Rabbi Maor Bendel & Rabbi Tomer Zino | Bringing the Light of Chanukah into the Year

Hey, good evening. Welcome everyone to tonight's very special shir. We all we all just got inspired by the great holiday, the great of of Kanuka. And of course, it was such a inspirational um brought so much light to our lives and the community and the Jewish and the entire world. And of course, the night after Kaneka, right after Zaneka, one of the holiest, one of the greatest days of the entire year. And that's why we're all here tonight to to get that. How do we take that light of the Kaneka and bring it throughout the entire year so that it won't just be an 8-day experience, it could be a 365day experience and for for many more years to come. So tonight we have the great great honor to hear from first from Mora Bendel followed by one of the Rabanim over here, Rabbi Tominoth Kazakth Gabrio and of course Ro. We thank you everyone for joining us tonight. And uh when when there's when you talk about the light there's one thing that always comes to my mind by Ellie Mensor he says that there was a guy there's a mushel there's a guy he's working for the Khan Edison he's in charge of the entire lights of all the city he sits there from 900 p.m. until 9:00 a.m. He's sitting there he's in charge of the entire switchboard. So what happens? He gets bored. What is he going to do? What is how much was there to do? He looks at all the 500 buttons there and everything. What's that much to do? So what does he do? He takes out a book and he's he's reading. He's reading. He's reading what happens at midnight. So all of a sudden he hears boom the entire city there's there's there's no lights in the entire city. After a few minutes he sees there's looting, there's robbing, stabbing. What's so what does he say? What is people come to him? They say what are you going to do? So he's in charge of entire switch. What does he do? He takes out he takes out he takes out a little flashlight continues reading and he says okay I'm good. But he's good. He has his light. He's good. But what happens? No, he's in charge of the entire switchboard. So, he has to he has to he has to do something about it. So, each of us in our lives, we got inspiration. We got the light in our hopefully we we we came to Shir and we came to family events that that that that were increasing in our Torah mitzvot and through for Hanukkah but we have to say to ourselves what are we going to do to bring that light not only to our own lives through throughout the entire year to come but of course to the to our fellow brothers and sisters our friends our our neighbors relatives bring them light um throughout the year so and somebody who's doing that hashem is the great rabbi rabbel That's our eyes. >> It's a beautiful opening words. I'll tell you the truth. This morning I woke up. Now I don't know uh if anyone has kids in yeshiva, but the kids didn't have school today, but my wife still had work. So that means three kids at home with me. So I want to see you guys try preparing a sh with three kids running around. Not so easy. But said to the Shaya, he helps every single person in the world when he needs it. And this morning, I had a thought in my mind of what I'm going to prepare the class and what I'm going to write about. And I started writing down notes in the morning. As soon as I woke up after prayer, I came home. I opened up my notebook and I started writing down notes. And in my notes, in my notes, I wrote down a shu something that was on my mind. And in the evening when my wife came home, I sat down on my notebook and I started writing and I wanted to expound on the words I wrote in the morning and for some reason some way somehow my mind took me completely different direction. My mind took me somewhere else completely and I started writing and writing and writing and writing and prepared a completely different sh. So therefore I want to share with you guys a conversation that I had with myself today. something that was bothering me my heart told me this is what I want this is what you have to write and I'm going to share with you guys happened to be I checked with my wife beforehand I said you think it's okay she said it's okay so will be okay said in the beginning this morning this night marks the end of Kanuka today the morning was the last day the eighth and final day of Kanuka now everyone is already going home, putting away the kanukia, taking down the stickers, taking down all the posters, taking out everything going away, and they're getting ready to move on with the year. But the reality is is that Kaneka doesn't end when the holiday ends. The war doesn't stop when we stop lighting the candles. It's a war that presses on every single day of our life. We have now this time of the year specifically, we're coming into the months where for many many people it's very difficult. Why? Because they look out into the world and they see these beautiful lights and these beautiful trees and the light shows and the songs. You go to the supermarket, they're playing these songs and all types of different things, externalities that are pulling you in. And the corporations, what they've did is they spent millions of dollars to instill into people this feeling of nostalgia, this feeling of uh this holiday, this thing, and they put so much money in it and they started to send it out into the world. And we see that these western society ideas that were started from the from the Greeks started to penetrate into us. They did such a good job selling these things and making people so invested into it. They convinced the goim. They did such a good job. They convinced them to wait on hour long lines for their kids to sit on a random old man's fat elderly man's stomach wearing a red coat. Any other time of the year, there would be charges. But this time of the year, we're all going to wait in line for hours for our kids to sit on this random person's lap and tell him, "Oh, by the way, what do you want this year? Oh, I want this. Can this guy get it for them?" No. So even they know what they're doing is irrational. So why they doing it? Or they tell them, you know what, tonight you guys are going to put cookies on the table and a glass of milk and he's going to come down the chimney. Who's going to come down the chimney? Most people don't even have chimneys nowadays. When's the last time you bu the house out of the chimney? And they still put up these things. Who eats it? The dad comes home in the middle of the night and he eats. But they convinced them. Such a good job selling it that they convinced them. But the question we have to ask ourselves is, did they get into our homes? Did they make it into our homes or not? >> No. Huh? Let me ask you guys a question. We have to re ourselves right now. When you're when you were a kid, when you were a child or if you have children, when they lost a tooth, did you put under the pillow and tell them, "Oh, you're going to go to sleep tonight and you're going to get a visit from the tooth fairy." Me a tooth fairy. I didn't see any about a tooth fairy. No midrash. Nowhere in the Torah talks about a tooth fairy. How did the Jewish people get an idea of a tooth fairy? What's the origin of this tooth fairy? Where did it come from? You know what's the origin of the tooth fairy? Many many many years ago during the medieval times they used to believe in witchcraft. So they would say if you lose a tooth a witch would come and use it against you. So they would bury it and put it in the ground. So western society took that and said, "Yo, we can market this and make money." Huh? We can make money from this. Right. So what are we going to do? We're going to make it into the children's story. Yeah. Yeah, you go to sleep at night and they put you $20,000 under the pillow and they marketed it and they made shows and they made this and they made that. It's all about making money. Think about it. They took the coldest season of the year in New York where it should be the slowest time and they have people traveling from all over the world to come to a freezing cold to wait in the 3 hours in the soul to see a tree with lights. DO IT IN YOUR BACKYARD. NO, NO, NO. The magic of New York City. My magic as a magic. They put a guy in a red coat with a white be. This is the magic of New York City. But the question is is did it make it into our houses? This idea of the tooth fairy. How did it get here? How does how do we know what that is? And I was thinking about it today, which is something we have to be real with ourselves every single day of the year. We're going to fight these battles and these changes. My wife told me today one of her friends she grew up with. She never know. She saw a posting online something about I have been waiting all this year, all year for this season. What season? How does the Jew talk this way? You know the they so much wanted to take away our Judas from us. They didn't care. Didn't care if you stayed alive. All he wanted to do was take away your Judaism to instill in you their values. And it didn't end with them. They continue till today. They're not trying to take away our values. You don't go to the super market and hear the songs. You don't go into the street and see all the lights. T I'm going uh on a trip. Where you going? Oh, there's a nice light show in uh this neighborhood. You drive by with the cars and everyone has the lights and they put up these balloons. All they call me and we're going over there. I didn't say anything. I didn't say any. And they go, "Oh, Rabbi, don't be fanatic. It's nice. It's beautiful. But we don't realize that these small things, these small little things, that's how they penetrate into us. You know, our great-grandfathers, our great-grandparents, they fought and risked their lives to uphold Jewish ideologies in their home. And it's not so far away. On the same note, you go to the Soviet Union and how many people that came from the Soviet Union that Judaism was stolen from them. It was stolen from them. You have people today, Jewish people who have in their house something called quote unquote kanakabush. Mazanabush mazanabush. Where did it come from? They infiltrated. They came into our houses. They came into our houses. Our grandparents fought desperately for this. They risked their lives and somehow they made it into our houses. You have Jews doing these things and they fought. Or you have people who were in Soviet Union. They stole from them their grandchildren. What do you see? They're secular, not religious at all, but they have a on the door. Or they keep Passover. They don't eat or they eat a little bit of matzah, but they eat afterwards and outside of the house. Or they keep yon, but they're on the phone. Something. Why? Because their great-grandparents fought. And if you're real yourself, you meet anyone in the world, whether he's Jewish, religious, I mean Jewish, religious or not, you'll see that if they go back two, two generations, they'll find someone in their family who was a rabbi or religious person. Has to be But it was stolen from them. You know, my wife, her family were born in the Soviet Union. They ran away to Usbekistan because of anti-semitism. And then they had to run away from anti- from Usbekistan to America from anti-semitism. Until when are we running? How long are they going to come and persecute us for being Jewish? How long are they trying to come into our house, tell us you can't be you anymore? Oh, you want to be Jewish and get out of here? Oh, we're going to kill you or we're going to get rid of you. Why? You know my my wife's grandmother who was one of the people who they stole from her the religion when I got married to my wife her grandmother shalom who passed away who passed away she cried and told my wife I'm so happy that you're getting married the right way because it was stolen from them the Greek king what did he tell them you guys can't get married during the times of the of Kanuka they told him you guys cannot get married with tuba One of the things they took away from them. It was stolen from them. And people, what are they doing today? They're giving it away for what? People risk their life to uphold Jewish family, Jewish values in their home. And people are giving it away today for some lights or a seasonal coffee from Starbucks. Oh, it's a pumpkin and spice. They don't realize it's the small things that penetrate into your home. to see a a fume couple going to Manhattan to go look at the tree and say it's just something beautiful to look at, but they don't realize the effect it's going to have on their children. Our great grandparents fall with everything they have inside of them their whole entire life to uphold these values and we have the ability to do for free. You know when we everyone knows the story of Yeah. When you guys grew up you guys saying you guys know the song Dreel Dreel Dre I made you out of clay. >> You heard it before or no? Where this idea of Dre come from? Many of us if not all of us heard about adre and most of us know its origin but we forgot the beginning of I didn't come to teach you anything you don't already know. I came to remind you what you allow yourself to forget. What's the origin of the drre? Our ancestors what would they use a drreal for? They would learn to which was outlawed at the time by anti with risk of death. They would sit down and learn Torah. And when the Greek soldiers would come in, they would spin the drreidles. This drrele that every single year they're upgrading new lights, new songs, now they put an extra top spinner on top. You it up and you woo and it goes crazy and the kids. But we don't we don't we don't realize that the whole point of spinning this drill is not for us to to dance to the songs that it's playing as it's spinning. The whole point of this drrele is to remind us of the sacrifices our grandfather, our great-grandparents made, our ancestors made to uphold Jewish values. They risked their lives to learn Tawa. And the drreel is supposed to remind us of that and they fought. Everyone at this point, I'm sure, heard what happened in Australia. People are dying because they're Jewish and they want us to what? Back down. They want us to hide our Judaism. I remember After October 7th, someone came to me and told me rabb should we take out. I told him, "Don't take nothing." This is exactly what they want you to do. They want you to hide your Judaism. They want you to store it away. They wanted to steal away from you the same way he stole from our our great-grandparents. They want you to say, "No, no, in the house." And what ends up happening? One generation, two generation, three generations, then you have people unfortunately are lost completely. Lost completely. How do they get there? because they allowed these ideologies to penetrate into their home. They allowed it to penetrate into their home. Think about it. How much did our ancestors sacrifice? How much persecution the Jewish nation over the years have? And we always persevered and they come and they try and they try and they try and they try. But we're the Makabim. You don't realize it. We're the Makabim. We're the few. We're the righteous. We're theim. We're the ones who are supposed to fight when they're out there trying to stop us. We're the ones who supposed to fight the same way our ancestors fought. Our great-grandparents, they risked their life, put themselves on the line to save the Jewish religion in their house to keep even something small. To keep even something small and we have to utilize the opportunity that we've been given. We have to understand what we've been given in our hands. Look in this week's Ba Vash Yuda last week at the end of last week. Whenever they find the gav the goblet in Byamin's bag, Yuda doesn't fight. He doesn't say, "Oh no, we're going to jail." He says, "We're going to go to jail. All of us, all of 11 of us are going to jail. We sinned to our master. Put us in jail." says, "God forbid only." Then this week, he comes to him in harsh words says, they told him that you're like, what was he telling him? I'll kill you and I'll kill what last week when all of you were supposed to go to jail. Okay, take us. Let's go now. Just mean, oh, I'm going to kill you. What happened? Imagine somebody owes somebody money. Your guy comes, you tell you, you owe me a million dollars. You tell I'm willing to pay a million. He says, "No, no, you don't owe me a million. Only give me $100,000." AND HE FIGHTS. NO, EXCUSE ME. I'M GOING TO KILL YOU. Give me a discount. 11. You supposed to go to jail. And only one. Why is he fighting? What did he promise his father? Doesn't want to send down to when until promises him. What does he promise him? Huh? I sing to you all of my days says all of my days also in the next world when you die here's not that his life is at risk it physical body is at risk he hears that his sh is at risk his soul's at risk he fights today our bodies are at risk some people but for the most part we go out to the day we don't have these risk every single day but what is at risk every single day of your life so when you're spiritual uality is at risk. That's when you have to fight. When your spirituality is at risk, that's when you have to fight. We come from a long line of fighters and every single one in our family fought for you to be here today. Go back. Don't believe me? Go home, ask your mom and your mom's mom. Mom, did we have uh I had a kid come to me. Kid was nothing to do religion. Go look. I told him, go home, ask your mom if her great-grandfather was a rabbi. Call me back the next day. Rabbi, how'd you know? How'd you know? I said all of us we all would all couple hundred years ago they were such a thing but it was stolen from them and they want to steal away from us they want to take it away from us and we're going to allow them to shalom shalom for anyone who hasn't heard the story tells us the story and her seven sons I'm sure you heard it 100 times I tell you one on Shabbat. I opened up the I have in my house and I was reading the story of I had to close the book. My mom saw me. She said, "Why you closing the book? I cannot read it without crying." She said, "Why you cannot read? I can't read the story without crying." You want to hear the story takes her seven sons. And he tells them, "Look guys, denounce religion. Run away from your god." The first son gets up and he tells him, "I'm stop wasting your words. Don't ramble on. If you want to kill me, kill me. I'll never give up my religion." And what does he do? He doesn't just kill him. He orders him for him to be tortured, severed, cut into pieces in front of all of his his mom and six of his siblings. And they have to sit there and watch this. And then they come to the next son, the sixth son. And he tells him, "No, after you saw this, YOU READY TO SACRIFICE YOUR LIFE OR YOU READY TO COME AND DO WHAT I TELL YOU TO DO?" He tells him, "Don't waste your words and don't skip out on me anything you did to my brother. Whatever you did to him, do exactly to be the same thing. Not one thing you skip over and kill him too." Then the fifth son, same thing. Then the fourth, then the third until they got down to the last son, the youngest son which comes to tells her, "Listen, save your only son. You only have one left. Don't reason with him. She goes to him. She pulls him to the side. This is a mother. It's not a mother. And she tells her son. She kisses him. She tells him, "I raised you in my womb 9 months. I fed you for two years and I raised you until now. I don't know what I did to marry, to have a son, to have all children who died like this. I wish and I pray that Hashem gives me the ability to be in the same place as you guys are in don't listen to a word he says accept your fate and Hashem is allowing you to die in this hashem and the kid goes exactly as mother told him and he dies against sanctity of God's name and then says she prays to Hashem let me join my children and before the last son goes she tells him go and tell you sacrificed one I sacrifice This is not talking about someone you never heard of in your life. This is a regular Jewish woman watched seven of her children sacrifice in order to keep Judaism far less than 100 years ago 1941 of in the Holocaust. He would manage to try and run away to Vna. He was caught by a few Nazi sympathizers and they held him and 12 of his students up at gunpoint. I told him, "We're going to kill you." You know what he told his students? Said, "Don't cry. Don't scream. Don't be afraid. We have the merit to die on. Let's accept our faith and thank Hashem that we were chosen to do so and let's do vi and they said as lift their body. This is less than 100 years ago. In our days, we don't have an empty slave soldiers going to risk their life. We don't have mortars every single day of our life. People living over here sacrificing life to be Jews. The story with Australia. What did they do? They kukia. They wanted to be Jewish and celebrate the Judaism. Our stories are laced with people dying because this world wants to stop you from being Jewish. They ran us out from almost every country in the world. But guess what? We can no longer run. We have to leave this Khan. Understand the message we have to take for ourselves is that we're Jewish and we're proud and no one will take it away from us. Nobody in the world will take it away from us. And we'll stand and we'll fight every single day. But the fight's not out there. The fight's in here in our hearts. The fight's in our hearts. We have to be real with ourselves. When we hear the songs and we hear these things and all these things, there's a little bit of oursel. One guy told me, "Rabbi, me, I'm completely disgusted by it." I told him, "Beautiful, but if you're going with your nature, not what you train yourself, with your nature, it's nice." He tells me, "Of course, the trees, the lights, and this, the pumpkin spice lattes, tomorrow Starbucks. You're fair. Everything looks good. How about fanatic? It's nice. Beautiful lines. green, blue, yellow, purple. Go see light show with the kids in the car. You don't realize. Some people tell you, "Yeah, Rabbi, you're being a fanatic." Maybe, but we don't realize that the small things, that's what infiltrates. It's those small moments of that one coffee that your kid sees you drinking and he says, "That smells nice." Guess what he's going to do? He's going to drink that coffee. But I don't want to drink that coffee. They take it a step further. Or he passes by to see the light show. He says, "No, so lights over here in Dikker Beach and lights in Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Same thing. What's the difference?" So I'm in the car, my mom, listen to Kanaki music, it's okay. But if I'm in Fifth Avenue, it's not okay. No. No. That's what happens. You know how he works with us? He doesn't move in in our lives fast. The bring down of a guy walking in the desert, he sees an empty house. You think he's going to bust through the door right away. Yeah, I'm here. No, what does he do? First thing first, he sees this nice mansion, beautiful white mansion in the middle of nowhere. Okay, someone lives here or not? I don't know. Beautiful mansion. Someone has to live here. So, what does he do? First thing first, he comes to the door and he knocks and then he says, "Is anybody here?" So, he opens the door and he goes, "Anybody home? Anybody home?" And nobody answers. So, what does he do? starts to tiptoe into the house and then he goes to the kitchen and he goes to the room and the bedroom and that night he sleeps in the house one eye open the next morning he wakes up he's checking checking checking after a week he changes the locks on the door to his house already like squatter squatters his mind already with you first before he comes he knocks you hear the song you hear the one you hear it good now I got you on the Now what does he do? Opens the door. Sin awaits you at the heart. It waits for one little opening. You open the door, he comes running in. One little opening. Once pumpkin sized latte, he's already waiting for you at the door. He's already waiting. And then as soon as he comes in, one, two, three, next thing you know, he takes over the whole entire house. We're leaving Kaneka. Now we have to remember it's to fight. It's a to fight this. Them didn't end there. It's today. It's out there. It's in the streets and it's in our hearts. We have to uproot it. We have to get rid of it. We have to fight it and make sure we don't pass none of it down to our children. And the same way our ancestors fought, so do we have to fight. Remember, not only they're theim we're the few, we're the strong, not strong, the weak. preparing to we're the ones who could do it. We're the ones. But it requires us to fight every single day of our life. The job doesn't stop here. Put them in away. Put the stickers away. Put everything away. But continues. We have to fight every day. And that may be to bring you brought the light. I got out of the way. Got a second chance. Um thank you so much for inspiring us for driving away from Brooklyn speakers. Rabbi Tomarina is inspires so many of us every single day through his through his guidance. Everyone please rise. One of the rabbis of the Rio. >> Good evening everyone. Welcome to bedo. Thank you for joining us on this uh very wonderful night after the wonderful holiday Hanukkah. After wonderful words from Rabbi Mor, I want to share with you now that Hanukkah is over, how we're going to take this beautiful blessing that is Hanukkah and the light and the candles, the joy, all the donuts. how we're going to take with us the entire year that little jug of oil from Hanukkah the rest of the year. If you think of Hanukkah right away, you think of miracles and we all want miracles. We all want miracles in our lives. I I would love to see a miracle every day. Why not? What does it take to get a miracle? So, you should know we just have to look in the gamarra. What does the gamar say? What is the difference to the earlier generations? They used to have open miracles. The says about his daughter was crying of Shabbat. I don't have oil for to light Shabbat candles. I only have vinegar. I made a mistake. I opened the I saw bottles thinking they were oil. It was really vinegar. He said, "Don't worry. What's the big deal? You'll light it. Hashem who said oil will burn will say vinegar will burn." And that's what happened. The says, "There was uh some animal that was killing members of his community outside the outskirts of the city. It would come out of its hole. It would bite somebody and they would die." So they said, "Rabbi, already a few people died from this. Can you do something? He goes, he show he says, "Show me where this animal is living. He sticks his leg out. The animal bites him and the animal dies." He brings it this animal to the midash. He puts it on the table and he says, "It's not the sin. It's not the animal that kills, it's the sin that kills." Miracles like upon miracles like this used to be on the daily for our great theor asks papa asked why does this happen to the previous generations and doesn't happen to us something that's such a simple answer but such a beautiful answer and this is something that we have to take away from Hanukkah with us like Mara says is because in previous generations they used to do this thing called nephesh. What's ms nephesh? Ms nephesh means where you think you can't push anymore. You can't do anymore. And you push yourself a little bit more and you say even though I don't know how I'm going to get this done, I don't know so much what I'm doing. But a person pushes himself and does the says that's why the previous generations used to have miracles. When we go above our nature will go above nature for us. But what does it mean? What type of nephesh are we talking about? We always push ourselves every day to get up out of bed. We push ourselves to go to work. We push ourselves to not say. We push ourselves to say a good word. We push ourselves to be honest in business. We push ourselves a lot. If we didn't push ourselves, we would do way worse than we are currently doing. So what does this mean? I want to hone in on what type of nephesh we're talking about specifically. The gives an example. What type of nephesh that did the older generation used to do that that they got miracles and we don't have those miracles anymore. Show me give me an example. The says here no problem. We'll give you an example. Mar says a story of Barahava Barahava was walking in the street one day and he saw a woman and he didn't know if she was she was she was in Jewish he thought she was Jewish and the says she was wearing carbala what's a carbalta it's a very expensive red cloak so in his community ladies didn't wear this type of clothing ended up that it was a breach and snoot. It was something that doesn't belong. It wasn't modest in their community. It wasn't accepted to wear such a thing. So the says he thought she was Jewish. He got up in the middle of the shook. The shook is mind you like middle of the street and hundreds of people walking around. He runs up to her kam and she ripped the cloak off of her. He took it off of her physically and he said, "This is not right what you're wearing this. What are you doing? He gave her mousar in the front in the street. Now the says, "What happened?" She found out. He found out that she's a goya. She's a koutit. She wasn't even Jewish. So he apologized. He said, "I'm so sorry. I'm I I can't believe I did that." He went and he was willing to pay damages for what he did. He damaged her garment. He embarrassed her. So they settled and he paid 400 zuzim. She asked what's your name? What he asked her what's her name? She said my name is Matun. Matun Aramaic means patience. So he said should have bid matun. Matun if I would have waited a little bit more I would have saved myself 400. Talking about a couple thousand dollars over here. But the so interestingly brings this case as ms the guy rabbi saw a lady dressed not he ran up to her he thought she was Jewish he ripped it off of her and gave her msar then he got embarrassed because he realized she's go yeah then okay so he pays her damages that's that's the ms nephesh we're talking about it's such an odd case of ms nephesh I would understand if you told me a rabbi in the yeshiva he was learning like 24 hours straight and he was dead tired. He pushed himself. I understand if you tell me a story about a rabbi or a reputin who there was poor people coming to their house and they hosted them and they didn't have food to eat and they gave them the food that they had for themselves and they didn't know where they were going to eat. I understand mish like that. But this kind of story sounds like a like a hashem story. That's what it sounds like. It sounds like these this radical rabbi ran in the street and started yelling at ladies not dressing. It sounds like a story we don't want to repeat. So I saw a beautiful the commentator say on this story that you learn from the story. You know why the Gomorrah brings this story? Theor brings the story because nephesh means if you look at the words specifically giving over of your nephesh giving over of your soul. What does it mean to give over your soul? You should know Raava. He was a great sage. If he's going to say something in the street, people are going to remember what he said. I'm sure if fall in the street, people will remember that he fell in the street. Everything he does is is front page newspaper. He's he's a big rabbi. He's a rabbi of the town. Raava had everything to lose. He had the biggest reason to be shy and not say anything and not get into any trouble. And he went out of his way. He said, "You know what? It's the right thing to do. Even though I'm uncomfortable, I'm shy. I have a lot of reputation on the line. I'm going to go and say something to this woman. I'm going to go and put my foot down." So the commentary says neph means not just pushing yourself in general pushing yourself in what's hard for your soul specifically giving over your soul what what what you your soul pulls you the most to say ah it's not for me everybody has a favorite mitzvah don't get me wrong some people they love to d some people they love to learn some people they love to givea some people they love to host to do But nephesh is not in doing those things that you love. Nephes means doing what your soul is is so hard. You want to hold it. It's like it feels like you're giving up your soul when you do it. That's how difficult it is. That's why the Gar brings the story because that's how hard it was for him. And that's what it means to do. Whatever is hard for you. The go says that why are you brought into this world? There's a secret to know what your tikun is. He says, "Whatever is hard for you, that's what you didn't accomplish the last reincarnation and that's why you came back to this world again." And people sometimes get into this mentality of I do mitz. What do you mean? I do mitzvot, but they're focusing on the mitzvah that's easy for them. But Hashem brought you to this world to give over your soul that's hard for you. I'm sure everybody can take upon themselves 40 day 100%. I'm sure everybody could do 40 uh weeks hal if they really push themselves to I'm sure guys could accept upon themselves to give a dollar a day. I'm sure guys could accept upon themselves to pray. You could accept upon us a lot of things. But I want to see somebody say, you know, I'm sitting at Shabbat table. I don't speak. If it if it means I have to get up from the table or I have to change the subject, I'll be willing to do that. Or maybe somebody will say, you know what, I'm going to go pray sunrise minan every single day. Break myself, teach myself how to get up in the morning, even though I don't want to. I want to take upon myself to learn with the in the evening. Even though there's a bunch of events going on every night, I want to accept upon myself to learn at night with the this is difficult stuff. This takes tremendous dedication. But that's what mish is things that are hard for you. That's why you have to accept the yourself. And if you do so, what do the sages tell us? You know why they used to have miracles upon miracles in every page of the garra? It's because they used to do what's hard for them. That's what they used to focus on. We could live a whole life 120 years doing mitzvot convincing ourselves that I was religious. We go to shmayim and they tell us listen we uh in the book says over here we sent you in this world to perfect uh this this did you do that? Well what do you mean but I did this but I did that but that's not what we sent you for. You were supposed to work on what was hard for you. That's why you came again. There's a famous story of the guy who always came to the rabbi. He said, "Rabbi, I like your very good, very in-depth." He says, "But listen, your views about gambling, your views about laws of interest, your views about this, your views about modesty, view about, I see you're very strict. You know, I'm sure there's an opinion that argues. Isn't there an opinion that argues on what you said?" He said, "Yeah, it's true, but we follow or we follow this opinion, whatever it is." He said, "Rabbi, you know, it's okay. I I want the lenient opinion. I I'll follow the Rambam. I'll follow the mirror. I'll follow this. I'll follow that. Just give me the lenient opinion, Rabbi." Listen, it's not how it works. He said, "No, listen, Rabbi. As long as the rabbi said it's allowed, I'm going to follow that rabbi. I know it's not the mainstream, but I'm not ready for that rabbi." Baby step slowly slowly. So, his whole life he lived like that. I didn't I didn't go against the Torah following one opinion. He goes to Shayim after 120 years. He goes and he walks in there and they said, "Oh, welcome to this is great. I'm so excited. Show me where I'm going." And show him to this small little dinky 4x4 place. He says, "Hey, this is what I worked 120 years for. This is the aba that everybody was talking about and all the halaloo. He says, "Yeah." He says, "How this by no definition does this fulfill?" They said, "Well, according to some opinions, it does." And he got mind blown. And he realized that the way we are with Hashem is exactly how Hashem is with us. When a person says, "It's hard for me, but I'm going to push myself." Hashem says, "Nature, laws of nature says, you get this, but I'm going to go out of my way, go hard, cuz he went hard and she went hard. I'm going to give you something that's not normal, something that's above nature." There's a wonderful story also where we was just mentioning by Rab Mahor. He went to visit his old town after many years and he bumped into a childhood friend he went to with and they were speaking to each other and his friend he felt from his friend that his friend was trying to prove to him a point like I made it in life. So he said to him no Rabana what did you do with your life? He says, "Oh, I went to yeshiva. I got I'm a Roshiva now. I have a lot of students. I teach Torah every day." He says, "Oh, very nice. Very nice. You know what? I'm a doctor. I'm well known in the community. I have a lot of money. I have a beautiful house. Look at this. Look at that." And he was show sort of showing off to Raan. So, Rahul Khan appreciated his visit. He appreciated his company. He spoke to him. They got up. So Rohan says, "You know, I got to go back to to my hometown. If you don't mind, let's go to the train station." He says, "No problem." Takes it to the train station. He goes and he comes up to the platform and there was a brand new train, beautiful seeds, windows that actually work, something brand new, state-of-the-art. And it comes into the station. So's friend, childhood friend, says, "Listen, new take this train." He says, "No, no, no. I'm going to take that train." He points to the shabby 100-year-old looking train that nobody would ever want to ride. And he says to him, "Why are you doing that? Why are you going there? I'm going this one. It's beautiful. It's nice. It's comfortable. Opulent." He says, "My dear friend, I would love to. It's going the wrong way. That's not the way I need to go. I need to go this way. That's going the other way. And Raana says, "I got a bomb of Mousar in that moment." Mousar bomb. He says, "People, they say, why don't you take this train, live this kind of life where they enjoy themselves, they spend on themselves, they're happy. They do what's easy for them." And then there's people who take the train that a little bit harder in life. You ask the guy, "Why you working so hard? Why you suffering? Wake up so early. Push yourself. Guard your mouth. Guard your eyes. Don't enjoy yourself like everybody else. Why? Sometimes people could tell him he's what are you doing? Come enjoy like us. Tell him my friend that train is nice. But it's going the wrong way. It's not taking you where you need to be. Eventually shalom. We run into a wall. We say I need a Yeshua. I need a salvation. >> And you should have realized that if you want the salvation, you should have took the other train where you worked harder. You did miss nephesh. you wouldn't hit this wall that you're hitting now because you would have went the right way. The first what is it? It's Torah tells us you have to be asari you have to be bold like a leopard and strong like a lion to do the will of Hashem. There's for example if a person finds out the clothing that he's wearing the jacket that he's wearing is it's that even if you're in a marketplace someone tells you oh you should know you bought that suit from that and that that place that suit is shatz you can't wear that it's a negative prohibition every single time every second you're wearing it the says you take it off in the middle of the marketplace place. You go to the nearest place that you could go to the side of the road and you take it off and you figure it out. The says, "But it's embarrassing. You take off your clothes in the middle of the street." The says says, "There's no wisdom, no understanding, no counsel when it comes against Hashem." For example, like says, if you have a rabbi who's saying something wrong, rabbi saying is wrong. Like says and if there's a you can't give to the rabbi rabbi I'm sorry didn't we learn that it's really a why are you saying it's mutar why all these situations why is it that you have to go and do something difficult maybe talk about it later maybe change the suit when you get home no the Torah tells us that part of ish you have to push yourself. Sometimes it means doing difficult things. So be it. There's a mashal guy went to the wedding. Fancy hotel. He got there early. He wanted a tour of the hotel. It was in uh Monaco. Very fancy place. He goes there. First time he's there. He wants to see the hotel. He wants to see what's all the halaloo about. Show him the kitchen. Show him the beautiful food they're making. They're going to serve soup that night. He sees one custodian with his cleaning gear. He's putting away his stuff. He had no space in his closet. He puts one of these, you know, extreme looking liquids up on the table. All of a sudden, a bunch of waiters come bustling through, bump over this bottle of of who knows what's in that liquid, and it starts flowing, seeping into the soup. The big big pot of soup. This guy witnesses this. He's going bonkers. He goes and he says, "I just witnessed this bunch of poisons going in the soup. Everyone, who knows what's going to happen to everybody when they eat the soup." He starts losing his mind. He starts said, "Who do I tell? Who do I speak to? I just got here. I don't know anything." The wedding already starts. He starts going through all these swarms of people. He comes to the head waiter. He comes to the katan. He comes to the father kahhatan. He says, "Guys, you can't eat the soup. I'm telling you, there's poison in the soup." So, what happened? He met He met one Israeli guy. Is it poison? What are you talking about? Go eat the soup. Relax. He goes and he I'm telling you guys, this is nuts. You're going to die. God forbid. The cleaning solution fell into the soup. It's poison. Nobody listens to him. So, can you imagine? He's sitting at the table. Everyone gets served soup and everyone's ready to eat the soup. They're eating the soup and they say, "It's good. It's yummy." And they look at him and say, "Hey, you're going to eat the soup, right? Come on. You got to eat the soup. What? We paid for our seed. It's you. It's It's kosher. What's the problem? What's wrong with you?" They all start pressuring him, giving influence. question is will you give in and that I believe today is the biggest today's nephesh is social influence social pressure will I do what everybody else says even though I know it's dead wrong I remember I spoke to someone one time and I said listen you're making this and this event coming up don't you think that it's not worth it to do this and spend money on that and there's no point of this and it's all just for show and for it's a waste of money essentially. He said, "Rabbi, you're 100% right. It's a total waste of money. I shouldn't do this. I shouldn't do that." I said, "So great. So, you're not going to do it, right?" He says, "No, I'm going to do it." I said, "Why is that?" He said, "Rabbi, there's a famous line. What are people going to say? I'll spend money that I don't want to spend. I'll waste time I don't have because what are people going to say? I said, "So why do you need to do such a yosho?" I don't want people to think I'm cheap. I don't want people to say bad things about me and say I'm like this, I'm like that. But I said, "You agree it's better to have it in a shoe with a sh right?" Yeah. 100% rabbi. On paper, 100% right. But in the real world, you got to do what you got to do rabbi. It is what it is. the power of what we see on our phones, what we see other people doing. And we think that there's this thing called the norm. And if and if it's like it's like it's a space suit, and if you come out of the space suit, you won't have oxygen to breathe. You'll die. If you don't do the norm, what everybody else is doing. And there'll be situations where everybody wants to eat poison and everybody wants to jump off a cliff and you said, "I don't get it. Why in the world would I do this?" But I have to. Why? Because everybody's doing it. And that's where the Mcabes had to have nephesh. And we're the Mcabes today also. And that we are standing up to a lot of a lot of fights in the world currently. And we need miracles. And how are we going to get those miracles? To not to give into the pressure to not to give in to say Abrau was the Hebrew the he was on one side and everybody else was on the other. And if that's what it takes, so be it. Person shouldn't feel wrong by doing the right thing. Obviously, I don't not telling anybody to get into a fight. Not telling anybody to put anybody down. But within yourself, attach the truth. Stick to it. And don't be nervous because that's what you're about to get a miracle when you do mer. We know that if you would get $100,000 every time you did a mitzvah, I'm sure everybody would be running to do mitzvah. We run to do mitzvah now, but we would run a little bit more faster. I think problem is that we get way more than $100,000 for a mitzvah. There was a child, a young man who was uh told an offer. The big biggest business man wanted to see how dedicated Jews are. He said, "Listen, I'll pay you $1,000 if you don't put on film tomorrow." He says, "No, no deal. I'll give you $10,000. Sorry. No deal. I'll give you $100,000 if you don't put on film tomorrow. No deal. He says, "Last offer, $10 million. Just one day you don't put on to film. Would you do it?" All his friends were like, "I don't know. Listen, it's just one day, you know." The boy said, "No." So the businessman looked at him. He said, "You see this? You're basically telling me every day you're enjoying $10 million worth of money when you put on to fill cuz that's how much it's worth to you. We forget this how valuable the mitzvot are to us and how much truth we know there isn't to them and we let this social pressure the mitavim the Greeks the helenists who think that you have to modernize to be a Jew is not to be old school and to follow these old ancient traditions and be a good goody two shoes you have to let loose a little bit be part of the times modernize open up a little bit go to a concert MSG and okay, it's kosher, it's not kosher, it's fine, just enjoy culture. And we know that these mitzvah are worth millions. And we let this little little voice convince us to lose those in shalom. When we have a huge miracle coming to us, what do we say? We say that it's all from Hashem. We say that this miracle is from Hashem. It's not my own doing. We all realize that we cannot exist without giving us the strength. How many times we hit a brick wall where we said if it's not for Hashem, how would I ever get out of this? When a person gets pulled over, when a person is almost in an accident, when a person is dying in front of us, we all scream I have no one to turn to besides for you. And we have to make sure not to forget that that how much we believe and realize it's all from him. We need that every second. There's a story, beautiful story about Harashi came to this world not for no reason. His family didn't have kids. His parents didn't have kids for many years. And the reason he came to this world was the zood of his father. The sages tell us his father was a diamond dealer, a jeweler. He had a very beautiful gem come to his hands. He could hold it with one hand in his fist. Something abnormal. And he wanted to go and make some good business off of it. Deal of a lifetime. Problem was the pope heard about this diamond. And the pope in that time was super powerful. You said no to him. It was like death sentence. They said, "We heard you have this gem. You have to provide it for the pope's crown." He says, "Well, think about it." And he says, "How can I support? How can I make paranas with these people? But at the same time, I can't say no." He thought up of a great plan. He says, "Listen, I'm scared someone's going to rob us in the middle of the deal. We have to meet on a boat. Meet on a boat. Nobody's there. Just me and the messengers of the pope. They take out the diamond. They're on the boat in the middle of the lake. They showed him. They approved. They're ready. Get to get the funds out. Rabbi Schlommitaki's father sneezes and chucks the diamond in the water. Everybody putting their hands in the head. What did you do? How? What? He went home and he slept real good that night. He had a dream that an angel came to him and said that you gave up this diamond for Hashem. You're going to get a diamond who shines up the entire world. He had a son. He didn't have kids all that all those years till this happened. and his son. There's no person who learns Torah today who doesn't learn rashi. How did you get such a miracle child? Because he went and he said, "The money it's not worth it. The mitzvah is a beggar for me. I'm a businessman. This is my business. This is the diamond I've been looking for my entire life to deal make a deal with. Give it straight to Hashem nephesh." We should learn from the makabes. We should learn from the Badash writes. Why did Kaneka happen? You know, usually Jewish holidays is they try to kill us. We survive. Let's eat. That's usually every Jewish holiday. So, we could ask Hashem, Hashem, listen, don't send me the goim. Don't make us any miracles. I'll stay put and be relaxed. Why do you have to make it that we have to suffer and then a miracle last second and all of a sudden holiday? No, no miracle. No holiday. It's okay. The Bach says we deserve that the Greeks were after us. Why is that? The Bach says because the Jews took the mitzvot for granted. Specifically the beta mikdash the kani. How did Cohen come to the beta mcdash? All right. Okay. Okay. So, no. So, what are we doing today? Okay. We're doing the two corbanad. Give me give me three uh minads to go. Okay. Let's go. Let's go. Let's get this over with. No. No. Okay. You What did you did you do? Okay. Here we go. She Okay. Throw the blood. Okay. Let's get out of here. Chop chop. Whoa. Whoa. Connie, why are you such a rush? You're not doing You're not serious. You're not paying attention to the details over here. There's a lot of alot. Where are you guys going? Listen, we got an appointment. We got a basketball game in the Genevia across the street. We got to go. It's us and the Greeks. We're going to go work out. We got to go into the gymnasium. They started taking the mitzvot very lax. Start taking the mdash not so seriously thinking it's a joke. Thinking let's just get this over with. You know sometimes how people pray. They come to Oh sh. Oh, I guess shalom. I guess how do people come and say to No, I didn't say that. >> We do the mitzvot so you know lacadasically. We we we get so used to it. You ever see how a convert puts on the fillain? You ever see how a person who just became batsha how he prays? He comes to me and he says, "Rabbi, how come this guy he prays like this? He's religious way more than me." I said, "I know." And I have to sit there and like it's hard for me to explain it, but I have to explain to him. Listen, he wasn't in the right mind. He has a lot on his mind. You know, he didn't pay attention really. He's like, you're praying to Hashem. How could you pray like that? you're doing a mitzvah like from the Torah. This is like the whole world stands on this. How could you act like that? And we forget that. We we we we get so used to it. And that's what happened to the Jewish people right before Hanukkah happened. Comes the Greeks and says, "You know what? No more mitzvah. Come be goyim." And the Jews are like, "What? Uh I think that's what we're trying to do. Actually, we were trying to be the whole time. Wait, do I really want to be a No, I don't want to be a I want to do mitzvah. You only appreciate what you have when you lose it. So, they started making tou they had to learn in the caves and they had to go secretly to do mitzvot. You know, I met how many Jews I met from Soviet Union. They said, "Rabbi, I don't understand how the sh is not full of people. I don't understand how every lecture is not packed to the gills. We used to hide in a basement within a basement and we had to pretend that we were going here going there just to learn alphabet to go learn our Torah. We had to risk our lives. I this guy didn't even get his bridil till he was who knows how old because how dangerous it was. He says I came to America. I don't understand how people are free to do whatever they need to do and they have doubts and they're getting distracted and maybe this is more important than that TV show on Netflix maybe it takes more time how could it be said very good question that's the power of the and that's the power of ms we have to realize that these stories don't only exist in back in the These stories are happening every single day. You know, if a long time ago, there was maybe two a year ago, there was this in Israel who was like 80 years old and he had a baby. It was all over the news. He just had a second baby. Can you believe that? So, don't tell me these stories are from, you know, many generations ago. These stories of miracles are happening every single day. You're not hearing about them, but they're still happening. From where? If we want to continue, if we want miracles to continue, if we want to get over that hump in our life, Mr. Neph.