Transcript
Okay good morning, may it be a good morning for Am Yisrael for Klal Yisrael we should hear yeshuos and nechamos. It's a complicated and difficult day as we've seen Israel agree to this hostage release and this temporary ceasefire, and while I'll just share I know that we are all, I can't make the people stop talking, while while we are all tempted to express opinions and have opinions and have many questions about it, I don't think our questions will influence the decision or outcome, particularly those of us outside of Israel who are not necessarily entitled even to an opinion. So perhaps we can channel all of our questions, frustration, concerns, fears into tefillah. That's what we're always encouraged to do is to channel it into into tefillah. So instead of spending the energy on second-guessing or doubting or wondering or challenging, even though that is natural and I share it, to channel that same energy and time, channel that same the same speech into tefillah that if it is proceeding, whatever is proceeding should simply go well and go smoothly. I want to thank our Emuna Series sponsors for the year, Dr. Zvi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Schanzer. Also today's shiur sponsored by Carol Walden in honor of BRS and in gratitude for making this difficult time so meaningful and today is dedicated in memory of my grandma, my grandmother, my father's mother, Rose Goldberg, רחל לאה בת שלום דוד whose yahrtzeit is today. I literally would not be here without her so I am very grateful to her and we think about our grandma, her neshama should have an aliyah. Before we dive back into the text that we have been learning, the words of the Pnei Menachem, the Gerer Rebbe, during the Persian Gulf War, before we continue to study his maamar that gives us strength, a few Emuna emails to catch up on. First of all, you remember I got an email from a young man who missed the Ishay Ribo concert, back when we thought Ishay Ribo at Madison Square Garden was a big deal. Remember that? Back when we thought that and there was a young man who missed the concert and because of that missed certain aliyah privileges and was, you remember that whole story, that whole email? Well he sent me this morning, Rabbi Goldberg, want to let you know my fiancée and I just landed in Israel to start our new lives. A terrorist will never win. עם ישראל חי לנצח. See you at BRS East, with a picture of him and his fiancée with a big Israeli flag at Ben Gurion Airport. So a big, big mazel tov to Alec, we're so happy for you, proud of you, and wish you a klita ne'ima. Everything should be safe and smooth and secure and it was beautiful that he shared that. Still gotta get him in touch with Ishay Ribo. So yeah one thing at a time, one thing at a time. A few emails to share and then we'll dive back in. Good morning Rabbi, yesterday at the rally, he wrote last week, little teaser I left you with at the end, I had to make sure you'd come back this week, so a little teaser of the email. Yesterday at the rally, he wrote last week, I had the opportunity to stop by and say hi, when I walked up to you and said my chavrusa, I wasn't, it wasn't me trying to be cute. The Rav in his kehillah is part of my everyday life, even all the way in New York. I made it a priority to listen, one living with Emuna shiur a day for the past six months. I've been catching up and it has changed my life, he writes. I have been in shidduchim for almost three years now and it has been the most growing and complex journey of my life. For the first time ever, I feel through this time I've developed what I believe to be a real and authentic relationship with Hashem. Being in shidduchim will do that to you. That's my, that's my commentary. Not just begging and asking for things and turning my back on Him when He doesn't give me what I think is best for me, but working as hard as I could in our relationship as much as anyone I would for a person I love or care about. For the longest time I am told and taught to believe that Hashem can bring my yeshua k'heref ayin, that God brings salvation, He brings a solution to whatever problem we are working on or worried about. Hashem can bring it in an instant. So I keep that belief and wake up every day and wait, not so patiently, and hope for that yeshua to come today. Unfortunately the painful part is that because I have the knowledge and belief that Hashem is there always and has the ability to bring the yeshua, when He doesn't, it adds up to days and weeks of disappointment as I date and sometimes even date for a long time only to be left broken-hearted or that dark reality of going back to square one. My mother is in and out of doctors' offices with her illness and has to dedicate whatever time she has to care for my two siblings with special needs. It pains me that she also has to deal with my shidduchim all this time, sometimes feeling as if it is my fault. I watch other younger than me get married, many of whom my mother was their shadchan and I constantly remind myself that Hashem didn't want the right one to be read to me today. I must be happy for the people who don't have to go through what I do. Hashem doesn't work on my schedule. Sometimes Emuna means being patient, sometimes it means being silent, sometimes it means being resilient. Not all of the best Emuna stories finish with a happy ending in the moment. He clearly has been listening. The happy part of this story is the ongoing growth and development of my relationship with my Father and Creator. I'm happy and grateful to Hakadosh Baruch Hu that my faith is not... no longer theory because it is continuously tested. I thank you, your Rebbetzin, shkoach, and your not surprising growing kehillah for the inspiration always. All the best and keep in touch. PS, the writer's full permission to use this letter, don't use my name unless it will help me find the shidduch. He didn't write that, I just threw it in. But seems like a wonderful young man. So if he seems wonderful, I don't know details. I don't know details, we got, if you're listening, send your resume and, please God, we will work on it. Why is this an important email? They're all important, they're all beautiful, they're all powerful because I have the privilege and honor and responsibility and pleasure of sitting in front every week and learning with you and lecturing to you, emunah and bitachon and dveikus and lean in and He's there, we have to believe. And Baruch Hashem I have the most blessed life. But when I share with you the privilege of sharing with you emails and so grateful to those who take the time to write them that don't say, 'you know and it worked out amazing and because I went there and then I met the girl and we lived happily ever after with a white picket fence and all was good,' but 'I'm struggling and every day is frustrating and it's filled with disappointment, but I'm grateful because I'm closer to Him and leaning in on Him.' And isn't that amazing? Those emails give me chizuk, I'm sure they give you chizuk, and as we've shared before, we can take his email and become our hotspot to make a connection with Hashem even when we're struggling, even when we don't feel it. Which leads to the next one. Hey, Rabbi Goldberg. Hey. Hope you're doing well. That tells you the person's age. Hope you're doing well. Thank you for the emunah shiurim, I've been listening weekly for a couple of years now. Dating for over two years has been a journey for me. Maybe we can set her up with him. That'd be amazing. Dating for over two years has been a journey for me. It brings up a lot of trauma and triggers, as does being at home. I find myself in many laugh-or-cry situations. This is a difficult email. Growing up I was ignored and felt invisible much of the time. As a little girl I would often cry myself to sleep and daven knowing there is no one but God who cares and is with me witnessing my tears and agony. I'll tell you the more I get and read these emails, the more I realize they're not outliers and they're not anomalies and there are more people, if you don't feel this way and haven't struggled with this, know that there are many people who do. And if that makes us a little more patient and a little more kind and a little more understanding and a little bit more loving of others then it should. As a Scottish philosopher I love to quote, not because I'm a student of Scottish philosophy, it's the one quote I know, Ian Maclaren said, 'Be kind to everyone you meet, for everyone is battling something you know nothing about.' Be kind to everyone you meet. So the person cut you off on the highway or cut the line at Publix or walked by you at the Kiddush, just assume they're going through something you know nothing about and be grateful you're not going through it. And all of us could be a little more patient and a little more kind and a little more understanding and make the world a little bit more of a better place. So this writer of this email is again, not an anomaly, not an outlier. Sadly, there are many people who feel this way. I would talk to Him for hours, Hashem, letting Him know I'm not okay, telling Him about my day when there was no one else who'd listen. Other times there were no words but endless hours of tears we shared. Hearing you say that it isn't a lack of faith was validating in a very big way. Feeling anger and pain isn't a lack of faith but rather an expression of one. We can't feel hurt or angry at a being unless we truly believe He's there and is the one orchestrating our life. Knowing I can be real, open, and honest with Him has brought me such comfort. Trusting doesn't mean believing it's all rosy, it can be painful and hard sometimes and I won't deny that. I also know He's with me through it all. I can cry and lean on Him, He'll never forget me or abandon me, He hasn't and still does hear my cries when no one else does. I've been accused, called names, judged, criticized, given the cold shoulder and ignored. I've always tried holding on and being there, begging Hashem to hold me tight, never let go. Today when I have to put up with the dating scene, it can bring a lot of the same invisibility, loneliness, pain and suffering. I was in the car yesterday with my sister when my mom asked me to run some errands for her on my way home. I knew I had a date I needed to get back for and I started getting stressed as I was tight for time. Unfortunately, I also knew I didn't have much of a choice about this boy who I didn't want to meet and about helping my mom out. So I sat in the car in traffic and I kept repeating, 'I'm exactly where I need to be, exactly when I need to be there, and there's nowhere better for me to be at this moment.' My sister laughed thinking I was trying to be funny, but it helped remind me what's really true and believe it with a full heart and feel so calm as I can only try and do my best. I also know how angry and pained I feel when others think they run the show. I remind myself they don't have control over me or my life and that they never did. I don't either, so I too can let go and let God. He does, and He has someone waiting for me. He also holds my pain and tears, He always did and did not forget. He knows what I carry inside even when words can't describe. That's the greatest comfort I can ask for. I can feel sad and alone and I can tell Him that, Abba, You created me human with a need for human connection, love and support. Sometimes I need someone who can talk back to me with words, who can physically hold my hand and be there. That's the way You created me. Help me accept myself in this need, put good people in my life and teach me to trust. Last class you mentioned the term... Toron. I hope none of you Googled it or wasted your time on it. Please don't, I took care of it for you. Remember the tourist morons who hang on the edge of a cliff and take pictures with bears and buffalo, Torons. But listen to this. Listen to what she writes. Last class you mentioned the term Toron and I was thinking how well that term describes times where we do things that might look moronic to the world but we know to be true. A Torah moron. Toron. Torah moron. When I have to stick up for myself when I know to be true even when the world can fight me so hard we gotta stick up and keep fighting. I don't know how I would get through the tekufah with the great chizuk I've gained from the weekly boost of emunah. It's been a lifeline. I wish I had a happy ending for my story. I don't have one just yet. I will one day. Thanks for helping me hold on, stay sane in this sometimes insane world. Thanks for the chizuk for Klal Yisrael. May we experience personal and national redemption soon. United Jewish family together be brought home. Be blessed with good health, success, nachas, continued strength to spread light, truth, and chizuk to so many. Signed so and so. Wonderful. Okay, one more and then we'll jump back into our maamar of the Pnei Menachem. I always feel guilty we're here to learn, but I know that you really come for the emails, not me. So, one more. Rabbi Goldberg, I want to share an emunah story with you, not my own, but one that I heard on the Israeli radio last week of a survivor of the Be'eri massacre who returned to her home a few weeks later and described what she found still standing in her community amidst the destruction. So this is an emunah email indirectly from a survivor of the Be'eri massacre. One of the yishuvim that was that was terribly struck. I thought that her words were powerful and meaningful and they deserve to be spread to the Anglo-Jewish community. The story serves as a powerful message of the resilience of the Jewish people and emunah in dark times as well as their deep, though sometimes hidden, connection to the eternity of Torah. She sent me a link to the 12-minute interview in Hebrew. I'll put it on the emunah WhatsApp group. If you're not part of it, join it. We put a lot of bonus material there. I'll summarize the story here. In the interview, Rachel describes her return to Be'eri a few weeks after the massacre. Number one, she discovered her house burned to rubble and yet just feet from her house, her sukkah still in perfect pristine condition remained standing. Literally a kick would have knocked it down and there it was, waiting for her. In the interview she describes her emotion of find finding her permanent home of stones and bricks destroyed while her sukkah, her protection provided from Hashem was still standing waiting for her. So what a powerful image. To go back to Be'eri, her house, her home, the permanent structure was destroyed and this supposedly temporary shade of Hashem was still standing. And Be'eri is not a place that you'd necessarily assume there'd be a sukkah or that one would have that reaction or reflection with it. And yet how powerful, how deep. Wow. Number two, many years ago, Rachel was fundamental in building the Beit Knesset in Be'eri. It was a big deal to convince the yishuv to start, but she describes the extent of the religious connection of the community. A few weeks ago, soldiers found her number listed on the door of the locked shul. They called her asking for the key. She said besimcha except the key was in my house which has been destroyed. Break the lock and use the shul and infuse it with kedusha. The soldiers entered and they found the shul completely untouched by the terrorists. Since then, the shul of Be'eri has been constantly full with off-duty soldiers davening, singing, and learning at all hours. Number three, in beautiful words of emunah and strength, Rachel describes the community's effort to write a new Sefer Torah and to return, rebuild, and most importantly bring this Torah to the shul and dance with it next year, Simchat Torah of תשפ"ה. In her words you can hear the conviction, resilience, and promise to the Jewish nation that we will always rise from the ashes and continue to grow. Besorot tovot. Grateful to Ayelet for sharing what she heard on the radio. That is incredibly, incredibly powerful. Okay, there's more, we'll save them for next week. Back to our back to our learning. So we're learning the Pnei Menachem. The Pnei Menachem was the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva at the time. His son was Rav Shaul, is Rav Shaul Alter, who came here two weeks ago. He then became the Gerer Rebbe, but he had this maamar during the Persian Gulf War. He was at this time the Rosh Yeshiva, not the the Rebbe. מפחד אויב תצור חיי. And he has been validating our fears when a person is in a state of war, when scuds or missiles are flying overhead, it's understandable that people feel fear and panic. And yet he encourages us to take it, to channel it, to direct it into our emunah and bitachon in Hashem. We have to balance the initiative that we take, the effort that we exert, but also with realizing that in the end of the day, it is Hashem. Lo hatil meimit, the rocket doesn't kill, velo hapatriot matzil. It's not the rocket that kills and it's not the Patriot that saves. That was in the Persian Gulf War. Updated to today, it's not the rocket that kills and it's not the Iron Dome that saves. It's Hashem. It's all Hashem. We see the Yad Hashem. לב מלכים ושרים ביד ה. It's easy to think it's the terrorists, the terrorists, the terrorists. And of course it is, they're evil, they're wicked, they need to be eliminated from the face of the earth. The other day, I'm not flexing, I think the first time this year I was driving Shai to school, and he was finishing the homework I was supposed to have done with him the night before, and he had to write something in a journal and he chose to write tunnels, so he wrote about the Hamas hiding in the tunnels, what an 11-year-old boy writes about today. So he was writing it and he wrote, you know, the IDF is going after Hamas in the tunnels, and he looked up and he said 'Abba, after Hamas should I write Yimach Shemam?' I don't even know where he learned that or heard that. Yimach Shemam. I said 'Absolutely, Yimach Shemam.' So we're tempted and we need to eliminate them from the face of the earth. Pause, ceasefire none, go back to the work of eliminating them from the face of the earth. Hashem should do the work for us, for our brave soldiers and eliminate them from the face of the earth. And as much as our job, our mission is to not stop until they are eliminated, but ultimately לב מלכים ושרים ביד השם that we know everything that happens in this world is an extension of Hashem. So where I believe we last left off, we're on page two, the Shem Mishmuel, the Sochatchover Rebbe on Parshas Vaera, who מסביר בטוב טעם את דברי הגמרא, עשינו מלחמה כדי שיעסקו בתורה, that notion that we channel that fear, that worry, that anxiousness, that nervousness into the direction of the one who really will determine the outcome, the really determine the outcome. You know, I liken it, a person's loved one God forbid has to have a surgery. So they wheel the loved one into surgery. You give a kiss, say 'I love you', they're wheeled into surgery. You go to the family waiting room. What's more effective, sitting waiting in the family waiting room thinking about the doctor and 'hope the doctor's successful' and 'the doctor and the doctor and the doctor' or to open the Tehillim and say 'Hashem guide the doctor's hand, Hashem oversee the doctor, bring about the outcome'? So certainly, certainly, certainly we focus, we support, we do everything we can for our soldiers. They are the Shlichim of Hashem. But simultaneously, we have to daven, put our heart into thinking about Hashem. That's where it all really comes from. לא הרי צרות הכלל כצרות הפרטיות בעוד שצרות הכלל יש לשקול עתים לנקוט בצד של עת לעשות להשם הפרו תורתך שבצרות פרטיות משוכנעים אנו שהחיים חייבים להימשך כסדרם בלא שום שינוי. When it comes to our own personal challenge, our lives have to continue as is. We have to overcome whatever obstacle, every day we wake up there's something that we have to navigate and we can't radically transform our life on a daily basis, that's not the way that a person could live. We can't sustain that, that type of life. However, says the Pnei Menachem, when it comes to a collective national calamity, when it comes to a collective national time of crisis, it's different. It is a time of radical transformation, of coming together in achdut, of taking stock in ourselves and how to be better versions of ourselves. If we want peace for our brothers and sisters in Israel, what kind of peace do we have in our homes with our spouses, with our children, with friends, with neighbors? It's a time for radical transformation. Permanent transformation. Not rise to the occasion for however long this goes on and then revert back to the way we always were. But what are we doing radically different in our lives? That's how we left off last week. What are we going to look back for the rest of our lives and say, 'this is when I started X'? I started putting on tzitzit, I started proudly wearing my yarmulke all the time, I started making minyan, I started not talking, I started coming on time, I started covering my hair, I started davening a little bit each day, I started saying Tehillim, I started being more patient and giving and caring and working on my shalom bayit in earnest. This is when I... fill in the blank, you fill it in, you don't owe it to me or anyone else to tell them what you filled in, but you have to fill in that blank in your life. When Hashem is doing something on such a large scale, something so outstanding, something so exceptional, something so radical, it deserves an equal and opposite response that is radical and that is permanent. And what it is, bein adam le-chavero, bein adam la-makom, do you need to work on and change something interpersonally, something between you and God? Everyone needs to fill in it for themselves. No one should or could or has the right to tell you what you need to fill in. Many people will offer, but they're not entitled and they don't have the right. And you'll have a lot of suggestions for other people in your life of what they should radically change, but this isn't that time. What we should all embrace is that we should all be in earnest working on in a significant way transforming our lives. מה שהגשמי חזר לסדרו על אחת כמה וכמה שאין לפקוח חלילה בחיי הרוח הסדירים. There is nothing about the lives of our brothers and sisters in Israel right now that is ordinary. Nothing. Nothing that's happening in an ordinary way. No one, nothing. You have a family member in the army, you don't have a family member in the army, you're in the army, you're not in the army, it doesn't matter. There is nothing that is normal right now. So how could if Hashem is... Nothing's normal, you can't go on being normal. We can't go on being normal. The, my article this week I wrote about, there are, you know, the Chofetz Chaim during World War I took away one of his pillows. I'll tell you a very holy family during one of the intifadas their family decided they weren't eating ice cream. No ice cream. The other night an incredible holy member of our community mentioned to me in passing, not to flex or show off, he said since the war began he hasn't had a piece of chocolate. He said every time I reach to indulge in a piece of chocolate, he likes chocolate, he said I stop myself and say, soldiers are sleeping outside in the rain, I could go without chocolate till this is over. So you'll say to yourself, is not eating chocolate going to defeat Hamas? Is passing up on ice cream really going to bring home hostages? Silly, silly. Open a Tehillim. Oh, the shviger apparently is not getting manicures until this war is over. And now we'll be bound by that pledge. That's now been repeated publicly. Is that really going to bring hostages home? Is that really going to provide safety and security? Is that really going to eliminate the evil wicked Hamas? No manicures, no chocolate, no ice cream, removing one of the pillows, not sleeping in a bed. The answer is first of all yes, because the merit of a Jew saying that my life can't go on as normal while brothers and sisters aren't having a normal life. I don't want to get in trouble for saying this, but I can only tell you what we're thinking as, and it's hard to believe that what began on Simchas Torah is now going to lead soon into Yeshiva Week. Are our vacations going to be the way they would if they weren't a war? Can someone really go to some exotic resort far-flung, expensive, enjoyable vacation and lie out? No, kids will be off from school. So, you know, okay, you have to do something. And people need to figure it out. Our community struggled at first, were we going to cancel flag football and Zumba for the girls? And you have to still do some things. You have to do some things, but they can't be the way they ordinary are. So when we disrupt our lives, Hashem has interrupted our lives and our response is to disrupt our lives and disrupt our routine. And do so not because you can see the direct correlation between I won't eat chocolate and ice cream, that hostage was freed, that evil terrorist was eliminated. But the merit of saying that while our brothers and sisters, there's no soldiers, they're not sleeping in their beds. I don't know if they're having a night's sleep. So how can we have the comfort? How can we have the relaxation? We have to interrupt our lives. So we interrupt our lives spiritually by saying I'm making a change, a radical change. We will, our family always forever look back and say, I hope we can say the same thing about Corona, about COVID, that during that time our family started, our Shabbos table, our davening, our achdus, our peace and patience for one another, our we adopted this practice. We didn't want that, we wouldn't welcome that, but we look back with that and say, that precipitated, that led to, that was the catalyst of certain change and transformation in our lives. And it would be a crime, a crime. Please God this should be over today. Moshiach should come and for all time we will look back and reflect and will we be able to say that's when we started X, Y, or Z. Davening, saying, doing, going, acting, behaving, opening our home and having guests. That's when we start... what will we fill in that blank? We can't be the same. We can't be the same. But Parshas Hashavua Pasuk Vayavo Amalek maybe Rashi? The Pnei Menachem gave this original maamar on the parsha of Amalek. And it says Vayavo Amalek Rashi says משל נפלא בשם המכילתא משל לאדם שהרכיב בנו על כתפו ויצא לדרך היה אותו הבן רואה חפץ ואמר אבא טול חפץ זה ותן לי והוא נותן לו. So Rashi on the Pasuk with Amalek tells a story, a mashal, a parable of a man who's walking with his son on his shoulders, and his son sees some shiny object and says, Abba, bend down, reach that and grab that and give it to me. And he gives it to him. וכן שניה וכן שלישית. He walks a little bit further and the son says again, another shiny object, bend down, reach down, pick that up and give it to me, and then a third time. פגע בו אדם אחד אמר לו אותו הבן, he says to this, Abba, amar lo, Rei'isa es abba? So what happens? They run into somebody who says to that son, have you seen your father? So his father says, you don't know where I am? השליכו מעליו ובא הכלב ונשכו. He throws the son off of him and the dogs come and take a bite. הראה לנו נסים גדולים. What was this a mashal for? Hashem says, Klal Yisrael, I've been carrying you on my shoulders. I split a sea, I did ten plagues, I've been making miracles, I've been intervening in the world. And I'm carrying you on my shoulders. Every shiny object you ask me to bend down and pick it up and give it to you. And now someone comes along and says, "Hey, have you seen your father?" and you say, "Who? What? Father? Hashem? I don't know if he exists, I've been going to this class, I've been taking seminars, I've been reading books, I've been researching, I'm considering the evidence for his existence." And the one carrying on the shoulders says, "Are you out of your mind? I've been carrying you, I've been shlepping you, I've been crouching down and bending down and picking up for you what you want. I've been making ten plagues and splitting a sea and making miracles, and now when you're asked, 'Has anyone seen your father?' you say, 'Is there such proof he's my father? It's debatable, I don't know, I'm considering it.' He's going to throw you off his shoulder and say, "Yeah? You're not so sure I'm your father? Good luck. Good luck. Good luck." הראה לו ניסים גדולים כדי שיכיר את אבינו we're on page three. הטוב והמטיב קודם משיכת הכלב. So the father says, "Let's see how you do facing the elements in the world without me, without me carrying you on my shoulders, without me protecting you." ככל שירבה בהכרת האב ניצל מנשיכת הכלב. So what's the answer? The longer and the more that we say, "My father? He's right here! He's carrying me, I'm on his shoulders, he's amazing to me. I thank him endlessly, I have boundless and endless faith in him, trust in him, gratitude to him." So the father says, "Oh, I'll continue, I can carry you a little bit longer. I'll carry you a little bit longer. A little bit longer." If you ever put your children when they're growing older and heavier and harder on your shoulders and you're dancing Simchas Torah and you're ready to put them down, when they say, "Please, this has been amazing, I can't thank you enough, I love you Abba," so you say, "Okay, I can do it a couple more minutes." If they say, "Hey, put me down," you know, they get a little snarky with you, you throw them down and you say, "I don't know why I carried you to begin with, you don't even appreciate it. My back hurts now and my shoulders kill and you don't even appreciate it." So Hashem says, "I'm happy to carry you on my shoulders. I got it. I got you. But you gotta thank me, you gotta know me, you gotta see me, you gotta recognize me, you gotta trust me. When you deny me, when you're uncertain about me, when you're kofoy tov about me, so good luck. I'm not looking to hurt you, I'm just going to put you down. And when I put you down, there's a lot of dogs out there that want to take a bite. They want to take a bite." So what's the answer? How do we continue to get to ride on his shoulders? says the Pnei Menachem. We continue to get to ride on his shoulders the more that we say, "Thank you for letting me sit on your shoulders. You exist, I love you, I'm on your shoulders and I want to scream it to the world. I want everyone to see and to know." במקום להגיע למצב של רפידים חייבים להתנער מן השאננות ולהתמיד ביתר שאת מתפללים עמנו בימים אלו את התפילות Avinu Malkeinu ובין השאר אנחנו מבקשים Avinu Malkeinu hafer atzas oyveinu. In those days the Persian Gulf War and now Rav Shechter paskened our community did not adopt it but others have to start saying Avinu Malkeinu. And here the Gerer Rebbe, Gerer Rosh Yeshiva at the time, the Pnei Menachem says they were davening אבינו מלכנו הפר עצת אויבינו. Avinu Malkeinu, our father, our king, reverse the will, the want, the plan of our enemies. הבקשה כל כך מובנת בימים אלו. And that request of Avinu Malkeinu, Hashem, reverse every missile. One of my friends in this community, his wife is here, says, "Forget an Iron Dome. Why do we invent the Iron Dome? We should have invented a technology that whenever the missile comes at us, it turns it around and makes it go back to exactly where it was launched from. Kind of Iron Dome blowing up in the sky. Don't blow up in the sky," Dan says. "Create the technology that it can figure out where it was launched from, reverse it, and make it go back to exactly hafer atzas oyveinu." That's exactly אבינו מלכנו הפר עצת אויבינו. We understand what these words mean in this time. הבקשה כל כך מובנת אבל צריכים גם להתייחס לתחילת הבקשה says the Pnei Menachem so brilliantly. You know what we think about when we say that sentence? hafer atzas oyveinu. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Rashida Tlaib, AOC, they've got such horrific, nefarious plans, desires, wants. hafer atzas oyveinu. Hashem, reverse their plan. But says the Pnei Menachem, you know what we neglect, you know what we forget to concentrate on? How about the opening two words, Avinu Malkeinu? Our father, our king. Before you get to the punchline, "Do this, do that, help this, help that, here's what I think should happen," before you get to the punchline, "Free the hostages, kill the terrorists, protect the people, let the army go home," before you get to the punchline, you have to focus on the first two words because you can't get to that punchline without the help, without the consent of the first two words, Avinu Malkeinu. הכרזה זו חייבת להיאמר במלא עומק הכוונה. This announcement, this hachraza. הכרזה זו חייבת להאמר במלא עומק הכוונה. This announcement, this hachrazah, has to be said bemalei omek hakavanah with the deepest, most profound concentration. ויש להוות אכן אבינו אתה. You are my father. אין אנו שואלים חלילה. We're not asking where's father. Hahepech. When some say I don't know, think about the emails I read, this woman who felt invisible, who's obviously endured a lot of pain and has things that trigger it, and says all she does every time she feels neglected and invisible to others, she knows that she has Hashem. Abba, I know where you, I don't have doubt, I don't have uncertainty. When people ask me, I don't say I don't know where he is or if he is. I say he's right here, I'm on a shoulder, you don't see him? You don't see him? He's carrying me. He's right here. What do you mean you don't see him? He's carrying me. He's right here. Abba. Abba. Avinu is Abba. Abba. Whatever you call your father is what you should call Hashem. Abba, daddy, dad, tati, pop, whatever you call him, is what you should call Hashem. You know why? Because your dad, you don't say I don't know if you exist and I'd like to see some paternity test whether you're really my father. You don't say that. You say dad. You say dad when you're happy, dad thank you so much, that was amazing for the Chanukah present. Or you say dad, I'm really disappointed, how could you, you've hurt me bad. But either way, you say dad. Unless you're a millennial and you call him by his first name. But you say dad. You should say dad. Dad. So if we want to feel that, don't call him Hashem, don't call him some name which is what your rebbe taught you when you were a kid and you don't even know and you don't even know what that meant and you don't know who he is and you don't know the evidence for his existence. Forget all that. Drop that. Drop that. Just simply call him. Rebbe Nachman writes, hisbodedus, talk to him. Call him what you call your father because he is also your father. He's also your father. So call him whatever you call your father. Dad, can I talk to you? Abba, I have something to say. Tati, I need you, I'm disappointed in you, I'm protesting to you. But how does he know that you really believe he's your dad? Because you call him the same thing that you call your dad. Talk to him. Talk to him and call him, Avinu Malkeinu. Avinu Malkeinu sounds like oh that reminds me of Yamim Noraim, that reminds me of when I'm fasting on Yom Kippur, that reminds me of Selichos. Don't say those words, that has such negative connotations. Fasting, exhausted on my feet in shul all day. Thank God we're done with that. We're coming on Chanukah, we've got more than half a year until we're back, don't remind... that shouldn't be the association that we have. You know what the association should be that we have? Avinu... oh you, my Abba? You're talking about my Abba? Something about my dad? I love it when people talk to me about my dad. Tell me about my dad, tell me you saw my dad, your interaction with my dad, something nice you have to say about my dad, there's nothing better. Avinu Malkeinu is our dad, our Abba, our tati. So yes, we concentrate, we think about, and we want to get to that punchline, hafer azas oyveinu. Overturn the gezeirah. Bring a refuah sheleimah. All the punchlines of Avinu Malkeinu. How about we start with the first two words, Avinu Malkeinu? No one should ever say, have you seen your Abba? Oh, you mean Avinu Malkeinu? My father? Yeah, he's right here. Look down, he's carrying me. Hahepech, רצוננו לראות את מלכנו מכריזים אנו קבל עם ושמיים הוא מלכנו והוא ורק הוא יושיענו. He's our father, he's our king, and he's the only one who can heal us. I'll tell you an amazing thing I saw from Rav Druck shlita. Rav Druck shlita wrote a beautiful essay about getting through this difficult time from a spiritual perspective, maybe we'll even learn it together next. But he says in there the following. Maybe you've been moved by the videos of soldiers singing, אין לנו על מי להישען אלא על אבינו שבשמיים. We have no one to lean on other than Avinu, Abba, our Abba in shamayim. Ein lanu l'hishaein. More powerful, there are videos that are coming out, we blew up the Hamas parliament. We blew up the Hamas capital. We blew up this building, we blew up these tunnels, we blew up this underground. They're all good. And we get a little gishmak. Jews, we can blow things up? We can defend ourselves? IDF, it's amazing, it's amazing. You get a little, wow, they blew that up. It's powerful those videos, the powerful, the bombs we're dropping are powerful. You know what's even more powerful? When soldiers are singing and dancing, אין לנו על מי להישען אלא על אבינו שבשמיים. It's even more powerful. More powerful. It's amazing these soldiers singing and dancing, Al tira Yisrael. אנחנו מאמינים בני מאמינים. כל העולם כולו גשר צר מאוד. These are amazing. These are the most powerful. we should drop these videos in Gaza. These are powerful bombs. Powerful bombs that the world sees. I think it's part of what's eliciting this pushback. Whenever there's a surge of spirituality, so there's an equal response of a surge of the other forces, the evil forces in the world. And that's what we're seeing. The powerful bomb, these video bombs, these video clips are bombs. bombs of emunah, bombs of bitachon, bombs of dveykus. They're incredible, they're extraordinary, they're unbelievably powerful. Ein lanu lehishaen ami lehishaen אלא על אבינו שבשמים. You know the song. We have no one to lean on other than our Father in heaven. Says Rav Druck, let's say you want to lean against a wall, you want to lean against a shtender, you want to lean against the person sitting next to you on the airplane and close your eyes. In order to lean against something, what do you have to do? You have to be close to it. If you want to lean against a wall but you're standing in the middle of the room, you're going to fall flat on your face. If you want to lean against a shtender but the shtender is ten feet away, you're going to fall flat on your face. If you want to lean against the person next to you but the seat next to you is empty, you're going to fall flat on your face. If you want to lean against something, what do you need to do first? You need to be close to it. So ein lanu ami lehishaen אלא אבינו שבשמים, we have no one to lean on other than Hashem. If you want to lean on Hashem, you have to draw close to him. You can't lean on him unless you're close to him. Because if you try to lean on him and you're not close to him, you know what happens? You'll fall flat on your face. So the prerequisite, the precursor, the precondition to being able to lean on him is going to the emunah shiur. The precondition to being able to lean on him is to first draw close to him. If you don't draw close to him and then a crisis strikes, so chas v'shalom a crisis, we're all in this crisis, a collective crisis or someone's going through a personal crisis, but a crisis strikes and you say, well now I want to lean on him. But if you're not close to him, if you haven't put in the work to draw close to him and you try to lean on him, you're going to fall flat on your face. So we have to draw close to him in these moments so that we can effectively lean on him. Let's finish up the Pnei Menachem. ימים גדולים מרגשים הבאים עלינו, great days, we can feel great days are coming. הרי רואים אנו נסים מופלאים. We're seeing miracles. דוקא על ידי הפיגוע בליל ד' כמה יכלו הטילים הקודמים להזיק בלב לבה של Tel Aviv נפל טיל שלא הזיק כלל. Again he's talking during the Persian Gulf War, that they saw rockets land in Tel Aviv, didn't injure anyone. What's amazing is in the Persian Gulf War, the notion of a rocket coming into Israel was like unheard of, it was crazy, it instilled fear. What's insane is that today the idea of rockets falling in Israel are just normal. If you have that Red Alert app, they're just part of everyday life. Okay, so it's the nebach the people in the south, then it can hit Tel Aviv or Yerushalayim, it's a whole other level. We got to a point, and my sister pointed out to me this morning, that we talk about that on October 7th Hamas broke the ceasefire. She said what are you talking about? There never was a ceasefire. Every day a rocket came over into Sderot or Ashkelon or Ashdod, there never was a ceasefire. It wasn't October 7th Hamas broke the ceasefire, there never was a ceasefire because all of these rockets. But it's amazing when you read these words of the Pnei Menachem back in the Persian Gulf War, he's talking wow, one rocket, it came over from Iraq and it didn't injure anybody. Didn't hit anybody. That was like crazy, a rocket. What became, should never have become normal, we should remain maladjusted. There is no country in the world should adjust to the idea of rockets regularly falling. We should be maladjusted to the notion of a rocket ever being launched at innocent people. Yad Hashem hi, שראה לנו את הנסים מצד שני אל לסמוך. So every time a rocket did not hurt somebody, Hashem told us two things. First of all a miracle happened, but also don't rely on miracles. It's not a given, we're not entitled, it doesn't necessarily have to happen that way. הבה נקרא את הכתובת על הקיר ולא נחמיץ את השעה הזאת, read the writing on the wall and don't miss out on this great moment. It's a sha'at hachosher. This is a moment in time. It's a moment in time that should jar us, that should rattle us and shake us, that should arouse us and awaken us. You know who it's doing that to? Soldiers. Soldiers. Yocheved's going on Sunday to Israel on an OU Rebbetzin mission, please G-d. I'm going to go back soon in the next couple weeks for a couple days. And when you see the soldiers and they say, I need tzitzis, please, I don't own but can you give me tefillin? I want to start wearing them. They understand it. So again ride their chutzpah, use their connection to connect. If they are waking up and they're spiritually aroused and awakened and making changes in their life, we all have to be. יש לזכור כי ה' אלקינו תמיד עמנו. We have to remember Hashem is always with us. וגם עתה נאמר בכל צרתם לו צר. הקדוש ברוך הוא מיצר בצרתה של ישראל לפיכך יש להזהר בתפילה למען צער השכינה. We have to feel that Hashem is with us, he's feeling this pain. You think Hashem is not looking up and saying, I cannot believe they're releasing prisoners for the hostages, they're pausing this war? You think this doesn't pause Hashem too? That this is the circumstance that we're in? Ah, so why did he make, okay, I don't have answers. We don't understand his ways. But we need to know that he's there. He's in pain with us. He's in pain with us, just like he was with the Klal Yisrael when they were in Mitzrayim, when Hashem first spoke to Moshe from the sneh she'einu ukal, from the bush that wasn't burned. What kind of a bush was it? Hashem could have revealed himself to Moshe and spoke from a bed of roses, of violets, of bougainvillea. Is that how you pronounce it? Yes. Is there an N? Bougin? Is there an N? Bougainvillea? Yes. Hashem could have revealed himself from a bed of bougainvillea. But he didn't. He spoke to Moshe from a bush of thorns and thistles. Why? Rashi says, because imo anochi batzara. Hashem says Klal Yisrael's in servitude in Egypt and I'm going to go on Yeshiva week vacation to some resort? I'm lying in a bed of thorns and thistles. Because imo anochi batzara. We have to know says the Pnei Menachem, even though he is the solution and we wonder why he didn't have to bring this problem, but we need to know that he's also in pain with us. He's in pain with us. Just like when a parent puts the child in timeout for their best interest. The child is crying, I can't believe I'm missing that party, that gathering, that get together, that event, that sporting, and the parent says, I'm so sorry, I'm sitting here crying with you. I'm in pain with you that you need to be in timeout and can't go. That's the right thing for you, you don't understand it now, you may never will, but know that I'm your father, your mother, and I'm doing it for your good, and I'm sitting here with you crying about it. Hashem is sitting here with us crying about it. Crying about it. יש לשנן היטב את כללו של כלל לנו את אחד מן הראשונים כמו לכם באורחות צדיקים. The Orchos Tzaddikim writes in Sha'ar HaSimcha, השם יתברך מרחם עלינו יותר מכל מרחם ושומר עלינו גם בשעה שאין אנו שומרים על עצמנו. Hashem protects us even when we are not protecting ourselves. And therefore, אי אפשר לגרוע ולהוסיף על גזירת השם יתברך אם לא שנישא לבבינו אל כפיים השם יתברך יודע אם ביטחוננו שלם בו ואי אפשר להטעותו. We have to put our faith, our trust, we have to let go and let God, we have to submit and surrender, we have to recognize that we do everything we can to support our incredible soldiers. Daven for them, supply them, donate them, love them, do everything we can for them, but ultimately at the same time, simultaneously realize as much as we thank the surgeon and find the best surgeon and give gifts to the surgeon and thank the surgeon and praise the surgeon, we also know who is guiding the surgeon's hand? Hashem. Hashem is guiding the soldier's hands. הבה נקיים את דברי הפסוק בפרשתנו ופרעה הקריב אל ליבן של ישראל לאבינו שבשמים. Just like Pharaoh brought the Jewish people close to Hashem, Hamas and Hezbollah let them at least in all their destruction, let them at least do one thing constructive, which is bring us closer to each other and bring us closer to Hashem. ובזכות הקירוב נזכה לסיפא התייצבו וראו את ישועת השם אשר יעשה לכם היום. Let us like our ancestors and predecessors, let us merit to stand and to see the salvation of Hashem in the merit of disrupting our lives with something radically transformational. Not going on with business as usual because there is no one in Israel who could live their ordinary lives. Whether you make that choice, manicures, chocolate, ice cream, pillow, you're not going to watch your favorite show, whatever you want to choose, whatever you want to choose. Take on something and leave something else that you enjoy out and say until the people I love can return to some sense of normalcy, my life is disrupted. And yes, there is a direct connection because in the merit of that love we demonstrate for others and the love for Hashem, we should be zocha to התייצבו וראו את ישועת השם and it should be kerev ayin and we should merit the salvation of Hashem im yirtzeh Hashem today.
