CHAZAQ's Torah Talks #128 Rabbi Zev Leff - Handling Times of Difficulty

it's a time of Misfortune and difficulty for the Jewish people and it's not just in Israel but we see that the ugly head of anti-Semitism is all around us and the people until now who have held it in all of a sudden have revealed who they really are and in some places in the world it's a danger to walk around and be identified as a Jew throughout our history from the time of Abraham and on God has always been there with us we've had many many times of misfortune and we've always not succumbed to it and we've always come out maybe broken but ready for the [Music] future and welcome to Torah talks kazak's Tuesday night program with special guests we have us all the way from eres har welcome thank you thank you big big Merit to have the rabbi join us and and give give some inspiration uh to our community about the mat of the situation in Israel before we do that if you get a little bit of background of the Rita and the great work you're involved with okay I'm uh presently the of M and Isel for the last 40 years before that I was the love of uh the Young Israel of Greater Miami in North Miami Beach and before that I was a k a in Tel Yeshiva and I attended that yiva for nine years and um I was born in the Bronx and I grew up in Miami and attended the Hebrew Academy and the mfta in in Miami oh wow thank you to the r for all that you do for cl and special thank you for your Shak the that we've gotten is just amazing so we're in times of Misfortune how should one relate in these difficult times Rabbi okay the um the rabbis tell us that when someone sees that uh suffering and misfortune uh is uh upon him so he should uh investigate and see if he can um improve correct things that uh need correcting or improving in his spiritual life the reason for that is that this world is not just a world of physicality but every physical thing has spiritual energy behind it and uh if something is wrong with the spiritual energy that manifests itself in some kind of physical uh malady or whatever and in order to uh correct the physical Misfortune you first have to work on the background spiritual causes that may be causing that uh physical Misfortune so the way to do it is to investigate and see if there are things that can be corrected in a person's behavior and uh even if there's nothing to be corrected if there are things that could be enhanced and improved um in addition to that person should hone in on things that need correction and Improvement but also see maybe there are character traits personality traits that have to be corrected uh because those are the things that are the roots of the other specific things that a person may be uh wanting to correct or improve amazing amazing um very very powerful and true um what can one do in these times what what would be uh something more specific okay the uh we have in Israel everybody has to make their uh which means their effort to correct the situation physically and we have soldiers who are putting their lives in danger to rid the world of this evil Kamas um you know God created a world where there's Darkness and Light where there's evil and good good and bad and he did it in order that we should be able to exercise our free choice and choose light over darkness and good over evil and uh in that way we would perfect the world and bring it to its completion and uh earn our share in the world to come but because we have free choice unfortunately there are people who choose the darkness and choose the evil and there's always a struggle between them so the more that one uh contributes to the light the more that the darkness is uh is reduced and the more that one chooses to do good the more the evil is reduced so um we have to do that in two ways one is physically so we have soldiers who are trying to eradicate these evil people who walk on two legs but act worse than animals it's a disgrace to the animals to call them animals and uh do things that are unmentionable and unimaginable and um so that's the physical way with tanks and with planes but again they need spiritual energy in order that that those physical things can be successful so even the people who are here in um in in the outside of er Israel can supply the soldiers who are fighting with the spiritual energy they need by doing an extra Mitzvah doing it a little more with with intention enhancing it uh with with prayer praying for these people and their success and uh with uh uh doing umet kindnesses one to the other donating to charity all of those things create spiritual ammunition to be able to reduce the evil and the Darkness in the world 100% the more good we we do no matter where we are in the world will have a direct effect in the situation that we're living in and the times that we're in so we have to increase in increase in increase in and kindness and in doing good Rabbi left how can one relate to The Misfortune of others there's so many people that unfortunately they're going through difficult times uh they're misplaced in their homes how can one relate we're not in Eric we're not in Israel let's say what does the rabbi suggest okay it's it's interesting that it what I said in the beginning that when a person sees that suffering uh is upon him why does it say he sees that suffering is upon Him should say he feels it so I think that the the language har see refers to what it says by mosenu mosenu which says when he matured went out to his brethren and he saw their suffering and Rashi there says saw means he put his eyes and his heart to suffer along with them he didn't only sympathize with them he empathized with them and you need two things you need eyes which means intellect and you need a heart which means emotion if you only intellectually can relate to other people's suffering you may write papers about poverty but you never give a penny to to Sedaka you won't help anybody and if you only have a heart and you feel their pain but if you don't have a mind and don't have intellect you may do things that are harmful and not really helping but you do it with a good feeling and a good emotion so you need both eyes and a heart and then you can empathize and feel the suffering of others and you can put yourself in their place imagine being held God forbid a hostage by these by these animals Hamas or or being displaced from your home or having your parents or children killed in front of your eyes and and you're mourning for them and and your whole future has been destroyed and and and and disrupted so if somebody can imagine with his mind and his heart what other people are going through than the Mitzvah and the daving will be a diff completely different doing completely different uh um Viewpoint than if it's just somebody across the ocean or whatever so I think people have to empathize with the with the suffering of other people also and and bring it home and in that way be able to not only empathize with them but do whatever we can to try to alleviate their suffering whether it's physical material or spiritual amazing 100% very very powerful we have a custom in meag and Torah talks and we know that the rabbis time is very very precious and uh the final message that the rabbi could give to our broad oriented kazak okay like we said it's difficult times it's an a Sor leov it's a time of misfortune and difficulty for the Jewish people and it's not just in Israel but we see that the ugly head of anti-Semitism is all around us and the people until now who have held it in all of a sudden have revealed who they really are and in some places in the world it's a danger to walk around and be identified as a Jew so uh it's a time of Misfortune however it says we have to have faith and belief that as throughout our history from the time of Abraham and on God has always been there with us we've had many many times of Misfortune many times of tragedy and we've always succumb not succumb to it and we've always come out maybe broken but ready for the future and God will do that again in addition to that if we relate to those times of M Misfortune properly then that in itself The Misfortune itself can generate a greater Spiritual Awakening a greater strengthening which itself will bring about the salvation and God willing we hope that the what we say in the our prayers on rashash all the evil in the world will disappear like smoke and then there'll be there'll be joy to our land and tremendous celebration to the city of and then the the Masia the davidic dynasty will return with the coming ofia soon in our amen am Redemption we want to thank for giving those powerful inspiring and uplifting words of of inspiration for all of us we need to continue doing more good for for everyone anyone especially we should only hear good news we want to thank the rabbi and only have and happy occasions we want to thank every one of you for joining us every single Tuesday night 8:30 p.m Eastern Standard Time for kazak Torah talks with special guest we have the Merit having RAB and uh every week we have special guests inspiring messages.org thank you to the many different podcast players for hosting our Tor talks podcast a special thank you to our friends at Torah anytime and a special thank you to daily giving a dollar a day goes very very far away and a special thank you to every single one of you every single one of you involved with we like the RAB said see the Final Redemption