Transcript
Good morning boker tov, may it be a boker tov, may we hear besoros tovos, we should hear good news from Israel and around the world. May the hostages come home, may our soldiers have a sweeping victory and return to their families. I want to thank our generous emunah series sponsors for the year, Dr. David and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Schanz. We remain very, very grateful to the Morgans. This morning's shiur is also sponsored by Pam and Prosper Bitbol in commemoration of her father's yahrzeit, Lester Greenberg, Eliezer ben Meir, dedicated by the Mussory, Spigner, and Chassidim families in commemoration of the shloshim of Shoshana Mussory, Shoshana bat Rachel, who was a beloved member of our community for many years, passed away recently. She was eager to learn, always wanted to grow. And by Rachel and Alex Katz, dear friends of Yerushalayim, whose recently married son Isaac is drafting to the IDF today. So we're incredibly proud of him, we wish him well. Katz is our incredible family who are changing Israel and the world voluntarily doing tremendous things at Kehillat Eretz Chemdah and passing that spirit on to their children. He should be safe and secure and im yirtzeh Hashem successful in all that he does. Okay, so as always we'll start with a little bit of emunah correspondence and then we'll get back into the learning that we were doing. I love the emails, please keep them coming, those stories strengthen me and through our shiur and being able to share them, I hope that they strengthen others. The feedback we get, they strengthen others as well, the fact that we are applying. So first, I want to share, last week we spoke about the tighter the grip, the tighter you hold something, then the less successful you are, and the looser the grip, then the better you do. So when you go through life and you're filled with angst and worry and you're holding on tight, tight to everything, everything has to work out exactly the way you want, the way you drew it up, the way you planned it, and tight, tight, tight, then you're just going to cause yourself physical, mental, spiritual being unhealthy and problems. And I gave the example, Havatzelet's here this week so I can't talk about her, that's the rule, but I gave the example, a drummer, the tighter that you hold the drumsticks, the more poorly you play. In sports, the tighter you hold the bat or the golf club, the less successful you'll be in making contact and hitting where you want to go. So Shelly Brand shared with me, Ms. Shelly Brand shared with me another beautiful application and insight of this idea. In Tehillim, Shir HaMa'alot, Perek Kuf-Kaf-Zayin, we say כחצים ביד גבור כן בני הנעורים. We say like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of our youth. Our attitude towards our relationship with our children are like the arrows in the hand of the archer. It's a beautiful Kotsker on this, which is, Kotsker says on this pasuk before we get to her interpretation, Kotsker says the archer has the bow and arrow and you pull the arrow towards you, the tighter you pull it towards you, the closer you hold it towards you, when you let go and release it, the straighter it goes and the farther it will travel. And the same is true with our children, the closer we hold them towards us, the tighter we pull them towards us, the closer we hold them, when we let go, the farther they'll go and the more in line, the more on the path they will remain. So says the Kotsker, that's the peshat כחצים ביד גבור כן בני הנעורים. But she wants to suggest that like arrows, if you hold the bow too loose the arrows will fall to the ground, if you hold it too tight you're going to overshoot the target, if you're holding it too tight you never going to possibly be able to aim and hit the target, so you have to hold it just right. Just like with children, don't hold them too tight, but you also can't be too loosey-goosey, you got to be just right, like the three bears, you got to get it just right when it comes to children and that's how they'll fly, that's how they'll flourish, that's how they're going to go very far in life. So as we're going through our lives and the things that we do, don't hold on too tight, don't hold on too tight, just like the musician and just like the athlete, you got to have the right grip, you have to have the right grip. You have to have the right grip and go to work, you can't be too loose and sit on your couch at home and think God's going to drop off a brown paper bag filled with cash. You got to go to work, but don't be holding on so tight when you go to work, the grip is so tight, it's all up to me and if I don't make it then no parnassah and my success and my failures all, we take our initiative, we do our thing, we make our effort, and then we let go and let God, and then we submit and surrender and then the rest is up to him. So don't hold on too tight. I go to the airport, I was on time, I made the plans, they were reasonable, they were responsible, I did everything I could, and then the rest is up to him, don't hold on too tight. I got another email from Kibbutz Shluchot near Beit She'an in Northern Israel. Thank you so much for the living with emunah shiur, blah blah blah. A few months ago you spoke about a survey which showed that students thought their parents cared more about them getting good grades than being kind and the research suggested that parents ask their children every night at dinner time, what is something kind or helpful they did today? Remember that? We shared a research from Harvard that if you ask students, if you ask children, what do your parents care more about? Your grades, your performance, or your kindness, your character? What did they care more about? And overwhelmingly, children reported they answered, they care much more about my grades, academically, how well I do. You used to say, could you get into an Ivy League school, but today what moron would send their child to an Ivy League school? So we don't, that's no longer, I don't know if it ever should have been, but it certainly is no longer a standard. So many children answered sadly that their parent cares more about their grades, their academic performance than their character, and then their kindness. And then the researchers, which I'm not an enormous reader of research, but seems to me to be unusual, concluded by not only sharing their research and their data, but by making a suggestion. Is that common? Mrs. Moskowitz, do they do that? Make suggestions? Yeah, you delete that. You edit that out of the journal of New England Journal of Medicine. But these researchers got it in and their conclusion was at the dinner table every night don't just ask what'd you get on your math test? How'd you do in school today? Did you get any grades back? But ask, did you do something kind for someone else today? Did you do something nice for someone else today? So we shared all this several months ago. So the author of this email says you suggested that we also ask our kids every night, when is a moment today that you were thankful to Hashem or looking back can realize when Hashem was helping you? In other words, what we talk about, what we speak about, is what communicates what we prioritize, what we care about. So if you talk about the stock market or you talk about the sports results or you talk about your grades or you talk about money or material things or possessions, then our children understandably conclude those are my parents' priorities, that's what matters to them, that's how they measure my success. But if you talk about character and kindness, if you talk about emuna and bitachon, if you talk about Hashem, if you talk about gratitude, then children will feel that's how I was raised, on an attitude of gratitude. That's what matters, that's what matters most. So we suggested and I'm always encouraging, endorsing, trying to remind ourselves to use our family hashgacha pratis WhatsApp group to post the stories that inevitably, invariably happen to all of us every day where you can feel Hashem in our lives. So the author of the email says just like we learn and we darshan it up, we darshan up the emails too. We read the email and then we learn it together. So we try to ask these two questions every night and our children excitedly say time for dinner questions! And see who can share the most stories. A few weeks ago I took my seven-year-old daughter to the shopping center to buy some clothing for her and pick up pizza to bring home. In Israel, Pizza Hut's kosher. It was at night and as we got next to our car I dropped the car key and we couldn't find it initially. Eventually after a minute I found it behind the back tire, I picked it up and said to my daughter, thank God we found it. She said, much to my pleasant surprise, that when the key fell and we initially couldn't find it, she asked Hashem to help us find it. I told her how happy I was that she recognized in the moment that we needed Hashem's help. May Hashem bring all of us the help that we need. So his point is, if that's what you talk about, so then that's how the child thinks. In that moment, that's what they say and that's what they and that's what they think about and that's what they want. I was playing with my grandson on Sunday and he had a little wand and I said, Aryeh, what are you what are you wishing for? What are you hoping for for the wand? He said, I want to make you really tall Zeida, so you can go up to shamayim and pull down the beis hamikdash and put it in my backyard. So I told his parents, who happen to be pretty good parents, I clearly where does a child get that from? That there's a beis hamikdash, that it's upstairs, that we have to bring it down. Okay, the part about his backyard maybe needs some work, but you know, what do our children believe or think about and what do they wish for when they wave a wand? What they hear. What they hear from their parents. It's not rocket science. It's not rocket science. We say, we say in Tehillim, Heemanti ki adaber. We say in Hallel, we just sang it through our Pesach, we just had Rosh Chodesh, Heemanti ki adaber. I believe because I speak about it. What we speak about we believe, we practice, we do, we create that energy around us. So when we speak about emuna and Hashem and He's here and I feel Him and there's a plan and it will make sense and we'll come to understand and He's holding us up and I can lean on Him and He's supporting us and it's all part of a bigger picture. So when we speak, Heemanti ki adaber, I believe because I speak about, because I say that is all part of that is all part of what we do. Okay, those were a couple of emails to get us started and back to our limud for today. So we are learning Raaya Emuna, incredible sefer by by Rav Moshe Shapiro, and we were distinguishing to start between emes and emuna. Emes is the truth, and the truth doesn't care about your feelings. The truth doesn't care about how you behave and how you act and whether you fulfill it or whether you don't. The truth is the truth. Whether you subscribe to gravity or not, it will knock you down. No one cares whether you've studied and understand the physics of gravity. Your relationship with gravity is unimportant to and doesn't have an impact on whether gravity exists. Gravity exists, gravity is a truth, gravity has a pull, gravity is effective whether you understand it, think about it, care about it, feel about it, talk about it. He will exist whether you've studied the Bible Codes or not. He will exist whether you've gone through the Discovery program or not. That's the emes. It is simply poshut the emes. It is the truth, it is fact, it is undeniable. If a person studies with an open mind, if a person analyzes the evidence, you will see overwhelmingly, as much evidence there is for anything else, there is evidence that Hashem exists, that there is a first cause, that there is a source of all, that the world didn't come into disorder, didn't turn into order without a designer, without a creator. It's common sense to believe He exists. It's common sense. As has been said many times, it takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a believer. It takes more faith to be an atheist. You have to really, really lean in and believe and want to because it justifies some life or lifestyle that He doesn't exist. It takes more faith to be an atheist or agnostic than it does to be a believer because it's common sense if you open your eyes and you know that every time you see disorder turn to order, there's a creator. If you see paint on a canvas, there was a painter. Not some of the new paintings. I don't mean what do they call that? Abstract? I don't know. I'm not knocking it, I know it sells for a lot of money. That same grandson who wants to wave the wand can produce the same types of paintings. He doesn't bring in the same amount of money. I don't get it. I'm sure it's only because I'm an ignorant boor. I'm not criticizing anyone, I don't get it. But when you see a painting that looks like something and makes sense, you know somebody didn't knock over and spill over paint on a canvas. You know there was a painter. When you see a sculpture that resembles something, you know there was a sculptor. When you see a building, you know a hurricane didn't just blow through Home Depot and it resulted in those materials coming together to be the building. You know there was an architect and you know there was a builder. In every other area of our life, when you open a book, you know that nobody knocked over ink on a page and it turned into this book, these letters, these words, these sentences. You know there's an author. In every area of our life, when disorder or chaos turn to order, we know, it's common sense, it's obvious that there's an author, a sculptor, an architect, a painter, a builder. And yet we live this life and in this world with the complexity of the human body and the world and the cosmos and the universe, and that the earth is the exact distance from the sun for it to exist. A little bit closer, we would explode in a ball of fire. A little bit further, we would freeze and couldn't exist. And it's exactly the distance we need to be. We look at all of that, we say, "Yeah, but maybe it just came to be, it was just a coincidence. Maybe it just happened, the Big Bang blew up and here we are." We don't apply that logic anywhere else in our life. The common sense conclusion is that there is a creator. It takes more faith to be an atheist than to be a believer. That's the emes. It's the emes plain and simple, there is an emes. There is a creator, there is a first cause. He's intimately involved and aware of and intervenes in our lives. All that's the emes. Emuna is do you live it? Do you apply it? Do you execute on it? Do you manifest it? When things in life are going wonderfully, do we realize that's from Him? When things in life could be a little bit better, do we understand and lean in and realize it's not random, it's not chance, we're not just victims of nature, that He's in charge and He's in control and this world, there's a bigger something going on? There's something more happening, that there is a world to come and an afterlife and an immortality and an eternity and it's not just about the here and now? That's emuna. Our relationship to the emes is emuna. And Rav Moshe Shapiro developed this with the idea of being a ne'eman, building a bayis ne'eman b'Yisrael, being reliable and trustworthy, being faithful, being sturdy and stable. And all this we've said until now. We are up to the second paragraph on page chaf aleph, page 21. האמונה נותנת בית לאמת. Faith gives a foundation, a house, for the emes, for the for the facts to be able to reside. Osa lo makom, it makes a space. והמקום הזה צריך להיות נאמן. But that space, that space where the truth lives, has to be reliable and dependable. You can't blow it the wind, you can't fluctuate, you can't be in and out. You can't be you can't be sometimes and not other times. אחרת האמת לא חלה עליו ככל מקום שאינו יציב וקבוע. You can't be like, "I'm married to you and I'm home, but not when I'm on a business trip. I'm in love with you when you do the nice things to me, but when I don't like you, then all bets are off." Like, if you're in it, that's the vow that we take. We originated the vow, by the way. It's called the kesuba, the pledge, the promise, הרי את מקודשת לי, the giving, the receiving of the ring, all of that are the commitment, the covenant, the promise that we make to one another under a chuppah. And what it means is in good times and bad times, in sickness and in health. It means that we're in it, we're in it for the long haul, we're in it together, and it won't always be easy and it won't always be pleasant and it won't always be pleasurable, and you won't always be behaving the way I want you to be. have and that doesn't mean I'm still not going anywhere. I'm still committed. That's what it means. We also have a mitzvah of divorce when it's appropriate. I'm not suggesting that we don't, but the institution of marriage is to build a bayis ne'eman, reliable, dependable, constant, consistent. That's what it means. When you're a parent, the commitment, the covenant to have a child, to have a child. We're living in a crazy time around the world, there's a population crisis, here in America too. The only ones who are offsetting that and helping are the Jewish people, and among the Jewish people I'm talking about the observant Jewish community. And the more observant, the more you're helping the population challenge. And we daven for those who want to add to the population they should have success and nachas and be blessed with beautiful healthy children. But the world today has concluded, eh, I don't want to have children. You have a crisis when people die at a faster rate than children are being born. That creates a population crisis. It's happening around the globe, it's happening here in America. You know where it's not happening? In Israel. It's not happening in Israel. But that's a topic for another time, but why are people concluding I don't want to have children? Why? Some are concluding they think nobly, they look around this world and say, I'm going to bring children into this world? This backwards, upside down, deeply disturbed world of lies, world of selfishness, world of corruption, world of immorality, world of moral depravity? I'm going to bring children into this world? Forget about it. And maybe it's understandable, in fact, so understandable there was a period of our history where people felt that too. Who thought that? In Mitzrayim. None other than Moshe Rabbeinu, Aaron HaKohen, Miriam HaNeviah, their father felt that. He looked around Egypt and he said, this persecution, this oppression, this antisemitism, this hatred, this war to the south, to the north, Iran? Forget it, we're not bringing children into this world. It's a reasonable conclusion. Thank God, thank God, Miriam came along and said, you know, Pharaoh is just killing the males, you're killing the females too. And we know the mirrors and Yocheved beautified herself and attracted her husband and the nashim tzidkaniyos, in the merit of righteous women, we are still here, which is always the case because Judaism is a gender-biased religion, it is a bias against men, it is always promoting and praising women and always knocking the men. I'm not joking, I'm serious. Happens to be true if you study the Torah and you study Chazal you'll see many, many, many, many, many more praiseworthy things about women than of men, many more compliments of women than of men, and many more criticisms of men than women, but all of that is for another time. So thank God the nashim tzidkaniyos, the women, saved the day. But today we're back in that place where some people, others, and I don't know the statistics, but I would guess the majority of people not having children, why? Because you know, they're annoying, they're difficult, they can be a pain, they're inconvenient. They don't always cry when it's convenient for you. They don't need a diaper change when it's convenient for you. When they're potty training, they don't need the bathroom when it's convenient for you. They're expensive. Have you noticed how expensive they are? Food, diapers, let alone Jewish education, they're expensive. So if you live a life which is all about your happiness and your pleasure and your freedom and your time and your, you, you, you, children sort of interfere, they get in the way, they get in the way of that, they get in the way of that. So it's easier to not have children. And there's a major population challenge in this world today. We're living in a backwards world. Someone was in touch with me and I hope to work with them on legislation about... We live in a world where insurance and the government pay for birth control, but they don't pay for fertility treatments. And we wonder why we have a population crisis in terms of what we, what we popularize and promote and what we pay for. It is unbelievably expensive to need fertility treatments. It's something that is no less of a condition, I don't say that with any judgment or to make someone feel bad, but it's no less than a condition than other health issues that insurance all pays for. It is absurd. It is absurd. If you prioritize continuity and population growth, then it is a given that insurance and that government subsidizes what's necessary to help a population that needs to be corrected and needs to be corrected immediately. So when parents have a child, what are they saying to that child? You know, I'll wake up for you in the middle of the night for you when I feel like it. I'll be your parent when you're, when you're compliant, when you're honoring and respectful, but when you have chutzpah, you're on your own. You know, when you're not on the path that I want you to be, if you're figuring things out for yourself, then I'm no longer your parent, I disown you. No, when you become a parent, nobody tells this to people because... there's no training, there's no degree, there's no license, there's no test you have to pass. And there are many, maybe, who shouldn't be, but when you become a parent, you're making a promise, a commitment, a covenant to be ne'eman to that child. You're a parent 24/7 for the rest of your life. Hopefully they become an adult and graduate and grow up, but you're always that parent. Worrying, caring, loving, maybe funding, but I don't know if they graduate that, they go off the payroll at some point, I'm told. So at some, you're always, you're always, you're always that parent. That's a covenant, that's what it means to be ne'eman. That's what it means to be ne'eman. So what is emunah? Emunah is, emunah's not, "oh, I believe that there is a Hashem." That's not emunah. That's the emes. The emes doesn't need your emunah. The emes, says Rav Moshe Shapiro, is the emes is there's a God. That's a truth, a fact, a reality, like gravity. Now, what's your relationship with Hashem? Are you ne'eman? Do you have emunah? Means the same way in my home, my commitment to my spouse, my commitment to my children, is that this is a covenant, this is a bris, this is a promise, this is a contract, this is a vow. God, I make a promise and a commitment and a covenant and a vow to You, I'm in it. I'm here for the long haul. I'm here not only when it's convenient, not only when it's comfortable, not only when I understand it, not only when I appreciate it, not only when it's geshmak to be a Yid, I'm in it when it's שווער צו זיין א ייד. I'm in it not only when it's fun and energized and enthusiastic and it all makes sense and we're celebrating and the simcha and it's amazing. I'm also in it when it's inconvenient and it's a pain and I don't know where You are or why You do this and how hard this is. I'm practicing emunah, I'm ne'eman, I'm still there, I'm still there. Ne'emar. Next paragraph. ויהי בכזיב בלדתו אתו. Torah tells us Yehuda, the great Yehuda, the son of Yaakov Avinu goes and has children Er and Onan, and bichziv bilidto oso in Kziv, a place. Meforshei Rashi omer ani Hashem שפסקה מלדת נקרא כזיב. Why was it called Kziv? This place, why did it have its name Kziv? Kziv, what does Kziv mean? A deceiver. A deceiver because that is the place where they ceased to have children. היה תהיה לי כמו אכזב אשר לא יכזבו מימיו. Sheker nikra chazav. We call sheker another name for lies and distortions and untruth is sheker vachazov. Chazov, chazov is a lie, a distortion, a corruption. וגם דבר המפסיק מעכשיו משקר כיון שעצם מהות האמת שעומדת ואינה בטילה. שפת אמת תכון לעד. Emes is everlasting. Truth is immutable. Immutable. Truth is impenetrable. Truth is not flexible. Truth is forever. Sheker is chazov. Sheker is fleeting. Sheker doesn't have a leg to stand on. Sheker is lies and corruption and untruth. באופן דומה אמרו במשנה. Hamayim hamachzivim psulim l'kadesh mei chatas. אלו הם המים המכזיבים המכזיבים אחד בשבוע שבע שנים. Something that's not reliable, not dependable, not consistent, not predictable is a lie, is not true. Truth is, it's reliable. It's reliable. You know what the emes is? If you and I make up to meet at a certain time, if you're, if you show up on time, if you're punctual, you're reliable. And you may show up, you may not show up, you may be on time, you may be late, you may follow through, you may drop the ball. You're not ne'eman. Then you're not ne'eman. What kind of a relationship is that? What kind of a relationship? A lot of, a lot of relationships fail and falter and struggle because the other party, one party, or both parties are not ne'eman. Yeah, maybe follow through, maybe not. Maybe show up, maybe not. Maybe can lean on, maybe not. Maybe can trust and confide, maybe not. That's not ne'eman. The core, the basis of ne'eman, of emunah is consistency, constancy, reliability, dependability. Can I predict, will you be there, can I set my watch to it? מים אלו נקראים משקרים כיון שאי אפשר לסמוך עליהם שיהיו תמיד כמו שהם. זהו דבר שאינו אמיתי. Such, such water in that case, in that category, that criteria, it's not reliable because if it won't always be there, it's not reliable. So all of this is Rav Moshe Shapiro's way of, of brilliantly, and this was his specialty, taking words and reducing them to their, to their root, to their core, in order to be able to open them up to really understand what they mean. So before this, and we've been studying emunah now for many years and hundreds and hundreds of shiurim, and we always thought emunah is faith. Oh, what's emunah? It's faith that God exists. No, it's not. His existence doesn't depend on you. Emunah is, take the emes that God exists and emunah is, are you ne'eman? Are you ne'eman? Same thing in marriage. Did you build a bayis ne'eman? You have an anniversary coming up. You go out and you have a beautiful conversation. That is what determines the ne'emanus, whether it's a bayis ne'eman in the end? That is not the definition of a bayis ne'eman. Back at the lechayim and the vort and the aufruf, aufruf and the chuppah and the sheva brachos, we have a lot of celebrations that go around a wedding. And at each of them someone said, "May you build a bayis ne'eman b'Yisrael." Good, now your 10th anniversary, 20th anniversary, your 50th anniversary. Here's a, here's homework. Celebrating your 50th anniversary, look back. Did we fulfill, are we fulfilling building a bayis ne'eman? Well what does that mean? Did we pay tuition? What does that mean? Did we go on vacations? Did we buy gifts? Did we remember each other's birthdays and did we commemorate anniversaries? That's not bayis ne'eman. Those are all nice. They're cherry on top but that's not bayis ne'eman. Bayis ne'eman meant were we reliable and dependable, were we consistent, did we show up? Could we confide, could we trust, were we trustworthy to one another? That's a bayis ne'eman and the same is true with Hashem. The emes the fact is He exists. Good, now let's evaluate and look at your day. Are you ne'eman to His existence? Is your day faithful to the knowledge that He exists? Is your day faithful to that knowledge? You know they say, I've shared this previously in other contexts. People say a lot of things about what they prioritize, what they value. Care about this and I care about that and this is important to me and that matters to me. So there's two ways to find out whether that's true. Give me your credit card statement and give me your calendar. And now we'll see whether what you say you care about, you care about. Our credit card statement, our bank account statement doesn't lie. You say you care about tzedakah? Okay, let's see what percentage of your income you give to tzedakah. Let's see how you spend your money and what you spend your money on. Because your finances don't lie. What we spend our money on, material things, possessions, experiences, people, things, growth, activity, wellness. What do you spend your money on? And your calendar. "Oh, my family, whom I love and spending time and taking care and learning and growing." Okay, let's look at your calendar for the last month. And let's see how you spent your time. Let's open your screen report from your phone telling us your apps and social media and streaming services and let's see how you spent your time. They don't lie. That's why we're scared to look at them because we don't want to be honest with ourselves and have that look in the mirror to check our bank statement and our screen report because we don't want to look at it. But it tells the truth. And the question is, are you ne'eman to what you claim to care about? And the calendar and your bank statement will answer that question, are you ne'eman? So that's emunah. Emunah is, let's look back at your day. Did you panic? Were you anxious? Were you afraid? Did you lose your cool and get angry and give into your ego? Were you filled with envy? Were you inflated with arrogance? So you might have started your day with the statement of emes that there is a Hashem, but you weren't very ne'eman to it. But if we look at your day and we say, "You know what, this thing went right, but I was calm, cool, and collected because I knew there was Hashem, so I didn't worry. I knew that it was all part of an adventure. We'd see how it turned out next." And then this thing happened but I said, "You know what, Hashem, I'm not envious of what they have because I know You have enough to give both of us and You give me exactly what I need." Can we see that your day reveals and reflects that you were ne'eman? There was an emunah to the emes that you believed in the beginning of the day. מי שאינו קבוע בדעתו ובדרכיו יתכן שאינו עובר על מדבר שקר תרחק אבל האמת אינו חל עליו. אין זאת ברית של אמונה. If you don't live a life of dependability and consistency and reliability. You come late, you're not punctual, your word is not your bond. You're a person who says you care about this but you don't actually follow through. You don't show up, you don't get it done, you don't do it. You say this is a truth that you believe in but you don't demonstrate it, you're not demonstrating that you believe it, whether it's a commitment to your family or to Hashem in your life. So you may not have violated the explicit pasuk, the verse, midvar sheker tirchak. Pasuk says distance yourself from lies, but you still, you're also not a kli kibul, you're not a vessel that can receive, that can house, that can host the emes. אין זאת ברית של אמונה. You are not honoring the covenant of emunah. האמת אינה מתחברת אלא למי שנאמן הוא המקום לאמת. The truth can only reside in a trustworthy faithful person. The truth can only reside in a trustworthy faithful person. Don't just say the truth, demonstrate and live and be that vehicle and instrument. I'll give you another application of this, another metaphor right now, which is so painful for us as we're watching and hearing and living it. How many people, politicians, elected officials, prominent people of influence, they're saying all the right things about Israel or about fighting antisemitism or about what's going on on campuses. They make this statement, they make this policy, this political, the post, they're saying all the right things. That's lovely, it's nice, it's easy to say the right thing. Are you demonstrating it? Are you demonstrating it? You can't one day at a Holocaust museum talk about never again and antisemitism and being not wavering or equivocal and the next day withhold weapons that Israel needs to stop those who want to wipe them off the face of the earth. You can't say. That's the emes. I'm grateful that you posted the emes. And by the way, I don't mean to minimize it. Those who are willing to share and write and post and make statements of the emes, good. It's important. And we should write letters and thank them and encourage them. Keep saying the emes. That's only half the equation. The emes is lovely. Are you ne'eman to the emes? Do you demonstrate that emes the next day? To demonstrate it with emuna the next day? So our frustration with certain people right now is Hashem's frustration with us. It's lovely, she, he, they go to the emuna shiur, they wake up every day and they daven, they say the emes that there's Hashem and you believe in me. But are you demonstrating it? Are you demonstrating it the rest of the day? That's the emuna. We can't just offer lip service to Hashem. It has to be put into practice. We have to demonstrate it where the rubber meets the road. Something doesn't go our way, we're going through a hard time, we're tempted to be anxious, we're tempted to be envious, we're tempted to inflate with arrogance, we're tempted to get angry. Take that deep breath and stop and say one second. I affirmed the emes this morning. Now I gotta live with the emuna and show up. Now I gotta show up. Now I gotta demonstrate it, keep my cool and my calm, lean in and realize He's got a plan. Now I've gotta not get envious, not get angry, not be filled with arrogance. Now's my moment to be true, to be faithful to what I say I believe. How can I be faithful to what I say I believe? Faithful to what I say I believe, right? Stop posting about standing with the Jews and stand with the Jews. Don't post, don't make statements, don't make speeches, just stand with us. Just stand with us. Mi she'eina kavua קריטת ברית אמת פירושה שהדבר אינו בר הסרה ואינו בר ביטול. A real covenant means it's immutable, it's permanent, it's unbendable, it doesn't blow with the wind. ברית בלשון תרגום הוא קיימא. The word bris, the word covenant in the Torah, the Targum, the Targum, the Aramaic translation, teitch, translates the word bris as kayama. You know what kayama means? Lasting, permanent, here to stay. רק בנאמנות יש אפשרות שהאמת תחול. Only with ne'emanus, faithfulness and trustworthiness and consistency and covenant, only then can the emes last, can the emes last. There are tragic, tragic, tragic divorces where the emes is that that couple are love and they're soulmates. But they just can't be faithful to one another. I don't mean infidelity. I just mean respect, communication, conflict resolution. It's tragic. There are people that the emes is they're each other's bashert. That's the emes. They complement each other beautifully. It's the emes. They belong together. It's the emes. But they just struggle to be ne'eman to that emes. They can't get it together. They can't figure it out. They can't get aligned and be faithful in honoring this covenant. So it's true in so many areas of our lives and it's true with Hashem. The emes is He exists, the emes is He's real, the emes is He's true, and the emes is that none of that needs you. That's all true whether you believe it or not, say it or not. But what does need you is to live it, to demonstrate it, to incorporate it, to practice it, to perform it in our lives. הבחנה נוספת בשלמות של אמונה לאמת. Another distinction between emes and emuna, emes and emuna. שלכל אמת מצד עצמה אין קיום קבוע אצל אדם באותו רגע שהוא נתפסה אצלו כאמת, אז המציאות נראית בעיניו כך. אם רגע אחד אחר כך מסיח את הדעת מהאמת, אז היא מסתלקת. An emes, a fact, is true while you're thinking about it. But the moment you stop thinking about it, the thought dissipates, disappears, the thought goes away. So while you're studying about gravity and thinking about gravity and you're focused on gravity, so that emes of gravity is front and center in your mind. But The moment you moved on and it's no longer part of your mindfulness, consciousness, mistalkes, it disappears, not not the truth of it, truth of it remains, but its role in your life. הרגשה החריפה של האמת בטלה כשמפסיקים להתבונן בה. So the strong feeling and relationship with and sharp impact of that truth is only impactful while you're focused on, concentrating, thinking about the truth. לפיכך אין לאמת קבע אצל אדם. So the emes doesn't have a keva. The emes, that truth, that fact, that sits on a book, that sits in an ivory tower, that sits in a study hall, that sits in academia. So when you're studying it, it's impacting you, but when you close the book, when you put it back on the shelf, when you're no longer talking about it and studying it, it no longer is directly connected. It's not keva, it's not fixed in your life. באופן שאפשר יהיה לסמוך ולהניח שלעולם הוא יחשוב ויכיר ויבין את המציאות בצורה זו לכוח הידיעה של האמת אינו זה הביטחון הזה ולשם כך צריך את האמונה. How do you keep it from being in a book, on a shelf, in an ivory tower? By developing the emuna, the relationship with that emes. So there's an emes, there's a truth, and then I need to have a relationship with that truth, a relationship with that truth, and that's where emuna comes in. האמונה היא כוח הכולל את האמת באיזה ברירות ועושה אותה לדבר יציב וקבוע אצל האדם. You say good, right now, fantastic. I'm on fire. You know, we're about to have our planning meetings. We have them every year, they're amazing. Our staff get together, two, three days off campus, we reflect and review the whole year that was, we plan and we dream and we vision the year that will be, and we take notes on it. And they're the emes, they're the emes of what we want to achieve. Problem is often they stay in a Google Doc somewhere. It's like every strategic plan, not every, most organizations, companies, they engage the consultant, they spend a gazillion dollars, the strategic plan usually at the end tells you what you knew even before you started, just put it in a fancy binder. And you know what happens with that binder in many cases? It sits on a shelf collecting dust. Because it contains the emes, who you are, where you should go next, what you should do, what needs to be implemented, what needs to be developed, what needs to evolve. But the relationship with that emes, unless you, unless you execute, unless you perform, unless you demonstrate, unless you apply it, it just sits up there collecting dust. So the emes is that there's Hashem, and we review that emes all the time. Every time we daven, we're reviewing the emes, the facts, the truths, the axioms, the fundamentals of our faith, we're reviewing it. Shavuos ago we said that was the purpose of the Seder, to develop that curriculum. And some people recite, review that curriculum daily. If you look in the Siddur at the end of Shacharis, you'll find Yud Gimmel Ikkarim, the thirteen principles of our faith. Those are all the emes. These are the principles and the facts of our faith. Fantastic. You've recited it, you read it, good. Now do you put the Siddur on the shelf to collect dust until Mincha? Or do you execute, do you live, do you manifest, do you perform, do you engage? That's the emuna. That's what's fixed. So the fact is not fixed because I'm not, it's not impacting me all day, goes back on the shelf. But the faithfulness to that fact, that is what's impacting me. So on our anniversary we sit and we talk, what do I love, what do I admire, why did we first connect? Good. But in between anniversaries, do you take out the garbage, are you responsive, do you meet the needs, do you speak respectfully, do you honor, are you a good listener? The fact, the truth, that, that's not keva, that's not something fixed and permanent and consistent, that goes in and out. But the emuna, the, the faithfulness and trustworthiness and relationship with that fact, that is the emuna, and that's what Rav Shapiro is encouraging us in our relationship with Hashem. Emuna is not a belief that Hashem exists. Emuna is, good, what are you doing about it? And that's part of our mission is to the end of every day when we're thinking about, as as really successful people do, how did I spend my day, did I meet my goals, how was my time allocated, did I live up to what I said I wanted to do and who I wanted to be? And one of the questions in that reflection and evaluation at the end of each day or week or month or quarter, however you want to do it, is: was I faithful to what I said? These were my strategic plan for myself, this is my mission statement for me, for my family, for my life. Am I faithful to what I claim to care about? Let me look at my bank statement, let me look at my schedule, let me look at my screen time, let me look at my relationships around me, let me look at my connection with Hashem. Am I faithful to what I claim to be my priorities, my values, my ideals, my emes? ideology. Am I faithful to it? Because the emes is the starting point, but it also could be a quick dead end unless the emuna comes and you put it into practice. So wishing everyone day filled with emes and emuna. We should not only know the truth, we should live the truth, be faithful to the truth, demonstrate the truth, and be able to measure and see the truth in our lives. Should be a day filled with tremendous besoros tovos for Klal Yisrael. Tonight's Behind the Bima: Rabbi Dov Fendel, the Rosh Yeshiva of Sderot. He was just here this past Shabbos and sadly today twice there were already sirens and rockets to Sderot. Back at it. We'll have that conversation with him tonight.
