Rabbi Reuven Lauffer - Basic Judaism: Prayer - Part 7

foreign versus everybody else and the idea of of a a sort of general idea that everybody is able to give up everything all their resources the whole body is not it's not it's not applicable it really isn't which is why it doesn't appear over here and now the next part of the Shema is going to talk about something that's very basic what is going to celebrate something absolutely fantastic and it's also something which is pretty scary as well um it says going to give us the rains that we need when we need them yodel Malco the you know the first Reigns the last Reigns you're gonna you're gonna Gather in the crops right so what are you bringing in you're bringing in your grain and you're bringing in your grape juice you know grapes and you're bringing in your oil there'll be plenty of food for there'll be fodder for the animals you're going to eat and you're going to be satisfied so so far so good what are we learning of is something which is really really something which is very very basic what are we learning we eat the animals if you eat the animals then you don't need to then you don't need to wonder you don't need to worry about how much photo there is but oh which means like this right it's very clear that God is saying like this that if we do what we're supposed to do right then nature will work in tandem together with us everything will be great which means if we do what we're supposed to do the rain will come the crops will grow there'll be plenty of everything right and then this week this week's passion right that's exactly the qualities which is if we do if we do what we're supposed to do everything is going to be great but what what I think what what is fascinating over here is the idea that that if we do what we're supposed to do there won't be Miracles taking place it won't be some kind of a you know miraculous you know miraculous sense of of of of of bounty that's going to be but rather it's going to be perfectly normal it'll be perfectly natural right if we want nature to work the way that it's supposed to work we just need to do what we're supposed to do yeah it's interesting in last week's Parsha and pasha's pasha's uh Bahar so it says over there it says that if you ask what's going to be oh you're talking about schmitter right it says if you ask what's going to be for the next year then I'll give you a broker God says right so people you know people are prepared to keep schmitted but they want God to guarantee that it's going to be okay God says I'll give you a broker so the fortune the commentary is ask a very simple question what happens if you don't ask does that mean you won't get a broker oh so that's exactly what the chat is right that a person who's who's level of belief is so high that they're not that they don't have to ask God God says that this is what you need to do that's what they're going to do without without questioning that they won't need a blessing because everything will run the way that it's supposed to run the blessing kicks in again it's not it's not don't misunderstand me it's not a negative reflection on the person person is not sure how am I going how am I going to get through this how am I going to manage going to get through three years because it's a you need you need for the sixth year and you need for the seventh year and you can only start planting in the eighth year which is you need three years worth of crop to be able to keep you going over here and if somebody says to God okay how's this going to work God says I'll give you a brother which is the idea of God overtly showing his you know revealing his presence here in the physical world it's something which we don't need that if we do what we're supposed to do we don't need that we can we can live inside of God's natural inadverted commas inside of his natural blessings and everything is going to be fine and it says at the end of the savato which may be a phrase that you're familiar with because we say that in benching as well when we recite the cut Amazon we say what does it mean to say that what what does the savata mean to be satiated right the question over here is how how are you going to become satiated so there's a disagreement amongst the about amongst the sages there's a discriminant about what does that mean does it mean that there's going to be so much that you'll be able to eat huge amounts and you'll be full or does it mean that the food itself will be imbued the food itself will have a tremendous sense of satiation within it and you won't need to eat very much in order to be able to feel full I don't know I don't know what the answer is right but the mice the idea of satiation um it's interesting you know satiation to be surveyor right everybody I think everybody's definition of what's satiated is is different right so one person you know I've got it for example I have a son I'm I'm embarrassed to tell you this I really am because because you know you know from my family this is obviously not coming from my family but I have a son who when he's had enough to eat he stops eating I don't I believe I don't have a clue I'm embarrassed to tell you this I really am but it might it might even have food left on his plate that's actually a diet these days it's like you just only eat when you're actually hungry when you're eating you're not feel that feeling of hunger at all anymore you stop yeah what's the big four the Emma says it makes perfect sense right it really does something no quite the opposite I wish I wish I wish I had that Gene what can I tell you I wish it was hereditary which I could get it for myself right but the uh yeah you know what most of us what do we do which is eight it's there you eat it it's like Edmund Hillary you know it was there and I was there right so so he climbed Everest so by the Jews it's like it was there and I was there so I ate it that's just that's what we do right it's like nothing it's nothing deeper than that uh to beat surveyor to be satiated is really a state of mind I heard an interesting thing from somebody told me that he'd uh from guy years and years ago he got to an African country to do business and whilst he was there there was a coup all right they hurt me the Army decided to take over and they closed down the airport and they caught there was a curfew and the no foreigners were allowed out of their hotels they had to stay where they were and he said you know everyone was okay except for him he was the only from Jew there and uh you know so he had a bowl of fruit he could eat a little bit of fruit but after a while food supply started dwindling because there wasn't anything to eat and he said that it was it was getting pretty hairy after a while and uh but he said after after four days they lifted the curfew and there was still going to be a day until they uh till they opened up the the uh the airport and he said that he he'd had some contact with the Jewish Community the very small Jewish Community where he was and he went and knocked on the door of somebody who was living over there and that person said they'll you know they'll give you what they wanted to give to eat something and eat for the last few days I really hadn't very much at all and uh you know so they asked what do you want you want this you want that you want the other and he's like yes you know yes yes yeah it doesn't matter what order you bring it in like you know everything and he said he got he got about halfway through an omelette and he was done he was finished he couldn't could not eat you know his stomach had shrunk and he just he couldn't eat anything more than that I mean don't don't worry Barack Hashem after a few days he managed it he worked he worked on this to get his stomach back to maximum capacity but you feel that way after YouTube yeah you fasted a long time and then and then yeah yeah and it's not done you know so the concept of severe is something which is very it's very psychological it really is you know some people are able to be satiated by a small amount of something simple and other people need a lot of something you know not so simple in order to feel good it's just food or is this like sleep or other things too over here it's talking about specifically about food that you'll eat and you'll be satisfied right but uh the MS is it's true it's true about almost everything else we do as well right that uh you know one person one person is satisfied with a lot less than what somebody else is satisfied with um but then it says like this then then things start going a little bit a little bit uh yeah it gets dark ER just you know be careful in case you decide to start worshiping other gods you bow down to them because what's going to happen is going to get angry with you that's interesting that this uh this phrase that's the highest form of anger that God exposes down here in this physical world and it's always attached to idol worship so it says right be careful because what's going to happen what's the problem something really fascinating over here which if you stop and build on it you'll see that it makes perfect sense what we're learning over here is like this when things are too good that's when it becomes easy for people to start wanting to worship idols isn't that it's not like a it's not it's an interesting Paradox you know what happened after some on Alex rain yeah for sure for sure for sure and life was great then I mean really great which means that like what what's up chat's very simply I had a worship comes in all different kinds of shapes and forms but you know maybe today's idol worship is a is like a form of assimilation right when it's good for the Jews when it's too good for the Jews then it becomes a problem it's the most incredible Paradox because we imagine that if we just had everything that we need and everything was laid on for us we'd be able to spend our entire day involved in spiritual Pursuits and growing closer to God right and it's not true because the more we've got then that the less we imagine that we need God and it becomes it becomes something which is terrible in the end you know why why do you think that maybe maybe it's an Indian of dependency not wanting to feel dependent um I don't know if you've ever if you've ever been exposed to businessmen especially successful businessmen but more often than not when they close a successful deal and they make a lot of money it's like everything is I I was great you know I did this and I did that and I I lose and when they lose it's like why did God do that to me right it's an interesting thing it really is I don't know what it is it's it's this inability that we have to recognize that everything is coming from God especially the blessings are coming from God so so you're saying one thing that almost it's like when things are really good it's almost like you're too good to believe in something you can't see maybe maybe and maybe that's a chat why are you why do you turn to idol worship because idle the one thing the one thing that idol worship has over over Judaism is that you can see what you're worshiping sounds ridiculous right I mean you worship this tree or you worship this rock or whatever it is it sounds it sounds ridiculous instant gratification yeah kind of idea yeah sorry we live we we live in a world of instant gratification which which is incomparable to any other generation that's ever existed really it's it's uh you know I remember when when credit cards first came out of my grandfather was not could he could not grasp the concept how can you buy something if you don't have the money to pay for it I mean the Emma says if you stop and think about it right now it is rather odd isn't it you want credit for what you know because I want it now even though I don't have the money for it right now but I want it right now it's an interesting I don't know it's like a you know we we uh we've all been brought up in it you know our generation we've brought up with these things just exist you know it's just accepted that you've got a credit card and you could buy things even if you don't have to wear with all the pay for it right now you can buy it anyway but you know and it's just it's getting it's getting it's getting more and more extreme right so again you know I hate to date myself but but uh back in the Neanderthal age right when I was growing up so the uh you know even if you had a credit card you sort of you had to phone up the company and give your credit card details and they would send it to you and it would it would take you know a couple of weeks until these things arrived and nowadays everything is you know same day delivery because who's got time to wait you don't have a credit card they'll just give you yeah yeah that's also true actually Capital One you you yeah whatever I mean that's yeah maybe that maybe that's our avoidazara now our idle worship is this constant constant sense of instant gratification um and I think that instant gratification brings with it all kinds of all kinds of problems social problems as well actually so for example uh divorce rates are very very high because people want to be instantly gratified and if it's not going you know if it's hard it's not going well and you've got to work on it so the simplest thing is just to bring it to an end and move on to the next one um the the the the rates you know for for divorce is over 50 in the United States but when a person gets married for a second time it's even higher and a third time even higher than that which means that it's like you know psycho's getting stronger yeah it's hard it's hard it's hard you know hard to work on these things I remember my wife's grandmother told us that uh that uh you know when when they when her and her friends were getting married they were they came from a more Hasidic background so the whole concept of going out was I really didn't exist but she said there was not one couple that were that were suited to each other that was compatible you said you just you just worked on it she said no one got divorced you just worked on it and they built they built marriages you know some of them had more successful marriages someone with less successful marriages but but you would you worked hard in order to turn it into something which was going to be viable because you know that's just what was that's what you did that's what you're supposed to do um so it's like instant instant uh even even you know people are not capable of having interpersonal relationships not very successful ones anymore because nobody knows how to talk to anybody anymore everybody's busy texting and and messaging and even the way that you text you know you can't you're not really nobody spells things out anymore so everything is becoming more and more concentrated and little bursts of you know of contact and then they're gone you know when I when I get in the worst of my like in my personal life in situations that I really don't want to be in uh one thing I've learned through some being here is to realize when I'm not acknowledging that everything truly does come from Hashem whether whether you're talking like personal relationships or credit cards or the instant gratification of anything you're pursuing it just seems to always come back to that and um even the bad things even that when things happen that I don't understand why I'm experiencing oh that's maybe when I tune in most to the idea yeah that everything it's hard it's hard work it's hard work but you said hey what's interesting is it what you're really defining over here is that it's a lot easier to tap into that when things aren't going well than when they are yeah we just we expect things to run smoothly we just expect them to go well so when they do we we imagine that's just the way it's supposed to be where they don't so then we turn towards God to try to find out why why is this happening and really what what we're being taught over here is the other way around but we need to you know the whole time that things are going well we need to be focused on God and acknowledging God and thanking God for what he's giving us and that way we can we can avoid the nasty bits that's really that's really what the shemais teaching us over here right that uh otherwise what's going to be angry with you and what's going to be that is there'll be there'll be no rain ah so you say to yourself big big deal so we'll manage without rain and Nevada that the gland won't give its produce right which means like this that even today how many times you heard me say this it's something I really I really I believe this passionately I really do you know in the olden days we were very Agricultural Society so it was clear that everything ran according to agriculture economies ran according to agriculture today we imagine that we're not an Agricultural Society anymore and you know economies run according to to stock markets and economies run according to other things but the bottom line is if you have a drought in the Midwest right so the grain the grain crop the wheat crop is much smaller than it normally is that Ripple on effect is enormous because what happens you see almost immediately is that the price of flour goes up so the price of Staples go up and then people stop buying luxury cars and even even though we we have we have no connection to you know without any connection to the fields anymore we you know we go to the we think bread is grown in plastic bags you know that that uh on the Shelf in the supermarket we think chickens right are created Frozen and Shrink wrapped right in the in the freezer so like in the freezer section of the supermarket that's what we think right doesn't look good anyway the chicken might have been something that was running around well maybe not running around because that's you know what if it's free range right you know running around with feathers and wings and who knows what you know and saying behind the supermarket whatever yeah you know and shouting out cock-a-doodle-doo from time to time but we don't we don't uh right we don't you know we don't have any connection maybe I I don't know I hate I really I hate to sound a lot I really do but we don't have any connection to our you know to where anything's coming from anymore do you really hate to sound like something no the truth of the matter is what I I like you know I love it and when I say I hate to sound like a Luddite that's like that's what I get the most enjoyment because it means I'm I'm about to say something which is in your ears it's going to be completely ridiculous but it's uh I when I was growing up when I was growing up my parents my parents you know in the during the school holidays they would be kids they took us off to Farms to see how things happen just gotta get an idea where does milk you know milk doesn't come in bottles apparently it comes it comes in apparently it comes in account and then you've got to squeeze all kinds of things to get it to come out I'm not 100 sure whose idea it was exactly to say oh let's squeeze this and drink it but nevertheless that's where what else I don't know okay maybe maybe the sickest man alive I don't know like hey let's squeeze these things and oh let's drink that huh just in general I think I think that the composition of food is something which is absolutely fascinating I really do like you know who who imagined that if you if you peel this then you can eat it and if you I mean it's like all of these things are really fascinating they really are um different kinds of foodstuffs you know different fruits just go to fruits for you know who who decided that if you if you peel a pineapple when you can eat the inside right I would have thought the first person probably try to eat the outside and decided that maybe it wasn't such a you know maybe this is not such a a tasty thing to be doing I don't know what made them think that they can keep persevering and get to the inside instead threw it out and then some other guys he picked it up oh this is good yeah by by you know kiwi you know what kiwis are kiwi fruit right and uh so my mother said when kiwis first came out in England which is whatever Elam it was 30 years ago I mean I don't know exactly maybe a little bit longer 35 years ago she said that she was at a do once and they had these these kiwis were out on the fruit platters and nobody really knew what they were and she saw a lady pick it up and start eating it with the skin on not not getting very far right so at what point did somebody say hey let's take this off and then we can eat it I don't know it's interesting I think food is an example of being satiated realizing what you have and you know I don't know you know what it's interesting the sages say part of the problem with the manor was that it didn't have a visually appealing form to it didn't really have a visual form at all it was just something opaque that just appeared right um and uh because I'll say that the uh the Jewish people when they came and they complained to Moshe about about the manner so it's interesting we see that God God doesn't get angry straight away about that complaint because God recognizes that there's a there is a certain justification to the complaint which means that if something looks good we all know that right if something looks good you get far more enjoyment from eating it then something would taste exactly the same it doesn't look as good it's true yeah you could take food the food that gets served up over here in the it could be that one day they serve it up one way one day they serve it up another way and the the one day it looks better than it does the other day and it just it's more popular and it tastes better and people people feel more satiated by what they're eating because they're getting visual enjoyment as well I think it's all it's all it's all attached it really is it's all a part of everything said that you know like an orange for example oranges are full of minerals and vitamins and things that we you know we need them our body needs them right and we would have to eat oranges even if they didn't taste good and look good right and and used to say that the kindness of God is that these things look appealing just it looks great so we'll eat it and we'll get enjoyment from looking at it we'll get enjoyment from eating it and our bodies will benefit from it as well foreign is applicable to people as well you can click with somebody even if the person may not be aesthetically a a very nice looking person but you just connect in an inner in a way you connect to that person that's Kane and the crane of the oranges and the cane here the chain of the Apple that's what I remember because you just you've got your little apple over there right because it grows on a tree but you know part of that part of the enjoyment of eating apples is here you see this you know beautiful green apple it looks great um taste tastes good as well you know Cottage Park that's what he's doing right um right now that's okay you can handle it right yes so what will happen if if I could use bottle takes away the rain so then we end up with no crops and then we'll be will be sent out of the land this time we talk about the land of Israel we're going to be sent out of the land of Israel so just one last idea before we finish for today it says that will be sent out of this good land a simple translation is that would be sent out of this good land but there's an underlying theme that the land was too good there was two too much goodness and that's what sent us off to worship right idols and that's what and that that's what made us end up being exiled from the land because the land was too good so it's interesting that the the commentaries explain that when one of the places that the Jewish people went to was a place during during the The Exodus from Egypt until they get to the land of Israel there were 42 stops on the way one of them was a place called these are have means die zahav where God turns around to a sorry where moisture turns around to God and when God complains about the fact that they built the golden calf he says what do you want from them you gave them all that gold it was your fault hey you should die die zahav die means enough as the half means gold he's saying he's giving a little a little critique to God right what do you want you gave them all that gold what did you expect them to do with it right thank you good okay we're gonna stop over here I don't think I can beat that if somebody says that's interesting that's like all right