Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov, it should be a good morning Boker Tov and besuros tovos for Am Yisrael, Klal Yisrael in Eretz Yisrael and around the world, may the hostages be home, may the soldiers return to their families, and may we have a sweeping, sweeping victory. Amen. Okay, this is our last emuna shiur until after Pesach because next week it will be Chol HaMoed and then we'll resume I guess the morning after Pesach. Pesach is over Tuesday night. Anyone coming Wednesday morning? I guess we will. Okay, if you'll come Wednesday morning, I'll be here, so we will resume the morning after. Welcome to our youngest member, Leo, mazel tov on your beautiful bas mitzvah, so amazing. On your time off, you're at the emuna shiur, incredible. The emuna series is generously sponsored by the Doctors Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Shanzer. We are very grateful to the Morgans for their continued generosity. This morning's shiur is also sponsored anonymously as a thank you to BRS for helping people. May Hashem bless all of us with the ability to tap into the inherent incredible power of emuna for the small things as well as the big. I will use this as an opportunity. We are today and tomorrow our annual pre-Pesach, pre-Rosh Hashana market where we make fruits and vegetables and eggs and a thousand pounds of hand shmura matzah available to all those who need. We need volunteers to help stock the shelves and make it available, but we also are short tens of thousands of dollars right now to pay for this market. If you would like, every single penny, zero overhead, nothing goes to pay for anything other than every penny going to put food in the mouths of people who need it and who can use it. We could use your help. You can speak to me right after shiur, you can do it online, you can give, you can pledge. 4:00 to 10:00 PM today and tomorrow we will be having it. Okay, we're going to get back into our learning, but first two emuna stories and then we'll get into our learning together. A couple weeks ago on Sunday morning, I was doing what was one of the crazy rabbi Sundays. I have a friend and mentor in New York, Rabbi Alan Schwartz, the rabbi of OZ. And he has a rabbinic saying, he sees rabbis and he says, "What's the score today?" "What's the score today" means how many happy things versus how many sad things, particularly the rabbis, rabbis have Sundays, how many simchas, how many funerals, how many unveilings, you know, what's the score today? What's the score today? So it was a busy Sunday with a tough score to it that included a lot to it. There was a hakamas matzeva in the morning and a tragic funeral in the afternoon and two shiurim and a bar mitzvah and a bas mitzvah. It was a crazy day. It was a crazy day. So I drove down to Hollywood for the unveiling, for the hakamas matzeva, to have to get up to Congress South Florida Jewish Cemetery for the funeral. So I get there, I tell you this all not for your sympathy, but because of this amazing story. So I get there for this hakamas matzeva and it had to happen on time and fairly quickly because I had to get to this really tragic funeral that had to take place that I was officiating at. So I get there to this hakamas matzeva and everybody's there, ready. There's a big crowd to honor the person whose matzeva... We don't believe in unveiling in Judaism. If you've ever been to a hakamas matzeva with me, I always say the same thing. An unveiling that says voila, you know, we're going to take the cloth off and everybody will see it and we'll read it, voila, unveiling, we're unveiling the monument. We don't unveil a monument, that's not a Jewish tradition. I always get there early and I remove the cloth to take away anyone's temptation for a voila moment. That is not a Jewish idea. What do we do? Not an unveiling, we do what's called a hakamas matzeva. The matzeva represents a person's life. The matzeva captures their years and the dash, if you know the poem, the dash between their years which represents their life and how the family chose to memorialize them with their name, their proper Jewish name, and with whatever adjectives and whatever descriptions describe their life. The matzeva is their life, the monument is their life, and what's our minhag at a hakamas matzeva? What do we do? We take a stone and we put it on top of the monument. Why? The word stone in Hebrew is even. Even is a contraction or an acronym for alef, beis, nun, av, ben, neched, parent, child, grandchild, intergenerational. We take the continuity and we put it on top of the matzeva and we say, "We're going to continue to build what you started." If this monument represents your life, we stand on your shoulders, we're going to build upon it. And that's why we have the custom, the minhag, to place a rock, a stone, an even, av ben or av ben neched. We put it on top of the monument, we're building up, we're doing more. So it's not an unveiling, it's a hakamas matzeva. We are lifting, launching, erecting the monument. That's what the Jewish people do. We don't do an unveiling, voila, look what it says, isn't it amazing? No, we are this monument is the person's life and we're building upon it. So I got to the cemetery for the hakamas matzeva of our beloved Arnold Hodish and I saw there the Noven family and they came to me and they said, "Rabbi, the cemetery apologized, they double-booked, they never do this, two unveilings at the same time, but the truth is we don't have a minyan." They were doing three unveilings for Howard, Joan, and Mish... They didn't double book by accident. Hashem double booked the hakamas matzeiva so that I said we did one, I said, Chevre, as soon as we're finished, everybody, some of which had walkers and all kinds of other devices, we're going to scoot our way down, same row, and we're going to do three more unveilings, hakamos matzeiva. And we did, and it was such a beautiful kavod, it was such a beautiful tribute, all in the Bier section, and the Novins were a part of our family certainly before they moved, and it was all part of Hashem's plan. There are no accidents, there's no such thing as a double booking, people are where they're meant to be, and that's where we were meant to be so that we could have and pay that tribute. That is emuna story, hashgacha story number one. Number two, and then we'll get back into our text together. Writes the author: Hello Rabbi Goldberg. Skip, skip, skip. Blah, blah, blah. Fast forward a few years. I've been enjoying the weekly emuna stories and noticed how a fair amount of them are linked to travel. Today my emuna story happened. Let me back it up to the beginning of the week when a new work venture I began was hitting a rough patch, and it was incredibly frustrating and disappointing. On Tuesday night I was actually pretty sad about it. I shed some tears of disappointment and headed to sleep hoping for a better day tomorrow. On Wednesday morning I woke up still feeling down and decided it had been a couple of weeks since I had listened to the shiur, now that I can't attend them personally, and I decided to tune in as I readied for work. As you well know, there are no coincidences, and there you were talking about atzvus, sadness. Not only about how we are forbidden to be sad, how even Hashem distances himself from sad people, but how we are obligated to put ourselves into a simcha mind-frame so we can function holy because the sadness doesn't repair anything and nobody wants to be part of the pity party. And then you spoke of the Rav in Monsey who just lost his teenage daughter, and I sobered up real fast. How on earth did I think I have permission to sulk over this? I was reminded this is all part of whatever larger plan Hashem has in mind for me. I brushed away the sadness, determined to make it a better week regardless of how this venture continued, and lo and behold, I had the best day in over a week. I'll just interrupt the email to tell you, I had a similar feeling yesterday. I was talking to my sister and my nephew who's been fighting in Gaza hasn't had a break. He's part of the Nahal Brigade that remains there, battling and fighting, in some ways more fiercely than they have until now, and he just found out he won't be getting out for Pesach. Which he's very disappointed by, which is an amazing thing. I left my sister a voice note, and I guess now I'm leaving it for the world. But I said it's an amazing thing, these soldiers, our soldiers. My young nephew, a kid who's now more of a man than I'll ever be, but they're tough soldiers, hard on the outside, fierce, ferocious, fighting to defend our people. And inside is still that little boy who's sad he's not going to be with his family for Pesach. And it's amazing because you'd think that war would harden. Who cares, Pesach? Who cares, family? I'm fighting, I'm battling, I have nothing left, no feeling. But the Jewish people are amazing. Jewish people are amazing. On the outside is this ferocious, fierce soldier, and inside is still this boy who just wants to be with his family. So I posted yesterday and I really believe from the bottom of my heart, there are families I'm in touch with, some parents whose children are hostages for over six months. We now have a countdown in the lobby, you can see the day when you walk in, you know exactly how many days it's been. We're encouraging everybody and we're printing posters, you can put it at your table or you can download it and print it yourself, we'll be printing here. Designate an empty chair at your Seder table for the hostages. Don't go through the Seder and not have in mind the people who have someone absent from their Seder, who don't even know the fate of the person who's absent from their Seder, who can't imagine where they are and how they're being treated and if they're alive. There has to be an empty chair with the poster, a collage of hostages, and who would believe that thousands of years later we're still saying let our people go? We have an army and it could shoot down 300 missiles from Iran, but we're still saying let our people go. That's what this Yom Tov is all about: let our people go. So you have to have a seat. So I said, if you know where all your family members are, if they're all accounted for and safe, if they're going to be home with you, don't complain about Pesach this year, any year. But don't complain about Pesach, making Pesach, cleaning for Pesach. Don't complain about the cost of Pesach. After I heard my nephew who's so sad he won't be with the family, what, if you're sleeping in your bed, if you're sleeping under a roof... If you're not dodging bullets flying your way, don't complain about Pesach this year or any year. So it's that similar idea. If we have perspective and scope and context of our lives and of things, then then hopefully it gives us a it gives us a little more. Back to the email. This is the only lead up to the real portion of the emunah story, because also part of the shiur was the story of your fly into New York and how you were supremely frustrated the delay, the van upon arrival, after being so careful to plan it all. And then as you and Morty and the chevra performed a bar mitzvah at the airport for the West Point Army guy, it was clear why you needed to get stuck there. Just as the Rebbe told those Chabad Rebbetzins on shlichus, if you are stuck it's because you have a tafkid there, go find it. A Yid, a Jew is never stuck. You're never stuck. Don't even use that language. I found myself since the fly in a couple times saying, I'm not home yet because I'm stuck here, I'm stuck, don't use the word stuck. A Jew is never stuck. Wherever we are is where we're meant to be. You're not stuck in the airport, you're not stuck in New York, you're not stuck in even in Gaza. A Jew is where they're supposed to be. So the author of the email writes, so today I was booked on a flight for a close friend's son's wedding in New Jersey. Thursday night weddings are challenging, both from the standpoint of leaving work at the end of the week, and of course getting back in time for making Shabbos. But I was determined to go and time my flight to get there with enough time to get ready and head to the wedding on time, excuse me. As travel is always unpredictable, there was a storm system working its way up the coast and my flight was already delayed an hour when I woke up to check. I squeezed in some last minute work during my delay window, headed to the airport. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. Plane emptied its passengers that were arriving, wheelchairs were already lined up to board, not bad. I'd simply rush when I land in New York to get ready upon arrival and make it to the wedding. Then the crackle over the PA system letting us know there was a technical issue being worked over on the plane. Another half hour. They let us know they wouldn't have TVs for the flight. I snickered with glee this was the technical issue and was just happy they were getting ready to board us again. Once we were on the plane, I calmed, but then I heard the captain announce they were waiting to be cleared for a new flight path since every airplane leaving Florida has to be rerouted past the storm. I started to realize I was no longer making it for the beginning of the wedding. But said to myself at least I'm getting to be there and my flight wasn't canceled altogether. By the time I landed in Westchester Airport, it was crawling with people but my contingency plan was right on schedule. I had 15 minutes before my husband was arriving to get dressed in the airport bathroom. As I headed through the crowd toward the bathroom, a Chassidish woman with a young baby in a stroller came over to me looking frazzled and distressed, asking for a favor. I thought she wanted a ride somewhere but then she then proceeded to ask me if I'd please pay for her flight. She doesn't have a credit card on her and the person who booked her flight erroneously booked her for 4:00 PM Friday instead of today, Thursday. She had flown in from Chicago for her sister's vort, left a house full of kids to be here, but had to get back home to them today for Shabbos. I knew I was already late, needed to get dressed, needed to get into the car, and found my mind racing thoughts like, is that a real baby or is this a scam? Who just hands over a credit card to a complete stranger to charge almost $500? But as I was thinking about this, she said, you are such a sight for sore eyes, I was searching and searching for a Yid. In that moment I knew this was the why of my delay. Hashem had orchestrated every delay to the minute, including broken TV screens, so we would meet exactly at that spot at that time. And I just exhaled and a calm came over me. I needed to do this. I was late anyway so no rush anymore. So we went to the counter together, but the guy at the counter was less than enthused to help her. He glanced up in disbelief that she actually found a way to return to his counter for her ticket purchase. There were only 25 minutes to takeoff and they had started boarding. He proceeded to take his time with the customer ahead. Then when it was our turn he looked up and said I can't guarantee you'll get on the flight, it's leaving soon, you still haven't cleared security. She said I'll take a chance. I went to hand him my credit card just as another customer stepped in line behind us. He said to us please step aside so I can process this person first since she has a ticket and you do not. He took his time with this person as well. This saint of a woman never lost her cool. She was calm. I was having anxiety for her and I asked if her nine-month-old baby always sleeps peacefully as he was. She smiled and said no, Hashem is just being really kind right now. I couldn't get over her calm and her sense of emunah that Hashem had a plan and whatever is meant to happen will. After five more minutes we step up and he says I'll sell you the ticket but it's non-refundable. The doors close in 12 minutes and you'll probably not make it through security in time. So with no choice we declined the ticket. Now she was stranded only with a Friday afternoon ticket, no flight options out of this airport for tonight. I asked if she had anywhere to go. She said her mom lives in Monsey, so if we take her to Passaic where our wedding was she'll Uber to her mom in Monsey. I paused. I thought about it. I knew at this point there was no rush for me as I would arrive after during the chuppah and my friend would not even know I was there. So I just smiled and said my brother lives in Monsey and I need to get dressed anyway for the wedding, so come with us to my brother. I reminded myself that this was the reason my flight was delayed, that exact amount of time, so I'd be in just the right place for this tafkid. She was so grateful, used the car ride to try and get onto a flight that night. She only had a flip phone, had no access to her airline account info or a way to log into her email. I handed her my smartphone, she was able to book her flight out of Newark for 8:30. Had I sent her in an Uber and not completed the mitzvah with the ride, she would not have had a way to book that flight with her dumb phone. Postscript: Yes, I arrived midway through the chuppa, succeeded to give my friend the biggest hug, and danced my way figuratively and literally through the night. Thank you realizing emuna means you're exactly where you're meant to be at any given moment in life. Warmest regards, have a good Shabbos. This was before Shabbos. Anyway, great emails, great stories, great perspective. So, as I try to tell you every single week, let me rephrase that. As I try to tell myself every single week, the stories don't... right, it wasn't, no, we got on the flight and we got off in time and we got there and she was able to book the flight. This story was filled with disappointments and things that didn't work out. But you're along for the ride. So it's not going to help getting bent out of shape, anxious, angry, resentful, panicking. It doesn't help. It doesn't make lines go faster, doesn't make flights go easier. Just live life and say, "I am where I'm meant to be." That's where I'm meant to be at any given moment, that's where I am. That's where I am. Okay, back to our... we're learning. We are learning a piece from the Pnei Menachem, the holy Gerer Rebbe, the Pnei Menachem, who during the Persian Gulf War said this sicha. He was the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva at the time. And he spoke about... he asked a series of questions, but they ended with why would Hashem say, "I'm... I'm ish milchama?" And we are on page kuf ayin gimel, page 173 in the Otzar Drashot u'Maamarim of the Pnei Menachem. והנה באמת המטרה של מלחמת הגויים עם ישראל. What? Here's the punchline, this is what we've been building up to for the last couple of weeks. What is the matara? What's a matara? A goal. What is the goal? What is the purpose of non-Jewish nations battling and fighting with the Jewish people? כדי לעוררם לאביהם שבשמים. Because when the Jewish people are in a crisis, we wake up. I'm going to talk about this more on Shabbos, Shabbos HaGadol. I'll give you a little sneak preview. But do you know what the most Googled search term in Israel on Saturday, on Shabbos, Motzei Shabbos was? Tehillim. As 300 missiles, ballistic missiles, drones, assortment, and a concoction of missiles were on their way over to Israel. Not knowing, was it going to kill thousands of people? What were on the warheads of these missiles? The most Googled search term, you could look this up, there are a lot of articles that covered it, the most Googled... it didn't say the most Googled search term in Bnei Brak, because they don't search Google, at least not in theory in Bnei Brak. It didn't say the most Googled search term in Yerushalayim, in Geula, Mea Shearim. It didn't say the most Googled search term in the Dati Leumi communities of Alon Shvut and Efrat, Modiin, Beit Shemesh. The most Googled search term in Israel, religious and so-called non-religious, among all. Why? Because כדי לעוררם לאביהם שבשמים. There's nothing to wake you up and to feel and lean on Hashem like 300 ballistic missiles flying your way. Nothing will wake you up. But the Jewish people, not amazing? I was talking to Rabbi Leo Dee on Sunday and he said, if not for October 7th, Motzei Shabbos would have been the most traumatic thing in the history of Israel. The entire country facing over 300 missiles coming your way from your enemy who said they want to wipe you off the face of the earth and who are building a nuclear program. And what happened in Israel? I saw a great meme. At night we shoot down missiles, the next morning we have coffee. Sunday morning I texted on my family WhatsApp group, my siblings in Israel, "How are you?" And my sister says, "I'm getting a manicure for a wedding tonight, Aroma's packed with people, the kids are all playing, Israeli people are unbelievable." At night we shoot down missiles and in the morning we have coffee. If not for the context of every day being something insanely crazy, millions of people in bombshellters not knowing what's coming their way, kedei le'ora... and what was the biggest Google term, search term in those bombshellters? What were all the Jews, all the Israelis... I shouldn't just say Jews, after we had Yoseph Haddad speak here the other night, an Arab Christian who served in the IDF and whose foot was blown off and who is an advocate, staunch advocate for Israel, not just Jews, Israelis. What was the most Googled search term for these Israelis in bombshellters? Psalms, Tehillim. Looking up Tehillim. כדי לעוררם לאביהם שבשמים. וכאשר נרמז בלשון מכילתא על הפסוק Hashem ish milchama. So we're going to read on the seventh day Az Yashir. Az yashir, the Jewish people crossed, they came out, and they describe Hashem ish milchama. And that's what Hashem answers the Persians and the Romans, and he says, don't tell me you started these wars for the Jews, Mi? I'm the one who controlled the wars. I'm the ish milchama. And what does the Mechilta the Midrash say on this pasuk? מגיד שנגלה עליהם הקדוש ברוך הוא בכל כלי זיין כדכתיב הריק חנית וסגור לקראת רודפי. Hashem reveals himself in every missile, in every drone, in every bomb, in every threat, in every danger. וישלח חציו ויפיצם ועוד כתיב החזק מגן וצנה שומע אני שהוא צריך אחת מן המדות הללו וכי השם יתברך צריך כלי זיין הרי יכול להשתיק את האויב. Does God need our weapons? Does he need the weapons on our end? Hashem could just make all the enemies disappear, could die in their sleep. All the enemies, we wouldn't even know. You know we say in Hallel, הללו את השם כל גוים. All the non-Jewish nations of the world praise Hashem. They do? Why are we focused on that? That's Hallel. We acknowledge and praise Hashem by saying the non-Jewish nations of the world praise Hashem. The answer is, we know what they tried to do that we stopped. We know what they tried to do that it worked. We mourn, we grieve, we cry. We know what they tried to do that we stopped. But we have no idea what they tried to do that we're not even aware of, that Hashem, that Hashem nullified their plans. הללו את השם כל גוים, the non-Jewish nations can praise and acknowledge Hashem in a way on the things that we don't even know about that they tried to do, that they tried to do. Perhaps you saw the little write-up of someone who says they're a physicist who says that stopping 300, more than 300 missiles is a bigger miracle than the Six-Day War. It feels like we went just, it feels like we went right back to work and right back to life, we're right back to cleaning for Pesach, but in the history, in the context, it is a bigger miracle what happened on Motzei Shabbos, could be a bigger miracle than the Six-Day War. Does it have to be for us to say thank you? We have to start rating miracles, ranking miracles. Miracle ranking. You know, what do the Chinese judges give it? They gave it an 8.2. Like, we have to start rating our miracles. How about it's a miracle? It was a miracle, thank you. And Hashem is in the Iron Dome, Hashem is in the Patriot defense, Hashem is in these, these systems that the whole world said can't be done, don't waste money on it. בשמו הוא נלחם אם כן למה צריך לכאורה לפרק כל אחת ואחת בפני עצמו אלא שיצטרכו ישראל להקדוש ברוך הוא ללחום מלחמות. When we fall asleep, when we're fighting with each other, when we're on the brink of a civil war because we think judicial reform is the most important thing—it's important, there's different perspectives on it—when we can't get along, when we're fighting, when we're breaking away, when we're divided, when we're criticizing, when we're condemning, Hashem says, oh, I really don't want to do this. I hate to do this. This is the only thing that will wake them up and bring them together. This is the only thing that makes them see each other, see what they have in common, not their differences, feel connected to one another, and collectively makes them Google Tehillim. You don't Google Tehillim when everything's hunky-dory and well. You don't Google Tehillim when everything's smooth sailing. You don't Google Tehillim sadly just because you have the most exits or the most representation on the Nasdaq or Intel invested billions more. Nobody, Israel was not Googling Tehillim. You know when they Google Tehillim? When they face the tilim. When they face the rockets is when you Google Tehillim. Kadosh baruch hu says I don't want to do this. וכיוצא בזה איתא בתרגום יונתן על הפסוק אמרין בני ישראל השם גברא עבדא נקרבינא בכל דור ודור מן דגבורתיה לעמדיה בית ישראל השם שמיה. הרי שסיבת המלחמה היא להודיע גבורתו לפני ישראל לעוררם. I would hesitate to say this. Who am I sitting in the comfort and the safety of Boca Raton learning a piece, talking about why Hashem does these things in the dangers they face? Believe me, I hesitate. But first of all, it's Torah and we're learning it and we shouldn't be ashamed or apologize for it. And number two, it's the Pnei Menachem who was living during the Persian Gulf War and not knowing, and not knowing what they were facing, getting fitted for gas masks, people shaving their beards so they would fit and seal tightly so they could survive. And he, in that midst, before it was clear the miracles that they would experience, he was talking about why this happens. So it's Torah and it's the Torah of the Pnei Menachem and chalila, chalila, it's not a criticism of anyone other than ourselves. It's to wake us up too, we Jews in Chutz La'aretz. Maybe it's time to go home and to go back and to consider our timeline, not of if, but when, when we will be there and when we're going there. So I'm not talking about them, somebody else. I'm not talking about our brothers and sisters literally and figuratively in Israel. I'm talking about us. Pnei Menachem is talking to us. Wake up. Wake up. Don't be lulled back to sleep. Fatigue can't set in just because it's almost over. seven months now, six and a half months later. Wake up, kedei le'orreram. We started to fall asleep again so I ran out to get him involved so we would Google Tehillim. How many times do we want to test Hashem? How many times are we hitting snooze and going back to sleep? So He keeps waking us up. So wake up. תכלית המלחמה כדי שישראל יתעוררו על ידי כן לעסוק בתורה ויראה. Let's wake up and become the people we're meant to be individually, as a community, and as a people, and as a nation. השם יתברך הוא המוליכם למלחמה שבלב מלכים ושרים ביד השם. It's all in the hearts and the hands of Hashem. What will happen next? Bibi, Biden, leaders of Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, it's all in the—it's all Hashem is moving the chess pieces around the board. Lev melachim the heart of kings vesarim beyad Hashem they're all in the hands of Hashem. We have to take our initiative. Of course. We have to take our initiative, but it's all in the hands. הוא יתברך לא צריך מגן חרב חנית וחיצים. Hashem doesn't need a shield or a sword, He doesn't need arrows, shum klei milchama Hashem doesn't need any weapons. העזות והרצון הבא לישראל הוא מכוון שבמלחמה. So we need to have this mindfulness. Yes, spend money. Let's eliminate the Squad. Let's take out—let's make sure John Fetterman is a permanent fixture in the Senate. I can't believe I'm saying those words. Yeah, right. Let's make sure he could wear whatever he wants, he could appear however he wants. The guy is unbelievable. Let's make sure he doesn't go anywhere. Let's eliminate, let's eliminate. I mean this—you talk about a reckoning after what happened on Motzei Shabbos, Iran 300 missiles. Do you know the people who didn't vote? The people who voted down Iron Dome funding? Now you'll say, and I don't mean to get political here, but you'll say, well, why should we pay for it, America? And the answer is picture what would have happened Motzei Shabbos if 300 missiles hit Israel and there was no Iron Dome, and Israel had no choice but to hit back and hit back hard, and then Iran hit American bases, and then America was pulled into a war. So for whom is Iron Dome? Iron Dome was protecting the Iranian people, Iron Dome was protecting American interests. It's no favor or chesed, it's tzedakah that America supports Iron Dome. It's American interests, and Israel takes the brunt by facing the threat and by being the target, by being—by being the target. So yes, we take our initiative, we have to do our hishtadlus. Yes, take your money, help support our market, and with whatever you have left, fund the candidates who are going up against the people who voted down America's funding of the Iron Dome and of the missile defense, including AOC if you remember shed a tear on the floor of Congress when it passed. Cried about it. Yeah, okay, well, no, no, no, we don't—we stop short of saying that. Hopefully the mic didn't pick that up. But the point is לב מלכים ושרים ביד השם. We take our initiative, we do our part, we get involved in political giving, and we advocate, and we write letters, and we do our part. But at the end of the day, it's all in the hands of Hashem. So to live these six and a half months, to living through this extraordinary time and not be feeling closer, more connected, more aware of Hashem, which is the essence, the goal, the purpose, a big part of this whole thing, is to miss out on what it's—what it's all about. We're living this on two planes. There's down here, which are the headlines. What happened today? Where'd we go in, where'd we pull out, who's threatening what, what's the next move, what's the next timeline, who's being called up? That's the down here. But we're also supposed to be living it up here. Hashem, where are You? What's this all about? What do You want from me? How can I see You and feel You and Your presence? And we have the responsibility to live it in both places simultaneously. כדאיתא בגמרא גדולה הסרת טבעת יותר מארבעים ושמונה נביאים שנתנבאו להם לישראל. The Gemara Megillah yud-dalet tells us that when Achashverosh took off his ring and empowered Haman to exterminate the people, it did more to wake up the Jewish people than 48 prophets prophesying. More than every rabbi in Israel, the most famous, the most popular, the biggest influencer rabbis in Israel and rebbetzins, Yamima Mizrachi and others, add up all of their shiurim, watch time, listens, friends, followers, posts, millions, billions of hours. Motzei Shabbos 300 missiles did more to Google Tehillim than all the rabbis, all the prophets in the world. Gedola hasaras taba'as, the removal of the ring from Achashverosh, the pressing of launch from Iran did more than 48 prophets, did more than thousands, hundreds of thousands. thousands, hundreds of thousands of teachers and rabbis and rebbetzins. שכולם לא החזירום למוטב ואלו הסרת טבעת החזירתם למוטב ונמנעה מהם הפורענות because it was the removal of the ring and the threat from Haman that all of a sudden Esther says wake up, unite, לך כנוס כל היהודים. Just stop fighting over silliness and narishkeit. Stop bickering and fighting even over important things but that you could learn to disagree agreeably about, to get along, to respect different positions about. Ve'od amru, u'Paroh hikriv, הקריב לבם של ישראל לאביהם שבשמים. Pasuk says u'Paroh hikriv, Paroh came close. So the midrash says don't read it Paroh came close, but Paroh brought closer. What did Paroh bring closer? Us to one another. When you're a slave, when you're in misery, you point fingers and you blame. But when you need to survive together and you need one another, he brought us closer. זה הוא השם איש מלחמה, כל מטרת המלחמות הוא לצורכינו שמתוך כך נתעורר באנחה וצעקה. A kvetch, shreit man, תהא לנו אמונה וביטחון שהשם יתברך מנהיג את העולם השם שמו. How do you not feel Hashem when the missiles are flying? Certainly how do you not feel Hashem when they're all shot down? All of this is about at the end, Hashem. When we went to see Rav Avrum Schorr on our fly-in, he said, the world is radically changing, are you? That's what this is all about. The world has changed and the world is changing. Have you? Are we the same people we were? Maybe we slept a little less, maybe we're a little more worried, we've cried a few more tears. But if you were to look at our life, if someone took a snapshot of your life today and October 6th, could they see a difference? What are you doing differently? What have you introduced? How are you living differently? What are you observing? How are you connected? Your emunah, your bitachon, your dveikus, your tefillah, your Torah, your tzedaka, your chessed, your life, your tzniut, your relationships, your patience, your love, your loyalty. That's what it's about. ועל כן יטענו הגוים הרבה מלחמות עשינו וכולם לא עשינו אלא בשביל ישראל שיעסקו בתורה. And that's what the non-Jewish nations, what the Romans or the Persians meant when they came to God and they said, yes we've started and launched all these wars but you know why we did them? For your children. Trying to wake them up. שעל ידי יראתו מן המלחמה יתעורר בבקשת רחמים והתחזקו בלימוד התורה. So they'll wake up. ונמצא שזכות לנו בזה, and he said, give us a reward. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran are saying to God, look we got them to google Tehillim. So give us a reward. Right, the crazies in Iran are saying, nu, give us a reward because we got them to google Tehillim. Hashem says, מלחמות אני עשיתי כי אני הוא שעושה המלחמות בכוונה תחילה על מנת לעורר את בני ישראל. No you think you did that? That's me, not you. You don't have that power. That power is all, that power is all mine. That power is all mine. So that's what this is all about, what we're going through. That's what this time, and that's how we have to measure it, that's what it's all about. Again we'll speak about this more on Shabbos, Shabbos HaGadol. We're speaking all about living in this world of lies. Lies. That Israel is performing a genocide. It's all, we're living in an olam hasheker. Olam hasheker. Lies being produced and spread at a record pace, being believed widely. How do you navigate a world of lies? Only by clinging to the truth. Lies are galus, that's exile. Truth is the path to geulah, to redemption. So how do we, the ambassadors, the shluchim of truth? How do we hold the world accountable to truth? How do we represent truth? How do we navigate with truth? What's that all about? That is a little shameless plug for Shabbos HaGadol the Shabbos afternoon. Today and tomorrow the market 4:00 to 10:00 p.m. I personally, Chevdah and I are donating significantly. You talk about meaningful use of your money, I'm telling you it goes directly to put food and matzah in people's mouths. People who can't make Pesach without. Come volunteer later. Don't come, come first of all benefit if you could use it. It's not just for the most impoverished in the community, it's for those who need relief. For those who need relief because it's oppressive affording Pesach and everything else Jewishly. So come if it could help you. Come if you could volunteer and you'll see bracha come, she helps, how many people come? How grateful are they when they leave because they wouldn't know how they could. So if you're able to help, got a lot of fundraising still to do today. So could use your help. And please God by the time we meet next time for the emunah shiur, please God the war will be over, the hostages will be home, and we wish that Yom Tov should bring... Particularly Pesach with all the memories. So Yom Tov should bring people a lot of comfort and a lot of strength. And a lot of Geulah. By the time we resume, we should have a lot of Geulah im yirtzeh Hashem. All right, have a meaningful day.
