3 Real Stories That Sound Unreal: A Professor Shaken, a Guru Exposed, and Shabbat Saved

A person curious about what Judaism is was about decided to visit a Yeshiva. And and here here what the rabbis have to say. Um this is >> [clears throat] >> I guess uh by divine design. The day he chose to come the subject that they were learning about Jewish customs and laws was the rule against making selections on Shabbat. It's called in Hebrew borer. Borer means to take the separate the good from the bad or take the good from the bad or the bad separate from the good. That's the halakha of borer. The for example on if if it's Shabbat and you have a salad and there's like a lemon seed or an a seed from an orange in that salad or something that you don't want, something that's spoiled, a piece of lettuce that's rotten or whatever. And you want to take it out of the salad cuz you want to eat the salad. So on Shabbat, believe it or not, very surprising to anyone until they learn this is you cannot just pick out that seed or that rotten piece of tomato from the salad. That would be considered taking bad from good which is the malakha of selecting which is considered a forbidden work of Shabbat. So this man that's coming to see what Judaism is about came on the day that they were learning these halakhas, talking about these concepts. And he's sitting there and he's he's he was a very smart like he was a professor a professor university type of person and he was just blown away by how absurd and how insane this sounded. For example, by just similar weird again depending on where you're coming from halakha is you cannot do a constructive tear either. So tearing toilet paper on Shabbat would be forbidden as well. So it's very odd halakha what they tell you in the one of the so one of the books advises what do you do if you're stuck in the bathroom and you don't have toilet paper. So there's a whole process of taking the toilet paper without tearing it and using it and then letting the toilet just flush, which is more indirectly getting rid of the This whole whole thing is like, "Wow." Anyways, so this man is sitting there listening to these laws of Torah and he reaches a very quick conclusion, very smart man, processes all in his mind and he comes to a conclusion. Either every Jewish person that that follows the Torah is insane and whoever gave it is insane or it's from God. And he decided that the latter was more correct and he decided to become slowly a religious Jew. One of the bizarre kiruv stories. Another cute one, which brings in also the divine providence involved, beautiful beautiful story, is this. There was a baal teshuva, someone who became observant as an adult. A man, he went to yeshiva and he learned and he became like a rabbi type of of person. And he was troubled by the fact that his sister did not see the light as he did. So since he didn't see the she didn't see the light, he felt, you know, "What can I do? How can I help my sister maybe see the truth that I see and how could she become observant?" She was very into Western philosophies and type of religious studies and she was actually planning a trip to So she was planning a trip to India. And what happened, he said, "You know what? I'll pay for your trip to India if you come to Israel first and when you come to Israel, you spend a few days with me and go see some seminar classes on on Judaism." And she was obviously working on a limited budget, so she said, "You know what? I'll take you up on your offer. I'll come to Israel to get a free trip. So, he decided to look at ahead [clears throat] to find the best kiruv rabbis that around that's in English, of course, so that she could be mesmerized and they're going to convince her how the Torah is true and then she's going to change her life. And he finds the one of the great rabbis very popular and very successful in improving Judaism. And he says, "Excellent. That's That's the day. That's the time." And the the whole trip worked around her coming to this seminar with this rabbi for this class. She stops in Israel and it's all set up and he brings her to the class. And he goes home and he waits for the to see her walk home that night and come in the house with his her eyes lit up shining, "I saw the light. I'm a born-again Jew." What did you think I was going to say? Anyhow, so she comes in and he's like, "So, how'd it go? What happened?" She's like, "Well, to tell you the truth, it's interesting. Nothing went the way it was planned because they had the rabbi that was supposed to give the class canceled. He He couldn't come and they had a substitute rabbi. And that for some reason they're that class turned out to be a discussion about lost and found. Like if you when you lose an item, so what do you do? What are the laws if you lose an item? What are you supposed to do? And he thought of explaining, you know, if the item has a a symbol on it that it can be identified, if it doesn't, if it's if if you could determine whether the person knows that the item where where it fell then the place could be a a siman. And it I was shocked. I'm I'm like I'm like, "Unbelievable. This this is crazy." Because she was when in India she became very close to the guru that that was the in head of in the head of whatever particular study she was involved in spiritual ascent. And he liked her because she was very into it. Jews have often are very into other religions other than their own. So, he was she was very into it. She was a great student and he brought her he taught her a lot and they became close and so on. A particular day they were walking together, just him and her traveling, and there's a wallet on the floor. And the guru sees the wallet, goes, picks it up, looks at it. It had some money in it and he said, "Look, from heaven they sent me a wallet." Whatever they call heaven, I don't know what the term is, but "Look, I got a wallet. Karma, charisma brought me a wallet." And he put it in his pocket and he went on his way. So, she's sitting in the She tells her brother, "I'm sitting in this class and I'm realizing a 13-year-old kid knows more about right and wrong than this guru walking around in a in a robe." And I said, "This is ridiculous." And it this was a catalyst for her to >> [clears throat] >> to be closer to Hashem. Now, I'll get slightly personal. It's not too personal. I mean, I'm going to take you into the bathroom with me, which is maybe maybe sounds personal, but uh we mentioned that tearing toilet paper is forbidden on Shabbat. So, what happened? I remember when I first started becoming more involved with being religious, I decided to keep Shabbat cuz when I was a kid, I had gone to this summer camp where they taught me what what what Shabbos Shabbat was. You know, that you're not you have to keep it in a particular way. And as a kid, 6 years old, 8 years old, they told me you're not allowed to tear toilet paper. You can't tear toilet paper. So, what did I do? As a kid, I did it. When I was in that camp, I also learned how to pray there. It was a beautiful experience couple of year experience in the summers. So, what happened? Here I am in my 20s and I decide to start keeping Shabbat. And I, of course, decide I have to go to the bathroom. I mean, I have to go to the bathroom and I'm in the bathroom and I'm like thinking to myself, "This is ridiculous. Like, I can't tear a piece of toilet paper. That that it makes no sense. How could the God of heaven and earth, creator of of everything? How could he care? Why would he care if I tear a piece of toilet paper or not?" And this is what was bothering me as I began to keep Shabbat. And a counter thought came into my mind which I think saved my life, my spiritual life. And that is You know, it does sound weird. And I don't know the answer, but what I'm going to do now is I'm going to put it aside. And just keep Shabbat as for now. Keep Shabbat. And I'll readdress this question in a couple of months from now. And in all honesty, the question disappeared and never came back up. Mhm. And I kept Shabbat since then. And I would like to coin the phrase it's maybe a cliché phrase, but it's absolutely true. They it's taught by our sages. More than you keep Shabbat, Shabbat keeps you. More than we we think we're we're going to save the Shabbat and keep it, it keeps us alive. Today, to this very day, thousands and thousands of years, with these traditions that seem so old, ancient, did you ever see a society that could become more traditional than their tradition itself? Coming from secular backgrounds, secular homes, and following a tradition so religiously that their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents for many generations did not follow. This is the miracle of Torah, the miracle of something that's divine in origin. I want to take a moment to give credit to all those people out there searching for truth, and even all those religions that are have been formulated on some level in an attempt to find truth and to connect with God. True religions. Idol worship is not included, obviously. And even then they're trying. Even them, they're trying to find something. There's There's There's a There's at least an an effort and an attempt there. But, I want to point out you cannot compare a religion that God created himself for mankind in comparison to a religion that mankind is creating for God. There's merit eternally in in in in the latter, but it's incomparable. God has a Torah. He has a revelation of what he wants, how he wants it, and a Jew has an opportunity to do that. And that's the power that we're tapping into, and that's why thousands of years later, when Judaism should be deader than dead, is alive and thriving. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. I have a question. So, for clarification, when you said you're going to put aside the question about tearing toilet paper, was that Did you say Was that you saying I'll just follow it and I'll re-evaluate later to see if it's still weird, or you saying I won't worry about it being weird? The first one. >> Okay. One of the very important question to address is what was I really thinking, what was my intention when I decided to put the question of tearing toilet paper aside. So, I'd like to point out a very very very very something very crucial is this. If something bothers you, it bothers you. And if you're bothered by something, you have to work on that. You have to address it. Issues do not indicate a problem in you. They indicate a necessity to to bring that to resolution. Problems are opportunities solutions. That's what they are. And so, if something is troubling you, you have to deal with it. You should deal with it. For whatever reason, the idea came into my head to put it aside. It wasn't meaning that I was going to blindly follow Judaism without any answers. It was I know that Shabbat offers so many good things, and I've done I did when I was a kid and made me happy, and there's so much of Judaism that does make sense. I said this one issue I'm going to put aside and re-address it later, and it it stopped bothering me. It wasn't an issue. It It disappeared because the overwhelming amount of goodness and light and truth that's in front of your eyes eclipsed it. Does it Does it make sense? No, it doesn't make sense. Even today it doesn't make sense. But I learned a beautiful and unbelievable deep lesson later on in my journey is that not everything that God tells you to do has to make sense to you. God is above our sense in the end of the day and there's a level of divine service that doesn't make sense and that's what makes it so unbelievable to participate in that level of divine service as well. And so this particular law and others that we'll find don't make sense to us, it doesn't mean they're not from Hashem because when you see the sense in the Torah and the greatness of the religion we have, you understand that it comes with that package and it ultimately does make sense. Because because Hashem is if it's Hashem is so perfect and we see so much wisdom coming from his Torah, so that if this doesn't make sense, so our conclusion is it's because it's above above the limits of our mind. It's not below the limits of our mind. It's not senseless. It's beyond sense. It's super rational. It's not irrational. Okay, that's what I understood in the end of the day and that's why I worship him. I try my best to keep Shabbos till today.