Transcript
Good morning boker tov chodesh tov a gut chodesh welcome back to Living with Emunah משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה. We love to say every year that Tzadikim say Mishenichnas Adar doesn't mean when you enter the calendar because it's not so simple. Some people sitting in this room, people watching, listening online, there's things happening in their lives that just because the calendar says the first of Adar doesn't mean you're happy. Doesn't make you happy. People who are struggling, people who are lonely, people who are longing, people who are waiting, people who are wondering how they're going to pay their bills, just because they flipped the calendar from the funeral home and it says Adar doesn't mean that all of a sudden you become happy. So what do you mean משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה? Oh, it's Adar, so I'm supposed to be happy. I didn't realize but I still don't have a job, I still don't have a spouse, I don't have children, I still have this ailment, I still, oh I didn't realize Mishenichnas Adar. So I say every year, I'm talking to myself, you can listen in, Mishenichnas Adar doesn't mean when we enter the month of Adar. Mishenichnas Adar means when Adar enters us. Adar is Aleph-Dar. Aleph is the Alupho shel Olam, the Ribbono shel Olam, the Almighty. Aleph, the letter Aleph, the one, the one and only is Hashem. Dar means to dwell. Adar, when Hashem dwells in us, when we realize that we embrace our place and we are where we're meant to be and everything is for a reason, our lives are not random and chance, but everything is carefully choreographed and curated from above, specifically and directly for us. There's no coincidence, there's no chance, there's no randomness, it all is the way it's supposed to and meant to be. So why you panicked and why you worried? Im yirtzeh Hashem this Motzei Shabbos, im yirtzeh Hashem we'll see what happens, but we're taking 25 guys from the community, we're going to learn in Israel for a few days, and everyone's super excited and there's a lot of work that went into it and now all the talk is everybody put in to try to get an upgrade. And everybody's worried and wondering and davening and I said, first of all, certainly Hashem's going to give it to me so I don't have to worry. Just joking, I was just joking Hashem, I was just joking. But what are you worried? You did what you needed to do, so you'll end up in the seat where you're supposed to be, sitting next to whoever you're supposed to sit next to. It's when you, when the Mishenichnas Adar, when you don't just enter the calendar but Adar enters you, from silly things like that to bigger things of life, you're not worried because you know everything is the way it's supposed to be. So you're right, you don't just become happy because you've entered the month of Adar, but Mishenichnas Adar means when Adar enters you Marbin b'Simcha. If you walk around thinking I'm in charge, I'm in control, oh it's all on me and what's going to be and I don't know how it's going to work out, then you're miserable and farbisseneh and negative and resentful and no one wants to be around you. But משנכנס אדר, Aleph-Dar, when Hashem enters us and our lives, Marbin b'Simcha. So now you're calm, cool, composed, confident, have clarity, patient, now Marbin b'Simcha, I'm joyful. Why am I joyful? The problems are still there. Joyful because I take my initiative, I do my thing. So Mishenichnas Adar doesn't mean that we enter the month, we enter the calendar, Mishenichnas Adar means Adar enters us. All that is a long way of saying a gut chodesh, chodesh tov to everybody. Should be a wonderful Adar. We have many sponsors this morning. The shiur first of all, the series is generously sponsored by Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, in memory of Bella's mother Dr. Ellen Chanzer, we remain very, very grateful to the Morgans. Also the series is co-sponsored anonymously in memory of the fallen soldiers and alumni of בני דוד מכינה ישיבה עלי. After 31 weeks of honoring the heroes of October 7th, we honor the memories of additional alumni who fell in service of their country like Lieutenant Hadar Goldin Hashem Yikom Damo who grew up in Kfar Saba with his twin brother Tzur, their siblings. He was a natural leader and artist and we know he studied in Eli before enlisting in the IDF and became a platoon commander. In August 2014 during Operation Protective Edge he was killed, his body was taken into Gaza for a long time and we had the honor of hosting his parents in person and on our podcast as they advocated and fought and davened and longed for the return of his body. His remains were held over 11 years and finally returned for burial full military honors and certainly we dedicate our shiur to him today. Today's shiur is sponsored by Ellen and Ari Fishel in memory of her dear father Pesach Zev HaLevi on his 18th yahrtzeit and in honor of their daughter Eliordina becoming a Bas Mitzvah, mazel tov, lots of nachas. Anonymously l'illui nishmas dear father רפאל חיים צבי בן חנניה יום טוב ליפא. Anonymously in the zchus of their grandfather Eliyahu Ben Rachman. Anonymously l'illui nishmas Refoel Ben Clara. Anonymously in the zchus of פיגא זיסל בת רחל ברינדל for a shidduch b'karov mamash. We look forward to hearing good news. The Kranzel family in memory of Moish Kranzel on his first yahrtzeit, special man, big loss, in gratitude for the strength and inspiration the shiur gives. By Lisa and Seth Kaufman, devoted listeners, in honor of Seth's late parents Mordechai Ben Yosef Leah Bas Rivka, Lauren Weissman in memory of Anne. [Error processing chunk 2] post a video of himself landing, taking off. \"What's the avodah chevre? What's the avodah? What's the avodah?\" Ari Merlis, \"What's the avodah?\" So when we go through life and things happen to us, I just ordered a duplicate siddur, let me press pause, let me stop and think, let me consider what's the deeper meaning, what's the deeper purpose, what can I do with this moment? Not because we're trying to play God and figure out His ways, that we can't do and never will be able to do. Included in the belief in God is the admission that there are things we can't and won't understand. And to demand to understand, to feel entitled to understand, to pretend that we understand is to play God is an act of heresy. So we press pause not to play God, we press pause to say, what can I do with this moment? What can I learn from it, how can I grow from it, what can I change about it? Or in the words of Rav Hirsch, not to ask lama, why, but to ask le-ma, for what. So not lama, oh why'd I wait, why'd I press the button, why'd I reorder the same siddur, lama, why, why God? Not a big why, but why? But instead le-ma, okay what should I do with it? Ooh, I'll start listening to siddur snippets, I'll mark it up, I'll have an extra siddur. To ask and to think in that way. All right, Rabbi, hope all is well, blah blah blah, I'm writing after coming off an incredible community event that I was zoche to help run here in our community. This is not yet a Tehillim 23 sighting, still waiting maybe one day soon. Baruch Hashem I had the tremendous zechus to plan and run a community challah bake for the women and girls of, I'll say the city, Baltimore. Over 750 women and girls attended, that's a challah bake. Wow. The goal of the event was to come together in achdus at a time of simcha and to unite in tefillah. Sadly over the past year our community has gathered far too often during times of tzara. And we wanted this to be a moment of joy and togetherness. As Rebbetzin Hauer started off the night sharing that she grew up in Baltimore and never saw so many women in one room gathering not in a time of tzara, our goal was accomplished. I want to share a personal emunah moment, one that felt like a real turning point for me. I'd spent weeks, months planning the event. Stories specifically about our centerpieces. Coordinating centerpieces tables for 750 women was no small task. We wanted everything to be elegant and beautiful. Many of the centerpieces included wheat. One shipment arrived the week before the event, but two large orders was scheduled to arrive Wednesday morning so we could finish everything in time for the Thursday event. Here's where the moment happened. All day Wednesday I somehow thought it was Thursday. As I always do on Thursday mornings I put on the limmud of the shiur, completely unaware that it was actually Wednesday. In the shiur the woman was sharing a story about a woman who was always mafrish challah even in Bulgaria. In the middle of listening to the story about the mitzvah, and by the way Beers Global did work from Bulgaria, she wrote it didn't but she made her donation, we're very grateful, about the mitzvah of hafrashas challah, I received a screenshot from the woman running the event, the wheat delivery had been delayed until Friday. The message simply said. I paused the shiur, took a deep breath and sent a voice note back saying, this is the craziest thing, I'm listening to emunah shiur and our wheat is exactly where it's meant to be. We're going to embrace where we are and we'll figure it out. For me that reaction was huge. I don't know if those would have been my words or my response in the past. Baruch Hashem the story ends well, ran to Trader Joe's, found florals that could work and we adjusted. Everything came together beautifully, no one even knew there had been an issue. But for the next 24 hours leading up to the event, the phrase became our motto. Each time something else came up we handled it calmly with smiles, knowing Hashem was running the show and we simply announced we are where we're meant to be. I want to thank the Rav for the chizuk, blah blah blah, with much hakaras hatov. Sounds like a beautiful event. Again, I'm just repeating, I can't believe you come back or listen anymore, but for me it's chizuk every week cause we all have those moments. You can get bent out of shape, you can lose your cool, you can get angry and frustrated, you can point fingers and blame, or you can press pause and say, okay we did everything right, we ordered it in time, we paid, we did all that we were supposed to do, for whatever reason it wasn't delivered, so we weren't meant to have it. What's next? Let's pivot. What's next? And you can still smile. Mishenichnas Adar, when Adar enters us, Adar, Aleph Dar, אלופו של עולם דר, Adar is a synonym for emunah. Aleph Dar, God dwelling with us. I don't want to get into this, but what is Purim? What is the month of Adar? How many times does Hashem's name appear in the Megillah? Zero, none. If you read the Megillah as a critic, if you read the Megillah as a cynic, then you'll say, ah what a string of coincidences, look how things worked out. What does that do with God? You could read the Megillah as an atheist or agnostic and still find it to be a nice story. But what's our mission and purpose? We read it, it's called Megillas Esther. Megillas Esther because we're megaleh the nistar. We are revealing that which is hidden. Megillah means a scroll, but megaleh means to reveal. Esther is her name, she's named that because God's hiddenness, nistar is hidden. Megillas Esther, megaleh the nistar. We don't read the Megillah like everybody else, the atheist or agnostic. atheist, agnostic, cynic, they read the Megilla sarcastically saying, a string of coincidences. We read the Megilla and press pause, figuratively, and say, oh, that was God. Oh, that was a Hashem moment. Oh, there's a hashgacha pratis moment. All over the Megilla. Purim is one big hashgacha pratis voice note. Purim is one big hashgacha pratis entry into our journal. Where we're megalleh the nistar, where we reveal the hidden. And the whole avoda, the whole work of this month that we've just started is to do the same in our lives. Where you could look at the event of your life and say God's name doesn't appear. I don't see God. Where did he reveal himself? There's no open miracle. Or we could write his name in. We could read between the lines. We could reveal that which is hidden. We can find him in the story. You could be frustrated at wherever you ordered it from. Angry at Amazon. What happened? We ordered it on time. We paid in full. Where is it? Why hasn't it arrived? Or you could be megalleh the nistar and say we weren't meant to have that. We have better centerpieces in mind. Ladies, let's figure it out. What's next? What's next? And you do it with a smile. That's the marbim b'simcha. The simcha isn't fake. It's not artificial. The simcha's real. Because when you live with emuna you find joy and happiness. You find serenity and peace. Peace of mind that we all so desperately want. Dear Rabbi, I would love to hear Rebbetzin Yocheved behind the bima more often for a woman's perspective. It has nothing to do with emuna, but we allowed it anyway. I'd also love to hear her answer the question. How much to open up about her personal life challenges to the community members. On one hand, it makes being a Rebbetzin more personal. On the other, it's important to be guarded a little. Maybe she'll speak about it next week when she gives the emuna shiur when I'm away. Everyone want to hear Yocheved give the emuna shiur next week while I'm away? Okay. I don't know if she's going to record it and stream it. Sorry. No? But she may give it. We'll announce it. We'll let you know. My weekly emuna moment. Now at Rami Levy there's a new weighted system where you scan items as you go and weigh the cart at the end to check out. If you haven't seen it, it's Israeli innovation. It's fantastic. You get a little scanner and as you shop you scan each product and because the computer knows whatever you scanned, its weight, and it knows how much the whatever that thing is called weighs, the cart, then you stand on a scale, probably not you because then no one would shop, but you put the cart on a scale and it knows precisely, like if you have an extra feather in the cart, right? You have this experience of this if there's an extra feather. If you put an extra like little ketchup packet, it'll be like extra ketchup packet you didn't scan. It knows precisely. But also if you forgot to scan something it knows precisely. So the author writes, my weekly emuna moment is my shopping for my campus Friday night. This is from a Rebbetzin who the Jewish Learning Initiative on campus. Very special people doing amazing amazing holy work. When I'm shopping for my campus Friday night meal and usually one other event, sushi rolling night, birthday kiddush, couples date night, late night, ladies Rosh Chodesh, I have my cart full on the scale. I pray to Hashem as I'm holding the scanner that I've scanned everything and I don't have to rescan with the cashier. See the photo. That's a lot. Hashem usually passes me. There've been a couple of times where I have to unload everything and start over. But I try to tell myself the delay is where I'm meant to be. Baruch Hashem this week it passed with a little oola jingle and text appearing on the screen of the scanner. So there you go. Little emuna moments when it works out in that way. Also grateful to Hashem. Okay. This one's a little tougher. I want to do something a little different. I want to read you the email and I want to read you what I wrote back in response because we're learning it up. This is not the emails then the learning, we're learning through the emails. Rabbi, hope you and your family are well. Thank you for all you do. And the author writes, yada yada yada. You always talk about a wink from Hashem. What would you say about the following? The night before I was scheduled for a cancer test we went out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant. When I open up my fortune cookie there was no fortune. When we left the restaurant my car wouldn't start. The next morning my watch stopped working. When they wheeled me in for the biopsy the clock on the wall wasn't working. You always say there's no such thing as a coincidence. What do you make of all these things? By the way, PS, the results of the biopsy were not good. That's a tough email. The wink and the nod work out when you got the parking spot, when you made the flight, when you scanned all the items in your cart. Those are wonderful hugs and winks when the results came back and it was worried for nothing. But what about that email? So I wrote back the following, first I want you to know how much I admire your courage. To go through what you're going through and still be looking for a wink from Hashem, that itself is a wink and that itself is emuna. You describe a string of things, no fortune in the cookie, the car not starting, the watch stopping, the clock frozen. It's eerie, it gets your attention and you're right. I do say there's no [Error processing chunk 5] Baruch Hashem, Rabbi Goldberg, it's nice to see you recently. Last couple of weeks have been truly a rollercoaster. Two days after I came back from a trip, my father, who suddenly passed last year at the young age of 70, came to me in a dream two nights in a row smiling. His first yahrtzeit had just passed a few days before. I realized I could be pregnant and after taking a pregnancy test, in fact I was. I had just been on rollercoasters, taking strong medicine for a cold, everything you're not supposed to do when you're pregnant. It's been four years since I was able to get pregnant, so I was not expecting it. It was very surprised. At first my husband and I were taken aback because our kids are older, we didn't think we could anymore, and then we received this bracha. We embraced it with caution and were grateful to Hashem. Unfortunately, I did not feel so great for the first couple of weeks and blood work wasn't promising. Last week I was told I was going to have a miscarriage. This is my fourth miscarriage, Baruch Hashem, however, I have three beautiful healthy children. My husband and I try to take the answer with love, understanding that sometimes all a neshama needs is kosher conception, but it's never easy. So here I was, not knowing when the cramps would suddenly begin, going to a work event. I armed myself with all the strength I had and got in the car. A ride that should have taken one hour was saying it would be an hour forty-five, which would mean I'd be 45 minutes late. So I channeled Rabbi Goldberg: I am exactly where I'm meant to be. I put on the Living with Emunah shiur. Along my very long ride, I just got pulled over by a cop. You were speaking about Tehillim 23. Honestly, I wasn't sure why you kept going on about it as it was based on another shiur, but as the cop went to check my record, I said it along with Tehillim 86, peh vav, which is also a very powerful Tehillim. Anyway, the cop came back and gave me a warning, no ticket. That was my first wink from Hashem. That was Hashem saying to me, \"I got you.\" The cramps started literally once the last donor left the room. That was my second wink from Hashem that day. I went on with my very long drive and then you started speaking about women who had miscarriages. One on Parshat Beshalach. The week of Parshat Beshalach, we went to the doctor for an ultrasound because the blood work wasn't making sense. He thought he'd find nothing but in fact he found a sac measuring five weeks. We were all surprised, especially the doctor. While the pregnancy didn't materialize, it was a wink from Hashem that there was something there. We spent Parshat Beshalach singing shira to Hashem, making kiddush and hoping for better news. While that's not the news we received, Hashem let me know I could get pregnant even at my age. I don't yet have my bigger wink of a baby in my arms, and maybe I never will. I don't understand why my father came to me in that dream to announce the pregnancy and then it didn't work out. It's still very hard, and yet this time I'm calmer than other times. I understand it's better now than later on, and if it's not meant to be. I also internalized that maybe all the neshama needed was a kosher conception, a mikvah, some mitzvos parents. I apologize for the long email. I appreciate again the comfort. I'm going to read this part even though it's awkward for me but I ran into this person and she shared it with me. She wrote: I appreciate again the comfort you gave me. I initially brushed it off and the more I thought about it, I really appreciated it. My friends and family around me all said: maybe it's for the better, you have so much on your plate, maybe you should think about not trying anymore. I know it comes from a place of love and I know I have a beautiful family but it's not what I needed to hear. What I needed to hear was \"I'm sorry you're hurting, I'm sorry for your loss, and I feel your pain.\" And I'm so grateful that's what you said. Gut Shabbos. She shared as we've talked about before that even with the Emunah shiur and as much as we are learning it and trying to live it, we're not meant to impose it on... But as we've learned and shared, our emuna is not meant to be imposed and projected onto others. You don't tell somebody going through a tough time who told you about the miscarriage they're having or at the Shiva call that you're paying or the Tomchei Shabbos you're delivering, you don't say, oh, I just heard this emuna shiur, embrace your place, you're meant to have this miscarriage, the best thing that ever happened to you, why are you so sad sitting Shiva? That person's in a better place, you had them all this time, smile. You don't say that. That's not how we're supposed to live with emuna. Emuna we don't project or demand or coerce on others. And so when someone's going through a tough time you say, that stinks, I feel your pain, that's so hard, I'm with you by your side, what can we do to help? You don't give a lecture in emuna. And that she shared with me, again I'm grateful in that moment Hashem put those words in my mouth, I don't think I'm exceptional, any of you, most of you, all of you do too, but it's important to remember that. As excited, as pumped, as much as we're turning and expanding this into a movement, it's a movement to inspire ourselves. That's true with people going through a hard time, by the way it's true with your spouse and children or your neighbor or friend. Just because you're on fire with emuna, don't come home and demand or expect from other people in your life, because instead of their being more excited about it, you're actually gonna push them further away. The best thing you can do is model it and show and demonstrate. Wow, you're different. You're a better spouse, you're a better parent, you're a better friend, you're a better worker, you're a better colleague because you're living with emuna. Smile more, you're happier, you're more go with the flow, you're more flexible, you're more living life. And when someone says, I noticed you're different, what's going on, what's happening with you, then you can get in and explain, you know, the more I embrace my place and I let go let God, the more I live with Hashem, the more I press pause and try to grow from the moment, the happier I've become and if you want to know more about it, I'm happy to tell you, but that's the more important and the better attitude to bring. So as inspired as we are, as much as we're trying to grow this, last week somebody sent me a picture of a shul, you know shuls have big screens and it promotes upcoming programs, so there was a picture of the cover of the podcast Living with Emuna and apparently in that shul there's a group that get together to watch it and then they talk about it. So they watch it together and then they talk about it. Where in their life did they see all kinds of exercises, conversations, discussions, love to duplicate and replicate and expand that and grow that. It was really exciting. Page kuf lamed gimmel, Shaarei Tefillah, Rav David Abuhatzeira, לקיים את התורה הקדושה בשעה שעוסק במשא ומתן קשה מאוד. This is very important, listen carefully. This beautiful teaching, we have plenty of sheets up here if you want to read and follow inside and mark it up and underline and asterisk to highlight and translate. Write the translation. You want to grow your Hebrew, write the translation on top. My first summer at Morasha Kollel in high school, which was my breakthrough in learning, I still have it at home, it's a cherished, cherished possession of mine. I had a Gemara Rosh Hashana and in those days there was no ArtScroll, I had the maroon Soncino Gemara, and I sat that whole summer and I wrote over from the English Soncino on top of every word. I have a Gemara Rosh Hashana that over every word is handwritten the translation. Every daf, every amud, every word of that Gemara. That's the only way you're going to grow. So don't just be a passive spectator as I'm reading and translating. This sefer I don't think is out in English yet. Sit, I make the handout for you, the trees died for you. So write, write the translation, underline if a sentence jumped out at you, look at it later, share it. לקיים את התורה הקדושה בשעה שעוסק משא ומתן קשה מאוד. To fulfill and live the holy Torah while occupied with business and with life is very difficult. ונצרך לכך שמירה מעולה. It's very hard. You know it's easy when you come to shul for living with emuna, you pour your coffee or your slushy, you take your pastry, you sit back and, oh, I'm on fire, Hashem, he loves me, I love him, oh, it's amazing. But then you go to work, you've got that miserable boss, or you've got the person who's not really performing, you've got incredible work and deadlines that you have to meet and you have to get done, you're exhausted and so many other things going on, you can't get to inbox zero, you can't get to inbox 100 if your life depended on it, and now you're supposed to be thinking about Hashem and emuna and Torah? It's certainly incredibly hard and it requires a shemira me'ulah says Rav David Abuhatzeira. Requires tremendous divine assistance. Shelo ledaber sheker. So hard to be honest and truthful, to have integrity. You say, that's not hard, we're honest people. But the truth is in business, business is a place of tremendous exaggeration, distortion, manipulation... it's so easy and we're so invited. Why are you late? Dog ate my homework. Whatever reason, it's so easy to distort, twist the truth, white lie, שלא להונות את חברו בראיו שמיעה ובכל העניינים, and to not aggrieve a friend, a colleague, a coworker, a customer. Vezeh amel gadol, to be mindful, spiritual, to be present at work with godliness is hard, it's hard work, it's toil. לכן בשעה שאדם רוצה ללכת לעסוק במשא ומתן. Listen to what we're up to. I didn't see this, I didn't plan this, I didn't prepare this. Listen to what we're up to and listen to remember what we gave out last week. לכן בשעה שאדם רוצה ללכת לעסוק במשא ומתן יעמוד אצל הפתח ויתן ידו על המזוזה ויאמר רבונו של עולם. So what should you do? When you're going out to work, stop at the threshold, at the doorway and put your hand on the mezuza and recite a tefillah. Last week we gave out the little sign to put under the mezuza. There are no coincidences. The fact that Julie Erlich gave me that box to give out the week before we're about to learn this suggestion of Rav Dovid Abuhatzeira, there are no coincidences. Hashem is loving this shiur. רבונו של עולם אנא שמרני מדבר שקר ומלצנות. Hashem, I'm going into work. Help me, protect me, guide me, inspire me. Let me not distort or twist the truth. Let me not letzonus, be a clown, be frivolous. Let me not waste time. שמרני מרכילות ומשנאת חינם. Protect me from gossip, let me not gossip at the water cooler, let me not be filled with hate or introduce any tension, umish'ar devarim hara'im, for all other bad things that could go wrong. It's a beautiful image. I would expand it, not only when you're going out to work, when you're going out wherever you're going. Going to the gym, I'm going to the supermarket, wherever I'm going, that mezuza's on the doorway for a reason. And whether it's on our way out to take all of our values of our home with us, whether it's on our way in, how we're going to behave, inspire, inform, empower us on our way in. Let me, at the gym, let me look at what I'm supposed to look at, let me think what I'm supposed to think, let me be safe and secure, let me be successful, let it be productive. Everything, wherever we're going, whatever we're doing, there's the opportunity for a little tefillah, a little tefillah, a little Hashem, please help me. And what better place to do it than at the door with our hand on the mezuza? That's why Hashem did it. He put a little Sefer Torah on the doorpost of everywhere we go. If you think about it, it's amazing. On the one hand, the shul is the holy place. What are we going to read this week? Parshas Terumah. We're being introduced to the Mishkan, which is a mikdash maat, the miniature temple. The Mishkan, the OG Mikdash, the Tabernacle, the Mishkan is the holy place because God wanted to have a dwelling place, dirah betachtonim. The Ribono shel olam, the Almighty, wanted to have a dwelling place down here on Earth. So He gave us the prescription, the formula, to build Him the house of God. And when you went there, you saw miracles. The mishna in Avos tells us there were ten miracles a day in the Beis Hamikdash. So a person was filled with doubt or uncertainty, they simply made their way to the Mikdash and then they gained their confidence. I have to embrace my place, let go, let God. The Mikdash was a place that I could be mindful, remember that there is a Hashem, there is a Hashem. We don't have a Beis Hamikdash today. What do we have? A shul, the mikdash maat, the miniature temple. And the shul's the place that we come to learn, to davven, to connect, to feel His intense presence. So you might think religious life, activity, spirituality is relegated to the shul. My home, that's a place where I make dinner, do homework, talk, shmooze, sleep, work out. What Hakadosh Baruch Hu did for us is, by giving us the mitzvah of mezuza and putting it on the doorposts of our lives, He's transformed even what seemed to be mundane places into another level of a little mikdash, a little mikdash. You don't have to go to shul and open the aron kodesh. You don't have to go to shul and point or hold or kiss or touch the Torah. Every time you come in and out of that room, you put your hand on that mezuza, it's a little Torah. Two parshiyos in the mezuza come from our Torah. It's written on a klaf, it's written with ink. Those who learn the Daf Yomi, we just in Menachos covered all the sugyos of mezuza. Sirtut, what has to happen, ink, klaf, it's a little miniature, it's rolled up and wrapped up, it is a little miniature Sefer Torah. On the doorway, the doorpost of our homes is a little miniature Sefer Torah. And we're supposed to, this is one of our themes we're building on, the capacity, the ability I have to work on it to press pause. We're normally running in a room, running out of a room. We don't even remember the room. Were we talking to someone on the way in, on the way out? We were on the phone, we were scrolling, we were texting, the room, the door, we don't remember anything. We're living in super-speed. sonic speed and we're destroying our lives in the process. And the ability to slow down and live life, because everything in life is meant to be lived and is better experienced when you slow it down. From savoring that glass of wine, slowly chewing that delicious food, enjoying that heiliga cup of coffee, embracing that conversation and that time with a loved one or a dear friend, everything in life is better slowed down. We are better, we process more, we experience more, we embed and remember more. So when you walk through that door, slow down, stop and put a hand on a mezuzah. You want to talk about the impact on others? Don't tell your spouse, your children, don't demand, \"the mezuzah, touch the mezuzah, don't forget the mezuzah\", let them just see you, what it does. When you're walking in or out of the room, and when you do, how you're transformed by it. Maybe on your way in the room when you come home, after a long and difficult day, you're frazzled and you're miserable, you're upset, you're angry, you're worked up, but you touch the mezuzah. You took a deep breath and you restored your neshama with your neshima and it restored you and centered you. And now I'm ready. I touched the mezuzah. I remember what has to happen in this home. I remember who I'm meant to be. I remember to be my best self. Let's go. Let's do it. We got it. What's my mission in this moment? That mezuzah is incredible. There's no technology. It's not multimedia. It's not battery-powered, but it's the strongest thing in your house. The mezuzah is the strongest thing in your house. More than any device, it is broadcasting the loudest message. It can inject us, it is the shot that we need. Stop and touch it, says Rav Dovid Abuchatzeira. So you're going out to go to work or wherever you're meant to go, stop and touch that mezuzah and offer Ribbono shel Olam a little prayer. וזה פירש במשנה יפה תלמוד תורה עם דרך ארץ שתמיד בשעת עסק משא ומתן ינהג הכל על פי התורה. תלמוד תורה עם דרך ארץ. Derech Eretz in the context of this Mishnah in Pirkei Avot. Derech Eretz doesn't just mean tuck your chair in. Certainly it does mean that. Derech Eretz, have Derech Eretz, say please, say thank you, tuck your chair in, that's Derech Eretz. Derech Eretz, when the rabbis use the term Derech Eretz, they meant earning a living, a livelihood. That's Derech Eretz. When the Mishnah says יפה תלמוד תורה עם דרך ארץ, it means bring the Torah with you to work. Bring the Torah with you to work doesn't mean neglect your work to be learning Torah, that's stealing from your employer, that's forbidden. Bring the Torah to work doesn't mean imposing on everyone around you divrei Torah all day. Listen to this gematria, listen to this vort. No. What it means, bring Torah, יפה תלמוד תורה עם דרך ארץ, bring God to work day. Bring God to work day is every day. Every day is bring God to work day. And at work it means that when someone's frustrating you, disappointing you, something's not going your way, bring God to work. God's walking, He's by your side. He's right next to you, He's watching. He's lifting you, He's empowering you, but He's also watching you. How will you act and react? How will you treat the people around you even when you're frustrated and the planning is not going great and you're in the office until late at night? Do you speak calmly and respectfully and nicely? Do you speak nicely to the people around you? יפה תלמוד תורה עם דרך ארץ, with the Derech Eretz at your place of work, yafeh Talmud Torah, bring Hashem. Every day is bring Hashem to work day. You know those people who when they're at shul they're one way, sweet, kind, patient, spiritual, Baruch Hashem, im yirtzeh Hashem, big givers of tzedakah, they go to the Daf Yomi, they go to the shiur, and then when you encounter them in business they're ruthless, they're mean, they're cutthroat, they need to win at all costs? So what just happened here? Who are you? Which are you? And in their mind, there's no contradiction. Yeah, that's shul, that's spiritual, that's kindness, that's tzedakah, that's volunteering. Work is work. And work brings out of such a person ruthless competition, marketing, cruelty to the people who work for them. No, we have to be the same person. יפה תלמוד תורה עם דרך ארץ. Every day is bring God to work day. And if you're a different person at work than you are in shul or at home, then who's the real you? The Gemara says, the Gemara says Rav Yosef would make a big meal, a big celebration when he accomplished Torah learning, because he said without Torah כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא. So the simple translation, כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא, without Torah in my life I'd be like any other Joe in the street. But the ba'alei mussar say, no, כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא, kama Yosef, how many versions of me would there be? Without Torah to integrate my personality and my life, without Torah to make me live a consistent life, כמה יוסף איכא בשוקא, how many versions of me would there be? There's the me at shul, the me at home, there's the me on the pickleball court, the me at work. work, there's the me late at night, the me in the early in the morning. There's the me when people are watching, there's the me when I'm alone. Without Torah informing, inspiring our life, how many versions of me would there be? So here Rav David Abuchatzeira exactly when we needed him to tell us to remember the value of the Mezuzah, just when we got the sign to put underneath it, I love you Hashem, is reminding us that our home is a little Mikdash and we have a little Sefer Torah posted on the door. And not just the front door. You might have thought the Mitzvah of Mezuzah is on the front door, I got it, that covers the whole house. Every door, because every room in that house needs that mindfulness. From the kitchen, the little prayer before you put the potato Kugel in the oven, the little prayer when someone was supposed to turn the oven off but missed the timer and the chicken got a little well-done, the prayer, the serenity prayer, that's the serenity prayer on that way out to the prayer in the kitchen. And then there's the Mezuzah and the Tefillah in the workout space. And there's also the Tefillah in the bedroom. There's the Mezuzah on all of these spaces, in every space, the little Ribono Shel Olam for what we hope, what we need, what we're grateful for in each of those spaces, we have a little Sefer Torah pinned to the wall, reminding us: Stop. Don't live sonic speed. Pause. Put your hand on the Mezuzah. Say thank you Hashem. Thank you for this room and the people in it, everything I have. Thank you. Please, I need your help. Let this go well. Please, let me live up to my potential and be my best self at work, wherever we go. So Emunah is not meant to be relegated simply to what we call holy spaces like a Shul and a Beis Medrash, comes with us and we live with it wherever we go and wherever we are. So next week Yocheved's giving—not live, not streamed or recorded, but she'll be giving the Emunah shiur. And I hope, if you could wait a week to attack Iran, that would be great if you're listening. Mr. President, if you're listening, if you can wait a week, I'd really appreciate it. That would mean a lot to me personally and our group. If you can't, I understand. We'll embrace our place, we'll understand, we'll understand. But now, questions and answers quickly for those who are here in person and offline. For those watching, stay happy.
