Basics of Emunah #1 By Is Judaism Afraid of Questions?

the yeshiva.net [Music] good evening everybody and Welcome to our new series here on the basics of amuna the fundamentals of Jewish faith we opened the opportunity for people to ask questions so I received over the last uh few days numerous questions I'm going to begin this first lecture by reading to you four questions that I received I chose these four because they more or less deal with a common theme and it's a theme we're going to address this evening be hasem okay question one from a young man living in Williamsburg by the way everybody could send in their questions to auna atthe usa.net that's amuna the.net you don't have to sign your name if you don't want so it could remain anonymous and you could sign your name if you want and if you wish we shall not share your name you can ask any questions and we will try to address them at least as many as possible here's question number one does faith in Judaism begin with a logical basis and then it follows with a and trust or no it's flat out aun a flat out faith if it does start with logic where is the line if it's flat out amuno without a logical basis how are we supposed to acquire it if we don't have it what if I don't have this Faith how am I supposed to get it how does my father expect me to follow him blindly if I'm just not feeling like he and how do I know I'm not like a Muslim they also scream faith faith faith on the other hand if it does start with logic how can it be required from Layman people great question question number two this is from a young man living in man I am a curious person I'm very inquisitive I always ask questions I always had since I was a child when I became a teenager I started to ask my father questions about how we know certain things in Judaism are true first he tried answering me but then it seems like he didn't have an answer how do I know at some point when I started to ask my questions he said to me this is aurus this is kir this is heresy I told him TTI maybe it's just you have nothing to answer so you call it heresy he says no no no it's just that these questions a Jew doesn't ask I told him said how do you know it's true if you don't have answers to these questions he said I don't have to ask questions to know that it's true so I said to him father but what's the proof and my father said I saw Miracles by my rebba I tell my father but I did not see any Miracles he says I did I asked my father when did the miracle stop isn't it funny that all of you have all these stories but the day I was born all the Miracles stopped by all the rebers I must be so evil that when I came into the world suddenly all the stories stopped isn't that fascinating who is Right me or my father okay third question from a young woman living in the west why do Jewish people follow all the rules without understanding or even liking them I think it's very important to live a life that you want and enjoy if I can't do it with all the rules what should I do and why do they all believe all these rules anything you believe you can't prove otherwise it wouldn't be a belief so by definition belief means that you can't prove it so if you can't prove it why do you believe it okay good question last question from a middle-aged man who also grew up in Brooklyn and he says I find something very paradoxical in the community I grew up in and in the home I grew up in whenever I ask a question what is Judaism who is Hashem who is God what is T all about why do we do all the Mitzvah they always tell me no questions we don't have to know all the answers we just have to do what God wants but suddenly whenever tragedy strikes they always have answers whenever there's pain they always know why isn't it interesting when it comes to knowing the basics of Judaism they never know why when it comes to understand why this one got sick and this one died they always know why how did that happen could you please explain this okay these are four questions that came in through the email from real people I read them almost verbatim just with a few grammatical uh grammatical question cuz some of them have a better English than others by the way you could write to me in but these were written in English okay these are are big questions and they I think bring us right in to a fundamental theme that is appropriate to address here in this first and opening lecture on the basics of amuna there is I think a fundamental mistake that many people many Jews have when it comes to the word amuna and the concept of a this is not about judging the mistake we make mistakes sometimes the mistake comes because of one factor or another Factor but it's still a mistake and the mistake is is sometimes even in the very translation of the word amuna which is Faith many people translate amuna as being essentially blind meaning I don't know if it's really true how could I that's why I have to believe believe by definition means I believe I don't know if I would know I wouldn't have to believe as this woman wrote so by definition the word faith amuna means I don't know it may be true it may not be true I just believe it so now you'll ask the person the question so why do you believe it and they'll tell you cuz it's a Mitzvah to believe it so I'll say okay but how do you know that this Mitzvah to believe it is true we don't ask questions we just believe but what if you're believing something false you can't prove it we we don't speak like that we just just belief in other words what the person is really saying is I may not know that it's true actually in fact it may be false but I say that I believe or I was told that I have to believe so I put myself in a state of mind where I say I believe but here's the question that we have to ask ourselves if you would have grown up in a Muslim home or in a Christian Home an Episcopalian home a Mormon home a Baptist Home a Catholic home or if you want a Protestant home if you would have grown up in another community in another environment in another culture among another Nation among another tribe and they would have taught you things that are true and when you would say how do you know they would say we believe you have to believe is there really a difference or that is what faith means faith means what we call Blind Faith people say you take a leap of Faith what does a leap of faith mean a leap means you have to take a Quantum Leap a jump because at some point you say I don't know if it's true but I just believe it if this is the case and this is what our amuna is it's pretty sad it's pretty pathetic but the truth is this has nothing to do with amuna and Judaism this is called stupidity or intellectual laziness it has nothing to do with Amun to put it bluntly with with all due respect amuna does not mean there's a Mitzvah to be an idiot amuna does not mean that I think it may be a lie but I just say I believe that has nothing to do with truth it has nothing to do with authenticity it has nothing to do with am as somebody who challenged me about this series and said that this series undermines Judaism I said why so lectures on auna what's there a lecture amuna means you believe you believe what's the the lecture so I asked him this question that I'm presenting to you I said if you would have growing up in Syria not in Brooklyn not in Miami not in benab not in Jerusalem if you would have grown up there you would have been taught different things in your schools different texts you would have been taught all about Muhammad and he is the prophet and all of his laws and all of the prophecies that God gave him and when you would start asking questionss they would tell We Believe don't you realize that you're basically putting Judaism exactly in the same category is this where your amuna begins and where your amuna ends essentially you're telling me that you have no basis for your belief it's just you ended up in this household so for this thousands of years Jews sacrificed their lives fought for their Judaism through thick and thin endured Savage suffering in order to cling to Judaism and it was all based on indoctrination or Dogma that they heard from their great grandmother when they served the chicken soup and that's the entire basis for it the truth is that this definition a a definition of aun in this fashion not thinking being blind being irrational has nothing to do with auna as I said this has to do with laziness or stupidity depends on who you are so now you'll ask me a question what is amuna that's a great question so I want to begin to explain this I'm going to try to give a uh comprehensive Overview at least of one aspect of this discussion generally if you study Jewish history and you study Jewish Works throughout Jewish history you will see generally that there are two streams of Consciousness two shitts two two G two perspectives two that great sages and leaders developed in their works over the centuries the best way to define it is the way we open up every one of our dings every one of our prayers blessed are you Hashem Our God and the god of our fathers the obvious question is isn't the god of our fathers and our God the same God that God suddenly change between my father and me what's and then again we say the god of the god of didn't they have the same God by definition the god they believed in was not change not changing from to from or as the says so why are we distinguishing between our father's God or our mother's God and our God or between so there's a famous explanation of the about this it's brought in I also saw it once in shis I think says it over there he was a contemporary of basically there are two different experiences or two different ways in which a person can come to terms with the concept of Hashem or generally all of T and all of godliness and Divinity one is I say it's or it's m God it's our God and one is it's my father's God what's the difference in the language of the one is and one is one is through research investig ation and one is through tradition and throughout the generations different Jews harbored or embraced different approaches and felt that one approach was Superior or more beneficial or more true or better or more practical than the other approach one approach said you have to investigate you should investigate search use your mind and ask questions use your mind it's a tool that God gave you figure it out figure it out make him you're a God the other approach said no no follow tradition you have a father you have a mother they had fathers and mothers all the way back you don't have to go back so long it's 3,300 years but in terms of Generations how many generations is it uh I don't know 30 40 50 people if you go back they stood at Hari they stood at Mount Si God revealed himself to the entire nation they all accepted Mitzvah altogether it's around 3 million Jews they communicated this tradition and therefore for them this was not blind this was not ludicrous this was not invented they saw it they experienced it they gave their lives to it and they passed it on generation to generation to generation Embrace that and embrace the truth based on this is the god of my father my grandfather my great great grandmother all the way back to my to the experience of sin which is better each one has an advantage they explained the advantage of the first we understand it's mine I own it I developed it I acquired it it's something that I internalized it's much more ptic it's much more uh internalized it's uh it became mine I'm not just relying on generations of forefathers of my ancestors on the other hand the other one said no if you using your logic you know a mind is a mind that can take you in many different directions you can make errors you can stumble you can reach wrong conclusions philosophy is very very complex theology is very very complex it's winding you can get lost furthermore they said with your mind even if you reach accurate conclusions but nonetheless truth is always beyond what my mind can comprehend and therefore the truth that are articulated in the T that was authenticated at M this will allow me access to truth that I will never be able to achieve with my own mind let me give an example of two classic works both have and had and still have a tremendous impact on Jewish life and they really Harbor opposite views one is the view of the SA and one is the view of the was written in the 13th century in the 1200s the man who wrote it did not write his name he wrote that he lives in Barcelona in Spain it's assumed that it's Hali from Barcelona although he doesn't write his name and it's called was the major comprehensive Encyclopedia of all 630 Mitzvah of the a description of the Mitzvah the reason for it a brief description of its laws of its condition and of its message this was a unique contribution to the book of Education 1200 one of the 1200s he writes the sa and he gives he presents a beautiful troduction to is something worth reading and study and in this introduction he says that for Jews yish is not blind at all if it would have been based on famous argument of the of the r of the Kari that if yish kite was based on Miracles if it was based on mha being a charismatic figure we'll never know if it's true and that's why all other religions are based on the fact that one person or a few people claim that they heard God speak and then everybody chooses to believe them he says could have ended up like that like any other religion says God spoke to me the only way to make it real had to be through Mass Revelation and you have no other religion that could claim that millions of people experienced it and part of the experience was a commandment to pass it on to their children and to live their whole life by it 630 Mitzvah and he says therefore Jews did not doubt it now he says we didn't live that we didn't live through that experience we have parents and great parents and great great grandparents but the says I have a question and I use his metaphor he says if there's a spring of water and it's a wonderful spring a flowing spring of water and you're thirsty and you want to go drink it and there are 600,000 people who stand there and tell you don't drink it we have drunk we we we consume this water we'll tell you the consequences don't drink it it will have dire consequences it looks fresh but it's poisonous and there's one doctor and the doctor says from my understanding and from my expertise in water this is perfectly fine to drink says who you going to accept rationally who you going to accept you going to accept 600,000 people who said they experimented with the water or you going to expect this one man who may be brilliant and logical he says you know what the rational idea here is he says the world is complicated he says who understands the world he says we don't even understand one blade of grass till today they don't even understand the depth of one blade of grass what's in one blade of grass he says the wisdom in trees in plants in bushes in insects the depth of organisms this he writing in the 1200s he says we can't even figure out the the the the the secrets and herbs and so many different herbs and these are just herbs so we see that the mind is so limited on understanding the secrets of the universe he says but what the to articulates gives you access to truth that the mind will never be able to fully comprehend and access and the Turner was authenticated because of M therefore it's much Superior and beneficial for Jews to follow the m to follow the tradition Comes The Who Liv 200 years before wrote one of the most fundamental works of Jewish ethics and Jewish philosophy duties of the heart and argues and he says it's a to investigate it's a Mitzvah to [Applause] inquire the says you have to know not believe know the god of your father and then you could serve him know Hashem and then you could get inspired by him and he brings he says it's a Mitzvah it's a Mitzvah to put on it's a Mitzvah to keep shabas it's a Mitzvah to use your mind and figure out how the world proves God's existence figure out the truth of he says this is a mitvah if you can't you can't but he says this is the way to do it this is what argues sh beautifully explains the in the we say it every morning in this is my God and I will beautify him the god of my father and I will exalt him so the shal said it's talking about two different experiences ofish one is this is my God how can you call it my God it's a God the awareness in which I developed through my own work through my own toil intellectually and emotionally then there's AI I'm convinced that this God exists but why because my father my grandfather my great-grandfather all the way back to the generation that experienced Mount sa says the shal what's the difference he says if it's my he says a combination of two words me and him are one because I own him so to speak he's mine I got him it's the god of my father he remains he remains aloof Sublime exalted above me it's not two streams two two two two perspectives comes the r the r lived after could have lived in the 10 hunds was born around 1050 the r lived in the 1100s century after Century before the r passed away 1205 the r says he opens up his Magnum what are the opening words of the ra anybody remembers the foundation of all foundations and the pillar of all wisdom is the first two of RA to know that there is a primary first existence who brings all of existence into being and everything in existence from Heaven to Earth and between only emerg from the truth of his existence the ra doesn't say any other word but L and he finishes off knowing this is a because the says which according to him means and actually the source of this is It's a Mitzvah has another also enyclopedia of the called that was written in Arabic and most translations the first Mitzvah is the to believe to believe there is a God but in his he says and I believe in a recent translation by Kapak of Yemen who was a big expert in Arabic and retranslated rambam's works from the old middle the old translations by theb family I believe he also says in it's about knowledge not faith in other words the ramb believes you have to know knowledge can only happen if you investigate I'm giving you an example of a few people but if you'll go through the generations you'll see there were thinkers on each side you'll have from the 900s you'll have the you'll have the r you'll have thez you'll have R you have the author of you have the arel you'll have they emphasize the Mitzvah to no and then you'll have the you'll have in the Kari from Spain also the 1100s and he'll say what you receive through the mess is far superior far more beneficial and this will continue have a famous who attacks the path of relatively who attacks that other path and feels again the tradition the tradition is great it is always much better is much better say I'm not going to get into it at the moment but there is a who says something and a generation later the Mir said a similar Tyra that this was a debate who were the first ones to have this debate they claim this was a debate between and the says in that made an oath with his son-in-law what was the oath Ben the child who's born first you give up for a and mosa agrees and that's why mosha had a problem with this boy his name was G not elzar gam this boy had to give up for idolatry and everybody asks MOA agreed for a imagine somebody makes a with your son and says one one condition you have to eat pork every night for dinner you say no for you give up on and who gave up go find another go find another one it's very difficult to understand so the brilliantly says we don't know where to put the Kama everybody reads the wrong we read the the boy who's born first goes to says wrong reading the boy who was born first I'm going to teach him what's out there on the other side so then he'll be able to appreciate y he shouldn't be able to say his whole life the grass is greener on the other side you want to see the other side I'll show you the other side he says like me nobody appreciates Judaism like me you know why nobody could say I was brainwashed nobody could say I was given the Kool-Aid nobody could say I grew up in a FR household I didn't grow up in any what does Rashi say only could say God is greater than every other God because spent years in India and Tibet in New Zealand in South America in the East and the West he searched everything he knew everything M said I don't want this I don't need this again a very fascinating argument but Misha consents with the First with the first boy it's not exactly the same argument it's much more subtle it's on a different angle I'm just on a general level it could be connected so we have two streams I want to read to you a teaching of the B which sums it up it's in inv I'm going to put it in the source sheets that will be posted together with the video on the yeshiva.net together with the video on the yeshiva.net you will have the source sheet where you're going to have the quotes of all these sources that I mentioned and other sources I'm going to read it inside why do we say ining always Our God and the god of our fathers there are two types of people who believe in the first category is the first is somebody who believes inem because He follows in the pathway of his fathers and his mothers all the way back to the first generation of the Jewish people who stood at Mount Si and together with this his am his faith is strong and it's powerful because who he truly appreciates the fact that they did not sell him the Brooklyn Bridge they communicated to him the truth is the second category is somebody who reaches an acceptance of the Jewish religion based on his own research and investigation says the difference between them is the first category even if you will ask ask him different questions you won't derail him from his why because he truly accepts the truth because of the tradition and for him the tradition equals authenticity and therefore even though there are things that you can question and ask different problems it will still not take away his am even though there's a question plus he doesn't even go into investigations so may not even have any questions but there's a problem this type of faith is routine it's habit it doesn't have the depth that comes with intellect with reasoning he doesn't own it the second type has a great Advantage the second person who recognizes Hashem because of the depth of his investigation his f faith is powerful and there is complete love there is complete dedication There's real appreciation I love it I really get it there is a disadvantage because you can also dissuade him if you bring him strong proofs that demonstrate to him that his thinking was flawed and his rationale was mistaken he loses his somebody who has both there is nothing greater than this he relies on the tradition of his fathers with firmness plus he uses his own resources in his own heart and his own mind to investigate this isome and that's why in our and our prayers and our blessings we say our God and the God of our fathers what's the difference elu means our God the god that is ours the god that is mine the God that I so to speak discovered through my own process through my own journey through my own mind through my own experience through my own heart and then there's ALU the god that my father my grandfather my great grandmother all the way back to sin and before discovered and they passed it on generation to generation so here we have the two streams in Jewish history some said you could rely on some said no you need to have a also even those who said you could rely on of course understood the advantage in having a the argument is is it a that you have to go search or not but as the teaches us it's always great to haveu say sometimes people don't have the mental space sometimes people don't have the intellectual capacity sometimes people don't feel they need it sometime people are not in that zone but there is a unique Advantage both in but let's remember one common denominator and that is don't confuse either path with senseless Faith with Blind Faith with faith that is based on me shutting my eyes and saying I don't see the truth but I believe anyway if somebody comes and tells me if my father comes to me and tells me you have to believe that the Earth is flat and my mother comes and tells me I have to believe that the Moon Rises during the day and sets in the evening and then the sun rises in the evening and sets in the morning you have to believe it and I say okay I believe it I believe it that's not amuna that's foolishness that's senseless prove it to me explain it to me why when we speak about the based on tradition based on based on it's not about senselessness it's about appreciating that there is imperical evidence there's a truth to my even though I haven't seen it with my own eyes or I don't remember it now you'll ask me prove it how can you reach that you're believing your father and all religions believe their fathers and their mothers that they saw that's a great question that's what the said says it's about Mass Revelation and we're going to be exploring this particular question with God's grace in class number six class number seven class number eight we're going to be exploring it class number 11 we're going to get there this is a very heavy subject in other words why is that logical why is believing tradition logical isn't tradition another form of Blind Faith it's because I like my grandmother's canade L I like her chicken soup I like her crep what what's the proof maybe they just fabricated it they said we stood at sin we saw God every religion says that somebody saw God and you believe tradition why is tradition any more than Blind Faith great question has to be discussed but for them those Jews who saw it and those Jews who passed it on and the children who accepted it they accepted it as real truth why we're going to discuss but they accepted it as real truth but that's not my own investigation that's not my own research there's a and there is to say says in fact the word doesn't mean belief doesn't mean faith it means certainty amuna means I trust the word imun means trust confidence IM faithfulness I trust trust it I know something with certainty how do you know something with certainty to the best of your ability you could know it in two different ways either because somebody told you it's snowing outside and you know for sure that he's not lying maybe a thousand people came in and said it's snowing you trust that they're not lying so you know it's snowing outside even though you're not outside and there's no window for you to see you know it's snowing outside and sometimes you went outside yourself and you saw that it's snowing in both of the cases you're convinced for sure that it's snowing but it's different paths there is another element to Amun that we're going to get to at the end of the class and even more in the next week's class in the next in the next series on amuna class number two another level of what auna means that doesn't have to do with these two paths it's a different dimension of auna we'll soon get to that again at the end of this class and the next class but here we're talking about the two streams of but there's something else that we now have to understand and it's a critical component as we introduce a series on the basics of aun let's go one step further this entire argument has very little relevance to the questions that I received in my email and to questions that I and many others receive every day and questions that we all deal with personally or collectively that we speak about or we don't speak about and questions generally that come up today and I'll tell you why these two streams these two shits these two views in yish are all predicated on one premise and that is you don't have a question you don't have a question a Jewish boy a Jewish girl goes up in a Jewish Home they believe their parents they believe there's authenticity here they they believe this truth one view says your parents are great people but you got to go figure it out on your own another view says no follow the Messiah that's a legitimate and deep argument in Jewish history but what if somebody has questions what if somebody comes and says I don't know this doesn't make sense to me I have too many difficulties with this I can't accept it there's no view in Judaism that I know of authentic view in Jewish tradition that says that you have to look at this boy or girl and say you're a shagets you're not let ask questions you're not let ask questions and the reason is very simple if somebody comes to me and asks me a question and my only response to him is what we don't ask by us we don't ask questions we believe we have a tradition we don't ask questions I have a question did we eliminate his question you're 19 years old you're 16 years old you're 9 years old you're 29 years old you're 42 years old and you come to your father your mother your re rash your teacher your mentor and you say I have this and this question and all he can tell you is Jews don't ask it's disgusting to ask such a question it's horrible to ask such a question how dare you ask such a question how did I end up with such a child how did I end up with such a student I have to go check my and my misas and find out maybe I'm not Jewish how did I end up with such a person how do we don't ask such questions great beautiful M sounds great I want to know one thing did you get rid of the question does this boy say ah tati now I get get it it's wonderful I have no questions anymore and now the faith starts burning in his soul did you ever see one experience like that did you ever see that happen even once the boy who comes to me and says as it happened if I would have grown up in a different community in a secular home or in another religion and they would have told me all the stories that they have and they would told me God wants that you have to do do this on Friday and God wants this and if not they also have a I'm also going to burn and when I say can you prove that anybody ever come back and they'll say for that you're going to burn even more and I say did anybody tell you about that fire oh you don't know what type of Gom you're going to have and the boy comes to me and he says now I'm an adult and the fear doesn't speak to me anymore and telling me that I'm going to end up in pots with hot water and I'm going to have to put my child into a pot of hot water as they teach in some places doesn't speak to me anymore it's all brainwashing and all I could tell this child is we don't ask questions by us this is what enlightened people do this is what masum do this is what Gentiles do this is what go do this is not what Jews do does he go away feeling ah now I'm satisfied now I can embrace Judaism with enthusiasm or maybe maybe my dear friends it's actually the other way around and I'm going to quote what a boy once told me yes once told me he says when I came to my father the first time with my questions 50% I thought he doesn't have an answer 50% I thought he has an answer I wasn't sure when he told me we don't ask such questions never ask such questions now I became convinced 100% that he doesn't have an answer not only did I not eliminate the question I confirmed it I enforced it you're trying to strengthen his amuna all you did was show him that this faith is fule it's irrational let's understand especially how relevant it's in this generation we live in a generation and people can argue theories from today till tomorrow but if you speak to people we live in a generation that if a young man or a young woman comes with real questions and all I can tell them is we don't speak like this we don't ask get out of my office get out of my room or stop it or just get it out of your mind all I could say is we don't ask questions [Applause] smarter than you everybody was smarter than you who do you think you are a little boy of your little chick who didn't open your eyes yet you say father I may be a chick but I have a question sometimes chicks have questions sometimes you ask questions with closed eyes and AR generation you tell me what does that demonstrate to him that Judaism is a real religion or not a real religion does it tell him that yish has a strong basis or it says that the whole yish H fist it's it's a limping Judaism remember we cannot choose today to answer or not to answer you know why if you don't answer you're also giving an answer I never saw somebody not answer and not give an answer by not answering you're giving a very powerful answer and the answer that you're giving from the perspective of the questionnaire is you know what that means you want to translate all of Judaism stands on uh chicken legs in other words I don't have what to say I don't have what to say and I don't have a problem with people not knowing answers wise people are ignorant wise people are everyone is ignorant but wise people acknowledge ignorance I don't have a problem with not having an answer I have a problem with delegitimizing a person's question cuz I don't have an answer mocking the person disrespecting the person insulting the person chastising the person for no reason I could say interesting question let me call somebody let me research it why don't you speak to PL plan no problem but why you screaming at him you think you're not answering him of course you're answering him you're answering him that you have no answer besides confirming his doubts you also make him believe that he's a nobody that he's a horrible person that's a second evil we take intelligent kids who are searching for the truth and what's the price for searching for the truth you get knocked down and you made to feel that you are a horrible horrible person so it's a fascinating thing if I'm a child who doesn't search for the truth then my self-esteem gets built up the child who's inquisitive the young person who's really searching for EMS and struggling with it these are the people who get put down when they should be the ones who are celebrated who are embraced they're wonderful deep Souls now if somebody doesn't have a question fine if somebody doesn't have a question great there's no Mitzvah to go and inv vent every question that was ever asked and plant them in people's minds but if somebody is struggling with a question emotionally intellectually experientially psychologically spiritually scholastically how can I not address it how can I reject it a boy came to me he was aiva here in man a young boy 14 15 years old very very wise kid very very intelligent I said why do you come to me he says I'll tell you he was in a particular school and he had a certain question a very interesting question about Jews being the chosen people one of those questions and he asked his teacher in class and the teacher said Jews don't ask such questions so he went to another five staff members in the school there's somebody sitting in this room who can authenticate every detail of the story he went to five staff of that school each one of them either said we don't ask these questions two of them denigrated him for asking the question nobody can address it so he says at that point I came home I told my father this place is not teaching an iota of Truth why should I sit here I'm done I'm done so his father said I want you to speak to one more person he says another a seventh Rabbi who's going to mock me he says that's why I'm in your office that's why I'm in your office so of course I said the first thing is let me give you a hug and that was probably 40% of the answer and then I said you know it's a wonderful question and just just the the dignity to say It's a Wonderful question it was so meaningful not that it provided an answer but it was the basic dignity a kid is searching for an answer why am I mocking him and I want to tell you about an interesting where you'll see this point brought out a very interesting debate between two great actually cidic Masters there was a Jew some of you know his Works he was known in his time as S one of the greatest of the day of Zid he lived in Zid which is in Poland in Gala and uh he was born in 1763 that's 3 years after the B passed away and he passed away 1831 he has a saer called in it he attacks very heavily attacks he takes on very very heavily the ra and the when the writes in his introduction that it's a mitvah to investigate if there's a God and what type of reality is this God the says this is of course centuries later he says how dear us write this he said he is committing the same sin like the Jews when they came out of Egypt in B and they asked one question is God Among Us or not you so what do you mean if he's among you or not he took you out of MIT he split the sea he gave you to he nurtures you he Embraces you it's before the giving the to he did everything for you and suddenly you look at him says a Jew has to start asking is there a god what is this God how can you prove it and he goes on pages Pages very deeply hurt by this approach on the book there are famous footnotes of the they're known as was another great Master a contemporary of shapo of which is also in Poland and Galia he was born in 1783 passed away right right okay writes com footnotes on the and listen to his comment now you have to know the anybody who knows the works knows how much he criticizes the philosophers especially in his generation with AOL the enlightenment took such deep it became so inen Jewish life speaks about beyond beyond your own investigation but when the is so upset at the for their approach says and I quote a line he says is speaking from the dep of his heart because of the deep faith and craving he had for God but he said I don't understand him the Jews who left MIT they saw they saw it happened when they say oh it's a sin he says but today we don't see we don't have that experience he says somebody who wants to love God he wants a relationship with God but he can't and therefore he says I have to go ask questions he says how could you call this a sin and then the what what did also Imagine comes to imagine yeah he says what do we believe in says we believe you see this nice G here you want a good you to him says could you prove it it seems to me like a piece of granite an expensive piece of granite T says prove it Amun says what Amun prove it I have a tradition my father was in this business my Z this is how we pay tuition this is how we pay for the mortgage this is how we send you to college this is how we pay off the mortgage what do you mean this is how we do it a says I'm looking for truth I'm not looking to pay the mortgage I'm looking for truth t says I like no and Har no and Har are good kids andu would have accepted this thank godu said I don't believe stupidity I don't believe stupidity and he takes a hammer and he crashes crushes stupidity both conceptually and physically so he say of course he has to investigate investigated he wasn't he didn't have a he didn't have that what is he supposed to do if would have told him Aus and would say okay I'm not going to ask any more questions there would be no Jew in the world there would be no Judaism in the world true philosophy confused many many people knows that but he says how can you attack a person who's investigating because he asked questions again if there's no questions great now understand even if there's no questions there's still the sh of ask even so not because the had doubts he said just like has wants you to shake to put Onin to eat mat on P he wants you to know him others had different approaches that's even if there's no question but if there's a question what do you want from the person what are you going to tell him don't ask what did you do you convinced him that way he gave him auna that way I want to illustrate the debate between these two people the Z the both from the very very World very heavy world of nister the very inspired world of n of cab I want to illustrate it okay you come to your son your 21y old son and you say Yan it's time to go to the you light the candles you take him under his arm and you start going to the and on the way Yankee turns to you to his father and he says one second can we prove that you're my father could you please bring me your I want to see your so you bring your he says no I'm not sure you're my father let's do a DNA test so you're under the you say I'm not sure as my father let's stop this let's go test DNA let's see if there's a match you look at your son and you say are you crazy for 21 years I held you I supported you I fed you I nurtured you I protected you I loved you everything you have I gave you I paid now for this stal for this be I'm supporting you for the next eight and a half years in K I bought you a house I paid for this whole wedding $95,000 I'm going to be in debt for8 years why did I do it cuz I'm not your father with this audacity that you need DNA to prove that I'm your father yeah that that's what the is feeling that's what he sees God he's having vas with God and you're telling me so according to the Big Bang God a little DNA bring me your is alarmed he feels it he experience it but responds second you see you see how sophisticated people argue he says of course he speaks like this but now I have a question what if a child is adopted what if a boy is adopted and a man walks in and says I'm your father what does he say yeah yeah you're my father come take me to the K let's go do a DNA test so the says what do you want people are experiencing God people are seeing God this generation saw God this generation saw awz people have questions what are you going to mock them you're going to denigrate them address them yeah some of them need explanation they need to understand they need perspective if they don't have questions great but if yes this is what the B is responding thus it's clear that the idea that uh Judaism is based on not thinking on thinking it may be a lie but you know what I just say it's true this is absolutely ridiculous it's ludicrous somebody told me today that he was at a Tish by the Clen the Clen says at the Tish a story I guess an anecdote there was an old Jew who was on his death bed and he turns to his family and he says before I go I have to do something and he goes the says this at his Tish he goes and in the basement he finds a Sal cross on he starts uh Crossing himself you what are you doing he says listen I'm about to die and you never know what if I come there and I find out that they were right he says okay the clil was bringing something out he says that's what some people think a is okay I happened to grow up here and if I grow up there it would have been different now let's understand there's something even fundamentally very deeply flawed about this and that is this is such an embarrassment and an igration to Judaism somebody who fundamentally believes that the only way we can deal with questions is by laughing from them or mocking them it's a disgrace to yish here is the rule fear of questions often comes from a lack of confidence when you don't have answers you're afraid of questions when you have answers you're not afraid of questions Judaism was never ever afraid of questions the reason wasn't afraid of questions is because its basis is based on truth and truth is never afraid of questions even the view that says you don't need a research if you don't have questions you could just trust them mess sayah it's not that they're ever afraid of questions is they say you don't need it and you'll reach into a deeper place never coming out of fear aru wasn't afraid of questions aru broke all that slum him of his day that is the definition of a Jew he doesn't believe in Idols he doesn't believe in things cuz that's the status quo cuz it's easy he looks for truth and only truth wasn't afraid of questions the definition of a Jew is he breaks all the idols he wants to know what is truth that's what he's looking for he's not looking for what is comfortable and what his father says is comfortable what his mother says is comfortable he's looking for EMS and he's not afraid to find that truth to discover that truth and to explore that truth nobody was afraid of questions throughout all of Jewish history not not not not not not not not not none of them were afraid of questions why were they not afraid of questions they were not afraid of questions because truth is never fearful of questions even if it doesn't always believe that everyone has to engage it and everybody needs to ask these questions somebody asked me once a question in the middle of a sheer said are you an occult they asked me if I'm an occult so I said uh it reminded me once in Yeshiva somebody came over to me and said as an outsider what is your opinion of the human race so I told him judging on you terrible I said you're asking me if I'm an occult that presupposes that you're not an occult so you have the Liberty to ask me he says forget about me I want to know if you think you're an ult I say here here's the deal if I'm really an ult you don't think I would know that I'm an ult people who are in Cults usually don't acknowledge they're in Cults he says right but you're intelligent at least to understand that so could you prove to me that you're not an occult so I said let's not talk about me let's talk about you for a moment it'll be easier so I could be a little more objective he says let's talk about me how do I know I'm not an occult I said I don't think so maybe you are an ults I can't say you're not an occult he says if I wasn't how do I know I said rule number one is to ask this question continuously people who are in Cults don't like these questions if you can ask this question and say how do I know I'm not an ult consistently you're probably not an ult but you have to be able to really confront the question and find out if you are or not but then I said I'll tell you the real answer I know people who are in Cults I've dealt with them quite uh not so infrequently the first rule they tell you when you join a cult is don't speak to people outside why because they're afraid that they're going to plant in you a question you won't be able to answer so they want to isolate you from anybody who doesn't agree with your view and if you ask questions they will not allow you to ask questions because what they want is they want to crush your intelligence and your creativity so you shouldn't ask questions so I said wherever you grow up in a system that the main messages never speak to people who don't look like you never have conversations with people who disagree with you never listen to an argument or a question and they never allow you to ask questions it's dangerous you should ask yourself if you're an a cult if Judaism would have ever done this I for one could not be here this is the worst sign this is the sign of the death of truth and the first Jew knew the prerequisite it for any discovery of truth is I don't have Idols I smash Idols I look for truth just because something is an idol and people worship it has nothing to do with EMS you know I once saw a ver from was a student of briser he was the r of grod in Lithuania passed away 1940 right before the war he was authored he writes something fascinating he said something fascinating the gor says in BR that the beginning of we identify as the god of how do we end the first blessing the shield of why not the shield of andov why did andov get deleted from the end of the blessing so the G says we learn that out from the that you begin daving with all the three of us at the end we conclude only with you with soim explained homolytically that and yov had very different experiences of Judaism had a father he was he could look up to yov had a father and a grandfather what about abah if he would look up to his father he would not be AB his father was a and his mother was the says conceived him while she was a had to own his Judaism he had to discover God on his own he couldn't say I learned from my father I learned from my Z throughout Jewish history there were different types of Jews there's the Jew of AR there's the Jew of there's the Jew of there's the Jew who discovers it on his own there's the Jew who discovers it based on his father there's the Jew who's inspired by a father and a z two generations he says at the end of Jewish history at the end of Galos you finish with a M A he says there's going to come a generation where Jews are going to go back to aam they're going to have to discover their own God they will not be able to rely on and live off the god of their father the god of their grandfather the god of their great great great grandfather as powerful as that is a generation that needs to find their own relationship we are experiencing that generation we are experiencing thousands and thousands of young men and women or middle-aged men and women or older men and women who are asking a lot of questions you know why because they want to have a real relationship ship with hem because they want y to be really meaningful instead of we seizing the opportunity and saying wow we have a what do we do we mock them we denigrate them we insult them some of us throw them out of our houses we alienate them we put them on meds stupidity they don't fit into my box so they need meds cuz they don't fit in exactly to my stigmas in my box I'm not talking if they really need meds I'm talking about meds because they have certain questions so they're not normal maybe they're normal maybe they're a little more honest they don't want to lie they don't want to repress this is a generation they want to find Hashem they want to have a real they want to have an experiential relationship a real relationship and sometimes that comes with a lot of searching a lot of scrutiny a lot of questions now you're going to ask me so how do you answer these questions how do you answer these questions now that's a good question that's a good question sometimes my answer has to be honest you know what I don't know great question I don't know let me think about it let me let's search together let's go to somebody let's read let's find out that's great sometimes I have to determine if the questions are may be coming from deep emotional pain let's understand if people have been abused by very religious rabis or teachers they will blame religion for their trauma and they will already find a lot of questions if you don't address the pain you're not addressing their questions sometimes people are skeptical and cynical just because they're afraid or just because they're looking for justifications I have to search what's happening and sometimes there are authentic questions that I really have to address so yes there are different approaches and different responses but the common denominator is when people have questions I can't ignore them and make believe they're just going to go away at last you're going to ask this very legitimate question so what is amuna what is Faith you just said there's no such a thing why do we call it a or simple faith and why did I learn in all the holy works that a moon is higher than SE it's higher than rationality and why does it say that the B said I want to be a fool and the says a fool who believes everything is what is happening according to what you said what's this concept ofer than what makes it higher than rationality what is this simple Faith so I'm I'm going to say this very briefly even though this needs elaboration and explanation doesn't mean simple Faith it's a very distorted translation in fact our definition of what we call a is an error it's an error and the source of this is in tan chapter 18 and 19 if you want more you have theup zes has Ackle on this and many other works especially in n the definition of a is something else a has nothing to do with being an idiot a has nothing to do with being blind a has nothing to do with being dumb and mo has nothing to do with closing your eyes and saying brainwash me please please just brainwash me nothing to do with a that's not a that's not higher than SE so what is a and is never afraid of questions and is never afraid of intellect amuna never competes with rationality amuna is this a Jewish soul is a a Jewish soul is a piece of hasem a fragment of God thus the soul has eyes that see the they experience intimately hashem's reality this is what means doesn't mean simple comes from the word divested it's anuna that does not need equations mathematics explanations rationality to prove that there is an existence of God there's a dimension of the human psyche called the that experiences Hashem like we experience reality with our five senses in other words is a sense it's the sixth sense of the Soul it's the perception it's the it's the ability of the soul the capacity of the soul that when cultivated allows the soul and us to experience Ultimate Reality it can be plugged just like I can plug my ears on the airplane not to hear noise I can put a I could blindfold my eyes not to see but Amun is an essential dimension of the soul that experiences Hashem in an immediate fashion that's what the Z was talking about you grew up with a father for 21 years you see him every day he was there for you through thick and thin and suddenly on the way to the you said prove to me that you're my father bring the really we experience life together not that DNA will miss this not that we're afraid of DNA I'm not afraid if I had once a son who tends to me proof to me that I'm not adopted it I said if you really want I could prove it I'm not afraid of it but of course it was a joke I mean he was in a mood whatever he didn't get ice cream so he decided he was adopted fine and doesn't compete with rationality it's not afraid of it doesn't run from it it's beyond it it's another dimension of experiencing I see it it experiences hem it's an immediate reality it's a whole different concept it's beyond SE it doesn't compete with it that's what AM means that's what a is nothing to do with I just believe it because you said it it doesn't make sense it's stupid I just say I believe if I would have grown up somewhere else I would have said the same thing that has nothing to do with him that has to do with intellectual laziness as I said you know the story yeah they say there was once a uh pavaroti the Great opera singer did a rendition of Psalm Chapter 30 23 the Lord is my shepherd I shall not want did a beautiful rendition and then oldw gets up and says can I do my rendition says sure and he starts doing his rendition of he doesn't know how to read he doesn't know how to pronounce doesn't know how to carry a tune but he he was a real Jew so he said it with his whole soul and people started to cry so they say at the end pavarti turned to him say I don't understand I did a magnificent job impeccable flawless nobody cried they applauded me but nobody cried you get up you did a horrible job on every level you get there was nothing right about what you but everybody was crying what's the difference I also did the Lord as my shepherd you did what's the difference he says pav I'll explain to you the difference you know the psalm but I know the Shepherd that makes the difference that means the T says in chapter 29 if a Jew comes to you and he says have that's a sentence that is irrational you never have in you have in you never have no Jew in history ever did or ever will have spus in amuna you can't have a doubt in amuna there's no is the experience of a it's the Oneness of a soul with God which is unconditional every single Jew no matter who he or she is no matter where they grow up no matter how much they know and how much they observe this is the essential Dynamic of the Soul it's the color of the soul I can't change the color of my eyes I can't change the color of my soul spus and I don't have I have confusions in my intellectual capacity to make peace between my rational identity and my am that's fine and therefore once one experiences amuna the role of say is never to be underestimated it serves a beautiful role and that is to allow the to permeate even my intellect to remove the blockages the partition that the intellect imposes on Amun that is the role of it but there's never a competition between them there's never a fight between them I want to conclude with a story that happened not long ago that I think illustrates this at least to some degree anti-Semitism has grown dramatically in Europe and recent years including in Hungary in unen where some of you uh can trace back your ancestry too your blessed ancestry too your mess your messir part of the anti-Semitism uh outbreak in Hungary is due to a very successful fascist anti-semitic political party called jaok that's the name of the party it's pronounced ja it's it's written jauk it's pronounced yabok and the leader of that party is a young Hungarian man his name is Chad zedi Chad zedi tall powerful brilliant Communicator handsome wise clever great oratory great oratory skills and a lot of Charisma and he became one of the leaders of this party a very young man and he really made it extremely popular and successful he also founded a paramilitary group fashioned based on the Nazi type of marches during the second world war and uh he and his party preach open anti-Semitism they blame the Jews on most of the problems in the world and of course all the problems in Hungary is the fault of the Jews and the gypsies if that makes you feel better is the Jews and the gypsies his party and his mouth spewed Jew hatred anti-Semitism horrible things about Israel and the Jewish people and uh dark Illusions and horrible humor about Jewish power the Jewish Obsession to take over the world this was Chad Jedi zedi he was the star of the party and a rising star in Hungary the party managed to get three seats in in the Parliament and he was one of the one of the members of the Hungarian Parliament and this continued until one day he made a discovery and it changed his life forever it was a cozy afternoon in April 2012 he went to visit his 92-year-old grandmother who lived in a suburb in hungry and he was smoing with his grandmother and out of the blue she rolled up her sleeve and she pointed to a number tattooed on her arm and she looked at him and she said let me tell you my story in 1945 I was a young Hungarian woman I was liberated from the hell of awz my mother died when I was a baby my aunt and uncle adopted me they were taken to aitz they were murdered our entire family was murdered to together with almost 1 million Hungarian Jews who were murdered in 1944 I survived the gas Chambers and I emerged from awit after The Liberation in 1945 starved emaciated I looked like a skeleton I was beaten I was crushed I had nobody in the world my trauma convinced me that to be Jewish was a serious liability if the Holocaust would happen again again the Jews would be targeted I married a a Jewish Survivor in a perfectly Orthodox wedding a Jewish religious halic wedding he was also an aitz shortly after the wedding we decided together why do we have to impose this liability on our children we will hide our jewishness forever we will never tell our children that they belong to the Jewish people we changed our last names to a perfect Hungarian non-jewish sounding name and we Comm aded that we would never reveal the secret to anybody that we are Jewish nobody knew us we were alone in the world all of our relatives were murdered by the Germans this wasn't difficult we started a new life we had a daughter her name is cathaline and our greatest nakas was when she came home with a perfectly handsome goodlooking Hungarian sheet and he Mar she married him and we looked at each other and we said success she married a regular Hungarian non-jew and in 1982 when you Chad were born to a Hungarian father and our daughter cathalene this for us meant that we could look away from our horrific dark past as a new chapter in our life ultimately took root we were regular Hungarian non-jews she looked at her grandson and she said so I want you to know that I'm Jewish your mother is Jewish and therefore you're also Jewish Now understand this wasn't just a challenge to his career to his accomplishments to his vocation to his future this was a shock to his very sense of self he was the anti-semite he was the Jew hater he was the one who explained to the world how horrible the Jews are and he is the Jew he is the Jew and he looked at his grandmother and he says why did we never see this number she said in the winter I always made sure that to wear sleeves and in the summer I would put plaster on it she didn't want to stand out I would put plaster on the numbers so nobody would be able to identify it and now suddenly his anti-Semitism his racism his fascism which is who he was or who he thought he was was now all delegitimized by this moment he made a call to his best friend and he told him what he just heard and what did his best friend tell him what would you tell your friend his best friend said the best thing that can happen to you right now is I take a gun and I shoot your brains out it's literally the biggest favor I can do for you at this moment in your life 32 32y old man because what are you supposed to do now you know what he did shedi did two things two things number one he went immediately to the party leaders and he broke the news to them that he's Jewish and he gave him his resignation they didn't want to accept his resignation they said it's good to have you because it's called the pope Jews we'll have token Jews so we could say we're not anti-semitic we even have Jew it's a great cover up he said no no way I'm done with you I'm Jewish you know what else he did he called up theab in Budapest RAB SCH koves who himself is a Bala from Budapest and he gets on the phone Rabbi koves answers the phone he says hi this is CH Jedi he's like what he says I'm a Jew and I want to become Jewish so imagine I would get a call from I don't know Malcolm X uh I would get a call from Lou Sharpton I don't know say Jacobson I'm Jewish could you could you can I come to look at the going to go to psychiatrist so this is like like a Neo like a Neo-Nazi a fascist calling up a that he's Jewish he wants to learn Judaism so he thought he's making a joke because that's what anti-semites do they like joking they like mocking so you hung up on him he insisted he called and he said I am not making jokes I am Jewish and finally he realized that this is real he says I want to meet you and he meets him and he sees this is the man and he tells him the story he says what am I supposed to do so he looks him in the eyes and he says listen Judaism believes in trva Judaism believes in return in Repentance you can transform your life now it's time to study to discover your roots and to create a new future for yourself but one more thing real chuva means not running away from the past but transforming the past so your chuva is going to be when you will seize the opportunity and use all of your influence to fight anti-Semitism in Hungary all everything you know about anti-Semitism and everything you did you need to transform by using your position your influence your sphere of influence and impact to change that this man at the age of 32 had a bris he had a circumcision he began learning to every single day with RAB SCH moves put on a Talis cotton he comes today three times a day to his SCH to DAV the first few weeks when the Jews came into the sh and they saw who standing there they threw him out of sh but after a few weeks they calm down and they accepted him one year after this uh discovery his grandmother dies she's 93 years old and he decides it's time to go to aitz he goes to aitz and he described it in an interview he said I was standing at the Criterium and suddenly he says I quote I burst out crying I break down I thought I'm standing by the gravide of my family the people I never knew I always claimed that the Holocaust was not bad the Jews made a big story they dramatized it and here I was standing at the gravite of all of my ancestors who were murdered here I want people to understand Jews anti-semites don't understand who Jews are they know nothing about Jews certainly he would know he was one of them his wife is now converting to yish according to all of his sons had a br they were circumcised and he embarked on a mission to talk to schools groups colleges anyone who will hear his story about the toxicity of anti-Semitism he tells them why at the age of 17 feeling empty pussed and empty he needed something to believe in and Jews were a great scapegoat and this is what he talks about that you will not create a good life for yourself by hating others they asked him what does your father feel about this remember his father is the real nonu he says my father thinks I'm crazy my father looked at me and said why in the world would you want to be Jewish why in the world who needs this and I told my father it's not about what I want it's about who I am besides it's not a curse it's a gift he says then I had to tell my father that I had a bris I had a circumcision I knew if I tell it to him regularly he would literally kill me so what did I do once we were on an airplane and as we were Landing our seat belts were fastened I turned to him and I said Daddy I had a circumcision I hope that for the next few minutes by the time the plane lands he would calm down and right then he was in a seat belt the plane was Landing he wouldn't be able to beat to beat the living day outside of me and I actually just read a few weeks ago somebody sent to me that he's planning now to move to move to the Holy Land here you have an example of what a is this did not come from a life of a person who was entrenched in in in in not only that he dedicated his life to fight it but you can't change the color of your soul your soul is essentially one with God and therefore it experiences it this is never afraid of intellect it transcends it have a wonderful week we'll see you next Thursday thank you last you said you wanted number one yeah yeah yeah yeah I got it begins yes yes yeah ah Shalom Al how are you thank you for coming I saw you all so two weeks ago when you came for the astronomy 5:30 in the morning thank you for coming thank you likewise thank you what a powerful story to wrap it up beautiful beautiful very powerful thank you very much I love thank you thank you thank you thank you I'm still stuck with that question what happened to the rabbis why why did it end which rabbis RAB saying that the p father saying oh I saw Miracles I saw Miracles where's the rabbis that we're finding nowadays with the Miracles what happened maybe you don't have such sad I don't know what what's the every generation as it's but B I'm just asking what happened that it's a good question n of generation has such the terrist that question Falls away 100% just thank you so much how am I getting to it the Moon is always there no matter what the moon is there sometimes I feel it sometimes I don't feel it but it's there I can't say my mother is not my mother my mother is my mother sometimes I feel it sometimes I don't there's always a relationship then time then I need to have the that's called I don't have to have it it's there so he's asking about the belief he's asking about the that's explain that there's no such a thing yeah right so what's Bel try to use the logic to get to experience uh the the the logic won't help you experience it the logic just removes the blockages of logic on them you understand the logic feeling if it's anyway something not logic then it's it's not neay in the logic I'm telling you DNA to prove that he's a father that's that's a great mother is it going to be a you want to bring DNA bring DNA I don't care you want to bring DNA bring DNA I know I'm your father I'm not afraid of question but this wouldn't help the feeling why you feel this it's going to be you're going to bring DNA oh now I love you now give me a hug it's going to be of something it's not a I'm not afraid of your sh DNA will also prove it if it's the truth it's the truth we proved without a doubt that this is a father yeah but but a true father and true Sonna it could be now that there DNA oh now I'm more convinced now there by me not anything for somebody else if I was adopted if I'm a yeah this is it I don't have anything else also just I would never like lamp shot like this the mus is very nice bring this musle you know that there was a father who took care of his son he was on his shoulder and the the the the the animal came from the front he put him in the back came from the back put him in the front and then the son says where's my father where's my father so that's when came yeah so the C comes to bite him you grew up with a father he saved your life a thousand times was flexed where's my father where's my father but if he didn't grow up with a father yeah say where's my do I have a father he wants a father that's why he's searching no that's why it was how come how this I've never seen a father that was so close to the son that before that's a good question that's a good how do they do ite that's that's that's a good question how do you understand all you can ask everybody ask huh so it's different one is the question is they wanted to know if is that's already a different he's really inside of me inside my I guess you need to come to the morning next to she could the St the question was if is the of or you can go say [Music] po it was was I wasn't even supposed to get I guess he said Arrow I want to thank also theor I was speaking to the teacher and she told me that at some point I was going to have to accept and even for this you have to I have to accept that my sh is just going to feel at some point right cuz that's not something like a logically understanding well there's two different dimensions there's Judaism that you can understand Maj was two major that's and doesn't need understanding is an experience of the Soul there's other things that like passed down to us so how do we know who to trust there that's about there's certain things that we get passed down from our teachers how do know which teach that you could investigate that you could use your mind there has to be one person that you could just believe everything that they say like like let's say but that itself you can investigate based on what like let's say the the person who wrote RAB so he said that that you shouldn't investigate and then if I just read that I wouldn't know the other that's why you came to the shear exactly but before I came to the she I would be believing that imag why Lear then I would have been believing the wrong thing that happens not okay so I'm not supposed to then I'm not going to then I can't trust anything because if I know that 40 you trust people who tell you that you can't trust them those are the people you trust that tell you you can't trust them yeah the people that tell you you can't trust them those are the people you trust trust me you no in other words no I'm serious people who tell you research see if I'm right but you told me that um I must be fighting something and that's why I'm not tough saying so what am I supposed to say that like but she's but she's she's a very nice person she's not I'm not stories that you were telling on I'm not saying I'm just saying so I shouldn't be shutting down my thinking and I should be of course not never thinking never shut down thinking what are you makes sense she's saying that at some point you're going have to accept accept what have to accept that going to feel that I can't that you don't accept that's an experience you don't have to accept it if you're accepting it it's not AA you're trained to think in an old way so you didn't get this Shear fully you have to listen to it again we have to show these notes that teacher huh we have to show these notes that you heard what I said what I said to now you didn't understand you're still learning a moon in the old way you want to know how this fits inma you're saying this contradicts the sheer now let me explain to you you hear the question the Jewish tradition says we will do and then we will hear then we will understand now first you have to do before you understand that means first you have to do even though you don't understand anything right that's your question when did the Jew say nasma when did the Jew say nasma when when they stood at Mount Si why did they say if somebody would have come over to them and said we're giving you 63 I'm giving you 63 Commandments accept it why we don't ask just say yeah and you accept it if somebody comes over to you in the street and says I'm giving you a diet an exercise 613 exercises a day and you say yeah it's foolish the Jews said nishma after The Exodus of Egypt after the 10 plagues after the splitting of the sea after the Mana after The Well of Miram after the Clouds Of Glory they understood there's a God God liberated them from Egypt Hashem said I want to give you a t they said we don't have to see we trust you means there's a recognition of hm's presence of hashem's reality it's not just Blind Faith the Earth is flat okay the Earth is flat let me I'll give you an example let's say I mean we have to have a sheer on this but I'll give you a short example let's say I'm not feeling well okay I go to the doctor I have a doctor I go to him for years gives me a prescription I don't know what it says in the prescription I also never went to medical school I don't understand exactly how this medicine is going to help my illness will I do it yeah why I trust the doctor am I stupid for trusting the doctor no he's helped me in the past he has a good reputation everyone says he's a good doctor he has a license he graduated he's had a practice thousands of people come see him it makes sense for me to trust the doctor but if somebody meets me in the street and says oh you're going to the doctor I say oh you don't have to go to the doctor I'll give you a prescription destion and this is exactly what you should do I have to be stupid to follow him means I don't have to understand the meaning behind every Mitzvah before I do it but I have to appreciate the fact that it's coming from a place of truth from ultimate truth and it's here for my benefit doesn't mean it's blind and it's stupid the Jews saw they so they said ah if this is who we're having a relationship with I'm in I don't have to know you're going to tell me I trust you but the trust was based on a deep recognition dud does it mean I should understand I should understand but that's after Nas nasma there's another point I want to say you get it you get what I'm saying there has to be a basic recognition it's not just blind blind it doesn't make sense I told you to do it who's are who are you tell me who you are the word Cabas oil comes with the word Malay accepting the Yoke of the kingdom of of Heaven you have to appreciate God created you he loves you unconditionally he's crazy about you he wants your greatest good and this is the Yoke he gives you to actualize yourself more about this in future classes I just want to say another point if somebody gets very sick they go to the doctor the doctor gives them a medicine they say I'm not going to take this medicine until I do not research first how it works why it works doctor says no problem go for 12 years to medical school and figure it out there's only one issue they may die before you have to be in a state where you're healthy enough to be able to research and study biology and study medicine it's a good thing to figure out how this prescription will help you but don't wait until you're complet don't wait on until you figure it out completely to take the medicine you know why because you want to be able to be healthy enough that there will be somebody who can research the value of the medicine let's understand this a Jew may have questions on Judaism should he say I'm stopping everything when I figure it out then I'm going to start that's not a wise approach you know why to figure out truth you have to be healthy to figure out truth you have to have a lucid mind to figure out truth you have to have a healthy soul to figure out truth you have to be in a state of peace and serenity not anxious and not full of hate and not full of anger are part of the diet for a Jewish Soul if I'm not eating and I'm not drinking and I'm not taking the vitamins my body desperately needs and I say when I figure out why I should eat and why I should drink and how that benefits my body and why I take the vitamins then I'm going to start the problem is I'm going to starve to death or I'll become so emaciated I won't have energy to think and to figure out how food helps me or how medicine helps me how vitamins help me eat and drink and do your research and then you'll see terz are part of the diet of a Jewish Soul as we will explore in future classes class number four to put that on hold and say I'm not going to touch it I'm not going to do it when I figure everything out then I'm going to start why starve your soul it's great to ask and it's great to understand and you should pursue understanding and your mind should remain open truth is not afraid of questions truth is not afraid of questions but don't become emaciated in the process yeah it's a great question it's a good question this young man is asking very good question you're asking if a 17-year-old tells his father and mother I don't know what's true maybe you brainwashed me maybe you didn't let me let go of Judaism I'm going to go explore and uh I'll come back maybe I'll come back maybe I won't come back shouldn't the parents encourage it I don't know if you're asking a personal question or a hypothetical question you're assuming the 17-year-old is asking his parents advice he's not doing it on his own okay if he's doing it on his own he's doing it on his own he's asking his parents advice what should be their advice I'll give you an example okay if I have a child who grew up and when he was a baby he had a terrible alert IC reaction to peanuts and de so I took him to a doctor another doctor a third doctor common conviction of all of them was he's allergic to peanuts and dairy as he grew up I took him to nutritionists to professionals who examined his body makeup his composition his chemical makeup his blood type etc etc and they came to a conclusion that deir and peanuts must be off limits to him for him to be able to be healthy live functional have a good blood flow a great adrenaline and to be able to feel healthy and to be able to function in an optimal level when he gets a little older this pizza shabas and ice cream and he can't have either cuz it's Dairy plus there's a wonderful cake with peacon pie great peanuts peanut cake with peanuts and mommy says I'm so sorry you can't have this he says who says and they explain to him he says I don't know how do I trust him you know what let me go explore I want to go explore I'm going to eat I'll have an allergic reaction maybe I'll get sick I'll figure it out I have to be convinced I can't rely on your testimony I can't rely on a doctor and a nutritionist they say you could go look at the records no I want to feel that it's my decision if you were his parents what would you tell him would you encourage him to go eat peanuts and or not would you encourage him go what's the what do you think is the right thing of open-minded Progressive rational loving parents to do what do what would you do ah you're right if the parents themselves feel brainwashed yes but what if the parents don't feel brainwashed we saw his allergic reaction we took them to doctors they're convinced that this is the right thing even if they didn't go to medical school they're not brainwashing their child they love their child if the child doesn't listen he doesn't listen you get what I'm saying Jews didn't accept because they were brainwashed they saw the allergic reaction they heard this from a father and mother who loved them millions of Jews heard this from fathers and mothers who L them not this was not blind faith did all of them experience themselves no now a child could say I don't trust I don't believe I'm going to investigate I'm going to try everything I'm going to start from scratch people do that but don't claim that the parents are abusive and oppressive and stupid and dogmatic just because they're telling the child I don't think you should experiment with eating peanuts and dairy I think you should stay off these things and while you stay off research research learn about peanuts learn about Dairy learn about milk learn about cheese learn about your body learn about it look what you'll come up with I think that's a much more uh sensitive and sensible approach no this class is brought to you by the yeshiva.net please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at ww.the usa.net donate