soul which is on fire and alive and dynamic and vibrant and expressing itself and unique and distinct, that is me. We are a soul and I'm wearing this body in this world which relates to why there is a Torah. Torah opposes over-investment in vanity. There's one thing to take care of ourselves, a person should look attractive. Nothing wrong with looking attractive, not attracting, but attractive. That's part of the good use of our body. Part of the good use of our body, don't look disheveled and out of style and falling apart and not caring. That's not who we are. We have a value of yofi, of beauty. In fact, it's one thing we take and admire from the Greeks and it plays a role, even though Greek letters, a Sefer Torah written out of Greek letters, there's a value to yofi. There's a place for yofi, for beauty in Yiddishkeit. But to over-indulge and over-invest in vanity is to over-invest in the confusion of the exterior of the chitzoni over the pnimy. And we believe one should be fashionable and attractive and take care of yourself and your appearance, but when you're so vain, so the people, I'm going to get in trouble now. But the people who are over-invested in thinking that they can fight and stop mother nature and turn back the clock on the impact of aging because they are so consumed by the vanity of when they look in the mirror, that's not a Jewish belief. That's not a Jewish belief. I'm not trying to sit in judgment, there are exceptions, there are people for shidduchim reasons and there are people trying to get a job, there are people who are trying to get clients and bring in a parnassa who need to still look young. So men or women who color their hair or engage in some of the products or procedures today that can help, there are legitimate reasons that people do it. I'm not railing against it and I'm not suggesting that we sit in judgment of others. There are people who are psychologically debilitated by parts of their appearance so they engage some of the opportunity to correct. I'm not saying we should sit in judgment, let me be clear, let me repeat, we shouldn't sit in judgment and there are legitimate reasons, but we're living in such a superficial society which the whole marketing world and the whole online world and the whole social media world and the whole media world and celebrity world have such an emphasis on the superficial, on the exterior, and now there's just like a race of vanity. Who can stop nature? Who can stop the clock? Who could turn back the clock? The next procedure, the next product, the next just lean in as I clearly have done. Just lean in. Just lean in. I'm actually 28 years old, I just look like I'm just lean in. It is what it is. It's a great sign, it means that Baruch Hashem, it means that you're alive and well and time is moving forward and you should be so grateful to be here. So there's a very fine line and I'm not suggesting where it is, everyone could decide it for themselves, between wanting to be fashionable but maintain an appearance and take care, just like I take care of my clothing. Ah, it's just clothing, who cares, it's not who I am. Yeah, but I don't throw it in a ball in the bottom of the closet. I don't neglect it. The better you take care of it, the better it serves you and the better we take care of our body, the better it serves us. But there's a fine line between taking care of the body and being vain. You're so vain you think the whole shiur is about you. You're so vain you can't be so vain to think that that's all there is in the here and now. That's what there is as right now. We're not a body. The body's our clothing. Don't throw it in the corner of the closet. Take care of it. Hang it up. Press it. Dry clean it. Wash it. Preserve it. Take good care of it. Take good care of it the way you take care of clothing, it will take care of you. But don't for a moment confuse it with who you are. That's not who we are. So what we see in the mirror is not who we are, anymore than the clothing that we wear when we see in the mirror is who we are. It's just what we're wearing right now. Now clothing you can change instantly, and the body we won't be wearing for eternity, but we can't exchange it as easily. But it's no more who we are than the clothing that we wear. So don't get confused. How are you going to allocate your time? How are you going to allocate your energy? How are you going to allocate your happiness? How are you going to allocate your resources? On the thing that you see in the mirror that you're going to change, that you're only wearing temporarily, that's not who you are, or to the essence of who you are, to your neshama, to your soul. Where do you put your attention, which defines your happiness, which gives you your satisfaction? Where are you going to put your everything? To who you are forever or to what you're wearing right now? It's foolish. It's silly. It's silly. So that's what the Zohar Hakadosh tells us. לזו בא לעולם לעבדו, we're here to work on, this is what this life and this world are all about. Pull back the layers of the onion. Get to the core, the pnimius, the depth, the core of the issue. Don't live a superficial, silly life. Get to the crux of the matter, get to the depth of the matter. Live a life that you see and you feel the pnimius, that you see and you experience Hashem everywhere. Other people see food and you see Hashem keeping you alive. Other people see nature and you see the supernatural, Hashem who created and who causes that nature to continue. Other people see random chance and coincidence and you see the hand of Hashem unfolding in front of you. זה עומק המושג שצדיק יסוד עולם. Says Rav Gamliel, this is the entire idea. The pasuk in Mishlei Shlomo Hamelech tells us, Tzadik yesod olam, שהוא בעניין האמונה שהוא יסוד ותכלית הבריאה. Tzadik yesod olam, that emuna is the foundation and the purpose and the goal and the essence of life. We are here to live a life where we don't see what other people see. We see beyond. K'mo shemevo'ar b'Chazal, as our rabbis say in Mishna Pirkei Avos, על שלשה דברים העולם עומד, the world rests on three things: על התורה ועל העבודה ועל גמילות חסדים. Torah, on learning Torah and living Torah, Torah principles, Torah values. Avoda, the service of Hashem, we work for Him, He doesn't work for us, we talk to Him through davening every day. Gemilus chasadim, we don't live self-centered, ego-centric, narcissistic lives that all we care about is our pleasure and happiness. Gemilus chasadim, we extend ourselves and we care about others. אבל ישנה בחינת צדיק שעליו לבד העולם עומד. So the pillars that the world rests on are these three, but there's something even above these three pillars and that is the tzadik, לבד העולם עומד, והוא יסוד כל הבריאה. The whole reason, the purpose, the essence of the whole world is to find and to reveal the hand of Hashem. Go see and go find and go reveal the hand of Hashem everywhere. So it's not that I live my life, I go to the gym, I go to work, I drive carpool, I guess that's over, I take my kid to camp, I'm enjoying life, and oh yeah, I have to interrupt to daven Shacharis, interrupt again for Mincha, interrupt again for Maariv. I interrupt to make a bracha, I interrupt what is the real world for that maybe spiritual life of finding Hashem. It's the opposite. The real world is when I'm talking to Hashem, feeling Hashem, finding Hashem, and I interrupt that for the things I have to do for the here and now, for this world. And tzadik yesod olam, what makes a righteous person, their head is screwed on straight. The righteous person sees what's real, what's authentic, what's genuine, what's lasting, what's immortal, what's eternal. And the fool confuses and sees only the here and now. What a mistake. What foolishness. We can't take any of that with us. None of that is the reality of who we are. So we'll finish up with this paragraph. והוא מה שכתוב צדיק באמונתו יחיה. That's what Chabakuk Hanavi said. Tzadik, the righteous, be'emunaso yichye. You want to really be alive? What does it mean to really be alive? It means you want the purpose of life. You want to tap into the essence of creation. You want to find immortality in this world. Tzadik, you want to be a tzadik. Tzadik, you want to be a tzadik, you want to be righteous, you want to live forever? Be'emunaso yichye. The way you find life is through emuna. It is through emuna. שהצדיק הינו יסודה של העולם ממש וכל שלושת העמודים עומדים עליו. All three pillars, Torah, Avoda, Gemilas Chasadim, all rest on, the purpose of all three of those pillars depend on the foundation that's holding up the three pillars that are holding up the world is that there is a Hashem. Torah is Hashem's diary, it's Hashem's word. Avoda is His service; we work for Him. Gemilas Chasadim is because these are His other children and He cares how we relate to them. כי המובן של עמודים שייך בבנין שהוא כבר בנוי אבל מובן של יסוד הוא עוד לפני קיום העולם ובנינו. The pillars are in the world that it was created, the building that's already going up, but the foundation precedes the building. The foundation comes first and the foundation, tzadik be'emunaso yichye, tzadik yesod olam. The yesod, the foundation of the building of this world, underneath the building of this world, the structure of this world, the infrastructure of this world, underneath it, the foundation is that we're here to reveal, peel back those layers, that there's a Hashem. Don't live life confused. Don't live life upside down or inside out. Don't confuse your clothing for who you are, your wardrobe for your essence. You are neshama, you're not a body. And it's not that this world is reality and Hashem is maybe a metaphor, a figment of the imagination. The only thing real in this world is Him. He existed before the world, He will exist after the world, He is entirely controlling the world. He is the wizard behind the curtain, He is the puppeteer pulling the strings. He is the only thing that exists. He is, and we are living in a world of illusion looking to find Him, to take that pill to be able to see Him operating behind this matrix. לפני קיום עולם ובנינו והבחינה של יסוד היא באמונה וזהו היסוד של הכל שאפילו שלושת עמודי העולם גם הם צריכים יסוד אמונה לקיומם וזהו תכלית וקיומה של עולם. This is the purpose and this is the essence of creation. Now I have to read this last paragraph because somebody special just walked in. ואכן עבודת חיים היא זו. This is our, this is our work, this is our service, this is the purpose of life. So when you wake up in the morning, why are you here? What are you meant to do? It's not I'm meant to go to work, I'm meant to get my kids off to camp, I'm meant to, I'm meant to take good care of my body and look good and keep up with the style and the fashion and have the latest, I'm meant to look as young as I can. That is not the purpose of life. What is avodas chayim? What is our work, our effort, our toil? What is our goal? כל ימי חייו מוכרח אדם לחשוב ולהכיר אתו יתברך בשכבו ובקומו בכל מצב. When I wake up, when I go to sleep, in every circumstance, in every situation, to always see and be peeling back and revealing Hashem, to always be realizing this is all an illusion. There is Hashem behind it all. ויד השם בכל נשימה ונשימה with every breath I take, כמו שדרשו חז"ל על הפסוק as Chazal darshened, כל הנשמה תהלל קה with every breath I praise Hashem, שעל כל נשימה ונשימה צריכים להלל לשבח לבורא יתברך with every breath I praise Hashem. Kol neshima, kol haneshama, with all of my soul. לדעת אותו ולהחיות אתו, to see Him, to know Him, to live with Him, to acknowledge every moment of every day, to not fall prey and to not buy into this illusion, to not think I'm a body that has a soul but to know I'm a soul that has a body. I'm a soul that's the essence of who I am. So we're not going to get bent out of shape. If a particular piece of clothing gets a tear, doesn't function perfectly, you don't get so upset. Why? Because you say it's just clothing, it's just for now. So it's not perfect, it's an imperfect, it's got an imperfection, it's got a flaw. It's okay, it's just clothing. So my body's got an imperfection or a flaw. It's annoying. I wish this feature, or I wish my hair didn't go gray or fall out. But okay, it's just the here and now. So that's not going to determine and define my happiness anymore than an imperfection in my clothing will determine my happiness. That's silly, that's foolish, that's not who I am. So why would I allow that to determine my happiness, my satisfaction, my meaning, my purpose, my essence? The essence of who I am is so much bigger and it's so much everlasting and it's so much more immortal, so much more eternal. So you could live in the here and now, or you could live in netzach netzachim. Which do you want? I'll tell you we're learning this in תשפ"ג in 2023, and it's easier than ever to learn this and speak this and say this. And I'll tell you why. It's harder than ever because the world is assaulting us not to see it this way. Marketing, media, social media, pop culture, culture, the whole world in which we live is assaulting us not to see it this way. filled, it's assaulting us to buy into the illusion that the marketing world is all about. So on the one hand it's harder than ever, but on the other hand it's easier than ever. You know why? Cause you look around at the world of the people who are buying into that and they're so unhappy, and so miserable, and so empty, and so searching, and so yearning, that we shouldn't want to be like them. Any more than you look at a person who's hit rock bottom, whose family did an intervention, who has to go off to inpatient rehab therapy, and do you say I'm jealous of them? I wish I were them? Nobody says that. Your sympathy goes to them, your love goes to them, your support goes to them, your tefillos goes to them, but nobody says I'm so jealous of them. So look around the world that is increasingly empty and hollow and miserable and searching and yearning and looking, even though it's more prosperous than ever, and even though it has more of the superficial material pleasures than ever, and even though there are more products and procedures to try to turn back time and invest in vanity than ever, and it's miserable, miserable. The people who spend the most on this vanity, procedures and products and appearance to look young, and maybe arguably think they look young even though their passport and birth certificate say something else, are they happier? They're never happier, cause it's never enough, cause time is still ticking, and gravity still working, and you can't make it stop. So give it up, give it up. Instead of embracing the here and now and trying to freeze time to live in this world, have the eye and the vision towards eternity and the world to come and say I'll do my best in the here and now and I'll derive and extract all the pleasure I can in the here and now, but I'll never be so foolish to think that this is all there is. I'm living for eternity. I'm living and tasting netzach netzachim forever, immortality and eternity because that's what's real. That's the only thing that's real. That is the only thing that's real. Thank you for adjusting this week. Next week we're off but we'll resume im yirtzeh Hashem in two weeks. Stay posted in the WhatsApp group. The schedule will always be posted in the WhatsApp group. Until next time, stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
