From Clutter to Clarity: A Neilah Transformation

[Music] okay it is a and a pleasure for me to be here with Rabbi liit who I asked him for 10 minutes of his time so let's hope that we don't go past 10 minutes it is ER arer and the reason why we're here is because last year before Yer I shared a message or a speech that Steve Newan gave the last Yer of his life in his home and this was the perspective of somebody who was steering death in the face and essentially what he shared was how someone in that situation could recognize life and see life with without the distractions and without the Clutter that takes up our mind B Le whats last year messaged me after we sent out that message that this is the foundation for his nil jha and then fast forward a year later um I got a message from rewood and many others that believe would spoke about this topic and this concept at Wu in a that he gave and he spoke for for the boys and could be some that were there as well but I thought that it would be appropriate to come on and briefly share what he took out of this what he shared with his what he personally took away from this and how perhaps he could inspire a few other people to as they stand before the waning hours of yipper they could transform their minds from clutter the clarity reab Liz thank you very much I'm so uh eager and excited to be able to share uh this message that really I learned from Steve newworth and from the the email that you sent last year on arum Kipper um typically I don't open up so many emails and I certainly don't read letters that are attached to emails and things like that I don't know uh why um put it in my mind that this was going to be worth reading but it certainly was and it was an email about Steve newworth who was the original uh funer I guess could say for uh for all daf and when all daf was an idea and it was an idea that had to be sold to people that people didn't necessarily see what the value is there's enough Torah on the internet and there's plenty out there in terms of just I'll add Steve newworth he was Anonymous and when he took it on he didn't know or recognize or realize what it's going to be what it's going to become but he knew that he wanted to put his money into spreading Torah and not just Torah on a low level he wanted people to be able to to grow and grow in Torah as he was someone who grew up non-observant and just grew and grew and grew and rebel lewitz will share a little bit more about what he was yeah and I was very moved I I believe you once told me that uh that although he was a very successful attorney as the email had indicated very prominent attorney but this was a major project and it took a lot of money the kind of money that people uh in a different Stratosphere would typically take on and it was a real push for him because Torah was that important to him but but particularly what you shared was his last uh yum Kipper on this earth and the speech that he gave in the special minion that was made for him in his home on yum Kipper and I'm not going to read the whole speech I'm not going to tell you the whole speech I'll just tell you what hit me the hardest what hit me the strongest from from his speech and uh and what I did within what I shared with the in my SCH now with my and I think it's it could be resonant for many others as well well he he said that he he doesn't want anyone to feel sorry for him and that while he doesn't wish his illness on anybody it was a a debilitating terrible terrible illness um through this illness he said Hashem in his greatness and mercy has rescued me and and the quote was before I became ill it had allowed my life I had allowed my life to be filled with noise distractions and pressures and focus on things that didn't matter and he went on to describe how there was so much pressure so many distractions so much noise that was in his life and the illness allowed him to focus on what was critical and what was important it allowed him in his words to remove the Clutter that often fills our lives and and and that's the opportunity that we all have on Yip on yip there are no there's no business there's not even eating there's no anything other than being leem standing in the presence of Theon with that great sense of G that one has when you stand in front of Theon a sense of joy and a sense of trepidation and realizing that that's what's important in life and and it seems that that's an ideal time to make some decisions about one's life when a person is not distracted by all of the Clutter in our life in in our lives so I encourage everyone Steve newworth try to think of an area in your life where there's clutter where there's something benign it could be it doesn't even have to be something damaging something harmful something terrible something benign it's just clutter it's just extra it's just something that we do not need in our lives and when you remove that from your life you're opening up a window because you're opening up a new window of time that that clutter used to take up a new space in your brain that that clutter used to take up and you can fill that space with something positive you can fill that space with with kadha so after giving the speech as a rabbi does he give a speech and then you go back to to your seat I put my Talis over my head and I thought about Steve who I really only met once in my life and then I said I thought to myself okay I just gave the speech but where's the clutter in my life that I could remove you know what what what's the value of of talking about something if you can't live up to what you're talking about so it occurred to me and it wasn't that hard to find that uh for a number of years I had been maintaining a Twitter account now mind you I as far as I know I never spoke a word ofar on Twitter I never put any inappropriate content on I followed almost nobody on Twitter because I didn't want to clutter my Twitter feed with nonsense and with stupidity but you're when you're doing that you're fighting against the algorithm meaning it's it's made to draw you in it's it's built to be able to draw you in for extended periods of time to keep you scrolling and to keep you reading and even if even if you manage to avoid anything harmful or anything bad for your Nisha when when going through it it's noise it's clutter and I said you know what regardless of how many followers and how important the work I'm doing on Twitter is or whatever uh you know good things and inspiration I'm putting out there it's clutter so I I went home that night and before breaking my fast I deleted my Twitter account you know if if you don't have any social media this does not sound like a big sacrifice if you do have social media it probably does sound like a big sacrifice but I I deleted my Twitter account and for months that time that space that was used for for clutter for nonsense uh was empty it just I didn't uh you know I could do anything during that time and then a few months later uh in another meeting with if I'm not mistaken uh we were discussing all and would there be a possibility of some of the M from Al or from all mishna from all par to maybe give a mish a dear M I thought to myself how long could it take to give an AM of M five times times a week probably about 15 minutes night five times a week probably doesn't even take that much preparation to read through the uh the Miss Brea so I said you know what I I have this 15 minutes of space that was just cleared in in my schedule a few months earlier several months earlier and essentially I was able to turn Twitter into the mura it's amazing as a model of what a what a Jew can do that you can if you recognize the Clutter for what it is and you have willingness in to remove some of that clutter from your life to remove some of that nonsense from your life you can add kadha into that space it could even just be space in the brain If a person is into whatever nonsense it is a person is into sports and they're thinking about their starting quarterback why do you need to be thinking about your starting quarterback If instead you could put into your brain each morning when you when you when you learn and you you you learned the davomi to take one thing one Torah one One Piece One casha One something that you decide I'm going to I'm going to put in my brain today and I'm going to walk around with that and when I'm waiting online somewhere when I'm walking in the street I'm gonna think about that piece of Torah and I'll tell you a good trick uh I I if when you get to my age sometimes you have trouble sleeping at night so when I was younger never had trouble but when you get to my you have some trouble sleeping at night it's a great trick have that piece of Torah in your mind as you're trying to go to sleep at night just it over and over and over again and it's be great because either you'll it over a thousand times or thear is going to be so upset that you're thinking and learning he's going to put you to sleep in no time so uh I I usually have the second thing happen to me not the first but uh but but either way if a person takes that space that brain space that space of time and and removes the Clutter from that space and fills it with some kadua fills it with something productive you'll see that it could be absolutely life-changing I think uh I I I hope to once again try to find another piece of clutter in my life to to remove I'm not committing to DOI right now but I you know the to to hopefully remove some uh some some piece of clutter to be able to fill it with a little more kadha that's all we're supposed to do when weem to think of how to have just a little more kadus in our lives to fill some spaces with a little more kadha to be a little more connected to the re so we hit the 10minute mark so you're done with your speech you could go you can walk out the door um just I want to end off by saying how you know every Everything has its time and its plan and when reached out to me he's like who could I speak to who could I reach out to know that I could start spreading this m you know yomi platform so I think initially I spoke to right who has a group of a bunch of RA when we got on at least four or five of them have been learning with their schools maybe you could just touch on and encourage people like myself right who are working most of the day and we try to find spaces in our time in our life to learn Torah how do you encourage or what do you look at a baltim finding space and how should they fill those times um with learning and how about you think are babam out there that could if they think about how they could help others learn it would help their own learning just there are many many capable bab who G through Yeshiva and they just took took a few minutes and thought if I grab a few of my guys and learn three times a week or every morning after ding whether there's cycle starting is very into and pushes maybe talk about that and and we'll wrap it up I think for for balat for everybody um learning is much more um appealing to people and it's more much more exciting to people when you're when you're very actively uh participating meaning to sit back and listen to a Shear is a great thing to do when you're on the train it's a great thing to do when you're driving it's a great thing to do every once in a while after you learned the suia to be able more than once in a while to be able to uh to get a good heck of the suia and to understand things real real growth and learning happens when a person is actively involved that could beusa and it could be by by joining kabura where on some sort of rotation basis uh people give I I found my and I spearheaded almost none of this there are different balaba that have spearheaded it one in particular that spearheaded number of these types of initiatives where people get together and they do on a rotation basis after shabas morning daving someone decided to start a tan kabura we're not the most likely SCH to have a tan kabura um but uh but every shabas it's a different guy that says theab and then that same fellow started a Sunday morning what are you doing Sunday morning after the late minion when the kids are in Yeshiva ready and you don't have work so he started Sunday morning garash here so they started about the goal should be about an every Sunday morning total rotation basis it's just and people who thought that they could never not only that they wouldn't be able to teach gumar that they don't even know how to learn gar that that the people weren't even into learning they they found that when you prepare and you you you try to enable yourself to have what to offer to have what to give over to other people that it's becomes a very very enriching experience and uh and sure enough this that's learning Suka they didn't make their first seeum yet but they're well on their way well on their way just by a Sunday 45 minutes on a Sunday morning on a rotation basis without any rabbis having to really be involved just uh getting together and sharing sharing Torah with each other those are the kinds of things that are extremely successful thank you okay so it's AR Kipper and thank you and I I send out I try to share with the people that are you know accessing the ultar platform that every that they have in mind for the success of the M we spend time you know just have that extra thought people that want to spread and they need spre so we're wishing everybody a good and we should have only year of of good news that's all that's all we need to saym called if you want to end off with a to everybody to everyone we should have everyone should see a year of success personally in and and their own families and that all of that success should spread to all of Cl is we should hear of only good things for the Jewish people throughout the entire world and beat in in in Isel where obviously is where all of our future is and uh we should uh we should see going to turn this year into a year of of enormous braa for cl Israel