Rabbi Maor Bendel - Living Life with Bitachon | Chazaq

Okay, good evening. Welcome everyone to tonight's very special sheer. Of course I'm Rabbi Khazak and Baruch to think of course the show one Torah probably in stores every single week. And of course we're just almost over a little bit of over a week ago we had Shavuot and we know that the receiving of the Torah was done. He shall have a living heart with with the entire Jewish people of all backgrounds, everyone united as one. Of course every single week this sheer happens every every week every Monday night 8:30 p.m. right over here. So of course different topics of course the same great Rabbi Mendel joins us all the way from Brooklyn. So of course not only come yourself, bring your friends, bring your family except for this very special sheer of course every single week. And there's a special sheer tomorrow night Rabbi Rabbi David Lau, the former Chief Rabbi of Israel is speaking tomorrow night at 8:00 in Shevach Israel on Jamaica Estates. It's in the Young Israel of Jamaica Estates. Only about 10 minutes away from here. And tonight's sheer is being dedicated for a full shleima Moshe ben Kochava a time better Yaakov ben Adina Miriam bat Rafa should have a complete and full shleima. Amen. And also the zakar nishma in loving memory of Elio ben Bucho, Ella bat Miriam, Miriam bat Zilpa shalom and Aliya. Amen. And I've so there was there was a person right he he was he for for years he was he got inspired he saw there's on the news on WhatsApp they they they everyone's talking about the Olympics. So what does he do? Pretends to train he's like he's like I want to run 5 miles a day. He's running running running. Finally gets he gets invited to go to Beijing one of the countries to actually perform in the Olympics. And what happens? He sees there's these these these these barriers these obstacles that are in the way. So what is that what happens? He go he goes over to the official and says this is not fair. I I didn't I didn't I didn't practice for this there's obstacles get them out of the way so we can start the race. So what do you say? He said he said in order for it to be the that means there has to be obstacles. There has to be barriers in the way." And and of course in in life sometimes you just want to go to the straight way and we say, "Why does Hashem Why is this happening to me?" But of course if we have if we take the lessons that we're going to learn tonight about having the right bitachon and having the right mindset of maybe things don't go exactly as we want, but we have the right mindset with the right lens, then we'll definitely we'll we'll have the right perspective and it'll be a definitely great way of life and uh and we're going to call upon our our Rabbi Bender, of course, give us the right perspective, the right lens on >> So, you know what after that? I don't think I need to speak anymore. I say it's chalos. You covered it for tonight. Beijing, Beirut Hopefully not Beirut. Okay? >> [laughter] >> Baruch Hashem, we're meeting each other since 2 weeks already. We didn't get a chance to see each other since after Shavuot. I want to It happens to be that uh Rabbi Bender touched on a few points that actually I want to talk about tonight and I think that if we get into these topics, we'll understand in the end how all these things correlate. >> Which Yom Tov? >> We just came out of Shavuot. I haven't seen you guys since then. I know it's been a week. I haven't seen you guys since then. We came out of this immense holiday. And you're counting up to the holiday every day. 1 2 3 and you know that every day you're supposed to work Mishnah Pirkei Avot, 48 different levels and every day we're working on another level and we're growing and there's excitement and it's building and the day is finally coming. And the week of you have cold feet, you're like, "Oh, it's it's going to be tonight." I don't know if I At least for the men cuz you have to stay up all night and you're like, "Oh, it's like I had I had to speak Shavuot night twice. I had to go speak at Shavuot night twice. So, you know, in the middle of the night at 2:00 in the morning to speak is not 9:00 at night. You know what it is to keep a crowd entertained at 2:00 in the morning? It's not easy. It's a lot of pressure. You're coming in, you're having this aliyah of excitement. And then you finish, you're praying in the morning in the morning, you pray Shacharit, you come home, you go to sleep, you wake up, if you're lucky at 12:00, yeah, maybe 1:00, you wake up, and you have a little chag, Yom Tov. And then, holiday is over. So, now what? There's this momentum. And now what? And I think the greatest example of this is like imagine a chatan vakallah. Husband and wife, whoever is married, Hashem will want this feeling. Whoever is not, Hashem will get married this year. Amen. Now, when you have a person who has a long time been waiting to get married, especially in the system of the shivah for the woman, when you have a friend that hasn't got married for a long time, and they finally announce that they found the one. Right? It's It's exciting. So, there was a boy who was having a difficult time finding his shidduch. All of his friends, you know, this one 21, 22, 21, 20, 18, 19. One was from Syria at 16. Yeah, everyone had his own had his own thing, you know what I mean? And this guy is seeing it's taking him time, and usually at some point you get secluded out. Like you're the guy, and okay, he's not there yet, everyone's praying for you. He finally goes on a shidduch, and he finds a girl, and everybody hears that things went well, and they're looking to to go forward. If they're Ashkenazim, they're ready to do the tenaim, the conditions. If they're Sephardim, the parents already met, they did a swainy. What is it called? Swainy? I don't know. I'm not sure. Swainy can't Swainy can't really get They're ready to go. So, what happens now? Everybody's excited for the day, they're counting down the day. So, he's excited, it's finally coming, the day is coming, and he's counting, and he's doing everything he can. The wedding finally comes, beautiful wedding, everything's amazing. They have the next day they wake up shivah brachot. By the way, we don't have tachanun after shivah brachot for a few days, shivah brachot. So, they have simcha after the wedding. And then afterwards, they have shivah brachot. Every night with a different celebration, friends are over, family. And then all of a sudden everything stops. So, the guy comes to the guy and he says to the guy, "Rabbi, there was so much excitement and momentum coming here. And now now what?" Now the wedding is over, the counting is over, we're not we were the day Now what? So, I would told him, "Now you build." Now you build. When you coming to Shavuot, we're getting to the place where we are we we come to the level where we're fit to accept the Torah. We get the Torah. It's the highest reach the peak. We reach the pinnacle. And then we come off of that. Now what? You have this feeling of now what am I supposed to do? Now you build. Right? It's like a dose brings down that every year we're judged on Shavuot how much Torah we're going to have for the next year. Every year on this holiday Hashem re-marries us. We re-marry the Torah. And everybody knows in marriage the first and most important year is shana aleph. The first year. Why is that? It's because it's the year they build the foundation. The year they filled they filled they build the foundation of their marriage. I'm going to tell you this agav, side note, just because I mentioned this concept here. A lot of people in the world said I didn't want to rub they became very prominent to date for long periods of time before getting married. And the reason why even if you have to have a according to nature it's not the right thing to do is because when a husband when a man and a woman build a foundation they build a foundation in their home when they have shared responsibilities. They're in a house together now. They have responsibilities, there's food, there's kids. So, they build a reality together which works together. But when the husband when he lives at home with his parents and she lives at home with her parents they don't have any shared responsibilities then their foundation is built on a life of no responsibilities. They meet whenever they want, they go whenever they want, they do whatever they want. And then they date for a period of time and the foundation was built crooked. And then they tried to build a house, and everyone ends up happening, the house collapses. Because once there was responsibilities hit, it's like, "Wait a minute, I didn't sign up for this. Wait a minute, I didn't expect this. Wait a minute, when we were dating, you didn't tell me." Some people don't understand, they think that it's a scary thing, the shidduch process. I always tell people, "Give me a resume." Resume, rabbi, I don't know what it As if it's something so scary, so far-fetched. Like as if that they don't have today a matrimonial dating app. What's the difference if it's printed on a piece of paper or virtual? You have a a thing. And you know what? And I spoke about it in the past with the importance of it, but shanah is the most important years because you're building the foundation of your relationship. You're building what will be your home. You're building the the connection between the husband and the wife and their joint responsibilities, how they work together. When a man comes into the house with the woman, he doesn't know all of these things that he needs to do. And therefore, when the foundation isn't built right, when they come in from the beginning, and they build together, she tells them, "Look, I need you to be this type of way, and I need help with this and this and this and boundaries and And then they'll have a happy marriage. It'll be much easier for them because they set the right responsibilities, they have guidelines, and everything is set up the right way. The first year is the most important year because they're building the foundation. They're building the foundation of the marriage, and every single year we remarry the Torah every year. So, every year is our first shanah, shanah rishonah. Right now, we're in shanah alef. Right now, we're in the first year of our marriage to the Torah. And yes, the marriage is exciting and the engagement process and the picking out the flowers and picking out the dress, and all those things are very exciting, but they're not when you're building your relationship with your spouse. The building happens after the fact. So, right now, we're in a state of building. Right now is where we're building the foundation of relationship with the Torah. And how do we build this foundation? What is the pillar of the foundation a person needs in order to get to to the proper relationship with What is the proper foundation he needs to have? And in this I want to bring you a proof from the Torah. We just came out of Naso and Bamidbar. Over there counts the Jewish nation. But counts the Levi'im, the Levite tribe, separately. Says the Midrash, Bamidbar Rabbah, Moshe Rabbenu was concerned. He said, "Why are you counting them separately? Maybe they have a blemish." Moshe Rabbenu said, "Maybe the Levi'im are something is wrong with them. They're not counting them with everybody else." And reassured him, he says, "No. I separated this nation for myself because they're the ones who are going to do the in the Mikdash. They're the ones who are going to be the They're the ones who are going to do all the and therefore I will count them separately. They're going to carry the Aron, the Parochet, everything. All these things we're going to see in a minute. And therefore I'm counting them separately, not because something is wrong with them, rather to show you their elevated status." And the Midrash tells something very interesting. What does it tell us? It tells us that tells Moshe Rabbenu everyone else was counted from 20 and up. The Torah says from 30 till 50 the Levites were counted, but the Midrash tells us that they were counted from birth. From as little as a few days, few weeks. So Moshe says, "How am I going to know how many Levites there are in their houses? It's not appropriate. Imagine now I come to your house. A rabbi comes knocking at your door, "How many are you in there?" Moshe Rabbenu said, "It's not Oh, yeah, I'm going to go to people's houses now, standing outside of the tent trying to count. It's not It's not nice. I'm going to go to people's houses now. I'm Moshe Rabbenu, not that Moshe Rabbenu was the most humble person that ever lived. He would have done it, but it just wasn't for the Torah, for the rabbi to be standing outside of your house to ask you how many babies you have in the house." says, "Don't worry. You go to the tent. You just stand outside. Don't even knock on the door. I'll tell you who's how many are in there." So Moshe Rabbenu went to the tent and he heard a bat kol, a heavenly voice come out and say eight. Okay, eight in this house. Next, nine, 10 and so on and so forth. What was he teaching Moshe Rabbeinu? Lo alecha hamlacha ligmor ve'ein ata ben chorin l'hivatel mimena. The Mishna in Pirkei Avot says, it's not for you to finish the job, however, you're not exempt from trying. Hashem tells Moshe Rabbeinu to do the maximum effort you can possibly do and I'll do the rest. Go and stand outside of the tent. But according to the teva, according to nature, just standing outside of the tent I'm not going to get the numbers. Hashem says, don't worry, divinely intervention, I will take care of the rest. And so too it is when a person lives his life with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And I'll tell you even further, Bnei Kehat, the family of Kehat, which were the ones who are the highest elevated level, they were the ones who were in charge of carrying the Aron. They had the highest job, three brothers. Three brothers they were in the Levi family. You know who they were? You had Gershon, Kehat, and Merari. Three brothers. However, interestingly enough, Hashem switches the orders of Kehat and Gershon. He takes the older brother and puts him in the middle and takes the middle brother and puts him on the top. He counts him first. Says the Midrash, what happened over here? The Midrash answers because Kehat was the one who held onto the Aron, Hashem elevated his status. Hashem counted him first even though he wasn't a bechor because he was the one who held onto the Aron. He was the one who carried the holy ark. The holy Aron. Now listen to this. This is where I was trying to get to. And we're going to get there in a minute. I want to just talk about a point in that as well, remind me. Or they also have to tell we'll see in a minute. Three brothers. And I want you to know, Chazal teach us that when a parent names a child, Hashem gives them a little bit of ruach hakodesh. Everybody's name has a reasoning. Whatever your name is is mamash shayach to your purpose in the world. If your name is Gavriel, if your name is Binyamin, and so on and so forth. That's why I do not like, I'm telling you personally, I don't like when people use nicknames. Because it's mutima mazal shelim. And this is not only I write, I talk about it. That when you go to the they call you Israel. When they give you a name, your name is your dusha. And therefore if you give a kid two names, you have to use both names. You call him Yakov Israel, Meir Israel. So you have to call him by his names. All my children Leah, Yakov and Chaya. I don't give them two names. Why don't I give them two names? Because no one's going to call them by those two names. And I'm to call all of my children by their name. So because that's their mazal. Your mazal is in your name and your name has a direct origin of who you are. Hashem gave your family divine your parents divine intervention when they named you because your name like for example, what's my name? My first name? Huh? It's Ma'or. What's Ma'or mean? Light. Not because I give light to the world, huh? So I said oh you see Ma'or Ma'or. I said well you're not reading it right. It's Ma'or. What does that mean? Ma'or. Where you place emphasis. Ma'or. This guy's light. This guy's light. >> [laughter] >> This what? Light? No. They see me and say this guy's light. Light. But it means that there's a in the name. And every person same thing. So too Hashem gave every single one of these tribes a name. Kehat Gershon, Merari. What is Kehat? Kehat was the one who held the Aron. He was on the highest level. This is the one who's right now you're holding on to every single one of them has an with Hashem. Every single one of them has a job in Hashem's life. What does that mean? Every single one of them has a purpose in reality. Sometimes you're going to be Kehat. You're going to be holding on to the Aron. You're going to feel hot. You're going to feel excitement. You're going to feel motivated. That's Kehat. Kehat. That's what someone told me in English. Kehat, I'm hot. I didn't realize that until after he told me that. But yeah, you're hot right now. You're holding onto the Aron. And Gershon, what was their job? They held onto the curtains. What is the word Gershon? Yeshu. They kind of distanced me. Yeshuti. They moved me back. Someone is holding onto the curtain now. And Merari, bitter. And what was their What did they hold? Merari. What were they holding? What did they carry? The pillars. Merari were in charge of of holding the pillars. The foundation. Make. Sometimes in life you're going to feel hot. Sometimes you're going to feel pushed back. And sometimes you're going to feel like my life is bitter. Guess what? That bitterness is the foundation. Is the pillars of the Torah. You don't get to the point of Kehat of holding onto the Aron if you're never with Merari. At the bitterness in those moments of your life is Hashem telling you right now, I'm growing you. I'm advancing you. I'm taking you to the next level. And that's why it's the pillar. You ever seen a pillar of a house? Are they pretty? Are beams pretty? Pillars are the most unbeautiful thing, the most non-beautiful thing in the whole in the whole house. And most of the time you don't see them. Where are the pillars over here? Anyone see any pillars? They cover them up. They put them away. Why? Cuz nobody sees them. But what happens if I take out one of the pillars? What happens? The building collapses. So Merari could be the least pretty thing in the whole entire world. Yeah. It could be the thing that doesn't make any sense. Yeah, I was tired. No. Those moments are the pillars of your life. Those are the times when you build the foundation of your relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu in the difficult moments. In the hard times is when you build a relationship with Hakadosh Baruch Hu. And then slowly you make your way from Merari to Kehat to Gershon. But you have to know who is the one who's carrying you. Says the message of Sota, when they carry the Aron, how do they carry it? You were so on those pictures, illustrations. Yeah, you have like the the four beams and one is carrying like this, another one like that. So, the make it hot, everyone had to be facing it. So, the one in the front were walking like this. No one could have their back turned to that one. That's how they would carry it. Everyone would carry with their face facing the Aron. How much did the Aron weigh? Huh? Says the message of Sota, it was weightless. >> So, >> Weightless. What is it weightless? They didn't carry it, it carried them. What does that mean? Whenever they held on to the Aron, the Aron lifted them up. Sounds weird. Sounds a little bit far fetched, whatever. Well, let me tell you a story that comes down in Yeshua Ben Nun, you mean. You guys know Yeshua Ben Nun, right? Yeshua Ben Nun was the one who took over after Moshe Rabbeinu. He's the one who brought the Jewish nation into Eretz Yisrael. It was the 10th of Nissan, 2,488, 40 years after Matan Torah Tino. Yeshua Ben Nun is comes to Yarden. You know what Yarden is? Jordan. Now, the Jordan in the spring time, you know, the river is roaring downstream. The Jewish nation says, "How are we going to get through? Oy oy oy, how are we going to pass?" Yeshua Ben Nun Ben Nevuah, in godly intervention, he tells the Kohanim, "Take the Aron from the Levi'im, even though they normally carry it, you carry it now. And Hashem is going to show you guys a miracle now that you will know that Hashem will be with you as you cross this river, and you will be goyish, you will take out all the people from this land, and you will get the land that Hashem promised you from the creation of the world. This will be your land, you have nothing to fear." Kohanim take the Aron, they put their feet, their toes touch the water. All of a sudden, like a wall, boom, the downstream stops. And they have wet, dry land. Yeshua tells everybody to pass except for the Kohanim. Everybody crosses to the west side of west bank of the Jordan. And then, the Kohanim are sitting over there with the Aron on the other side. Joshua ben Nun tells them to take off your leg. They take off their legs, the stream goes down again. How are we going to get across now? How are the Kohanim going to get across now? This is what Rashi brings down. The Aron picks them up in the air and carries them over to the other side of the river to show them the miraculous way. Says the Tiferes Tzion, "Masha madim, something amazing." He says, "This is what we actually get to see before with our own eyes a time when Hashem carried us and we didn't carry him." What does it mean? The Torah carries us, we get to see what the Gemara in Sotah tells us, we get to see with our own eyes. The Jewish nation saw when the Kohanim were picked up by the Aron and and taken over the Jordan. And he says, "Take it even a step further." Wow, this is masha masha madim. Everyone pay attention what the Tiferes Tzion says in the Pri Yemidrash. Shemot Rabbah. He says four things Hashem commanded us to do. He tells the Mikdash to carry the Aron. Carry the Aron. Why? Because every one of the things Hashem asked us to do in this world are only small manifestations of whatever Hashem does with the world itself. Hashem tells Mikdash, "Carry the Aron the same way I carry the world." Hashem tells the Kohanim and the Leviim to guard the Mishkan the same way guards the world. He tells them light the menorah the same way I light the world. He tells bring korbanos on the altar the same way I sustain the world. Here's the Tiferes Tzion. All of these things Hashem told you to do in this world, even though he doesn't need you to, every single one of these things are only a small manifestation of what Hashem does with the world in order to teach you that everything you do is not for Hashem. "I don't need you to carry the Aron. I don't need you to light the menorah. I don't need you to bring sacrifice. I don't need you to pray. I don't need you to come. I don't need you to do anything. Hashem doesn't need you to do anything. Hashem tells you, "Guess what? I can do it all by myself, but I don't want to. I want you to do these things, but not for me, for you. Cuz when they're carrying that on, they don't realize they think they're carrying that on. They're one is really carrying them. When you come to shul, you come to shul Torah, you think you're carrying the Torah on your shoulders now? No, the Torah is carrying you. Every single you do in life, when you make a bracha, you think you're carrying the Torah? You think you're carrying the bracha? No, the bracha is carrying you. When you live a life of Torah, that becomes a shira. That becomes your guidance. That becomes what helps you in life. I gave you something amazing, good lecha. It's two ways to pronounce lecha. I gave you something amazing. Don't leave it. Why? Not because Hashem benefits anything, because you benefit anything. But we have to know that we're the ones on Hashem's back, that Hashem is the one who's carrying us. And therefore, in those moments of worry, in those moments we feel bitter, we feel like, "Hashem, where did you go? How did you leave us? What happened?" We have to understand that is with us in these moments. And about those are the moments we're growing the most. Those are the moments he's lifting us up. We can only understand is the one who's is the one who's holding us. The Maggid of Dubno. You guys heard of the Maggid of Dubno? The Maggid of Dubno was famous for always having a parable for everything. I think I told you guys last week how he always had a parable. I won't say the story again. I want to show you everyone has a sefer called Mishlei Yaakov on the parasha. He always brings out parables. It's amazing to see it. Every time I see it, it's as if something how he thought about these things is amazing. He was a mind of a genius. He said there was once a rich man walking in the along the way. In the times, there was no cars. There were horses and chariots. And the rich man goes around the way. And he's going through this trail on his horse with his chariot and he has his rider and and he's in the back. And they see this popper, poor man, sitting on the side of the road. So, the rich man has a hamim. He says, "I have feel feel bad for the guy. Let's give him a ride." So, the guy, poor popper popper, he gets into the carriage and he's sitting over there with the guy and he's holding his bag on his back. So, halfway to the way they driving they riding they riding they riding they riding the rich man looks at the poor man and says that, "Why don't you take off your book bag? Put it on the floor. Put it somewhere over here. Put it on the chair." He goes, "No, no, I don't want to add any anything more on you. You guys already helped me out so much. I don't want to put the weight of my bag on you as well." The rich man tells the poor man, "Are you crazy? >> [laughter] >> You're already here. What is he going to help you holding the bag? Just put the bag down. Anyways, we're holding the weight." This is like a mashal for a person in life who thinks he's carrying himself. I goes to you already gave me life, but this burden I'm going to go says you're already standing in my carriage. You're already standing on my shoulders. You're already with me. Just put the bag down. But the reason we get to the places of we get to the difficulties in life because we think we're holding the bag. I should just put the bag down. Put the bag down. You're in my carriage. You put it down. This is the beginning of the we should not be like this this foolish popper. I goes to you I'm holding you. You're in my carriage now. I'm lifting you. I'm carrying you. Put the bag down. But instead when struggles come our way when difficulty come our way we don't allow ourselves to run away from it. I mean, we don't allow ourselves to put the bag down. We allow it to fester and sit and cause us more pain and anguish and make our lives more difficult because we think that we're holding the bag. But the minute we realize that who is the one who's holding that we're holding on to and he's the one who's carrying us, then we realize that the only answer we have in life is to hold on to that one. And the way you get out of me is you go to Gershon and then you get to Kohath. What does that mean? There's steps. First things first, you have to you feel like I'm in me, I feel bitter. Then you have to realize, wait a minute, it's not bitter. So, what did you just get to now? You upgraded to Gershon, Gershon, you're a little bit further away. And only then can you reach the level of Kohath, which is upholding onto that one. We all have these moments in our life. We're going to feel motivated, we're going to feel driven, we're going to feel amazing, we're going to feel like we're holding onto that one because I feel like I am with you. I feel like I am close to you. And by the way, cuz our teachers, you know what they can have used to do when they're holding that one? They would sing songs. You know why? To resemble Malachei Hashareit, the ministering angels of God. They show you the same way Hashem, they're close to you up there, we're close to you down here. A person who knows that he's carrying that one, and that one is really carrying him, reaches a place where he can sing to Kodesh Baruch Hu. Tov l'hodos l'Hashem. Constantly, every day. To pray to Kodesh Baruch Hu, to sing to Kodesh Baruch Hu, because you're close to him. And the way you get closer is to come to these things. When we separate ourselves, when we make ourselves go away, we think that I'll tell you a beautiful chiddush. This week's parashah talks about Behaalotecha. What is Behaalotecha? It doesn't say hadlakatecha. It doesn't say when you light. It says when you uplift. Says the Pnei Me'orot, he brings Kad HaZal, Rashi brings it. Why does it say when you rise up? Because there was a step they had to rise up to. Says the Pnei Me'orot, Baal HaChassidut, he brings down in Chassidut languages that what was this step that a person needs to step up to? He says Yirat Hashem. Before a person can get to the place where he's the menorah, he has to get to Yirat Hashem. And therefore, when the Torah says seven menorahs, he says over there talking about what? That the seven days of the week draw the success and the sustenance from where? From Shabbat. Because on Shabbat, a person is to get the Hashem awareness of God, which is dragged itself to the whole entire week. Now, on this point Okay? This is what the This is what the 9 says. On this point I want to say specifically the day that the in the eyes of people is the most difficult day. Is the most restricted day. Is the day that you can't do exactly what you want. Is the day that the rest of the week draws sustenance from. It's specifically specifically from the E from the limitation, from the difficulty, where you draw sustenance to the heart. It's from when things are difficult, that's when you grow. That's when you take it to the next level. And that's what is giving you new souls. A new face came here. But you have to go through it. But when you understand that I'm here now, put down the bag. Stop holding on to it. Let go. I wrote down this a long time ago. One of my favorite E. One of my favorite parables. There was a guy walking in a snowy path. And he starts to notice that next to him he's seeing footsteps. He's walking and he sees footsteps. He gets afraid. Oh, what's going ON? WHO'S OVER HERE? ANYBODY? OH, WHAT'S GOING ON? AND THEN HE HEARS A HEAVENLY VOICE COME OUT FROM HEAVEN. He says, "Oh, it's me, I'm walking with you. I'm walking with you." Okay, you're walking with me. Thank God. And they walk and they walk. And all of a sudden the lion comes. And the lion starts coming to attack. And he looks down and he only sees his one footstep. So, he screams at the shamayim and says, "Hashem, how come you left me in my moment of need?" Hashem tells him, "You're mistaken, my boy. The footsteps you see are not yours, they're mine. You're standing on my shoulders." You hear me? When difficult times come in our lives, we think, "Hashem, why did you leave me?" Hashem is telling you, "I didn't leave you. The reason you only see two footsteps is because you're standing on my shoulders." Close. The problem is that we don't know that. We have to put down the bag. We have to let go in those moments and have the faith. That by holding on to the Torah Hashem says, "This Torah that you think you're uplifting now, it's really uplifting you." This avodah that you think you're doing now, you think it's uplifting, you're lifting if you think that you're doing something with it, you're doing A person who lives a life I told the guy today, a guy that was a working guy, full-time working guy, he left everything went to yeshiva. Comes to me today and tells me, "Abba, I don't know, it's very difficult, it's very hard. My family, my this, my that." I told him, I heard one time Rabbi Elimelech he says beautifully, we know that Torah was meyuchas was given to who? The Levi'im. That who? The ones in Egypt? Who are the ones who went to war? The ones who never became slaves? The Levi'im. The Torah is meyuchas to Levi'im. Comes Rabbi Elimelech and he asks the Rebbi Pesach, "What do we tell the kids to do with the afikoman?" To steal it. We tell them, "We're going to hide it, you find it and steal it away. And if you want to if if you ask for it back, we have to give you presents. Oh, I'm going to buy you next week a toy." What are we teaching the kid? To steal? In the Pesach, now we're teaching you to steal. You know, your lesson for Pesach is be a ganav. Not only you're a ganav, you're a ganav in ganav cuz I also was a ganav when I was your age. >> [laughter] >> You have seen you teaching him to steal? So he brings a question to the Rambam that he says what are you teaching him to steal? The Torah. So you're right, I'm not a Levi. But I can be a Levi. How? By learning the Torah. Anyone who learns he brings the Rambam, anyone who learns Torah becomes a Levi. Anyone who learns the Torah gets the ethos. But you can own it there. Steal it. Embrace it. I told you you're on what an honor it is. You know what a scoot it is? So you steal it, you embrace it, you have it. It's the best thing you could possibly ever have. But it's difficult. This is the mega lady. This is the difficult moments of your life. But guess what? When you overcome this, that's when everything becomes more sunny. But first things first you have to overcome the difficulty. If you look throughout history, all of the greatest people in the world always had difficulty in their lives. Even Hacham Ovadia, when he came out with Sefri Hilchot Olam and the Ben Ish Hai, there was Rabbis in Eretz Yisrael who would burn his Sefarim in the streets. They would take his books and they would burn them. And Hacham Yitzhak would come to Abba and say Abba Koev, it hurts to see people coming and burning Maran's Sefarim, Abba's Sefarim. Not random people now, more Am Haaretz, guy doesn't know nothing. Rabbanim Chashuvim, big Rabbis in Eretz Yisrael are coming and taking your books and burning them. Maran told them this is Mishna Pirkei Avot. Kol Machloket Leshem Shamayim, Sofah Lehitkayem. Any Machloket that's for the right purposes, Sofah Lehitkayem, its end will continue. He says you're going to see there's going to be a time when I leave this world after 120, when Maran after leaving this world, there will not be a Shul in the whole entire world that will not be one of my books in it. Until today you're never going to find a not one in the world. In the whole entire world, doesn't matter if they're about or if they ask, doesn't matter who they are, they don't have at least one safer of Maran. To prove that all the he was in Shamashamai. And today we see it. Everyone in the world has moments of his life, especially when you want to do something good, there's always going to be pushback. There's always going to be people telling you, "Don't, no, this, that." How many times? But guess what? When you're the one who perseveres, how many people are we know? Think about it right now. Think about your friend group. Think about people who who who became more religious and everyone started laughing at them. "Bro, come out. You going to Come out. You're not going to come and play Shabbat and play basketball now with us. Oh, the big rabbi, the big rabbi." They love to make jokes. But guess what? Fast forward in 10 years, that same guy who was the big rabbi, the big rabbi, actually is the big rabbi. And guess what? Who's calling him for questions and answers? "Rabbi, I'm struggling." Who is that? The same guy who told him, "Rabbi, you're not going to come and play basketball with us on Shabbat." Yes. I tell you my circle you. This is something that happens every single day. It's the ones who hold themselves accountable. The ones who take themselves in their hands and say, "You know what? I'm responsible for my reality." If I'm not me, if I'm not for myself, then who will be for me? And therefore, it's my responsibility to hold on to Torah. When I hold on to Torah, the Torah is uplifting me. And everyone else in the world laughs, and he has his bitterness, but guess what? Through that bitterness, through that difficulty now everyone is telling me something and giving me comments, from that will come the biggest growth. From that I'm going to reach the heart. From that I'm going to reach to the place where I'm holding on to the own. So, every single one of us are looking for the issue. And that's how we get there. We get there, like Robbie said in the beginning, with the obstacles. That's how we do it. That's how we overcome, that's how we grow, and specifically in those difficult moments where Sham gives you all the issue that you need. That's when opens up for everything. Therefore, don't run away from that adversity. Embrace it. And say, you know what, right now I'm no problem. Now I'm going to move up the ladder to get strong. I know that I'm with you. Until I get to I realize I'm holding on to that one. Really, that one is holding on me. Then I can let go of the bag that I've been holding on to this whole time and realize really I'm not alone here. I'm on your shoulders and this burden is not on me. And that's where the issue comes. That's where the salvation of every single person in life comes. When he realizes these things. And therefore, every time in your life when you find yourself in a difficult tell yourself, I'm growing from this. I'm growing from this. I can't wait to see. Someone is different when something difficult you should be happy. Should be elated. You understand? You think that is a no? Every time a guy something bad that comes his way, you think he's crazy and the heck is he's thinking and he's dancing, he's happy. So, what's going on with you? I You know why I'm happy? Because I know that if this is what's coming to me, wow, I can only imagine what is being done in Shamayim. He's not thinking about today. He's thinking about wow, if this is what's coming now, then guess what's going to be tomorrow. When you realize that every time in your life when there was a little bit of bitterness, it was only for you to get to get to the point where you're holding on to that one. Then those moments come and you're happy. Cuz you're growing from them. That's how we elevate our self. That's it. That's how we go up that level. Specifically when we do the things that seem difficult, that's how we grow in life. That's what wants from us. That's what he wants from every single one of us. And not for ourselves. I mean, not for for ourselves. Everything we do is not for him, it's for us. So, says take this responsibility, hold on to it. You're coming at a now. Now it's your year to build. Now it's your time to build your relationship with me. Make your commitments. Build your structure of the day. Build your times. Build your in. But build. Build. Don't leave everything up in the air. I have a class this night. I'm doing this. I'm doing that. I'm doing that. I'm building the foundation of our marriage. And so to every single year, that's how we grow in the Torah. It's exactly what we're doing now. The magic may have faded. We feel like we already passed it all. No. Now it's time that we actually build the foundation of our marriages, which will give us everlasting happiness.