Transcript
Boker tov, I want to thank Dvorah and Avior Orlan for sponsoring again in memory of their special daughter מרים אסתר בת אברהם יצחק whose neshama should have an aliyah through our learning. Okay, we're on page תקפ״ט, we're still in Alei Shur chelek beis, Rav Shlomo Wolbe, the great mashgiach of Yerushalayim, second volume of his magnum opus of his Alei Shur, and we've been going through his tefilla u-bitachon, and so far to remind you just to bring us back up to speed, we talked about the idea that he quoted the Gemara that says that a person is somech geulah l'tefilla, if you connect geulah l'tefilla, if you connect, let's see which page תקפ״ט, that if you connect geulah, if you connect Hashem's exodus that he took us out of Egypt with the prayer that we're about to offer, then a person has go to Olam Haba, and we talked about why should that be, what's the connection between the two Rabbeinu Yonah, again, we talked about this at length and I don't want to review the whole thing. But the major thesis that he's offered so far is that tefilla is the binyan of emunah and bitachon, that prayer is the gym for emunah and bitachon, that's where we work out the emunah and bitachon muscles, that when we take those three steps forward and we stand before Hashem and we say whatever it is that we need, we want, we're protesting, we're objecting to, we're grateful for, whatever form of prayer of which there's no one form, depending on the day, depending on the moment of the day, you might be thanking Hashem for something or you might be protesting against Hashem for something or you might be asking Hashem for help with something or you might be just crying to Hashem for something, each tefilla, each moment is radically different from the next, but what they have in common is that we're connecting with Hashem. And last week we talked about not just going through the motions, you don't put a check as if really I'm in charge, I'm in control, I do everything and among the many things I do to take initiative, check, I went through the siddur, I said the words, check, then really we're davening to ourselves, we think we're in charge but really davening is an exercise in humility and it's an exercise in emunah that I'm putting my faith and trust in Hashem that is entirely up to, it's entirely up to him. So, I have us on page תקפ״ט, ois gimmel, you may not have us there but that's where I'm starting anyway, so that's where I have us, ois daled, daled, you're all so passive and obedient, nobody corrected me, okay, daled, I see I could say anything I want here, okay, daled, למה סומך גאולה לתפילה הוא בן עולם הבא, almost, so why is it going back to the Gemara in Brachos daf daled, why is it that somebody who finishes Ga'al Yisrael and they have no interruption and they immediately in succession go right into Hashem sifasai tiftach right into their amida, then they are guaranteed Olam Haba, they have a portion the world to come, why, מפני שהביטחון הוא עיקר היראה והאמונה שהן שתי המעלות העיקריות, because bitachon, trust in Hashem, is the core of yirah of awe and of emunah of faith. Now he's using a lot of terms there and seemingly interchangeably we've tried to over the last several years in this class to define these terms a little bit, what's the difference between emunah, bitachon, dveikus, yirah, ahava, it's a lot of terms we use interchangeably but often inaccurately, emunah is the knowledge that there is a creator of the universe, emunah is that the world didn't come into existence by chance, by accident, by randomness, there is a designer, there is a creator, but emunah just means that there is an infinite omnipotent being who created the entire universe, it doesn't speak to the fact that he has a relationship with me. I can admire a magnificent painting or a sculpture or building and I can know that there is a architect, designer, artist, author, that doesn't mean that I have a relationship with him, maybe he lived, she lived five hundred years ago, maybe he, she lives five thousand miles from where I am, just because I can admire the intricacy, the detail, the wonder of a creation doesn't mean I have a relationship with the creator, so emunah is the acknowledgment that there is a creator of the universe, there's an artist, a designer, a sculptor who put it all together and put it into motion, yirah is being filled with a sense of awe of him, yirah is not fear, again, we've talked about there's yiras ha'ones and yiras haromemus, yiras ha'ones is if I do the wrong thing lightning's going to strike, I have to do the right thing because if I do the wrong thing I'm going to be punished, yiras haromemus is a higher level, it's awe, I'm so in awe I would never want to disappoint, think about it with our children, with our children they could have yiras ha'ones, I better go to sleep because if I'm caught that I'm still awake they're going to take away my iPad for a week, so yiras ha'ones, I don't want to be punished by losing my device, so I'm obedient, I do what you ask because otherwise I fear I'll be punished, there's also yiras haromemus, a child could say I have such awe of my parents I would never want to disappoint. ever wanted to disappoint them. And they ask me to go to sleep by this time, so iPad, no iPad, losing it, not losing it, I'm not worried about losing it, it's not the punishment I'm worried about, it's that I have such awe and admiration of who they are and their values, I've such love and awe, I would never want to disappoint them. So we know as parents what we want from our children, we'd much rather yiras haromemus than yiras ha'onesh. I think there is a stage of life maturity to that, right when they're young there's a lot of yiras ha'onesh. When they're older you have a lot less onesh, I mean as long as they're on your payroll you still have the onesh component. But once they're off your payroll and they're a mature adult and they're somewhat independent, then they no longer have the yiras ha'onesh. They're not living in fear that you're going to punish them. But you hope that by that stage of their life they have enough maturity to look at you and your life with awe and admiration and do things because they don't want to disappoint you. So yira of Hashem is not just fear, lightning's going to strike, if I don't make this bracha, then my stocks aren't going to go up, and if I don't this, then that, it's not this fear correlation, it's an awe. I'm in awe. That's real yira is awe. So the Rav Volbe says at the combination, at the cross-section of emuna and yira, the knowledge that there's a creator an omnipotent being that put the whole world together and yira I have awe admiration of Him is bitachon. I put my trust and faith in Him. ובו ראה במאמר החינוך בשער שלישי ביארנו שכל חינוך יש בנין מעלה וצמיחת מעלה. So Rav Volbe here refers to, he has a whole sefer, it's incorporated into Alei Shur but he also has an independent sefer called, and I highly recommend it if you're a parent, grandparent, you love children, you're an educator or you just want to read something fascinating, it's called Zeria u'Binyan. It's called Planting and Building. They published it in Hebrew and in English, Zeria u'Binyan Planting and Building. And Rav Volbe's thesis there about parenting and about educating is that there's a component of both planting and building. Planting and building are very different exercises. Each one has an upside and each one has a downside. When you build there's a very strong foundation. Problem is whatever you build and you follow the architectural plans is very rigid. It is what it is. You have plans, you follow them to the T and you are left with a very rigid structure, a very rigid building that has no creativity, it just is what it is, it's fixed. When you plant, there's not a strong foundation. The thing can grow wild. It can grow everywhere. But there's a creativity, there's continuous growth, there's development, there's innovation, there's creativity, it's building. Our children he says are really ourselves if you want to view it that way, we have to view, we have to educate ourselves, we have to raise ourselves, nurture ourselves, and nurture those around us with both of these components. In some ways we have to treat them like a building to build a strong foundation and to have rigid structure, but in other ways we have to plant them like a seed where they will continue to grow, they'll continue to have a life force to them where there'll be some creativity and innovation. יש בנין וצמיחת מעלה. Sometimes the asset, sometimes the greater character trait is a binyan. Sometimes with our children we need structure, we need boundaries, we need borders, we need rigidity, and other times you need zeria. You have to plant an idea within them, plant values within them, and then say go grow, go run, go grow, go explore, go develop. ואמרנו שם כי עיקר היראה הוא בנין ועיקר האמונה צמיחה. So he says the core of yira of awe is binyan. Awe has to have a foundation, awe has to have structure. And the core of emuna is tzmicha. One grows, one evolves, one flourishes in their, one blossoms in their emuna. והנה נראה כי ברבינו יונה כי שיא ופיסקת הבנין והצמיחה גם יחד הוא בטחון. So the apex and the cross-section of the building and of the planting together, where do they meet? Is with bitachon. Is with bitachon. Is with trust in Hashem. It's faith in Hashem. And again, I know I repeat this every week, and some of you come even though you know what I'm going to say just to hear it every week, and I say it every week because I need to hear it every week, but that's exactly what this bitachon is. That when we are losing perspective, we need to recalibrate our compass, compass. When we start to think that the insignificant things are important or we start to forget what matters, we start to be filled with anxiety, worry, fear, doubt, when we start to have jealousy, envy, anger, when we start to have all these negative attributes which just eat and corrode our core and cause us to sabotage our own success, we have to be brought back to emuna and bitachon. That at the core of a healthy life and living is bitachon, is to realize what am I anxious for? It'll be what it's meant to be, way it's meant to be. I should work hard to control the things I can control, and once I've done what I can the best I can do, it's up to Hashem. What's going to be the weather this Sunday, are there going to be thunderstorms, where are they going to be, how will people drive, the traffic, what's going to I don't know. I can't, I know one thing, I can't control the weather. I can't. Nobody in history has been able to. able to, and the Gemara tells us that nobody will be able to. There's three keys that Hakadosh Baruch Hu kept for Himself. Chazal tells us Hashem gave a massive keychain, like a Hatzalah type of keychain to the Jewish people, to the world. He said, here's my world, here are the keys, go conquer it. You can study space, study biology, chemistry, physics, go conquer my world, manipulate it, study it, control it, do it. But there's three keys Hashem says I'm holding onto. Number one, the key of rain, the weather. And isn't it amazing? I always find it fascinating, particularly when chas veshalom a hurricane is forming and the weather people look foolish as they're trying to create a cone and predict a path and they're doing the best they can and we have satellites in outer space gazillion miles away that on my phone can tell me if there's traffic around the corner and if there's a policeman down the street. But they can't tell me whether this massive hurricane is going to hit here or go out to sea or hit New York. Because we can't control the weather. We can't, you know, explode a bomb in space and redirect a hurricane, we can't control the weather. Hashem says one of the keys I held onto. And the second key is, sadly, some know this, is fertility and conception. And we know that we have amazing advancement, we have doctors, a laboratory where we mix ingredients and we've made incredible progress to help people realize their dream of parenthood, but in the end of the day, Hashem holds the key. My neighbor, our own member Dr. Matulsky who runs a fertility laboratory, in the waiting room of their office they have picture book albums filled with babies who were conceived in the back in the laboratory in the petri dishes. And but if you talk to Dr. Matulsky he'll say, yeah, every day we make progress on how to mix the ingredients, but he says whether they turn into a healthy viable beautiful child, there's nobody can predict that. Nobody can control that. He says sometimes we have five healthy amazing embryos, pre-embryo, zygotes and we implant them in a woman and we expect there's going to be triplets and unbelievable and none of them take. And other times a couple goes through tens of thousands of dollars of the treatments and the medicines and the shots and they produce one terrible-looking embryo that's barely holding on that looks like it has no shot. But what are you going to do? You spent all the money, spent all the time, you went through all the pain, so you implant it. Nine months later a beautiful healthy baby's born. And he said the difference between the first and the case second case, it's not up to me. Not that he's an incredible person so he has the humility and the faith to see Hashem in his lab. Others think it's all them. They don't see the failure as I'm not in control, they just see the ones that are born and look at me, I'm so good at mixing the ingredients. So the second key Hashem says is fertility. And the third key is the resurrection of the dead, techiyas hameisim. We miss people, we so badly wish we could bring them back to life and we don't have that capacity. Hashem has held onto that key and please God soon we'll merit to see Him turn the lock, we'll merit to see Him use the key. So Hashem gave us the keys to His universe, but He held onto three keys. Why'd I get onto this? Because the weather. Oh, one of the keys, one of the keys that He holds onto is the weather. So let's say, for example, just theoretically you have a major event coming up and you're worried about the weather. You're worried about the weather. So you can either be up all night and be nervous all day and make your husband, I mean someone around you crazy about the weather. That's what she gets for not coming today. And make you crazy about the weather or you could realize I can't, what do you want me to do? We can stay up all night every night until the big event, there's nothing we can do. There's nothing we can do about the weather. Help reassure her. Again you can say will there be a spot for umbrellas? Okay, there'll be a spot for umbrellas. Schon, good. Rain is a beracha. So what, so siman beracha. Rain is a beracha. That's what I, that was exactly what I said. Siman beracha. Siman beracha. The point is, the point is, it's an example. And we all have these examples in our lives, we all have these examples in our lives that we have anxiety. What's going to be with the weather? What's going to be with the traffic? What's going to be with the flight? What's going to be with that person? What's going to be with my health? What's going to be with the return report? What's going to be, what's going to be, what's going to be. So there's two types of anxiety. There's the healthy anxiety that you channel into being more productive, more efficient, more driven, having greater ambition and aspiration. That's a productive anxiety. And there is destructive anxiety which is the Jewish kind which is just where you worry for no reason about things you can't control and the worry has no impact on the outcome other than destroying your health. So you're so worried about your health and what's going to be at the doctor. Now I don't mean to minimize because this is not easy, a person's waiting to get a report chas veshalom, I don't mean to minimize. That is torture, it's hell on earth. I don't mean to minimize. But that's our mission is to take a few deep breaths and to return to our emuna bitachon to flex those muscles that we've been working out in the gym. Right? So again that comes back to what Rav Wolbe was saying. You go to Shacharis, Mincha, Ma'ariv, you have the longest Shemoneh Esrei in the shul, you shokel so fervently it's like a major workout, you schvitz through your clothing. But then all of a sudden, you know, the weather predicts a thunderstorm, what happened to all the davening? Where'd it go? So the answer is that you gotta work out the emuna bitachon muscle so that in between the davening experiences, when you confront the things that make you anxious or filled with doubt or worry or uncertainty or anger or envy or jealousy or impatience or whatever the quality, you can take that deep breath and say, oh yeah, you know I remember during Shacharis when I was telling Hashem how I trust him entirely, now I've got to trust him entirely, I've got to come back to that. So we see in Rabbeinu Yona that bitachon is that core and that's exactly what we have to keep coming back to constantly to remind ourselves with no matter what's going on in our lives from major and significant to inconsequential and silly is what matters and what doesn't matter. אדם הבנוי ביראה ומייסד הדבקות ואמונתו תומכה בקרבו עד להפליא הוא הזוכה להגיע לביטחון. A person who is built with yira, so if you've created a foundation of your life of yiras shamayim, and we did a shabbos shuva drasha, we're turning over to page taf kuf tzadi, but we did a shabbos shuva drasha several years ago about yiras shamayim and I wrote it up in the second volume of yadrim, our beis medrash's torah journal that came out, the green volume, yadrim volume two, I wrote up that shabbos shuva drasha about yiras shamayim. But the foundation, we need to work on yiras shamayim. We're good emphasizing ahva, love and neo-chassidus and pnimiyus, and those are all beautiful things, I'm very, very drawn to them, I'm very attracted to them, but at the core of, yes Hashem loves us and Hashem wants us and Hashem sees even the small things we do and it means the world to him and we give him nachas and Hashem loves us, Hashem loves us, Hashem loves us. That's good, it's true, and our generation needs a lot of that. We also could use a really healthy dose of yiras shamayim. The yiras shamayim that says, yeah I want to do that, but yiras shamayim, that's pas nisht, that's not what Hashem wants for me. I'm living with a sense of yira. I have such awe, such admiration that I'd never want to disappoint Hashem. And there is a shtickle fear, a shtickle fear wouldn't be a bad thing. This is a fearless generation. Everyone just does what they want, how they want, when they want, this is how I define myself, this is how I dress, this is how I orient, this is how I behave, this is who I am, everything the way I want it, and everyone has to make room for me and my happiness and the way I want it, and I'm afraid of nothing, I'm entitled to everything. And so our generation needs a healthy dose of yiras shamayim, to have a lot of fear, and you're not entitled to anything, and you don't deserve anything, and you shouldn't do anything other than what Hashem yisborach, what the Ribono Shel Olam, what the Master of the Universe wants from us to do. We need a dose of yiras shamayim. So Rav Wolbe says if we have that healthy foundation that there's things that are pas nisht, there's things that they're wrong, it's just wrong, it's not how we behave, it's not who we are, it's not what we do, it's going to disappoint Hashem. Don't you care? Don't you love? Don't you appreciate? Don't you have gratitude for what he's done for you? There has to be a foundation, a strong foundation, a yesod of yira, yiras ha'onesh and yiras haromemus, the combination of a healthy dose of fear and awe and admiration. And when one has that yira and the emuna is sprouting, is blossoming, is growing, then you merit to get to bitachon. וזה אופן המהלך בזה ובסמיכת גאולה לתפילה ובזה טמונה הזכייה לעולם הבא. So he says, and where is that expressed? It's in the combination or the continuation from geulah to tefillah. If geulah gives you a healthy dose of yira and emuna, why do we have emuna? We left Mitzrayim and why did Hashem do everything he did in Mitzrayim? ויאמינו בה' ובמשה עבדו. We say it in davening every morning. Why did Hashem create such pomp and circumstance? Ten plagues, splitting of the sea, I mean incredible, incredible interference with nature, unprecedented, unparalleled interference with nature, a revelation that's never been repeated. Why? He could have taken us out of Mitzrayim with the blink of an eye. Was he showing off? Was he trying to impress the world? And the answer is, yeah, he wasn't showing off, but he was trying to leave an impression on the world. And he tells us that in Chumash, the Torah tells us that Hashem says, whenever you will doubt whether I know what's going on in the world and whether I'm involved in the world and whether my hand is guiding the world, ask your great-great-great-great-grandparents what happened in Egypt because I am revealing myself in this enormous way for this one time so that in perpetuity you can always look back, go back to it, and remember that just as I did for them, I'm doing for you. I may be behind the curtain for you, you may not see me like they did, but I am just as there for you as I was for them. And that's being somech geulah l'tefillah. Geulah is v'yaaminu b'Hashem. I remember. And by the way, the Rambam writes, why do I believe in the miracles of Mitzrayim, Yetzias Mitzrayim, the ten plagues, the splitting of the sea and so on? I don't believe because I read it in a book, it's not because I read it in the Torah or in the Chumash, why do I believe it? I heard it from my parents, who heard it from their parents, who heard it from their parents, who heard it from their parents, who were there, who saw it, who lived it. Incontrovertible. They were there. The truth is that's how we know any piece of history. Today in a world of fake news and fake media and fake internet, you can make a website. There's no regulation. You can make a website and you could publish on that website any truth that you want, or untruth that you want. You can make up and say, I want to share a historical event in 1746, this happened in a small city in whatever, and there were five people named whatever, and this is exactly what happened, and you know what's going to happen? Some school kid's going to for a project Google and come across your website and they're going to do a report based on the piece of history that you made up. So just because something's written in a book or published in a book or published on the internet doesn't make it true. How do we preserve truth? How do we know what's true? We know what's true through the transmission of people, going all the way back to those who were there and witnessed it. By the way, the more people that were there and witnessed it. So if I have a transmission of truth that was only witnessed by one person, then it doesn't have a lot of veracity. I don't know if it's true. But if I have two million people who all reported seeing the same thing and all told their children who told their children who told their children who told their children who now have children across the world who all have this tradition of what their great-great-grandparents saw together, then I can be pretty sure it's true. And that's Matan Torah, that's the splitting of the sea, that's the ten plagues. So Vayaminu baHashem, Hashem said I'm doing all this because I want to put it in your family narrative. I want to implant this in your family journey, in your family consciousness. I want to create this as a true piece of Jewish history that you will forever be able to look back. So Geula, ברוך אתה ה' גאל ישראל in those two words Ga'al Yisrael, in those two words is embedded the ten plagues, the splitting of the sea, the giving of the Torah, all of that revelation. So when I say the two words Ga'al Yisrael, I'm tapping into the Emuna of wow, Hashem didn't just create the universe, He's not just the designer and the programmer, He's intimately involved in the universe, He's guiding the universe. And now that I know that and acknowledge that and feel that in my bones and my kishkas, now, now that I could say Geula, I can be somech tfila, Hashem sefatai tiftach. Wow, You are the address, Hashem. You're the one to talk to, because just like You did it for them, I trust You're going to do it for me. So in being somech geula letfila, in making adjacent, in the succession of geula into tfila, is tmuna, is hidden, is built, is buried the zechia, the merit for Olam Haba. If I live with the Emuna of what happened in history, and I channel that and I transition that into the belief of what's going to happen in my destiny, then in fact I merit Olam Haba because I'm living with Emuna, Bitachon, and Yira, and that's the core of all of life. The core of all of life and all of mitzvos are a platform for that Emuna and for that Bitachon to feel and to see Hashem in every aspect of my life. We don't have 613 mitzvos. I said on Sunday morning in the shiur I gave about the Slonimer Rebbe on Chumash on Parsha, it's online also, that the Slonimer Rebbe in this week's Parsha, in the piece that we did, quotes I think from the Besht, that the Besht said we don't have 613 mitzvos. Of course we have 613 mitzvos, there's a Gemara at the end of Makkos that derives we have a tradition that there's 613 mitzvos and then all the different rabbis throughout all the generations try to categorize the thousands of mitzvos and how you can arrive at 613. What driving principles do we use in order to create those categories that we can reduce, consolidate the many more than 613 into 613. But the Besht says, yes we have 613 categories of mitzvos, but they all have one theme. There's really one mitzvah and the mitzvah is to have a relationship with Hashem. And the mitzvah is expressed in 613 different ways. So I have 613 opportunities to be in love with my wife. They can include taking out the garbage, buying her a gift, having conversation, giving time, experiencing dinner, having intimacy. There's 613 different ways to be in love, to express love, to show loyalty, to experience emotional, physical, spiritual intimacy, but at the core of all that journey is feeling the connection, feeling the bond, feeling that love. And the same is true with Hashem says the Besht. 613 different means, but one ends. And the one ends is being connected and feeling connected with Hashem. That's what it's all about. That's the bracha, I'll just tell you quickly, this was the Slonimer shiur, in the end of this week's Parsha, Yaakov steals the bracha from Yitzchak from Esav. But Yitzchak ends up giving a bracha both to Yaakov and Esav and they look awfully similar. Yaakov's bracha is ויתן לך האלקים מטל השמים ומשמני הארץ. May God give you, my son, from the dew of heaven and the fat of the land. And what's Esav's bracha? משמני הארץ יהיה מושבך. May the fat of the land be where you live, be your residence, be your lifestyle. He gave the same bracha to both. There's one fundamental difference says the Slonimer Rebbe. Yaakov's berachah is introduced, is preceded with v'yiten lecha Elokim. And he says don't read it as yiten lecha Elokim, may God give you from the dew of heaven and from the fat of the earth, read it, yiten lecha, here's my berachah, you know what you should merit? Elokim. May you feel Hashem in your life. And when you do, then טל השמים משמני הארץ, when the market goes up you'll see it from Hashem, when your income comes in you'll feel it from Hashem, the nachas you'll feel it from Hashem. And you'll use all the gashmius, all the physical that you have will be directed and channeled towards Hashem. Esav lives that the gashmius, the physical world, is the ends, is the sum total. Esav is defined as an ish sadeh. He's a man of the field. The field is the symbol of the material world. He's a man of the field. Esav chases women, Esav hunts animals, Esav wants wealth, wants fame, wants notoriety, what you see is what you get. Esav is asui, what you see is what you get, superficial, the physical world, that's all Esav is, that's all Esav cares about, that's all Esav believes in. Yaakov, what happens? He's an yoshev ohalim. He's an ish tam. He's not an ish sadeh. He's not a man of the field. He's an ish tam, he's a man of the spiritual world, he's a man of the soul, he's a man of ruchnius. But what happens at the end of the parshah, Rav Soloveitchik points out? Rifka tells Yaakov, she sends him where? To the sadeh. Why does he have to go make a barbecue for his father before he can steal the berachah? Yitzchak can't give a berachah without a barbecue, without a good piece of fleish? What's going on there? And there's a lot of answers, but Rav Soloveitchik's interpretation is that Rifka is showing there's nothing wrong with the sadeh. The field has a purpose. But the field is the ish tam, we should be an, we, our definition, our core character should be like Yaakov, should be spiritual people who use the physical universe to advance our spiritual agenda. So Yaakov, go to the sadeh, prepare from the sadeh, disguise yourself from the sadeh before you appear before Yitzchak. But you're using the sadeh, you're using the gashmius as a platform for the ruchnius. Esav saw the gashmius as the sum total, as the ends. She was teaching Yaakov use the gashmius, use the physical material world as a means towards the spiritual. So again, that's our mission in this world is to see Hashem in everything, to feel Hashem in everything. And when we do, when we're somech geulah l'tefillah. When we keep remembering, remember how I was so nervous, remember how I was so worried and it worked out. The thing worked out. Everything always works out. It works out. And even when it doesn't, that's also what's meant to be and it worked out and it worked out. People have gone through horrific, unimaginable, painful things and they find the capacity, that doesn't mean that worked out, it is forever a hole in their heart. It's not worked out. But yet, with one foot in front of the other, there's yet a life to live. So even if one fears, there's actually an entire philosophy about this. I listened to a podcast, I meant to speak about it or write about it or look into it. But there's a whole philosophy about living life where the way that you encounter, the way that you counter your anxiety is to always articulate the worst-case scenario and when you realize that you could live even with the worst-case scenario, then there's nothing to be anxious about. So instead of being anxious, put out what worst-case scenario and confront the worst-case scenario and figure out could you survive the worst-case scenario and if you can, then that's a way. What are they? The Stoics? Is that what it's called? I forgot what the philosophy is. There is a way to encounter this. So we add a little caveat, we add a little nuance to that philosophy, which is picture the worst-case scenario and realize Hakadosh Baruch Hu's, it's not the worst-case scenario. Whatever you think is the worst-case scenario was the design of Hashem. Somehow that's Hashem's best-case scenario because Hashem doesn't give you worst-case scenarios. Hashem gives each of us our best-case scenario for who we are and what we deserve and what we need in that moment and at that time. הרי לנו בזה דרך לבנות לקנות מידת הביטחון. So we have an ability to build and to acquire this character trait of trusting in Hashem. Stop getting anxious and angry and envious, trust in Hashem. על ידי המהלך הנפלא של סומך גאולה לתפילה. So every day, right, we're supposed to daven every morning and every morning we finish Gaal Yisrael and we start Shemoneh Esrei. And this is a new kavannah to have at this place in the siddur. Probably the most neglected place in the siddur. You finish Shema, you're getting all geared up and ready to say Shemoneh Esrei, you're taking your three steps forward, you're figuring out you know do you have your own personal space, are you too near this person, that person, too loud, the sneezing, this one's that, and then my siddur, am I in the right place? Most of us neglect geulah l'tefillah. Baruch Gaal Yisrael is just like I gotta say that to get to the Shemoneh Esrei, Shemoneh Esrei's the main thing. And what Rav Wolbe is expressing based on expanding on the Gemara in Berachos is no, Shemoneh Esrei's the main thing, but it only works if the introduction you're somech geulah l'tefillah effectively, if you take that pause, take that moment. Now I'm ready to have a conversation with him. Now I'm ready to talk to him once again. And if I don't feel close to him and I can't remember a time that he was in my life right now, then geulah. Let me think about the ten plagues and the splitting of the sea and the Jewish journey and how we've arrived and where we are and what's going on. Somech geulah l'tefillah. And without that introduction, that prerequisite, that license, that window to walk through, the entry into Shmoneh Esrei is being somech geulah l'tefillah. That is where our entire existence comes to a head. Right? Emunah bitachon yirah. My whole day, my whole life is trying to work on feeling Hashem in my life. And where do I draw the energy for that from? Being somech geulah l'tefillah. That's why it's so central. That's why it's so core. When I'm somech geulah, when I think about geulah, I think about my own personal redemption, I think about our national and collective redemption, I think about where we're from and where we're going. That gives me the strength, it gives me the support, it gives me the energy, it gives me the faith to now be able to say Shmoneh Esrei. Because why bother, what am I davening for? Is he really listening? Does he really care? Will it really work out? Does it really matter? Does that sound familiar? A lot of people feel that. Maybe if not every day, some days, we feel that. Does it matter? Does he care? Will he really do anything? What difference will it make? Will it really change? Can it get any better? It's very easy to feel that. So how do we override that feeling to make our davening charged despite those feelings? How do we purge those feelings? By being somech geulah l'tefillah, by concentrating on geulah and by saying, you know how I can overcome that? Because geulah, Hashem's in charge. I am deferring to him, I am submitting to him. He has a master plan, he's in charge. I also said yesterday at the parsha shiur that Yaakov grabs onto Eisav's heel. He's called Yaakov because he grabs Eisav's heel. Could it help? It was impossible to help. Eisav was already on his way out. There was no way that Yaakov could get around him. He couldn't pass. So why grab his heel? Because he had to show his initiative. He had to show his faith, he had to show Hashem I'm going to try. And did he know that fast forward thirteen years, that which he wanted desperately to be the bechor, he got? Fast forward thirteen years, Hashem orchestrated things. Avraham dies and Yaakov's baking lentils for Yitzchak who's sitting shiva and Eisav would come in dehydrated and malnourished from the field and he sells the birthright, Yaakov gets that birthright that he wanted all those thirteen years. So when he grabbed Eisav's heel, was it a waste? Was it for naught? Was it fruitless? No, he was showing his initiative. He was saying Hashem, I'm going to do my part and I have faith in you and if it is meant to be and it's what's right to be, then you'll make it happen. And fast forward thirteen years, the Ribbono Shel Olam makes it happen. And I wasn't equating it and I'm not making a political statement, but I said yesterday, those who were entirely distraught with the Iran deal when it passed, fast forward a couple of years, we thought this is the end of Israel, the end of the world as we know it. This week, US reimposed all the sanctions against Iran. The deal is gone, the deal is gone. So we can never become demoralized. We should never give up hope. We should never feel that our effort was worthless and wasn't worth trying. When we have emunah and bitachon, we put our faith and trust in Hashem, we realize I took my initiative. Yaakov reached for Eisav's heel and those who thought it was a bad deal and fought it, took the initiative and Hakadosh Baruch Hu took all that initiative and all that faith and he put it in a bank. It was a major deposit and he is the banker who determines when the withdrawal gets to be made. In Yaakov's case, it was thirteen years later, and for those who cared about this deal, it was a couple of years later. And who knows what else in our life we're davening for, our children, our grandchildren, our health, ourselves, that we're doing the initiative and we're expressing the faith and we don't feel it right now, but it's being collected and gathered and it's being deposited and Hakadosh Baruch Hu is going to make a withdrawal. But we have to make those deposits. If the bank account sits empty or if it goes into the red, then there's nothing to withdraw. So we have to make the deposits for him to be able to make the withdrawal. So when we daven, whether it's in shul, whether it's at home, we open that siddur and we finish Ga'al Yisroel before and we transition immediately. There's no break, there's no barrier, there's no hesitation. Yeah, Ga'al Yisroel, yeah he did it in the past, but I don't see him now and I don't know if he's there now. So that hesitation, that hesitation ruins our Olam Haba because the hesitation means that we don't really have that faith. There can't be a hesitation, there can't be a pause. It's got to be Ga'al Yisroel, he's in history, Hashem sefatai tiftach, he's about to be in my destiny. He's ever present, Hashem. He was in the past, he's in my present, I have trust and faith in him about my future. So therefore, my recommendation, my homework to myself, and you can try it too, is that when we take the three steps back or we're positioned three steps back before you take the three steps forward. Can't say it after Ga'al Yisrael, it's got to be right before. Before you say the bracha Ga'al Yisrael, one or two or three deep breaths, and to get all the distractions, to have an image in your head, you're shutting everything out, all the to-do list, and all the worry, and all the fear, and all the people you have to call and places you have to go and things you have to do, just shut it all out. And a few deep breaths and a intentional concentration on a positive thought of Hashem in your life. When was Hashem in my life? Do I have a story from my grandparents of how they survived? Do I have a story from my parents? Do I have my own story of when I felt him in my life when I was so worried or nervous or didn't think it would work out and he was there? And if none of those, I think of the Purim story, or the Chanukah story, or Yetziat Mitzrayim story, or the modern State of Israel, the miracle of the modern State of Israel, and the story that we heard on Shabbos morning, the story on Shabbos morning of the pilot who flew the mission to bomb the Iraqi nuclear reactor and he talked about how, by the way, he's not observant, I don't believe, I don't want to disparage him, but I don't believe he's the way we would define. But what did he say in his speech? He listed several ways where Hashem revealed himself in the success of that mission. From King Hussein on his yacht seeing six Air Force planes going overhead and radioing ahead from Jordan to Iraq, but the radio frequency not working and the message not getting across. To how low they flew, to the weather, to all this hand of Hashem he said he saw in that mission. Think about that before you say the bracha Ga'al Yisrael. Think about the miracles in our own lives, the miracles in our collective national lives, take the three deep breaths and only then, three steps forward, Ga'al Yisrael right into Hashem sefatai tiftach, that I'm not worried and these aren't just words and it's not just a checklist, what I'm saying to you Hashem I believe you're going to come through, not come through for what I want, but come through for what I need, even if it's not what I want. Hopefully what I need and what I want are the same thing, but even if they're not, Hashem I put my trust and I put my faith in you. We should all be zocheh for yitein lecha ha'elokim, that we should have the bracha of Elokim to feel Hashem's presence in our lives each day and every day, im yirtzeh Hashem we'll pick up next week. Amen.
