Transcript
Good morning boker tov, it should be a good morning boker tov, we should hear besoros tovos im yirtzeh Hashem, today should be the day of the decisive victory, hostages being brought home, our soldiers coming home, should be a good day for am yisrael. I want to thank our generous Emuna series sponsors, Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan. I met their son when I was in Israel last week. I still have not met them in person, would you believe it, incredibly generous sponsors, amazing, helping broadcast Emuna to the world, and they're incredible, but I met their son last week, I was so grateful for that. Memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Chanser, we're very grateful to them. Today's shiur is also sponsored by Miriam Rosinger in memory of her mother's seventh yahrzeit, נחה בת בצלאל אשת אברהם מאיר הכהן, she was an Auschwitz survivor, risked her life, may her neshama have an aliyah, we're very grateful for that sponsorship as well. We have a lot to catch up on. We took two weeks off. We weren't off, you're never off from Emuna, but we were off at least from the shiur, so there's a lot, a lot to catch up on. Also want to dedicate our learning today to a young girl from our community, a six-year-old who's desperately in need of our tefillos, יעס שושנה בת חנה פריידל, she should please God bounce back quickly and have a speedy, painless and complete refuah shleimah, we should hear good things and have her parents should have tremendous nachas from her. So the reason we didn't have shiur the last couple weeks, we were in Israel, another incredible, extraordinary, amazing, life-changing, none of that exaggeration trip, which we've shared a little bit, we'll continue to share more of. One of the highlights for me was the opportunity to meet some of the letter writers of the letters that we've been sharing in the Emuna shiur. So we had an event in Yerushalayim last week, was it last week? Two weeks ago? Beautiful, beautiful event, incredible musicians, amazing speakers, it was a really, really inspiring event. You can watch the whole thing online if you haven't seen it, it's well worth it. And there, there were a lot of people who showed up who are part of our Emuna support group, who listen regularly and came. So I met the victim of the hyenas. You remember the hyena victim? Remember the man who was attacked by hyenas in Yerushalayim, left unconscious, bloody, and when he went to the hospital and they did an MRI they discovered a brain tumor, so the hyena saved his life. He's still in need of tefillos, Hashem should give him a complete refuah shleimah, but it was great to meet him and his wife. I met, remember we read the letter from the woman who runs Lev L'Chayal near Lev HaTorah, the yeshiva, they created this place where they're sending out to soldiers, and it turns out that a soldier who needed something was the neighbor of the person who runs, remember that letter? She was there, I met her at the yeshiva at Lev HaTorah. You remember the oleh who missed the Ishay Ribo concert and the giveaways for olim who moved to Israel? We met him. There's a long list, it was great, it was like, it was amazing, you know these people through their letters, they inspire our Emuna and it was wonderful to meet them, it was incredible. So I'll share with you two Emuna emails, I'll share with you a couple Emuna stories that happened to us, and then I want to learn something. We're going to get back to Rav Chaim Shmulevitz, Rav Chaim Shmulevitz, the shmuzen he gave for the Yom Kippur War, not the Six-Day War, the Yom Kippur War, and we were in the middle of learning that together. We'll come back to that, but we're going to take a little break to learn something else today. But first a couple of emails. I love this email, so happy for this email. Hi Rabbi Goldberg, I wrote to you about a year ago to thank you for the Emuna shiurim which had given me the encouragement and strength to revisit infertility treatments in the hope of having more children. You may remember that email as well, someone who had given up hope, someone who had struggled. There are few pains, few losses or few challenges more painful. We know that imahos, our great matriarchs, Rachel Imeinu said אם אין מתה אנכי, that feeling of loneliness, of pain, of barrenness, and the discussions of Emuna gave her, gave this couple the hope to say, you know what, we'll try one more time. Bechasdei Hashem, we had a successful IVF cycle and pregnancy and we welcomed our baby boy. Our Emuna baby is doing great, baruch Hashem. I'm grateful that I had the push to keep trying when I did and we were able to bring another Jewish neshama into the world, especially in a time of such darkness and loss for am yisrael. We gave him the name Yehuda, as we learn from Leah Imeinu Hashem has given us more than we thought possible and also as a reminder for him to always be a proud Jew. I often hear on your shiurim how Emuna helps people get through really tough times, as it did for me, but it can also be a tool for bringing incredible light and simcha into the world. For that we are incredibly grateful. Thank you for giving the shiurim, blah blah blah, may we soon see a time when the simcha far outweighs the pain. So it's nice to get wonderful messages like that, and im yirtzeh Hashem all those who are trying and waiting and longing to be married, to have children, to be healed, to be whole, should all have their tefillos answered. Last week was Esty Moskowitz, אסתר טילא בת גבריאל פנחס's yahrzeit, and while I was in Israel we had a gathering at the cemetery, and at the cemetery where several many people, we had more than a minyan. Close with the Moskowitzes who wanted to be there to honor, we had more than a minyan close with the Moskowitzes who wanted to be there to honor, we said Tehillim and shared some thoughts. And then I got this email: I had to share the whole story that happened today at the cemetery as I was leaving from someone who I know, I'm friendly with, who was there that day. After the Tehillim and Divrei Chizuk at the cemetery for Esty, I was walking back to my car, which I happened to have parked at the front instead of driving all the way down. So, if you've ever been to Eretz Hachaim cemetery, you come up that hill that has a one-way road that has two-way cars going, and a windy hill. And you make your way to the top of that hill, and there's the chapel, and there's a kollel, believe it or not, there's a kollel that learns full-time. I don't know if it comes with the grave when you buy the grave that people will learn in your memory, there's a kollel learning there full-time, the bathrooms, and then there's the main road that heads down. And then to the right you go down to where the BRS section is. So when I pulled in, I actually drove by this person who was walking with somebody else, had I known, in my car I would have given him a ride and wondered why is he walking, he parked at where the chapel is and he's walking all the way down. So he says he happens to have parked there. First I was annoyed for having done that, but said to myself clearly Hashem has a reason, although for the life of me I couldn't fathom what the reason could be. It's not like I was suddenly going to run into someone who needed help at the cemetery in the middle of the day. I began walking up the hill, glad that at least I was getting some exercise. As I'm walking up the road, a thought popped into my head. If I'm already here, I should go daven a few minutes at the kever of my wife's aunt. But I didn't remember where it was. I started looking in my Google Photos for a picture I took years ago, now you know the age of the person who wrote this letter, they knew how to use Google Photos to figure out a picture which would help them identify the place, how many of you would have thought to do that? Just, I'm just saying. I started looking in my Google Photos for a picture I took years ago at the section marker when I heard some people walking down the road in front of me. I looked up and it was none other than two of my wife's cousins. Very random to run into them there. I asked why they were there, and they said today is our mother's yahrtzeit. My wife's aunt whose kever I was looking for. Perhaps that's why I unknowingly got the sudden urge to stop and daven by her kever. Clearly Hashem's way of working things out. They showed me where it was, I said goodbye, went to daven for a few minutes. When I returned to the cemetery street, I saw a third of my wife's cousins who had joined the party, talking to the first two cousins. She too came to visit her aunt's kever on the yahrtzeit, without having coordinated with her cousins. And what are the odds that all of us would meet there at the same time? Clearly hashgacha pratis, they should have all an aliyas neshama and besoros tovos. So again, life is an adventure. So you say to yourself, why did I park there? Why did I give myself this walk? Why do I have to walk up the hill? Okay, we're going to find out. Hashem's adventure. Why did he put me on this path? Why am I going this way? Let's see what Hashem has in store. You could be annoyed and frustrated, frustrated and miserable and resentful and angry and farbissener and negative. Or you could say life's an adventure. Let's see why I parked there. I don't know, sometimes it's revealed, often it's not, but it's a different way of living and a different way of looking. And we had several hashgacha pratis stories that happened to us and then we'll get into our learning. I'll just tell you a few of them. We did a two-day BRS mission while we were there. Two days of 60, 70 people, packed bus, was incredible, really, really powerful. So we had very strict itinerary, agenda, plan, things we needed to get done. But last minute, a food situation required us to pull an audible. Last minute we decided to stop at the Beit Shemesh mall to quickly everyone get food and then let's get back in the bus and get going. And there, Yocheved noticed and pointed out to me, maybe if you some of you saw a video I posted, I mentioned it in the parsha shiur. There was a guy working at the restaurant or the food service place where we're getting some food from, covered in tattoos and piercings, no yarmulke and tzitzis hanging out. Yocheved said, that's unusual. She left it at that's unusual, I said let's go check this out. So we went up to, he's now my friend on WhatsApp. We went up and asked him like what gives, what's the story, what's going on over here? And you can watch the video or listen to the parsha shiur from yesterday, I told the story, but it's a beautiful story of a beautiful soul who as of October 7th decided he was no longer going to hide, he felt this pull, he wanted to wear tzitzis. And not wearing a yarmulke or having tattoos and piercings wasn't going to hold him back from at least this mitzvah he felt connected to, which is the tzitzis, the strings that would remind him every day about Hashem. October 7th he lost several friends in the Nova Supernova music festival, and he decided he doesn't care what people think anymore, in memory of those friends he would start wearing tzitzis. I took a little video of him, put it online, I think it's at like 75,000 views now, and the people have said to me how inspiring to see that in him. He took something concrete on, he made a change in his life, he was not shy or embarrassed, what would people think, it was a beautiful thing, all because last minute we had to stop at the Beit Shemesh mall. I never would have met him, wouldn't have taken that video, wouldn't have shared it, wouldn't have inspired all the people who were touched by it, had Hashem not decided that we were going to take a detour and stop. at the Beit Shemesh mall. We spent one of the days of the trip, we were down south, army base, we went to, we went to Be'eri. Devastating to walk through, to see, to hear, to listen, to learn what happened from people who experienced it, who experienced the loss of it. And a very powerful moment at the end, there's a small shul in Be'eri. It's a very small shul. 1200 people lived there and a shul that probably fits 30 or 40 people. It is a very... there's no such thing as a secular Israeli today, but October 6th there were still secular kibbutzim. They don't exist today. But October 6th there were still secular kibbutzim. Their shul was only founded I think in 2015. That's how recent it was. And we went in there at the end to daven Mincha. And Yardi, the the wonderful extraordinary man who took us around, my second time in Be'eri, whose brother was murdered on October 7th, is the one who took us around and told that story and I don't think ordinarily davens but joined us to say Kaddish for his brother. Was very powerful. And at the end on the bimah was still the sheet that had hakafah instructions for hakafos. Because if you remember, oh thank you, thank you, I'm good. It all happened on Simchas Torah. It happened on Simchas Torah, October 7th. So we decided, we said you know, the hakafos are still here on the bimah, hakafos were interrupted. Simchas Torah is when 500 terrorists infiltrated Be'eri that Shabbos morning. The last terrorist wasn't purged from the kibbutz until Tuesday morning. They infiltrated, took over, took hostages, fought, killed so many. They they didn't they didn't rid the yishuv, the kibbutz of the of the terrorists until Tuesday morning. Mind-boggling. But at the end of our davening we said you know what, their hakafos were interrupted on October 7th, let's let's do one more. Let's finish them, let's pick them up. And we sang and we danced הושיע את עמך וברך את נחלתך. Hashem save your people. With this Yardi, with his hand, we danced, we continued the hakafos, continued the hakafos. Anyway, we went to Be'eri. We were supposed to have gone directly to Be'eri, but Yardi is an avocado farmer and it was a lot of avocados that came in and he was picking them and he was running late to give us this tour. So we were supposed to go to Be'eri and then go to the place of the Nova festival, but we switched the order because he was running late. We went to the place of Nova, I don't want to take the time now, we could talk about it another time. It it was eerily similar to the feeling and the experience if you've been to Poland or Eastern Europe of walking through Auschwitz-Birkenau, Treblinka, Majdanek. That site, that feeling, that those woods, that forest, those memorials that are put up there, the families that are there. We were out of the order we were supposed to go. We were not on our plan. And we were there with all of our people having a very powerful experience and all of a sudden I saw my cousin who left his wife and many children and has been serving since October 7th, who was there October 8th and 9th fighting and helping and had been back for the first time to process and to experience to go back to that place that that atrocity happened. And he just happened to be there when we just happened to be there, which was out of the order that we were supposed to be there. So it was another hashgacha story. My beloved cousin Itai, it was incredible to see him. He spoke to our group a little bit. He's a very holy Jew, he's a wonderful person and it was Hashem's plan. We had our plan how the day was supposed to go, but Hashem through the avocados changed our plan so that so that we would run into Itai at the at the Nova festival. And the last there's many more stories I'll tell you one more so we can get into our Torah learning. We went to Tel HaShomer hospital to visit injured soldiers, injured heroes, injured gibborim of Am Yisrael. And there wasn't a specific plan and we didn't intrude. I wrote the article, it's very important, don't just walk into a room, don't just knock on a door, don't just show up, particularly with a large group if you don't know that you're wanted, if you don't know that the visit is going to comfort or strengthen or help. All that's very important. So we were tiptoeing very lightly trying to see whether it would mean something but without imposing ourselves. But we were invited into sort of randomly one room of a soldier and we're talking to him and he said he's from, we ask where are you from? Bnei Netzarim. I say isn't that in Chaluza, part of Shlomit? Yes. I said you know we're very close, we're very connected with the community of Shlomit. Our dear friend Yedidya who's actually going to be back in Boca this week and and we know all about, we visited in the hospital several times Michael who's actually going to be in Boca this week as well. The previous two trips he was still in the hospital, this third trip he was out and in rehab and this week he's going to be here visiting Boca. He was shot, injured terribly on that October 7th while fighting for and protecting his community and the neighboring community of Pri Gan. But we spoke to this young man in Tel HaShomer hospital, we said you know we're connected and we just had the widow of Aviad Cohen, Danah Cohen was in our community, אביעד השם יקום דמו. He said I know, I was right next to him when he was shot and killed. I I was there in that fight. Right. He's in the hospital because he was injured as a soldier, but before he was called up as a soldier and fighting, he was at that fight on October 7th, and that was the room that we happened to randomly, random, random, in all Tel HaShomer hospital, that soldier with whom we have a connection with his community, and if you live life with your eyes open and you're wearing your Emuna glasses, you see and you feel Hashem everywhere, everywhere. He is orchestrating and choreographing and carefully curating our lives, get out of His way. Stop fighting back. Stop pushing back. Yes, if someone's sick, we try to heal them. Yes, we try to repair and fix that which is broken. Of course, we have to take our initiative and do everything in our power, but once we do, and things don't exactly—what do you mean the schedule's changed? What do you mean lunch wasn't arranged? We have to stop at the mall? It's going to take forever, we'll never get back on the bus. What do you mean this room in the hospital, I want to go to that? You know, we think we have these plans and then we get frustrated and bent out of shape and negative and upside down. What do you mean the flight was canceled? What do you mean I'm stuck at the red light? What do you mean the person's running late and I'm sitting here by myself? What do you mean all these things? Just relax, take a deep breath, and ride Hashem's adventure. He's got a plan, get out of His way. Just look at the world in that way and see what is in store for us, and that's what I really want to learn with you. While I was in Israel, I picked up because it's my addiction, the sefarim store, very dangerous to stop at a sefarim store. I stayed a little bit longer because I was recruiting for the yeshiva. So once Yocheved was out of the country, I was able to stop at the sefarim store. And there I picked up, this was a few shekel, honey. I picked up, incredible new little—we've studied Rav Itche Meyer, רב יצחק מאיר מורגנשטרן, we've studied his B'yam Darkecha, many of his volumes on different topics through the years we've been going through. This was a little pamphlet that came out on Shovavim. What is Shovavim? This is the final week, at least of the first stage of Shovavim. Shovavim, the Arizal based on Kabbalah, has a tradition that these weeks, שמות וארא בא בשלח יתרו משפטים, the acronym Shovavim, those who return, is an acronym for שמות וארא בא בשלח יתרו משפטים, those parshiyot, first half of the book of Exodus, the book of Shmot. This is a leap year, we have a second Adar, so it's Shovavim Tat, Terumah Tetzaveh. We got two more weeks, extend it a little bit longer. But the pasuk says, the navi says, "Shuvu banim shovavim," return my children who are energized, programmed to come back, to return. And that this is a time of the year mesugal, this is a time of the year that is auspicious, that is designated, that is pregnant with the possibility of tremendous inspiration, aspiration, spiritual ambition. This is a time to really have breakthrough, to really work on ourselves, to really see the light, to peel back the covers, the layers, the klipos, the shell, and to let the light of our lives, of our neshama, of who we are and who we could be, shine through. Now, you'll say, but I thought that was Elul, I thought that's Pesach, I thought that's Purim, I thought—the answer is yes. Each has a kneitch. Each has—in other words, I'll put it to you this way. Because you love your spouse on your anniversary, you don't have to say I love you the other days of the year? Because on one's birthday they should be reflective on why they're here in this world and grateful they were born, they don't have to be grateful or feel they're on a mission any other day of the year? Of course, every day of the year is all those things, but there are particularly days of the year that are particularly those things. So yes, you should be loving and dedicated to your spouse every day; on your anniversary, don't forget it's your anniversary. You should be loving and grateful on your birthday or celebrate the birthdays of others with a card or however one chooses to do it, but every day of the year you should be grateful; the birthday in particular should be, it should be focused. So similarly, every day is Chanukah and Purim and Pesach and Rosh Hashanah and Shavuot and Tu B'shvat and—every day is all those things, all those energies, all those ideas, all those efforts, all those initiatives, all those possibilities, they're present, they're possible every day of the year, but there are particular days where they're more, the energy is in that time more available, more accessible, more auspicious, and therefore we can tap into it more. And what the Arizal taught, "shuvu banim shovavim," is that these are the days of the year Shovavim that are particularly mesugal, they're particularly designated to have breakthrough when it comes to issues of bris. What does the bris? It doesn't just mean the physical bris, this is what this whole sefer is about. It doesn't just mean the physical bris, the physical circumcision that a male undergoes on the eighth day. It means the orlas haleiv. The Torah uses a language that not only are men born with a foreskin, but there's a foreskin, a covering, that we're born with over our heart. And just like we do a bris milah, we peel back, we remove the foreskin, the covering, of the physical body of a boy, and why is that... For some it's a coping mechanism, they don't want to be vulnerable, they don't want to feel, they don't want to be hurt. For others there's their own history which has put this cover. For others they're cynical, they're sarcastic, they're not in touch with their emotions. For others there's a lack of emotional intelligence, spiritual... whatever reason that covering, we're born with the covering, we put the covering on, we've added layers of covering, but there are coverings over our heart. And just like the bris that happens to the boy, there's a bris we do on ourselves, which is the removing of the orlas halev to peel back and pull back the covering of the heart so the heart can fully feel and emote and connect and experience and the heart can can strive and fly and blossom and go higher and higher. And the heart is filled with this light. There's the light that is each of our unique singular distinct neshamos, we're each חלק אלוה ממעל ממש, we're each a unique expression of Divine in this world. Each with our own personality, each with our own story, and and we come to see ve'ahavta lereiacha kamocha, we can love others if we bother to learn their story, to find the godliness, the Divine in the other. That's why the posuk ends ve'ahavta lereiacha kamocha, what are the next two words? Ani Hashem. Love your neighbor as yourself, I am Hashem. Okay, we know you're Hashem, everything in this Torah is because you're Hashem. Why specifically love your neighbor as yourself, I am Hashem? Because Hashem is saying love your neighbor as yourself, and you know how I know you can love him because just like I am in you, I am in him. Just like you're one expression manifestation of me in this world, your neighbor is another. And some neighbors it's really hard to find the Divine. Some neighbors it's buried really deeply. But that's why there's a mitzvah ve'ahavta lereiacha, go look and search, go peel back the layers and go find the godliness, the Divine, go find that which is redeemable, go find that which is beautiful, go find that which you can connect with and share in common in the other, ve'ahavta lereiacha kamocha and how do I know with confidence you can do that? Because Ani Hashem. Because I am Hashem. Go find that in in the other. So these days of the year, Shovavim, שמות וארא בא בשלח יתרו משפטים, Yisro Mishpatim, שמות וארא בא בשלח יתרו משפטים, we're now Mishpatim, we're the final letter of Shovavim in an ordinary year, we got a little extension because of the leap year, but Shovavim and what is the deeper message? That's what this whole sefer is about and we're not going to go through the first part right now. It's a time that we particularly work on one of the layers, the klipa that holds us back the most from the light of who we are shining the brightest is physical temptation, distraction, indulgence, impulse. For some that's through food, for others that's through sleep, through others that's through irresponsibly being shopaholics going in debt. For others that's through looking at images, being addicted to images and acting out and behaving on them in inappropriate ways. So it's a time particularly designated Shovavim to work on inyanei kedusha, to work on not living for happiness but living for holiness. How could I be more holy? Who I am, how I conduct myself, what words and language I use, what I look at, what entertainment I indulge in, how I dress, how I present myself, how I appear, how I experience the world, kedusha, holiness. However we define holiness, there's a time Shovavim designated in particular to be reflective and to work hard on what what prevents us, that klipa, that shell, that blockage, that layer that's holding back our light from shining and us from experiencing the light of Hashem is the opposite of kedusha. What's the opposite of kedusha of holiness is the animal impulse. When we indulge the animal impulse in us. So we're in a bad, you know how life is filled with like good zones and bad zones? I'm in a good eating place, I'm in a bad eating place. I'm in a good time punctuality place, I'm a bad time punctuality place. I'm in a good place being disciplined, I'm in a bad... usually it all goes together. When we're disciplined in one way in one area, it overlaps and we become disciplined in other areas. And when we're undisciplined, we're undisciplined in our eating and our sleeping and our speaking and our dressing and our time, it usually goes together. So this is the time that we're working on being disciplined. Be disciplined, regulating ourselves, admitting that we can have some self-control and sovereignty over ourselves and it's a time designated Shovavim to work on being disciplined, to work on being disciplined. So where does that all come from? Where does it all come from? That's what I want to learn now that I've taken up all of our time. Where does... so this is the end. This is the whole sefer and the very last perek hey, the last is Yetzias Mitzrayim. You have it in front of you, page samech alef. We're going to try to fly through this because I want to do the whole thing this week and next week get back to Reb Chaim Shmuelevitz. I just wanted to sneak it in because it's Parshas Mishpatim, it's the end of Shovavim. And I just picked it up, so I just learned it. Otherwise, I would have shared it earlier. And the whole earlier part of the sefer is well worth learning, too, but we're just going to get to the end. We'll skip to the end. נודע מה שכתב האריז"ל שהימים שקורין בתורה I'm going to read very quickly. You could listen later on .5 if you want. שקורין בתורה בפרשת שמות וארא בא בשלח יתרו משפטים הם ימים מסוגלים תיקון הברית. This is a time designated to work on repairing the bris. Again, the first half of the book is the bris, the physical bris for men in particular, but of all of us, areas of holiness. A bris is made up, by the way, of three parts. The foreskin is removed. Then it's what's called the priah. Priah is there's a membrane between the foreskin and the organ. The membrane is peeled back. And then the third part is the goal, the purpose of the bris, if you listen carefully—usually you don't want to be that close—but you'll hear the mohel declare: nisgalta ha'atarah, that the crown of the organ has been revealed. It's three parts, and the parallel in the spiritual world of peeling back and removing the covering, the foreskin, the priah, peeling back a membrane where it's still there but it's been peeled back, and then the light can come through. He describes it all powerfully and beautifully. וצריך להבין מהי שייכות של תיקון הברית לימי שובבי"ם. What does this have to do with letting the light shine through, being the best of who we are, feeling connected with Hashem, striving with kedusha, getting rid of the barrier that is the material, the physical, the animal impulse in us? What does it have to do with these weeks of the year? Why isn't that true in Vayikra, Bamidbar, Devarim? Why isn't that true when we're reading Sefer Bereishis? Utzarich lehavin, what is this connection? והעניין הוא שבשבועות אלו קורין בתורה שיעבוד מצרים. In these weeks we're reading in the Torah shibud Mitzrayim. We're reading all about the servitude and subjugation in Egypt, יציאת מצרים ומתן תורה, and the exodus, how we were liberated and we were free, and then Hashem gave us this Torah. ויש כלל שהקריאה מעוררת את העניין. We have a principle, it's so important for you to know, that the parsha that we're reading, that we can't choose, is not random, it's not chance. It's not just we have this rotation of Torah portions and we happen to be reading that parsha that week. But whatever parsha we're reading that week is because that is what's happening in this world. The parsha is me'orer hazman. The story and the energy and the message and the lessons of the parsha impact and influence the time in which we are in. So last week was Parshas Yisro, it was the story of when Hashem gave the Torah at Sinai. That means that last Shabbos we were all back at the mountain, כאיש אחד בלב אחד, with a tremendous unity, we re-accepted the Torah again. So we're living now through again the notion of the shibud, of what it meant to be in Egypt, and we're living through the exodus, being liberated from it. כי שורש של כל דבר הוא בתורה הקדושה לכן כל דבר על ידי שלומדים וקורים אותו בתורה מעורר אותו. Whatever we're reading is what we're meant to be thinking about. This week Mishpatim—okay, how does that impact my life? What does that reveal to me about my life? What does that mean I'm working on in my life? It's not just random and in a dvar Torah on the parsha—wow, we're really religious, we said a dvar Torah at the Shabbos table. It means that the rhythm of my life is so closely connected to the parsha. If I have problems in my life in that week, look for the solution in the parsha. If you want to know about your life that week, look in the parsha. The parsha. וממילא על ידי קריאת פרשיות אלו מעורר מחדש עניין השעבוד ויציאת מצרים ומתן תורה. So those weeks: שמות וארא בא בשלח יתרו משפטים—we are living through once again in this spiral, in this cycle where we revisit in time the same energy that historically revealed or created those events, we're back in them. We were back in Egypt. Then Hashem took us out of Egypt. We were back with the splitting of a sea. We were back standing at the mountain accepting the Torah. And we're back in Mishpatim getting this list of laws. We're not reading something historical. This way our lives, our calendar, is entirely, categorically different than the secular notion of time. Why do you, if you do, celebrate July 4th? Why do you celebrate it? Anybody celebrate July—anyone know why we have a July 4th? ברוך אתה ה' אלוקינו מלך העולם שהכל נהיה בדברו. Amen. Why do we have July 4th? Independence—thank you. You went to elementary school. Thank you. Independence Day. America got independence when? For a bonus, extra credit? 17... 1776. 1776. When we observe July 4th, it's because we're observing that 1776 we gained independence. The fact that we're trying to honor something so historical that none of us were there—how do we actually observe it? Having nothing to do with it. Anyone here on July 4th sit down with their family and say, "What is independence? How do we—why should we appreciate it? What does it mean for us? How can we have more of it?" I don't know one human being who does that. What do you do? You have a contest how many hot dogs you can stuff in your face. You have a hot dog. Not sure where he got it from. So he got himself all excited and he goes: okay, I'm going Joey Chestnut. I'm gonna finish this. I don't know if I should be proud or not proud that he knows that name. But when you're celebrating something from hundreds of years ago, it means so nothing to you now that you celebrate it with a barbecue, fireworks and shopping. And that's essentially true for every American holiday: shopping discounts, barbecue, fireworks. Never about the theme of the day. Compare Memorial Day in America to Yom HaZikaron in Israel. Right, every day. In Judaism, that's not us. In Judaism, we don't celebrate Pesach because thousands of years ago we got out of Mitzrayim. We're not celebrating Shavuot because thousands of years ago we got the Torah. When we left Egypt on the 15th of Nissan, it teaches us that the 15th of Nissan is all about freedom and liberty and emancipation and now we experience that today. We're not celebrating Chanukah because thousands of years ago the Menorah lasted longer. We're celebrating Chanukah because what are the miracles? What's the supernatural and natural? Where's the light in our life today? Those historical events revealed that that day is designated with a certain energy. But not so that we can celebrate the historical event, only because we're commemorating something in history that's ancient, but so that we can tap into that energy for ourselves today. So similarly when we read the parsha, we're not reading a parsha because oh it's a really good history book. History's really important to us. Let's get together and review history. You'll be tested on it later. No. Why am I reading this? Because this week that I'm reading this is the reminder that I too have my own Mitzrayim in my life. I'm subjugated, I'm a servant, I'm a slave in the Egypt of my life. And just like Hashem took them out, he can and he does take me out. And just like they then arrived at the mountain, that was the purpose, it wasn't a freedom from, but it was a freedom to. So too my freedom from whatever's holding me back is not a freedom from something, it's a freedom to, a freedom to stand at that mountain and dedicate my life on a mission. So anything we do from observe holidays to read the parsha is not to review a history of long ago, but to learn about ourselves and who we are and who we can be in the present. We live in the present. Any connection we make with the past is to inform and inspire our present, not because we care about the past. They never taught you that in school. They never taught me that in school. And that's why I didn't really start keeping Shabbos or Yom Tov until I was older. I kept it, don't worry. Don't worry, I kept it. I kept it. It was dramatic, that's I'm a rabbi. It was dramatic. I kept Shabbos and Yom Tov, the shidduch is still good, don't worry. I kept Shabbos and Yom Tov. I don't mean I didn't keep Shabbos. But it meant I grew up thinking that we're keeping this Yom Tov because of something thousands of years ago and I don't really care about it. I cared about it. But I don't really care about it. It was thousands of years ago. What does it have to do with me? I wasn't there. I don't know anyone who was there. And what do I care about there when I'm here? What do I care about then when I'm now? What difference does it make? And if that's your connection to Yiddishkeit, I have to come to shul and listen. I just met with a teenager the other day. Parent is concerned they stopped coming to shul on Shabbos. Why? As if I, you know, the rabbi has a white magic wand to just wave it and then everything will be okay. But I understand that young person. It doesn't really do anything for me. I don't know one person who became religious because of Torah reading. They become religious, come to a house for a Shabbos meal, have the chicken soup, have a cholent, sit at a kumzits, come to the farbrengen, come to the shalashudos. Kriyat HaTorah? I don't know anyone who's Kriyat HaTorah was unbelievable. I wasn't religious, I didn't believe in God, but I heard the Torah being read for forty minutes and that moved me. So if your attitude is I'm just here hearing somebody take a history book and recite it out loud to some cantillations, some musical notes I don't connect with, yeah I'd also want to sleep in and stay home. But if you hear the Torah being read and it's not a history book, but it's somebody recreating, they're on the bimah because that's Har Sinai and just like Moshe was on the mountain surrounded by Aaron and Chur, we have the gabbai on both sides and we're reading this book not because we're reading and declaring the history of yesterday, but because we're screaming out, this is the message of today. You feel stuck? Hashem is here to liberate you and take you out of your stuckness. He split the sea then and he's going to split the sea for you of where you're stuck. You feel the world's walls are caving in? You feel the roof is coming down? He split a sea once and he's going to split it for you. Come, let's read this together. Let's hear right now. Let's connect to it now. That's what it's all about. הסיבה שישראל היו צריכים להשתעבד במצרים הייתה כדי לתקן את פגם הברית של אדם הראשון ודור המבול כמו שכתב האריז"ל. Why did we have to go down to Egypt to begin with? We needed to learn and grow and redeem and repair the mistakes that Adam, that Adam made in the garden and the dor hamabul, the beginning of time, the beginning of creation was filled with a series of mistakes. קנאה ותאוה והכבוד מוציאין את האדם מן העולם. First three stories of the Torah are all about jealousy, lust, and honor, and Hashem says that's not why I created a world. He does a hard reset on the world, on the world. And we had to go down to Mitzrayim, to Egypt, in order to learn these lessons. וממילא כשאנו קוראים ומורים את עניין השעבוד ויציאת מצרים זה מעורר שוב עניין תיקון הברית שנעשה בזה. And when we go through our own Mitzrayim, we say, where do I feel stuck? And how do I need to get out? What's holding me back? What is the barrier, what's the layer covering my light? How can I better connect and have this growth spurt? וגדולה מעלת ימים אלו כי הקריאה מעוררת העניין שגם אנחנו נזכה לצאת משעבוד מצרים ולקבל את התורה כי הנה פנימיות עניין שעבוד מצרים הוא. Really this slavery of Egypt was not just about a physical story of slavery and bondage. There's a pnimiyus, there's a deeper idea here. שמצרים הוא כינוי לכללות הקליפות. Mitzrayim was a place of moral decay, moral decadence, moral corruption. Mitzrayim was a metropolis of everything immoral in this world. If you're curious or you wonder what that looks like, go to Times Square. Don't go to Times Square. I went to Times Square once for a rally against Iran. We were in New York one summer and I took the train in and I found myself, I didn't understand what was happening around me, why people were all excited and taking pictures. I ran the other way, but in Times Square people walk around with nothing but body art, let's just say. States of dress and undress, identity, behavior, action, activity, there's just no boundaries. Mitzrayim is a place with no boundaries. Meitzar is a boundary, Mitzrayim is boundaryless. No boundaries, no borders, no, just a place of moral decay, moral decadence, moral corruption, the ultimate of indulgence in the here and now, of desire, of temptation, and of lust. That's Mitzrayim, those are the klipos, that's the opposite of bris. Bris is a covenant. Bris means I'm making you a promise. Just think about the bris of marriage as a metaphor. One stands under the chuppah and they're making a promise, and what's that promise? I will be faithful to you. I will be faithful physically, I will be faithful emotionally, I will be faithful spiritually, I will be faithful financially. In every realm and element and aspect of this relationship, I'm going to be faithful to you. So later a person says, but I want to just use the money without telling them, or not put the name on the account. But I want to just have this emotional connection with someone at work, don't worry, it'll just be emotional. But I want to physically, it's boring one person, I want to physically experience and connect and be adventurous with others. But that's what I want. That's the animal in me desires, that's my impulse, that's my instinct, and many fall prey to it and their lives unravel. And it doesn't mean it's not only by the way the pathetic and unsophisticated and fools. We have a tradition that כל שגדול מחברו יצרו גדול הימנו. In fact, it's the opposite. The greater you are, the more creative, the greater that you are, the greater the yetzer hara that you struggle with. And we've seen that through our Tanach, and lehavdil we've seen that in our times, that great and brilliant and charismatic and accomplished people, politicians and athletes and scientists and engineers, couldn't control their basic human animal impulse and threw away their lives and their legacy because they couldn't honor that bris, that covenant, that faithfulness. They couldn't honor it and they threw it all away. And we also have a covenant with Hashem. We also stood under a chuppah with Him. We did it last week, Parshas Yisro. He held the mountain over our head and that mountain was a chuppah. You could read that as a threat or others read it as a chuppah. The mountain over our head was a chuppah. We stood under that chuppah with Hashem. In fact, many of the customs that we have at a Jewish wedding come from Har Sinai, come from Har Sinai. For another time to elaborate on those customs. The mountain was over our head, that was a chuppah, we stood under it with Hashem and we were made a promise. We're going to be faithful to You, we're going to honor You. Ah, but I'm going to have an animal impulse, an animal desire, I want to go to Times Square, I want to watch, I want to peel back some layers. I don't mean the klipos, I mean the clothing. Ah, but I want to experience, I want to see, I want to say, I want to go, I want to go do, I want to click, I want to, but we made a covenant, we made a bris, we made a promise. So Mitzrayim is a place where promises don't matter. Where Mitzrayim is a place of no faithfulness. Mitzrayim is a place of whatever, I'm already giving you the Pesach divrei Torah. It's coming. It's coming. Got two Adars this year, so you got an extra month, but it's coming. But Mitzrayim is that place where there is no faithfulness, there is no regulating oneself, there is no striving for a higher living, but it's what I want to wear, it's where I want to go, it's what I want to watch, it's what I want to do. There is no but I made a promise. I'm choosing what to watch. I want to watch that, everyone's talking about that, I saw the reviews of that, it's the hottest series, everybody's watching it. You know, but I made a promise to Hashem and to myself and to my soul. What are the images and what are the themes and what are the ideas? And just because everyone is, does that mean that I should? It's the capacity to stop. That's what Shovavim is. To not just press play, to not just binge watch, to not just jump on the bandwagon because that's what's in, but to say but I made a promise, I stood under the chuppah. I made a promise to Him and to myself and to the best of who I could be, and it doesn't include this. V'lachen nikraim Mitzrayim, they're called Mitzrayim, מלשון מצר ים שהם מצמצמים את ים החכמה. Mitzrayim, meitzar is a meitzar is a boundary, a border, a siege. Yam is the sea, the yam hachochmah. הם חיים רק את מציאות הטבע ומתעלמים מהפנימיות של העולם. Mitzrayim is to indulge the nature. What do you mean? But it's my nature. Everyone, it's man's nature. We know, it's natural, it's the natural instinct. We have an animal inside us. We're made up of two parts. We have the godly soul, the חלק אלוקה ממעל ממש, the godly soul that we have, and then we also have the animal impulse, the animal instinct, the animal in us. And the animal is our nature. It's our nature to want to hit snooze and sleep in. It's our nature to be lazy. It's our nature to want to fress and stuff our face and eat well past the point that we're full. It's our nature. For some people, it's a nature to get angry. It's the nature, it's natural to be mean. It's natural to be cynical. It's my nature. So Mitzrayim is a place that says indulge what's natural and your nature because there is nothing above it. There is nothing capable of controlling it. So it puts a meitzar around the yam hachochmah. Mitzrayim, meitzar yam. There's a meitzar, there's a siege around the sea of wisdom, of self-control. וכיון שיש להם מבט מצומצם והשכל שלהם מסתכל על כל דבר בצמצום ובמצר אינם מעמיקים לכן אינם תופסים שיש אור אלוקי שמחיה את הכל. So when you have very, very narrow vision, you can't see the light that is in everything. If a person is living in the here and now, if a person is living in a place of indulgence and impulse, if a person is living for happiness and pleasure, not for holiness, they are depriving themselves of the light, of the connection, of the deepest meaning and purpose, of the ultimate happiness which comes from living a life of holiness. Whatever you sacrifice in the happiness of the here and now, when you live for holiness, you will find greater happiness. Who's happier ultimately? And the research all bears this out. As our society shifted from a place where marriage vows and sanctity and until death do us part and and faithfulness and we moved to a place of everything, anyone, anywhere, anytime, do we find greater happiness or less happiness? Much less. So liberation does not in fact bring happiness, it brings the opposite. And people who practice that faithfulness, that honor, that dignity, that respect—ah, but I want and I'm curious and and the animal in me is desiring—yeah, control it. Put it back in its cage. You don't have to indulge it. You don't have to follow it. Because the joy and the pleasure and the ultimately the happiness of that life of holiness defined as faithfulness is so much greater than whatever you gave up. It's so much greater than whatever you gave up. You know that because when you've been in a good place with your eating, you know that, you really—you saw those Cape Cod potato chips, we haven't talked about that in a while. You saw the Cape Cod potato chips. You saw the Trader Joe's corn chips. You saw the extra portion of Yocheved's potato kugel that you wanted to have. And you said you know, but I don't need it, but I'm full. I'm full, I'm good, I don't need it. The beef jerky, you saw it. I'm good, I'm full, I don't need it. And you say no and you walk away from that cabinet, you walk away from that refrigerator, you walk away from that serving piece. An hour later, what feels better? That you expressed that self-control, that you feel good about yourself, or that bag of potato chips, the corn chips, the potato kugel? In my experience, the self-control and the discipline and the contact with the holiness of being able to regulate ourselves and be faithful to the promise we make ourselves always feels so much better than whatever we gave up in the process, than that momentary connection with our taste buds, which is fleeting and gone as soon as we're finished. Not only is it gone as soon as you're finished, it's not that it tasted really good, you enjoyed it and now you're back at neutral. No, now you hate yourself. Not only do you not hold on to the pleasure of having eaten it, now you just hate yourself. So it's a net loss. Versus the net gain of feeling I regulate, I am, I have control, I really express the best part of who I am, and that feels incredible. That makes me feel alive and awake, and that makes me feel the best part of who I am, that makes me have contact with the divine, with the godly soul in me. It always feels better. It's true in our eating and our sleeping, it's true in our interpersonal communication, it's true in our marriage and our love to our spouse, to our children, to people around us, and it's true with Hashem. And that's what we're living for, not happiness but holiness. And when you live for holiness ultimately you find the greatest happiness and the world we're living in which is revisiting Mitzrayim. We're not going forward; technologically, medically, we're making incredible progress. AI, it's changing the world. But morally we are regressing back to Mitzrayim. Look at this world and look at the themes and look at relationships and look at statistics. Look at, look at, look at the data on unhappiness, anti-depressants, mental health challenges. We are regress, not progress. We're going backwards, not forwards. But we've been gifted the Torah Kedoshah, we've been gifted this life and this lifestyle that's helping us move forward and grow and go higher, and we're holding on to the formula and the truths that always brought the ultimate happiness, which are not the fleeting counterfeit inauthentic things of the moment, but the greatest truth which is faithfulness to ourselves, to Hashem, to the people around us, to express the best part of who we are, the truest part of who we are, which is not the animal impulse and indulgence of Mitzrayim. That's the klipa. The klipa says, but just watch it, but just eat it, just press snooze, just go back to sleep, just experience, just experiment, just try, who will know? That's the klipa. That's the barrier, that's the shell, that's the obstacle. That's what we're trying to remove and peel back. That's the bris milah; we're trying to circumcise our heart to get that off so that the light of the best part of who we are can shine. That's the glow of the kid who goes to Israel and discovers that life is not TikTok and Instagram and status updates. Life is not followers and friends. I found something truer, I touched something deep and real inside me. And that kid, talking about a kid, but you could have your gap year experience at eighty years old. You don't have to be a kid. But whoever and whatever stage of life when you make that connection, when you feel that true part of who you are, when you feel alive, feel alive. It's happening in Israel all over, by the way, right now. I said there's no such thing as a secular Jew. This spiritual awakening, that spiritual awakening. Soldiers, just yesterday I met with somebody who's connected to an organization that for years has been giving out tefillin to soldiers. On average gave out a thousand a year. What do you think they've given in the last four months? The requests they can't meet it, so far thirty thousand pairs of tefillin. So we're actually starting a program now, we're going to share it. There are people who've passed away, left their tefillin, they're not being used, people got new tefillin, there are kosher tefillin that are sitting in cabinets that soldiers could be putting on every day. Tens of thousands of them, we've got to collect them and find them and distribute them. Where does that come from? A soldier who has no idea what's written in the tefillin, has no idea what the tefillin are about, doesn't know why they want to put them on but is now saying, can I get a pair of tefillin? I want to wear tzitzis. Two thousand pairs we tied here, hundreds of thousands for the soldiers. Where is that coming from? Where is that coming from? The Jew has become, that Jew inside us is awake, has become awakened, has become aroused, has become, it's the truest part of who we are, and it feels so much better in the most authentic and lasting way than any happiness we had from a life that was free of those Torah and mitzvos. So that Mitzrayim, the klipa, this time of the year, Shovavim, שמות וארא בא בשלח יתרו משפטים, we're trying to get ourselves, I said we were going to push, we're not going to make it, so we'll have to finish this next week, which will be the week after Mishpatim, so it's still, but this we have to get to how. How do you do it? How do we, how do we do it? How do you do it? But you want to press play and watch the thing you shouldn't watch, you want to eat the thing you shouldn't eat, you want to say the thing, you want to forward the thing you shouldn't forward. How do you do it? How do you do it? We know it's inside us, we can have it. So we can go to Israel for our year right now, everyone back to yeshiva and seminary. We wish we had that luxury. But even if you can't, how can you connect? How can we do it? Pick up with that im yirtzeh Hashem next time. Should be a good day for Am Yisrael.
