About Shabbat - Rabbi David Orlofsky

I was asked to speak about Chavez or Shabbat or the Sabbath I say Shabbos that's why I come from you know that's how we always say and and when you're getting into it no I I should give you a little back then I grew up in North America Long Island I know if anyone's here from Long Island yeah excellent so from North America Long Island and I was a nice suburban kid growing up in a in a family where we sort of did Friday night you know we had collar and wine and you know my father made kiddush that kind of thing and then we watched TV and you know and Saturday my parents went to work and you know when I started to keep Shabbos for me it was a very personal thing because I was alone I met the other two Jews in North Merrick and we would sometimes get together and do things but for the most part it was a very lonely shot very lonely Shabbos and when I came to Israel and I'm here now 26 years the experience is completely different you know you'll see that when candle lighting time comes they blow a siren don't get nervous they always blow a siren and that's really reminiscent of the fact if you look out over there on the wall you'll see a little outcropping there used to be a giant staircase going up to the Temple Mount and when I say giant what I mean is when you go to the Kotel when you're standing at the Kotel you're in midair there's as much underneath the ground as there is above so you used to go all the way down and there was this giant staircase that went up and there was a place so they found the sign from the Second Temple period where it says the place of the blowing where they would blow the horn yeah on Erev Shabbos to tell people Shabbos was coming in today they put off a siren and people hear that and it's I can't tell you the experience now okay I came here the first time in Israel 1969 which according to Wright my revised biography was ten years before I was born I figure if Superman could ever reboot so can i but you know but I came the first time and it was just a nice kid from Long Island and suddenly you see Shabbos in the streets which is not something that I growing up you know I remember when I when I came back to two queens s we've been living here and went to spend this about with my in-laws after I'd been living here a few years and I saw a city bus going by here the city buses don't ride you know and I was like well that's not supposed to happen and my father-in-law said welcome back to reality I thought to myself I wonder which one is the reality I which is a reality you know they used to blow the horn and everybody would put down things and you'd go into Shabbat and there was something very special so for me every Shabbat that comes around for me is a very very special experience you know I've done Shabbat unum and programs all around the world and I remember once I was in London I was sitting at a table with a group of young people young attractive people who could not understand why I was there and they were all having a wonderful time and I was sitting there by myself which is happened to be a lot growing up also and and I was sitting there and so I sang mais me wrote like I always do you know to myself and I close my eyes and I just concentrated on the words and when I opened my eyes everybody was looking at me and I said was it that bad and they said no there was something so beautiful about it what is that okay so I'm used to making Shabbos by myself you know I've had to do that for many many years when I was growing up so when I if I'm someplace where I'm alone I was supposed to do with Chabot or anyone from California Los Angeles excellent so is it the english-speaking group for crying out loud my gosh anyway everyone can't be from New Jersey but anyway so I I was on my way up from Los Angeles the Big Bear mountains and I was the third car after the landslide and we couldn't get up now the place we weren't sure about the kashrut so we will bring her you know some of our own food along you know and that was it the road was closed you could go down the mountain and go all the way around cover the other way take six hours the problem is that that would be that would already be so bad we don't drive it you know so we turn around and we start rushing back to Los Angeles but if you've never sat in traffic on a Friday anywhere in the world particularly in Los Angeles you're not rushing anywhere and we're slowly going and now we're in the plains were down from the mountains and you can see the Sun setting in the distance which is often a beautiful sight if it's not Friday and you're in a car yeah on the highway so what we're gonna do you know so we got off in a town called Ontario California if you have the opportunity to miss it take advantage of that because this is a miserable place to be we pull into some truckers motel we run out to the local supermarket what do you find of course about Samantha's imagine if it's wine every place in the world you know we bring it back you know whatever food we had we bought I used to put it in the bathtub you know the the cleaning people were a little surprised but okay we had filled it up with with ice we had a food there and I was with this other couple and I was single at the time I went to my room and I said I can't believe this is gonna be my job and I said the prayers to myself and get dressed you know knocked on the adjoining door when I came in so the wife had put down little napkins on the little hotel desk and she had lit her candles and she had everything all set up and I said my gosh it's Shabbos in Ontario California in a truck motel there's a certain power of it that takes place all of the time now I I say I have to have to put this into a context yeah there are people who have been Shabbos observant their whole life or for many years and they say to me I do it us I do it I thought because I do it I I don't get anything out of it this one girl who is in university told me she says I don't get anything out of shyness I said well describe the Shabbos to me goes well I'm up on a high floor you know so I don't want to have to climb down the steps so I dive into my room I eat a quick meal and I sleep the entire day until the end of Shabbos I said well that's that's exciting how spiritual is a coma you know I mean and if that's the best that your experience is of course you're not gonna get it so for those you who are where there is beautiful music playing in the room right now anyone hear the music no but Hashem that means that very few of you are using mine enhancing chemicals good but something for like yeah I hear the music like okay we'll talk to you later but most people okay but Hashem they don't they don't hear the music but you know this beautiful music playing in the room right now right there are radio waves passing through playing beautiful music and hip-hop whatever the case happens to be and it's all passing through is even a disco station yeah it's all passing through but you don't hear it why cuz you don't have a radio so you get a radio and you plug it in I still don't hear it you have to turn it on so okay I turn it on I hear static okay so you gotta tune it up I tuned it and then I leave the room well you're not gonna hear the music you have to listen and sometimes you need a course in you know music appreciation if you want to really appreciate it you know I had a friend of mine who was practicing the trumpet we used to put him in the bomb shelter and lock the door until you finished you know and he was practicing the trumpet was a lot of fun yeah and whenever a tape would come on he would identify and you know he hear you hear that you hear there's a French horn you hear this is yeah and he could identifying all of the instruments in the music everybody else was just listening to music he heard nuance he heard unbelievable things so Shabbos comes around and their people keep it all the time and they don't really get what's going on they're doing it I have to tell you at the beginning if people want to keep Shabbos you know the traditional way it's a lot of focus on the laws let's face it people who go to people's houses who are Shabbos observe you know I've heard this more than once they go to the bathroom they don't know if they're allowed to flush the toilet yes by the way in case you come to me just but I don't put up a sign yes absolutely but if you don't know what they're doing and they spend a lot of time focusing on what do you do by the time they're done they left with a bunch of laws why do I do this why do I do that so with the time that we have I want to try to address this because this is the most fundamental krest question yeah I had the opportunity to speak to students all around the world all around the world and when I asked them what was there about your Jewish education if you had any that you found frustrating the answer is always the same it's so irrelevant to my life yeah you can go to a seder where they're telling over old jokes and stories from 50 years ago you know they're giving you over a message of something that happened 3,300 years ago it's got nothing to do with my life when I teach Tom with the students I hear this all the time rabbi I don't have an ox and I don't plan on buying one I don't run through the street with pitchers you know why am i learning this and we read stories from your events from 3,000 years ago and commentary from 2,000 years ago why am i learning this what does this have to do with my life is it an ironic you know what we learn about Hanukkah as little kids you know the brave Jews who fought against the Greeks and chased them out of the land of Israel because they were trying to bring us culture science sports and theater and we killed them so we could play dreidel you know I mean and as a when you're a little kid it's cute but then it's like my gosh go to university you study Greek literature Greek theater and Greek Greek philosophy and you're like what was it we wanted to kill these people for what you know so we can eat food cooked and oil that's why Jews look the way they do by the way yeah we want to show when I could look like Greeks and lots of oil but you know what's it about and you we learn things as little children and then you grow up it doesn't make any sense so at the end of the day you can sit down and learn all of the laws and you can do this and you can't do that you're supposed to do this opposed do that but the end of the day it's not gonna have any meaning unless we understand what's going on and so I want to try to if nothing else at the end of the day we have to look at it and say there's a relevant message that speaks to me in 2014 I go into Shabbat there's gotta be something in it for me yeah I ask people and it's a very hard question why should you be a Jew why should you be a Dru you know so people say I was born Jewish okay so if you have one question I'd be Christian born I'd be so the only reason you're Jewish is cause of a freak at birth and if you were born something else you'd be something else yeah not because you really want to be a Jew I was talking once to a couple about to get into married and they said but don't worry we're gonna bring the children up Jewish I said why I said if you are not Jewish would you convert to Judaism they say no I said then why would your kids they have a choice if you have a choice and you wouldn't do it why would you expect your kids to because I was born that way okay not everybody has the advantage of a Jewish education I talked to people who've had a Jewish education I said why do we have to do this they said because otherwise God will burn you in hell now there's a positive thought you know I mean certainly warm God will burn you in hell I was talking to a guy who as I said what happens when you die said you go to heaven so what's that like he goes it's a beach and a cold beer and continues develop the picture I'm sure you can work it out for yourself you know I said is that what heaven is because no I wish I said so what does it really says you sit on a cloud and you play a harp I said do you like harp music he says not particularly I said so what are you gonna do it says I'll get an electric hob you know put my halo on sideways no no no no right okay rocking on cloud nine I said okay if you're good to get a cloud in a hobbit of your bed God burns you in hell forever I said that makes sense to me says that's what I always heard I said doesn't make any sense that's like a father tells his daughter sweetheart clean up your room and I'll buy you a new outfit and take you out for dinner if you don't know break your arm and beat you to your bloody I said what would you do since I call social services the man is insane I said well that's how you picture god you're good to get a cloud in the hobbit of your bed you'll burn in hell I don't know how many of you had this joyful experience my parents went to synagogue three days a year I should show you Kippur we used to go and I was a kid I had to listen to a cousin you know and he'd be up chanting and I would be eating my arm off trying to find any excuse to get out my father would send someone to find me and bring me back and I figured I was a kid I figured basically if you could stay in synagogue on Yom Kippur and listen to the can that God felt so bad for you he forgave all you since you know I mean you don't have to go to hell you've already been there so that's what I thought but then you start reading the prison gets much worse who will live and who well die now there's a subtle message there I don't know if you picked it up I of course did the can't of course was saying who's going to live but you're going to die and the choir goes die die die die die oh my gosh I'm gonna die it's not over yet now you get to pick the way you're gonna go who by fire and who by water well that's a tough one you know fire is kinda hot I come on we tread water for a while you know who by sword and who by storm I saw the Wizard of Oz SSO Banyana who by earthquake and who by pestilence I don't know what is pestilence never heard of anyone will take the pestilence Bob you know but the message is this like really heavy negative message and that's if you're a committed Jew if you're not committed Jew then you don't even know you're gonna burn the house otherwise now so therefore it's unbelievable they do a Jewish survey every 10 years what's the fastest growing group in the Jewish people it's not reform and it's not conservative and it's not Orthodox and it's not New Age and it's not reconstructionist the fastest-growing group and the Jewish people is disaffiliated every 10 years when they check more and more Jews are dropping out they're not going anywhere didn't convert to anything if they just write down I'm not a Jew anymore I'm not having fun this isn't working for me you know so if these are the two best answers and by the way they are the two best answers there were worse answers if you want to hear them that I've heard organizations use we've been around for so long I'm sorry was there some ancient people contest they entered that I wasn't aware of I imagine we won by now are we still running again yeah Jews have made wonderful contributions to society so did the Etruscans then they made room for the Romans so let's make ourselves a dinner give ourselves an award to step aside yeah we have to preserve Jewish culture why cuz otherwise it'll die why cuz nobody likes it that's why you see Italians raising money to get people to lasagna know people like lasagna but you got to pay people to eat gefilte fish because otherwise they wonder what is the goo in the jar but if you pay people money we can pull together people and play klezmer and dance the whole ring he can filter wish and I say if nobody likes it let it die what are we working so I to preserve so those are the best dances that we're left with is because well you'll burn in hell but you know that's not gonna work anymore tell a kid today mom did why should it be a Jew says well you were born Jewish so what I'm the first smart Jew in 3,300 years I figured out I don't have to do it yeah but then you'll burn in hell I don't believe in hell then you'll really burn in hell I'll take my chances and that's it meaning that on the most fundamental question why should I do this and whether we're talking about Shabbat we're talking about kosher oh we're talking about learning Torah oh we're talking about marrying Jewish or going to synagogue or coming to Israel and anything every Jew is gonna ask the same question why am I doing this I'm gonna share with you an insight and I'm quoting from a book called Mesilla c-sharp which was written in the 1700s that's because I give an ongoing class in it and the classes are available for download from my website Rabbi Orlovsky com this is actually just an infomercial anyway so an order before many way so so it's a book that teach to how to become perfect I finished it a number of times got stuck on humility but after that it was easy anyway so I want to give you the first two lines that's it and start you off this is that everything has to at the end answer this question he says the following the root and foundation of all religion of all Judaism of everything is that it has to be clear to the point of truth why are you alive such a simple question so hard to answer if you don't believe me try people why are you alive I was talking to a group of guys mid-20s about marriage I said you know we get married if to make sure you have the same goals in life anybody know where their goals in life are so this guy raises hand me I do it so what you're going with I'm gonna be a dentist I said that's that you're going like he said sure it is I said no it's not he said prove it yes the guy I said you're 80 90 100 years old you're on your deathbed they're writing your eulogy you get to listen in he was a dentist he filled many cavities he removed many impacted teeth he says stop I said I'm getting to the best part your tombstone is a big tooth and it says here lies that dentist so he says no you're misunderstood I said yeah I didn't mean that's my goal in life that's how I'm gonna earn a living what's your goal in life I have no idea whenever you want to ask nice I'm gonna be a dentist and everyone said good for you because that's the dream go to university get a profession get married buy a house have kids happy life now you're 45 and you have all that what do you do now get old we have nothing else for you some people figured out they can play twice they divorce their spouse to get another one they're buying another house they get another job they go on the board two times a night you can fit into lives you know but but most people just have a midlife crisis you've seen these people at the karaoke machines barely alive barely alive a sports car but they're not so flexible they can't really get in you know open up a couple of buttons little gray grizzly chest and after a while they give it up stop wearing their pants up to here get the orthopedic sneakers take two minutes to sit down and fall asleep all the time in the middle of a conversation talking to some whatever they're doing they always fall asleep and they always deny it no I wasn't I wish I could sleep I'm up on it oh that's it you're just sleeping till death and then oh you know that's it I know they'll sleep longer yeah but that's about it they're done what are you doing in this world why you alive that's the question and here's his answer and he says this has always been the Jewish Hanser and this is the only thing that Judaism has to offer I don't get if you like your filter fish don't you know and you like listening to fuzziness please don't let me take that away from you yeah it's playing with dreidel oil whatever kids happen to be yeah okay this is what he says you know why we're here his Onagawa Shambala a noise my TV now say she's a tiny gotta meet Eva even I go then we call you names if I might say to get pleasure from God and enjoy the divine spirit because that alight the light of the Divine Spirit because that's the greatest pleasure that there is I read this to a group of students once I said What did he say why are we here he said to serve God nope try again to get pleasure from God and enjoy the divine light because that's the greatest pleasure that there is why are we alive to get the divine light wrong I'm pretty sure I heard divine light right now listen to the whole sentence it's taxing ya to get pleasure from God in the joy the divine light because that's the greatest pleasure that there is or if you will we were created for X because that's the greatest pleasure but if it's Y or Z that's why we're here because ultimately God doesn't need anything he's infinite don't worry about him he put us in this world for one reason to get for you to get the grades play and the world is filled with pleasure and you're gonna have to choose and it's so hard take something simple for a non-jew and so difficult for a Jew a buffet just try it look at your hotel non-jews don't get the concept they just go over and take a plate and sit down and a Jew looks at the buffet and says you know I could eat all that food I just physically can't so I can I have to eat the most of the most expensive stuff so they plan it out like a military campaign no Jew walks everything's plated food they go like this they walk around tasting here sniffing here you know and they start collecting plates you know I ran it and they start to grow like The Incredible Hulk it until my kidney anymore but even though you can't eat it all so you're gonna have to take make choices that's easy you want to travel the world I mean people travel the world they stop in Israel sometimes you know and they come to my house for a Shabbat then they travel the world they just love to travel so they'll never know what it's like to be part of a community maybe that's better but they don't know you have to make a choice you want to go from relationship to relationship like a lot of people do you'll never know what it's like to be married for 50 years maybe it's better but you'll never know you're gonna have to make a choice and most people don't make choices most people don't live the life they want they live the life that happens you could check it out and see if it's wrong ask most people is this the life that you wanted guy in his 50s once said to me I don't know what I had what a meaningful life is but this isn't it I said so why'd you live ERISA I don't know I just made one choice and another choice another choice I might end it up someplace I never thought where I want to go at the end of my life you playing your life - about 40 and then you don't know what's gonna happen but how about planning your life from 90 listen the way science is going unless you get hit by a truck god forbid you could all live to about a hundred when I was growing up a guy who was seven he was an old man with a cane today you see people in their 80s running around and it's not unusual to meet people in their 90's you guys live to 100 and no question so most of the major majority your life is still ahead of you are you gonna let it just happen that's what most people do they make one choice in another choice every person who has an opportunity to have an office affair and everybody has that opportunity today if they make that choice yeah and I know people made this choice let's put Simic different if they make the choice not to it's not good they want to suffer because they decide that their marriage is a greater pleasure and I spoke to people who I think made the wrong decision they lost their marriage and I said what were you thinking you know what they said to me I wasn't I just took the next thing that come on cuz people don't think cuz if people really thought what they want to do with anybody play solitaire on the computer okay you don't have to shuffle the cards and you can change the back so you know what I mean but you ever see someone is there anything more tedious and boring and just you know when you see people doing this you know and they get stuck like hi your best friend came to visit hi we're going out for dinner uh-huh my house is on fire uh-huh and they just keep playing because at the end they get to watch the cards cascade and you know you have no life if you watch all the cards I want to play again and I want to play the first time so why did you I don't know I just it was easy I sit down the computer it's easier to do that than to write the Great American Novel people live the life that happens says I'm a social storm look over all the pleasures that are in this world and you'll find one thing the greatest pleasure is an infinite pleasure a pleasure that gets better and better and better and better we have no idea what that means because what's a pleasure to us pretzels now how many pretzels could a person eat wait still enjoy a bumper three maybe four then your teeth get covered with chewed-up pretzel gunk and everything you eat tastes like nothing and people push them away and pull them back and I keep thinking they'll taste better and they never do so sit don't even get me started on popcorn but anyway but you know now imagine a bag a pop of pretzels that never ran out and you'll live forever and you never got full and your teeth never got covered with pretzel gunk and each one tastes better than the one before yeah that's golden it's been a pleasure and in Judaism we say it comes from only one place the infinite source which is God that's the only thing it's all Judaism has to offer person said to me Wizzle the pleasure of Judaism I said it comes from this infinitive pleasure says but I don't know if I believe in God I said then I have nothing to offer you you like your filter fish he's a piece of you know you want to dance to her dance all right you know but I have nothing else to offer all we have to offer is spirituality I was on a plane and ll flight sitting next to a middle-aged Israeli businessman who was on his way to India to join his wife in the ashram where they were studying you know Buddhism and meditation so I said to him why are you going to India so he says because you reach a point in your life where you want something more you want spirituality you want meaning I said did you ever consider Judaism he laughed at me so what does Judaism got to do with spirituality Jews about doing mitzvahs now you eat a matzah now you shake a lulav now you play with that dreidel and you just do think of the thing if the thing it doesn't really mean the spirituality this Jewish guy was doing a documentary on the Dali Lama and if you're really close to Delhi lemon gives you your own mantra to focus on and then he wouldn't give him one he kept saying Dali Lama why won't you give me a mantra so he says you're Jewish aren't Joey says yeah he says you already have a mind reason oh I don't he said they never taught if you usually Jews no this is no he says okay clear your mind assume the position you look good study meditation and the Dalai Lama says to him repeat after me Sh'ma Israel I don't know hello hey no I don't know I have hard you sure you never heard this he's a Jew I heard it but no one ever told me that the purpose of prayer is that I'm going to reach this level of meditation and lift myself out of the world no one ever told me that but it's a it's it's it's a Gomorrah in Bracco's the Talmud says it it says they used to spend an hour before prayer an hour in prayer and an hour after prayer coming down from the experience they had lifted themselves so up out of this world why do we keep kosher I hear this answer all the time it's for health and hygiene I tell people you're obviously eating different kosher restaurants than I am because the ones that I go to there's a lot of stuff going on but it ain't health and hygiene yeah why do we eat it the Talmud says because God told us that if you eat these foods it will make you more receptive to spirituality and if you don't you won't it'll gives you it opens you up just like there's certain diets at our high energies good for your brain is this good for spirituality it's the only reason is there's energy and food some of its positive is something negative that's the only reason we keep kosher why do we keep Shabbos because the Torah tells us every seven days God brings this wave of holiness over the world and there are people who go through the motions and never sense it and I'll tell you why because they don't even know they maybe never turned on the radio or if they did they left the room or they don't know what the music is because they never experienced a real Shabbos one that is supposed to be me being able to connect with God in a spiritual way and lift myself up out of the world that's the only reason we keep it that's got to be and all the laws are just there to cut out the static and to tune in and to help me focus because we live in a very noisy world our phones are always beeping and our email is always beeping and the microwave is always beeping and everything is beeping and everything's going where can you get away from and I go to the airport they have TVs everywhere now when you drive they have TVs screens out on the building so you can watch TV as you smash into the person in front of you which i think is a really brilliant idea but if they don't have one of those you can get a TV right in your dashboard and you can watch TV as you're driving and texting you know I mean like you know where's the chance for you to stop and think and to be able to get off of this craziness and come Shabbos we don't cook and we don't shop and we don't drive but all those things we turn everything off and we just focus on us and moving ourselves out of spirituality now I'll tell you the danger with laws any kind of laws any kind of rules especially in a relationship yeah when you get married you'll find out there is a rules mitzvahs mitzvahs means Commandments there's rules in a relationship thou shall not forget thy wife's birthday upon pain of death okay that's when most men have to actually suffer to be able to figure that one out so it's his wife's birthday and the guy comes home with a dozen long-stem roses and he says these are for you and he says oh that's so nice and he says it's your birthday I have to write I forgot last year I didn't hear the end of it for a month you want me to put it in water okay you know what I'll put it in water puts the okay yeah and I go now what a beautiful moment now everybody knows this this is there's a lot of differences between guys and girls but one of them is when it comes to gifts guys love a practical gift buy him a drill he'll right away start drilling holes in the wool Heathrow fireman extension ladder he'll climb onto the wolf guys by Miss Rama he'll eat it right in front of you you don't I mean he's thrilled what else does he want girls like stuff that doesn't do anything for you scented candles and a little glass figurines and stuff trust me it doesn't work with a guy hey Bob you got you a unicorn oh great I'll put it right next to my scented candle on my whatnot she'll write to go why because girls have this thing that guys are not completely familiar with it's called emotion and they they see the gift as an expression of the of the commitment and the relationship every mall has at least one store filled with stuff that no guy wants and a girl wouldn't consider a meaningful gift and you know a guy figures out if the world is like in you buy your wife a blender you know so stick your hand in it your image is not interested she wants something that serves no purpose why because it's an expression of the relationship if God's infinite make no mistake he doesn't need you to do a mitzvah was it he needs you to eat a matzah he gets a thrill out of hearing the crunch you know I mean grabs together all the Angels look there's one over there crunch crunch oh look there's another one correct I love this time of year as an eejit I eat matzah from his point of view it doesn't make a difference but every Mitzvah has this ability to bring us closer to God and then get this unbelievable experience as infinite experience at a friend of mine who flew to London and he was flying the Sun was shining the sky was blue and he went beneath the clouds he was there for a week and they didn't see the Sun imagine this yeah if you've been to London a whole week you didn't see the Sun yeah at the end of the week he gets in a plane he gets above the clouds and suddenly the sky is blue and the sun is shining and I said to him the sky was always blue when the Sun was always shining he just didn't know how to get above the clouds and the purpose of all the myths is the purpose of all of Judaism is for one purpose to get us above the clouds to give us what the Messiah charme calls that light and that's what Chaves is all about we start by lighting candles that's how we started it's a time when they're supposed to be light it's a time when we're supposed to be moving out of this world into something greater yeah this world is represented by the number six three-dimensional four directions up and down the point in the middle that brings it all together that's seven that chaves chaves gives you a whole week meaning it gives you a whole life meaning it's supposed to be a process where every week I turn around and I stop and I say how is this week everything that I've done for six weeks work six that's what says will you'll work for six days and on the seventh day you'll enjoy everything that you earned in everything to work one my friends this is a very special opportunity a very special opportunity I came here the first time in 1969 January I exist you know in a year and a half after the six-day war with my parents and we went out on a religious tour and we were coming up the little small little road to Jerusalem and we stopped and he pulls over to the side of the road and he says to us Jews do not ride into Jerusalem they walk we all got off the bus and they walked into Jerusalem past this little planting of flowers that said brew him haba him welcome to Jerusalem I was in 1969 and I remember that moment every single time I Drive back to you shall I am I come back to Jerusalem every time I come here I say there's something there a Shabbos in Yerushalayim a Shabbos in the old city for our great-great-grandparents this was a dream who could imagine you're sitting here looking over the Temple Mount that you can go there where Jews had a tiny little place where they would be able to stand and a garbage thrown on them you know and and and all kinds of danger and you can go there and sing and dance and celebrate it's a it's a whole different experience it's a opportunity for us to take this shot this Shabbat and for us to try to make it something that's so meaningful that from doesn't matter if we're in Ontario California on North America Long Island which it Arkansas wherever we happen to be if we have a synagogue we don't have a synagogue we can sit down and tap into this unbelievable energy we can connect to God and get this spirituality that's just surrounding us we just have to listen to it we just have to bring it into our lives and lift ourselves up we Jews have been accused of a lot of stuff we killed you Christian children to bake our matzah we we killed their God will we're capitalists for Congress all kinds of stuff the one thing they never said about us and that was stupid and I've always thought around for 3,300 years is because we had something that was really very special that the whole world used to look at us and say you know this the famous Dutch painters Rembrandt in his school they painted a lot of pictures of Jews because they said when you looked at a Jew you saw nobility there was something that we had that the world looked at us and said I don't know what it is but they have something special that's what it is this is connection to infinity and if we can get that we have 24 hours where we're able to lift ourselves up out of this world and live in that light and that's where at the end of it we like the Abdullah candle I have to bring the light back in we live in this light and then we go out back into our into our regular life the next week inspired and and and with the ability to now tap into the energy that around us please God this Shabbos will be a beautiful one for everybody thanks everyone for coming