Alei Shur: Time & Space According to G-d - Rabbi Guy Matalon

[Music] so we are in the process of understanding the effect of time and space on our service - M we spoke about the service chef being affected by space that is location there are places on earth where we are more sensitive to pick up the spirituality and there are other places where it's a little harder to pick up and Eleana and I were discussing is it more difficult or is it it takes more effort and we were talking about how in some places you have to work harder to maintain your level of position because outside of the Land of Israel there's two ma impurity whereas in the Land of Israel there's kedusha but the ali sher says that because there is kedusha here you have to actually work harder here then you would in outside of the Land of Israel because of the holiness of the land and that there are more opportunities to be tested by Hashem in Eretz Israel than outside the Land of Israel and the question is here are you up to the test so all of you are here and you're being tested well the question is if in Israel it's a little harder to make partner so than in hoods that's a big big test we talked about this in a previous year right today so it really depends on what you know we're looking at you know the number one statistic that will increase your choice of marrying a Jewish girl do you know what that number one is living in a place where there's lots of Jewish girls simple people think you know if you send your kids to day school then they'll be more likely to it's true there yes but the number one reason people marry Jews is because there's a lot of Jews around if you move to South Dakota it's gonna be pretty hard even if you went to day school and you send your kids to yeshiva but cuz there's nobody around let's talk about the effect of time again the there's am a Jewish in qohelet raba call it is one of the books that was written by slow marmella in English it's called Ecclesiastes don't get it confused with class because because that's another book called Ben Sira it's not in the Hebrew Bible they've been wondering about this all your life now you know so there's a Meldrick on qohelet rava to explain a lot of the verses that are in this book and it says one of the sukham says one of the verses saying don't say that the first days were better than this because you did not say this with wisdom so you shouldn't say the rabbi's teach you should think that every generation that passes is similar to the generation that just passed so our generation is really in the same level of the previous generation and the previous generation is the same as the previous generation so you shouldn't say that if Rabbi Akiva were here today I would read before him or if herbs are an rebuking and were alive I would learn mitch knives with them rather every generation and the the rabbis in your generation that's what you should follow what does that mean it means that a person should be wise to recognize the time that he lives in and that understanding that the generation in which we live is part of who we are parts of our essence there's an aspect of us that is connected to the generation to the time period that were alive there's a reason for that and every generation every generation has ups and downs every generation it doesn't it's not a question of well if I'm in you know if I only lived 20 years ago then I wouldn't have these problems or if I live 50 years from now my life would be better no every generation has its ups and downs okay and today if any of us lived at the time of the tanam we would have any idea what they're saying we wouldn't be able to understand what they're talking about at all that is every generation has the tools it needs to succeed in the goals that it has you have the everything that you need in potential to reach the goals that Hashem is set free it's not that a you've you lived 300 years ago or by the time of the Rambam or the time of the Rashi then you know things would be better you don't have those tools we don't have those tools so there's a recognition that the person has to understand you have to recognize that in the same way that we have the tools to live in our generation but also we are given the spiritual tools to be able to deal with the spiritual challenges that our generation faces the 10 I'm didn't need the tools that we need to be able to defend ourselves against the internet they didn't need the things that we need to do in order to control our use of the cell phone or video games I didn't I didn't have this problem but you have the tools to stop yourself the question is do you want to if so then do it okay now there is that's the general concept of time but there's also a specific aspect of time that we have you're going through and you will be going through bezu Fache M different stages of life how many stages of life exactly do we have three the governor of Vilnius says four we have four times in our life your childhood you're when you're a young man when you are an adult I'm using those terms well or in and then your old age so from zero to ten the Grasse says you have a lot of power you're like a lot like a leopard right you've got energy and then from ten to twenty right he has to use or he has to be very assertive it's to work on himself and then from twenty to fifty he gets married has children and he has to he needs you sure he needs help from Xiamen from Hashem for pernessa taking care of his wife and kids and from fifty to seventy then you're sliding down so when we pass through these stages in each stage we get different types of tools Calum and we have different types of challenges you know I was I told you the story before but I think it's very important it's a very very important this is a true story I was walking my kids to school so the two boys went to their school and I'm walking with my daughter to her school and I see this little kid maybe he's three years old maybe four and he's holding a plastic bag that it appears to be empty and then on the other hand he's got some sort of a bag and folders I don't know and he's banging it on the ground and crying what happened so I stopped and I said what happened [Music] what the bag ripped and the cookies that his mommy gave him fell on the ground and he was so angry so frustrated then he was he lost it I won't tell you how we resolved it just in case his mother watches but it wasn't my idea I did not pick up somebody picked up the cookie and said it's okay here you go I'm like okay but that was you was more than five seconds for that five-year-old or three-year-old probably three-year-old it's not five years old it was the end of the world for us it was like what are you crying about when you're a teenager right your friends I don't know something happens this doesn't speak to you like the end of the world crying you're in college right were you fired from a job I don't get better that's the end of the world you get older you've different but the feeling is the same we might you might be in different situations but that five year old three year old you're gonna act like that just in a different situation but that feeling he still exists in each and every one of us it just depends what the issue is I won't cry when a cookie falls right but let's say when you have a cup of milk a glass of milk or something and it drops it ah man come on and you can really have to clean up but it all depends on what's happening but the general emotions the frustration and the feelings that we have stay with us just depends on what situations we're gonna lose it the idea is that we are passing through stages of life and in each stage we get different tools to handle what is gonna be thrown at us and we ask Hashem that we should be able to take the potential for good and to be able to actualize it in whatever situation that's the idea that's the idea of how time effects our relationship with the Kurdish motor home and every day that goes by we have a particular assignment to complete every day you have X amount of mitzvahs to do X amount of breakfast to say X amount of Torah to learn X amount of acid to do X amount of controlling your anger your jealousy your other issues X amount of all the things that we are battling inside we have the assignment for the day you go to bed right boom you get a check and then you wake up in the morning Friday morning first thing that's a dime or the restroom get dressed be at the million by 750 right that's it that's the first thing you do after that figure out what to do after that did Matt then you can start to figuring out what am I gonna do what about this thing I talk to slow me about Shabbos meal you know I gotta get a haircut do whatever it is first it's for things first that's the idea that we have to work on the assignment of the day assignment of the day and when you get to a level where you're learning the show tomorrow you'll see the Shahana is organized according to your daily responsibilities weekly right monthly and yearly so you open the show heart it starts with what do you have to do when you open your eyes then what and then what and then what and then what has your all-day but you have to understand but in every day that comes you have different tools and if you are aware of who you are you'll notice when you wake up in the morning some mornings you're gung ho you got a lot of power your energy you're ready to go you're diverting really hard and some day you can barely drag yourself out of it that's the challenge the challenge is that based on the time and space try to the best that you can to stay leveled no dips this is very unhealthy spiritually you're trying to get to you know you start out here like this Plateau if you can even keep it going up like this that's amazing that's amazing and when you look at investment charts right stock market when you see something that's very volatile it's gonna be dangerous investment what you want is steady growth I know people there is well the way you make money is you you know figure the high risk is they make a lot of money okay but we don't want to risk our spiritual life what we want is this and it's if we're not recognizing the opportunities that the location of where we are and at the time that we're living in we're gonna miss an opportunity we're gonna miss the ability to grow to the level that we need the other shoe says that you have to understand that you can't step out of the time and space that you've been assigned we're stuck your 2017 right Thursday turkey day right three o'clock Jerusalem or samman that's where you are that's where you are we believe that the college bar ofal gives you so many days and so many years to live and that the amount of time that he's giving you giving us is that we have to use it to achieve the level of perfection that he wants us to receive to to reach so far so good so look at what the Czar says if a curve om a sailor moon in the days of Israel approached near death so I'm a repeat here it says V Utley a Corvettes mitzraim Schweitzer Shanna Joe Yaakov lived in Egypt 17 years so the question is why is it when it's talking about him living he's called Yaakov and it's called him him when he's dying he's right why the switch we're talking about the same person right when we were talking about him living he's called Yaakov when we're talking about him dying we called him Eastside you hear the question good I'm a ruby I see how are you father says well it is exactly like this because it says very heavy it doesn't say you're miss I'll just say the day of Israel dying it's the days plural and usually people don't die for more than one day and nobody dies four days you're either dead she's means you died that day or you're alive but it says the days of Israel's death have come are coming closer YUM it's plural yummy as opposed to YUM that's what the review is he asking so Allah has eaten this is what you have to learn when they cut his burro who wants the soul to return to Him call in young him the kind barrage by Alma eat Kirin cometh Alan whose burner all the days that the person was alive all right so do the calculation real quick how many days you are alive if you lived 120 years okay all of those days would come up to the cottage borrow who and would be evaluated each day and as each day what have you done today what have you done day before what have you done the day before every day is gonna come before the cutters barbel as a desire sense be cut if he will come in the mail but who's been admit but not and when they come at the end of the account the person dies and he says it would be a great merit for a person's days to come before the king without embarrassment and without days that he did not fulfill his obligation to Hashem it will be great merit if we each day that goes up does not bring us embarrassment and doesn't show that we haven't done what we were supposed to do on that day I am sure that if you're gonna say to us you know one day goes up is it heavy I was playing candy candy crush and I had reached the level 79 whoa I don't think that that's what you're gonna be happy with up there the question is have you fulfilled the obligation to the colors Baro therefore begin Kyle tippet satkhyativada shunned Akira Yamaoka be looking sofa so then when he's talking about its attic like Yaakov Aveeno it says that the day's come close to Hashem and there's no embarrassment there is no embarrassment because he was close to the Kurdish bar every day and he was able to fulfill his obligation to a chef he was able to bring out all the potential and actualize it but us lowly us what are we gonna say what are we going to say that is the duty of paying attention to both time and to space because the duties being in yeshiva are different than if you were living back at home correct yeah cause Baro created an opportunity for you Zach to learn Torah and he wants you to learn and he wants you to do I said and he wants you to have a relationship with him he wants you to pray to Him all those sort of things some of it is a lot easier to do here than if you were staying back home but you have to seize the opportunity that you have before you you have an incredible opportunity this is was shot in once-in-a-lifetime even if it all came back because what are the chances when the guys leave here they always say rabbi I'll be back I'll be back not everybody merits to come back some of them to get jobs come kindergarten teachers [Music] [Applause]