Transcript
Okay, good morning. Wow, that introduction! I feel like you just gave the whole shiur. That was amazing. Thank you so much. Thank you for your generous sponsorship and you should have nechama, strength, comfort, those incredible memories, that incredible example, and thank you for your really special words. That was an amazing introduction. And thank you all for being here. You know, this is an experiment. As you know last week, or maybe you don't know, but in the Emunah shiur I floated this idea that I'll be here, Baruch Hashem, for simchas and I'd love to give the shiur on location and several people reached out offering their living room. Several shuls reached out. I want to thank Rabbi Schrier, thank Rabbi Trump, who's not here, but my dear friends for opening up Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst for welcoming me, for making this so easy, so accommodating. It really means the world to me and it's amazing to be with friends and a community of people who are looking to learn, to grow together in our emunah, in our relationship with Hashem, in ourselves, with one another. It really is very, very special and it means the world to me. So if you listen ordinarily, you sort of know the routine. We start out with our attitude of gratitude. We thank our generous sponsors. We do so not just because if we want people to sponsor we have to acknowledge them, we do so because gratitude is part of living with emunah. Gratitude is part of what it means to be a Yid. Gratitude is the attitude we wake up with every day. The first words on our lips, we've spoken about many times, our Modeh Ani Lifanecha. We don't say Ani Modeh even though grammatically it's more correct. I am grateful. We say grateful am I, which is clumsy, awkward, and sounds absolutely bizarre. You would never walk up to someone and say, grateful am I to you for hosting me at Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst. You say I am grateful. And yet, the reason we start with that incorrect grammar is because ani, the first word on our lips when we wake up, can't be I. I, me, ego. We wake up with Modeh. Grateful. I'm grateful. I open my eyes, I'm alive. I'm grateful. I'm grateful. What a miracle it is to be alive and what a miracle it is to be here. So we start out, thank you to our generous Emunah series sponsors, Dr. Zavi and Bella Morgan, in memory of Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, one of the reasons I am here. Rabbi Dr. Brian Galbut, zichrono l'vracha, son Azi's getting married tonight, im yirtzeh Hashem, a big beautiful simcha. So excited to celebrate. His neshama certainly will be there under the chuppah. And in memory of Bella's mother, Dr. Ellen Shanzer, and in honor of all the soldiers they should be safe while they protect and guard us. A huge thank you to the Morgans. Series is also generously sponsored anonymously in memory of the fallen soldiers and alumni of בני דוד מכינה ישיבה in Eli. This week we're highlighting Tzvika Kaplan, born in Haifa, served the Golani brigade, became a commanding officer. He lived on Kibbutz Merav with his family. He was killed in combat during Operation Protective Edge in 2014 at 28 years old. He's remembered for his leadership, integrity, and dedication to his soldiers. This morning's shiur is also sponsored by Shmuel and Essa Schaye, l'ilui nishmas רפאל יעקב יהודה בן גדליה, and z'chus of refuah sheleima for her mother בתשבע בת בלומא רבקה. Anonymously in memory of the first yahrtzeit l'ilui nishmas דבורה בת דוד מאיר, as we heard l'ilui nishmas Ellen Galbut, בריינא בת אברהם ליפא, im b'nei u'vnos simcha and emunah. Thank you for elaborating. And lastly, today is my Bubby's yahrtzeit, my grandmother's yahrtzeit, so we dedicate the shiur in memory of my grandmother Ruth Aboff, יענטא רחל בת שמואל, her neshama should have an aliyah. I hope she is looking down from Shamayim and is proud. Okay, so we're going to start a new limud today. We were learning Rabbi Dovber Abuhatzeira Sha'arei Tefilla, the importance of davening not only for gashmius. We daven not only for physical material success in this world. All of us want good health and strength. All of us want blessing in our life, but ruchnius. Too many people forget, they omit a tefilla for ruchnius. Hashem, help me daven well and Hashem help me learn well and Hashem help me have a generous spirit and an open heart. And we have to daven for ruchnius. And in fact, when we frame all of our tefilla in the context of ruchnius, the reason, Hashem, I need a house and a car, I need health and mobility, I need resources and material things, is so I can serve You. How could I be Your employee of the month? How could I be Your agent ambassador? How could I fulfill my mission in this world if I don't have the resources? So I'm not asking it because of ego. I'm asking, my tefilla is couched in Elokus. Not me, my pleasure, my need, my want, my ego. It's in order to serve You. How could I do? I want to be marbeh kavod Shamayim, I want to make You proud, I want to advance our mission, לקדש את שמך בעולם. And therefore, and therefore, help me. This morning, driving here, so Ribbono Shel Olam, I'm going to be in a different place. I don't have the Wi-Fi, I forgot my camera, I don't have the setup. For You, not for me. Yeah, it'd be embarrassing if I flopped and failed and it looked like I couldn't get it streaming and recording and nobody showed. But I said, Ribbono Shel Olam, for You, there's a community of people we're learning together, we're growing together, we're working out together, we're exercising our emunah muscles together. Let it work. Every tefilla couched and delivered through the perspective not of me, not of my need, my want, not my ego, but Ribbono Shel Olam, I want to serve You. I want to be marbeh kavod Shamayim, I want to make You proud, I want to advance our mission, לקדש את שמך בעולם. And therefore, and therefore, help me. But we're going to move over now to a new limud and that is a beautiful essay on, I'll give you one guess, which kapitel in Tehillim? That is correct, 23. I was at a wedding... I loved it, my place card from Goldberg, 23, 23. So Kapittel Chaf Gimmel, which we've fallen in love with, מזמור לדוד ה' רעי לא אחסר, we're going to take a look at a beautiful, beautiful ma'amar from the Gerer Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Shaul Alter, shlita. But beforehand, always we look at some emails. The reason we read the emails is not stam entertainment, read the emails because it reinforces what we're learning. It's incredibly, incredibly motivating to see the people who are putting the what we're learning into practice, who are finding the menuchas hanefesh, the serenity and the tranquility and the calm and who are improving their mental, physical, emotional health by living with emuna and bitachon in life, that no matter what life throws our way, no matter the circumstance, no matter what we're going through, we can endure and we can navigate if we remember that it's not chance or coincidence, it's not random, but rather it is all from above. So we'll start with the first one. Rabbi Goldberg, hope all is well, wanted to let you know I've really been enjoying the technology challenge and I find it rewarding. I have a crazy phone addiction, so the challenges have started helping me. Past few months I've felt a little disconnected, haven't davened, learned Torah as much as I'd like to. Last night for the challenge, because I had two hours, I decided to take out a sefer and my Thank You Hashem journal I received a long time ago but hadn't used. If you don't know, we are in the last week of the 30-day technology challenge. It's not my brainchild, my dear friend Rav Eliyuda Goldvicht of D'vei Rubin came up with this technology challenge. We've been doing it. We have almost 3,000 people in the technology challenge. It's still been growing by the day and by the week. Really diverse, fascinating across many continents and countries. Every day there's another challenge connected to the phone. Today's challenge, for example, if you're not on, how many people here are on it? Anybody on the technology challenge? Amazing, amazing. So today's challenge, I hope you saw earlier this morning, was to pick up the phone for two hours, pick up the phone with your opposite hand. If you're a lefty with your right hand, if you're a righty with your left hand, and just the little things, just the inconvenience, the discomfort of doing something a little bit differently, we can recondition ourselves, we could change our habits to spend less time. It's really remarkable, the people on the technology challenge. So the author of this email says because of the technology challenge, they had two hours, because we said one of the previous challenges was to go off the phone two hours before bed. We had a lot of challenges, we're in the last week as I said. Two hours, so she decided to take out her technology, her Thank You Hashem journal rather that she hadn't used in a long time. As soon as I was ready to start writing in the journal, I opened it up and a really important old check that I was missing for a year fell out. So what's the moral of the story? If you use the technology challenge, you'll find money. Moral of the story, not the moral of the story. For close to a year it fell out. I thought it was crazy and really makes me want to continue with the journal and learn every day. All I had to do was start and Hashem would help me find the check. Check probably wouldn't have worked in a few weeks as it was from last June. Thank you for the challenge because I don't know when I would have taken the journal out if not for the challenge last night. So you see, sometimes we take a little step, we make a little positive move towards improving ourselves, to growing, to centering ourselves, to connect to Hashem and you could feel that wink, that hug, that nod, that love. Here this person was looking for this check for almost a year and soon it would have become null and void. But is it directly correlated? I'll take a pause. I had Shabbos lunch this past week with someone who I am very close to and I love very much who gave me a little pushback. The emuna shiur, these stories, they're nice, they're cute, they're lovely, but does it minimize Hashem? Is it really true? Every turtle, every feather, every rainbow, every sign, you're supposed to interpret it, it's a message Hashem is sending you. It was a long Shabbos lunch. It was a short Shabbos afternoon nap and a bonus emuna discussion and a long Shabbos lunch. But it really got me to think and there's some merit. I don't think we're meant to live our lives asking Hashem for signs in such a way that's borderline chas v'shalom the Torah prohibition of kishuf. We're not sorcerers, we're not magicians, we're not looking for signs and omens, we're not spinning ouija boards and shaking, what are those things called? Eight balls. We're not looking, we don't consult horoscopes. We have many Torah prohibitions, Torah issurim, that we don't subscribe to such silly superstition. That's how we lived in Mitzrayim. Egypt was a place of silly superstition. Hashem took us out of Mitzrayim, why? V'yada'atem, so we can know that he's in our life, everything is from him. And we should never become confused, and it's a fine line, dangerously close line between living with emuna and bitachon, interpreting and seeing the winks and nods, the hugs from Hashem and chalila going over that line and seeing things as magic and sorcery and a sign and an omen. Dangerously close. We have to be exceedingly, exceedingly... be exceedingly, exceedingly careful. But I do believe, and I believe this with all my heart and all my being, I believe that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is talking to us all day every day through the lives that we're living. When I came in this morning and there was a parking spot open in the parking lot, I said, \"Thank you, Hashem.\" I wasn't sure. I don't daven here often. I know it's not so pashut or so simple. Would there be one on the street? Would there still be one in the lot? That's I choose, I choose to see that as a wink and a nod, a hug from Hashem. Who doesn't need hugs? Who doesn't need a little love? Who doesn't want to feel seen? Who doesn't need some validation? Who doesn't want to feel that they matter and that what's happening to them is not random and chance and coincidence, but that what's happening to them is because there's someone who loves them and who sees them? And whether that's the parking spot or, im yirtzeh Hashem, bli ayin hara, the Wi-Fi or hotspot connection that's continuing to work, it's coming from Hashem and it's in those moments that we see Him and that we feel Him. And I don't think, and the author of that email is saying, it's not a coincidence. In the moment I took out my gratitude to Hashem journal that I hadn't opened in a long time, the check that I was looking for fell out. In the moment that I paused my life to say, \"Thank you, Hashem. I want to journal. I want to write. I want to count, literally, the ways I'm grateful to You.\" Hashem says, \"Let me throw one more your way. Let me give you one more reason to be grateful. Here's that check you've been looking for.\" It was in front of you all along. You just had to express gratitude. All you had to do was open the gratitude journal and you'd find the shefa bracha that you were looking for all along. Sometimes it's when we find those things when you do the technology challenge. And it doesn't have to be hours, and our hour's almost over, but it means that when we make the space and the quiet, we can find the bracha, the shefa bracha from Hashem. I'm sorry my back is to you. I apologize. You see this in this week's parsha. We try to intersperse Torah with the emails. The emails are also Torah. The emails need a birchas haTorah because we darshen them up, we learn them together. In this week's parsha we begin the fourth book of the Torah. Hakadosh Baruch Hu speaks to Moshe bemidbar Sinai. Bemidbar Sinai. The Gemara tells us, Chazal tell us, not a coincidence that we always read parshas Bemidbar, we begin sefer Bemidbar before Shavuos. The lessons, the message of Bemidbar get us in the right frame of mind, they put us in the right place for kabbalas haTorah. We're ready to receive the Torah. Chazal say a person has to be mesim atzmo kemidbar. You have to turn yourself into a barren desert, a clean slate. When we live our life trying to impose on Torah our values, when we try to make Torah conform... excuse me, to us, you can't receive Torah. To truly authentically receive Torah without distorting it, without manipulating it, without corrupting it or compromising it, you have to be a clean slate. You have to be like a midbar. You have to be like a midbar. That's the classic understanding. But Rabbi Sacks, zichrono livracha, he interpreted a little bit differently, such a beautiful idea. He said, \"Why is it the Torah is received in the midbar? What is it about the midbar? Certainly the barrenness, the openness of it. But what is it about the midbar?\" So he says, the etymology of the word midbar. We can hear the medaber and we can receive the medubar in the midbar. Because the desert is a place of silence. The desert is empty. There's no technology, there's no multimedia, there are no screens. You've been in a hotel lobby recently? The screens are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. You can't take two steps without being overwhelmed by the multimedia, by the distraction, by everything happening and everything going wrong, everything going around us. The midbar is the exact opposite. It's quiet and it's still, and there's no distraction. And it's there that you can hear the medaber. Hakadosh Baruch Hu is speaking to us, but there's so much noise, and there's so much friction, and there's so much static, and there's so many distractions. How can you hear Him if you're walking around typing and scrolling and you've got earbuds in your ears and you can't hear the rustle of the leaves and you're not feeling the breeze against your neck and you're not seeing the parking spot because you were on the phone when you parked and you didn't even notice how lucky you were to get it, then you're not going to hear the messages. A person has to be and put themselves sometimes in that midbar, that place of stillness and silence and quiet to hear the medaber and to receive the medubar, that which is being, that which is being spoken. That's why we're doing this challenge. Like I say, one week left, it's almost over, but it's not the end. It's really only then beginning to hopefully permanently make some changes in our life to sometimes shut down and disconnect. And what a gift we have every Shabbos. Every Shabbos we go into that midbar state so we can hear the medaber and receive the medubar and connect with the Ribbono shel Olam. Eliyahu HaNavi, the great prophet, doesn't connect to Hashem among all the pomp and circumstance and lightning and thunder and the big show. When does he Connect? When does he hear the kol demama dakka in the silence, in the stillness, in the stillness. So sometimes you gotta shut off the noise. You gotta disconnect. You have to in silence just. When's the last time? Maybe I'll challenge you right now. Some of you are walking home, some of you have a one-minute drive home, others a little bit longer. Don't take out your phone. Don't put on a podcast or a shiur, don't make a call, don't turn on the radio, don't put on music. Just be in a midbar in your car. A little stillness, a little silence, a little quiet. Hear the medaber and receive the medubur and hear inside yourself your voice, receive his Torah, his message. Feel that hug, look for that wink and that nod, extend that antenna and pick up that signal. Maybe a check will fall out of the glove compartment. Maybe a check will fall off the dashboard. Who knows what's going to happen? And if nothing happens, that's also okay. But sometimes just in that stillness we're able to hear and feel Hashem. Rabbi Goldberg, last night I dreamt I was in your class. The sweetest of dreams. Some would say it's a nightmare, but I think it's a dream. I dreamt I was in your class and taking it to mean I need to reach out. Today is my daughter's first birthday. Baruch Hashem she was born ten weeks early and only a few months after both my parents passed away. I started listening to your class this summer and when she was diagnosed with a very rare brain infection. The neurologist told us she would never have meaningful movement. Fast forward, here we are one year later. We met with the same neurologist yesterday. He was beyond capitals in shock from my baby. She surpassed all the odds. She's where she should be developmentally at twelve months old. I would not have had the strength to push all the boundaries without your shiur, living with emuna in Hashem. Whatever Hashem does is for our benefit. These lessons are my guiding principles every day. I'm teaching this to my students as well. Thank you for everything. Continue to have sweet dreams. Okay. Rabbi Goldberg, an emuna story to share with you. As you know, I've been a long-time listener, living with emuna. It's been a huge inspiration to completely change my relationship with Hashem. My impact in life almost every day. We're going to start in a moment. We're going to start with the text in a minute. This year has been one of the more challenging years of my life. Between navigating life in Israel as a relatively new oleh during a war, my young son being diagnosed with autism and a year-long infertility journey, I've definitely been working out my emuna muscles. Undergoing fertility treatment during the war is a very unique experience. Treatments and checkups are time-sensitive, but my doctor is in miluim. That meant, it gives you just another layer of appreciation. If we're not in awe and endless gratitude to our brothers and sisters in Israel of what they've been doing and how they've been living for close to three years, all of a sudden we learn another layer of appreciation we didn't even realize we should have. How many others need a doctor's appointments but their doctor they're waiting for for their health and wellness or their fertility journey is in miluim. Listen what she writes. That meant getting calls from his personal number when he had a free minute while he was in Gaza. It meant traveling around the country to get the necessary ultrasounds and checkups since there are so many doctors in miluim, there are no backup doctors when yours is gone. I'm so grateful in the end baruch Hashem I was able to get everything I needed and found out I was pregnant. We were on such a high, felt like I was doing this process during the war made it even more meaningful. Soon after we got our son's official autism diagnosis, which in some ways relieving and in some ways scary, but was made easier by the fact that we were still riding such a high from the pregnancy. And then two days later, we ended up in the hospital because I was having a miscarriage. It was one of the lowest points of my life. I felt like Hashem was giving me more than I can handle. I kept thinking of the vort you told before Rosh Hashana a few years ago. You asked why we say shana tova umesuka. Isn't it repetitive to say tova umesuka? Why do we wish one another a good and sweet year, a happy and sweet year? The answer was that everything from Hashem is by definition good, but not everything good is sweet. So the year by definition is going to be tova somehow. It's what's right, it's what's meant for us. Somehow, it's not mine, it's from the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Somehow, it's always tova, but we don't want it to just be tova, we want it to be a tova that's mesuka. We want it to be sweet. During this time I kept davening for Hashem to give me what felt sweet, not just what was good. Here comes the crazy part. I've heard so many people write emuna emails telling you how just when they needed it, they turned on the shiur and heard exactly what they need. There was a huge part of me wanting that too. I considered clicking on a random shiur with the hope it would speak to my situation. In the end, I was too scared it wouldn't and I'd be too disappointed. Fast forward one week later, I was driving to a doctor's appointment thirty minutes away. I said I finally felt okay enough to listen to the shiur even if it wouldn't speak to me in a special way. Lo and behold, a few minutes into the shiur you started reading an email from someone who while getting her nails done accidentally stumbled on the shiur. Remember last week's email? She was getting her nails done, she finished what she wanted to listen to, never heard of this clown Goldberg, but Spotify put my shiur on. She tried to turn it off because she never heard of the clown Goldberg and never had a dream of being in the shiur. And because her nails were wet, she couldn't turn it off and she was forced to listen. Thank you Hashem. Anyway, she wrote in, she was glad she did because she herself was going through infertility and miscarriage, got chizuk from hearing us read an email. from someone else on a similar situation. So the author of this email writes, \"My jaw dropped. I felt like Hashem heard my plea, decided to give me the most specific sign He was listening and that He loves me and He was with me.\" It almost felt too good to be true. Throughout this journey, I felt so many little hugs from Hashem. This one was especially meaningful. Thank you for the Emuna Shiur, inspiring and providing chizuk to so many people. Thank you to whoever wrote both of those emails. Your willingness to share your stories allowed me to feel a huge hug from Hashem. So if you hesitate and you don't know if you should, when you write that email and you share your story and your strength, you are giving other people strength too. We've shared this many times. Right now, I didn't connect through the Wi-Fi, but we're using a hotspot. A hotspot. These emails are the hotspot. Some people are struggling. They're buffering. They're not getting a good connection high-speed on their own. They're struggling. My davening, my learning, I don't feel it, I don't know it, but we can use someone else as a hotspot. When someone else is tapped into their emuna, when someone else is connected high-speed to Hashem, when you read and hear their story, we can connect high-speed through them. So thank them for sending their emails. Why do I love that email? You've heard this from me so many times and this relates to my conversation last Shabbos lunch. I love the emails that are not \"And then the check fell out.\" I love that email. Thank you, thank you for writing that email. I love that email too. I love that email too. That was one where I disconnected from my technology, I opened my gratitude journal, I hadn't written in it forever, and lo and behold, the check fell out. Ah, you see Hashem, a wink, a hug. Isn't it beautiful? But I love the email from someone who says, \"My son was diagnosed with autism and I'm suffering infertility. I finally got pregnant and I just found out I had a miscarriage. But you know what? I feel Hashem because you read an email from someone else with a miscarriage. That was the little hug I needed to go on and to move forward and to know He's with me and to believe that my best is yet to come.\" And it's those people. They're our hotspots. Some in this room, through very, very difficult journeys, through incredibly painful stories. Nevertheless, lean in. To find Hashem when you find a check? Not so hard. To find Hashem while you're still waiting for a positive result is much, much, much more difficult. And that's a source of strength for us all and I'm so grateful to those who write it in. Okay, next. Coincidence? No such thing. I was learning with my rebbe yesterday. We use the Mesivta Gemara. We were looking in the Yalkut Biurim and something didn't add up. So we looked up the source on Hebrew Books. It was a Sefer Ezras Yisrael. At the end of the piece, he brings down a din Torah that was brought in front of his Beis Din and it gives the date exactly 139 years ago. Yesterday was the 24th of Iyar, the exact day we learned it. Now, if it was the 23rd day, it would be even better, but it's still pretty good. A person's learning a teshuvah from the 24th of Iyar, 139 years ago on the 24th of Iyar. No coincidences, everything is from Hashem. One last email and then we'll dive into the new text. I just want to start by saying how much I love the Emuna Shiur, yadda yadda, blah blah blah, impact on life, patience. Okay. I always wanted to send a story but I never felt mine was big enough to share. This may not be a classic emuna story, but I thought it may give some chizuk to other listeners. A little background: In my community, we have a nail technician who goes around to everyone's home doing manicures and pedicures. The new theme, a new chapter in the book. The manicure pedicure chapter. Okay. Almost every frum woman here uses her. So over the years, she's learned a lot about Judaism just from being in everyone's homes. The last time she came to me, I told her how I lost my bracelet, said the blessing, gave tzedakah, davened to find it, and miraculously found it afterwards. You know the segula, רב מאיר בעל הנס. Yes, Meir Baal HaNes, you donate tzedakah and somehow Meir Baal HaNes in his zechus, he helps you. We have a Yid who lives in our community named Meir Baal HaNes. That's his name. His family name is Baal HaNes. That's his name. So when our family we lose something, we go give him... we ask him to give tzedakah on our behalf and to daven for us. And every time, we found it! So we love Meir Baal HaNes. She couldn't believe it. She asked me if... so this woman is telling the manicurist who makes her way to houses how she lost her bracelet, said a blessing, gave charity, prayed, and found it. And the manicurist couldn't believe it. She asked if she could say it too when she lost things. I told her the main thing is you have to believe in God. Then this past week she came again. The topic of antisemitism came up. She said the Jewish people are so strong. You always stick together. It's so beautiful. And you have such nice nails. No, she didn't say that. After that, after that, the Emuna Shiur came up in conversation. I told her about this rabbi who gives a podcast about hope and belief and faith. I told her it changed my life and impacted the way I look at everything. She was amazed. She asked if she could listen to it on YouTube. I told her I wasn't sure how much she'd understand a lot of Hebrew terms and she seemed disappointed. The whole interaction stayed with me. It made me realize how resilient and special we are as Jews. How lucky we are to have Torah, emuna, relationship with Hashem that... that others genuinely admire from the outside. Sometimes we get frustrated, question why things happen the way they do. Sometimes people even lose hope. But moments like this are such a reminder that we are the chosen people and that Hashem is so real. We have something so precious even people on the outside can feel and recognize. Shiur truly has a positive impact on my life. Thank you. I thought that was a powerful email. We sometimes forget how lucky and how fortunate we are. Years ago at a Torah Mesorah convention, the late Rav Yitzchok Hutner told them. He said that the most important thing for a Rebbe to teach, the most important thing to communicate and convey in the classroom is אשר בחר בנו מכל העמים. That we need to know, young people to know how privileged and honored and obligated we are that Hashem has chosen us and loves us. We are the example, we're meant to be the example for the world. How lucky, how blessed, how fortunate, how incredible is this and are we? I don't know, I know many of you, I don't know all of you or most of you, but we're a community online, offline. We can learn, united by our desire to connect to Hashem, united by our peoplehood and our love for one another that should never be lost on us. I did bring some copies with me from Florida, they made their way around. I brought 30, I wasn't sure how many people were going to come so you could share or you could just listen. Meant to post them in the WhatsApp group. I will. If you're not part of the Emuna WhatsApp group, that's where we do the schedule, the link to the shiur, put sometimes some bonus material, we put the source that we're learning, you could follow, you could read it inside. As I said this is a Ma'amer, a sicha from the great Gerer Rosh Yeshiva, Rav Shaul Alter, the Rosh Yeshiva of the Ger Beis Medrash, his father is the Pnei Menachem zt\"l. He's a very, very special, very, very holy. We've been privileged to have him in our community in Boca and each time I go to Eretz Yisrael I try to meet with him and learn from him, listen to him. We had a mevakshim fly in a couple months ago just before the Iran war and our group met with him. He is amazingly, amazingly special. He's so real, relatable if you can say, an enormous Talmid Chacham and a very, very, very special holy Yid. So here he speaks about this, our Kapitel, שפת אמת בתהלים קפיטל כ\"ג. Sfas Emes, his great great Zeide, Rav Shaul Alter's great Zeide, the Sfas Emes. Says on Kapitel chaf-gimmel, chapter 23 of Tehillim, מזמור לדוד ה' רעי לא אחסר הוא שטיקל מאוד יסודי. This shtickle, this, this teaching of the heilige Sfas Emes is very foundational. It's very important. It appears in Parshas Terumah. אומרים את הקפיטל מזמור לדוד ה' רעי לא אחסר בכל סעודה שלישית. At Shalosh Seudos we don't just say Kapitel chaf-gimmel. Every Shalosh Seudos we sing Kapitel chaf-gimmel and we don't just sing it one time. We love it and we live it and we sing it, we sing it three times. Sing it three times, which reminds me, I meant to also share, forgot to print out. Do you know how many people reached out to tell me since they say הנה לא ינום ולא יישן שומר ישראל three times before going to sleep with the image and kavana of Hashem sitting on their bed, stroking their cheek or their back and saying, 'Sleep my child, I'm staying awake, הנה לא ינום ולא יישן, I don't sleep and I don't slumber, Shomer Yisrael because I'm watching over you. You could sleep because I'm staying awake.' You know how many people reached out and told me how much better they're sleeping? Baduk u'menuseh. Try it. Stop taking the pill, don't make the l'chaim, don't take the melatonin. What'd doctor just tell us? If you take melatonin, they're finding a link to problems you could have in life. Hate to spoil it for you and your children. הנה לא ינום ולא יישן שומר ישראל three times. A woman in my community told me she struggled to sleep for years. She worked on saying it three times before going to sleep with that image, you have to have the image, that Hashem your father is sitting on your bed and he's telling you 'Sleep, I'm staying up all night. Whatever you're worrying about, whatever you're thinking about, whatever you're restless about, whatever you're having insomnia over, throw it on me, give it to me, because sleep well because I'm staying awake because I got it. I'm taking it on.' So this woman told me after years of struggling to sleep, she not only slept so well she slept through her alarm the next morning. Slept through her alarm. Baduk u'menuseh. So Shalosh Seudos we don't say that, we don't say that perek הנה לא ינום ולא יישן שומר ישראל, but we say Mizmor l'Dovid three times, three times. V'hakapitel is segulah l'parnassah. Others say it every day because somehow it's a segulah for parnassah, if a person thinks and says Kapitel chaf-gimmel. Omnam zeh choshuv, but says Rav Shaul Alter, it's very important. כי אמירת תהלים חשוב מאוד ויש לה כח גדול לפעול. While it's very important kapitel, it's a very important kapitel and it's very powerful, yesh lada'as, and this why I love Rav Shaul Alter, שעיקר עבודת הביטחון היא בלב ולא באמירה בפה. Some people think I'm going to mumble Pitum Haketores miklaf while walking out of shul early, the davening that I talked my way through and came late for and was on my phone for the parts I wasn't talking in. But as long as I mumble Pitum Haketores miklaf on my way out, then Hashem is going to make me kill it in business that day. Rav Shaul Alter is reminding us עיקר עבודת הביטחון בלב ולא באמירה בפה. That's why I love Rav Shaul Alter. I started learning his Torah, this what I connected with because... Because I learned his Torah, connected with him, I wanted to get to know him and worked hard on being able to try to get that relationship. His point is that there is no magic. This is not sorcery. We talked before. It's not kishuf. You don't wave a wand and you can't mumble words. Don't say three of these and do two of those and God forgives you and all is good. That's not our religion. In our religion, ikkar avoda, rachmana liba ba'i. Hashem wants what's in our heart. He wants what's in our heart. He can't find what's in our heart when our hands are on our phones. That's the idea of the technology. Disconnect, shut off, get into a state of midbar with Him. Davening is in a midbar. It's in a midbar. It doesn't mean the thermostat in shul's broken, hot and uncomfortable and stuffy, but a midbar state of mind means there's no technology, there's no distraction, there's no noise, there's stillness, there's silence, there's quiet. Being able to still my heart, my life. There is nothing beeping and buzzing. It's not enough that I didn't take my phone out of my pocket. It has to be on airplane mode or leave it in the car or in the other room. That was one of our challenges. Go to daven, leave the phone in the other room and it should be off because research and statistics show that when we know it's on, even if it's not on us, when we know there are things coming through to it, our mind is still on it. What text am I missing? WhatsApp? What messages? What came through? What did I miss? What do I need to know? Even if we don't look, but in the background it's running in the background and it's slowing us down. You ever get a message on your computer that the RAM in the background, the memory, is full and it's slowing down your computer? What's full? I'm just looking at one screen. What's full? The background. I don't even know what I'm talking about right now, but I'm trying to give this mashal. I have no idea to any computer people here. I don't know, it happens to me a lot. Somehow the background memory in the computer is overloaded and it's slowing down whatever thing you're working on. So even though I think I'm working on davening or I have the Daf Yomi open in front of me or I'm saying my Tehillim and I think I'm focused entirely on it, but if in the background there's something buzzing and beeping and vibrating in my pocket or I hear it in the other room or I just know that in the other room things are coming into it, it's distracting. So when we daven, airplane mode or turn it off so that we know nothing's even coming in, we're not missing anything. We're in a state of midbar so we could hear the Medabber and we could receive the Medubbar. We can get into that place that rachmana liba ba'i. Hashem wants what's in our heart. He wants what's in our heart. It's not enough to mumble and put a check and I said my Tehillim and I'm done with my davening and I finished my learning up my Daf Yomi or my Mishna Yomi or my Mishnah Berurah Yomi or my Tanya Yomi or my whatever Yomi. It's not enough to mumble it or discharge it or put a checkmark next to it. Rachmana liba ba'i. He wants what's in our heart. He was saying even though this kapitel is a segulah l'parnassah, it doesn't work as a segulah l'parnassah if all you do is mumble it, you don't know what it means, you don't concentrate on its words, and you didn't connect to Hashem through it. If you're not walking away from saying Kapitel Chof Gimmel different than the way you walked in, if you're not being mindful and focused and paying attention, what does it mean, Hashem? What does it mean He's my shepherd? What does it mean to not lack? What does it mean that I lie beside tranquil waters, lush pastures? What do all these things mean? I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. גם כי אלך בגיא צלמות. What does it mean? If when I say it I'm not focused on it, if it's not changing me, I didn't say it. It doesn't work. Avodas habitachon balev. So לפני שנלמד דברי שפת אמת, before we learn the words of the heilige Sfas Emes, יש להקדים מה שכתוב ברש\"י על תהלים. Let's first take a look at what Rashi says. שבפסוק הראשון אומרים ה' רועי לא אחסר. The opening passuk, Mizmor l'David, a psalm, a song to David, Hashem ro'i, Hashem is my shepherd, lo echsar. So the simple pshat, the simple translation of the words are Hashem is my shepherd and therefore what does lo echsar mean? I shall not, I won't lack, I won't want, I won't be left wanting for anything. He's my shepherd, I have everything I need. I'm not wanting for anything. I have no wishlist. There's nothing in my Amazon... what is it? You put it in the cart but you didn't buy it yet. Those are the things maybe you want. You hope that your mother or father, you share the account, we'll see you put it there and they're just going to buy it for you because you have married kids, so you stuck it there because it's on the wishlist and you hope you're going to... so lo echsar. Hashem, in my Amazon cart, I have nothing on my wishlist. I'm not lacking anything in my life because You're my shepherd. You're my shepherd. When we learned Rav David Abuhatzeira's sefer, we saw a different pshat. He said Hashem ro'i lo echsar. The tefillah is lo echsar, may I never be lacking in knowing Hashem ro'i, that You're my shepherd. May I never be lacking in knowing You're my shepherd. Let there not be one day I wake up and wonder, \"Are You there? Is this from You? What if it is chance? What if it is just random?\" No, my tefillah and my statement of confidence and clarity and conviction is Hashem ro'i, You're my shepherd. shepherd, lo echsar. I have no doubt. I'm not lacking at all in knowing that you are my shepherd. שלא יחסר לנו שום דבר מכל צרכנו. Let us never be missing anything from all of our needs. Uvapasuk hasheni, then the next pasuk we come and say: B'nos deshe yarbiteini, B'nos deshe yarbiteini. He causes me to lie down, B'nos deshe, He causes me to lie down, deshe. What'a deshe? Grass. Causes me to lie down in lush grass. הרי דשא הוא מאכל בהמה. So Rashi points out, Schultz points out from Rashi, that deshe is not a smorg of a meat board and a delicious smorg. It's not a delicious smorg. You got a sushi station, got a herring station. Deshe is maachal beheima. That's where He causes me to lie down? In a bed of kale? That's animal food. That's animal fodder. לחם הוא מאכל אדם. If Hashem really wanted us to connect and feel as human beings, as the last of creation, the highest order of creation, He should have said: You caused me to lie down in fields of wheat that will produce bread that require human manipulation. The sidura d'pas, the first 11 melachot of Hilchos Shabbos are what are called sidura d'pas. All the stages and steps of making bread. Because the most sophisticated, who makes bread? You'll never ever ever, I don't care how well trained, how smart your dog or your cat is, they cannot plow and plant wheat and then harvest it and then thresh it and then winnow it and then grind it and then knead it and then bake it and then feed the sourdough starter and grow the sourdough. No matter how smart or advanced your dog is, a fox, a cat, they don't know how to feed a sourdough starter. They're never making sourdough bread. Bread is uniquely human. And this grass, that's animal food. Orach Chaim Hakadosh says: You see this, you have to come with me a little bit. A shir is a shtikel yedidi. We go on like a long detour journey, but we're going to come back. We always come back. We're going to come back, but just come with me a little bit on a detour and I promise you we're going to come back. Let me finish the first thought before we get off the highway, then we'll come back on it. So B'nos deshe yarbiteini, Hashem, Hashem, you're my shepherd. Because you're my shepherd, lo echsar. I know you're my shepherd, you're always going to take care of me. How do I know you take care of me? Because you cause me to lie down in the grass and you take care of me. So Rashi points out, the grass is the image of maachal beheima, animal food, not maachal adam, not the food of a human being. לכאורה היה צריך לומר במקום שצומח תבואה פירות ירקות מאכל בני אדם. Why doesn't Dovid Hamelech give us an image of human food? You caused me to lie down with a delicious steak prepared properly. You love me, השם רועי לא אחסר. You caused me to lie down among black and blue steaks with grilled onions. You caused me to lie down with a meat board. You caused me to lie down at least with bread, with wheat, with sourdough, maachal bnei adam. What's this you cause me to lie down in a bed of kale? You cause me to lie down in grass, in grass. So just now the detour. Orach Chaim Hakadosh points out: the Korban Ha'omer on the second day of Pesach that launched our count of the Omer that we're in the middle of right now. What's the Korban Ha'omer made of? Barley. The Shtei Halechem a short time, way too short for me, from now, because there's a lot to prepare. Shavuos is coming. And what's the korban on Shavuos? Not cheesecake. Korban on Shavuos is wheat. The Shtei Halechem is wheat. Why do we go from a korban of barley to a korban of wheat? Orach Chaim and others point out because coming out of Mitzrayim we were on the 49th level of tumah. We were acting like animal. And animal indulges its instinct. An animal gives in to its impulse. An animal acts like a, like an animal. Eats like an animal and lives in an, like an animal, in a pigsty. Eats like a pig and lives in a pigsty and acts like an animal, indulges its impulse, has no moral self-awareness, moral compass. So we coming out of Mitzrayim, we walked out of Pesach, we were now free and emancipated, not a freedom from, but a freedom to march to Sinai which we're marching to. And that march is meant to take us from maachal beheima to maachal adam. From a Korban Ha'omer of barley, animal food, to the Shtei Halechem, wheat, something only a human being could produce: the sidura d'pas. By the time we stand at Sinai. By the time we stand at that mountain. By the time that we stand in that midbar with that silence hearing the medaber in the midbar, receiving the medubar, the Aseres Hadibros. By the time we get there, we go from being animals who indulge our impulse and instinct with no self-control and no ability to regulate and no sovereignty over ourselves. And now we're going to stand at that mountain, human beings, human beings, discipline, succeeding in the technology challenge, celebrating. celebrating the thirty days we did it. We're gonna stand at that mountain, human beings. We go from ma'achal beheimo to ma'achal bnei odom. So wonders, based on Rashi, wonders the הילגע גערער ראש ישיבה: Why, when Dovid HaMelech is painting a portrait, when he's giving us an image, why is it bin'os deshe yarbitzeini? Why is it one that we're sitting in grass? Should be sitting in ma'achal bnei odom. ומפרש רש\"י דמכמה שפתח ואמר ה' רועי והיינו רועה של בהמות המשיך הפסוק לדמות מזונותיו למרעה בהמה בנאות דשא. For parallelism, for the poetry. After all, kapitel chaf gimmel is a poem. This is poetry. And in this poetry, for symmetry, it starts out Hashem ro'i. Doesn't say Hashem is my master, Hashem is my teacher, Hashem is my boss, Hashem is my spouse, Hashem is my parent, Hashem is my king. There are so many metaphors it could've given for who Hashem is. How did Dovid HaMelech start? Hashem is my shepherd. You remember back when we began this chaf gimmel journey, when we were learning Rav David Chait, I told you the story of Moshe Weinberger, shlita, made famous from that he read in Reader's Digest about the poetry reading contest and the Yid, the Jew who won. And he won because even though someone else also read Psalm 23, do you remember this old man came and the young poet who practiced, and he lost. And he came to the old man who was a late entry and he said \"We read the same thing. I've coaches and I practiced on stage. And how is it you came last minute and you won?\" Remember what the old man told him? Every time I feel bad repeating things, I don't feel as bad when I realize it's worthwhile to chaser. Okay. So you remember what the old man said? He said \"You, you read a poem about a shepherd, but I, I know the shepherd. I know the shepherd. I have a relationship with the shepherd. The shepherd knows me and the shepherd loves me. I'm a member of the shepherd's flock. I know the shepherd. You just read about the shepherd.\" When we say kapitel chaf gimmel, are we reading about a shepherd or do we know the shepherd? Are we in his flock? Do we know him, do we feel his love? So because, says Rashi, because Dovid HaMelech began ה' רועי לא אחסר, he began with the image, the metaphor of a shepherd, he continued. If Hashem is a shepherd and you're in his flock, what are you? A little sheepeleh. And the sheep lies down where? In the grass. And that's why the image of deshe. ולכאורה לפי זה השאלה עוד יותר גדולה. But says Rav Shaul Alter, the Gerrer Rosh Yeshiva, the question is even more compelling. אמאי באמת מתחיל לשון ה' רועי? In other words, the answer raises a different question. Why did it describe we're lying down in animal food grass? Oh, the answer is because he began Hashem ro'i. So then ask why did he begin Hashem ro'i? Why didn't he say Hashem avi, you're my father, malki, my king, you're my spouse? Why begin by saying you're my shepherd? Why is that? Dovid HaMelech is giving us, he himself was drawing from and he was writing for us to draw from in moments we need, the most powerful image we can have of this connection, this love, this affection, this protection from Hashem. And when he does, what does he paint? Hashem ro'i. Why ro'i? אמאי באמת מתחיל לשון רועי מחמת כן ממשיך מזונות של בהמה? אלא כאן טמון היסוד הבסיס של מידת הביטחון. Here is buried, is hidden, the foundation and the base of the middah of bitachon. This is it. In this opening line, in this opening word, with this opening image of Hashem ro'i, Dovid HaMelech was giving us the basis, the foundation for everything that we need for bitachon. אמנם מאד קשה לאדם להגיע לידי ביטחון גמור ולהישען בהשם. It's very hard to get to. It's very difficult to get to that level of complete and absolute trust and faith, surrender, submission to Hashem. ביטחון של בשר ודם בריבונו של עולם הוא כמו בהמה אצל רועה. You know what that highest level is? Do you know what we aspire for? We want to be like an animal that surrenders and submits completely to our shepherd, to our shepherd. בהמה אין לה דעת והיא לא מבינה שהרועה דואג לצרכה. That little sheep has no independent thought. That little sheep is part of a flock, and when the shepherd rounds them up, and the shepherd says \"Come with me,\" and the shepherd says \"Fall in line,\" you know what the little sheepeleh says? \"How high?\" When the shepherd says \"Jump,\" the sheep says \"How high?\" When the shepherd says \"Get in line,\" he says \"Absolutely yes sir.\" היא יודעת שהרועה מכניסה ומוציאה. When the shepherd says \"Now we're moving, now we're still, now we're eating, now we're resting, now we're going, now we're stopping,\" that sheep says \"I'm with you shepherd. I'm with you. I'm with you.\" I'm with you all along, I'm with you all everywhere. כך היא תחבולת הביטחון הנדרשת מאיתנו. This is the level of bitachon that Hakadosh Baruch Hu wants from us, שנרגיש שאנו תלויים ביד הריבונו של עולם, to know and to feel that we are in the hands of Hashem. Hashem, I take my initiative, I make my effort, I do my best, but in the end I surrender to you, I submit to you, בלי כל הידיעות והחכמות והיכולות והכשרונות. Without all the calculations and without trying to get you to change your mind and without competing for who's really the boss and who's really in charge and what should the outcome be and who really gets the credit or who really gets the blame. I have no chochmos, I have no shtick, the kishronos. It's not because of my skill and my talent, which I am proud of, but at the same time realize that it's only because of you. אכן זה דבר מאוד קשה, this is very difficult. אבל זה עבודת הביטחון, but this is the avoda bitachon. Every day we wake up and we say, Hashem, I'm going to go about my day, I'm going to take my initiative and effort, and however it will turn out, whatever will be, I surrender and I submit to you. It's part of your master plan, not mine. Yeah, I had some concern, would anyone show up? Would the technology work? This isn't where I normally give a shiur. Will I be able to connect? Will it stream? Will it record? What will be? I'm telling you my own personal journey of living with emuna. I'm writing a letter to myself right now. I'm appearing to myself in my dreams. You know what I do? I quiet my mind in those moments. I say, you clown, you give this shiur. You make your effort. You arrange with Rabbi Trump, Rabbi Shrayer, so grateful for the hospitality. Sent the WiFi password. You did what was reasonable and responsible and now whatever turns out is what's meant to be. And the world wouldn't end if it didn't get recorded and the world wouldn't stop if it didn't stream. Everyone and everything would be just fine. And therefore you feel this sense of calm. Don't you want that calm in your life? The agitation that we get, the insomnia that we live with is because we are competing with Hashem. We're worried about things that are out of our control as if they're in our control. But what's going to be with the procedure? What's going to be with the checkup? What's going to be with the surgery? What's going to be with the investment? What's going to happen with the meeting? What's going to be with my child? They applied to yeshiva seminary, what's going to happen with the shidduch? We're sitting waiting by the phone. Is this the right... we're competing. Every question of what's going to be and will it work out and is it what's supposed to happen is predicated on the thought that I'm in charge and I'm in control. So did I make the right choice? Did I make the right effort? Did I do enough? Did I do too little? Did I do too much? Stop it. Stop it and let it go. Stop competing with Hashem. Let him do his part. Let him do his thing. Let him shepherd us. Let him shepherd us. השם רועי לא אחסר. Gives new meaning, let me never be lacking in realizing you're the shepherd enough. You got the WiFi password? Good. You charged up your laptop? Good. You have a camera? Good. You did everything reasonable and responsible, you did your part. Now let go and let the shepherd take it from here. Stop trying to be in charge and in control. And you know what happens as a result? It's not like Hashem is asking us to sacrifice. Submit and surrender to me. Why? Because it's right and it's righteous. And even though it will be uncomfortable for you that's what you have to do. No, it's the exact opposite. He says, submit and surrender to me because when you do you will feel this calm, you will feel this tranquility, you will feel this happiness. You will be able to feel, you'll be able to live life. I'm telling you from me, on the way here this morning that was my thought process. And you go from this angst and this nervousness and you feel your muscles tighten and you feel your breathing shallow. All of a sudden, oh yeah, that's right. I forgot השם רועי לא אחסר. I forgot. I forgot on the way to the doctor. I forgot on the way to school. I forgot on the way to work. I forgot on the way to the big meeting. I forgot on the way to wherever I'm going. Just let go and let him be the shepherd. It's hard. בלי ידיעות וחכמות ויכולות וכשרונות והצלחות. Without the shtick and without competing and without arguing and without debating, without trying to take the credit, without taking the blame, without all the everything else. Just let go, emuna pshuta. Let him be the shepherd, submit and surrender, realize he's in charge and then reap the benefits. If you do this, I guarantee the check will fall out. Not the literal check that you can necessarily deposit in the bank. But if you open your emuna journal, if you open your gratitude to Hashem journal, if you get off technology, disconnect to connect to him. If we are able to feel השם רועי לא אחסר, then you'll be depositing the checks of calm and tranquility and peace and renewed relationships and energy and happiness and joy. You'll be depositing so many riches and wealth. The real kind, not the one that goes in the bank. But ezeh ashir hasamayach. You could walk around with such misery and tension and anxiety and worry that no one will want to be around you, that you are compromising the relationships of your life because how many times can the people in your life have that conversation about what's going to be? Or you could let that all go and put a smile on your face and become the wealthiest person around and make all the deposits of all these checks of happiness because you got rid of all the shtick and competing with Hashem and the noise and you realized Hashem Roi, he's my shepherd. He's my shepherd. I could surrender to him. אכן זה דבר מאד קשה אבל זה עבודה של בטחון ולכן המשיל דוד המלך מדת בטחון בהשם כמו רועה בהמות. And that's why Dovid Hamelech could have started out with the image of a king or a spouse or an employer or a master, so many other images he could have started but he started with Hashem Roi, you are my shepherd, I am your flock because בטחון השלמה גמורה בהשם. And then I'll pick up with next week's Sfas Emes says with a vort: ברוך הגבר אשר יבטח בהשם והיה השם מבטחו. Great song, not going to break into it right now, we're not going to do the beat. We're not going to do the beat. Baruch hagever, blessed, praiseworthy is the person, asher yivtach bashem, who trusts in Hashem, vehaya Hashem mivtacho, and Hashem is, translate the word mivtacho. Blessed is the person who trusts in Hashem and Hashem is, it's not enough to sing the song, that's what the Gerer Rebbe was saying. עבודת הבטחון בלב לא אמירה בפה. I don't care how well you do the beat and you break it up, the different people in the room, and you sing the song, benching, camp, ruach, fantastic, shabbaton, you might win all the awards for ruach. But avodas balev, you got to know what it means. So what does it mean? ברוך הגבר אשר יבטח בהשם, blessed is the person who trusts in Hashem, vehaya Hashem mivtacho. What is vehaya Hashem mivtacho? For that, come back, not to Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, but wherever you are online, come down to Boca, im yirtzeh Hashem we'll pick up with it next week. I was asked, I wasn't going to, but I think we will because it's only fair. Since in Boca every week we end and we turn off the recording and then we do questions and answers with the people who come in person, so the people watching in Boca, have a great day. Sorry, we're going to turn off the recording and the stream. I don't know if anyone does. You have incredible amazing rabbis here in the Five Towns, this shul in particular, my dear friends, mistama you already have access to all the answers, but if anyone has any questions, I am happy to address them. Thank you really for coming, it means the world to me. If you want to stay, I'm happy to do 10 minutes of questions and answers for anyone interested.
