Transcript
Good morning, Boker Tov, welcome back to Living with Emuna. So excited, grateful, glad to be back together and resuming. I need my Emuna fix, so it's good to be back together learning again. I want to thank as always our amazing series sponsors, Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, who just observed his fifth Yahrtzeit on Erev Tisha B'av, and in memory of her mother Dr. Ellen Schanzer. Incredibly grateful to them. Today's shiur is also sponsored by the Sadowsky family lilui nishmas Rabbi Gershon ben Aaron Sadowsky נשמה שתהא לו עלייה and by the Felder family in memory of חיים שמעון בן יוסף, a Holocaust survivor who spent his days educating youth about the Yad Hashem and the Emuna he found in the darkest places. נשמה שתהא לו עלייה as well. I really, I'm so conflicted because Baruch Hashem over the last several weeks that we haven't had shiur, I got so many emails and I love them and they're amazing and I collect them and I read them and they inspire me. You didn't get them, but I got them, so I had an Emuna shiur each time I looked at my inbox. Every email that I got is an example and application of what we're learning, which is really the greatest way of learning, is seeing other people live it, learning it and living it. Emes ve'Emuna, it's exactly the theme that we've been focused on. The Emes is that Hashem, there's a Ribbono Shel Olam, there's a creator of the universe. The Emuna is our putting it into practice. And so when we share with each other these stories and we reinforce and we're mechazek and we lift each other, we take the Emes, that which was in theory, and we put it in Emuna. That's what these emails are really about. So I'm conflicted. I could spend all morning sitting here reading to you these emails. I'm trying to choose a few, we'll keep more for next week and we'll get more in, and keep writing even if we don't get a chance to share, but when you share it with me, it makes the world of difference to me. But even before we get to the emails, I want to share with you yesterday on Tisha B'av, we had the opportunity to interview and to speak to and to listen to a modern-day Kina. We spent all morning reading Kinos and we reviewed and reflected on the tragedies of the past and how the destruction of the Batei Mikdash, the Churban, Hashem withdrew his countenance, his intense presence. In the Beis HaMikdash, Yerushalayim, the Vilna Gaon says that when the Beis HaMikdash stood, you walked through Yerushalayim, you couldn't help but smile, you couldn't help but be happy. And if you had doubt and uncertainty, you went to the Beis HaMikdash, a place where there were ten daily miracles and it reaffirmed and reconfirmed your belief, your faith, your submission to Hashem. And it didn't necessarily make your illness go away and it didn't necessarily bring that baby and it didn't necessarily make everything better, but it made us have the strength and the tools to be able to navigate that complicated world and to be able to accept that everything is for a reason, nothing is random or chance. And therefore as hard as it is, believe there is a higher, a higher being and a higher purpose and a higher cause. And the absence of that Beis HaMikdash put us and thrust us into these 2000 years that are a world of doubt and a world of uncertainty and a world of confusion and a world of chaos and a world of godlessness. I saw it only after Tisha B'av last night but an article that is talking about the rapid decline of faith in God in America and the rapid decline in association and identification with religious institutions and religious practice. And this world is increasingly absent God. It's godless, not godly, and it's therefore filled in that vacuum with so much moral chaos or immoral chaos. It's godless and that is all Churban. I know it's the 10th of Av and everyone's just waiting for Chatzos to jump in the pool and fire up the barbeque and put on the and put on the music and yell at their husband to shave. I know we're getting close to Chatzos, but we're still allowed to talk about Churban even the day after Tisha B'av. You're still allowed to talk about it because it's still here because we still wake up to the uncertainty of if and when enemies will attack and we're still a Shiva taking place for a lone soldier yesterday and so there's still Churban that's happening. All this was Churban, was the absence, the loss of, of the Beis HaMikdash. So we said Kina in order to reflect and realize that from the destruction of the two Batei Mikdash through the Crusades and the Inquisition and pogroms and the Holocaust and the expulsions, it is all because of the Siluk HaShechina, Hashem withdrawing his countenance, his divine providence and protection from this world. That's why it's here. But the most poignant Kina that we read or heard was not a Kina about the past but a Kina about the present. And that was Sapir Cohen and her brother Aviv who came yesterday and spoke. Sapir was on October 7th when went to be with her boyfriend with his family for Simchas Torah and they were and they were kidnapped from the, I think it was Nir Oz, Nachal Oz, Nir Oz. Nir Oz. And taken back. You may have seen this picture of she was taken on a motorcycle with a terrorist in front and behind her and all video of arriving in Gaza and the innocent civilians cheering and beating and groping her. And she spent 55 days in captivity. Some above ground, many in the tunnels. tunnels, interacting, overlapping actually with Sinwar yimach shemo vezichro. She shared the entire story, I don't need to repeat it right now, and if you want to hear that interview you could find it because we streamed it and it's still on our YouTube page. Why am I bringing it up in the Emunah shiur? Because she said something that was to me—forget the—not forget, the emails are amazing, no offense to any email authors. The emails are amazing. But what she said, what she did, who would have the mindset to do? This is a woman who did not grow up religious and observant, who for whatever reason had some premonition something was going to happen to her 30 days before October 7th. On her Instagram saw something that said if you say תהילים פרק כז Chapter 27 30 days straight, then Hashem will take care of you. So she decided to say it, and the 30th day was October 7th. She continued to say it and continues to say it and has tremendous Emunah, tremendous faith. And while she was in captivity, with we don't want to imagine how she was treated and what she endured, and being denied and deprived food and being tormented by the terrorists who held her, by her captors, she decided, she said when she was first there she kept thinking to herself, you know, why did we go for the Chag? I should have listened to him that we shouldn't have gone. Why did I hide there? I could have hidden in a different place. And instead of deciding instead of to be a passive victim, instead of blaming herself, instead of reliving what got her there, she made the decision. She said, if Hashem put me here, I'm not stuck, I'm here for a reason, I have a mission. It's unbelievable. It's one thing when we talk about feeling that at the terminal when the flight was delayed and the flight was cancelled, it's another when you're being held hostage in Gaza by the most wicked, evil terrorists and you decide that a Yid is never stuck, a Jew is wherever they're meant to be. And she shifted her entire approach. And she was held captive with a teenage girl, she decided, and who was much more hopeless and helpless, and she said my whole job here is to help her and to make sure she gets out of here. And I don't need to belabor—you could go listen to the conversation—what she did, and that girl got out also. What she did and her whole attitude, when they were being taken to the tunnels, this girl was panicked and hopeless. How could it be? And she said to the girl, what do you mean? We're in Gaza. You have to see the biggest attraction. The biggest attraction in Gaza is the tunnels. Let's go. So exciting. She changed her whole mindset. Wherever we are we're meant to be, and this is what it's all about, and this is where Hashem placed me and I'm going to make the most of it. And her story—and we daven for the other 115 hostages that their story, those who are living, because we know among them already not all the 115, that their story also has an ending of being reunited with their family. And if you want to know where she gets it from, she shared that her mother would have Tehillim at her home the whole time she was missing. Her friends would come and then they would cry and they'd be sad and she'd put on music and say there's no sadness in this house, only positive energy because Sapir is going to come home. And they would ask her mother, how do you have that attitude? And her mother said when she saw that picture she said, what do you mean? My daughter is an actress, this is a movie, she has the key role. And sitting in front of her and behind her on that motorcycle, those are the—those are the extras, those are the side actors. And this is a movie and you know who the director is? The director is Hashem. So you wonder where she got that Emunah. So you talk about a burst of Emunah, a woman who went through—held hostage 55 days and shifted her thinking. And if she can do it, every one of us can do it. Wherever we are and whatever we're going through and however stuck we feel, to say you know what? And she describes that even though she was held in captivity she had freedom. I should save this for Pesach. Even though she was held in captivity she had freedom. We're free when we realize that Hashem is in charge, He's in control. When we surrender and submit to Him. When we realize that I can't control necessarily my whereabouts and my food intake, I can't control my time, but when I control my attitude and my perspective, then I'm free. Then I'm free. And no captive and no terrorist can take that away. When I realize I'm in a relationship with Hashem and He put me here and there's something for me to do while I'm here. So it was outrageously, outstandingly inspiring. And think about it and tap into it. And next time every one of us are in that traffic. Yocheved and I were on a vacation and our driver in the car, I think I posted this in the group. If you're not in our WhatsApp group join it, we're going to be more active and sharing bonus material and extra things and obviously our schedule, which may be erratic over the summer because thank God there are many many Simchas to be traveling to. We should only be Simchas that we're traveling to. So this driver had in her windshield there was a sticker and as you look out the windshield it says, be positive. So I asked her why, why did you put that sticker? She said, because I'm always on edge, I'm always running and doing and every time the person in front of me was driving slowly I was going crazy, and every time the light would turn green and they didn't go right away I'd go crazy. So now when I look out the windshield, just be positive. Be positive. And we look out the windshield of our lives and be positive. Look at the windshield of life, whatever's in the road that lays ahead with whatever it will bring and realize wherever it takes us we're not stuck, it's where we're meant to be. And if Sapir could think that, and we daven for Sasha, her boyfriend Alexander Sasha ben Lina Leah, who is still in captivity, that he be free with everyone else. But if she could change that mindset, so can we. A couple more emails and then we dive back into the beautiful Torah of Rav Moshe Shapiro. Hello Rabbi Goldberg. Well, I have succeeded. I am now a true member of living with emuna. Why? Because I got a flight not just delayed but canceled. Perhaps it's Hashem telling me I shouldn't be traveling during the nine days. Whatever the reason I first got angry as I was traveling via subway to the airport as I came to just to visit and spend an hour and a half traveling on the subway. Then I said wow, thank you Hashem for having my sister and brother-in-law being so helpful and giving me an amazing place to stay. Thank you Hashem for having my sister call me wanting to call the airline to get a new flight while I take the subway back to her. Thank you Hashem for having me not be able to find the third bus which would have taken me to the airport so I would still be at the subway station when I found out about the cancellation. Thank you Hashem for having me take the subway for although it's a long time had I taken an Uber I'd be paying ninety dollars versus the six dollars. Thank you Hashem for although I don't know the exact reason He's saying that for whatever reason it is not safe for me to go on that flight and that He wants me in New York for one more day. I'm sitting back, letting go, being part of Hashem's plan and although I do want to get back to my original plan, Hashem has a good setup for me in the meantime. Again, each of these are illustrations, they're reminders, they're chizuk for us. Just put it in practice. Emes, that is Hashem. Emuna is putting it into practice. Now I'm excited to share the next story with you because I meant to tell you about it when I got back. Listen to this story. Hello Rabbi Goldberg, I want to share a travel emuna bitachon story that happened to me and my daughter last week. My daughter and I were traveling to Israel for a week for her bas mitzvah. Our flight from Cleveland to Newark got canceled, we were on a flight the following day. We still had over nine hours to catch our connecting flight so we considered driving to drive to New Jersey so we don't have to wait until the following day and miss a day in Israel. We're discussing how will we do our hishtadlus to get to Newark, but it's up to Hashem and His plan as to whether we're going to get on that plane. We spent about two hours trying to find a car, no avail. On our way home from the airport my daughter expressed such disappointment. I appreciated Hashem's humor when we drove by a car whose license plate said why are you mad. I then started making a list of all the reasons I was able to see it was good that we were still home and not on that flight to Israel. A short while later my daughter started to accept it. I told her about a Rabbi Goldberg from Florida whose favorite emails are the ones about when travel stories don't have an open nes at the end but rather the ones that seemingly don't turn out our way we plan and yet we still accept it as Hashem's plan. Our new flight was now going from Cleveland to Orlando to Newark to Israel. We're supposed to land in Newark at 2:40, the same time the flight was supposed to begin boarding to Israel. According to nature, geographically it makes no sense and timewise it will be a challenge. But it was Hashem's plan so it made perfect sense. I felt that Hashem was just testing us and wanting us to accept the challenge knowing He is the true travel agent and not the United Airline guy from India that we spent an hour talking to. I pointed out the Florida connection to her and started wondering maybe Hashem will throw in a surprise for us and we'll meet Rabbi Goldberg in the Orlando airport as a bonus for connecting to him, speaking about him, seeing his way and praising him throughout. I remember you mentioned last week that there will not be a shiur the following week so I thought that's totally feasible. When we landed in Orlando I looked around the airport for you but didn't see you. We landed in Newark at 2:38. We were the last gate in the corner concourse A, needed to take a shuttle to completely other side of the airport where our gate was at the end of concourse C. We reminded ourselves how Rabbi Sutton brings down in his daily dose of bitachon that the pilot, who is Hashem, doesn't show up early so we had nothing to worry about. Of course we'll make the flight because Hashem is flying our plane. Still wondering if it was Hashem's plan to see you, I glanced around the airport and flight but didn't see you either. We get on the plane and we're both seated on opposite ends of the flight and in the middle seat, who would want to switch for a middle seat? So we exercised our tefillah bitachon and once again Hashem shows us He's the one in control and a nice man switched his aisle seat for my daughter's middle seat. We were able to sit together. We land in Ben Gurion and began the next leg of our trip, lugging our bags on minimal sleep in the heat, trying to find our way to Yerushalayim, finally a cab at the tachana making our way to the old city where we are staying. We get to the Rova. Excited, tired and hot, and put our bags down to catch our breath. I look up and you were sitting right there. I had just gone to Israel. So this was a month ago. Oh my god. I'm interrupting the story and this trip was unlike the missions that we've done. This was my fifth trip since October 7th. I decided I was going to try to get to do things I hadn't gotten to do, which included going to the Kotel, my favorite, just sitting, davening, learning, talking, experience people watching, sitting in the Rova, my favorite. And then I remembered I had a nephew who was going into hesder next year and was checking out different yeshivas. And I knew that he was in Hakotel that week checking out Hakotel. So I texted, you want to grab something to eat? I'm in the Rova, I'd love to see you. He said yes. And it took a little time, we coordinated, we met and we sat right there in the Rova. We thought about going one place and we went to another place, and we were sitting outside at a table, and I see a mother and a daughter lugging luggage through the Rova, its uneven stone, and they looked at me, and they couldn't believe it. And this was the story. Hashem's plan all along was for us to get to see you and meet you and share our travel emuna story that didn't have a nes happening at the end, although it actually felt like it because we got to live through seeing Hashem's way in everything we were doing. Getting to see glimpses, Hashem times everything perfectly. Every elevator ride, waiting for the train, waiting for the cab, traffic, it was all there for us to see at the exact moment we did. One more thing I wanted to add in seeing more of Hashem's ways and how he planned this trip. An old high school friend who lives in Israel's been battling cancer and on Sunday night her neshama returned to Hashem. We've been learning the daily dose of bitachon in her zechus. Her levaya was Monday night at 5:30 at the point at this point of our trip, we were staying in the north. My friend's town was halfway to the airport leaving us exactly enough time to go to her levaya before we headed to the airport to go home. Hashem allowed us to see how perfectly he planned our trip. Thank you. But that was an amazing moment. I was excited to share that one with you, because as they're lugging this luggage, tired and spent, and they looked up and they go, "I knew it! You're sitting there saying, 'I knew we were going to see you here.'" I was like, "Okay, I didn't know I was going to be here at this moment, at this restaurant today would be the day I'd go to the Kotel, but Hashem does always have a plan and it is incredible." Okay, one last one and we'll get into our learning. I have so many more to share. But one last one, because maybe if they want to, the person will share the postscript of this story. We've been on a women's adventure trip in Utah this week. Everything went smoothly despite the logistics involved in running a trip for 50-plus women ages 22 to 80. Today we started heading back from Utah through Arizona to Las Vegas to cap off the trip with dinner and drop-off at the airport. With an hour and a half to go on our bus ride, we made our final rest stop before dinner. Temperature outside was a cool 120 and because of the humidity feels like 125. On our way back into the bus, the bus driver informed us the air conditioning is broken. This is how much Hashem loves us. We were at a large gas station shop with excellent bathrooms, perfect AC, and even a seating area. There are even obscure kosher candies and snacks and drinks galore. We could have broken down on the highway in the middle of a record heat wave. And the fact that we're on an active hiking trip means we're surrounded by easygoing adventurous women with high discomfort tolerance and low complaining despite being tired from climbing and rappelling a canyon just a few hours ago. Everyone has flights to catch tonight. We don't know yet if we're going to make it, but if you look around no one is nervous, anxious, or kvetching. In fact, some are even dancing. We'll let you know if this develops further into an exciting airport story. Here is a picture of the Apple Watch, 120 feels like 125, because the author I guess was suspicious I wouldn't believe her, so here was the evidence and the further evidence of the excessive heat warning while they were sitting. And? So we all got on our flights, and they had the same women's trip the following week. That was from my friend who we wrote that email together. And the following week was when they had the whole like internet like all the flights cancelled. So on the WhatsApp group everyone was extra grateful that we all made our flights because the next week a lot of them were cancelled and stuck in, that was the travel nightmare. So the postscript live in person report. But you look around and everyone was, "This is where we're meant to be." And if we break down in the middle of a highway, we were in a comfortable restaurant gas stop whatever. It's an, it's just a mental shift. It's a perspective shift. It's a paradigm shift. It is what Yosef Hatzaddik taught us about framing. You can't change the picture in the middle of the frame, but you could change the frame that you put around it. So even if the picture is 125 degrees and the picture is a delayed or cancelled flight or the picture is, "Why am I in a doctor's office? Why am I in jail? Why am I in?" but if the frame you put around it, "Why am I in Gaza in a tunnel?" if the frame you put around it is, "This is where I'm meant to be. Now what? What's my mission? What's my purpose? What do I do here? What can I still be grateful for even here and what's my purpose?" That is the frame that's put around it. Yosef Hatzaddik taught us about what modern psychology learned only much later, the notion of reframing. Reframing can change everything in life. If you just take that moment and pause, take that deep breath, take that neshima to contact the neshama and decide to reframe. We're all in the framing business. We're all framers. Just reframe everything throughout our day, and it can change everything in a really, really extraordinary extraordinary way. Okay, one more because it's about reframing. Since I started listening to your shiurim a year ago, my life and my family's life... it's funny that I chose to write now and not when I was able to see the Yad Hashem when my son served in Gaza for 190 days and not after my son-in-law witnessed the horrors of October 7th or any of the countless miracles we've witnessed daily since the start of this war. Somehow with the big stuff I'm able to see Hashem's greatness more clearly, but listening to your shiurim enabled me to see Hashem in every minute everyday experiences that I may not have been able to see previously. I... Trying to wear my emuna glasses. A week ago I left home from Ramat Beit Shemesh to meet my husband and in-laws for dinner in Yerushalayim. I've done the journey many times and assumed it would take the regular 40 minutes. That was not to be. It soon became evident there was a truck on fire and the roads were at a standstill. Baruch Hashem no one was hurt. What is usually a quick journey turned into a 3 hour and 20 minute ride. I'm not always the calmest in these situations, but thank you, thanks to you I was able to take a breath and say, I am exactly where I meant to be. I'd like to take the credit but it's not me, it's the Torah we're learning, and it's the emails that are written, and it's all the people who are inspiring me. I'm just privileged to pass it on. I am exactly, capital letters, I am exactly where I meant to be. I even smiled to myself, maybe that's what we should put in the windshield of the car, and that's what we should put on the home screen of our phone, and that's what we should put on the dashboard of life. I am exactly where Hashem wants me to be. I even smiled to myself and tried to enjoy the journey with very little battery on my phone and no headphones. While on a bus for that amount of time, you started noticing things. I was sitting behind two Chareidi young women and I saw that one of them had a huge bow in her hair with the word Christian in very big bold letters. I assumed she had no idea what was in her hair and had naively put it on this morning. I wasn't sure how to proceed. Do I say something? Will she be mad if I do and assume I'm interfering? I asked some friends and family and no one was sure what to do. I'm not a confrontational person and I didn't want to overstep. But after three hours of staring at the back of someone's head, I said to myself, I would want someone to tell me. So I tapped her on the shoulder and explained to her very gently what I believed she should know about this ribbon. She was so, many O's, grateful and thanked me profusely and said, this must be why Hashem put you behind me on this bus for this length of time. You are Hashem's shliach, His agent, thank you. I was so happy. We eventually got to Yerushalayim, I got off the bus with a skip in my step. Not only had I weathered that long journey, I felt like I was able to see Hashem's hand throughout. I'm so grateful to you for enabling me to see Hashem's hand, a small piece of material allowed me and my family to live a more meaningful life. May Hashem bless this holy work and so on, b'vracha. So her son served in Gaza 190 days, no email. Her son-in-law survived October 7th, no email. But those little things. Why was I stuck on the bus in this place behind this person? And a skip in the step. Reframe. Wow. Wow. I told that person and it made their day. Wow. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Okay. I got more, we'll put them in the pile, I'll share them please God in the future. Back to our Torah, which is really why we come and what the shiur is all about. So we're learning Emes V'Emuna. We're learning this incredible sefer, Aleh Emuna, by Rav Moshe Shapiro zatzal. And the perek on Emes V'Emuna. The book is on the 13 principles of faith and this perek is Emes V'Emuna. To take not only this abstract theoretical concept, not only this overwhelming evidence and the closest to proof that we could have that there is a creator in the universe, there is a first source, there is a first cause, that nothing is chance or coincidence, everything is by design. But do we, that's the emes. The emuna is putting it into practice, living it, demonstrating it. Chazal omrim, we're on page chaf-hey. Chazal omrim על דרך כניסתו של אברהם אבינו לאמונה. Amar Rabbi Yitzchak: משל לאחד שהיה עובר ממקום למקום. Chazal tell us when it comes to Avraham Avinu. Avraham Avinu grows up in the home of a pagan, of an idolater, of a confused, of a confused, lost person. And we all know the story of Avraham Avinu at a very, very young age. He goes outside and he looks up and he looks all around and it doesn't make sense to him. None of this was chance, none of it was random, none of it was coincidence, and there is no god of stone and sticks and we all know the midrash, the story, how his father had, his father had a storefront for idols and he went to lunch one day putting Avraham in charge and Avraham takes a hammer and breaks all the idols except one and puts the hammer in the hand of that large idol. And his father comes home, whole inventory destroyed! A loss of incredible money! He says, Avraham! Abe! What happened? I put you in charge! And Avraham says, what do you mean what happened? The big idol broke all the little ones. Nothing I could do about it. Father says, it's ridiculous! It's a stone, it's an idol, it's still! What do you mean it broke everything? And Avraham said, exactly. Exactly. If it couldn't even break the little idols, this is who you're bowing to and worshipping? That's in charge of your life? It can't be. So Avraham discovers at that young age, he has this yearning, he has this pull, he has this curiosity, he asks these questions that lead him to discover Hashem. And Chazal fill in. Amar Rabbi Yitzchak: משל לאחד שהיה עובר ממקום למקום. A person who's traveling. וראה בירה אחת דולקת. And he see a castle, they see a building that's on fire. Amar, תאמר שהבירה זו בלא מנהיג? This building, this castle, this structure, there was no architect? There was no general contractor? There was no designer? הציץ עליו בעל הבירה. The ba'al habirah interacts, amar lo אני הוא בעל הבירה. Introduces himself, said I'm the architect, I'm the designer, I'm the builder. כך לפי שאברהם אבינו amar Tomar she... that any book that you're reading, Harry Potter, you know how it came to be because someone knocked over a jar of ink on empty pages and lo and behold the words appeared on the page and here we have it. Would you ever accept that or believe that? I could never convince you of that. With all the time in the world and all the effort in the world, I would never convince you. Nor could I ever convince you the building that you're sitting in, that there was a hurricane lo aleinu in Florida and Home Depot, the roof blew off and all the materials flew to Montoya Circle, and then the wind blew in such a way that it built this building. Would you ever believe that? All the energy, all the effort, all the time in the world, I could never convince you of that. I could never convince you of that. And a beautiful painting, if I said you know, someone knocked over—there are some paintings that look like somebody knocked over. They sit in museums, they're worth a lot of money, and I don't understand it. My grandchildren in gan produce nicer paintings. I don't get it, but I'm just a boor and ignoramus. What can I tell you, I don't get it. But a painting, a painting that's special that jumps off the page, a painting that's an incredible depiction, a painting that you get lost in in gazing at. If I told you would you believe somebody knocked over a few jars of paint, lo and behold the Mona Lisa. What would you say to me? Impossible. Can't be. And yet, we live in this world, the human body is a factory, the most complex efficient factory on this planet. And that you think just came to be? That you think was a big bang with no source of the big bang? That was chance or happenstance or random? It takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a believer. If you understand, if you read Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen's book, Permission to Believe, Permission to Receive, his two books, you will see the statistics, you'll see the mathematical statistics. It almost literally takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to be a believer. The possibility that this came about by chance is a much more unlikely possibility than that there's a first cause, there's a higher being, there's God, whatever word you're comfortable with, but that we are not here on our own. So Avraham Avinu realized that and it's one of the most compelling evidence of God's existence. And Avraham Avinu looks around this world and he says can't be. Can't be. The watch had a watchmaker, the building had an architect, the artwork had a painter, the book had an author. It can't be that this world and that I just came to be. So as he notices that and now as he asks that, the architect, the designer, the author, the artist, introduces himself to Avraham and says I am the creator of the world. Ve-yesh lish'ol, asks Rav Moshe Shapiro, הרי בעצם אמיר אי אפשר לבירה בלא מנהיג. Avraham Avinu already came to the right conclusion. Avraham Avinu arrived at the answer. Why did Hashem have to introduce himself? Why does the ba'al habira—if we sit in the room and say there was an architect, wow what a building, what detail please God our new campus will admire and look at, we don't need the architect to say yes indeed and I am he. We don't need that. We came to the conclusion on our own. So why? יש כבר הכרעה שכלית שיש מנהיג לבירה. There was already a logical conclusion that Avraham came to that there was a creator. מה התווסף איפה בידיעתו של אברהם כאשר הציץ עליו בעל הבירה? What was added? What was added when Hashem introduces himself and says I am the ba'al habira? יש מפרשים שהציץ עליו בנבואה וקודם לכן הייתה השגתו בחכמה בלבד. Some say it meant that Avraham first arrived at the conclusion using logic, and then God revealed himself through prophecy. Prophecy is higher maybe than logic, different than logic, and therefore they complement. אבל משמע מדברי חז"ל, Rav Moshe Shapiro has a different interpretation, שהצצה זו היא סיום השגת האמונה. This is in line with exactly what he's been teaching us, what we've been learning, that until now Avraham Avinu came to a conclusion that was abstract, conceptual, theoretical. Ha, you know, if the book has an author and the building has an architect, this world and I, there must be someone who created us. Okay, now back to my regular scheduled life. That was emes. His logic, his rational thinking, that brought him to the emes. But Hashem saying shalom aleichem, I want a relationship with you. I'm here. Talk to me, I'm going to talk to you, I'm involved in your life, I'm invested in your life, that took it from the emes to emuna. From theoretical and abstract to putting it into practice. ואיננה מכלל דברי נבואה שנאמרו אחר כך. It wasn't nevua. Nevua was Hashem communicating, transmitting a message through Avraham through our holy prophets. This wasn't nevua per se. This was emes, he arrived at on his own, emuna, now there's a relationship. לפיכך יש לפרש שהקביעה תאמר שהבירה הזאת בלא מנהיג שייכת לסוגיה של. To ask, could it be there's a castle, there's a building without an architect, without a leader? That's emes. הרי זו הכרזת שכל שיש מנהיג. אך הציץ אליו בעל הבירה מוסר לידיעה זאת את כוח האמונה. HaKadosh Baruch Hu added the emunah. הציץ אליו בעל הבירה משמעו שצירף הידיעה לכל מה שאדם רואה מסביבו. What is the heitzitz? The Baal Habirah came and knocked him in the head. So he said, you know, this building must have someone in charge, the world must have someone in charge. And the person in charge of the world came and hit him over the head and said, hi, I'm here. What does it mean hit him over the head? Hit him over the head meant he said through the rustle of the trees, through the sound of the waves, through the weather patterns, through the parking spots that you get, through the financial patterns of the market. In every which way, hi, I'm here, I'm everywhere and everything that is happening, it is all me. It is all driven from Hashem. Venasas l'chayim b'poal. Put it in practice, it's part of real life. כך נכנס הקדוש ברוך הוא לחייו של אברהם אבינו. Put on these glasses and see me behind and driving and part of everything. כאשר בורא יתברך הציץ אליו מתוך הבריאה עצמה. HaKadosh Baruch Hu didn't knock on Avram from up there. He has a dira batachtonim, HaKadosh Baruch Hu dwells, he is found, he is everywhere. Meloh ha'aretz kinyanecha. You can make a kinyan, you can acquire a relationship with God everywhere, in every corner. I chose the right pizza store because look, it let me lead this person. Or could you believe this worked out, this was timed? When I was in New York last week, I was out and I was assigned to bring home lunch, stop and get pizza. And I said can you call it, and then I thought who's going to call it in, I said fine I'll just go. And I went in and I said I need two pies, and the guy said happen to have two pies just come out of the oven, I'll give them to you to take. And I left that in our Hashgacha Pratis WhatsApp group. Because was that significant? Absolutely not. Did I have time to wait till the pizza was made? A thousand percent. Was it meaningful in my life? Not at all. Was it still Hashem winking and smiling at me? Absolutely. And you know what, you know what's miserable? If you ever smiled at someone across a room and they didn't smile back. You ever wink at your child and they look like, I don't even know you, get away from me. Right? Stop looking at me, get away from me. Why are we in the same space and same room at the same time? So that's a miserable feeling. Like that wink and that smile was, I love you, I'm thinking about you, and I'm making a bid for connection with you. And when the person looks right past you or looks at you with a scowl, then that's a horrible feeling. Hashem winks and he smiles at us all the time. And when you're like what are you doing look, look at somebody else. Or I don't even notice you or see you smiling or winking at me, how harsh is that? How cruel is that? How unkind is that? And so Hashem winks at us. Was that a significant wink? Utterly insignificant. You know what is significant? If your family WhatsApp group is filled with little messages all day like, would you believe it? I didn't call it in, and yet there were exactly two pies coming out of the oven exactly when I walked in. I was in and out of there in sixty seconds. Thank you Hashem. Thank you, the parking spot, thank you for that wink and for that smile. Thank you for the test result coming back the way the best case scenario. Thank you for the wink and the smile he gives at us, even when it's not exactly what we wanted, but certainly when it is, HaKadosh Baruch Hu meloh ha'aretz kinyanecha. You can make a kinyan on Hashem all throughout this world. It is incredible. It is incredible what we go through in our daily life, if we just take that moment to appreciate it, to appreciate it. I saw a teaching in the Baal Shem Tov. This is not brought down here in our sheets. You know, we sing Ein Keloheinu, ein tzur k'Eloheinu. There is no rock like God. It's not the Rock of Gibraltar, it's not the rock of which bank? Prudential? Prudential? It's not the rock of Prudential. Who is the great rock? HaKadosh Baruch Hu. You know the rock is you could lean on, you could rely on, it's sturdy, it's steady, it's dependable. Ein tzur k'Eloheinu. So we've shared many times Chazal, our rabbis, they darshen. Usually I come back from the summer, usually I got to explore some incredibly, incredible place of nature. This time I got to explore Central Avenue. Also an incredible place of miracles and nature. So like Boca, that's not a knock on it at all, it's just different than the Alps and the Grand Canyon and and Glacier National Park. So ein tzur k'Eloheinu, there's no rock like God, ein tziyar k'Eloheinu. What's a tziyar? An artist. And usually when I quote this Chazal, it's in the context of admire and see, talk about meloh ha'aretz kinyanecha. Go see Hashem's hand, go see His world. You don't have to see further than go walk around the lake, go see the trees, go see the ducks, go see the iguanas, go see אין צור אין צייר כאלהינו. Just take a moment, take a breath, and notice. And it's beautiful and it's magnificent. And it is. From Central Avenue keep walking, go to the Atlantic Beach boardwalk and go look, when it's the right time of day to go there that's appropriate, and look out at the ocean. Ein tziyar k'Eloheinu, there is no artist like Hashem. He is revealing His hand and He's smiling down from. Everywhere. Everywhere. Ein tzayar ke'eloheinu. But I saw the holy Baal Shem Tov says, what does it mean Ein tzayar ke'eloheinu? You know what is the sign of a fantastic artist? When an artist can paint a painting that you think, you don't realize it's a painting, it looks so real. It looks so real. You know, sometimes the opposite happens. The nature is so incredible you go, this looks like a painting. This doesn't even look real. And sometimes you see a painting and you say, this doesn't look like a painting. This looks like, I'm looking at it. I'm looking at it. So the measure of the artist is commensurate, how do you measure the artist by how real, how real what they've painted looks? Ein tzayar ke'eloheinu. Hashem has painted this world and it looks so real that we think it's real. We think it's real. We think the political leaders are the ones pulling the strings. We think the financial markets are the ones determining our livelihood. It looks so real. It looks so real. But no more than what the artist is depicting is Hashem making this matrix and this illusion that we call this world. This world. We're living in this matrix that's called the world. What's the Hebrew word for world? Olam. And olam has another meaning, he'elam, olam is hiddenness. It's a world that is an illusion. And He is the puppet master pulling the strings. So Ein tzayar ke'eloheinu said the holy Baal Shem Tov, Ein tzayar ke'eloheinu, He's the ultimate artist. He's created the ultimate piece of art called this world that is so real looking that we confuse it with reality. But the reality is that there is no one and nothing but Him. It's all Him. Yes, we have to operate within the artwork. We're living in the illusion, we're living in the matrix. So we have to operate within the matrix. We have to do our hishtadlus. We have to fight, we have to defeat our enemies, we have to eat, we have to go to a doctor, we have to exercise, we have to go to work. We have to do all the things that we have to do because that's the place olam the he'elam that He's put us in. But simultaneously, the whole time that we're there, realize, I'm just in the matrix. I'm just in the illusion. I'm just within this artwork. I'm just, I don't remember the name of it even, there's an online game where you set up a whole world and characters and you live. There's hishtadlus if you want to have a successful outcome in your game, but you're a fool if you don't realize that it's just a game. You want to have success and fun, then you have to put in effort, but while you put in the effort, you realize ultimately this isn't real. And that's this world and that's this life. Ein tzur ke'eloheinu, Ein tzayar ke'eloheinu. That's what Avraham Avinu saw. But when he first saw it, it was emes. You know, you go to a class, you go to a conference, you go to a seminar, evidence for God's existence, you explore all the arguments, all the evidence, you walk out convinced and you say that's the emes. Nice. Now, do you write these kind of emails? That's the emunah. That's the emunah. When you live life and whatever life throws our way, including what Sapir Cohen taught us, you could be sitting in a tunnel held hostage by a terror organization, tortured. But that's, you're not stuck. That's where Hashem means you to be. Now what? What will you do with it? Whose spirits will you lift? How will you make the most of that moment? How will you choose to be free even while you are denied your freedom? How? We all have that capacity. But it can't be it remains the emes. The emes has to trickle down to become the emunah. You know they say the farthest distance in the world is the distance between our head and our heart. Our head knows so much, but to put it into practice in our heart. Our head knows stop eating that, stop drinking that, stop going there, stop doing that, stop giving in indulging that anger, stop giving into those temptations, stop smoking that, stop. Our head knows all the truth. But to get it down to our heart, that's the hardest thing. That's why the halacha is men put on tefillin, you can't have a break between putting on the tefillin of the arm and the tefillin of the head. And a soldier who interrupts and who speaks between those two, we send him home from war. That's the most egregious sin. There are so many worse things that a person can do than speak between putting on the tefillin of the head and the tefillin of the arm. Why do we send the soldier home? Because the soldier who has a gap, who has a break between what they know and what they're supposed to do, is not a soldier we can rely or depend on. The head and the heart is the capacity to take what we know and to put it into practice. Don't just read articles about how bad that thing is for you. Make the change. Be the change. Be the change physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. Practice. Put into practice what we're learning and what we're saying. Put it into practice. Take the emes and. turn it into the emuna. So here's the new homework assignment. Here's the new homework assignment. We've spoken a lot about when you get together with a friend, you don't just say "how are you?", "how are things?", you say "how's your neshama?". How's your neshama? It'll startle the friend at first, family member, first time they're asked, because most people don't often evaluate and assess and communicate about how their neshama is. But the new question is, how is your emes and how is your emuna? How's your emes? How much do you know, how much you invested in exploring, how curious are you, how's your learning about the truth? But how's your emuna? Are you putting it into practice? Are you doing? What's happening? What is happening? So please God we should be zoche greater emes and greater emuna, take the truth and put it into practice. And please God all the emails that we share and read should tell the story of hostages coming home, of soldiers returning to their families, of sweeping victories over our enemies, im yirtzeh Hashem, the next emuna class should be in Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh all of us together. If you're not part of the WhatsApp group please, I think even next week we already have to change the schedule. We'll have emuna shiur each week please God, but the schedule may change. To find out the updated join the WhatsApp group rabbi efraim goldberg dot org slash whatsapp and you can join the WhatsApp group. We'll also put bonus material and thoughts and sources and pictures in there, so be part of that ongoing conversation. Should be a day with besuros tovos.
