Transcript
Good morning Boker Tov and a happy Yom Yerushalayim. Today is the miraculous day we celebrate 57 years. Yerushalayim is growing and exploding and expanding and Torah and Yeshivas and Kollels and seminars and access to places that we couldn't go for so many thousands of years. A miracle in our time for which we are so eternally grateful to Hashem. And it can express itself in however you feel halachically is appropriate, but what a day to say thank you, thank you, thank you to Hashem. The Emunah series is generously sponsored by Dr. Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Shanzer. And we are always incredibly grateful to the Morgans. I also want to mention my grandmother's yahrtzeit was earlier this week. ינטא רחא בת שמואל, my grandmother Mrs. Ruth Aboff, for whom my eldest daughter is named, Rachel Rachel Yehuva. And her neshama, a woman of tremendous emunah, and you knew her well. A woman of great emunah. Her favorite pasuk, I think we talked about this in the Emunah shiur many, many years ago. טעמו וראו כי טוב ה׳. Even when she lay in the hospital at the end of her life. Ta'amu u-re'u, taste and you'll see how good Hashem is. If you just live a life, if you just experience, if you just taste what it means to live with emunah, you will feel Hashem's presence in your life. Her neshama should have an aliyah as well. Okay, before we get back to the text that we are learning, I want to tell you a couple of one Emunah story and then two Emunah emails and then we'll dive back in. Here's the Emunah story. This was unbelievable. I get a phone call last week, somebody I'd never spoken to on the phone before I met in person. And he says you have to call me back, I have to tell you something. I call him back and I say what is it? And he tells me the following. This is a very, very special Jew, a very holy Jew, a very learned Jew, a very righteous Jew, and a Jew who tragically has illness in his family among more than one child and he lost a daughter. He lost a daughter. I think 18 years old, a very, very special, incredible, extraordinary young woman. In fact she kept a diary at the end of her life and through her treatments, which is going to be published because it is a textbook on Emunah, on faith. And on our fly-in to New York, we met with him. It was one of the people that we met with, one of the extraordinary people that we met with. And he told us and I shared it, I think here at the Emunah shiur, I shared how he had told us about how even in the hospital during one of her treatments and while her condition was worsening, her condition was worsening, he was feeling down and out and sad and he said and he thought to himself, sadness only makes things worse, never makes things better. Happiness never makes things worse, only makes them better. Why would I be sad? Let me choose. It's not easy, but let me choose to bring the energy of happiness. And he spoke all about that to us and I repeated it. He calls me and he says to me, you got to hear what happened. Yiddish is his first language, English is his second. I will not imitate the accent with which he told me the story. But he says the following. He says, I'm in Brooklyn. I'm in Boro Park. I go into Mincha. And I'm feeling very down and out and very depressed. I'm still here in America. His family and he really comes from another country. And he says he was here for treatment and here through the loss of his child and here through the continued treatment of and he says, I say to Hashem, I'm broken. I'm done. I'm finished. Why am I still here? And if I have to stay permanently, I have to start all over again. My career, my life, my family, my community. I was feeling so tzubbrochen and so broken, so sad, so down, so out. And I poured that into my tefillah to Hashem. You have to help me. Why? Why am I here and why is this happening and I can't take this anymore. I'm just so sad. He said, I finished Mincha and I got in my car. He has a kosher phone that he uses. And he has a phone that has WhatsApp when he needs it. Not that he has two phones because he's hiding it or pretending he doesn't, but the other phone he leaves in his car. He only checks it and uses it when he needs it and he tries not to use it or be distracted by it. He said he got in the car and he moved the phone over, the other phone that has WhatsApp on it. And he doesn't even know what he pressed or what he touched. But all of a sudden he heard my voice telling his story of what he told our group last week. You know there's somebody who posts each day a video, 30 seconds to a minute, every day one video. If you don't get it I can tell you how if you want, there's plenty of other inspiration out there. But it's a little music and a little something, a snippet, a little micro thought from things that we said in the Emunah shiur or other shiurim. So that person who posts that, that day, posted me talking about him and what he taught us about happiness and sadness. And I put it on my status on WhatsApp last week. And when he got in the car and he moved the phone over and he touched something, he must have, I don't know, it recognized his footprint and turned it on and he hit the status button. He said all of a sudden I heard myself talking to myself through you. And he said, how could I be sad? I'm the one who just told this whole group, sadness only hurts and never helps, happiness never hurts and only helps. And I said to myself, snap out of it. What are you doing? This isn't going to help anything. This isn't how you have to be feeling. And he called me to say, oh, isn't Hashem amazing? Hashem made me tell that story in the Emunah shiur and then Hashem made the person who makes these little snippets and videos decide they were going to choose that. ` (Wait, I'm looping in my thought process. Let's just write the final block).
*Final Block Construction:*
"seconds from the shiur. And then Hashem made it that they decided that that was the day they were going to post it. And then Hashem made me decide, which I didn't often do, put it on my status. And then that day that he needed to hear it, he moved the phone, that's what it pressed, that's what he heard, he heard himself talking to himself through I had the privilege to be the shliach just to relay his message to himself. Wow, what a hashgacha moment and he had the wherewithal to say, what a Hashem, I see you're winking at me. Hashem I see you're smiling at me, Hashem I see you're nodding at me, Hashem I see you're giving me a shtickel patch and telling me snap out of it. Wake up. This isn't going to be helpful, it's not going to be productive, it's not going to get you where you need to go. And for a person to be able to see that, feel that, conclude that, wow, that was a really wonderful moment. And to me one of the best parts is he had to find a way to get my phone number, call me, tell me, share it with me. He could have just said to himself, ha, what a coincidence, and gone on with his day. But it's important to pause when we feel Hashem is winking at us or smiling at us, when we have those hashgacha moments, when things come together or make sense, when things are not random or chance, but they're carefully choreographed from above, stop and pause and enjoy it and savor it and share it with someone else because these are very, very special and positive moments in life. Okay, a couple of the emails and then we get back into what we're learning together from Rav Moshe Shapiro. Here we go. And I just want to let everyone know, you're allowed to send me emails that don't have to do with airplanes and airports and you're allowed to send me emails that don't have to do with missiles and war, although those are the most among the most inspiring and incredible. Rabbi G., hope all is well, I can't express enough hakaras hatov, blah blah blah, care de ba ba ba, the story I would like to share is a typical one but the situation itself was anything but. I was in Eretz Yisrael this year for my second year in seminary and I attended a seminary that the program ended right before Pesach started. In the beginning of the year I had booked a two-way ticket without actually knowing the date the program would end. I guessed April 14th, 5:00 AM would be a good date to go home. Once I got there I discovered seminary actually would end the 9th. Since this was not such a big deal, I was excited to stay in Eretz Yisrael for longer, I didn't bother to change it. The year went by quicker than I could have imagined. April 9th came, everyone else went home. There were still a few girls left in the seminary so I was not totally alone. On Motzei Shabbos the 13th, the night before she was scheduled to leave, having booked that flight a year in advance, I was preparing to head to the airport when we heard word of the Iranian airstrike. If I'm being honest I didn't totally understand what this meant. I just assumed my flight would carry out as planned. As I finished preparing my suitcase to take to the airport, I heard a boom that shook the whole building. I looked outside and saw massive flames flying through the sky. The first of 300 missiles had been intercepted. I raced downstairs shaking and everyone headed to the bomb shelter. Everyone was terrified because the situation was unlike any other airstrike we had experienced that year, which are not normal words by the way. The situation was unlike any other airstrike we experienced that year. That's not words a girl in seminary should ever put in an email. We're used to airstrikes, but this one was different. This one was unusual. The only words that came to my mind were בטחו בה' עדי עד, בטחו בה' עדי עד. Have faith in Hashem. We were completely and totally in the hands of Hashem. I started humming the song by Baruch Levine and slowly everyone picked up on it until we were 15 girls in a bomb shelter singing over and over affirming that we were completely at the mercy of the Melech Malchei HaMelachim. And I'll tell you this, I promise you, I promise you for this author, this young wonderful young lady, that experience of singing בטחו בה' עדי עד, בטחו בה' עדי עד over and over again with 15 girls in a bomb shelter with explosions overhead, I promise you was the most impactful moment more than any shiur, any rabbi, any mechaneches in any classroom of that entire year of seminary. I don't want to say I'll stop short of saying I'm jealous of her, but I will tell you, we had a daughter in seminary in Israel during Corona and that was just miserable and difficult and separated and plastic, it was just annoying and difficult and they were deprived of the year they could have and should have had. And we have a daughter there now in this year and what a year to be there. Yes, is it more complicated? Yes, is it difficult to go travel to certain places? Yes, has it been hard to navigate at times the year? But but it's a year she will never ever forget. The volunteering and the going and the doing and the experiences and even the bomb shelters that she too had to run into. So just that image, that image, started humming the song, I'm going to send this to we should send it to Baruch Levine, בטחו בה' עדי עד, 15 girls, slowly everyone picks up on it and there they are, completely at the mercy of the Melech Malchei HaMelachim. At this point I realized my flight was not taking off anytime soon. It was first postponed and then canceled. The flight was then pushed off to the following Sunday, erev erev..."
*Wait, "bitchu b'Hashem adei ad" is 4 words.*
1. Bitchu
2. b'Hashem
3. adei
4. ad
Spelling: בטחו בה' עדי עד.
*Wait, "Melech Malchei HaMelachim" is 3 words.*
1. Melech
2. Malchei
3. HaMelachim
Transliteration: `Melech Malchei HaMelachim`.
*Wait, "Rav Moshe Shapiro" is 3 words.*
1. Rav
2. Moshe
3. Shapiro
Transliteration: `Rav Moshe Shapiro`.
*Wait, "shtickel patch" is 2 words.*
1. shtickel
2. patch
Transliteration: `shtickel patch`.
*Wait, "hakaras hatov" is 2 words.*
1. hakaras
2. hatov
Transliteration: `hakaras hatov`.
*Wait, "Motzei Shabbos" is 2 words.*
1. Motzei
2. Shabbos
Transliteration: `Motzei Shabbos`.
*Wait, "erev erev" is 2 words.*
1. erev
2. erev
Transliteration: `erev erev`.
*Wait, "Eretz Yisrael" is 2 words.*
1. Eretz
2. Yisrael
Transliteration: `Eretz Yisrael`.
*Wait, "Baruch Levine" is 2 words.*
1. Baruch
2. Levine
Transliteration: `Baruch Levine`.
*Wait, "shiur" is 1 word.*
1. shiur
Transliteration: `shiur`.
*Wait, "Hashem" is 1 word.*
1. Hashem
Transliteration: `Hashem`.
*Wait, "shliach" is 1 word.*
1. shliach
Transliteration: `shliach`.
*Wait, "hashgacha" is 1 word.*
1. hashgacha
Transliteration: `hashgacha`.
*Wait, "Pesach" is 1 word.*
1. Pesach
Transliteration: `Pesach`.
*Wait, "mechaneches" is 1 word.*
1. mechaneches
Transliteration: `mechaneches`.
*Wait, "Rabbi G." - G is English.*
*Wait, "blah blah blah" - English.*
*Wait, "care de ba ba ba" - nonsense sounds.*
*Wait, "Iranian" - English.*
*Wait, "April" - English.*
*Wait, "Sunday" - English.*
*Wait, "Corona" - English.*
*Wait, "plastic" - English.*
*Wait, "missiles" - English.*
*Wait, "war" - English.*
*Wait, "airplanes" - English.*
*Wait, "airports" - English.*
*Wait, "seminary" - English.*
*Wait, "suitcase" - English.*
*Wait, "bomb shelter" - English.*
*Wait, "airstrike" - English.*
*Wait, "boom" - English.*
*Wait, "flames" - English.*
*Wait, "sky" - English.*
*Wait, "intercepted" - English.*
*Wait, "terrified" - English.*
*Wait, "unusual" - English.*
*Wait, "impactful" - English.*
*Wait, "classroom" - English.*
*Wait, "jealous" - English.*
*Wait, "miserable" - English.*
*Wait, "deprived" - English.*
*Wait, "complicated" - English.*
*Wait, "navigate" - English.*
*Wait, "volunteering" - English.*
*Wait, "image" - English.*
*Wait, "mercy" - English.*
*Wait, "postponed" - English.*
*Wait, "canceled" - English.*
*Wait, "pushed off" - English.*
*Wait, "following" - English.*
*Wait, "scheduled" - English.*
*Wait, "advance" - English.*
*Wait, "discovered" - English.*
*Wait, "imagined" - English.*
*Wait, "typical" - English.*
*Wait, "situation" - English.*
*Wait, "express" - English.*
*Wait, "inspiring" - English.*
*Wait, "incredible" - English.*
*Wait, "learning" - English.*
* Both my parents and I were worried the flight would not work out, I would miss Pesach with my family. Therefore, on Wednesday five PM I got a phone call from my father that they had gotten me a flight three thirty AM. I had to leave soon to the airport to be there. I quickly gathered my things, said goodbye for the second time and head to the airport. For reasons only Hashem knows after waiting on line to check in for over four hours, I was denied entry to the flight. The agency through which we booked the ticket never paid the airline, so they never reserved the ticket. At this point I was exhausted, in tears, I didn't understand why Hashem would send me to the airport only to be sent right back. It was hard enough for me to be leaving Eretz Yisrael and each time I tried to leave just made it even harder. In spite of all this I knew I still had a flight for Sunday even though it was risky. On my way back to seminary, my flight for Sunday was cancelled. I was officially stuck in Israel. On Friday my parents managed to book a thirty hour flight to Athens, then to Newark, then from Newark to Orlando. After tearfully and nervously saying goodbye to my friends and the Kotel for the third time, I went to the airport six hours early to make sure I got my flight. Chasdei Hashem I made it. I can't even remember the first flight, I was so exhausted mentally and physically, it's a hazy dream in my memory. On my second flight, I put in my AirPods and listened to the Living with Emuna podcast and I was shocked to my core. The episode I put on to listen to was titled A Yid is Never Stuck. The whole week I seemingly stuck in Eretz Yisrael people kept asking me, how come you're not freaking out, you have no way home, yet somehow I remained so calm. I drew upon the incredible strength and Emuna through the podcast these months, I knew that Hashem has put me there, He loves me there. Whole situation was too crazy not to be min hashamayim. Obviously I would not have chosen it for myself, apparently this is the exact place I needed to be. I listened to the whole episode feeling so at peace. A Yid is never stuck. He is exactly where he needs to be. Whether it's in four different airports over the course of thirty hours or Eretz Yisrael not a bad place to be stuck. If you are there, that is exactly where you have a Tafkid to achieve. Thank Rabbi Goldberg, blah blah blah, may we have a speedier return with no travel complications to Eretz Hakodesha with the coming of Mashiach. Thank you and signed this girl. Wow, beautiful, no? The imagery and the application of it to real life and again, each of these emails I share because they are just demonstrations of people who in complicated moments kept calm, just lean into that Emuna. And as I always say, because what's the alternative to it? What's the alternative? Panicking, getting angry, getting anxious? Never made a plane take off. Never made a spouse safe and come home. Never made things simple. So what alternative is there other than saying I do all my effort, I called the travel agent, I thought we booked the flight, we did everything we're supposed to do, and the rest let go and let God is not in my hands, it's up to Him. And now with Emuna, you're along for the adventure and you're along for the ride and we'll find out and figure out what happens now. What happens next? But we're never stuck. A Yid, a Jew is never stuck, we're always where we are meant to be. One more quick email then back into Rav Moshe Shapiro. Hello Rabbi Goldberg, I started listening to the Living with Emuna after October seventh, at which time I was looking for some Chizuk and a friend recommended a particular episode. Since then I tune in every week, thank you. Since I was in school I've been taught that Emuna, but I have to thank all those who write into the Shiur with their Emuna emails, and seeing the practical applications across so many types of scenarios helped me try to create the frame of mind to have more Emuna in my day to day life, even in small things. So there it is, a public official endorsement, keep sending the emails. That's what makes the difference. The email everything we share is theoretical. It's when they read the emails that here's a person in a situation we could relate to, we sometimes could find ourselves in, here's how you get through it. The email I'm sending you now is one of those small day to day things I was glad to be able to apply what I learned from hearing so many of the emails written to you. Baruch Hashem, my daughter was born a couple of months after a few years of having difficulty. For some reason her Social Security card, which was automatically filed for the hospital, never came in the mail. After speaking with Social Security and with the hospital I was told there was no way to track it, I need to go into the Social Security office to get a new one. I did the application online to save time and carefully looked over the documents were needed to bring physically in person when I would go there. I showed up there today and being that I had never been to a Social Security office to my recollection, I realized it's very similar to the DMV. You sit and you wait and you wait and you wait. We call that a form of punishment. It's you know, if you want a picture what Gehennom will be like in the next world, it's not that different than the DMV. I had recently been inspired to sever the degree of relationship I have with my smartphone and downloaded an app that blocks a few of my other apps, namely WhatsApp, email and text for specific hours of the day that I choose. I realized I had not brought anything with me besides my phone and those apps were blocked. I'm glad they were as I probably would have sat and just looked at messages or videos for that time. Instead, I pulled up Tehillim from a website on my phone. And although I felt a little strange being seen whispering to myself by all the people around me, I pushed myself to do it as I remembered learning that the Friediker Rav had said that if people only knew the power of Tehillim they would never put it down. Anyway the time passed and after a very long while, a lot of Tehillim, I was finally called up to the window. Despite my thinking I had everything all sorted out, the lady behind the counter apologetically... The lady behind the counter apologetically let me know the document I had for the medical record was not sufficient, and I needed something stamped by my daughter's current doctor. That meant I'd need to come back, start from scratch and wait again. Before this I think I would have been very frustrated, probably would have complained to a bunch of friends about the inconvenience or waste of time. But as this happened this time I said to myself Hashem orchestrated this exactly how it was supposed to be. It seems an extra hour plus of Tehillim was needed for the world. Or someone at the office needed to see my saying Psalms and think differently about Jews. Or maybe I was able to make a Kiddush Hashem to the woman behind the counter by not venting my frustration to her and remaining pleasant. I don't know, but either way I took it in stride and I credit my presence of mind to that from listening to the shiur and hearing those other emails. Right, so isn't that beautiful? I probably would not have reacted the same. Instead of lashing out, instead of getting angry, instead of what do you mean, instead of can I speak to a manager, I'm sure something can be done, instead of all that, saying okay, what positive? Why was I meant to be here? The world needed those Tehillim, someone needed to see me saying it, I needed to make this Kiddush Hashem. As I drove home I thought to myself I would email you about this and then thought, what a wonderful ending to the story would be if the original social security card suddenly showed up in my mailbox today. I pulled up at home, looked in my mailbox, and it wasn't there. But the realization then hit me, that makes for an even better ending. As you often say, the strength of Emuna comes the most when we don't see the clear outcome, the aha moment. Even though this was a really small example, I was glad to be able to have practiced applying what I had learned, thank you. So again, those are the emails I love, not the and it all worked out and it was perfect and Hashem had a plan and everything's amazing and thank you, but the yeah, it's still frustrating and super annoying and I gotta go back to the social security office and still I realize it was all from Hashem. Those are the best emails, not the aha moments, not then I came home to find it in my mailbox. So thank you for those who write the emails, please continue if you have a moment, big or small. And I love that the office also point out that these are not the biggest things in the scheme of things. There are people facing life and death, people waiting for fertility and for shidduchim and for all kinds of things and getting stuck in Israel for Pesach would be complicated, not the worst thing, not a disaster. One couldn't call it a disaster. Having to go back to the social security office, super annoying, but very far from a catastrophe and a crisis. And yet it's Emuna in those small moments, because Baruch Hashem and Im Yirtzeh Hashem the catastrophes and crises do not happen to us, shouldn't happen to us, but the minor frustrations happen to all of us. So when we hear those emails about how to navigate and find strength even for the minor frustrations, those do happen to absolutely all of us. And I don't know, I take such chizuk from that email, to have the presence of mind to walk out of that office and say, instead of I can't believe I wasted this time, this was so miserable, I'm so frustrated, I'm so angry, this is where I was meant to be. Here are a couple of ideas I have of why maybe I was meant to be there, and even if for some other reason, I just move on, there's nothing frustrating about it, it's where I was meant to be. They should have a sign at every doctor's office: you're not waiting and you're not stuck, you're where you're meant to be. Yeah, I don't think that would go over so well. But imagine, that would be great. Should play the Emuna shiur in the waiting room of doctors' offices with a sign: you're not waiting or stuck, you're where you're meant to be. Okay, back to Re'eh Emuna, the incredible sefer of the thirteen principles of faith, the Ikkarei Emuna, where the introduction here of Moshe Shapiro has been walking us through what is emes and what is emuna. The theme that we've been building on. Emes is the fact that Hashem exists, He's the source of all, He's running the world, and that fact doesn't care about your feelings, it doesn't need your belief, it doesn't need you to care. That's emes, it's true whether you acknowledge it or not. Emuna is applying it. Emuna is these emails that we're reading. Emuna is walking out of the social security office, walking out of the airport for the third time and through four different countries. That's emuna, putting it into practice. So we last left off: emuna is the chibur leGan Eden. Living with a sense of emuna, demonstrating and putting into practice is the connection to the Garden of Eden. The Gemara in Shabbos taught us: if you answer Amen bechol kocho. Amen. To answer Amen with all of your energy and all of your effort, all of your effort. Don't let people around you get away with making a bracha quietly or whispering it or swallowing it. Make them say it out loud so you could say Amen. Ditto, I affirm, I believe, I agree, I acknowledge. And when a person does, not some amen, but Amen bechol kocho, focus and attentive Amen from the word Emuna. I affirm, I believe, I care, I see Him around me. Yes, He's in that cup of coffee and He's in that... the dinner or the lunch that we're sharing, he's in that whatever brocha that you're making, the Asher yatzar that you successfully came out of the bathroom, that Baruch Hashem your digestive system is miraculously working, that the human body, which is the very greatest most complicated factory that's ever been a factory that's ever been assembled, which the brocha of Asher yatzar says I won't take it for granted. Going to the bathroom is annoying, it's a great equalizer, doesn't matter how wealthy or poor, how smart or stupid, everybody needs to do it, it's part of being a human being, it's needing to eliminate what you ate, and yet when it works right and properly, when you function, make a brocha, Asher yatzar, and answer Amen. Baruch Hashem, I'm so grateful, I'm so glad, what a miracle that the factory did what it needs to do, it's holding on to the nutrients, it's releasing the waste. Wow, what a factory, it's absolutely incredible. When you answer Amen b'chol kocho, it opens the gate to Gan Eden, which Rav Moshe Shapiro pointed out means the gate to Gan Eden is ordinarily locked. If you need a key to unlock it, it's ordinarily locked, and what's the key to unlock it? Answering Amen with all of our effort. U've'ur hainyan, we'll start again from there. It's the middle paragraph on page chaf bais. We put the copy in the Emunah WhatsApp group if you want to follow along in line and you're watching or listening live or later. האמת מצד עצמו מוגבלת עד כמה השגה יש בה, עד כמה שאדם מבין, כך הדברים ברורים ומסודרים אצלו, אבל מי שמאמין באמת, הרי התוספת הזאת של האמונה על ידיעת השכל, מחברת אותו למעלה ממה שאמת נתפסת אצלו. If you're engaging your intellect, you're limited by your intellect. We're not all created equal. Some people have greater IQ, greater memory, greater analytical ability. Not all intellects are created equal. So something that's being approached only through the prism of intellect is limited by that person's intellect. But when you leave the realm of intellect and now you go to the realm of Emunah, of practice, of feeling, of connection, it's limitless. It's limitless. The degree to which you manifest and execute and practice and demonstrate and feel and connect, everyone's capable of all. האמת משתרשת רק עד היכן שאדם מכיר ומשיג, אך על ידי אמונה אדם תוקע עצמו למציאות הרבה יותר גבוהה. The emes, the fact, God's existence, the evidence, the proofs, the analysis, the intellectual approach, that's all limited by your intellect, what you're reading, who the teacher is, what data set, what facts you're looking at, what evidence you're studying, all of that limits it and keeps the emes down here or makes the emes relative to where you're holding. But the Emunah, oh, you could go flying up and flying higher and flying past where the emes leaves you. Because when you sit and you watch that sunrise, last Friday we had the most magnificent, once a month we meet, gazebo at the end of Palmetto Park Road, we look over the ocean. Erev Shabbos Mevarchim every month. It was early last week, 6:10 AM we began, and it might have been our nicest. The beach was empty, there was a cool breeze, there was the sky, no clouds, and first you saw oranges and yellows and purples, and then right on cue, exactly, exactly when it was supposed to come, we say in Kiddush Levana שלא ישנו את תפקידם, that the natural world, the constellations, the stars, the moon, the sun, שלא ישנו את תפקידם, they never late. They come exactly on time. You could look up now what time the sun will rise in a thousand years from now, and whatever time it says it will come up, it doesn't have excuses, it never comes late. Every month we go and every month I see this and every month I'm blown away. That's so cool. It says sunrise is exactly this second, and taka the sun rose exactly that second. That's so amazing. And we are supposed to be, that's in Kiddush Levana what we say, imitate and emulate, be like those natural phenomena that are on time. There's no excuses, they don't run late, they do their job, they fulfill their mission, and the sun comes up and it's magnificent. And in that moment when you're hearing the waves and you're looking out at the ocean and you're seeing that sun come up and the sky is turning colors and you're feeling that breeze on your neck and you say, wow, Hashem, I feel your presence, it makes sense. And you're looking as far as you can see where the ocean meets the sky, we'll be waiting, and you connect to Hashem in that moment and you feel, wow. That's much greater than sitting in a classroom studying the Bible codes. If you're sitting in a classroom hearing the evidence for God's existence, St. Thomas Aquinas' first cause argument, you're going through all the evidence and you're going through all of the, all of the philosophy, that keeps you as good as the teacher, how much of the evidence and how smart you are. But when you're sitting on that gazebo you're overlooking, or whatever moment in our lives that you have felt the presence of Hashem, like the rabbi who called me when he got back in the car. That is so much more accessible, that's so much greater. He's koneh beShaarei Kedusha שאדם שונה מכל הברואים בזה שהוא נמצא אך ורק באותה מערכת מציאות שעשה היצור לעצמו בדעתו. אם הוא יוצר לו מציאות שקר, זהו עולמו, והוא נמצא בהעדר. ואם יוצר לו מציאות של אמת, הרי שאלו הם חייו. We create a world for ourselves. What we look at, what we think, how we experience the world around us. We could look at the world through sheker or through emet. Think about that. If you don't know what that means, just think about what Israel's going through right now. Just think about right now. There is a whole world of our enemies who've created an alternative reality based on lies. And how many even well-meaning people now have pivoted to live in this alternative reality of lies? And that's the loneliness that we all feel. Jews and people who love Israel feel so lone because how could so many good and decent people have pivoted and moved and migrated to this alternative reality, this world that's built on lies instead of truth? It's so frustrating and it's so lonely and it's so painful, it's so painful. But there are worlds, there's reality—we have this in some of our relationships—there's reality and then there's some people's alternative reality. That's a frustrating part of relationships. It's part of the healing that has to happen sometimes in counseling, in marriages, in parenting, in business partnerships is that you're in an alternative reality. People through a prism of sheker, if they put on glasses of lies and distortions, they could live in an alternative reality. They misremember events. They misattribute and project motive. They live in an alternative reality to the reality of what happened. That's the capacity of man, is that we create, we're meyatzar, we create for ourselves the world the way we view it. If you listen to Behind the Bima that we posted today, a Yom Yerushalayim edition of Behind the Bima, we interview Matti Dan, who is the founder and chairman of Ateret Kohanim who's placed hundreds and hundreds of families throughout the Old City and throughout Har HaZeitim, the Mount of Olives and he's redeeming Yerushalayim. He's a hero. He's one of the incredible people Matti Dan. It's well worth listening. But in the introduction to it, we talk about, Rabbi Brody, Rabbi Moskowitz and I, our staff meeting where we all took personality tests, Myers-Briggs and the results and what we learned about ourselves and learned about each other and personality tests. It's fascinating. I mean, our conversation I think is fascinating, but the personality tests are absolutely fascinating. It's eye-opening. I think that in fact we should start a revolution. Shidduch resumes shouldn't talk about where your siblings are working or who they're married to or whether your mother wears a Shabbos robe to the table or all kinds of nonsense. The shidduch resume should list your Myers-Briggs personality result. I'm an ENTJ. What's your Myers-Briggs? And that's a person should go in knowing. It should list your love language, Chapman's Love Languages. It should list your personality test. You want to really understand compatibility, that's what it should list. That's what it should list. So people approach the world, we are designed to approach the world very, very differently. And sometimes in the case of personality tests, it's not right or wrong or superior or inferior, it's just different. And the more you understand it and learn about it, the better you can navigate. But sometimes it's not just different. There are people in worlds of lies. They have no self-awareness. They believe their own lies they tell themselves. They're living in an alternative reality altogether, altogether. כל הברואים נמצאים במקום שבו הקדוש ברוך הוא שם שמם. All creation, all creatures are living in a world that Hashem placed us. מלבד האדם שנברא בצלם אלוקים כדי שהוא יברא לעצמו את עולמו. So the cat and the dog and the mouse and the cockroach and the iguana, Hashem deposited them in the world and they have no say and they're not—they don't have a vision of the world. They're not creating their own world within the world. This is just the world. They need to eat, they need to survive, maybe they procreate, they need to climb the tree, if it gets cold they need to fall out of the tree. They need to do whatever they do, they're designed and programmed to do and they do it automatically just like the sun comes up on time. But human beings are unique. Human beings are distinct. Hashem didn't just deposit us in His world. Hashem deposited us in His world and said, now go create your world within My world. We all have our own world within His world. What's our world? What's our worldview? What's our perspective? How do we experience, how do we remember? What's our world? What's our world? ואותה מציאות שהוא בנה לעצמו שהוא What is the world that we've created? How do I view the world? How do I experience the world? How do I interact with the world? How do I remember the world? יש כאן דבר שקשה להבינו. איך יתכן שאדם יזכה בגן עדן? So there's something that's hard to understand. How can a person merit Gan Eden? כיצד יוכל להגיע לדרגת קיום גבוהה יותר מהקיום שהוא מכיר ומבין? So what do you mean? I live and I'm bound by this world. And this world in the here and now, the physical and material world I operate and I live in. How can I from here get entrance, how do I unlock that door, how do I gain entry into Gan Eden, into the Garden of Eden? I'm bound by and I'm limited by the here and now. הרי אין לו כל קשר למציאות שהיא מעבר לו. I don't know what it's like to be on the moon because I'm not on the moon. I'm right down on earth. So don't talk to me about walking on the moon, walking without gravity, being elsewhere. I'm here, I'm here on the, I'm here on earth. התשובה נמצאת בסוד האמונה. Says Rav Moshe Shapiro, the answer can be found where? In emuna. המאמין מוצא עצמו מהמציאות הצרה שבה הוא נמצא. It's unbelievable. This image, this exercise, this is everyone's homework. Till next time. Next time is not next week. Why? Shavuos. Because next Wednesday morning is Shavuos. We'll be together in shul, im yirtzeh Hashem. But not for the emuna shiur. We'll be walking, living, and talking and practicing emuna and celebrating Kabbalas HaTorah. It'll be at the mountain together. Can't wait to stand at the mountain together with you and to be healed. All of us will miraculously be healed physically, emotionally, spiritually to be at the mountain, united and healed and re-receiving the Torah and getting our mission. Can't wait. It's going to be amazing. But this is your exercise. You get two weeks to do it. This is your homework. And the homework is what Rav Moshe Shapiro says. You know what emuna does? Emuna allows you to go to 30,000 feet and look down. Emuna allows you to have a virtual reality tour. Virtual reality. You'll say, how could I know the Beis HaMikdash? I was never in it. How do I know the Beis HaMikdash, the Temple? I was never there. So today, I didn't do it, but I understand the Southern Wall, there's a virtual reality thing. You can go, you put on the goggles, you walk, you look, you go, you touch, you interact, and ke'ilu you're there. So now you put on these goggles and a place that was beyond your wildest dreams, that maybe you could learn and read and study but you couldn't experience, ein domeh shemiah lereiyah, you can't compare hearing and seeing. So you'll say, but I didn't see it. I wasn't alive when it was destroyed. I was never in it. I don't understand what it looks like. I never experienced it with my senses. And now, thanks to virtual reality, you could put on goggles and you could be in the Beis HaMikdash. You could look around and you could see and you could feel and you could understand the distances and the dimensions and the avoda, the service that happened there. Says Rav Moshe Shapiro, you say, how can I go to Gan Eden? How can I look at this world through the prism of emuna as a matrix of Hashem's providence? But I'm just a human being, I'm physical, I'm mere mortal, and therefore I'm operating in the here and now. The answer is, emuna are the virtual reality glasses every human being could wear. Emuna are the virtual reality glasses. Put on and see the world differently. Don't see the world the way you created it. Don't see the world limited by your finite vision. Don't see the world distorted and perverted and like a silly mirror. בין אם מבינים או לא, whether we understand it or not, lesham hu shayach. כל זמן שאדם נמצא רק בתוך מה שהוא משיג ומכיר ויודע. Turn the page. As long as a person is limited and bound by only what they understand and only what they can see and only what they can measure and only what they can observe, הרי זה תחום צר וקטן. So if you're in the Social Security office and all you see is this miserable person behind the counter who miserably reported the miserable news that you have the miserable wrong form, and all you see is the long line, the long wait, the frustration, the aggravation, that's all you see. That's the world you live in. That's the experience and that's all you see. But if you put on the emuna glasses and now you look around and you see, oh, there's someone who needed to see me saying Tehillim. Oh, there's someone who needed to see me make a Kiddush Hashem. Oh, now I see that there are soldiers going into a home, a building in Rafah, who my Tehillim in the Social Security office in America just helped keep them safe, just helped them avoid that booby-trapped home, just helped that other enemy's gun jam. My... how do you see that? But we live only here and now. All I see is the counter and the form and the delay and the wait and the frustration. The answer is, put on... on the virtual goggles, the virtual reality of Emunah, and live and experience the world all together differently. כדי שאדם יגיע למקום שאינו מסוגל כעת להשיג. It'll get you to a point that right now you can't see. הרי זה רק בכוח האמונה. The only way to see it is the power of Emunah. Get those goggles, get those glasses, put them on and see the world differently. See the world differently. See the airport experiences and the Social Security office and the minor frustrations in our home and with our spouses and with our families and at work and in life. ומובן שהשכר של עניית אמן שפותחת שערי גן עדן and now we understand that the reward for answering Amen is unlocking the gates of Gan Eden. אותם השערים שנסגרו בפני אדם הראשון כאשר גורש מגן עדן. בגן עדן היה אדם בגדולתו. In Gan Eden, in the Garden of Eden, man was in all of his glory. Man was fulfilling his potential. In the Garden of Eden, man saw Hashem everywhere. But what happened? We didn't merit, we didn't earn, we weren't worthy to stay there. We were kicked out. We were expelled. We were pushed out. So now what happens? We were cast into a world where it's hard to see Him anywhere. How do we get back to that place of Gan Eden? How do we get back to a place and a mentality and a mindset and a perspective and a world where we can see Him everywhere? כאשר חטא הקדוש ברוך הוא הניח לו ידו מידו וגרשו מגן עדן אדם הנמצא במצב הנמוך שלו כאן בעולם הזה יכול לחזור להתחבר עם גדולתו בכוחו של אמונה. You know how you unlock Gan Eden? You know how you get back there? Through answering Amen bechol kocho. When you live with Emunah. So the status and the state that we once had that we lost because we were cast out and exiled and we were expelled from Gan Eden and now we're put in a world of lies and distortions, material and physical, temptation, distraction, so hard to navigate. How do we get back? How do we open the gates of Gan Eden? Answer Amen bechol kocho, practice Emunah with all of our effort, with all of our effort. So we can be like the authors of the email. We can live, you could live life in one of two ways. You could live your life where everything just happens, random chance, it just happened, or you could live life where every day you say, was there something today I could write an email to the Emunah shiur about? Live life that every day you say, was there something today? I got the parking spot, I happened to pick up the perfect shiur to listen to, my child, my spouse, at work, this thing in the world at large. Every day look for that email you could write based on that day, that thing that worked out. That's what it means to put on those virtual reality glasses and goggles to see the world in that way and makes the world and life so much more pleasant, so much more bearable, so much more manageable, so much more harmony and peace, so much more health and wellness, it makes life and the world so much better. So happy Yom Yerushalayim, shetihye besoros tovos. On this Yom Yerushalayim, we should see Yerushalayim rebuilt to its fullness, to its completion, in all of its glory. Our hostages should be home, soldiers return to their families in Israel and elsewhere, and come home healthy and having a sweeping victory over our enemies.
