CHAZAQ event with Rabbi Fischel Schachter on "Improving Ourselves in a Deteriorating World"

Don't listen to the radio. You hear the traffic here and there. And there's this ongoing report the entire day that the state department is issuing this tremendous terrorist warning and everyone should be vigilant and be careful. Some thinking as like driving across the George Washington Bridge. What exactly should I be careful of? Why? Why? Why? Why are they doing this and again and again and again? And then the news analysts are all being the dish. Is there political incentive over here? Is it real? Is it not real? In the course of our lives, we also sometimes get little warnings. And we wonder like what does theam want from me? Why am I being frightened about a certain thing? but I'm not exactly sure how to respond to it. Let me give you an example. Friend of mine was on a flight from New York to Montreal last week. Now, you would think New York to Montreal that's not like, you know, flying to Australia. It's a 45minute flight. What could go wrong? By the time you get up, you start coming down. Well, on this 45minute flight and the uh airline that flies this is uh they fly smaller planes, little planes and I've taken that flight many times. I was once on that flight. It was me and another person. You're the only ones on the flight and the flight crew. And this other person was sitting next to me. He was rather a big guy. Then the stewardist came over to me and asked if I mind sitting on the other side so that the plane is balanced out. And uh that made me a little nervous. I said, "You mean it has to be balanced?" And I'm saying, you know, I could just see it now. You know, plane comes crashing down because I had an extra piece of kjavis like I don't know that was like it's this little thing, you know, it's not like this big plane. So anyway, so this flight, you know, they say from Abramski was a very big go and he asked the following question. He said, "Why is item should protect us? The person needs an operation." So we find out, we do tremendous research as to who the surgeon is that we're looking for that we pick. We're going to ask many people about his reputation and how many years is he doing it and it's going to be a very labored and difficult decision. And then you pick the surgeon and that surgeon is not available and you try with pretexia to get in. You know when you book a flight on a plane, your life is in the hands of that pilot, in the skills of that pilot, not any less than a person on the operating table in the hands of the surgeon. If either one of these people, either the pilot or the surgeon is not 100% uh attuned and focused and has the skills, so your life is in danger. Did you ever hear someone call up a travel agent and say, "Can you book me a flight to Toronto, but I want to know who the pilot is? How many years experience does he have? You know, what what are his uh we we never do that. We go after the cheapest ticket. What's the difference? S Kas said there's a very simple difference. The pilot is on the plane himself. So we know he's going to use his skills. The surgeon, you know, has to be that over the years he didn't lose it a little bit about what the responsibility and what the acayas. So, this friend of mine is on this flight to Montreal last week and all of a sudden there is smoke coming out of the someplace in the cabin and panic breaks out on this flight. There's all of 39 people on the plane. It's a full flag. And someone gets up and he says he's going to find the terrorist because he thought somebody was lighting a bomb. And they weren't the people were more frightened of this person finding the terrorist than they were of the uh he was just going mad. And people were screaming and yelling and the smoke was becoming more and more intense to the point where it was almost difficult to breathe. And no announcement was forthcoming from the two pilots. And suddenly the pilot said, "Listen, we're making an emergency landing. Make sure that your seat belts are tight." And uh the way this person described it to me, he's in a pretty experienced flyer that is in the seat, not in the pilot seat. But he never had such a landing. The plane literally swooped down almost like a rocket ship. And uh that pilot Barak Hashem seems to have been very skilled because this smoking jet made an emergency landing in the Albany airport. And the fact that there was a big cabal ponim of fire engines and ambulances didn't do much to rest their nerves. But the plane came to a bumpy but safe landing and they opened up the shoots and everyone went out and the crew ran in and took out those that didn't have the kayak who were too dazed to jump and barm the fire engines put out the fire before anybody was hurt. So the people are standing out there and they didn't realize smoke but soon word came came out that there actually was an electrical fire in the cockpit. In other words, the the cockpit was burning. So, they didn't really know how great the Sakana was, that this was really a very very skillful landing. And I'm sure there's going to be much written about it and studied and investigated in the aviating circles. So, this friend of mine told I heard this from him. He said he went over to the pilot. He said, "I want to thank you for two things." He says, "I want to thank you for making such a safe, daring, safe landing." So the pilot said, "Well, I had no choice. I was on the plane too, right? So you really really have no you don't have to thank me for that." So he said, "I realize that." Well, we still owe even though you did it for yourself, you're doing it for someone else. That's okay. It's all right. My father used to tell me the story of a man who had a very big house and once came to the balhata. The Balatanya praised him for what he's doing. So many people that are hungry are getting food. So he said he burst into tears. He says but I'm doing it for my own honor. He said I don't mean it seriously. So the Reb told him fear not because the people that are eating are eating seriously. So you don't have to worry. And the an and the truth is that even the piskin bring uh that this is one of the advantages of sidaka over other aspects of our avoid hashem. is that even if you do not mean it lashem shamay but the recipient gets the benefit. The fact is here is someone who was hungry and walked out full. And that is a reality which generates a tremendous amount of whether or not the individual is on the level to do it to do it as sincere or not. But be it as it may be. So he says to the pilot, listen, you're right. The fact that you landed didn't have much of a choice. You were in the plane. You didn't have I don't think they commercial pilots have parachutes. But I want to thank you for not frightening the, you know, the the the passengers. Now, it's not that they weren't frightened, but it would have been a lot more scary if the pilot got out and said, "Listen, guys, hate to say to this, but the cockpit happens to be burning." Okay? So, like, you know, uh, if you didn't pay your ticket, please pay it now. Or something, you know, like, you know, and all of a sudden, boom, we check your life insurance policy if it's in check. You know, you could have done something like that and there would have been panic. I says, "As much as we were scared, we weren't not scared." So the pilot said, "For that, thank my co-pilot because you should know that there was a between him and the co-pilot." He said, "We better tell the people what's happening. This is no joke. This plane can burst into flames any second. An electrical fire in the cockpit is not a simple matter when you're 30,000 ft in the air." And my co-pilot said says, "Listen, we're going to land the plane safely. Don't worry. You're going to tell the people what's happening. You're going to have two problems. You're going to have an electrical fire and you're going to have an explosion and you're going to have people fainting and screaming. What do you need it for? There's no no one can help you in the none of the passengers can help you. What is the point of telling them the truth at this point?" They can't later say well had we known we would have would have done what you're there. So thank my thank him. So we learn from this tremendous now just like this pilot made a rational decision not to tell the people exactly how great the danger was because it would only create a panic and there's absolutely nothing that they can do about it. So think about this for a moment. Do you think Hashem tells us everything, lets us know what the real dangers to our life is? And the answer is no. A balan ben is brought down of the medish after 120 years a person comes up and Hashem will begin to show us that just when I was saying how dare God do this to me. One more step you would have gone down a cliff. Doesn't necessarily have to be that set of realities. It could be in many different situations, but a balhaness maker benis and I saw this once with my own eyes. A couple years ago, there was a major snowstorm and I'm walking on 16th Avenue and I see a huge pile of snow in the corner and I see this little 8-year-old kid is on a scooter and he made himself a board and he improvised and he's trying to scoot his way up the mountain into the snow and he's doing it and he's falling in. He's giggling and he's laughing. And I notice from the distance that there's a school bus trying to back into the spot. And I'm like, there's no voice coming out of me. I I don't know how to scream. And at the school bus is backing in. His back tire starts spinning on the ice and he doesn't get into the spot. So, he pulls up and the kid is still going in and going out. So, the driver revs the engine and comes back with even more force. And I'm like, I'm a block away. I'm the only one that sees it. And again, his tires spin. He doesn't get in. The third time he really revs the engine and goes racing back with all of his force. At that moment, the kid comes out and boom, he cracks through the mountain of ice, gets into the parking spot, and he gives like a thumbs up to the other bus drivers that he did it. He doesn't know what almost happened. And the kid doesn't know what almost happened. So imagine this kid comes home and his mother says, "Look at you. What did you do to those pants and little does she know what happened?" So aim ben throughout our life there are millions of things that happen to us. Do we know what happens internally in our body which cells split or don't split? Do we know the goes on a day-to-day basis? how we are saved from miracles. We don't. And one of the things after 120 years, we're going to get up there and Hashem is going to show us how many times he saved us. We're going to be overwhelmed. So why doesn't God tell us down here exactly what is happening? says of greatidic writer that gives us things to worry about when there is something we can do about it. And Sadik says a fascinating thing and my father used to share this with me all the time. He said take a look at your life. We all have little skeletons in the closet think we're things that we're worried about, things that were, you know, very few people walk around and they have absolutely no worries whatsoever. They live on a different planet. You could rise above it perhaps, but it's it's not so easy. What do they say? Someone calls someone in and says, "Listen, all my life I'm worrying. I decided enough is enough. I am hiring you to do all the worrying for me. You're going to be my official worrier because that's a tough job because I don't care. All my worries you'll I'll worry for you." He says, "How much is that?" Uh, he says, "How much you going to charge me for that?" He goes, "For me, cancel worry for you." At least $50,000 a month. He says, "No problem. I'll pay you cash. You know, I'll pay you. I'll give you a certified check. You don't have to worry about a thing." So the guy says, "Okay, I got the job. Can I ask you a question?" Goes, "Yeah, where exactly you going to get $50,000 a month from?" He says, "That's the first thing you're going to worry about now. says, "Think about this." And I think that everyone can attest to this. We all have things that we worry about, we're concerned about. We'll have things that keep us up at night here and there. And because we're human beings, so there were all real life problems that we had to endure. How many of the real problems which actually came to fruition, may Hashem protect us, were things that you worried about? Saysen, calculate this in your life and you will see that most of the things that you worry about are not the things that actually are the real problems in life. Not all, but most. And most of your real problems in life aren't the things that you anticipated. And that is because what is the reason that Hashem sometimes puts us in a situation where we are concerned, where we're worried because Hashem says that your diga is going to lead to a solution of the problem. Now we all know, you know, from a psychological point of view, there's the fight or flight that's within us. Sadic takes it a step deeper. You wake up at night and you're worried about something. Whatever it is, you have this fear of foroding. You don't know what it is. And you wash your hands and you sit down and you say a capitol to him. And when you say that capitol to him, a tear appears and you say, "Hashem, please." And you promise to be a good boy and a good girl. And we all know the things that we have to fix. And you go to sleep. So you just broke a what happens is explains the safer that Hashem sometimes gives us a head up on a difficult decree that is coming. Why? Because once a decree actually manifests itself, of course you can still pray to Hashem to take it away. Even if a sharp sword lies on the neck of a person, One never is allowed to give up hope from God's mercy. However, you need more. You need more merits once a problem is already here. You know, that's another thing. You know, once you sneeze, it's okay. It's like, you know, that you're about to sneeze, you know, like uh you know that problem, right? It's like, you know, once the problem comes, we can deal with it. Now, God sometimes gives us a head up on concerns. And I say, "Hashem, no, please don't let that happen. Please doesn't mean we're guaranteed that our going to be answered, but we're guaranteed that those are going to register. And you need less merits. You need lessim for your to be accepted. Please, Hashem, don't let that happen." than you need when a problem actually exists and you're dabbing to Hashem to take away the problem. Again, not to suggest that you cannot dab into Hashem once the problem exists. What we're saying is you there's less of a den in shayim. There's less of a judgment whether or not you are worthy of it. And when we are concerned or frightened about certain things, Hashem is giving that to us as a gift. Hashem is giving it to us as a gift. I always say this and I apologize if you've heard this from me as a eighth grade rebi for many many years. So I collect the notes of why boys come late and then I usually the end of the year a pur we read the best notes but the two that I saved two that I saved. One of them was from a boy that said this was a note that said please excuse me mishi for coming late. This is what the note said and it was true. his grandmother had a baby and he had to stay home to watch his uncles and aunts. And it was true. I said, you know, we live in a very sandwich society. And the other time the kid said came in and said, "Rebi, please don't punish me for being late." He said, "I woke up in the morning. I washed. I washed. I got dressed. I came to Yeshiva. I was sitting in my seat with my pent and gora all ready to go. And all of a sudden, the alarm clock rang and I realized the whole thing was a dream. Now, how did how would I have known to wake up if in my dream I was here. Got me on that one. I know someone that got into an accident. Borak Hashem. Nobody was hurt, but he went into a tree because he fell asleep driving. Made the terrible mistake of driving when he was not rested. So, I said to him, "How could you do that? How could you fall asleep when you're kind of phantom? So, you don't realize what the consequences are." He goes, "You don't understand." I was like dozing off. And in my dream I saw the road. The only problem is the real road turned to the left and the road in my dream went straight. So sometimes when we are in a position of hey everything is just hunky dory. Hashem does us a favor by giving us sometimes a sense of forboding. Now I don't want you to think that every time a person has a sense of foroting that means oh no some terrible decree is coming his way. But it could mean that Hashem is giving you a heads up. But that within itself should be the ultimate. Hashem would not give you the heads up if there was nothing you can do about it. If Hashem is allowing the fear to manifest itself within you says that is the greatest proof that through your of your cabala to be a better person you can disintegrate the gazer totally or definitely dilute it or water it down. If not God wouldn't give it to you. God definitely has as much raman as much mercy as that pilot does. He does not want you to panic if there is no reason to panic. Now again, why one person there are people that have anxiety attacks and they have to see professionals. I'm not getting into that. And and there's of course it's based on your previous experiences. If someone was bitten by a dog or a lion, you know, every time he sees a lion, he's going to be scared. That makes any sense to you. There there there's culture. There's attitude. But but the point is the bottom line is you know and I know that there are different things that trigger our sense of I'm worried about this whereas your friend says I'm worried about that and that's what you're worried about and then you're worried about something and he's laughing at you. Why are you worried about this? So there's a reason why each one of us are getting this signal from Shmay and the very fact that you have the signal is within itself the greatest braha in the world in the world because it wakes us up and I think this I'm just saying this because it's the month of l it wakes us up to deal with the reality know you've heard this joke I I assure you a thousand times but somehow it always hits people when they say it that there was this maget who was speaking and he was giving this fire and brim stone speech and he said everyone in this Kila one day is going to go to Gehanam you should know and he starts describing the fires of you know what rhymes with bell and he's describing it in vivid living color and people are fainting and in the Ezraat noshim the ladies are screaming and yelling and this magist is burning red and he's saying and everyone will go everybody has to go through it and one guy's laughing his head off and he's like describing it even more in more living color more graphic What gandam is this? This guy's laughing his head up. He says, "Why are you laughing?" He says, "I'm not from this gahila." He says, "You know, okay." Right? I'm not here. You know, there was someone he came up there asked him, "Uh, okay. You have to go to Gehenn. You want the gem or you want the litfish? Which one do you want?" He goes, "The gem. How hot is it?" They said, "12 degrees." Says, "When does it start?" 72 minutes after this man on Shabbat, he says. And the the the other ganim the when does it how hot is it the litim? 212 degrees. When does it start? 72 minutes after Shabbat. He says, I'll pick the he said what's the difference? He goes, I know by 212 is not 212. 72 is not 72. They're never on time. They never get it straight up. I'll go there. I don't mean to I just want to God has a on us and the concerns that we have are given to us as a gift. Now you know I I had a rebi that once took us on the strangest seventh grade trip a seventh grade probably went on in the history of seventh grade or sixth fifth fourth and eth for that matter. He was a chaplain in an insane asylum. And he took us one day and he wanted to prove the point. And we went to one room. There was a man in a padded room and he was screaming when he saw us, "Run! The Germans are coming. The Germans are coming." And he was lying under a table. Did anyone tell this man that the war at that time was already over for 40 years? He says, "You think we didn't try?" But he's living his whole life in this terrible fear. And we went a little further and we saw this man sitting on a crate, a bunch of milk crates and he was wearing a purim crown and he had like a Purim beard and he was holding a pula drumstick and and this chaplain came in and said, "How is his majesty feeling today?" He goes, "Today we took the Netherlands." You know, he says he thinks he's King George. And he turned around to us and said, "You see here you have two people that are insane, but do you still see the hashg that one of them is having the time of his life and the other is living a life of fear." So do you see how the ultimate of is in the hands of one way or another? So one of the things that the challenges in life does for us, it wakes us up to say who am I? We can get lost sometimes and we forget about it. Wait, what what do I have to do now? What does Hashem want from me to do? Because at the beginning of the year, there is no question that is the time. They want to set please let me know what I'm in for. Not all no don't let me more know more than I have to but direct me in the right way. So I'll tell you many years ago I was in Israel and I was there on a marathon visit with my wife and we left and we wanted to go from the hotel to the marath and we flagged down just any cab. We weren't so happy when we saw that the cab driver was an Arab and he started talking to us and screaming at us that we have no right to Jerusalem and so on. And we were like, but we just kept going. That was it was many years ago, a little naive, a little this. I thought, you know, I'm going to challenge him. We're going to argue with him. And as we went to Kel and as we went further to the Mora, so I saw a sign to the left and he turns to the right and I said um uh where are you going? He said he knows a shortcut. Didn't like the emphasis on the word cut. Now to this day I don't know if he really was trying to do a shortcut or what his intentions whether they were sinister or not. But I can tell you as much that we ran into some type of a roadblock and we were suddenly surrounded by a bunch of Arab kids that came out screaming and yelling and this Palestinian policeman came over and he started saying where are you going? I said ask him I don't know. I said I was supposed to go to the I did not know that is not a word you are supposed to use. It's lacks of sensitivity they call it too. So he got very upset and he pulled out a gun. He started dangling with it. My wife said to me, "He has a gun. He has a gun." I said, "I see what exactly you want me to do about it." And he tells me, "Get out of the car." So I told him, "No." He says, "He has the gun." I see. He says, "Get out of the car." I said, "I want to speak to your supervisor." The wife says to me, "You think you're in the motor vehicle bureau now? What do you want to speak to your supervisor? Who do you want to speak to?" this he the telephone company. I said, "I want to speak to the Katsin." I can't believe I did it to this day. He says, "Uh, so he says, "Okay, he wants to speak to the Katsin. He wants to speak to the Katsin, you know, and all they're all standing around and like I don't know these get do these kids get rocket propelled grenades with their braits present. I don't know what they were holding there." And all of a sudden this uh van pulls up. Guy gets out, turtleneck shirt, there's guns over here, perfect English, comes over to me. You called me. I said, "Yes." He said, "Who who uh who are you?" I said, "I don't know." He says, "Uh, you know, I show him my passport." I said, "I'm an American citizen and this taxi drove me in here and I never asked him to come in here and I expect you to escort me out." He said, "Who are you? Are you a spy?" I don't believe this. This is like for the story books. This is not real. I said, "I want you to tell me who." I said, "You have my passport." I said, "I see your passport. Who are you?" First, I wanted to say, "If you never heard any of my tapes, you don't know who I am. Two pets. You know what I mean? You don't know who I am. What kind of insult is that?" [Music] So, I remember it. It just registered in my head. And I said to tell you something, okay? I have an uncle who is a congressman who is part of the foreign relations committee. You can uh you know you twist the stories hang a little nice on the truth you know and uh and I pulled out from my wallet my social security card. So I want to tell you something okay you see this American social security. He looked at me like this guy for real like you know he's analyzing the card there's going to be consequences. He said, "I expect you right now to drive me out of here." He drove us out of there. Um I don't know whether he was just I don't know if he he really fell for this or not or uh one thing. So people said to me and we came just how naive we were. So the the driver said, "You still want to go to the Mars Mel?" I said, "Sure. I'll pay you for nothing." Right? So someone said to me afterwards, the guys were crowded around. They said, "Come on. Did you did you you didn't just die of fear?" I said I didn't sleep that night and sleep the next night and sleep the next night. But right there and then no right there and then I said either this is going to be a great story or uh it won't be such a great story but there was a certain adrenaline within me that so I realized afterwards and I discussed this with people I said you know we worry about situations but we don't realize that when the situation comes Hashem gives us a to be able to deal with this if If you would have told me now that that's how I would have handled myself that I would just speak back to him back and forth this guy holding the gun. What am I supposed to do? He's only gone. So watch I I would have told you if if I was in that kind of a situation I mean I would faint wake me up. I would faint again. So the answer is that during a crisis there are powers within us that come out there that call it adrenaline call it a that's within us. So why does worrying doesn't really make sense? Because I'm worried about a certain situation and I'm terribly frightened. What's going to happen if that happens? But I cannot possibly fathom the idea that when that happens, I will have kos within me. I will have powers within me to be able to deal with it that under normal circumstances I don't. which really makes worrying futile. And the answer says is 100%. In other words, when you worry, so think, okay, so God obviously wants me to take certain steps to try to protect myself within moral, ethical, legal means. But for the most part, God is waking me up to try to accept something upon myself. Theam cipher has a diary called it's printed. that's available where he had horrific dreams from Elash and he kept telling him about these horrific dreams. He didn't say actually what the dream was because it says not supposed to verbalize a bad dream but he spoke about it and he made piones and he got everyone together every single night they said a special tikunot and they and they gave sodaka 26 with the shemaya and he generated the people to chuva. So somebody once said to the maybe you're just having bad dreams you know like you know he said I know I know what's real I know what's not he came into with a tremendous amount of but he was dealing with these issues someone said to him but does it not say that someone who goes to sleep learning they are not and they don't give him bad dreams he said I don't consider this a bad dream I'm being alerted to something that's not a bad dream I am being alerted to to a concern now the dambe overflooded and it was a tremendous flood and many people and and and and many there were many Hungarians lost their lives. Cipher was very quick and organized whole system of boats and saving people and he saved many people Jew and Gentile alike. He was given a special award by France Joseph. So people said okay that was it. He says no that's not it. I feel in my heart that's not it. And at that time later on in the year the armies of Napoleon surrounded Prehborg where the Kasam Cipher was rough and they threatened the Austrian Hungarian generals that we are going to bombard you with new artillery that had not been seen before if you don't surrender the city of Pborg. And the Austrian Hungarian officials said no we won't surrender. We're just going to run off and hide in the castle let the people get killed with the artillery as often is a story with war. and summoned all the people together and he told them not to worry because I feel God prepared me for this. There was not one fatality in the kah of theam throughout the entire time. He said do you understand that God prepares us for things? There were many miracles there were many close calls. There was one person his name was wolf came. Should I say his name because writes his name? He was one person that was killed by an artillery shell running from one shelter to the other. And someone said I remember a story with this wolf. This wolf came was a agent to rent out apartments and Rav of Presburg called him in and said the price of apartments are extremely high. People don't have where to live. Please freeze the prices. Don't raise it. I know what supply and demand is. Hold it the way it is. And he said, you have no authority to tell me how much I can charge for apartments. So he said, I am the RV of this town. So he said, you may be the RV of this town, but I am not a member of your kahila and I have nothing to do with you. When he said those words, he clearly wrote his own obituary. If he's not a member of the kahila, then the shelter of the does not apply to him. But the writes this again and again and again. I never considered those frightening dreams bad dreams. I considered it an in in an alertness that I have to take my life into into perspective and make everyone better. So let's try to talk a little bit leisa. We dive into we form for an ability to deal with our challenges. So someone told me a mut of mine he had a za that used to it's the only blessing in where the word begins we begin at hashem at kadesh which is we're explaining of hem's kosha but in the we don't say ro we don't say is the one who provides why do we say so he said and I think I heard this fromab also once Because we think that the feelings and the emotions in our heart that's us. No, that also comes from God. One person wakes up in the morning and he's feeling great about himself and he's energized to get out there and to conquer the world. And another person wakes up frightened. That is a gift or lack of such depending on the situation. And the truth is in the course of our lives we experience both on any given morning. The once said help this poor man. He said this poor man why does he help himself? He has lead in his veins. So he said who put the lead in his veins? Why does one person have the energy to and the focus to go out and help himself? It is all that comes from you know love it says yard site is gimble l he started did what everyone said is impossible to do it he was a person always with tremendous sim he once went to a doctor the doctor told him he had TB and he was going to live for another 3 months he said the next half hour was the only half hour in my life that I was depressed afterwards I said so let me do what I can with the next 3 months. Lived another 15 years afterwards. He always said, "I viewed any disselving of my life as God wants me to take on a new project and a new mission and it always worked." And he once said, he sat with his tummy. He was the first one that started a summer camp, camp nift. And he lifted a huge rock and they saw an ant colony of hundreds of thousands of ants. He says, "You see these ants? They live in this world grabbing this, grabbing that, grabbing this, grabbing that. They live in darkness. Do they see what's going on in the world? Do they see? So many of us go through our whole lives worried about this, worried about that. Take it easy. Relax. You're worried. Say an extra. Slow down with your And that's it. And say, "Thanks, Hashem, for giving me the heads up and take on life." Easier said than done. The more you talk about it, the more it becomes part of us. I remember once my wife called me and said, "I'm sitting downstairs and there's like a steam and there's like a little grates on the bottom of a steam bottom of the radiator." She says, "There was a beak of a bird that was sticking out." I said, "This is before I said to my wife, you are working way too hard." Okay, it's like, you know, if you're up for three nights in a row, you begin to see beaks of birds sticking out. She said, "Come home. Okay, we'll see." Fine. So I go go tell your boss I got to go home because my wife says there's a beak of a bird sticking out of the way, you know. So I come home, she sit here. I sit there to do my work and all of a sudden I hear like this like rustling of something. I'm like and I turn around and there's the beak of a bird, I kid you not, sticking out of this great and I like jump up so fast the whole table almost turned over. And the wife said, "Oh, so what's with your imagination?" So I I I yank out this great and this bird about yay big comes out and it's like marching around. Maybe it was my imagination like gives me this look like what are you doing here? What am I doing here? Where'd you come from? And he marches around, you know, it's so I open up the front door. He opened up the front door and again, maybe this is my imagination, but he walked out and he he's like, you know, practicing flying and there's a bunch of birds flying in a V and he tries to join them and he looked like a little disabled, a little learning disabled, little like a little slow, a little uh but it took him a while afterwards. I think he was part of the group and just flew along with them. Now, could be this is totally my imagination, but I have this feeling when he walked out, he looked up there and said, "Wow, I could fly a world. Wow. Hm. Interesting. So, I asked an exterminator cuz I don't know who to ask. How did I How did that guy get there? So, he came by the house and he said, "I see there's a hole in your roof that birds fly in." He said, "This is my theory. I don't know if this is true or not." He said, "I think that a bird laid an egg and it fell into the insulation and the warm the warm steam pipes incubated the egg and this thing was actually hatched." I said, "What did it live on?" It said it lived on the little worms that are inside your walls. Oh, thank you. I said, I don't know if that's true or not, but one thing is for sure. I said, this poor bird grew up thinking that the whole world is dark, leaky pipes and didn't know that it could fly and there's a world out there. You know what? One of the things we daven for during the month of L, we dab for wake up. There are people that go through their whole lives in fear and frighten and darkness. Wake up. There's a world out there. Take it on. Take it as a gift. Hashem will help you. Today is the yard site of the who was the great yeshiva rashiv of anyone of Allah. You know what was famous for? for closing the yeshiva of alj what happened was the first structured yeshiva it would be the future of tyra in kalisra and everyone knows the famous story with the mitzvah as a little boy he was wild like anything ripped everything apart he had no worry in the world and one day he overheard his parents saying to him you know what we're finished with him every day the teacher complains the rebi complains we're sending him off to become a an apprentice by a shoemaker he said what no give me one more chance give me one more chance and he grew up to be the famous and he wrote unbelievable amount of he said imagine I would have been a shoemaker all my life and I would have come up there they would have said you I was a good shoemaker you know shabbat it was I ate kosher food that's very nice but why didn't you write these why didn't you have thousands of talid I was a shoemaker that's why but who decided you're a shoemaker I would have never believed them so I went to one of my rebellion what is the greatness of this story the greatness of this story is that when the nits heard I'm a shoemaker, he could have said, "Oh yeah, you want to send me to a shoemaker apprentice? I'm running away from here. I don't care. You want me to be a shoemaker?" He didn't say that. He said, "I'm challenged with something that could now frighten my whole life because I overdid it. I shouldn't have locked that teacher out of the room. I shouldn't have thrown those chairs out of the window." Whatever he did. And he said, "Okay, I'm going to take my life into my hands and I'm going to do my best." Hashem you know somebody once said uh that uh there was this rashiva that uh I shouldn't even say this joke but it's just I mean it's just inest you know he passed away and he came up there he said so they told him you know they said when the nits said that if he would have been a shoemaker they would have said shoemaker shoemaker where are your great swarmanas and they said they said to someone who tried to be a rasha but he wasn't really worthy of being a rasha they said to him rashiva rashiva where are your shoes you know we all have to know who we are. We have to know who we are in life. I don't mean to was faced with the huskah and the Russian government told him we want six hours of secular studies if not close down your yeshiva. He understood it wasn't secular studies that they wanted but the escala wanted to destroy the origins of jihadis and yiddeskai the reform and conservative movements would work their way in and he made a decision that he is closing the yeshiva they said who do you think you are to close the greatest yes yeshiva in the world give in what's going to be with tyra in the next generation and then it said my father used to share this with me let go who gave the Torah worry about what's going to be for the Tyra. I got to do the right thing. You know what said he closed that looked like the greatest tragedy in the world for the world of Tyra. But hundreds of yeshivas, small yeshivas were rebuilt and were spawned from that because almost all the tamid of started their own yeshivas and it spread tyra throughout Europe. Had the nativ kept the yeshiva open it would have been the destruction of tyra because he had the courage to close it. So therefore he guaranteed the continuity of to this day throughout Isra. Now bear in mind said there are times in life it looks like you have to close down your life and that's what God wants you to do do it because if you do the right thing out of closing down will only come life will only come. And one more last thing says that very often in your life if you have two conflicting problems like there's a certain thing on your mind all of a sudden oh no now I got to worry about this you should know one is the answer to the other one and I'll give you two reasons for that and we'll close with that the garra says that once there was a terrible hunger people didn't have any food and there was also a terrible epidemic amongst small children. So they got together and said what should we pray for? Should we pray for the hunger? Should we pray for the epidemic? So the conventional reasoning is pray for the epidemic first pray for life then finances. So many said no pray for the food. They said why? Because because if God says I'm going to listen to you and give you food, he's going to give it to you to a person that's alive, not to a person that's dead. Now I want I want you to listen how the kadosha slave he explains that there was a story somebody came to the the great habardich and said to him so and so is sick and the cried the entire night. He said I banged on the walls of mercy on the sha and they are locked. He was despondent. Suddenly said, "I have an idea." And he came running down. He said, "I banged on the Shar Parnasa. He has Parnasa." What good is Parnasa? Rearranged the deck of the Titanic. What's What's the point of having Parnas if he doesn't have health? No. No. And God gives Parnasa. He gives it to live people. Says the Kadusha slave. Do you understand that there are times in our life we get up there and we say, "God, don't do this to me. What should I do?" You know, here's the scale. Here's the mitzvot. Here's the aot. What should I do? So God comes and he says, "You know what? I have an idea. I'll give you another problem." Oh, God. Please, not this other problem. What is that? Take away. Oh, that other problem you don't deserve. Going to take it away. See, you should be able to enjoy life. Oh, but you can't enjoy life because you have the first problem. We have to take away the first problem also. Do you understand the trick to work around the din? I You're going to ask, but it's not fair. Who has God playing tricks? Is there judgment? Is there justice or no? No. Because the malik that demands justice says, "What do you mean? What is it some kind of a game? Because he has pas gets rafu, but he doesn't deserve the rafu." So, Hashem says, "Here's a person that needs rafu." And boom, he loses his job. And instead of saying, "God, you're slapping me on both sides of my face. I'm through with you." He says, "God, please, at least this." If he has that faith in that amuna, I don't care if he's worthy or not. He gets the Yeshua. There are times in our life we get hit from one side get hit from the other side and you have a choice. You can say you want me to be a shoemaker. That's it. I'm out of there. You know, I got plenty of places to go. You could say, "Okay, Hashem, so at least help me with this." And once you do that, it becomes an angle for all your problems to be solved. And I want to conclude with this story that I heard from a very inas wants me to say his name, so they won't say his name. They said his father was in Shanghai during the war and they had in their first they were in VNA. They were desperate to get out of their lives. To get out of there, the Nazis were around the corner. Not going to get into the whole story now. It's late. You needed an exit visa to get out of Russia. You needed a transit visa. You Anyway, he managed to have the papers. Yes, papers. They were 70% kosher, 80% kosher. And they're on the train. His father, his mother, three children. This was the last train out of Vilma. They knew the Nazis were around the corner. And they see a couple is running and they drop their baby. And the train is moving and they can't get the suitcase on. And my father says, "I got to go help them." And the mother says, "Don't get off the train. He looks at them and he says, "I have to. God sent me this. I have to." And he jumps off the train, helps the man on, helps the lady on, helps the suitcase on, and the train shoots out of the station. And he runs after this train, and the woman is hysterical, screaming. The train leaves the station and there is no other train. She is so hysterical. She is so hysterical, they cannot calm her down. Someone comes over to her and says, "Listen, your husband knew what the stakes are, but he could not hold himself back." Shem sometimes gives us a second problem to solve the first. The husband was desperate. He ran from person to person and he ran to a rich man. The rich man said, "I'll tell you something. I'm too old to run. I know my money is useless. Either the communists or the Nazis are going to get it. I'm going to give you money to hire a private plane and maybe he'll fly you to the station somewhere deep in Russia. So he does it. When the plane lands, the Russians come over to him. Where are your papers? He goes, "My wife has it. The train left without me. Verify the story. It's true." He told him the story that so mucho. As the train comes to certain checkpoints, the Russians get on, they check papers, they can see it's not 100% kosher. Off Siberia the rest of your life where very few people survived. They came to her, "Where are your papers?" She knew the papers were in kosher. She goes, "My husband has them and he missed the train." You expect us to believe that everyone said, "Well, she's crying and screaming the whole time and they had so much honor, they let her go." So they never checked his papers because of her. They never checked her papers because of him. And today there is a big budding beautiful family with hundreds and hundreds of grandchildren. Do we understand in our lives how Hashem arranges a second problem to solve the first? But there's a catch. We don't always see it. And you got to really believe that Hashem does not make us worry about one thing more than we have to. And if we're willing to accept that, then even if your papers for the dinner are not 100% kosher, Hashem will take the excuse and make it kosher. Should have a good