HALFTIME FOR TORAH 2024 | CHAZAQ

[Music] a Super Bowl is a very big day in sports you know football is the greatest sport and Super Bowl is the greatest game of the greatest sport so it's a pretty big day but really the goal of sports is not the ball really the goal of sports is is to watch professionals compete at an incredibly high level to learn lessons that we can glean from them and apply to our lives like just the game is okay but really the lessons are that's the takeaway and when you watch a game like the Super Bowl you will see incredible lessons that you can put into your life to be better immediately I want to share with you one you will notice in this game an incredible amount of encouraging watch closely every time somebody messes up almost every time this happens a quarterback throws a pick a defensive back misses a tackle the defense gives up a touchdown a wide receiver is wide open and he drops the pass almost every single time Watch What Happens the camera will pan on that player after after the play is over when they're back on the sidelines and you will see the same thing happen somebody is encouraging them defense comes back the captain's probably walking up and down the sidelines pumping them up come on we got this we got this let's go let's go quarterback throws a pick defensive coordinator patting his helmet head coach is patted him you got this don't worry you got this wide receiver drops a pass his fellow receivers are are on the sidelines talking in his ear what is going on everywhere you look huddle here huddle there pregame halim everywhere you look you will see both sides and everyone just pumping each other up the whole game and I'll get something these are professional athletes this this Super Bowl you think anyone's not motivated to catch a pass you think there's one player going like I don't know should I run the route tight should I not run it tight you think this a this you think this's a defensive back going like should I make this tackle it's going to be hard the guy's really really big he's coming at me pretty quick what is with this constant need of encouragement and pump up like what is going on just let them just play your professionals I want to share with you a concept in in yish kite I heard this from a rosevi he speaks about this a lot I saw this later on in a safer um from called from Morganstern and I'm going to read to you inside in his piece on he quotes from the I want to read you this listen to these words sadness it leads to the the blocking the holding back the failure if you will of aod ofz of doing mitzvah hasem sadness causes us to not D and learn do mitos it blocks our it blocks from the good thought to serve Hashem the he it's the beginning of thear sadness is what lets in thear takes the opposite leads to the desire the love to connect that's why it says in the because you didn't Ser if somebody serves hem with sadness don't you it's like you're serving a Master with with a down face what is this thing about Sim what is so powerful about happiness it sounds like happiness is the key to Hashem how does that work let's go back to the field maybe we can understand this together why is it that they're constantly encouraging the guy that drops the pass wouldn't you think when he gets over the someone should be like can you pay more attention don't catch and run catch and then run right don't you think the the coach should tell the quarterback what are you throwing the ball so quickly for relax in the pocket wait for the defense the offense to open up because when you're playing at the highest level they get that happiness isn't what happens from the play happiness is what causes the play happiness isn't the manifestation of success happiness is the Catalyst of success when you're playing at a level that high when you're playing against a defense that good if you're not walking in excited if you're one walking in encouraged you have no shot you have no chance you come in sad upset frustrated you're still thinking about the pass from five plays ago you're worried if you're going to win the game you're thinking of anything that's not excitement you have no chance you need the excitement you need the encouragement to play at that level we don't get about Aus Hashem now in hashm happiness is not like getting in a good mood that is but it's more like believing in Hashem and knowing hashem's with you and feeling satisfied with him for many of us there are Judaism parts of Judaism just doesn't taste good we get more excited about watching a game than going to a sheer why because maybe what we're waiting for is for the Aus Hashem to bring us the happiness maybe it's backwards maybe our happiness is what brings us to Aus Hashem maybe the way it's supposed to work is when you walk into anything related to Aus Hashem when you go to Davin or learn or do a or be nice to somebody or go see your spouse or your kids or your parents whatever it is when you're about to do anything for Hashem before you walk in there you realize wait to be successful at this to feel the joy of depth of meaning of purpose why is it that just watching other people on a TV why is that bringing me H why don't I have happiness and my Judaism maybe it's because when I'm about to do something I don't make myself happy I don't get excited I don't encourage each other and because I don't get excited I got no chance I'm up against the real defense I'm look at St Sahara this is a game this is going to go away I'm fighting for eternity I got a good defense against me I got no shot if I don't go in happy maybe what's missing is that we don't walk into our time with God happy pumped excited we don't encourage each other walk around about this and that we drag our life and we like have to do Judaism and so Judaism is tasteless but if we get to do Judaism if we pump ourselves up for the play if we're about to put on filling and we say to ourselves I'm about to buy myself to Hashem if we're about to learn and I'm about to connect to the letter of God about to do if we're about to do something we take a minute and pump ourselves up to the excitement of what I'm about to do maybe we'll be more successful watch the game they know it but the Shari Kusha and all the know it too try it for one week this week before you do one Mitzvah one week one Mitzvah take one second and pump yourself up get excited for the Mitzvah get excited for the get excited for the Torah and then see how it feels bring the Sim and watch how much it can bring you in real success not just football success we're talking about nus success Hashem success which is the real game that we're playing I'm deeply grateful to the officers of kazak for giving me the great opportunity to speak to all of you on this halftime show I would like to tell you a story that R Shalom shadon the maget of yam told me happened to him in the late 1940s after the creation of the state of Israel there was such happiness in Israel and many of the kids felt so free and they were so sports-minded and every night they would be out playing soccer and doing very happy things for themselves but R shalan radon was a young man then together with others they made certain classes so that these boys would be able to study Torah at night and there was one boy let's call him keski and keski came for three weeks in a row every night he came and then suddenly he stopped coming so the first night R shalam didn't think much of it the second night not and but then he began getting worried at third night when he saw that the boy didn't come he thought maybe he's not well so he went to his house to see if he's okay and keski answered the door and he said you're all right because you've been coming for the last 3 weeks and suddenly you haven't been there he said Reby I'll tell you the truth you know there's a tournament going on a football tournament now of course in Earth Israel they called soccer football and I love to play soccer or football and there's a tournament going on and I want to watch it so it's on this week next week I'll surely come sir abshalom said uh could you explain to me what the idea of Saker is and keski was kind of surprised that a man who grew up in ER didn't understand what Saker was he said I'll tell you what it is he says you see you have two teams and um there's somebody that has to kick a ball into a goal which is surrounded by a net and if you kick it into the net then of course you score the goal so R shalam asked well you said that there's a goalie there somebody who's there but is he there all day and all night he said no no no he's not there all day and all night he's only there during the game he said come here let me show you something let's go out there you'll see I'll be able to kick 20 goals in a row into that net into that goal and the boy laughed he said Reby is you're going to go there when there's no goalie what's the big deal any anybody can do that the whole idea is that there's a challenge and there's a goalie and you got to kick the ball past the goalie because otherwise there's no challenge there's no gain to it and rsh said my child listen to what you just said you just said that if there's no challenge there's no accomplishment you're right so next week when you come there's no challenge because there's no tournament for you to come this week that's like the goalie standing in your way and you're able to kick the goal in when you come even during the week of the tournament you're overcoming that challenge and the boy smiled and he realized what the rebi was trying to teach him and of course the next night he did come and the reason that I tell you all this is because overcoming challenges are very important in life and we all are beset by challenges so how do you overcome a challenge well the first thing is you have to learn from others you have to have a plan and you have to know that challenges are part of life they're not impediments to life but they're essential because they help us overcome adversity now even though you're watching now the football game the Lions when they were in the national football championship they had to overcome a challenge it didn't look like a difficult challenge they were ahead 24/7 at halftime that they failed they didn't overcome that Challenge and San Francisco was able to overcome that Challen you know why because they learned from others because back in 2017 Tom Brady showed that even in the greatest games you can overcome a deficit they were losing by 25 points the Patriots against Atlanta and Brady was able to bring him back so that showed you could learn from others that even at difficult times if you got a plan and you're determined and you have that courage to face the opposition position you overcome the challenge and that's what the 49ers did and that's why they're playing this Super Bowl but there's something else I want to tell you if you watch a football game you'll see there's a formation there's the quarterback there's the left tackle the left guard the right tackle the Right Guard the wide receiver the running back everybody's got to be in a special place so that the quarterback when he gets the ball from the center he knows what to do with it whether he's going to give it to the running back or he's going to throw it to the wide receiver and the tackles they have to be up front to block I want to tell you about another formation do you know that there's a formation when you DAV in Shimon you're supposed to stand with your feet together now I know there some people who stand so wide with their feet together you could kick a field go between their feet that's not how and I'll show you what it says in and you'll be amazed what Raa Feinstein adds to that in Simon sad Sim C it says you got to have your feet together together like one if they're one just like the the says their feet are like one that means that not only the heels have to be together but the toes have to be together some people stand like a triangle that's wrong and let me explain to you why see the explains that when you are standing sh you got to be totally Focus on Hashem but if you look like you're ready to run away and if you've got your feet only at the end together you could start walking right away but if you got your feet together straight toes and heel you're Focus totally on what you're saying you're totally focused on hem and you know what writes writes in he says if you see somebody at the Amed even if his father D that way even if his rebi that way don't let him do in that way because you got to have that formation that formation has one foot standing directly towards Hashem so there is a formation to davra let's learn that the only successful football teams are those who keep the formation the way they want to and according to plan and this is our plan I give all of us the BR that hasem should answer our as we focus directly on Hashem and Hashem should focus to give us what we need in life thanks so much since 2006 kazak has inspired thousands of people via its numerous lifechanging programs from little children to teenagers from men to women from yiva students to Young rabbis and everyone in between hak touches them all educating inspiring and guiding thousands throughout the year I'm going to answer for you today everything about life why the world was created and why you were put on this Earth I know it sounds so big but I'm going to put it down in four questions and we're going to help get the answer through football question number one why Hashem created the world the answer is because he wanted to do good and so Hashem created you beings in order to do good to those human beings question number two where is that good it can't be that the good is on this Earth because I don't know look at life there's so much pain there's so many people that have emotional struggles Financial struggles spiritual struggles you can't say that this good this world is all good and this world was put here all for the good so the answer is that the good is really in the next world so Hashem created the world in order to do good and that good is in the next World so here comes the third question so why' you put us in this world why you just put us straight in the next World if you created just to do good and all the good is there just put us straight there and he has the answer to that question and here's my point here today today is suo Sunday almost the entire country is focused on the sewer ball two teams the Chiefs playing the 49ers and every one's captured by the game what is the goal of the game the goal of the game is to win the Lombardi trophy Everybody Plays to win the Lombardi trophy it's a huge deal when the Super Bowl ends there's one team that's going to be Victorious and they going pull out the Lombardi trophy and they bring it out on the field and everyone goes nuts they pull out the red carpet and they stop bringing it out and each person every player on the team can't wait they touch it they they they're kissing it they're holding it they're touching it the whole thing is about the Lombardi trophy I have a great idea I looked it up the Lombardi trophy cost $10,000 to make the value of the Lombardi trophy is $10,000 Here's my thought why don't we forget all the nonsense let's just make 32 Lombardi trophies it'll cost $320,000 it's the NFL can make $320 ,000 in one second one second of the seall commercial one second the commercial goes $7 million for 30 seconds they can make 320 in one second let's make 32 trophies in July and we'll go to every training camp and we'll just deliver a trophy we'll go to San Francisco give them a trophy we'll give Kansas City a trophy we'll even deliver a trophy to Detroit those poor people even the Jets will give them a trophy we'll go to both teams in New York we'll go to La we'll go to San Fran we'll go everywhere there is we'll give trophies Tampa Bay we'll give them a trophy everywhere you'd like let's give everybody a trophy we'll do it you imagine what you would how much hassle you would save give everyone a trophy in August you'd have no injuries you'd have no coaches getting fired you'd have no aget of horrible defeats just get the whole thing's 10 grand give every single team a Lombardi trophy in August and you'll save all of the headache the answer is obvious there's no point in the Lombardi trophy just for the Lombardi trophy it's just a $10,000 object that's not a big deal and the whole point of the Lombardi trophy is because it's earned it's because we went through a whole off season and figuring out which players are going to be not team and signing free agents and making trades and drafting players and hiring coaches and all the various different coaches there's like dozens of coaches on each team and then we went through practices throughout the summer and some people got injured in practices some people some people were demoted in practice some people cut from the team and then it was week one and you they played hard and there was a defeat and then in week two there was a victory and then week three they were came from behind and it was intense and two players were put on the injury injured list for the rest of the year to another player was cut from the team it's intense each week is intense and each week as you win and you win and you win and you win and now you make it to the playoffs and you make it to the first round and the second round and you make it through the championship Sunday and now you're at the Super Bowl and you win the Super Bowl that's what gives Lombardi trophy its value it's not valuable just because it's a $110,000 trophy it's valuable because of all of the work the intensity the pain and the difficulty that it took to achieve it that's what makes the players they can't breathe from it because they know how much work it took to achieve it Hashem says the same thing I created the world to do good the main good is in the next World so why don't you just put us straight in the next world because there would be no joy in the next World if we didn't earn it first in this world it would be like getting a Lombardi trophy in August it wouldn't mean anything so that's why in said Hashem puts us on this Earth where it's hard and it's difficult and there's life's of battle and there's ups and downs there's victories and there's defeats there's Cuts there are times there sort of injuries so to speak there are times that you feel like you're on the sideline there are times that you feel like you're going through a losing streak and then other times you feel like going through a winning streak life is tough but when you get through that tough the reward in the world to come is incredible so just like it makes no sense to give a Lombardi trophy in August and has no value it makes no sense to put someone's Soul straight inam straight in the world to come because it would have no value and have no joy so his 1/4th question so why can't we just see what Alaba would look like imagine if I could just have for five minutes just give me a little window I'll go up against the window I'll stick my nose up the window and let me see what's going on there wouldn't it make life so much easier wouldn't it make it so much easier to focus on what's right in this world the answer is it would make it so much easier it would make it so much easier if you saw the world to come and you saw the reward and you saw the joy that was in that reward and you saw how happy it was life over here wouldn't be a challenge anymore there'd be no test cuz for sure you would do what's right if that's the reward for sure you would do what's right it wouldn't be hard like if I told you every time you make a a cup of water water there's a $100 bill underneath would that ever be a test and you're sure the $100 bill right underneath the cup pick up the cup of water make a b take the1 would you ever not say you'd always say because because the reward is so clear it makes the reward so easy it makes it not a challenge so Hashem says I'm putting I created this world to do good that's the answer to question number one the where where is the real good not in this world although there's a lot of joy in this world but the real Joy is in the next world that's the answer to question number two so why don't you just put us straight in the next World the answer to that is because the joy of the next world is only happens once it's earned and then question number four is why can't I just see the next World the answer is if what you would see it there would be no test in trying to achieve it the whole test is in the fact that I don't see it I don't know what it is I'm not sure how good is the next world it's going to be unbelievable it's going to be unbelievable unbelievable I believe it is but that feeling is what makes the test my point here today is this if you look around at your life and you feel like there's challenges there's difficulty you feel like there's things in your life and you're like what am I dealing with the answer is you're earning your trophy if your life is incredibly easy then your trophy won't mean much that's why I've yet to meet someone who could say they have a easy life I've yet to meet a person with an easy life because Hashem puts in front of every single one of us he makes obstacles he makes it that you have to sometimes throw a 20 yard pass in life sometimes you have a third and 15 and somehow you have to make it somehow you have to come up with a play to get a first down that's what life is is sometimes your first and goal and the defense is incredibly tough and somehow you have to get through it that's what life is life life sometimes is tough and it's difficult it could be tough with you it could be tough with your marriage your children and you're like why is it so hard it's so hard because it's supposed to be so hard so that one day when you get TOA your trophy will be meaningful so when the Lombardi trophy comes out the winning team is going to go crazy for it because they're going to know how hard it was to get it one day you're going to go toam Haba and when that day comes you the reward is going to be so intense and so incredible and you look back and you say all the challenges I went through it's so worth it because I earned the trophy thank you it's a very powerful story for me it's obviously so personal it's part of me of my family of [Music] everything schamy gerner was just 21 years old when his wife was rushed to the hospital where she gave birth to their second daughter I went home a little later to take care of my older daughter and I get a call a few hours later rush back to the hospital as soon as possible I didn't have a clue what I didn't know know what to think and I made my way back and there was the consultant in the room giving me a whole lecture explaining what has happened to Mala during childbirth there was a lack of oxygen to the brain and his daughter will never be able to speak to walk and will have difficulty seeing and everything just came crumbling down the world suddenly everything seemed so different what has just happened here how how do I continue from herei decided he needed more he needed so he traveled to Israel and he wanted to get a br from his Reb the yeshu the vision from vision and I said Reb I'm not asking for miracles here I'm just asking grabba give me a blessing that my wife and I we should be able to continue a family life a happy life and this shouldn't be the burden that is always an obstacle that we always reflect on and we shouldn't be able to continue and I remember the rebber taking my hand he just like he held my hand for a few minutes he closed his eyes and he was just like shaking his head right to left and he was saying he was doing and he gave me that blessing and I feel that was the blessing of a Lifetime right then and there he was given the he walked out a different person he came home and him and his wife really Rose to the challenge in incredible ways it was always difficult but we did take it as a that's what Hashem has given us and that's how we continue life when shl's daughter Mala was 2 years old he was giving her a bath and Mala was crying hysterically she wouldn't calm down schy tried whatever he could so finally after 20 minutes he took her out of the bath and he held her tightly and tried to calm her down by cradling her and all of a sudden schy spontaneously started singing this song and I'm singing to and I'm just over again o Mal o Mal and my wife comes rushing in from the other room and she says you have to recall that a because Mala just stopped crying she's listening and enjoying what you're singing to her and it's just beautiful you just sang schy grabbed the recorder he recorded Malala and this song became this father daughter connection every night as schy would put her to sleep and say the shama he would sing over and over and over again until she would fall asleep again I just repeat and repeat this song the whole time a short while later schamy was working on his first album in his debut album Nissim and he was sitting with yusi green in yussi's house and they were talking brainstorming about different ideas for songs and suddenly yusi looked at schlim and he said schy tell me a little bit about your personal life so I tell Yosi I've got this tune that I keep on singing it's becoming in my family this has become the Mala song but it's not a complete song I just sing to [Music] a and immediately yussi went into a trance he gets to his piano and he's working so hard his fingers are like all over the piano you know pressing different keys for 20 minutes 25 minutes and after a half hour yusy green jumps up and he says I got it I got it thank you Hashem for another song and he starts singing in your home it should bring so much blessing she should bring so much blessing every word in that song it's written about shabas but his Mish connects to Mala [Music] this particular song and SCH story the story behind the song ended up inspiring so many thousands of people around the globe it's given us so much light and so much hope and so much Sim and mostly it's given us a connection to our Mala people said you know Hashem doesn't give an isan to someone who can't take it and I I never like that statement I must say I never connected to it because because it's not true if you asked me if I could take it the answer would be know it's not hasem gives it to somebody who could take it with a challenge hasem gives right every family comes with their set of challenges and along with those challenges Hashem sends us the tools to be able to deal with it to cope with it which is why we say in thank you for decreeing those difficult those challenges but for giving us the strength to sustain ourselves and to fulfill those Gus and to rise to the challenge [Applause] [Music] everybody should find in his challenge the Mala song and sing about it and thank [Music] hasem [Applause] [Music] wo