Are You Tuned In To the Frequency? 5 Reasons We Learn Torah (Delivered to DRS)

of our pre our pre Schwartz lecture series we're so so excited tonight to welcome rabbi Ephraim Goldberg of the Boca Raton synagogue before I begin with words of introduction I just want to really thank the sponsors for tonight's sheer oh this book tonight she was being sponsored by the Dagon family Liz a furnish must marry Yahoo al turban avi music I meet eyes father and and as a merit for all cholesterol it's also being sponsored by the fruit or family in honor of an appreciation of Rabbi Goldberg for all of his inspiration and Hobart cetera we really thank you so much for your sponsorship some of you know that it's it's a distinct pleasure for me to to welcome rabbi Goldberg around Goldberg and I go back more than thirty five years probably close to 40 years our families grew up a couple of blocks from each other we've shared many a yontiff meals together growing up in so many things and you know that a cottage Burroughs who instructs Moshe Rabbeinu to count the Jewish people in the in the in the pear show that we're going to read this coming Shabbos and the Ramban wants to know why we count the Jewish people why was it so important to count and in one of his explanations he says something very very beautiful that it wasn't just to find out the aggregate number of all of chloral but the goal of counting the Jewish people was that motion Aaron had to put their eyes on every single human being every single Jew of of the entirety the Jewish people had to have a private audience a private meetings emoticons salvation developed it a little further and explained that since Moshe Boehner was now the Rebbe of cloudy Israel Moshe Boehner when you're a Rebbe of clio you need to know each member of who you are now teaching who you're responsible for to communicate at Kadesh boxes Torah and as I mentioned everybody here knows and the wonderful crowd that we have already over a hundred people tonight testifies to the fact that Goldberg has had such incredible impact not just on the South Florida community but really it's so many communities throughout the country and even even beyond and to me for my goldberg exemplifies so many things especially for our students for the tell me them of our ueshiba Robert Goldberg attended a yeshiva high school a co-ed ueshiba high school maybe he doesn't really want to be reintroduced that way but my point in in introducing that way is because rabbi goldberg attended he Sheba High School very similar to the yeshiva students of our yeshiva or other yeshiva high schools and and grew and worked in himself and developed and and and is really someone who's inspiring and influencing a hundreds if not thousands of Jews throughout the United States and throughout the globe and this is this is a testament to his hard work and to his his talents and the fact that he used his tremendous talents to serve Hashem and to serve Klaus Rome and one of the things our by Goldberg does incredibly well and this is I think something that we could all learn from as well he has a tremendous talent at balancing the needs of every individual Jew of understanding the needs of Jews who are very affiliated juice or less affiliated but at the same time remaining so strong strongly connected to the traditions of yadus and now he blends and is able to bring together this is something that I know that I struggle with all the time how much to bend and do what people want versus what the rabona storm wants and trying to bring peace between what people need and people want and what a cottage borough school wants the puss accessor mutts of Fame the sake Alto of bein a elokim be a dumb one of the goals of Jewish leadership is to be someone who people respect and admire and want to learn from but all that cutters borrow that God is proud of what he's doing as well and I find that in positions of leadership to be able to fuse together then to me aside from a Goldberg scholarship and his tremendous oratory and and his lesson and all the things that he does in his insight and his humor and his ability to speak in he's atomic HAWX I'm on and on and on he has so many qualities but to me most instructive and most impressive to me is the way he balances the needs of the people and the needs of the rabona Shalom helping their meat like Moshe Rabbeinu was concerned but every individual understood the needs of every human every individual and Kleist role has always been made up of multi colored and multi chromatic so many different wants desires people so many different needs and and how he balances that so it's truly a great pleasure and privilege for us tonight to host job Ephraim Goldberg without further ado speaking about the five ways that Torah affects a person's soul please give your it's a great solution to cover us please give her an undivided attention to Rabbi Ephraim Goldberg thank you so much for by kamenetsky the truth is if you weren't a yeah Rebbe a mentor a teacher of mine I would have interrupted you and tried to cut you off long ago it's already the late hour and I certainly heard more than enough if my mother were listening I would have let you go on but she's not here so it certainly wasn't that wasn't worth but thank you for your exaggerated compliments and the truth is that both in my childhood and in my adult life I continued to look up the rabbi kamenetsky as he mentioned our families are incredibly close for now many generations Bar Hashem and only continuing further and I've always looked up to it to you and I thank you it's a great school it's a great opportunity for me to be here and I thank you what you've built and what you're doing and your reputation continues to inspire me and so many others I just want to thank my dear friend rabbi stores for many years for this invitation and for coordinating all of this and to see so many friends zoom is such a Bravo those who have the courage to have their cameras on and those who have reason not to we thank you not to but those who have the courage to have your cameras on it's great to see dear friends or buy you dinner by Englund their Emmys here I see others so it's great to be together tonight and I thank you for giving me a few minutes to share some as we're really on the precipice of Shavuos we're gonna be standing the base of a mountain together we're going back shavoo s is not recalling or recounting something historic it's not simply trying to relive something from thousands of years ago but Kabbalah cetera is in the present it's very real we are counting up towards when we'll be standing at the base of the mountain and no quarantine and no pandemic and no a no stay home order can cause us to not be at the mountain together and even if physically we'll be distanced but spiritually be standing as one but you can show me so we're gonna be there together and it's really the time to prepare we're running out of those days and we're running out at that time not commemorating the past but living and experiencing it in the in the present in the present you know back in the day today we have iPhones we download apps on our phone right away but I remember I used to have one of the earlier versions before the smartphone what was it called the trio you'd plug it in and download your calendar you felt so cool yet all the information on it and there were texts they took about 90% of the memory of your of your poor device at the time but you could download the Torah you could download the foolish to walk around the Jew in your pocket with the whole Amish the whole text of the Torah so I'll never forget when you would download you connected it to your computer and you dialed up your speed your dial-up internet and you would download it it took four days straight for it to download and load it onto your device but I'll never forget when I press download a little screen popped up and it said do you accept the Torah whatever text it was it would say do you accept you know the latest novel do you accept the Torah I just remember it threw me off because I looked at that nice aha do you accept the Torah and that's really the question that we're all facing as we stand at the base of the mountain together do you accept the totem do you accept the do we accept it collectively nationally as a people as a community but also an even much more difficult as individuals do we accept the Torah the Torah supremacy in guiding our life in governing our life and regulating everything from when we wake up until the moment we fall asleep does it inform and inspire our view our attitude the way we see the world and the metric of the barometer to answer those questions is to ask ourselves do we dedicate time to learning Torah so you talk about preaching to the choir it's 9:15 at night on a Thursday night at the end of a long week and here you are on zoom' not even in person we're here to learn Torah together so fashion we can answer in the affirmative we're here we're committed to learn Torah but what I really want to examine in our time tonight is why why learned Torah this beautiful institutions incredible yeshiva DRS filled with so many passionate and devoted Talmud them to learning Torah not just in the school hours not just during the requirements but how many of you the summers when you were able in mayor shem soon we'll be able again to dedicate to extra learning why are we doing it what are we trying to get out of it is it intellectual gymnastics we spend hours on end with these huge volumes of books postulating and pontificating and analyzing and dissecting and debating and suggesting and rejecting why why your peers your age and frankly my peers and the peers of your parents who are here tonight as well they're not opening American legal books and pontificating and analyzing nobody in this virus is drawing strength from opening up American law or British law or any law and reading and finding a strength in it so why are we doing it what are we trying to get out of it what I want to do tonight is examine five separate overlapping but five separate reasons of why we learned Torah because why can't they do MIT to us I've 613 mitzvot so do the menses be a good Jew eat kosher don't gossip don't look at the wrong thing be honest in business davender times were meant to die man just do your mitzvahs why when it's a choice between watching sports or a little bit more learning why wouldn't a choice between a schleff on the couch or opening is safer why when it's a choice between turning on talk-show or the news or turning on a shear why do we play such an emphasis on learning Torah can't I be a good Jew can't I be a god-fearing Jew a mitzvah observing Jew without learning Torah what am I meant to be getting out of it why are we doing this and I have to tell you from me it's such a fundamental question and it's a question I'm sure your outstanding Rebbe am some of them I'm so humbled and honored I hear tonight but all of them have probably examined with you but my educational background nothing to do with the outstanding schools that I went to it just wasn't spoken of at the time ever pressed pause and said hold the Gemara hold the hamish hold the navi hold the halacha hogatha let's spend a few moments of talking about why aren't you outside in the quarter why aren't you at recess why aren't you in the stock club what is the value and what is the merit of learning Torah five quick reasons number one reason number one there's a rare psychological disorder it affects less than 1% of the population and yet it seems to be extremely prevalent in our community of course I mean symbolically and that is what's called multiple personality disorder maybe you relate to this you ever feel like you know I'm someone when I'm around this group of friends and I'm different when I'm around that group of friends and when I'm around my family there's a third part of my personality comes out and when I'm in my professional environment another part of my personality comes out and you know depending who I'm with and where I am and when it is there are so many complimenting and often completely competing parts of my personality that a person says Who am I really I so many personalities I'm the cool guy I'm the with it guy I'm the Froome guy I'm the start guy I'm the shtick I see this guy I'm the intellectual guy I'm the entrepreneur business guy I'm the politically astute guy I'm a little bit of everything Who am I what's left in the end of the day Who am I when we have these multiple personalities you know right now we're supposed to be distancing from one another which is an anatomist painful to us as total Jews it goes against everything we believe and the way that we're going to be able to regroup and come together again here in South Florida bara Hashem we are into our phase one and we're talking about what it would take to have manana outdoors spaced apart but everybody is acknowledging that in order to make it happen we will have to do what everyone has to wear a mask a mask cover the nose and mouth protect us from one another stay safe keep others safe you have to wear a mask do you know what the Latin word for mask is not I'm a Latin expert but I happen to know this the Latin word for mask is persona persona we have many different personalities which come from the word persona and the different personalities or parts of our personality are the different masks that we wear the athlete the learner the intellect the cool the way the different parts of our persona in Shakespearean pliat plays actors were done their persona they put on their masks for the performance and I fear that not only are we putting on a mask for our own safety but too many of us are wearing masks and we have so many different masks and we're wearing and there's so many times that were left not even knowing Who am I and what is my life about what drives me what is my appetite what are my ambitions what makes me feel alive what nourishes and what what adds to my soul a personality is a mask because I put it on and it covers my true self the inconsistency in the conflict it's dangerous and it's damaging the competing parts of our personality Torah the reason number one why we learned Torah is because Torah unmasks Torah takes away the competing parts of who we are Torah enables us to have the strength and the knowledge and live the ideals to not need to wear a different persona different masks or express a different part of our personality depending where with but it unifies us all of Who I am is acting in harmony and I can be that same person who's a into politics whose intellectual whose emotional whose caseta is rational who's the jock who's the business who's the lesser than that and they're not competing but they're acting in harmony because they're all serving Torah at their Center Torah is the great unifier it's the great uniter to my personality it enables me to enhance and reinforce and promote the parts of my personality which are consistent with Torah which Torah asks me to use to execute my mission in this world and it tells me which parts of my personality are in fact counterfeit they're inauthentic they don't belong in my repertoire whatsoever we all know the other céntimos had trouble conceiving tragically they struggled with fertility rifki and Yitzhak were no exceptions and they pleaded and they besieged Hashem to have children and finally after conceiving Rifco should be overjoyed to know she's she's pregnant with multiples as it difficult has a difficult pregnancy and the poster says like sure to talk about in Baqir Baba well tell me I'm Kaila Mazon Oakley they were active within and she said why me now first of all is a very bizarre question you've struggled with conception with fertility and those who who are struggling Hashem should bless them they should know the bracha of healthy children it's difficult the Gemara describes because i understood how painful how alone one and not alive one feels when they struggling this way terrific I should have just been overjoyed she's pregnant multiples all this activity within her so she goes to inquire about Shem and she goes to find out because she's agitated what bothered her so much so now she tells us from the mattress ye shirts it's who I've been in Vicky bar they were active when she passed a med base matters she felt one kick she passed based on Rhoda's our our house of idolatry she felt another kick and what did she do about a little joe /m she went to consult a Shem well my Shinhwa a sham totally glowing be but there was a loom in me I a keeper a do don't worry there's two nations the two people inside you were they're gonna be separated a sham had better vision than a 3d ultrasound he told her exactly what's going on and what does rifka say how does that help me no she says huh good shrine that's wonderful I'm relieved I'm happy now I know now i understand sleekly occurred over lunch asked what do you mean now I know and now rifka satisfied what was in her shams answer that a later fear that relieved her of her worry so says the Clea Kerr the before she went lead recession before she went to check out what is happening and why is that happening rifki thinks that she's pregnant with one child she thinks there's one child inside her and this one child is suffering and struggling with multiple personality disorder who is this kid he wants out in the basement he also wants out in the base about Hazara she couldn't take the duplicity being consistency the apocrypha who is this kid who is the real one because Berkeley says relax twins don't worry one is going to the base base Madras he's authentic he's genuine he's through and through that's all he craves it's only wants and the other one never for now wants to be some others are you got you work it out for you you're gonna have to work and that's why Rifco walked away she said okay I have what to work with if each one at least is devoted and dedicated they know who they are and what they think their mission is one has the right to begin with and the other is going to take a lot of work but at least they're not a multiple personality says the clea car to be fragmented and divided to be driven in so many different directions to be inconsistent and duplicitous that's so inauthentic it's so counterfeit and by the way it's such a source of of mental health challenges and particularly the demographic and segments of community who feels so broken and trying to fit in and try to feed the FOMO they have of everyone else who looks like their lives are so happy and so they're simply trying to conform and mold themselves to wherever they are and with whomever they are and whatever is in to believe and do that can't help but lead to depression and anxiety and worry because we're not being true to ourselves there's nothing more gratifying there's nothing more meaningful there's nothing more enriching or uplifting than being true to who we are and who were meant to be then tapping into our most authentic selves when you hear an inspiring shear that awakened something inside you when you're part of a comes into a Chaba tone or I'll have dela when you witness a sunset when you have a breakthrough on a tasteless you've been breaking your teeth over when you make contact with your most authentic self there's nothing more gratifying more meaningful more real more lasting Torah enables us to be consistent to bring us together to help us figure out who we are and who were meant to be in a world of so much noise and so many influences of so many images and so many ideals and we're left not knowing Who am I should I be the one who read this article who read the article that says the exact opposite should I be the one who heard this or the one who needs to wear that should I be the one who needs to listen to this music or the one who likes that Who am I Who am I Torah unites us it unifies us Torah teaches us right from wrong it's our moral compass Torah tells us what actually nourishes our neshama and what damages our neshama Torah gives us the tools and the vocabulary the action list it gives us an image of the best version of ourselves so we can reach and stretch and try to realize who were meant to be so the first reason that we learned Torah is because of its ability to unify our personalities into one one coherent cohesive identity you know I don't want to look like we're just exchanging flattery but I kamenetsky was was so kind and I know he has to go to give another Shir I hope you left already but when I was young and until today one of the things I look up to about rabbi kamenetsky and I know I was attracted so many of you has Tommy dim and it's true about so many of your amazing rebellion is it's the same Rebbe who's in the base meddra sh and in the shear room and on the basketball court it's the same rub you see at the Shabbos table and it's the same Rabi that you meet on Central Avenue it's the same Rebbe it's not a different rabbit trying to be different or fit in differently rumba kamenetsky grown up had the same me dos on the basketball court as he had in the base mesh and that's what earned our admiration but it's not only him it's every one of you it's every one of us are capable he became who he is and molded by Torah and the same is true with us with every encounter in every Torah text and a retort a lesson every Tory shear we discover more of who we are the Torah we hold up to ourselves as that mirror to look into our soul and see who we can be and that should carry us and inform us and inspire us wherever we go not just in the religious context but wherever we are when others are looking and even in this time in which so many of us are so alone so often even when we are or especially when we are alone the mission and perky always tells us that one of the incredible qualities of total is totem Akshar toe and it's unclear exactly what that word means totem macchiato so if you look at the roof of Hiram and find below generous commentary in the key of us the roof of fame writes that or Amash I told the word mock shadow comes from the word kosher to kasher you know if you have a pot and the pots absorb non kosher taste if you by accident mixed and cooked meat milk in it or it absorbed a trave taste you have to cash in the pot it wasn't that long ago it was paced life and it wasn't that long ago there were many who never made pace off in their entire lives and rabbis got inundated with countless questions how do I capture this how do I capture that it doesn't matter how many magazines and apps and lists are put out we still got those questions how do I kasha how do i kasha how do i Kashar how do I take something that has absorbed a non-kosher taste a contaminating impure taste and how do i purge it how do I get rid of it that's what it means to kasher that's what it means to kasher so refined below Jenner says tota macchiato means that our eyes have taken in non kosher images and our ears have taken in non kosher thoughts and ideas and our brain our brain is processing non kosher values and Torah macchiato how do i purge it how do i rid it how do i Kashar my brain how do i kasha my soul how do I restore my innocence and my purity how do I restore myself my roots tamanna Shama Tora Machado we caches something traif we purge that us our taste and toramasa tell how do we catch her on a Shama through Torah Torah is what cashiers by the way one of the principles in Halawa is that Cibola catapult oh the same mechanism or means to which the vessel absorb the non kosher taste is what you need to purge it so those who were part of Smith discover recently learned if you absorb through cooking it's perched through liquid through a gala if it was absorbed through heat its purged through it spurred through fire it's pushed through heat through lebanon so the way it's absorbed as the way it's purged and the same has to be true the rebus point out about the values in our lives if we ran with enthusiasm and passion and zeal to absorb those non kosher tastes we quickly went to that website we surfed we picked quickly texted that juicy lush Nara or we were a dishonest or struggled in our in our test-taking or our business deals or any area of life with whatever level of enthusiasm or passion we brought to absorbing the non kosher tastes Cabello kapil to-- that's the level of enthusiasm and zeal of excitement of passion and a fire that we need in order to get rid of that taste in our lives so amazing amount of sacrament that simulcasting or says the ravio safe the great radio safe commented if not for torah cameo safe ekabo schuko if not for the Heyliger torah the ability to learn torah cameo see ekabo shook so the simple understanding is if not for torah i'd be like any other yo say if i'd be like any other joe in the street literally i'd be like any other job on the street if not for torah torah is what gave him his prominence is esteem Turner's we gave him his reputation I'd be like any other guy in the marketplace kama Yosef Iike bazooka but the ballet must her tell us no don't read a cameo she being a bazooka I'd be like any other Joe in the street means if not for Torah , yo safe how many yo saves would I be bazooka I'd be the Oh safe in the marking place in the USA from the mall Neos even the Miss Manners Neos even the gym and the OC for the kiddush and the yo safe at work and the o safe at home so many different personalities that are competing and overlapping and who's the true me says R abusive but Hashem thank God for Torah if not for Torah , Yosef ekabo there would be so many parts of me but barf a shampoo tour there's only one of me I'm true to who I am and who I'm meant to be I can realize the best version of myself so kevrah poring over that Gemara are turning on that shear or learning engaging in the mahanta show torah it helps us peel back the mask not the healthy one that we have to wear now to protect ourselves and others but the personality the masks were able to reveal our true character our true sense through the amazing conversations and the deep debates and the illuminating insights we have the opportunity to discover who we really are and who were meant to be at the shape of vision for who we could become if not photo who would shape that vision the Michael Jordan series so I want to be like Jordan or LeBron or Kobe for sure MJ's the best for all time it's not even a debate but who do I want to be like this singer this rapper this celebrity this athlete this politician so I want to fit into this fad or that fashion so I want to be like this hero or that one come a Yoshi peekaboo suka we wouldn't know who were meant to be or how we're meant to behave instead tourists says take the best of them all and filter it through the prism of Torah to know what's true what's authentic what's real and who were meant to be so the first reason that we learned Torah is because Torah gives us the tools in the vocabulary Torah gives us the instruments to peel back the personality the persona of the mask to reveal who we really are and who were meant to come not just to learn Torah to become a Ben Torah you know you could become a manoeuvre who learns Torah there are maneuv Allah will learn Torah and they go on the basketball court and they compete ruthlessly and they curse like a sailor you could you can learn a lot of Torah and be unethical at work you can learn a lot of terror and talk a lot of Russian are in the back of shul but to learn Torah to become a Ben Torah Abbas Torah to be molded and shaped by Torah to become a total personality that's the first reason that we learned in Torah it's why we learn toadd it's tour is all about in fact it's the beginning of our passion about midburn the Torah is given Daphna but midburn why all of a sudden we learned about the topography and the geography all of a sudden we care about the climate of where store is given so the magic as I'll tell us because a person has to turn themselves in a mid berth to truly receive Torah you can't impose on total your values and thoughts you have to wipe your slate clean you have to be barren like a mid bar and Leto inform and inspire who you are and who you're meant to become reason number two reason number two we recite in the shmatte daily we have a mitzvah we have an obligation of you have this national Makaha we have an obligation to love Hashem lavash am good one of the 613 every one of us men women adults and children love us the question is how do you fulfill that Mitzvah tell me to shake a lulav no problem tell me to hear the chauffeur I got it tell me the list of the Megillah done put on the tao since Phil and I can do it tell me what I could eat and don't eat okay tell me about the Elvis malakas I can observe Shabbos but tell me my emotion love Hashem imagine I put to you in a room and I say I hereby command you love one another it doesn't work it takes time you gotta fall in love it's not even love at first sight it's lust at first sight love what is love so all this on the tour comes along and it says via have to such a merkava tells I just before this was on a zoom bar mitzva who ever thought they'd use those words in the same sentence before a couple of months ago but I was on a zoom Bar Mitzvah you tell a Bar Mitzvah boy 13 years old my hustle tough and here's its feeling here's say he put them on oh and by the way as of now as of tonight 3 stars love Hashem love us Shem how do you like he's invisible I can't see him I can't feel him I can hear him I can't touch him what do you mean love Hashem how can the Torah tell me you could tell me what to do how can I tell me how to feel there's an age-old question there many different answers given to it not our topic for tonight but I want to share with you the Rambam says raah mom says no Caesarea Torah he answers the that V I have two such general care for the myths for the love of Shem is not to feel an emotion at all the Mitzvah is not love the way we think of love as in everyday emotion the mitzvah of love is to know Hashem because to know Hashem is to love Hashem so the Rambam says when a person studies about a Shem biology chemistry physics go to the Swiss Alps in the Grand Canyon you see of course the magnificence of Eretz is throw when we'll be able to travel again when you understand the science the nature of the wonder of the world and most of all when you open his diary and you read his own words that he authored and you get a glimpse into who he is and what drives him says the Rambam to know God is to love God and as a parish on the side of the Rambam say who authored it in all of our standard mission Katara it just says perish the perish on the side of that I'm healthy Sara Tara says where does it mean no God is to love God so he describes the two types of love there's a novel you butterin I wish I had to leave whenever there's a conditional love and unconditional love you know our conditional love is if the government sends me some nice checks because the economy shut down I love the government and if they stop sending me the checks and they start charging me taxes I don't love the government I love the people who give and I don't love the people who take give to me and I love you it's a conditional type of love it means there's nothing inherent in the relationship there's nothing about you that draws me and that inspires me to love it's conditional you take care of me and reciprocally I can't help but feel love towards you that conditional love is inauthentic it doesn't last as the parish because it depends as long as you give me I love you if you stop giving me I won't love you that's not real love that's not real love you know what real love is is I come to know who you are what your ideal is what drives you what are your values what are your priorities where your morals and there's something about that that attracts me to you that makes me fall in love he writes you could fall in love from a distance it's not either gonna love that you have to give me anything let alone you have to even know who I am I can observe you and I can watch you and I can see how special you are and that makes me want to fall in love it makes me want to get to know you this page says that's what the Rambam means in Italy sorry Ayatollah me I miss Ivan I have a good old lady as Hashem you're gonna be driven you're gonna have this insatiable appetite to come to know God and so the very best part of ourselves on the Shama they tell me like in the filler killer come Imam Amish the part of us that is in itself an expression of God it is connected to God when we come to know God when we study God so we know God through his world we know God through his world and you know God if you go see these magnificent parts of nature the natural world the natural order we come to see in the minutiae in the details and the magnificence we come to discover the rabona shel olam we come to discover you know imagine you had a pick grandparents the great-grandparents who you didn't know who passed away before you were born and you never knew them so there are two ways you can come to know them he found the painting that they painted he found the sculpture they sculpted you found something they carved or they built with their own hands you would cherish that and you'd feel like I come to know that through their creation but then imagine you're rummaging through their attic and you find their diary the written word and now you can really get a glimpse and an insight into who they were so there are my Knights the two ways we get to know hashem is through his creation through what he fashioned what he built but the way we know him even more authentically even more deeply is his diary Taraka dosha is his sacred word he is the one who dictated it he authored it and he was communicating to us the second reason we learned Toula is to be able to know a college particle as best as we can know him we can arm through his world and we can know him through experiencing the beauty and the pleasure of his world but we know him best and we know him most when we study his diary we opened that Torah and we get a glimpse into who he is and his values and his vision for the way he wants the world to be davon Aang is us talkin Tosh em learning Torah is Hashem talking to us anyone who says I shall never talks to me if only he spoke to me then I believe he speaks to us each and every day he started out how seen I in his and stopped talking to us since open a safer turn on a sheer develop a relationship with a teacher learn his sacred Torah and you're learning to fall in love with him to Noah Shem is to love Hashem that's how we fulfill the mitzvot it's the second reason that we learned Torah reason number three reason number three a bunch of years ago it's probably already outdated by now I read a story about a person who owned the store at a mall and there were teenagers lingering around the store and they were blocking the customers from coming in they were loud and they were rowdy and they were noisy and they were loitering and littering and he wanted him to get away from his store so he had to discovered something and ultimately they started selling he called the mosquito ring you know what a mosquito ring is mosquito tone is a 17 kilohertz sine wave that some teenagers maybe some of you listening if you want to know exactly the different ages if who's listening right now on this zoom we could play a different level of care Hertz sine waves and the older you are the less you'll hear it the younger you are in the more sensitive your hearing you'll still pick up that very high-pitched noise so what he did is he invented and he bought in and then sold to put outside your store any area that you don't want teenagers hanging out you put this incredibly high-pitched tone that the adults won't hear and they'll be happy to be there and only those young enough will hear most adults can hear above 13 or 14 young people can hear as much as 17 they would hear it and they'd walk away and need to be borrowed by it I remember when I first read this article I looked it up on the web you could still do it now mosquito tone ring and you'll play it and I heard nothing and from two rooms away my kids started screaming what is that turn that off because the younger you are only you can hear but if you're old you can't hear it anymore so as a pasa very relevant it's coming week we'd be standing at the mountain accepting the Torah the first time the Torah was given it's as a Hedorah melody by Shanna's coco bahar meto Huish an anvil Rafael it says that these words were spoken when we would gather all together at the mountain in the fire the cloud coal God all the low Yossef but if the vey much mean look awesome anybody named a lie it was a Koga doll it was a great sound the low yes staff if you weren't all muted and we were together I'd ask you all what is the words what did the words Vilonia staff mean Koga da means a great voice a great sound God spoke to us the only time in history the low Yossef what is the word of a low yes SAFF mean this was an unprecedented unparalleled unrepeated moment in time so Valois a Theban Ezra and the rash bomb another say the LOI Asaf means never to be duplicated never repeated never ever happened again one time in all human history could you borrow the almighty peeled back his mask so to say and spoke to the human being Col Godot we heard his voice directly below Yossef and it was never repeated it was a one-time deal an exceptional transcendent moment in history never replicated never duplicated never again estheban Ezra and the rash band but uncle owes targum uncle's Wrightsville owe Yossef not never repeated Valois after state uncle owes Vallabh sack God's voice never ended it never ceased he never stopped the RAM ban brings a few sukham as evidence the show reviewed Sam a fake and mean never stops and according to the uncle according to the RAM ban this other set of we shown him it means coal God all God spoke Vallely Asaf he hasn't stopped since it continues to reverberate in our ears we can here comes borrow whose call even today 3,300 years later so I ask you who's correct who's right it's possible Asif coach Moore who spoke and velu Yossef was right is it benezia and the rash bomb are they right that it was never repeated it happened one time and never again or Co Godot velu Yusuf was the target Mon Calas and the RAM bond right that had happened once and it never stopped and I would submit and suggest to you my dear friends this evening who is Right depends on each and every one of us we determine which shot is more correct by the way in which we live our lives like that mosquito tone a frequency is playing and the only question is can you hear it is your antenna extended are you tuned into it do you have your receiver on and up each time we open a safe for an each time we challenge ourselves by learning Torah and by expanding and broadening our wisdom and our understanding and our insight the voice of Hashem below a sapphic continues to reverberate and to echo in our ears it's alive its dynamic its vibrant its real we're not making contact with an ancient text we're opening something that is new today every magnificent sunrise or sunset we pause to take in a collage borrow Whoville oh yeah SAFF he continues to reverberate in our ears and in our lives each act of kindness we share with others kaga Deauville oh yeah SAFF Akhilesh borrow whose will and wisdom is reverberating in this world Orko Godot Valu Yossef however our books remain closed and they gather dust and our our smart phones are tuned to podcasts and talk radio and news but never to shear him an inspiration then koga EE Asaf means total it's it's old happened a long time ago and so whether this coming week shavoo is for us is to commemorate something of long ago or Shavuos is to experience something today is Volodya soft never repeated lawyer stuff means never ends is all about how we live our lives and it is the third reason we learn Torah we learn Torah in order to continue to feel ashame presence to continue to hear as messages in a contemporary way maybe to give it a new vocabulary contemporary terms but it is ancient and timeless wisdom for today when we engage Torah we keep that conversation with him alive we keep it going you can be an observant Jew scrupulous in Halawa but her sina is an ancient part of history only if you continue to challenge to learn Torah disarcina I become part of a continued experience and it's reason number three why we learned Torah reason number four reason number four what defines a good person again if we were in person and you weren't muted I would be asking you what is the definition of a good person are you a good person what makes a good person what is the measure of a person the ethical moral I'll give an example what does it mean to be a good American now the truth is a good American doesn't mean a good American doesn't mean that you're good think about it if you were to talk to a neighbor secular neighbor and they were to define for you a good American they would say a good American doesn't steal doesn't rob doesn't rape doesn't pillage doesn't cheat doesn't hurt anyone else a good American doesn't violate the distancing guidelines or walk out without a mask a good American but the truth is that doesn't actually make a good American that doesn't make you good all that means is that you are not bad to not murder to not steal to not cheat to not take things from other people to not hurt damaged or injured doesn't make you good all it does is mean that you're not bad we have an incredibly low standard and I'm a proud American I don't mean this in a negative way about America it's true for almost every country and every legal system and every culture that to be good is not really to be defined as being good to be good really is just defined as to not be bad but my dear friends that's not good enough for us we dream and we aspire higher we want more for ourselves and for our family it's not enough to not be dead we push and we demand of ourselves to actually be good but how do you know what it is to be good by the way I'll give you a few practical examples I can be a good American and you fall in front of me on the street you drop with a massive heart attack and I have the knowledge and the ability to save your life and I'm allowed to keep walking there's nothing in American law which obligates remains it's me to stop and intervene in your life and help you there's something called the Good Samaritan law that comes from a book really shouldn't be familiar to us the name of it but the law really says that if I stop and I give you CPR and I break three ribs while I'm doing it in our litigious society you can't sue me because I was trying to help you that's what that law says so the best we can do is have a law that says I don't have to help you but if I try to help you even though you can sue me on every other time you can't sue me then comes along our tour Akkad OSHA our sacred tour and it tells us somebody's in trouble well Tom on a dumb rascal you can't walk by you can't say it doesn't affect me you can't say it's none of my business and look the other way if to stop you have to help Osama that doesn't even only apply to a person's life it applies to their property down here we have something called hurricanes actually you've familiarized you got a bring in all the outdoor furniture you're grateful town brought it in for nothing if the hurricane passes but I gotta tell you it's not fun it's a big pain collect all the outdoor furniture anything that can become a projectile has to be brought inside it's a pain so the halacha is that if my neighbor has outdoor furniture too and I have the ability to move it I gotta move it for them Osama not America my neighbor's object is the Gemara says is is flowing down the river and I can I can return it to them I can protect it or the rivers overflowing onto their property and I can take care of them I have to because the toner pushes us not just to not be a bad person the Torah teaches us how to in fact be good people you know the lawyers if you have a lost object Finders Keepers losers weepers but Allah says now a Shabbos Aveda if they're a Samana my have to look for you I have to try to get it back to you I have to help return it to you that's how Lockett tells us but I'll tell you even more basically the husband he has a wonderful safer called the moon Abita home and the truth is the safer I'm gonna be talkin is made up of several proc him and only one character is about a moon Abita hone but that's the most fair that's the most famous Parekh and it's the Parrot that's been translated but really the whole safer of course House initiative safer I'm gonna be tough on is a wonderful wonderful safer worth reading and then there he has a whole chapter the first chapter on I'm sorry subsequent chapter on exactly what we're talking about and the housing issue self wonders why learn Torah what is the purpose what of its value why are we obsessed with it why are we spending so much time are there any other culture that doesn't just tell legal scholars and legal experts and those who are intrigued by the law sit and analyze law but they try to train every young person as they're growing up you should will measure your success your happiness your contribution by law cousin each one there's this question himself and his answer is eye-opening it's our fourth reason we're heading into the home stretch I know it's getting late our fourth four out of five reasons of why we learned Torah and the husband here says the following if I have a business dilemma I have an ethical dilemma I don't know what to do I don't know what's right I don't know what's correct I don't know what's moral I don't what's the ethical who should determine what is the answer human beings democratically we take a vote how do we determine what's moral and ethical and these dilemmas rise they occur all the time ask the Rob Onan who were on this group I see the great of RDA Leibowitz my dear cover and Rebbe the shila's he deals with he is the most fascinating fantastic shila's the shila's that come up business ethics and legal ethics and medical ethics right now particularly medical ethics with russia weiss I gonna Russia Weiss sent out his his article for the week and it's about I saw the second half of it is about if someone was contagious with coronavirus and they infected someone else and that person suffered was injured even worse as a result what are you obligated how are you responsible so who should determine that without our toda hakka dosha and without an objective absolute infinite God who determines that we take some medical ethics experts and we put them in a room and what they take a vote and the ones in 2020 what if they think different than the ones in the year 2000 or 1800 or 1500 because in different times and different places they'll come to different conclusions and who's right who's correct you understand that when you rely on democratically determined decisions you can even result in a Nazi Germany and a Nazi Party and an extermination and genocide of six million people the Nazis were elected democratically and we embrace democracy democracy is wonderful democracy is great and there are elements of democracy even in the development of Halawa but when it comes to such moral and ethical decisions if you rely exclusively on democracy on the subjective on the relative feelings of human beings how do you know it's true it's right how do you know it just was righteous what's honest so rights the house Aneesh that's why we learned Torah because Torah tells us the will of Hashem Torah tells us a schnapps and metallus two people are holding a talus and this one says the whole thing belongs to me and the other one says the whole thing belongs to me and we don't just go into a room and debate it and enjoy and to make a vote we say what is the rebuttal I'm Roberto schlimm say this is his world and these are his Tolleson and these are his rules what is his vision for what's moral and ethical how we're meant to live our lives how are we meant to operate in this world if someone finds a lost object can you keep it return it what are the signs on it what is the effort you have to go to to find its rightful owner without toto we approach life's difficult decisions from our limited finite perspectives and we might and we would often come to the wrong and unethical conclusions says the house Anish why are we learning Torah sections of torrents don't even relate to us I'm not a judge I'm not a member of a Baisden I don't know hoshin mich but but I'd nevertheless going through baba metzia going through back on above Abbas or why so I understand mr. Shah mr. da feel me I have to learn that because every Jew has to observe Shabbos what am i learning ms ikan for what am i learning parts of nutshell you're not a rabbit on him Sadiq say sure why am i learning it because in every sentence and every word and every syllable of Torah is a life lesson is a moral compass is an insight and a window into how a sham wants us to live and operate to mold and shape his world without it everything is relative everything is subjective everything is personal but with our Torah we have access to the infinite to the omniscient omnipotent to the absolute truth and there's nothing more meaningful more righteous than truth reason number five reason number five and it's very popular to have book clubs book clubs groups of people who agree to read the same novel or book and then they get together they discussed they analyzed a debate you might even see in the back of a book that you're reading that the author has suggested questions that the book club should consider when they read his or her Heyliger book so so spread our book clubs that authors are already giving the language they're already kela participating and stimulating provoking the book club who will who will be ziko to learn to read their book book clubs are very popular the amazing scene mushafs um it's hard to believe was just a few months ago that fifty thousand people could sit together in a stadium but just a few months ago I saw his amazing article when the secular papers that talked about the DAF Yomi is the world's largest book club is there a bigger book club across the entire planet than learning to da fiel me wherever you are wherever you go in the world as a GU and today you have to go there only virtually and over zoom you encounter a numbered Jew they might dress differently and speak in a different language and enjoy different foods and have different customs and yet if they're learning the Deaf you're literally on the same page as them wherever you go in the world learning Torah is being part of the greatest book club of all time because this sacred Torah allows us to not only collect and transcend geographically things that divide others but we're able to actually transcend time itself when I'm learning the same daf kumara that my great-great grandfather my great-great-great-great great-great-great great-grandfather and not only that I'm learning the same parsha and I'm learning the same turkey of us and I'm accessing the same Torah that my great-great-great great-great-great shrink grandchildren are going to learn there's nothing else in our lives that are in common with our great great great great grandparents and my great great great great grandchildren we have nothing else in common with them our lives will be so radically different but Torah gives us that language and Torah gives us those tools and Torah gives us that ability to transcend time and to transcend space and geography and to be able to connect with the entire world at once simultaneously we are part of the world's biggest in the world's best book club those that learn it are part of that special community a sacred trust an incredible connection bassam of a check no no no the text in front of me to share with you described so beautifully even when he was older or frail infirm even when he was tired and exhausted and fatigued but he'd open and his Tom Eden described he would open a gomorrah and ravana by were in the room with him Rubio combination luggage were around his table Rashi in the Rambam ties first they were all there leukemia egg and I'd be who done the crime they're all there there is no such thing as time that divides us and there's no such thing as space that divides us when we open and learn Torah we have a means of communicating with every Jew who ever was I read you who ever will be we connect with and we become part of the greatest community a transcendent community of all time the world's ultimate book club so why we learning Torah why is it such a virtue why is it such a value why do we encourage spending so much time we saw five reasons there are so many more than even just these but I want to end with one last thought I thought that I try to incorporate it to my life it's very difficult then I go again I go back to my own education I had wonderful teachers role models and mentors but maybe it was taken for granted I don't remember it ever being spoken and that is you can learn you could be in yeshiva and you can be staggering and the height of your you've experienced maybe it's your gap year after before maybe it's your summer you could be learning 12 14 16 hours a day and you're pouring over should I make you like a targum you're pouring over the Gemara and the halacha and you're pouring over this and you're pouring over that and you never mentioned Hashem's name once you know even when you're learning Torah you could sometimes forget that it's meant to draw you closer to Hashem so beautiful shot from if I see the Sharia paul successfui Katja Commissioner sorry I'm gonna finish my McComas there man okay lawyer dotty beginning of passions of eight say Yaakov is on the run and of course he falls asleep the stones combined into one he wakes from his sleep and he says oh Hashem is here and I had no idea and of course the usual shot is that Yaakov who had spent so much time immersed in the ivory tower of Torah didn't realize that out there in the world you execute the Torah values that you can find Hashem in the root and the real soak so to say real world to this I see the Schreiber tight deposit very differently he said homiletically my cot Yaakov mishneh so the word Mishnah so can me in sleep but mishneh so like mich mater Amina so can also mean from his learning he woke up from his learning and he said ha Yesha shamba McComas Evan Oh Helia dotty I didn't realize that my clock is a sheet Isis an X I see this in her prime I didn't realize in the London that no fakira bar who's here to person a Jew could spend sheer you can sit in school hamish navi gomorrah Halawa and you don't realize it's supposed to transform me it's supposed to mold me it's supposed to inform me it's supposed to enrich me enrich me we should never ever ever have to show him get to a place where they can tackle Mishnah so too many Jews spent too much of their life learning and they say you know what but it doesn't speak to me well I see people around me who are so devoted to learning Torah and they cheat me in business or they're rude or discourteous or they're not following the guidelines what's all that total worth and it's a fair question it's a question about ourselves and a question sometimes about others we should never get to a place of ie Katja Commissioner so we should never wake up from our learning and say huh I didn't know her Shem could be found there I wish I had spent time finding and find him there it said there of cook read that mission embedment steer differently the shrine marks the metallus mo cuishle was a commercially to are holding a talus this one says the whole thing belongs to me and the other one says darling belongs to me but Carthage borrow who o maryoku that even when you learn the mission you read the Gemara really in hashem name in every ethical moral business medical dilemma in the laws of Shabbos happened ooh borer and toe pain what I'm allowed or not allowed to do because I borrow who tells me me I'd be out oh he'll meet up so let's keep putting a cottage bar whose name into Torah walk away from that learning experience and say how am I meant to be different and changed how I become a bento or a basta of total personality how do I think and approach the world differently after having learned that that I did before it's not just intellectual it's not academic it's not abstract it's not theory it's supposed to inspire and mold me how will I be different now that I know that whether it's bub Mencia whether it's Shabbos or whether you're learning is far from it doesn't matter what you're learning whether it's her love of Mustapha see this hamish Navi but how am i different walking out then I was walking in how does it changed me because borrow a Myakka loco to never wake up nice now enough say ma I don't know really I went through gomorrah for for 12 years I didn't Hashem was never in my commercial once great lunders great Akira's great development of Alaska but Kurdish bar who never entered the conversation once he has to be part of each and every conversation we have the beginning of a ha Bruce and at the end of every shear to step up and walk away and say in what way does this leave me closer to coach I give us all abraca abraca that we should be together I discuss to speak at TRS once person should be Zucker that we should be together again here in South Florida and up there in New York healthy and happy and holy I give us a broth of that Koga Doble is after all for all of us not mean that it happened long ago and it was never repeated but it should mean it never ended that each and every day college bar whose infinite voices reverberating echoing in our ears and in our hearts and in our souls it is informing and inspiring it is enabling us to pull back that mask and to see who we are and who we could be and to help us become who were meant to be the very best versions of ourselves wishing everyone a good shabbos was gonna ruin a good year hunt of a happy mu shall I am like a mayor thank you so much for this opportunity and have a great night