Transcript
Good morning, *Boker Tov*! Welcome back to Living with *Emunah*. *Kol HaKavod*! *Erev Pesach*! Yes! *Erev Pesach*, Living with *Emunah*. We took a poll last week, and you followed through. Many or most or some of you did anyway, but it’s impressive, it’s great that you’re here and this is how we set ourselves free. So much work and effort goes into preparing for *Pesach*, shopping and cooking and cleaning, and it’s all important and it’s critical and you can’t have *Yom Tov* without it, but this is the most important work you do, to live with *Emunah*, to learn and live with *Emunah*, that’s how we set ourselves free from the bondage and the tyranny of thinking we’re in charge and we’re in control, of holding on tight. *Mitzrayim* is *milashon meitzar*, that constricted place of holding on and thinking we’re in charge and we’re in control and it’s entirely up to us. You gotta let go and let God, that’s how you get ready for *Pesach*. Also cooking and cleaning and preparing and shopping, but too many people do all the physical preparation while neglecting the spiritual preparation. So Living with *Emunah* is how we get ready, *Kol HaKavod* for being here or finding the time to watch or listen later. Our *Emunah* series is generously sponsored by Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut and in memory of Bella’s mother, Dr. Ellen Shanzer. We remain very, very grateful to them. Also sponsored this morning’s *shiur* for the *zivug* of *Miriam bas Perel*, who should sing and dance at her *simcha*, and sponsored anonymously for a *refuah sheleimah* משה שמעון בן לאה אסתר, should have a speedy and a painless and a complete *refuah sheleimah*. Obviously, we’re off for *Pesach* and we’ll resume following *Pesach* just in terms of maintaining your schedule. That’s it, some emails and we’ll get back into the text we’re learning, *Emunah u'Bitachon* of *Rav David Abuhatzeira*. Dear Rabbi, my daughter broke her engagement five months ago and I was searching for some *emunah* in my life. I started listening to *shiurim* on Spotify. Thank you Spotify, your check’s in the mail. No, it’s definitely not. And I was hooked immediately. I don’t miss a week and I’ve listened to many of the old *shiurim* as well. My kids know if they’re in the car with me, then that is what will turn on. It has been profoundly impacting my life, blah blah blah blah blah. Recently, my nine-year-old son went to the ATM machine with my husband one night and the machine swallowed his credit card. That can be a very frustrating moment. My nine-year-old looked at my husband and said, "*Abba*, your card is exactly where it’s supposed to be." Thank you so much for adding *emunah* to our family. It’s amazing, stressful moments become so much calmer when you have *emunah*. I really want car decals, coffee mugs, please tell me how to get them. Send regards. So yeah, this is amazing. If we, collectively, we together, and we, those who are writing the emails, can—we can make this phrase much more than a phrase and a motto, which now can have on the back of your phone and the windshield of your car and on the luggage, but יש השם במקום הזה, embrace your place, you are where you’re meant to be. My daughter Estee’s yearbook quote: You are where you’re meant to be, embrace your place. So she’s doing her part, at least in her yearbook, for the thousands who will read the Hadar yearbook this year, will help embrace your place. But look, is there anything greater than a nine-year-old, a nine-year-old telling the father, "The card’s exactly where it’s meant to be"? Don’t get frustrated, don’t get flustered, don’t get bent out of shape. And I’ll say what we say, we’ve said it a million times. Standing at the ATM machine and your blood pressure rising and smacking the machine and yelling and screaming and maybe saying things you’re not proud of, is not going to make your credit card pop out of the machine. It won't. It doesn’t make traffic open up, it doesn’t make the flight go on time, it doesn’t make anything in life ever any better. All it does is compromise you, your health, and your relationship with others. And so it’s not just that theologically and religiously and conceptually there’s a *Hashem*, He controls the world, יש השם במקום הזה, let go, let God, embrace your place, you are where you’re meant to be, that’s also all true. It’s not just true *emunah*, *bitachon*, *dveikus*, but there’s a personal benefit. The health and quality of life and relationships of life all improve when we can keep calm and carry on, when we can stay calm, and whether it’s the doctor who after waiting a long time for that appointment and had to cancel, okay, no problem, so what’s the plan? Or whether it’s the credit card in the machine, or whether it’s the flight, or whether it’s the traffic, or whether it’s someone in our family who didn’t realize we mean to be *kashering* and put down the hot thing on the counter within our twenty-four—whatever the thing is. It’s not going to make whatever the problem is... whoever’s going to spill the wine this *Motzei Shabbos* or Sunday night at the *Seder* on the white tablecloth or the white *kittel* or your beautiful shirt, losing your cool is not going to make that white tablecloth turn white again. It won't. It doesn’t make anything better. So keep calm, carry on, let go, let God, embrace your place, you are where you’re meant to be. All these what have become clichéd mottos, they all make life so much better and they’re all what life is really all about. Those of you who were there, it only ended a few minutes ago, the Shabbos Hagadol drasha, I went on for way too long. But this was the theme of the Shabbos Hagadol drasha, we spoke about the circular root of Geulah. That Geulah, original Geulah of Mitzrayim, and this is our Haggadah, two steps forward, one step back. Kadesh, ooh, Kiddush, wearing our kittel, we lean behasayba, we drink it while reclining, we're royal and regal. Next thing you know, Karpas, tears, we're dipping in salt water. Next thing you know, we take two steps forward, one step back because Geulah, redemption, salvation, it's not linear, it's not direct, it doesn't happen overnight, you can't flip a switch. You don't go from single to married, you don't go from wanting to have children to having a big family. You don't go from struggling in parnassa to instant wealth. You don't go from Galus, geographically or metaphysically, with a war on seven fronts, to all of a sudden sweeping victory, everyone home. It's circuitous, there are vicissitudes, there are ups and downs, it's ratzo v'shov. That's the way it was originally, that's the way it is for us now. That's the way it's been for 2,000 years, the last 80 years, the last year and a half. And that's the way it is for many of us in our lives. And the takeaway and the upshot, and I'll post, I don't remember if I ever did, in our Living with Emuna WhatsApp group, so I'll put the marei mekomos. We have many, many, many, many pages of fascinating Torah sources and articles of the value of failure, failure forward, and the idea that life is circuitous and how success looks is not a straight line, but it's all the zigzags. I'll put them in the WhatsApp group, because print it out, read it, learn it, study it, talk about it, over Pesach, because that's what Pesach is about. It's unshackling and unburdening ourselves from the tyranny of thinking that world and life is about us, we're in charge, we're in control, to putting ourselves in Hashem's hands, embrace your place, a Jew is never stuck, we are where we're meant to be. And that was true with Yetzias Mitzrayim, and that was true for the last 2,000 years of our longing for Geulah, and that's true in our own personal Geulah. And therefore the upshot is, yes, we're trying to break out, yes, we wanted to leave Mitzrayim, we want to be married, we want to have children, we want parnassa, we want shalom bayis, and we want peace and security in Israel and around the world. Yes, we will fight and we will work and we'll take initiative, which is what we're learning right now, in order to get there. But the goal is not only the destination. The goal is not only the outcome and the result. What the journey and process of Geulah teaches us is that there's value to the journey, that the journey is the destination, that these stops along the way are journeys themselves. And so if a person is in shidduchim, person's looking to get married, don't say, my goal is to be under a chuppah with a husband, and I just want it to come already, and I want to flip a switch, and I want it to be linear and direct and straight, and I want to be there in a binary way, a single then I want to be married, shoin, good, done. No, yes that's the goal and yes you're working towards it. But what can you learn in the process? How can you lean in and embrace the journey? What do you discover about yourself as you go through resumes, decisions, references, who should I go out with? What was that date like? What did I learn about myself and others and the world from each one that wasn't the right one? There's a journey to having children, to working on shalom bayis, to breaking through in parnassa, to finally capturing our mental, spiritual, physical health. It's not only about I want to get to the destination, I want the result, I want the outcome, which is a challenge in our generation because we're living, we didn't get into this on Shabbos, but we're living in the instant gratification world, and we're living in a world of everything on demand. On demand. I give this example, you probably heard me say it before, and we gotta get back to our emails and our texts, but I give the example, when I was a kid, when I was younger, so if you bought a new record, or I'm not that old, tape, or CD, and you know, every tape, I don't know, maybe 8 to 10 songs on a tape, two of them were fantastic, another three were pretty good, and the rest just took up space on the tape, they were no good at all. So you had to get through the bad songs and the okay songs to listen to the great songs. Now, Steve Jobs invented the original iPod, and you could download music on it, and what could you do? Playlist. Make a playlist. I don't have to listen to anything I don't want to listen to. I can delete, I can erase, I can make, and now we have our exercise playlist, our Erev Shabbos playlist, our Purim playlist, our Pesach playlist, our fast playlist, our slow playlist, our Israel playlist, our sad playlist. I have playlists and I can delete and eliminate what I don't want to hear. And that has an impact on all of life, you know why? Because I say Hashem, this is not on my playlist. I don't want to deal with that thing, it's not on my playlist. We turn to our spouses and we say, where's the forward button? I just want to get to the next, I don't want to hear this lecture, I don't want you to tell me your feelings, I don't want to be dealing with what you're saying right now. Where's the forward button? How can I delete you from this playlist of my life? It has an impact. impact on us. We're living in an on-demand, on everything is on-demand, but life doesn't work on-demand, and guess what? Geulah is not on-demand. Arba Geulos, not lashonos of geulah, I'm not going to rehash the whole Shabbos Hagadol drasha. It's not four languages or synonyms of geulah of redemption. The Torah Temimah points out there are four geulos, four redemptions. Our life is filled with these journeys and stops, and every stop is itself a journey. And it's not only the outcome of the result, it's not only the destination. How can we embrace our place and lean into where we are and say, "I don't want to be here now"? And "here" can mean geographically. I don't want to be stuck geographically where I am. "Here" can mean emotionally. I don't want to be how I'm feeling. "Here" can be "I don't want to be single" and "I don't want to be childless" and "I don't want to be struggling for parnassa," having to go to a Pesach market of the Florida Chesed Network Shalom Shuk. "Here" can mean all kinds of things. I don't want to be here right now. And I'm going to work as hard as I can to get out of here, wherever here is. But what geulah is teaching us, the journey of galus to geulah is teaching us is embrace your place, lean into where you are. What can you extract? As the Sfas Emes says, every galus there are nitzotzos, there are sparks that you're supposed to extract. Something to learn, a way to grow, an impact and an influence to have. There's something we're meant to do wherever we are. Even while we're working at getting out of where we are, there's work to be done wherever we are. And that's why the Rebbe zt"l said that the only difference between golah, exile, and geulah, redemption, is the letter aleph. Alupho shel olam. And we don't have a new word. We take the golah, within that exile, when you add Hashem, when you find meaning and purpose, when you add Hashem, then all of a sudden from in the golah you have geulah. It's not that golah we have another word. We don't add it in the beginning or the end. The aleph is in the middle of the word because you put Hashem in the middle of the circumstance you're in. And you use it to come close, to talk to Him, to feel His presence, to even lash out at Him. But when you add the aleph, the alupho shel olam within the golah, within the exile, geulah, you bring a redemption. And that's why we ended the drasha, and if you're in the group, you'll read the sources with I don't know, six, eight stories of hostages who found Hashem in tunnels, in captivity, in torture. You talk about golah, you talk about being in exile, you talk about those who are in Mitzrayim in our day who are subjugated, enslaved, captive, captured, captives. And yet it was there, Agam Berger, Derech emunah bacharti, she chose, she chose emunah in that place, in that place. Hadas Lowenstern about her husband Elisha, and Jen Airley about her son Binyamin. He didn't die, we didn't bury him, we planted him. Read all those articles and find that faith and that emunah. So, as Esty says in her yearbook, embrace your place. יש ה' במקום הזה. Don't try to only skip to the destination. Don't live life on-demand. Don't live life trying to fast forward. Wherever you are is where you're meant to be. We're always trying to fast forward. I just want to get there already. I just want to be married. I just want to have a big family. I just want to break through with parnassa. I just want to get there and not be on the airplane or stuck in traffic or be... I just want to get there. I just want to get there. Get there, work to get there. But don't abandon or neglect or forfeit the joy and the benefit of the journey because you're so fixated and focused only on the destination. Before I tell you a story, I want to thank the Rav so much for everything, blah, blah, blah. After coming back from my spiritual life in seminary, my bubble was slowly popped when school began to start. I met with my Rebbetzin, she told me to start listening to Living with Emunah podcast. Thank you, Rebbetzin. But I was very hesitant because I tried podcasts before, but nothing ever stuck with me. I decided to give the podcast a try, before I knew it, I was listening to it every day. I began to notice small differences in my spirituality, overall mood. Thank you so much for changing life and other listeners. Now onto my story. This past Sunday, there's a great story. This past Sunday, I was Ubering back to college with my friends. In the book that we're one day going to do, it'll have airplane stories, we're going to have a chapter "The Uber Stories". Uber gets its own chapter. This past Sunday, I was Ubering back to college with my friends. We were ordering... We ordered the Uber. 10 minutes passed, by then the Uber canceled. We got another driver. 10 more minutes later, another Uber canceled. My friends and I were starting to get frustrated. I decided to use my emunah muscle because as the Rav always says, a Jew is never stuck, he's where he's meant to be. I said to my friends, "I'll order the Uber on my phone." So I ordered it. And as my phone was loading, I told my friends, "Hashem is testing our patience. Don't worry, we're going to get there." Then I looked at my phone and sure enough, another driver accepted our ride. And I tell my friends, "OMG, you guys are not going to believe this. The driver's name? Hashem. H-U-S-H-A-M. Hashem." I said how much clearer could Hashem be? Sure enough five minutes later Hasham pulled up and Baruch Hashem and Hasham we got to college safely and on time. How great a story is that? Everyone relax, Hashem is testing us, Hashem's going to get us there, Hashem's got it, let go and let Hashem, Hashem's in charge. Uber pops up, what's the driver's name? Hasham. So I'll tell you something amazing, Hashem is always the driver. He's always the driver. Whether his name appears on the Uber app or not, he's always the driver. Put down your luggage and your baggage, let go, Hashem is always the driver. Rabbi Goldberg, my family and I started a new game at Friday night Shabbos table. We used to Hashgacha Pratis stories but have moved on to "You are where you're meant to be" game. Each person goes around and says when during the week they found themselves in a place they weren't expected, how they embraced their place and everything was for the good. That's a good game. Shabbos morning we were supposed to attend the Bar Mitzvah which is a thirty-minute walk and my husband woke up with back pain. It's another chapter in the book. And he couldn't make the walk. My fourteen-year-old daughter had asked to come with us and I told her no because I wanted the opportunity to have a quiet walk with my husband. Now that my husband wasn't up for the walk, I quickly went to wake her, told her she should join me on the walk. Baruch Hashem we had a great walk and the whole time I just kept saying "You are where you're meant..." I don't know if her husband was saying the same thing in bed but she was saying "You are where you're meant to be." Okay. Oh. One more. One more. There's so many, please keep writing me the emails, I read every one, they move me, I'm collecting them, I get back to many of you, so keep, keep writing them, even if I don't read them that week. I listen to the Emunah Shiurim religiously daily, I've learned so much, but to live with it, to apply it, I have such a beautiful story to share as a Shadchan. We have a wonderful Yasom and orphan who became very close to us over the last several years. A Yasom who lost both parents, Rachmana Litzlana, alone in this world trying his best to navigate this very difficult journey. I don't think I read this one, did I read this one? I don't think so. The last Yom Tov we hosted him he became emotional. The weather was beautiful not a cloud in the sky, we sat in our Sukkah and were in deep conversation. He mentioned how broken he is, how much pain he is holding in his heart, how much he misses his parents, how he doesn't know how he'll ever move on with all the pain. It was a very emotional and painful conversation. How can I help him? So many thoughts ran through my mind as we both sat beneath Hashem. Wiping my tears I made a promise to him, sitting in our Sukkah. I looked up to Shamayim and said "Hashem is listening, Hashem is watching over us right this minute." I said "I'll work on finding you a Shidduch," I gave him my word. I had complete Emunah. Here we are sitting in a holy Sukkah, Hashem is listening, of course he will help, I have no doubt. After Chag we connected and started working on his dating resume. I cannot sit here and type this letter and say it was easy. Easy it was not. It was a challenging few months, I kept looking for suggestions, young ladies who are compatible and after a few months we found her. Dating is fun but also expensive. I reassured him "We got it. We'll help you pay for the dates." Not to worry, how I couldn't figure out, as a large family life isn't cheap but I kept Davening to Hashem help us find a way. So we did. Our community got together, we all as a Klal helped Hashem's child. My Emunah kept growing stronger and I knew Hashem was holding our hands. It was time to get engaged and of course it was time to purchase gifts. My head was spinning. How are we going to do this? I took a few minutes and Davened to Hashem, I Davened with tears, I couldn't see straight. I reached out to a friend in the jewelry industry and gave him my budget for the jewelry. He asked what it was for. I mentioned it's for a Yasom, orphan, and he gave it all for free. The jeweler didn't take a penny. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. My heart exploded and I couldn't sit crying uncontrollably. At that point not only did my Emunah get so much stronger, I knew a thousand percent Hashem is guiding us and hears our Tefillos. הודו לה' כי טוב Mi K'amcha Yisrael. Another beautiful story, there are many more but back to our text. Emunah Bitachon Rav David Abuhatzeira, we're on page Lamed Dalet. Lamed Dalet. Top right-hand column of page thirty-four Lamed Dalet. And we've been dealing with this question of we know we have to take initiative, you can't sit back on your hands and wait. Geulah takes our effort, our initiative. We see that, that's what we're about to celebrate, because Hashem told the Jews in Mitzrayim, he didn't just take them out, they had to do their part, and what was their part? Go take the god of your oppressor, tie it to your bedpost, leave it there for five days, risk your lives, find the courage to look at your oppressor in his face while you tie up his god and say this is no god, then slaughter it, then sprinkle the blood on the doorpost and then I'll be able to skip over those houses and take you out. Why? If Hashem could make ten plagues and a splitting of a sea, he didn't know where the Jews lived? It's a very, very simple thing. Every driveway that has a Honda Odyssey, that's where the Jews live. It's really quite easy. Where there's a minivan, there's a Jewish family. That's all. You know, why didn't he just sprinkle blood on the doorpost? On the doorpost. Every home that has a designated Amazon driver with endless packages at the front door, that's a Jewish home. There's a lot of clues. That's how you know. Every non-Jew has one garbage pail with half of it left over for each garbage pickup, and Jews have to buy three, four of the garbage things, they're all overflowing, there's Costco boxes sitting on top of the filled garbage, and that's how you know. So Hashem there's like endless countless clues how you know which are the Jewish homes. You don't have to make them get involved with slaughtering a sheep and sprinkling the blood. Why did he have to do that? What's the answer? Hashem says I'll tell you what, I'll bring salvation, redemption, but you've got to be my partner. You can't sit back and be a spectator. You've got to get up and you've got to do something. You've got to do something. That's why towards the end of the Seder, after three cups we're exhausted and tired and ready to pass out, and שפוך חמתך אל הגוים we sing Eliyahu Hanavi, what do we get up and do? We get up and open the door. That wasn't a trick question. We get up and open the door. We get up and open the door. I ask you, Eliyahu Hanavi can visit every Jewish home simultaneously but he can't come down the chimney? He can't walk through walls, he can't go through the window, why do we have to get up and open a door? Why do you have to open the door? What's the answer? Because you've got to get up. If you want Eliyahu Hanavi to come, you want redemption, you want salvation, you want change, get up and get going and do something. We know we have a principle, we have to take initiative, we have to do hishtadlus. It doesn't just happen on its own. On the other hand, we can't take excessive initiative. We try too hard, we do too much, we hold on too tight, we think it's too much in our control. Let go and let God. He's in charge, he's in control. So what's that balance? How do we find that right balance? That's what I told you this Yom Tov is all about, the first days and the last days. The first days we gotta sprinkle the blood, we gotta offer their sheep, their animal, their deity, their god. Initiative, initiative, initiative. And then we come to the sea and Hashem says Mah Titzak Elai. What are you doing? Why davening? Start walking. Start walking. A little less davening, a little more initiative. HaRebbe Hakadosh Reb Nachman MiChernobyl haya omer. Who was Reb Nachman of Chernobyl? He's the Meor Einayim, Chernobyler Rebbe. Haya omer, he used to say, כאדם שפותח הדלת כנגד רשות הרבים הרי הוא מחוסר אמנה שעליו להאמין שהכל יבוא גם אם פתחו יהיה מן הצד. That if a person opens their store, opens a door, opens their store towards the public thoroughfare, they think they need the foot traffic, they think they need to open up in a highly populated place, they really lacking emuna in Hashem because Hashem can send customers who will find you in an alley. שעם כל גוי יש להם שני מלאכים ומביאם אצל איזה חנות ילך ויקנה הסחורה. If a person lived at the highest level of emuna, so you have to have a store, you need a business, you need to sell something. No one's dropping off a brown paper bag of cash at your door. You've got to take initiative, you've got to do something. But going out of your way to pay a high rent to be in the place that has the highest foot traffic, maybe that's considered excessive. Now he's not describing that anyone who's sitting here right now wondering, do I do excessive, should I not market, should I not publicize, should I not—no, those are wonderful strategies. We believe in capitalism, free market, and in marketing and advertising and strategizing. Those are great things. It's an example, it's a mashal of in evaluating where does the line of initiative, where are the boundaries of initiative and excessive initiative, where do I need to lean in more to emuna. כשסיפר זאת הרבי הקדוש ה'שפע חיים' מקלויזנבורג, and the Shefa Chaim, the Kloizenburger Rebbe, would tell this story of the Chernobyler, hosif he would add, שמצא דברי הרבי מטשרנוביל מקור קודם בספר חסידים, that he found a source for this insight or observation or story of the Chernobyler Rebbe in the work of the Sefer Chasidim. In the Sefer Chasidim siman shin-tet-zayin it says: הסוחר שהשעה משחקת לו מזמין לו הקדוש ברוך הוא מלאכים הממונים עליו נכנסים בלב אחרים להביאם לאותו מקום שזה הסוחר שם ומכוון לב הסוחר לקנות ואחר כך מכוין לב אחרים לבוא שם אצל הסוחר או הסוחר אצלם לקנות עד כאן לשונו. Sefer Chasidim says I want you to know the following. Yes, you take initiative. Advertising, your marketing, your slogan, your campaign, social media, status updates. You think that's what's bringing the results? What brings... Brings the results is when you earn the merit. When you're virtuous and righteous, when you're living the right way, and Hashem puts in the heart of someone, you know, I want to check out that store. I want to buy from that online person. I want to hire that person. He puts it in that person's heart and then the next person's heart and then the traffic builds up and then the success comes. Can you trace it? Can you point to and say, well, it was this strategy, it was this breakthrough, it was this brilliance? Of course על פי דרך הטבע, natural you can also find an explanation. But as believing Jews we need to know that it's not the explanation that's the cause, it's that Hashem put it in someone's heart. We said yesterday in the parsha shiur, אש תמיד תוקד על המזבח לא תכבה, there was a fire always burning on the altar, it could never go out. Ay, why did we need a fire on the altar? What consumed the sacrifice? Not the fire on the altar, there was a fire that descended from heaven that came down and that's what consumed the korban. So why did we need a fire on the altar? So we spoke about because Hashem does his miracles in concealed ways. Hashem is a tzanua, he's modest and he's private and even when he's doing what he's doing, he doesn't flex about it, he doesn't share or show off about it. So you make a fire, so to the observer it looks like what's consuming the sacrifice, the fire you made. Ay, it's really the one that descended from shamayim. Okay, fine. So similarly in our work. What will make our business a success is Hashem putting in the hearts and minds of others to frequent it and to use it. But you know, we don't Hashem doesn't do revealed miracles. So if I wouldn't advertise or market, if I'd lock the door of my store, if I wouldn't ever show up to work, it would take a miracle for me to break through and have success. So in order to give Hashem the opportunity to do for me, I need to be able to explain it על פי דרך הטבע naturally, I have to make my effort. But this is such an important and critical, we need to know that our effort does not correlate with the result. Our effort is a prerequisite to the result. Our effort is the key that unlocks the result. But our effort doesn't directly correlate to that result. It doesn't correlate. I have to do my effort. The result often doesn't even correlate with the effort I put in. So you market, you advertise, you post. All of a sudden people are coming, they're using, you're bringing it in. You ask them, where did I hear, where'd you hear about me? So they didn't hear about you from all the marketing and advertising and social media you did. Ah, was something else, someone else, something you forgot about altogether. It's connected. We need to do our initiative because that's the rule, the way that Hashem made the world. Hashem says I have all this blessing, I have shefa bracha, I have all this blessing I want to give you. But to unlock it, to cash in on it, you've got to take initiative because I need it to be explainable naturally. Once you take initiative and it's explainable naturally, reasonably, rationally, through nature, now I'm ready to open the storehouse and overflow you with blessing. But the blessing doesn't come because of the initiative you took, it's just that taking initiative is the key that unlocks the gate, the door that lets the blessing flow. So we should know in all the work that we do, Hashem is the one who puts it in the hearts of the people. It's Hashem. Hashem creates our clients and our customers and our profit margins. Hashem decides the tariffs and the stock market. Hashem puts it in the heart right now of other world leaders, will they negotiate, will they acquiesce and concede, will they not, will there be a 90-day freeze, what will happen? There are a lot of players, there are a lot of actors that look like there's a conversation going on, but it's all Hashem. It's all inside, He's got a plan for where the economy's supposed to go and how the markets are supposed to turn out and will all the pledges for our new campus come through because will people have the money to pay them? If you need another thing to daven for. It's all, it's all, it's all him. It's all him. So when you sit in your store, literally or figuratively. Maybe you have a store, you sit in the store. Maybe you have a business and you're working it online. Maybe you have customers. In whatever you're doing in life, know, yes we're taking initiative and yes we're thinking, oooh, creative, entrepreneurially, what can I do, what could I do, what idea, what breakthrough, what deal can I offer, how can I market it, what status update can I post? Think about all those things, they're wonderful, take that initiative, do it. But know that ultimately it's Hashem who puts in the heart of others whether they're going to do business with you or not. Therefore don't work excessively. בסוד זאת נחוץ להבין שעל פי האמת ההשתדלות אינה מעלה ומורידה. Therefore you need to know that your initiative doesn't impact one direction or the other. וכאשר אדם מצדו עושה השתדלות המוטלת עליו ומשרה השגחה בידו הטובה של הקדוש ברוך הוא הרי הקדוש ברוך הוא מזמין לו כל צרכיו כמאמר הכתוב. As the Shaar Bitachon Rabbeinu Bachya elaborates on there, says Rav David Abuhatzeira, once we do our ishtadlus now let go and let God. We say Hashem do your magic. I did my part. I opened the business, it was reasonable, it was rational, it made sense. I did my part, I unleashed my marketing, I did my business. Now Hashem, it's up to you. It's up to you. The results, the outcome, what will be, it's entirely up to you. וכמעשה שהיה אצל מרן הבעל שם טוב הקדוש. Like the story goes with the Heilige Bashem, שפעם לא היתה בכיסו פרוטה לפורטה ולא בביתו מאומה לצורך סעודת שבת. Once the Holy Bashemtov didn't have a penny in his pocket. He had no money. He had nothing. He had nothing to buy the meals for Shabbos. כיוון שהשבת קרבה ובאה. Once Shabbos was coming close, יצא מביתו וניגש לבית השכן ודפק דפיקה קלה בחלונו מבחוץ. He went to his neighbor and he gave a little knock on the window. ומיד פנה והלך לדרכו. He knocked on his neighbor's window and then he went on his way. מיד יצא בעל הבית מביתו ורץ אחריו בבהלה לשאול אותו מה מבוקשו. So his neighbor, having heard that faint, that soft knock, ran out of his house and chased and followed the Bashemtov to find out what did his righteous neighbor need? ויספר לו הבעל שם טוב שאין לו כלום עבור השבת. He said, "Oh, so nice of you to follow me. Actually, I've got gornisht, I've got nothing, I don't have how to put food on my family's table." Tama haish lemor. The man wondered. האם בשביל זה דפק כל כך חזק עד שכמעט נשבר החלון למה הלך מיד ולא המתין עד שיצא אליו. Why did you knock? Why did you leave? If you came because you needed something so you knocked, so stay until I answer. If you were ready to leave, why did you bother coming? What's the message of the story that you knocked and then you left and I had to follow? ויען הבעל שם טוב. The Bashemtov answered. עם כל איש הנולד בעולם נולדה פרנסתו. With every person born in this world, Hashem decides and determines our parnassah. I guess from our birth what we'll have, and every year Rosh Hashanah the Gemara tells us that Hashem allocates for us what we're going to or the maximum that we can have that year. מחמת שהחטא גורם צריך לעמול על פרנסתו. Now the truth is it's already been determined. Meaning, there is a trust. There is an escrow. Hashem puts money in escrow for each and every one of us the beginning of every year. What determines whether we can tap into the escrow? Does the escrow get transferred to our personal account or not? Our merits and demerits, our values and our virtues, our assets, our liabilities, our worthiness and our unworthiness. Do we deserve it or not? It's sitting in escrow. It's been designated. It's got our name on it. We are the beneficiary of it. But will we be able to access it? It will depend. בזעת אפיך תאכל לחם. Because of our failure and shortcoming, because our great ancestor Adam couldn't observe the one thing he was asked to do in Gan Eden, we now have to work for our wages. It doesn't come easy. אבל יש חילוק שכל אחד לפי ערך הקדושה שלו כך צריך לעמול על פרנסתו. But how hard do you have to work? How much effort do you have to put in? What will it take to tap into that escrow? It depends on each person and their worthiness. Yesh sheparnassato beveito. Some people sit at home in their pajamas on their couch and go on the internet a few hours a day and the four-hour work week they're able to earn the parnassah of a whole year. ויש מי שצריך לבקש מרחוק לחמו וכדומה. And some people have to wake up at five in the morning and they work till ten o'clock at night and they work three jobs and they break their back and they shvitz and they sweat and they work just to get by the minimum level. ואני כפי שגמרתי בדעתי אינני צריך לעמול רב רק לעשות איזה עשיה בעלמא. So Bashem told his neighbor, "It became clear to me that because of who I am and how I live, I don't have to work that hard. I can do something small." על כן לא דפקתי כלל רק נגעתי נגיעה קטנה. I didn't bang and smash through your window and say, "Help, I have no food for Shabbos." All I needed to do was a gesture, something small. A little tap-tap. וזאת כדי לקיים ולצאת ידי חובתי בעסק ההשתדלות בפרנסה. I had to do it because you've got to do something. Bashemtov is teaching us something here. You can't sit back on your couch and say, "Hashem, if you want me to have parnassah, so someone will knock on the door." In the old days it was Ed McMahon, alav hashalom. Someone will knock on the door. door and say you're the winner of a big prize, here's a brown paper bag, this is all yours. That's not the way it's going to go. That's not the way it happens. It's not a realistic expectation. Even for a Heilegeh Ba'al Shem, you have to do something. How much do you have to do? That depends on your merits. וזאת כדי לקיים ולצאת ידי חובתי בעת ההשתדלות בפרנסה כאשר נגזר עלי מן השמים. אולם במעשה קל כזה כבר נתקיים וברכך ה' אלוהיך בכל אשר תעשה. We mentioned last week posuk says u'veirachacha Hashem Elokecha, that Hashem has enormous blessing. Do you know what's being held in escrow for each of us? Not the same, but Hashem has enormous blessing. And by the way, escrow is not only or even money. There's a great expression, it's a sad expression, but it's a profound expression, and it goes something like this, I'm paraphrasing: Nebach, there are some people who are so poor that all they have is money. Nebach, there are people so poor all they have is money. Health is wealth. You could have all the money in the world and if you don't have your health, it's useless and worthless. If you can't buy a cure, if you can't buy strength, and that's true not only for physical health, emotional health, spiritual health, mental health. Health is wealth. If you're physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy, even if you gotta be working hard בזעת אפך תאכל לחם to earn a few dollars, you're very wealthy. And if you have millions or billions in the bank, but you can't cure that illness—Steve Jobs, the end of his life and others—if you have billions in the bank but mentally you're unhealthy, struggling, suffering, spiritually empty and numb, emotionally, relationship-wise, failure, then it's all, then you're a very poor person. Health is wealth. And nebach there are people who are so poor all they have is money. So u'veirachacha Hashem Elokecha, Hashem has huge escrows of good health, happiness, parnassah, shalom bayis, nachas. He has huge escrows filled with blessing. How do you access it? bechol asher ta'aseh. u'veirachas Hashem Elokecha, but it has to be bechol asher ta'aseh. You've got to do something. You've got to do something. Now, how much do you have to do? So that's what the Ba'al Shem said. Someone like me who's living such a high level, I have to do something, a gesture, something small, something that could at least then justify or explain why I got the outcome or result. Someone else might have to do a lot more. והכל נשמע בביתכם כקול רעש גדול ויצאתם לעזרתי. When I gave a little tap, you heard this loud noise and you came running and rushing and chased and followed to help me. וכאשר עשיתי מה שמוטל עלי לעשות איזה סיבה לפרנסתי בודאי יעזור לי ה' יתברך. When I hit what I need to do given the level I am on, then I was able to let go and let God, then I could be confident the rest was up to him. ואין לי שום נפקא מינא אם אתה תיתן או לאו. ולכן מיד עם נגיעתי בחלון הלכתי לדרכי. I did what I had to do and then I walked away because the rest was up to him. Would you follow me? Would another neighbor come to me? Once I knocked, which was what I needed to do to turn the key, I don't know how Hashem's going to provide it from there. That's entirely up to him. But I had to do my part, which was the original knock. We all have to figure out what's our part, who I am, the level I'm on, the level I live, what's my part. And then once we hit our part, then to not take initiative that is excessive. So I ask you, for example: To work three hours a day, with all due respect to Tim Ferriss, four hours a day, and think that you're going to earn a livelihood is probably unrealistic. Because bederech hateva, in the natural order of things in the world that we live in, a person has to put in a full day of work in order to earn a living to pay for our life. So working less than that normal amount would be to rely on a miracle. We don't rely on miracles, we believe you have to take initiative. But if you're working a full day, if you work eight hours, ten hours, twelve hours, twelve hours a day, and you earn enough for yourself, for your family, you're able to support your life and your lifestyle, why are you still working more? Why are you still at work 14 hours and 16 hours and 18 hours and 20 hours, some people? You'll say because I want to earn more—millions and billions and be the first to earn a trillion. Now, if Hashem wants you to earn a million, could he not have you earn a million working ten hours a day? Do you have to work 14 or 16 hours a day? At some point a person hits that line of excessive initiative where if Hashem wants that result, he could bring it about. with the normal, natural, ordinary initiative you're taking without you having to do something excessive. And at some point when you start doing excessive initiative now it's in fact a lack of faith in Hashem because essentially you're demonstrating you don't believe He could bring that result unless you help Him along by doing that excessive initiative. So it's very complicated. How much exercise do you have to do? Too little where you're not going to be healthy if you don't be-derech ha-teva take care of yourself. Become addicted, do too much, then you don't think you could be healthy with the normal amount. And work and exercise and every area of life. That's what we're going to continue to learn, we'll pick up with after Pesach. How do you find that line? Where's the boundary between healthy, appropriate initiative and not excessive initiative? How could I show Hashem I believe in You and that You have an escrow, You have a trust fund with my name on it and I got the key and the way to open it and access it is taking initiative? But I also know and believe that You're in charge and You're in control. I let go and let God, submit and surrender to You and that's why I don't do excessive initiative. I do what I need to like the Besht. I did my part. I networked. I posted on my status. I did my marketing campaign. And now I sit back and the rest is up to Him. I trust in Him. I believe He will give what is right and what is appropriate and what's coming for me. How do we find that line between? That's what Pesach is all about. So may we each have a Chag HaGeula. Let it be a Yom Tov of redemption. Our hostages should come home, our soldiers should be safe. Please remain, if everyone takes a booklet, we can finish all Sefer Tehillim in a few minutes. Should be a Yom Tov of national geula and a Yom Tov of individual, personal geula. A Yom Tov of not only getting to the destination but leaning in and living the journey as well. Chag Kasher V'Sameach.
