Transcript
Good morning, welcome back to Living with Emuna. It is so fantastic and amazing to be back together again. I really did miss this shiur, preparing for it, getting your emails, learning, talking, and really encouraging myself if not you. I perhaps get the most out of Living with Emuna more than anyone else because when you are the person who every week in the front of the room is preaching and teaching and lecturing about living with Emuna and feeling Hashem's presence and staying calm, cool, and collect and never feeling anger or envious or feeling anxious, then you've got to sort of live that way yourself. So I gain the most from it, I'm glad to be back together. I want to thank as always our incredibly generous series sponsors, Dr. Avi and Bella Morgan, in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Schay. And also this morning is sponsored in commemoration of the second Yahrtzeit of our friend Sam Leibowitz by Barbara, Josh, Laura, Matt, and Julia. נשמה שתהיה לו עליה. We miss Sam. Big heart, special person. And by Jacob Newmark for the Refuah Shleimah of תינוק בן חנה ברכה, should hear good news, a speedy, painless, and full Refuah Shleimah. So we're going to dive back into Living with Emuna, so much to talk about, so much to catch up on, so much correspondence I've received from so many. Of course we can't get to all of it today. But again the whole premise, the whole idea of Living with Emuna is that when we live with Emuna it's not a gift we're doing for God. It's not that when you live with Emuna, Hashem really appreciates it. You're contributing something to Him, you're sacrificing, you're taking one for the team. When you live with Emuna the biggest beneficiary is you. You're wearing a pair of glasses to have a clarity of life. You're seeing the world for what it is, you're seeing Hashem everywhere. You're living in vivid color rather than in black and white. And you're navigating. It gives us an ability to navigate this world instead of being frustrated by it. I was in New York earlier this week for a few weddings, Baruch Hashem, traveling for Simchos. And I was so happy and so excited Sunday morning worked out, I was able to give shiur, run to the airport, TSA, no line, got on the plane, was leaving on time. I couldn't believe it. With all the travel issues that have been going on I couldn't believe it. It's all amazing, it's all smooth, seamless. I'll get to the Simcha, no problem, right? Landed LaGuardia, rented a car at Budget. I won't mention the name of the rental car company, Budget, was terrible. And I get in the, I come out of the, even that, I come out of the airport and I'd never rented a car at LaGuardia, I didn't know how to get there, it's not simple, you've got to wait for one of those pickups. I came down the escalator trying to figure out where to go. I come out the airport, boom, it's like there's a Budget van waiting for me. I'm the only person in it, I get in it, it drives me right to the off-site Budget rent-a-car pickup. I thought this day couldn't be going more smooth. Hashem, you're unbelievable. Thank you. I'm using up all my Olam HaBa in this world by how well everything went. And I get off the van at Budget and there is a line out the door of Budget, through the parking lot. Hour and forty minutes to get the car. Hour and forty minutes. I had to use our shiur a lot. I kept, I tell you, I think I'm allergic to lines. The older I get I just have no patience. I took out a sefer, I couldn't focus on one word. I had my AirPods, I tried listening, I couldn't concentrate. I was just following and fuming. How could they have so few people and they're helping so many? And don't they realize and they're running out of cars and each person has their issue? And I just couldn't. And I just kept saying: Living with Emuna. You give the shiur. This is where you're meant to be. This is what Hashem wants to have happen. There was plenty of time I'd make it to the wedding, no issue. So like what's the big deal? Now it happens to be that I was on line behind a Chassidishe Yid from Israel who didn't speak one word of English. And when he got to the counter there was enormous frustration from both directions that could have easily escalated into some fireworks in Queens. And Baruch Hashem I understood why I was meant to be there at that time because I helped translate for him and helped him figure out that they charge you every day for the booster in the van, it's not one flat fee. That's why it's not the same thing that you got in your email. And Baruch Hashem, I'm sure he's not listening to this right now. Baruch Hashem, this is a small trivial inconsequential insignificant nothing example but I always try to draw them from my own life to share with you, A, to tell you that I'm working on it. I'm a work in progress, don't give up on me yet. I'm working on it. But that all of us in our lives, Living with Emuna makes things better. Because as torturous as the hour forty minutes were, they would have been a whole lot worse if I couldn't every few minutes take a few deep breaths, neshima to restore my neshama, and remind myself that this is where Hashem put me and this is what's happening and that's why whatever reason on Costco's website I chose Budget. Could have been Avis, could have been Hertz. They were all around the same price. Whatever reason Hashem had me press Budget because that's where I was meant to be. And if you always lean into the moment and say that's where I'm meant to be, I'm delayed, it's canceled, there's a line, this is frustrating, the fridge broke, the replacement part didn't work, you had to come back four times. That's what's meant to be. You're just able to live life with a calmness which is unbelievable. My example is insignificant. inconsequential, but I'll share just one email, then I want to get into this text from Rav Gamliel, who sends his love. Isn't it amazing to learn someone's sefer, to learn someone's sefer, someone's Torah? Yocheved and I were there, together with Shai and Hillel and Liora and Miriam this past summer, and Rav Gamliel, I spoke about him this past Shabbos, who knows only three words in all of English. Speaks only Hebrew and Yiddish, the only three words he knows in English and he says them to everyone he meets are I love you. I love you. Tiny little man, not young, but filled with boundless energy bouncing off the walls, screaming at everybody, I love you, I love you. And he loves that we're learning his sefarim. I didn't have to pay overweight but came close because he sent me back with a stack of like fifteen of his sefarim. I didn't know the sefer we're learning is in English, so you'll forgive me for it, Tiv HaEmuna appears in English as do the rest of his sefarim, but I said our chevra prefers to learn it beLashon HaKodesh. We want to learn it in Hebrew and the original. So we're going to dive into Rav Gamliel in a moment, but first one email, because you'll see how powerful it is. Rabbi Goldberg was listening to Emuna last week when I stopped in my tracks as you read the email from the breast cancer survivor. For one brain lapse second I thought you were reading my email since my story is literally identical to hers. And then I realized, although I had started writing an email, I never sent it because the ending eluded me. I'm so grateful it did not elude her. I laughed and cried as you read her letter. Crying, because cancer and the treatment that follows is hard. Where is Abba, why isn't he helping me? And smiling, because I have never been more profoundly affected and uplifted by a single sentence. And what a coincidence, since I've been struggling with this for a while, this is exactly what I needed to hear. And what was the sentence? The happy ending is knowing we've acquired Emuna. Do you remember that email I read? The person who had cancer went through treatment, said I don't have a happy ending to tell you yet, but every time you struggle and you can dig deep with Emuna, the happy ending is the growth in Emuna no matter how it turns out. The fact that you came close, surrender, submit, feel connected, feel the love, the affection of Hashem, the growth of Emuna is the positive outcome even without knowing yet how the story ends. And that was the email I read that this person needed to hear, because that sentence, she describes, was never been more profoundly affected and uplifted by a single sentence. The big question for people in this situation is how does one reconcile cancer with living with Emuna? Due to the incredible shiur, the exceptional people who participate and share their stories, they are the whole shiur, I just get to read their emails. I'm learning to look at life through a different lens, the Emuna lens, which brings everything into focus. Isn't that also a beautiful metaphor? Like you could, if before you put your contacts in or find your glasses, you could sort of make your way around. If things are a little bit blurry, you could sort of make it out. I'm at an age in life, I know I look young, but I'm at an age in life, you can laugh, it's okay, it was a joke. I'm at an age in life where I really need my reading glasses more often than I wear them, but I can sort of make it out without them and I don't want to admit I need them and I don't want to start carrying them and I don't want to be wearing them and I'm certainly not wearing them around my neck or on my head all day long. So I'm not using them, I can sort of make it out, but when I do wear them because no one's around, it's a mechaya when the text comes into focus. When you can see it and read it clearly, it's such a pleasure. So Emuna are the glasses that make everything come into focus. Without it it's blurry, you could sort of make it out, you could sort of make sense, you could sort of read it, you sort of know where you're going. When you put on the Emuna glasses, you can live with a certain clarity and see life through the Emuna lens. What's primary and what's secondary? It's a different way of looking at everything. My daily practice is to make sure I lein up the emails like we do the text, I interrupt, I expand, I extrapolate, I darshan, see the email is so holy, it is a text. It is a text. I thought one day I should collect all these emails without the names and publish them. That's a sefer. People's actual Emuna, living with Emuna in their lives is a sefer. It's worth darshaning, it's worth going on, okay I'm sorry, ADHD is kicking in. Which brings it into what's primary and what's secondary? It's a different way of looking at everything. My daily practice is to make sure I have the right lens on every day. I focus on the process and not the outcome. I focus on the process, not the outcome. Thank you Rabbi Goldberg for the shiur which has changed my life, blah blah blah. PS if appropriate I'd love to be in touch with the original writer of the letter that you read out loud to thank her for the life-changing insight and so on. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Why do I love these emails? I always tell you these are my favorite, because we're not yet at the ending and they don't know that and then it worked out and it was perfect and it was positive, I love those emails too when I get them. I lost a thing and then the Emuna and then I found it. I thought I didn't have a ride and then the and then and then I remembered the carpool and then my child came home and then it worked out. Those are great stories too, but that's not real life. Not every story has that ending, not every story does it come into focus to see and understand why it happened. Not every story do the things that we davened for, do they come true. Some have closure and an ending which is beyond. beyond, and the ability to lean in and to tap in and to understand that even then, especially then, the ending can still be that we have greater emunah. That's a very very powerful thing so those stories I think are the most powerful. So Rav Gamliel, the great Rav Gamliel, Yocheved did I do justice to Rav Gamliel? He's he's incredibly special. When you go to Israel and you have the opportunity, go. He sees men, he sees women, he sees children, he sees adults, he sees people who have a strong Jewish education, he sees people who don't. It's a very special thing to be in his in his apartment, his Rebbetzin, very very special. To make your kabbala I spoke about on Shabbos on the kvittel you don't just write down the names of who you're davening for, who need brachos, the other side he says I'll only daven for you that Hashem will give you what are you giving Him? What's the kabbala what are you taking upon yourself? Small, one hour, one day, one week, but you have to write literally on the kvittel הריני מקבל על עצמי בלי נדר I take upon myself I'll stand still when I say Asher Yatzar. I'll bench from a bencher. That for one hour I won't raise my voice. A small, achievable, reasonable kabbala. What's the gesture? What are you giving God before you turn to Him and say you give me? I need give, give, give, what are you giving? What's the gesture we're giving? What's the kabbala? And it makes you stop and pause and think. Ha. And every one of us should think this Elul and beyond, what's my kabbala? Reasonable. What am I taking upon myself? What can I do differently? What can I do differently? Small. I won't go on technology until after Havdala. I took that kabbala on almost a year ago. It changed my Motzai Shabbos. Instead of being in such a rush and check and the email and the text and my kids in Israel and how was their Shabbos and what happened in the news, who how many more people got indicted over the weekend? What instead of checking instead of running, you say you know what it's still Shabbos I'm just holding on a little bit longer. I'm not going to touch technology until after Havdala. Now sometimes that's easy. Punkt the second Shabbos is over, the man's home from shul, you make Havdala, sometimes it's longer. The kid needed a ride, they're not home yet, don't make Havdala, wait, they're not here. Sometimes it takes a little longer. So what? You lean into Shabbos for a few more minutes. I'm just giving an example of another small kabbala. For some small for some big, but achievable, kabbala. Take upon ourselves something. I'm not going on technology until after Havdala. Savor Shabbos a few minutes longer. Now let's take a look. Rav Gamliel. Tiv haEmunah. This is the section he has on Chodesh Elul. On the month of Elul. There's more copies here please. Some trees died. Here. And apparently it's in English somewhere. בעמדנו בימי הרחמים והסליחות since we're standing in the days of Rachamim, Hashem's compassion and forgiveness. Aleinu l'hashrish b'levaveinu it's time that we plant in our hearts כי אם ננקוט בחזקה את האמונה לקבל משמעות אחרת על כל מהלכי החיים. If we can live with emunah, it's not just that we'll live the same life but also with emunah. You know I don't know there are people who swear by they got an electric car, they got a Peloton, they got a ich weiss, they updated the phone I don't know what the example is. They're living the same life but they say oh you gotta get this thing it's amazing. You gotta try this restaurant, you gotta eat this food, you gotta try the... you're living the same life it's just complemented by something new or different that you've purchased or that you're living or that you've or that you've incorporated into your life. Says Rav Gamliel when you live with emunah you're not living the same life it's just now with emunah, instead you're living an altogether different life. If you live life with emunah, if you wake up every day and you put on those glasses, if the world comes into focus, if you find the tool to navigate how to overcome whatever adversity will be your way, how to stay calm at Budget Rental Car, how to be calm cool and collected even if the flight is delayed, how to not panic if a hurricane is coming to your state even if it's the northern part of your state, how to remain no matter what life throws at it changes your life. It's not the same life but just now with emunah, it's an altogether different life. וממילא גם מערכת התשובה אצלנו תזכה לפנים חדשות. So if emunah changes your life it also changes your Elul. It means your whole life you've been living Elul and your whole life you've been trying to accomplish teshuvah, how do I change and transform and repair and return to who I'm supposed to be? We've been doing that our whole life and every year we repeat the same cycle. But when you live with emunah it's altogether different. It's a different relationship. It's a different ambition. It's a different exercise. הבה נקדים מעט נקודות חשובות בנושא האמונה. In order to understand how living with emunah changes teshuvah, changes Elul Rosh Hashanah Yom Kippur, first we have to introduce some concepts, some ideas about emunah. כפי שנתבאר בספרים הקדושים ספרי חסידות ספרי מוסר וממנה פינה ויסוד להצלחתו של אדם בגשמיות וברוחניות. Let's understand emunah a little bit more and with it as it appears in the works of Chassidus and Mussar and with it the success in the world of gashmius in the physical world and the spiritual world. ופותחת לו שערי תשובה לרווחה. And with it if we understand emunah better we can open up the entrance Sometimes it feels like the entrance way of a needle, the eye of a needle, you can't get that thread in, you can't figure out how to get through, teshuvah, repair, return, a mission, a vision, who we're supposed to be, the life we're supposed to live, I can't break through, I can't break out. But if we understand the life of emunah, we go from the entrance of a needle that you can't thread to an enormous opening and a doorway that you can walk right in. That's what emunah can do. אין ספק ואין ויכוח כי בניינו של אדם מושתת על יסוד מוצק אחד ואין בלתו. There is no doubt and there's no question, there's no debate that a person's life is founded on one concept, the foundation of life, the foundation of living, is emunah. Emunah, to know there's a Hashem. In our time with Rav Gamliel, some of which we recorded, it was on last week's "Behind the Bima," not all of it yet has subtitles, we're going to put it out all with the subtitles, but the entire time that we were there, which was a long time with Rav Gamliel, it just everything came back to emunah. Every question we asked and every conversation we had all came back to Hashem and emunah, including his living with emunah. Now Rav Gamliel's father was an orphan. He was raised in the Diskin Orphanage. You know the envelopes you get in the mail, the Diskin Orphanage? It's a real orphanage and it raises real orphans and it's done real fantastic work. I don't get a cut from Diskin Orphanage. But his father was an orphan. He lost his father and mother at a young age, was raised in Diskin Orphanage. One person, and when he left this world, he had a thousand living descendants. Rav Gamliel talks about how from one, one seed, one person, you open an apple, there's a seed in that apple, there are a billion apples, future apples in the one seed in the one apple. The power, the potential in one thing of everything that will come from it, all the fruit it can yet bear. Don't dismiss and don't minimize any one person, any one neshamah, any one child, any one potential, any one possibility, the fruit that can emerge. One orphan that could have been marginalized and forgotten, and from that came Rav Gamliel, but also all these other, all these other descendants. Rav Gamliel suffers, he listed for us all of his ailments, all of his struggles physically, and he has the biggest smile and the biggest happiness and the biggest joy and the most energy, and he attributes it all to living with emunah, to feeling Hashem's presence in life, to talking about Hashem at every turn, to feeling His presence wherever we go. U'kmo she'amru chazal, our rabbis say, the גמרא מכות דף כד quotes from the Navi Chabakuk, בא חבקוק והעמידן על אחת. Chabakuk the Navi reduced all of Jewish life, all Jewish philosophy, all Jewish living, all of our Jewish mission and purpose to three words: tzaddik b'emunaso yichyeh. Tzaddik, a righteous, b'emunaso yichyeh. חבקוק פרק ב פסוק ד. The Gemara Makkot says, בא חבקוק והעמידן על אחת. He reduced all of taryag mitzvos. If you have to summarize, consolidate all 613 mitzvos, all of Jewish life and living, all of Jewish history and Jewish destiny, all of Jewish purpose, all of why there are a Jewish people, it can all be reduced to those three words and that is tzaddik b'emunaso yichyeh. The righteous live with emunah. שעל פי האמונה נמדדת גדולתו של אדם. How do you know a person's value, their worth? How do you know a person's success? It's not their SAT score, it's not their income level, it's not the square footage of their home or the car in their driveway, it's not how many years they live, it's not how many followers or friends they have online. How do you know the success of a person? Chabakuk reduced it all to this question: how much emunah do they live with? tzaddik b'emunaso yichyeh. If you live with emunah, if you're happy and smile and calm and tranquil and happy with what you have in life, as we said yesterday in the parsha class, the farmer brings the bikkurim and then it's ושמחת בכל הטוב אשר נתן לך ה' אלוקיך. V'samachta, simcha is not an emotion. Happiness is not an emotion, happiness is a decision. It's a decision, not an emotion. What's the decision? b'chol hatov, look at all the good. You could look at the bad or you could focus on all the good. We also had on last week the interview I did at a wonderful breakfast with Leo Dee, my good friend. We took a short interview also. Each of these people I met with not for the video. We spent significant time and then while I had them, "Hey, a few minutes, could we share your positivity and energy and teachings and Torah with others?" But in that video Leo Dee, whose wife and two daughters were brutally murdered, Chol Hamoed Pesach he went on a tiyul and he came home with only half of his family. Unimaginable tragedy, and also, positive person with incredible emunah, unbelievably inspiring person. And you ask him, "How?" And he says, "You make a..." WhatsApp group with family or friends and every day each person lists a few things they're grateful for. I drove and there was not traffic. I've traveled and we took off on time. I woke up today and the coffee was hot and delicious and was perfect just what I needed. Not generic but everyday something different. Vessamachta, you know how you can make the decision to be besimcha? Bechol hatov. When you look at all the good. If you look at what's missing and what's not there you'll be miserable. But if you can identify and focus on what is there, vessamachta, then it's not an emotion, you'll make the decision to be happy bechol hatov. And bechol hatov, the good that you have, you know what the source of the greatest happiness is? We saw yesterday from the Amaras Tehoros from the Rachmastrivka Rebbe, zatzal, who just passed away. Vessamachta bechol hatov, you know what the ultimate tov is? אשר נתן לך השם אלוקיך. Who gave you whatever you have? It comes from above, it comes from Hashem. When you lean in that אשר נתן לך השם אלוקיך wow, Hashem thank you for this cup of coffee. Thank you for all the green lights. Thank you that the plane took off on time despite the budget rental car line. Thank you for bechol hatov. Thank you for the good. And it's not just good that I tripped on or stumbled on or I happened to randomly get. אשר נתן לך השם אלוקיך it comes designed and carefully choreographed from above. Hashem gave it specifically to me. אשר נתן לך השם אלוקיך, vessamachta bechol hatov. All of us can make the decision, not wait for the emotion, but make the decision to be happy, smile, and be positive, and make the decision to be happy why? Bechol hatov, focus on the good. And realize that whatever good you have, you're not entitled, you don't deserve necessarily, it's אשר נתן לך השם אלוקיך. Thank you Tatte. Thank you Abba. Thank you my Father. Thank you my loving Father who gives it to me. I'm so grateful. So tzadik be'emunaso yichye the measure of life is not even, of course, Torah, תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם. Torah is the air that we breathe. Of course, Torah's critical, to learn Torah, but the measure of a person is not even how much Torah they know. The measure of a person is not how rich or good-looking, how much fame or fortune they have. The measure of a person, Chabakuk came he'emidan al achas and he reduced all of life that the measure of a person is tzadik be'emunaso yichye. How is your emunah? How is your emunah? How's your relationship with God? And that's the question we should ask each other. When you see a friend you haven't seen in a long time, if you're going for coffee and catching up, when you speak to hopefully your children each and every day, not only how was school, did you get your grade back, how's the job, did you get a raise, did you get a promotion? Not only did you see the new sale, did you buy the new clothing, did you get the new sheitel, did you do that? How's the new car? How's your emunah? How's your emunah? Nu, tell me, how's your emunah today? Give me an example of your emunah where'd you see Hashem, where'd you feel Hashem, what'd you do for Hashem? How is your emunah today? Because that's the measure. Article I wrote last week or shared last week in the weekly was based on a Harvard study. They asked children: What do you think your parent cares more about? Your happiness and academic success or your being kind and good to others? And 80 percent of children said: My parents care more about if I'm happy and successful than if I'm kind and good to others. And that study was the result of what are the messages and values that we project? Because at the conclusion of the researchers at Harvard was, if you want your children to think and aspire differently in addition, I got a few emails, what's wrong with being happy, what's wrong with being successful, why can't we, I got a few emails, Baruch Hashem, Baruch Hashem. But there's nothing wrong with that also and that too. We can do both. But the conclusion of the Harvard researchers was, at dinner, don't only ask how was the test and how'd you do, but ask a child every day, if every child comes to, if every child knows there's a dinner table and that their parents will be there. A, there's a dinner table, you all eat it together. And that parents will be there and present without a device and fully present. And that they will be asked that night: What was something nice you did for someone today? Not just how'd you do on your test and did you answer the teacher's question, did you ask a good question today, but did you do something nice for someone today? Then that will of course ingrain such a child will graduate a home if they spend their childhood having to come to the table knowing they'll need to answer: Did you do something nice, kind for someone else today? It means every day they're going to have to figure out: I need to do something so I have a good answer for tonight. And for children it has to be a better answer than my brother or my sister. So they'll be driven and they'll know that's what matters, that's what counts. So one of the questions to incorporate is: Where and how did you feel Hashem in your life today? Did you turn to him today? Did you not just study for the test and get nervous about it? I told you my family minhag, when I was a kid my father used to give us a raw noodle. and we put it on our desk because we'd look at it and remember as we took the test to use our noodle. Don't forget. Not a rush, don't hand in the test, don't be the first, there's no you don't get a higher grade because you were the first to finish. My brother it worked, for me not so much, but don't forget to use your noodle. So my kids when they have a big test I give the raw noodle, don't forget to take your noodle. You don't just say don't forget to take your noodle, but did you ask Hashem for help? Right before the teacher puts the test on your desk, take a deep breath, Hakadosh Baruch Hu let me know the answers, help me do well, help me get it right. Help me get a good grade. That's what we should instill and project and reinforce and promote within our children so that our children will know we're not only invested in their happiness, we're not only invested in their success academically and financially, professionally, we're invested in their being kind and good to other people, and we're invested in what is the truest measure of a person, Tzaddik be'emunaso yichyeh. How is your emuna? How's your emuna? Tell me about your emuna? What are you doing for emuna? How are you nourishing your emuna? How's your emuna? And to ask ourselves this Elul, in what way did my emuna grow this year? Am I living the same relationship with Hashem this year as I did the year before and the year before? You know I found, Yocheved found we were cleaning out a closet, found a folder of emails, was prehistoric, the very beginning of email. You know when you had to like plug it into your phone line and you know and you had to telnet and it took four hours to upload three sentences. Anyway we found this correspondence when we were dating. And there are a lot of fascinating things in it, none of which I have permission to share and I'm not, don't worry, take a deep breath. The one thing I will share is as I read it I was flooded by so many thoughts, but one of which maybe the strongest of which was it's so cute that we thought we knew each other, liked each other, loved each other, that's so cute. We didn't, you know fast forward 26 years later, is that right? 26 years later. If every year your relationship hasn't grown and flourished and blossomed, you don't come to know each other better and give to each other more, then your relationship is static, it's stale, it's in decline if it's not growing. And the same is true with who we are as people. If every year I'm not better and improved and I'm not growing and I haven't taken upon myself and I can't measure change, then I'm not alive. I'm just repeating the same year over and over again and calling it a life, that's not a life. A life is not just repeating the same year over and over again, you've got to be able to track and measure growth, improvement, change, different habits, different behaviors, different lifestyle, different qualities, a different brand, a different reputation. So one of the areas, and that's what Chavakuk was teaching, העמידן על דבר אחד, he reduced it to this one thing. What is the area that you have to include in your annual review? In your annual review of yourself, different years you could be working on different things, this year I'm taking on health and wellness, this year mental health, this year davening, this year learning, this year chessed, this year tzedaka. Every year you could take on different things. ברוך אתה ה' אלוהינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen. But every year in my annual review, every year has to include the review of emuna. How's my relationship with Hashem? How am I doing? What am I doing for him, not only what am I waiting for him to do for me? How is my emuna? Tzaddik be'emunaso yichyeh, על פי אמונה נמדדת גדולתו של אדם. It's through emuna that we are able to evaluate and measure a person. ועלינו להבין שהנקודה האמיתית שהיא שורש כל עבודת ה' it's hakol yachid veyachad ולא משנה מה הם מדרגתו מאדם שנמצא חס ושלום בשאול תחתית עד האדם שזוכה להיות דבוק בה' יתברך כמו משה רבנו, bchir hanivraim, mizeh ha'emuna. Person has to know that your avodas Hashem, whether you're on top of the world you're Moshe Rabbeinu or you're far away and distant and hopeless and helpless in yourself, you're the richest or the poorest, you're the most righteous and religious or you are the biggest renegade and rebel, no matter you're the most biggest scholar or you're the greatest ignoramus am ha'aretz. All of us equally, what determines and defines our Jewish life, our neshama, is emuna. All of us. It's the great equalizer. It's the great equalizer. You don't have to be smarter, that's the amazing thing about emuna, the one thing which is the biggest measure of life is not influenced by how smart you are, how rich you are, how healthy you are, all these other things which can be either assets or liabilities in the other areas, emuna's the great equalizer. All of us can work on and live with emuna, no matter how we're positioned in life when it comes to these other variables. Emuna's our choice, emuna's our will, emuna's our bechira, and he stressed the ikar. וכי יש העיקר ניתן להמשיך הלאה. So once we have that yesod, that foundation, says Rav Gamliel, that's the foundation of everything, Emunah. Where is Hashem in your life? Do you have a relationship? Do you talk to Him? Do you hear Him talking to you? Do you take things upon yourself? Are you giving to Him? Or do you only wait for Him to give to you? How's Emunah? How is your Emunah? Do you talk about Him? Do you sing about Him? Do you dance with Him? Do you see Him everywhere? Do you surrender to Him? Do you thank Him? How's your Emunah? That Emunah is everything, it's the starting point, it's the foundation. You can't build a building if the foundation's weak. You can't build a skyscraper. You know, when I was landing on Sunday coming to LaGuardia, I'm like a little kid still. I fly pretty often, but I still took a picture out the window of the Manhattan skyline from the plane over the wing. It's a cool picture. I don't think anybody responded, but that's okay. I didn't need them to. I'm good. I'm secure in myself. There was a cool picture. Why? Because I still marvel. If I had all the time in the world, I couldn't build a skyscraper. I'm not an engineer, I'm not a builder, I have no idea how to do it. It would topple over in four seconds. It's unbelievable that we build these things. Isn't it? Yeah. We had the tragedy several years ago in Surfside. It's tragic. It should never happen. But it should not be the exception. It's amazing that buildings don't collapse every day. It's amazing that once a year there's not a building that it turns out it collapsed. It's unbelievable. Isn't it unbelievable we could do that? These skyscrapers? Anyway, I still think it's unbelievable. Doesn't impress you either. But it's unbelievable. But imagine the foundation were weak. You build these skyscrapers and the foundation was weak, you couldn't get off the ground. There's not a first floor, there's not a 50th floor, there's not a 500th floor. So the foundation of our lives is Emunah. You can't get the building started. You can't start talking about being a talmid chacham, being a baal chesed, being a baal tzedakah. You can't start talking about anything else in life if the foundation's not there. And the foundation is Emunah. That's it. That's the measure. ואין הדברים אמורים כאשר הכל הולך כשורה שאז דבר פשוט הוא שאדם שש ושמח ולבו מרונן אל קל חי. Now, when everything's going well, that's good. Right? So you're making a simcha, you're healthy, you're drawing a livelihood, you're covering your bills, life is hunky-dory, you got a skip in your step, everything's great, so then certainly you should lean in and realize, wow, ושמחת בכל הטוב אשר נתן לך השם אלוקיך. Then you should feel the simcha because all the tov that God gives you. אלא הדביקות באמונה צריכה להיות בבחינת שויתי השם לנגדי תמיד. Shulchan Aruch opens, the first, the first law of Jewish law is a Jew wakes up in the morning and says Shiviti Hashem, Hashem I place you negdi tamid, it's opposite me always. I see you opposite me always. It's part of my core identity, my status, it's part of who I am and how I see the world. But says Rav Gamliel, a new interpretation, what does the word negdi mean? גם כאשר נראה לך בעיניך כי השם יתברך כביכול הוא לנגדי נגד רצונך וחפצך אף על פי כן החזק באמונה אל תרף והוי נכנע תמיד לפניו לקבל הדין בשלימות להאמין כי הכל לטוב. Shiviti Hashem even lenegdi. Even when Hashem feels he's neged. What's neged? Neged means opposite. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is pushing back. I want to go here, he's pushing back against me. I wanted to get out of budget in and out, he made a long line. I wanted to take off on time, there was a delay. I want that job, I didn't get the interview. I want that shidduch, the other side didn't even agree to the first date. I wanted this to happen at this time in this way, even when it feels he's negdi. Why is he opposite? Why is he pushing against me? Why is he closing doors? Shiviti Hashem, even then, even then I realize it's all Hashem. I surrender, I submit, he's in charge, he's in control. He helps me understand. Sometimes we understand immediately why things work out. I didn't get that job, it turns out I got a much better job later, and isn't that amazing? A couple months ago I ran into someone who sold his business. He was supposed to have sold his business a while ago, but the deal fell through in the last moment and he was so disheartened. And when a dealer came to him to sell the business a little while later, he said I'm not even interested, forget it, I'm sticking with the business. But he convinced him. He ended up selling the business at a much higher price. And he said, told me, had he sold the business the first time, not only would he have gotten less money, but he would have put most of it into the stock market, which since then had gone down a lot. By Hashem closing that door and the person pulling out of that first deal, he got more money for the business and he left it all in cash and therefore saved a lot of money by not losing it in the market. So sometimes in life you're able to look back and simply and clearly see that that wasn't negdi, Hashem wasn't pushing back against me, he was helping me, that that was actually a favor he did for me. But sometimes But sometimes in life we don't see it, and painfully we don't see it, and it feels like he's negdi, he's opposite me. That's when emuna matters too, that's when emuna counts incredibly too, to feel Hakadosh Baruch Hu is always on our side, there's always a plan, things are always by design, he's always with us. Okay, I had more emails to share, I had more Torah to tell you, but here's the good news: we meet again next week. So we'll have to stop here, that's the foundation. Make sure our foundation is strong, tzaddik be'emunaso yichyeh. He's going to give us another vort on what that means next week, Rav Gamliel. Tzaddik be'emunaso yichyeh. Tzaddik be'emunaso, that's the measure. Our children need to know, we need to know. When I do my annual accounting, it's not only on my portfolio, how'd my stocks do, how's my net worth. It's not only on how's my health, I do my labs, how's my blood pressure, how's my cholesterol. The most important thing to check is—now you can't get a lab report on it. It's not so simple. You can meet with your accountant and you can meet with your doctor. You have to look into yourself. How's my emuna? That's the most important question this time of year, im yirtzeh Hashem we should all be zocheh to work on it. Fantastic Behind the Bima tonight because I have the most amazing guest co-host, she's sitting right over there, and Yocheved and I interview Slovie Jungreis-Wolff, daughter of Rebbetzin Esther Jungreis, who herself in her own right is a powerful force, came out with a new book. Tonight Behind the Bima 9 PM, until next time stay happy, stay healthy, and stay holy.
