Any Light to Lead Us Out of the Iran/Trump/Israel Quagmire? by Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz

Heat. Heat. [music] [singing] [music] [singing] >> [music and singing] [music and singing] >> Okay. So we are um dedicating this year to the fallen soldiers fighting in the north, protecting our northern boundary from the vicious attacks of the Hezbollah. And Hem should give them a just his cloud of safety so that there should be no more fallen soldiers. No more fallen soldiers shalom. And uh we should achieve a full and definitive victory. These are uncertain times. the yes on again and off again peace arrangements with Iran whether they falter or whether they're concluded either way it's extremely extremely uh shrouded in mystery we don't know what it means what it's what's really going on behind the scenes and if anything positive will be achieved we have to put it into Hashem's hands and uh pray now in order to do that so what I have what has come to my attention in the last week and really just in the last week was that it was important at this time of travail and trouble to seek solutions that are beyond the normal range. In other words, let's say for example this issue of negotiations with Iran. Okay, you could look at it as a political or even military engagement and works along natural lines with logical logical uh progressions, assumptions, ideas, politics or you could say the hand of God is calling the shots and more importantly to appeal to Hashem, appeal to God that the outcome be according to his will and according to the best outcome possible. So it's about going above. Similarly in Israel, Leavonenu sadly there's a tremendous amount of internal pressure and conflict. We're edging towards new elections. uh the Knesset is dissolving the rancor and uh intimidation that's going on between government and population specifically over issues of the religious uh separation or integration of of citizens into the army or giving them uh dispensations or opportunities to spend time developing their spiritual selves. This is again the simil a similar problem because this we're struggling really what we're really struggling with is the idea of a logical simple scientific world versus a world that incorporates or more importantly emanates from something more than that. Now if you'll ask the Iranians and maybe this is the issue that the western countries have failed to grasp including President Trump. I I don't know if he understands it. I I would imagine he's bright enough to understand it, but maybe it's not from not his operating perspective or what he represents at all as a man of negotiations and business, which ultimately go to the idea of human logic. In other words, you'll make a deal. If it's a good deal, if it's not a good deal, you won't make a good deal. And if you you're compromised or you have pressures or positions that you need to concede on, well, it depends who's holding the cards. whoever you know called the alimar whoever is holding a more powerful position can usually wrestle the other one into submission. But that's all well and good if you work within the world of business logic finance pros and cons cons with a vision that life is about prosperity, success, freedom, um opportunity to speak your voice. some of the wonderful principles that democracy brings to the world but more importantly that are in was called inalienable human rights was called in America god-given rights but then there's this other dimension that if you'll ask the Iranians they will say they'll be happy to sacrifice they let's assume they have 90 million in a population they'd be happy to sacrifice and I've heard this vast amounts of their population maybe a third maybe a half, maybe more. Can you imagine uh a complete extermination 40 50 that's you know 60 10 times the Holocaust if they can achieve their goal which is what to impose their radical Islamic position upon the world and which includes some sort of endgame a kind of a twisted notion of the Jewish Messiah who bring peace and prosperity to the world and enlightenment to the power to coersse the world to serve uh the god of their understanding. Now once you factor that occas that that in the realm of logic is no longer sufficient, we enter the realm of belief. And when you have belief which is based on blind faith, a faith that has no logical boundaries, has no logical connection. So what you've got is a detachment. You have on the one hand this pure faith. I'm not calling I'm I'm using faith with quotation marks. I'm not saying it's a laudatory thing necessarily. It's a blind faith, okay? That has no parallel or no connection to the world of the rational. Now, I'm going to go out to say that that very well might explain some of the division between the secular western world who would like to work at things only on a scientific level or a logical level or an observation level and a realm of countries like Iran and their and their philosophies or who knows which others that don't view that world as uh what's critical. They to them what's critical is some ideological um con construct that even if it flies in the face of basic intuitive morality basic intuitive what we call mitzvah things that make sense don't rob steal don't adulter certainly don't terrorize torture rape kill murder and hang and yet for them logic is off there is no nonrationalization of anything. Theft, deception, murder, espionage, deceit, it doesn't really matter because to them their objective is justifies the means by any manner. In in that way also socialist belief as a utopian communist theory which by its definition says by any means necessary also goes in that path. although for a quote unquote secular concept but again it becomes a faith against logic. I personally don't believe in my my limited understanding of Torah and mitzvah that I've achieved over these years that the Torah advocates for either, but rather that the Torah has a full integration of both the divine and the natural world. And that ada, the purpose of the natural world is not to reject it, but rather to use it as a confirmation and as a vehicle of presenting the divine greatness of Hashem, his teachings, his light, and his Torah. So if we understand that I'm not talking about this is a delicate point. I'm not talking about finding a balance between the two necessarily. 60 40 I'll I'll I'll study Torah and pray and meditate 60% of my day and I'll work 40% of my day. That in marriage that also doesn't work. The only formula that that although it seems beyond logic is 100% and 100%. So the Torah demands of us complete amuna and the Torah also demands of us to utilize our the difference between the two can be characterized as the difference between a written Torah only to the realm in which human logic actually comes into play as it interacts with the divine information and intelligence Which means out of his kindness, God has extended us this marvelous opportunity that we can all the way down on our human level with our simple uh hopefully somewhat rational minds can actually engage in the realm of the divine and that there's no contradiction between the two. You can fully conform to faith and yet at the same time never lose the concept that humans have a dot and an ability that contributes to the greatness of Hashem instead of just accepting it as a as a as a a vessel. Ironically, in today's dafayomi, one of the things that's studied is vessels that can receive unholiness. So they say if it's a if it's a metal vessel that's unfinished, it cannot become contaminated with the touch of a dead of the of a dead animal that would render it tame with a death of a of a human being which would render it tame. It can't. It's not finished. It's not formulated. It's not it has no it's goat it's a golem. A golem is something that has no logic like the golem of Prague. It doesn't have its own thought process. It does whatever they tell you. All right. Whereas chute and similarly cle simple wood cannot ex cannot become it's just unfinished. But in once you get a finished utensil then it can be macabel tuma. it can it can achieve some level of contact with the spiritual realm. And that's what I'm saying also. If you're a goum, if you're a golem, you have no contact with any world other than the world and you're immediately sensory experiencing. Once you're a cle, once you can receive wisdom, concepts that may not have emanated from your own mind, then which includes the idea of prophecy, which is what Torah is, a a conversation with Hashem, then then you have a chance to create something truly truly magnificent and fulfill the will of Hashem in the process. Why do I give you this big introduction? Because I'll I'll frame it for you within within the following question. When can we get all this together? When we can find what we call a balance, the balance that we so desperately need and that the world is showing and maybe Hashem is showing this showing this us to us in very clear black and white terms so that we can get it. There is no way that one without the other exists. Can't you cannot and and it cannot be compromised. So it would look something like this. Let's take let's take for example the issues within our country where uh allowing yeshiva students to devote their time to learning versus serving in the army putting the license. Both of them are values. Those are two values that you cannot argue. You can't say one is is only only exists and the other one doesn't exist. The concept of nephesh that we have to defend ourselves is is part of Torah. At the same time, who will master Torah if there's no yeshivas? The yeshiva will fall by the wayside. exposure to the temptations of the world and to, let's put it this way, um, environments that are not conducive to personal holiness. That's not going to yield the greatness of Torah that we need, that we desperately need just to hold our lives together with the to this spiritual place known as Era Israel. Ersel without Torah makes no sense. But to sacrifice Torah for Israel also makes no sense. Yet at the same time only only Torah without taking into consideration Pikuh also somehow doesn't doesn't uh reconcile and then we're stuck. And there is no easy solution. Here's my point to dilute either one. You can't say, "Well, okay, so let these boys do this, that, or the third thing." No, you're not going to get the pristine Torah light that you need. You're just not going to get it unless the people live day and night and are completely immersed in Torah mitzvah day and night and night and day. It's not going to happen. You're not going to get the desired outcome of Torah learning at the same time. uh if you if you're going to completely ignore the the the the security issues and so on and and and the rest of the population that are struggling to be here for whatever reason, then you've also somehow missed the boat. Hashem's calling us to something higher. Not a 5050 solution. You take 50, I'll take 50. Maybe Donald Trump likes those type of solutions, but they don't necessarily work. And I'd like to propose that we have a lesson from this week's Torah reading that illustrates this in magnificent form. The para begins parha begins with bahalos. It inserts a teaching about how Auron Hakohhane would light the manoa daily. He would clean out the cups. Very interesting. And Mlikos that was his job to clean them and to prepare them and to light them on a daily basis. And that manora was inside a building. It wasn't outside to illuminate the darkness. It was inside. So then it couldn't have been for light because its purposes were uh you know it was it was indoors. So rather it's a different type of light. And this I'd like to comment on from the position of the Maharal and the Lut Maharal. Okay. And let me connect it to where I'm going. I said that maybe a way out of our mess is if we can reveal a type of light which will help create the harmony that we need between Torah and real life considerations. What is that? There is a depth of Torah that can bring it forward. It's almost like if you feel people are are quarreling. So what do they do? They should go to a bet den. In the bet, the chauffet would have the wisdom to be able to evaluate the facts and come to a conclusion that will settle the case. But what if they go instead to sadic? If they go to sadic, he might help them think about whether it's worthwhile fighting altogether. That's different than den in judgment. He could bathe them in a light of love and understanding that would actually encourage them to back away from conflict because maybe the conflict is for personal reasons to whatever extent. Maybe there's ego involvement. Maybe there's some blindness to a personalized uh interest of whatever kind. But in the in in the in the company of a sadic who equally loves both partners and is enlightened with a special or um they lift the spirits of those people so they can begin to see solutions that they might not have otherwise come to. To that end, um I have uh found sources that indicate that there is and this is a general thought that's been existing for the last I would say 200 plus years that it's time that the Jewish people in order to reach its redemption and to overcome these thorny seemingly insoluble problems needs to be exposed. osed to a higher light. A ponymous hatra. This was the message of the balto. This was the message even of the vil non to a large extent. And he did interesting things like he really tried to make integration between mathematical and other sciences and deep wisdom of Torah. he would tell his his students to try to master one of the um what they call seven wisdoms. One of them being um mathematics, another one being um architecture or design. Uh another one uh being biological or or plant life science and and so on. He himself wrote a treatise on mathematics when he was sitting uh in disposed and they have it. It's just a very fine work of mathematics. Okay. So he wasn't particularly shy of secular wisdom but he saw it as part of a a larger structure and the symbol of that is the manora. Okay. That's the manora that appears at the beginning of this week's para. And I'll try to explain why I have been uh as I said un working to understand that there is a command a command a teaching a cabala that comes all the way from from the zor itself and from midrashim and from the the teachers of that generation of the return to starting in the mid 18 18th century bash of and their tidim etc. till now in um and even pre prior to that the maharal which was which was uh in in a previous generation with and so on that was a preparatory for for all of this. So that the the zohor which represents the hidden wisdom of Torah is the book out of which redemption will come. This is what the zor says and we were exploring that in our shir on shuote. What does that mean? And there are many explanations. I don't want to go through all of them now, but only in the context of understanding what the message of this week's para might be. And I can carry that question forward a little bit and take it seriously. If it's true, then what does the manora actually represent? So the moral himself says that it does represent that the 36 hours that the Kaneka candles represent is the light, the hidden light that was too spiritual. It's exactly that light that was reserved for Hashem for this era, for the end days, for the world of the great Sadikim and masters and who would help usher in an era of human and global uh peace and also connection to Hashem on the most profound level possible. That light was too pristine. He's going to think of it as maybe in a in a craft term atomic power. Atomic power is not something that a person should engage in. Just ask even Madame Cury. What was the thing Madame Cury? She was this great woman but she died. Why did she die? Because she was exposed to radiation. Similar thing by the way it says about the lav who are tasked to guard the sanctuary the Mishkan. It says we know that like the families Certain families were not blessed with long life. The Levitic families, the Khanic families, because they were exposed to this incredible ore that in a in a human construct would be akin to nuclear energy. Such something so powerful, so smashing, so enlightening that it really can either blow up the world or sustain it. I have to approach it, as they say, with kid gloves. literally like children. So if it's true that there was this light that was hidden away for the era of redemption and now we are told that by our greatest teachers and sages and saints that that era has to happen. The return to Israel and the rebuilding of the of the temple bezatashem are contingent upon the study of every aspect of Torah in including and especially not ignoring the teachings of sod because that is going to be the energy by which we're going to see real transformation and change. Okay? And that doesn't negate the study of any part of Torah, especially the oral Torah. In fact, the the Maral himself wanted to say a very simple idea. He says the aronom kodesh the the ark of the covenant contained the lot that were given by Hashem broken and the lua given by man but essentially they're the written Torah out of which everything emanates but the manora itself represents lit by our own the oral Torah the part where us human beings the Jewish people in particular as oral goyam have to absorb this light and this knowledge knowledge and transform its wisdom. And and told us your knowledge of of the world and the natural world as illuminated by Torah as a confirmation of Torah is essential. We have to bring this this light into its darkest place. So one example of that would be even just the concept of light itself. The moral discusses this and others discuss it. The bill light is an unusual thing. It first of all a flame will only burn upwards. It defies every logic of gravity. It only burns upwards because we say the nare is symbol of the most spiritual part of man his shama his soul right that's our inner inner inner light. And at the same time um the speed of light has a formula that can never be changed. It will only travel at the speed of light and nothing else can travel faster than it. And that's been scientifically proven in these last hundred years to the as a diver put but as something so incredible nothing can exceed the speed of light. It's almost like nothing can exceed the light of Torah or Hashem. Now, there in lies a clue that as we speed up in the realm of incredible scientific knowledge and um mechanization and industry and technology especially in the in these last 40 years let's say which we explained in our year are 40 years that according to Armuk Bullan particularly the leash rabbi um alash of the past generation the leading makubaim were the years of accelerated in gathering of the exiles to Israel as you prepare for the final stages of world transformation which really are right now right now in this year according to the leashm the the in the in gathering of the exile which was spurred by the fall of the Soviet and the and Israel's rise to prominence because in 1990 is when the internet went online. 1990 was when computer programming became available to the average person. Before that it was only in governmental control and so on. And we see um a radical a radical transformation of the ability to understand our world provide with medical breakthroughs and all positive things. study the astronomy of the a magnificent world and and come to conclusions that as we study natural natural sciences we see the evidence of God's masterful hand and what we would call guided guided uh evolutionary thought you want to but if you only want to believe in evolution without God it doesn't all add up every five minutes you got to change your theories you got to change your physics you got to understand you know oh yeah there's quantum but quantum doesn't make any sense. But there's a theory and you know it it just keeps going like that as we uncover more and more mysteries of the universe. The answers are not readily available to the scientific assumptions that we had almost recently. Everything keeps changing and and so and so it will be and so it shall be that science will prove the existence of Hashem. And the relationship between that is the relationship between the written Torah and the oral Torah. As man's thought contributes to the process of Hashem's revelation. It's 100% 100%. Our commitment to Torah should our written Torah is 100%. Our connection to the to the oral Torah is 100%. There's no there's no um compromising. There's no watering it down. Now the moral then went on to say this is one of his most famous principles. So that the if we assume that the manora represents that light, the auron light without going to details, Aon was the first person who was the step down from Moshe in receiving Torah. and he was able to use his mind and his logic to uncover the truth about Torah that even on a higher level than Moshe. I'm not going to go into details how that was, but had to do with the death of his sons and whether he consumed the sacrifices on the day that they passed away where Moshe thought that he should and he understood that he couldn't. But that was only from a an analysis that made sense to a human being in in in comprehending the message of Hashem. And that's what Torah is. We have to use our minds and use the 13 attributes that God gave us, the tools to dissect and understand the Torah. That's what the whole Talmud is. Uh go open any daf and you'll see that how do we derive logically from this puk this in the oral Torah whether it's tuma whether it's tahara whether any it's any whatsoever there has to be research into how to logically link these pieces together. They're written in the oral Torah and that represents the world of seven and eight. That's famous point in Maharal. There were seven branches to the minora. But the eighth is the light itself and eight is the light beyond in perfect harmony. And that answers the main question of the opening of the sedra saying when the Jewish people dedicated and the and the 12 the 12 num dedicated the the mishkan they each came on one of the 12 days. This represents the sections of the zodiac assigned to each one of the 12 tribes as we go around the calendar of the year. And they brought sacrifices that represented unity between all the tribes and also a reclamation of the mistakes of the world that had passed. They bring a carbon that symbolized Adam and one that symbolized Noah and one that symbolized Shem, the the father of the of the Jewish people as well as all the Semitic tribes and and then they went on to bring carbonos that represented the breakthrough lives of Ara and Yakov Abos. And here they are the 12 tribes coming together and bringing it all together. The world reassembled what? in a connection to Torah. Now, Aron looks at this and says, "Oh my goodness, what about my poor tribe Levy? We're left out of this incredible fixing of the world that that this Mishkan has done by bringing down the word of Hashem in the form of the Libros representing the entire Torah shining from our midst in within within a protected sense, a protective cloud of the of the Mishkan." And here we have it. Here we have the world repaired and I'm not part of it. So, Hashem says, "No, you don't understand. You've got the part that's the hardest part. You are the oral Torah. You're going to be the one that'll help us reach the hearts and minds of Jews throughout the ages." It's one thing to be dedicated to Hashem when you're traveling with Moshe in miraculous clouds in the desert and everything is just so wonderful. But what about in the era of the Greeks like Ran Bond famously says where they say to you the world is a world of seven and there's no eight. There is no eight. Okay? And if there is an age, it has nothing to do with us. It's a complete separation from any otherly realm in terms of man's choices and man's obligations. So that she says you're going to light there's going to be a manora lit on Kaneka which is going to burn miraculously. there 36 candles minus the shamas that you light with. Um there's going to come a time where there will be Jews faithful to Torah who will find a way in the through the natural means to be victorious over massive armies and show that there's there is a world beyond and if it can be drawn down it makes our world truly miraculous and magnificent. And that's the goal and not to be shut down to that to that to that concept or to that idea. Okay. So if we posit that learning the inner Torah which is part of the oral Torah the most to the to the depths okay that there is one book called the Zohar and within the Zohar there's one book which contains the secrets of the secrets and that is called cifraus the hidden book the book that is hidden away what's hidden away just like the 36 hours of light were hidden away So too, this book is a literal print out of the code of what is that light all about? And I've heard people now I can show you something here. I disco I discover things along the way as I think about and whatnot. Sometimes I get something thrown in my path that gives me an idea. This is a little book here called Cifra. You actually can get a a a layman's a layman's explanation of what this mystical book is all about which really that's five chapters which they say correspond to the five books of Torah. There are five chapters in the desa that contain the operating system of of what existed before the world came into being and how Hashem runs the world since it came into being. That's the inside story that no one would know. And here one of the rabbis took upon himself um to create a perouch for the layman for the average person that you could actually study it and spoke to the benefits saying look it doesn't matter how much you understand of it but just the attempt to decipher some of this hopefully can release some of this light and energy into your life and help repair it like it's meant to repair the world. So just like the world needs resolutions to these thorny issues of of nuclear war vers literally nuclear war essent the light that can destroy to the light of peace tolerance Torah humility mido tovote and prophecy and guidance um let's maybe we can remember that we do have an obligation to try to fathom them some of these concepts and perhaps it can even have a positive impact on our lives. So I'd like to embark a little bit on on some study of this. Perhaps I'll share with it in some of this sharim. Perhaps if you're interested you can let me know and I'll include you in a separate study group as we try it as we try to integrate some of these ideas as a light into our challenged lives. Okay. as as one of one address of course is Lut Maharan the teachings of Aman who wrote about these ideas. So there's the maran the mahar was in in the book n mitzvah where he makes the connection between the 36 hours and the kaneka candles and the ram who was coming from a kabalistic thought associating the lighting of the monora in this week's para as the completion of the work of the 12 princes in dedicating the mishk and now you understand the question why is it in our para and rashi asked that question lamaism the para that's the famous question and his answer was well it's it's about yours is greater but he doesn't elaborate why it's greater and then then the Ramban comes in and says because it's going to be able to rekindle the hearts of the Jewish people when they get stuck in this quagmire when they lose the manora concept that all wisdom emanates from hashem and the purpose of wisdom in terms of a scientific sense is to give give you a clue and to toggle you and to toggle your mind and to tether your mind to the idea of a creator, sustainer and supervisor of life because science will prove that that is exactly what is going on to such an extent that that light renews every single day. It's renewable energy and the and and more importantly as we enter this era we reenter the holy land of Israel we have to pursue a higher level of wisdom and knowledge. It's just you got to up the game. You know if you're a baseball player and you're playing in the minor leagues there's a certain level of competition. Okay, you're going to move up one level, you're going to get the better players will continue to move up and it's going to be harder competition. When you get to the major league level, those are the best players in the world. So we we are been we we have been privileged to be the generation that a makes its way back to Israel has Torah background and education many of us with an obligation to spread it to our children and to anyone we can reach right and then to really expand our minds to be a cle not to be a goum like it says in dafomi today a goum is an unfinished cle it doesn't contain pain, neither spiritual fulfillment nor spiritual defilement. It's just flat. But but if we now need to toggle our brains and say, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. There there's there's a light that I just that I haven't seen." and to try to fathom it and study it just a bit just a bit as much as our you know limited very limited at least I'll speak on my end uh senses can absorb it but that the every person the average person on in the Jewish people is not exempt from this knowledge that's the shocker now he said well that's for elite muboam he that's the way it was. But that's not the way it is because we all need exposure. And even if you just say words or struggle with one concept, you did your part or you added to the idea that this light is something has to be fathom, communicated, and it's going to enhance your kaduca because it's a rafuesh for your soul. Your body may need nutrients like this and this and that. You need vitamin A and vitamin B12 and sunshine and exercise. Yeah, and whatever it might be. But Yama also needs nourishment and that nourishment is only through Torah. And if you're in this generation and you're in Israel on top of that and you're Torah, you got close to Hashem or you ever heard of a sadic in your life or you ever read a safer that inspired you for the teachings of Kazal which we all have a medish or whatever it might be. then we are not exempt. We are just not exempt. We have to try in the weakest sense possible. But not to give up and throw up our hands and say this is not for me. It's not for me. It's for everyone. That was the message of the BMPto. That's why the vagon clarified every aspect of Torah. And that may be why we have a zillion translated books of Torah of every stripe and variety because you no longer can say, "Well, I have to spend all my time learning. It's just so difficult." One second. You just don't you have like five, six, seven English perushim that can take you through it with the most profound ideas. Oh yeah, and every word of rashi is explained. Oh, now they have taram uncle explained. I have to spend my time on uncleus, you know. And then I mishnas impossible. I have to excuse me. You have you've had uh Steinald's Mishnayas which are magnificent for 50 years and now you have art mishnas for 50 years and then oh gamarra I so difficult I got to spend all my day on adaf gamaris this is excuse me in Hebrew in English in French in this you know translations why is this happening it's part of the gula process but it's as if to say you know what there's time for a 100% of that. But then there's also more time. I cut your time down by giving you pathways through through recorded shirim. You can sit and listen to the dafomi and within it one hour or less you can get a very very clear sense of adafomi from the greatest teachers in the world. One hour. One hour. Now what are you going to do with the other 23? So to have a 100% commitment to both the world of logic and to the world of Torah and see them as completely connected then uh we do have some space here to widen our mind. that so then maral is in there is in the book near mitzvah that he has that's the concept seven and eight he also writes about it on the gumar shabal which is about uh khan concepts yan is darkness precisely because it pulls the plug on on the oragus on the light of the hidden hidden Torah because they deny Torah's validity or the fact that it was given There's Torah Tesv and he actually gives us and perhaps that could be the next look next address a hint at how to go about studying some of these texts and incorporating the ideas. And what he basically says is something amazing. He says the first thing you got to do is realize that there's proper fear, there's holy fear and unholy fear. There's people fear all kinds of things. Remember during co and the masks and you're going out and everybody's afraid and you're afraid to go here and afraid to go there. Everybody's afraid and you got to take this shot and that shot and the third shot. I'm not saying yes or no. I have no position. I'm not going to convince you one way or the other. Nor do I care to what was right and what was wrong. But it was fear and some of the was legitimate and some went over the top. and over-the-top fears, literally agorophobia. You can be afraid of the whole world. There's every type of fear in exist. Fear of public speaking, there's fear of flying, there's fear of uh dating, unfortunately. There's fear of all kinds of things of of of of uh spiders and grasshoppers and whatever else. And you have to just get used to it a little bit. Barry Nakum is basically saying the only thing that we should fear really is Hashem himself. Um and then we can sort of have a different perspective on reality where we'll say look a human being is anyway a temporary being. The Torah tells us our best hope is 120 years. Although now that we've crossed the Rubicon as I've said into the realm of we might get an extension but people are reaching those long lives. Similarly we have to begin to look at things from the perspective of not being so afraid. Don't be so afraid. Don't let fear drive your decisions. Hashem gives strength. Hashem gives courage. Hashem will give you the capacity not to be crushed by the weight of worries and problems. Whether worries about finances, worries about children, worries about worries about health, worry about Yeah. It can crush your soul in a half second by the weight of all these fears. Or we can realign ourself and say, "But there's another." It's true. If I had to carry all these things myself, then I would be crushed in a half second. But I don't have to carry it myself. I can cast some all of these burdens on Hashem and just keep plugging along and doing the best that I can and being responsible and dealing with the the the realities of things but without the crushing fear. You know, there was one fear that I used to always speak about and I'm winding down here was the of the the dem demographic explosion of the Arabs. you know, for decades and decades since the Sixth Day War, they said, "Well, you have to make a peace deal with the Arabs because and cut a cut a boundary with them because if they are allowed to be here, they will so outnumber us that we won't be they'll take over just by virtue of their population, which they may be doing in certain places in the world, by the way. Maybe a lot of places, but not Israel. Miraculously, the birth rate of Israel is so h much higher among religious Jews, among Jews who view themselves as just Israelis. 3% 3.1 children per person. That's like way above the replacement rate and higher than the Arab replacement rate. We are actually populating this country at a higher rate than the Arabs are. something that no one in their right mind could have ever experienced or thought about for 50 60 years but them's the facts can you explain them you can't factor in you can't explain the seven without factoring the eight there's some sort of braha going on here so if we open our eyes and open our hearts to the brah another source I'll mention here is inanor um which speaks about the manora as influence. influence. In other words, we the world is a dark place and our perspective of having fear of Hashem more than fear alone of seeing a higher wisdom and the possibilities that exists that deny yush because Hashem is always a factor and miracles can happen and do happen on a daily basis. And the place of those miracles is in that divine light. And seek it out and bring it into your life and change your attitude and change your mindset and heal your mindset. This is the job of our generation more than anything else. And that's what our great sadikim have told us. We need a change of mind. We need a a light to shine us through a very dark period in world history. But at the same time, there's so much to be excited about and so much to be enthralled about that if you only look at the problems, you're not taking in the you're focusing on the darkness and not on the possibility. So I'll leave it with this thought to be continued. Balos Aron was told your job is long term. So that's what it says in Lutan says Aron forget this generation. There's going to come a time of darkness of Khaneka and there's going to come a time of darkness like for the Jews of America and the world right now and for many of the Jews in Israel who just don't see it as they didn't see it then and our job is to broadcast it out. So a little bit you can say that by learning these texts and being inspired gives us an opportunity to inspire others. We need to be inspired and we need to share that hope with other people. That's the great light. Everybody's in need of that boost that I hope that our sh and our and our message can be part of that even if it's just for ourselves. Okay, for others too. I wish you a wonderful week. Uh and let's continue this journey next week. [music] [singing] Heat. Heat. [music] [singing] [music] [singing] >> [music] >> sh. [singing] [music]