Adon Olam MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE with Rabbi Kalman Flaks

Heat. [music] Heat. [singing] [music] [singing] My birthday [music and singing] [music and singing] amazing. >> Good to see everyone on this beautiful night, special week. just mamish were in mama's yard site was yesterday and uh yard sites on uh Thursday Wednesday night Thursday so many beautiful beautiful so a lot of love in the air lot of Israel love of Israel in the air beautiful time to come together and learn Torah And I I am [singing] na [applause] n [singing] [applause] I n I know. It [singing] oh n it n I n I [singing] [applause] am [singing] I I am my m I [applause] I did I Night I am. Any I [singing] [applause] [singing] [applause] n >> [singing] >> Okay. But you said, by the way, that niggan when it when it came down to Schlommo, he said that was a pretty good song. You know, he he went over the guy next to him. It was pretty good. And he wasn't being arrogant. He was basically recognizing that he didn't make up that It was a gift from Hashem. A gift from Hashem. every a gift from Hashem. So we're going to dedicate our Torah to the protection of all of our to seeing Yeshua seeing salvations in all of our lives of anyone who needs shias anyone who needs Shalomas children for anyone who needs children and zebu for anyone who needs a zebu. I thank our sponsor uh for his kind uh donation and uh as always for allowing us to come together and learn Torah is. So we're continuing our journeys in and we are up to the beautiful of Adonam. We're going to go deep into the of Adonam. I'll start with a funny vignette, a funny story. So I'll reveal a yuka to you guys. When I was a kid, from age I think six until like 15, I was the adonolam boy. Okay, that was my job. Everybody in knew me. Uh I used to it was actually a tough job. It wasn't just a don for the record. I had to do uh shiry alu anams and a don. Okay, so it was it was like a big shoe avenue and Jewish center shout out. And uh anyways, so by the time I was like 11, 12, I was kind of getting bored of just doing the same niggan every time. Um I was already a vet, you know. So I started experimenting doing different niggins. Every time I do, I pick like a different niggan. And even that after a while, I got a little like bored. [clears throat] So one time I don't know what the heck I was thinking. I was in like a really daring mood. So it was a donalam and I that that the day before I heard like a uh what's his name? I'm free free fall. You guys know it's an igen. And I was just it got in my head and then just like I got up there and out of nowhere I just started sing and like nobody picked up this is like a huge shel with like hunt and like everyone's like what's he doing it was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life but uh but but it was I learned from there that you can hit rock bottom and you know you can it's only up from there. It's only up from there. Anyways just a a short a memory of Adon Alam. So adonam as we all know it's a song that many shuls sing at the end of the service throughout all the world there's many many people who have sing this to this day in the beginning of the service many of us sing it as the first song we sing the end of the service sorry >> Tom Petty >> Tom Petty oh there heartbreakers he broke my heart that day um and um and uh I remember I traveled in Papua I went somehow around the world at some point in my life uh with like lost tribes and there was like this tribe from Papo that I'm still very connected to. We're probably going to send this year to them and they knew the whole Adonam beautiful song. If you guys want, I'll send you I have a YouTube video online of me singing this beautiful niggan of Adonam with Papu and >> in Papua near New Guinea, not New Guinea. And they were actually originally part of a church and then they went to Judaism. So they all have amazing voices and they sing Adonam every service to this day and they love it. And Adonam when you're singing those beautiful words your mom is connected to all the Jews throughout the world. And not only that, but you're connecting to all the Jews who have been singing Adonam throughout so much of Jewish history. So when did Adonalam begin? We have from the 14th century. We know that people were singing this uh at the end of Davening or at some as some it was found in sitters. It was some part of the prayer ceremonies uh already at least uh 700 years ago. But when did the prayer originate? So the truth is we don't know. There's a lot of different uh theories. We don't have absolute knowledge or proof. Some if you look on Wikipedia the most popular theory is Iben Gabiro. Solomon Schlommo Iben Gabiro. Okay. Also known as the street between Kakal and and Ramban Street. So I walk down it all the time. Um but even before the street he was a famous uh poet uh in the I think 11th century in Spain. I think he also is attributed with a lot of other poems that we know he actually did write for sure. Maybe on Miros if I'm not mistaken and a few other important uh poems. very interesting guy wrote holy poetry also wrote secular poetry and plays and all sorts of interesting things so it maybe maybe was written by him some scholars think it was by him um others say it goes back to the gonim to shria shrian or some other ga and that's like in the 8th century um and maybe some I wrote found said it goes back to yohan benzaka that's I read one theory and the most interesting theory I I found I actually found in my house a book all dedicated to Adonam that my wife happens to own. It's actually a novel. It's all about how the secrets of all of Judaism are in Adonam. It's called Adonam uh by an orb. And in that book I found the theory written by a safer by of where it was revealed to him that the anessa themselves 2500 years ago actually are the authors of the adon and indeed it has many of the secrets of Judaism written in this beautiful prayer. Pretty pretty amazing. So, in our short time, I don't know if we'll be able to get to all the secrets of Judaism, but we'll do our best. Okay? And uh, as we'll see, it is indeed a very deep, very deep song. It's a lot of um, big concepts to think about. Probably when we're just waking up early in the morning, you know, that's we're a little groggy. It's a little hard to think about all these things. Maybe that's why we put at the end of the, you know, then we're a little bit more up. It's like some people actually say it's like a kayazmic structure. You begin your day with adonam and many people end the services. Some people end their day with adonam. It's it's it's in the ka shama. So it's like you begin and you end it at the same time. Some people have another cryic structure. They don't say it in the beginning. They don't say it at the end. Okay. There's different customs. But uh but whatever your custom is, adonalam is a is a powerful prayer and we're going to try to unravel what what it's all about. So I want to start with the first following question. Why do we say it at shakras in the custom is dafka to start out our file session in at least in many communities with adonam? What does adon alam have to do with the beginning of our day? Any theories linking adon alarm with the beginning of our day? So I I I'll be honest, you guys haven't gone through the if you went through the then you'll be able to have a theory. I cheated. I prepared this shiv beforehand. So I'll give you three beautiful theories as to why we say it at the beginning of the day and then we're going to go start going through the actual the words of the prayer. Okay. Theory number one because we say in the bring the oneness of hem into my life and I bring the my and hem into my life. So when I go to bed that's what we referring to before saying adonam before I go to sleep the and when I wake up means right when I wake up in the morning the first thing I should do is say adonam okay so that's a safer suggested that seemed very reasonable to me second theory the writes the fifth sim very short and very important uh sim remind us when we say god's name. We're supposed to have specific specific intentions. Okay. What are we supposed to think of when we say supposed to think >> I guess >> I like it. But that's not what the says. Very good. But it's not says something actually different. says if you go back to the burning bush when God reveals himself to Mosherenu and you understand Rash's interpretation there he basically is saying I was I am and I will be >> that's eky >> and that's what we're supposed to think every time that we say the word Elohim name if I'm not mistaken when you say Hashem's name that's that's in an ideal world that we should have that in mind but in the minimal level I have to say adon which means God is my personal master but ideally that he is the master of everything and that he was is and he's a master of adon is the minimal level and the bonus is if you can think he is he was and he always will be he's beyond time okay that's what the show everything in time you say guy's name in an ideal world we should have both of those intentions he's the master of everything the simple the meaning of ad and the the way it's written we should ideally also have that intention too some by the way write that that's a lot to think every single time I'm saying God's name so you should try to have that in mind the first time you say it and then have in mind that my intention every single time I say God's name is like I had this first time okay the time that We have to have this in mind is when we say then we really have to have these intentions in mind. All the rest of the time if it's too much to remember just have in mind the simple meaning of the word adonai that he is the master master of the world. Okay. Now there's a lot to remember. So is there to remind us of some of these holy intentions. We're going to go through through. We're going to see that it's defining Hashem. is who is Hashem. So before we start saying God's name throughout our day, we have to define who is God so that we can have the proper intentions throughout our doings. You with me? Okay. So explanation of do why do we say adonam especially and why do we say it right away? So that when we say God's name the rest of the day we'll have the rest of our dinging we'll have the proper intentions. Again, I think a very good explanation and that alone is already something to take out of why we say donam every day. The third explanation is my favorite one and in fact the story goes that there was a a talid of the gur who wrote a new safer on on on on the sitter. Everybody like to this day every rabbi has to write their commentary on the sitter. All right. So he wrote a news sitter and he comes to the GR who was not didn't have much free time right he never wasted any moment and he presented him with this book and the ra the gr saw the I'm about to present to you guys he says for this alone this book is worth publishing for this that I'm about to present to you guys so it must be a pretty good kesh yeah by the way sometimes when rabbis say wow for this alone they're basically saying, "Okay, I don't really have time to read this whole book." So, it looks good, but like can I go back to my, you know, daily learning? But that I'm sure that wasn't the girl's intention here. The girl was sincere, but for this alone, this book should be published. So, this is the that was brought down in the book. Who was the first person to call God Adonai, my personal master? Anybody know? Anybody remember who's the first guy? Oh, I would have thought, right? Turns out it's not true. Do a baron search. You're never going to find Abraham actually refer Adam actually refer to God as Adonai. >> Adarish does not refer to God in that particular adjective. >> Okay. What about who's the next guy? we might guess. >> Oh, but before him Noah, >> Noah also did not refer to God as my Adonai. So the is coming from must be something very holy. Nobody called Adam. Nobody called God Adam. Abraham called him last week's para god my master. How will I know that I will inherit the land? He's the first time that's the first time that someone actually refers to God as Adonai as my personal as my master. Okay, that's what the Gomorrah points out. Actually it's interesting this week's para also how does the para start out par when au according to Rashi gives two interpretations and he said he says adoni my master is either adon he's referring to the angels or the head angel right Mel or the second interpretation is he's talking to God he's saying god wait I got to go smoo with these angel guys and do so you just hold on because god was visiting ing him doing. So he says, "Hold on, hold on, god, my master. I got to go chill with these angel dudes." Right? Right. And he refers to God as Adonai. Okay, we'll get back to that. Fine. So the Gmorrah says, "Adam is the first person to refer to God as Adonai." What is the Gmorrah really trying to say when it says that Abra is the first person that refers to God as Adon Shali, as my master? What's the the deeper meaning behind that? So the explanation is like this. I think this is at least from Schwab's explanation. Says Adam didn't look at God as if God is my personal master. Adam looked at God like he was a policeman. He's that big guy in the heavens. He tells you don't eat that and don't eat that and don't do that. And he's watching over you to make sure you don't mess up. And that was a fundamental flaw because he didn't realize what's the first mitzvah. Eat. Enjoy the world. I love you so much. But but just one thing. Don't eat this one little fruit. You got to have some borders in life. But he didn't understand. He put the stress on the don't on the don't and don't. That's all he was able. So or at least that's the way. That's the way the snake framed it. So he didn't get to the higher level of having a personal relationship with with Hashem. At least not at that point. Noah, it's the same thing. He listens to God. He's a servant of God. He's a sadic, don't get me wrong, but he doesn't have a personal relationship with God to the extent that he never questions God. God tells him to build the ark, he builds the ark. Yes, he's a yes man, but he doesn't even have a he doesn't even think that he can ask a question. Hey, maybe God doesn't actually want to destroy the world. So, if God told him to do it, that's his way he relates to God. Okay, I'll do it. I'm not going. He's the commander. Like, that's it. And that was a fundamental mistake. He he thinks that God is only a commander and not realizing that you can have a personal relationship with Hashem. You can ask questions. And that's Adam's kesh. Adam is a who the tikk of Adam. Maybe that's why I keep making that mistake. Aram according to the cabala is the gilgo of of Adamish. He's fixing that relationship with with with um with the kadeshu. Yes. Of course he has respect for keshu. Of course, when God when he is his commander when God says go, he goes, right? What's the biggest proof that he has that respect for God? What story demonstrates his ultimate respect for God, even if it's really, really hard. >> Right? There's no more greater challenge than that. He's able to say every part of him doesn't want to do it, but he does it anyway because he understands God's commander. But he's not just a commander. He's also someone you can ask questions to. You can have a personal relationship with, right? We see this in the story of we questions God, right? How could it be? Doesn't make any sense. He he he's able to read between the lines and know when when God is saying this is it, don't ask any questions, you know, and when there's some wiggle room here or maybe he even wants you to challenge him. So it says Rhwab in Rhwab on prayer that sometimes a servant is in some ways even closer than a son. A servant and a master relationship because a son they're very there's deep relationship there. But he doesn't ne a servant the because he's on a much lower level than the master. The master feels uninhibited. He could just put up his feet and smoo with him about anything and he can go into places that even a regular person that even no one else can come to. There's no borders so to speak with a trusted servant. So Aan was that trusted servant, the avid and he relates to as he's the master. Of course, there's respect there, but there's also a closeness there, right? And that's why we start our every day with the word adon, you know, because referred to as adon and reminding us that we have to have respect for God, but we also have this personal relationship with who power, but also he's my personal God. I have a personal relationship with and that's that's why we start off by the way who's mak who established chakras it's not a coincidence it's # abra so we start our villa with a donam maybe a amino himself wrote a donal I don't know I wasn't there but uh anyway so that alone is worth coming to this year tonight right by that beautiful insight of rwab slash the student of the vagon. Okay, give let's go through some of the words together of the don and see if what else we can unravel uh in this gorgeous tifila. Um and at the end if we're good boys and girls we can choose our tune. I know everyone has their favorite adonolon tune. Uh so we'll we'll let you guys decide which one uh you want to sing. Okay. Oh, this one doesn't have an inh. Funny. Uh, no, there it is. Okay, good. I'm going to start. I'm just going to sing the classic. Okay. Master of the world. Interesting. I probably would have phrased it if I was writing it. Master of the world. Instead, it says adonam, master of world. Sorry. >> The whole all worlds. >> Well, there I would say adon. No. >> So, it's interesting. So, normally the way we translate adonam is the master of the world, right? Some theorize it's what else can mean forever time. Some theorize the master of time, the master of forever. He's not just that he's the master of the world, but he's creator of of time. Pretty cool. Pretty deep. Interesting. Okay. Speaking of deep, Olam, I forgot to mention this. This the Balasam writes that the secrets of all of Torah are embedded in the adonam. They're of ashlag, the balasam. It's a lot of deep secrets. Adonam is from. What does Olam also mean in Hebrew? It's related to the word. Same root. >> What does that mean? >> Hidden. Hidden. Why do we connect world to hidden? Who's hidden in the world? >> Hashem. >> Hashem. Exactly. >> Cababalistically speaking, we're all cabalists. Of course, we all know that God created the world according to the and then he constricts himself and he hides himself. He creates a world in order to hide himself. He actually creates as we'll speak about four worlds. Okay? And we are the most physical manifestation of the world which God is hiding in. He's playing hide and go seek. And what is our mission in life? To find him. He's hiding and we're supposed to find him. How do we find him? We search for him. How do we search for him? We do mitzvah and we look for him and we yearn for him and hopefully we reveal him and reveal him to the world. That's the mission of life because he could have just revealed himself. He's but that's no fun. It's no not a fun hideand go seek if he's, you know, he's so he hides himself. It's also not fun if that used to happen to me. We play hiding ghost. I'd go hide and no one would search after me. I come back like two hours later like my cousins were playing a different game. So traumatized. Anyways, so sometimes Hashem is just hiding but like we're not even looking for him. Anyways, hope they're not watching. The point is God is hiding in the world and we're supposed to hide him. Okay. Adonam who reigned. Interestingly enough, in every the is you have to mention he's my master, my personal God, but also me a has to mention the concept of of kingship. So, we're mentioning that God's a king. Again, the the ying and the yang. Adon means personal relationship. What does mel mean? >> King. >> King. But like like we always say, a mamish king. Powerful mel. You have to be a little bit scared. >> Dominion. >> Dominion, right? Think about the fact that every star you see is like much bigger than the sun. And in the sun there's like like I don't know the stats of thousands of Earth that can fit in the sun. And every star has much bigger than and there's billions and billions and billions of these stars more stars than sand. So the world's really really big. That's the point I'm saying. And God is the master of all of this. So you're supposed to feel the power of God. You're supposed to feel like whoa. You say the word mel. Okay. Who reigned before anything? Before any was created. So say that again. master of the world who reigned who who was the king over the world before anything was created. >> So again, when did God reign over the world? >> Before anything. >> Before anything before there was time. >> For time. >> Yeah. >> God created time. >> That's already a pretty deep idea. >> Now ask me a question. God was the king over the world before the world was created. Before anything was created. >> Why? What? Before anything was created, before any creation was created, God was the king. Ask me a good >> king of what? What's he the king of? >> But imagine I come to yeshiva today and I declare myself but nobody comes to shir. It's happened. It's happened many times in my life. Trust me. That's actually the best when nobody comes. The worst is when just one person comes. Anyways, but and I say I'm the king. >> Really? I'm the king of this empty building like okay you want you sure but like what kind of king is it of if nothing's here and now he's here there's a building but there was nothing called you so what was he the king over >> was lonely >> was >> was lonely >> and he needed to create something exactly but what was he the king over we just said he reigned >> it's a good question no Maybe I just leave it. >> Sometimes, you know, sometimes mobby used to say, you don't always have to have an answer for the question. Sometimes it's better just leave it as a good question. You know, >> so there are answers. I I looked in some of the there are some answers. I'd rather just leave it as a question. Food for thought. You had a kidish, you're bored, you can smoo with this. Go to the next random guy. Start smooing with that. You know, it's a good question. Before anything, God was king. But then let's keep going. At the time that he created when he desired everything, then king Shimonra his name was called. So when God created everything, then he was called king. >> By who? >> By who? Who called him king? When God created everything, who called him king? >> Maybe it was >> maybe could be. We we talk about in the pim how the m the kings the angels in heaven are declaring the kingship of Hashem. It wasn't enough. >> Who else is he declares the king of God, kingship of Hashem? >> That yeah, us. That's that's what us humans are here for. That's what us Jews are here for. That's what all of Russ is about to be. That's the whole point. That's what we're doing every single day. We're declaring that God is the king. We're being shim. Every day we're saying God is my king. I'm taking upon myself the yoke of heaven because he's my king and I am serving. I I bow to him. That's why we're here. So when God created the world, we were able to declare him king. Now the angels, they in a certain way declare God king. Yes, he's powerful. But the thing is they kind of don't have much of a choice. First of all, they see up close how amazingly powerful he is. Second of all, like ants, they declare God king, but they don't really have much of a choice. They don't have free will. Who's the only creature that has free choice that can actually declare God the king? Us. So that's us. Shimonra. Now that God has created the world, we can declare him king. And we can then we have our place in life. Then we feel good about ourselves. It might seem a little weird like what he's like up there. He needs a king. He needs that someone should call him a king. But it's no. He knows he created us. And our need is that we need a king over us. We need to declare his king. And I'm sure I hope and I'm sure that many of us experience moments in our life when all we're thinking is like God is the king and it feels so good, right? Hopefully you've been I don't know. I remember I was at rashana dabining and everyone's just singing and you have like hundreds of people singing at the top of their lungs these moments when all I like you know rashi I'm kipper and all I can think about is god's the king not thinking about anything else and it feels so natural and good and pure cuz that's how our namas are built to be that's when we feel plugged in so sh so when god created the Well, he created then we're here to call declare him as king. Now, let's get a little cabalistic for a moment. Something really cool alluded in the last sentence we just said is actually the four different worlds that God created the world with according to their result. Okay, let's find it. reminds us of the world of creation. NRA is the world of >> Bria and then Nasa the world of >> okay so we got three out of four the fourth one is not explicitly mentioned the result says that even for anything there's a world of atilus where God takes from himself it's the most spiritual world and put the world into being. So that maybe is alluded to in before the world was created. call you. >> So the reason points out that in other words in order for God to create the world, God is very very spiritual. Everything is really one of God. But in order for us to feel separate entities from God, he needs to create these barriers called universes called worlds. And that way we can feel like we have existential meaning and we're separate from God. But in the in reality, we're all one with we're all connected to God. Yeah. So this is alluded to in this first sentence of adonal. Pretty cool. No, the deeper secrets of this A, I don't know, and B, I don't know if we have if I have permission to reveal even if I did know. So you'll go to your uh to different cabalistic uh another time. Okay, let's keep going. So after everything is done, then he alone will reign supreme again. >> So the end of the world once this whole show is over is just going to be God >> again because God is everything. He created us and then in the end we're going to just go back to God. At least that's a simple way of reading this that when it's all done, Msiah and everything, the whole show, God's going to go back to just being God. Some read it a little differently. That actually would extend as of which means yearning. After all beings yearn for God, then he alone will reign in the time of Msiah. when it's vanishk when God alone will reign supreme. So it's not talking about the end after the messianic era it's talking about the messianic era when God is supreme but over us and according to that way of looking at it we actually will never the world will not end. We're here till the end with Hashem >> or Hashem recreate >> or maybe we end and then God does it again. We know there's a midrash which says that God is creating he created many worlds and recreated many worlds uh before this world is created. And maybe we're just one of those in that process. Lots of big questions. So I guess it depends how you interpret it where we're holding in the stages of God's in general. In Judaism, we're not really too concerned about God's God and his plans. We're here to figure out us humans and how we can become the best people possible. That's what 99.9% of Torah and Judaism is about. Here we have one brief moment where we're talking a little bit about these big concepts of what's the bigger plan of God. Pretty deep. By the way, this I think this is why some theorized that it was written in the Spanish era. A because during that era they were very big into these big philosophical questions that you know the Rambam is dealing with and B because the meter the way that the poetry lines up uh is very common to the Spanish era uh of like it rhymes very nicely. That's why all the songs fit very nicely tad because it has very nice rhyme and a lot of the other uh song like poetry like biblical poetry doesn't usually rhyme. So that's just side point for the scholars amongst us. Okay, let's get back to the text. And he was and he is and he will be as we alluded to your K v. In other words, he's beyond time. He created time. This very works very well with my theory that I shared before that the whole point of is to help us have the right kavana for when we say god's name. And we're also just defining who this god is cuz if he's beyond time then that's something that us humans can't really fathom. So we've never lived in a world beyond time. But God is beyond time apparently which is shows us that he's we can't put him in a box that we can understand with glory. erit like the perfect harmony. Again, I don't really know the deeper secrets of what is implied in this wordif, but I remember learning that is like the highest beautiful pair, the highest level. Okay, let's keep going. And he's one and not two and there's not another one. So there's not another one because only one god. So why do we have to say? Isn't that superolous? Alas, what does imply >> only? >> Sorry, >> only >> only. What do you mean by only? Only >> the only one. >> The only one. Whereas the Torah tells us invado. Not just in the sense that there's no other God, but rather in the deeper sense that we've been alluding to that everything is God. Everything was God when before there was anything there was God. In the end of the day it's only going to be God. And the truth is even right now. Don't tell anyone but there is only God. Okay? We're all part of God. We are all a part of Hashem. That's we are not God but we're part of Hashem. Okay. And this is also he is connected to all of us and everything that happens is from his will. That's why we say everything is from the best everything is good because ultimately he's in charge who and of course is also gamatria of as we mentioned before love. He created the world with love and everything is one and united with that ultimate plan of love. What does mean? >> Like a mush. There's no one to compare him to. >> Sometimes we fall into this trap of saying, "I don't understand. If I were God, I would do like this. And how can God doesn't let do like that?" that like you're like a tiny less than an ant trying to figure out a human. Like you it doesn't you can't fathom, right? So we can't compare anything to God. We don't understand what God is. There's nothing to compare him to. There's nothing to connect him at the end of the day. Okay? So a little before we start domining in the morning, we're like just blowing our mind a little bit and saying who we can't. We want to connect to Hashem, but let's also be honest like we can't really don't, you know, don't get too buddy buddy as if we can really understand who Hashem is. Nothing to compare to. What does that mean? Without >> Without beginning, >> without end. >> Can you think of anything in the world that has no beginning and ending and no end? I can't. >> Okay. So that's beyond imagination. Beyond very philosophical nothing, no beginning, no end. What does O mean? >> Strength. >> Power, right? Strength. He is the creator of everything. So he is the power, the energy which is revitalizing the world. the hamra and the dominion. He rules over everything. He has control over everything like the proar. He dons O. He's he's not really O. He created O and he and he wears it to so we could understand a little bit what that is. Okay. Who? But even though he's so powerful, what does Ki mean? What's the here? >> God, >> he's my God. L we've discussed in the past has a connotation of but usually what it really means is power. Your your your strength is like the mountains of strength. Elo means powers. He's very powerful, but he's not just in general powerful. He's my powerful God. With all this amazing power, he I have a personal relationship with. He's my God. And it's unbelievable gift that Hashem allows us to say that he's my personal God. Kai >> goali >> redemption >> and my again redeemer. What does it mean to be a redeemer? What is it's one of those words again we throw it around a lot but but >> redemption. >> What does redemption mean? >> He saves me. So on one hand means I'm lost. I have no meaning in life. I'm I'm about to be, you know, destroyed and he saves me. Goel, redeems me. There are other words which means like Yeshua, salvation. So there's a specific connotation of gula. We've mentioned in the past specific connotation in the Torah. What does go mean? So it could mean two things. First of all, it can mean the redeemer in the sense that you have land. You redeem it means to bring it back to its source. >> Okay? Because it was year after year sold to people who don't really have a connection to the land. I'm going to buy that land, right? Like boas. I'm redeeming the land and I'm redeeming this woman. She's just >> I'm taking it back to its root, to its essence. That's why it says in the that when you quote something in the source, I'm redeeming it. I'm bringing gula to the world. I'm bringing it back to its source. The gar migillah says, right? Every time I quote something, I'm bringing it back to its source. So God is my redeemer. Every day I get lost. I get first I see I think I'm going to go check uh the YouTube, you know, Rabbi Poston. Somehow I end up watching the politics of the this and then that leads me to some TV show and then that leads me to and then I'm I don't know my whole day I'm I'm lost. I'm God I don't know what I'm doing and my main I'm thinking about all sorts of random things and then business and then this guy's pressuring me and then I don't know if I should I get lost in our generation and my thoughts right we get lost and what brings us back? Hashem, Hashem brings us back. Davening brings us back to our souls. Learning brings us back to our souls. Singing brings us back to our souls. And we go back and he redeems us and gives us meaning. He gives us a life with purpose, with meaning and connection to him. So that's gula, right? That's why it says you have to connect gul to the whole goal of is to be redeemed, to go back to to redeem. That's why we're all yearning for gula. Gula means going back to our source, going back to our true selves, to our souls. Yeah. So the life force of my redemption. In other words, when I'm go back to I'm really alive. When I'm not says, when are you really alive? When I'm thinking about when I'm conscious of at any moment when my mind starts wandering into anything else, I'm not really alive at that moment. Only when I'm in a state of being aware of am I really alive. >> That is the definition of it's a thought process. So that's what does that mean? The rock of my What does mean? So it could mean rope or it could mean pangs like the mashiach or like a woman has birth pangs. So the rock when I'm in pain when I'm having birth pangs, what do I hold on to? Right? So you know your the wife is holding on to the birth lady or whatever. But what are we holding on to when we're in pain? We hold on to Hashem. He's our rock, right? It's like the guy's running down the river and it's about to go on the the waterfall, right? Like Simba in the movie. And then he rock holds on to the to the rock at the last second and he's holding on to his last strength. So we have that's us. We're holding on to Hashem. He's the rope that we're holding on to during the times of pain. And we all know that when we're when things are good, hopefully we all feel a deep relationship with the when do we generally often really need Hashem and really feel Hashem when we're in those hard times, right? Ask you all the hostages are talking about their stories. Now you listen to their their amazing stories. So many of them felt so close to Hashem during this terrible terrible times and they had nothing else but and they got so close to Hashem. Some of them are saying they kind of miss in some ways in some ways those those times when they felt so close to Hashem because they were so they needed Hashem so much. Yeah. So I definitely feel that sometimes like in the army in [clears throat] these desperate sad times or lonely times and I I had such a strong connection with Hashem at those times and uh we hashem should bless us that we should feel the deep connection to Hashem even during the good times. That's the challenge of life. So we won't have to get back to those bad times. But in any case, he's our like double we're holding on to the at during those painful times. By the way, that's also why when uh the the state of Israel, they were trying to find a phrase that could also just be a neutral phrase, but also refer to God. What what did they refer to God as in the in the in the way that they wrote the proclamation for the state of Israel? Israel, the rock of Israel, because every sing is Hashem, but technically it just means a rock. So it it made everybody happy. Anyway, so God is our rock. He's our rock. Lifts us above what we're our anchor and he's my How do you translate? >> My dad. >> Very good. It's double language. one level whenever we see nace in it always means my flag my banner okay for example I think God is my flag is my banner in other words what's my mission in life what am I here for to reveal God he's my n he's my mission That's what I'm here to do. I'm looking for opportunities to to call out in the name of God like Abrau and like Mosher Rabenu. I remember I was uh one summer I was in Brooklyn for the summer and my mom made me take a college course in Burough of Manhattan Community College and um it was like this English poetry course to get credits and I was the only Jew there. In fact, I was the only religious person besides this other Arab lady. He was me and her and then like all the rest of the and uh one time I don't know why they went on a tangent and they asked like what is beauty and I just I was inspired and I wrote this like poem about how beauty is godliness and like I I don't know why I was I was the last guy to speak and I I like raised my hand. I was like, "Oh, I have a poem." I don't remember what I said something like, "Godliness is beauty. Beauty is godliness or something like that." Something very cheesy. And at the end, like they actually gave me a round of applause. It was very cute. And then I was like, "Wow, I held up God as my banner." Like I got to actually represent Hashem in the world. It was It's pretty cool back in BMCC. Good times. Anyways, um so that's it. That's what we're here to do. Who needs tea? On another level, what does it mean to be a nace? A miracle. God is my miracle. Right. >> Right. >> God transcends miracle. >> Life itself. >> Life itself is a miracle. >> Life is a miracle. And God gave me life. And as long as we hold on to God, then we can see miracles. Right? That's why Rashi says that I was it wasn't really 318 servants who went to war with Abraham rather who was it Elazar right what's Eleazar Gamach had 318 says the who did he really go to war with he went with 318 guys but what what did he take with him Elazar belief in God as my helper even the most desperate times even fighting the four kings in the world. God is my salvation and we can overcome anything. That's right now two years we're doing we're fighting but we know at the end of the day it's only he's and we have miracles that we never could have imagined. When you see everything as from Hashem and when you go above your nature that's an Hashem reveals what does it mean? He's my refuge. When I'm when things are down he's I go to him. Aman says every day a person needs to find time to make God their refuge. In other words, you have to do have a time. He says it could be under your covers. You go to bed. Find a time every day to make Hashem your refuge where it's just you and him. You just smoo with him about everything. He is the cup of my salvation. This is actually a from that author is quoting. We say God is my over cup flowing cup. [snorts] What does it mean that God is my cup? I also I'm not really sure what it means. I was kind of struggling with this. What does it mean that do we drink God? Like what does it mean that God's my cup? What does mean when we say he's my cup? >> Like a full cup, >> right? He's like >> mani. He's my cup on the day I call I guess like when you have that kittish and you see your cup overflowing and you just feel really good cuz you're about to like enjoy. That's Hashem. He's like he's giving me everything and he gives me that feeling of like I'm about to have kdish. I don't know. That's what it means to me. On the day I call out to him, the day I cry out to him, he's my cup. It's going to finish up because our time's running low. >> In his hand, I am placed my spirit when I go to bed and when I wake up. So when when is that moment when I place my spirit to God? When I go to bed. Every night I have to have trust that I'm going to wake up the next morning. And what really gives me that trust, knowing that Hashem's watching over me, that Hashem's taking care of my soul. He's going to clean me out, my soul up and bring it back to me. And uh he's he's going to take care of my uh soul and take it as a picad. He's going to take it as an entrustment. Okay. By the way, that's again probably why we say adonam before we go to bed. Maybe it also alludes to the fact that when we're going to die, we're going to uh say adonam. We're going to entrust our souls to God. And there were sadly the crusader time period and other time periods it seems uh whole sh that that died saying adonam as their final words before they died. These beautiful words that we're singing today and with my spirit my body shall remain. Hashem God is with me and I won't fear. Of course, who is that paraphrasing? I won't fear who in that sames right in every situation, God is with me, but even the darkest times I will not be scared because you are with me. And that's exactly what all the we're talking about, what all the soldiers are feeling. And hopefully all of us feel throughout our days that no matter what situation we're in, Hashem is with us. And that's the spirit that the adam is trying to give us throughout our day. This feeling of presence within us wherever we go. So hopefully when we say this tonight or tomorrow, by the way, you don't only have to say it during Davin. You could say it. There were people in challenging times that would sing this song and just say it over and over and over and said, "I'm giving my my life over to Hashem. I'm entrusting my life to Hashem. Hashem is in charge." And hopefully these words will be meaningful. We will be we will have ine and God will reward us for our ine trust in Hashem and we will see uh great great merits and we will have trust and we won't be scared of anything in our lives because Hashem is with us. So what what niggan are you guys vibing what should we end off with? >> Yeah. >> Should we just do the classic? We'll do the classic. If you guys want another one, we can do another one afterwards. >> [singing] >> So Morning. No. [singing] The end mech. See my no sleep may not be I' Hashish. [applause] Kiddish. [music] [singing] Heat. Heat. [music] [singing] [music] >> [singing] [music and singing] >> Oh my My God.