Rabbi Mashiach Kelaty - The Potential Accelerator: Mastering Your Inner Peak | CHAZAQ

I mean first of all thank you very much for to Kazak that's Kazak this is Kazak for bringing me in thank you I mean I spoke last week and I'm speaking tomorrow as well on behalf of Kazak so thank you very much I want to especially thank Robbie Abof and I also want to thank Robert Mayov and I also want to thank Milana Doris who um actually organized this this year at this at this venue so thank you very very much. So the title of tonight's share, by the way, I very rarely know titles before I start. I always have to think of them afterwards and whatever. But today I know. So it's called the potential accelerator, mastering your inner peak, which is basically another way of saying it's a parachute basically. Okay. But we're going to try and see what we can extract so we can maximize our potential. I'm going to start off with a quote. Every year when I come to this para, I always say this quote because I think for me this is gold. I don't know about you. Well, we'll find out. So listen to this. Sometimes you find yourself on a precipice like the top of a mountain and you have to jump. You got to make a decision. Two things can happen. Either Hashem catches you or he teaches you to fly. Think about that. Either Hashem catches you or he teaches you to fly. So I think today we're going to focus on the teaching you to fly. Because when we get yurim, when we get trials in life, nobody is free from trials. Whenever we get them, we have to understand hard though it may be at the time, it's a stepping stone. Sometimes it's obvious, sometimes it's a less obvious, sometimes you'll never know the reason even after 120 years plus plus. But let's concentrate on the idea that Hashem is opening up a new corridor or we're going to turn a corner. So I want to start with a puk from last week's para which is koshim. Here's an interesting idea. It says uh if you have a want to look it up if not that's also fine. Uh 19 verse1 17 and you've all heard this. Let's see. Here we go. That translates as you shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall not rebuke your fellow and do not bear a sin because of him. So I want to focus on the first part of that verse. Don't hate your brother in your heart. Think about that. The Torah doesn't waste words. Why would it say don't hate your brother in your heart? Just say don't hate your brother. What is the Torah adding on by having that phrase in your heart? So I heard an interesting idea from Rebavid of Leelov the Leovi was aidi and he said like this your heart is your essence. That's who you are. That's all your values. That's your opinions. That's your your enigma. That's your your public persona. Everything your heart is is you. It's part of your soul. Don't hate your brother in your heart. Means according to this opinion, don't hate your brother because he's got a different heart that you have. Meaning none of us are the same. Even identical twins are different. I know identical twins who look the same. They couldn't be more different in terms of their personality. You'd think they came from the same womb, the same time. They they're everywhere together, but they're so different. So, nobody's the same. And a human's a person's tendency is to look at somebody who's not like them, who's not one of us, and to automatically have a barrier. Oh, he's not one of us. And you know, very often it'll be the opinion that you form before you've even opened your mouth, before you've even seen them. You just look at somebody and he's already formed an opinion. Oh, he's like this is, oh, no, I can't put up with that. No way. But then all you got to do is engage them in conversation and suddenly oh hang on maybe I was wrong and you you start to lower your uh shield the shield that we put up in front. says very often people who we don't know, not in our click, not in our social circle, not in our community, there's a tendency to to I wouldn't say hate him, but to just have a have a separation from them. Don't do that. Us Jewish people, we love playing Jewish geography. You know, you sit down with somebody, you can sit sit down with somebody from Zanzibar or, you know, Puerto Rico and more often than not within 10 minutes you found somebody. Oh, my uncle. It's my uncle as well. Oh, you know, just occurred to me there's a website called storiestoinspire.org. Let's give him a plug. storiespire.org. all sorts of Jewish stories, thousands of them. Now, I love that uh website. I love that uh um resource. I think it's fantastic. I use it all the time. When I jog in London, I got my headphones on. I'm listening to stories to inspire. Very often, if you see me in the streets of my hometown of Edgeware, I'll be listening to an emotional story and sometimes I'll be crying. It's a It's really really I would highly recommend it. Okay. After probably about a year of listening to them, I found out who the person who ran who runs that resource is. His name is somebody called Daniel Aguular. Now I know the name Aguular because my great greatgrandfather, his name was Rav Morai Aglar, which is the equivalent of Agular as in the Agular is a place in Spain. So, cut a long story short, I contacted him. Turns out he's my cousin, you know, and I was bowled over because first of all, I I was so proud of him. I said I said, I can't believe I'm related to you. What a like I was rubbing shoulders with a guy. It's incredible. So, you know, if you sit down with a person, you you're going to find some Jewish geography. So, at the end of the day, you know, we are all one people. What I'm trying to say in a very long winded way is that we're all one people. You don't have to look very hard to find somebody that you know you're related to. So if that's the case, why do we form these opinions? Why do we form why do we make these judgments? It this is something we need to um fight against. Stop the judgment. That's what we're trying to say. Don't hate your brother in your heart because he's got he's different from you. That shouldn't be a reason to to form an opinion and start to uh reject him or dislike him. So that was last week's para. We haven't even got to this week's para yet. This week's para is amore. So there's a very famous idea in the beginning of parat. So the beginning says like this. You can follow with me in your So it's chapter 21 verse1 God said to Moses speak to the bon the sons of Aon and say to them who can tell me let's have a bit of audience participation who can tell me what's what's odd what's in congruous with that verse anybody shall I repeat it Okay, here we go. That's the the phrase. That's the part I want to focus on. Anybody? You don't if you don't know, it's good because it means that you will you'll like what I'm going to say. If you know it, you you like, "Oh, I've heard this so many times before." So, listen to this. The word emor and var are the same root the same thing. I mean, if I say something, if I say to you saying, that's a bit weird. I'm talking to you talking. I'm saying to you, why are you repeating the word twice var? Okay, listen. Even the English gives you a clue. Say to the sons of Von and tell them, well, saying is telling, telling saying. Okay, you get the idea. Here's a few ideas about why that is so. Because the Torah never has a word, a letter, a dot that's extra. It has to have meaning and deep meaningful meaning doesn't make sense. Anyway, idea number one, why is it repeated twice? Because one mentioning for adults and one for children. Let's get back to the context of the verse and I'll tell you. Hashem says to Moses, "Say to the Kohanim, the sons of Aon and sons of Aaron and tell them. By the way, I didn't mention what what was supposed to be told." So, listen to this. Each of you, meaning each of you, Kohanim shall not contaminate himself to a dead person among his people. Basically, you don't you ever I mean, I don't wish this on anybody. If you ever been to a funeral and you have the prayers in in the hall and then you walk down towards the grave and there's a little group of people who are just standing there like that and everyone's going and they're just waiting there. What are these like onlookers? No, they've khanim either they've got their own special path not because they're elitists is because they cannot defile themselves with a dead body. Okay. So they have special rules. Any kohanim here? No kohaleim. Okay. Preaching to the converted. So kohaleim are on a different level. Let's leave it at that. I don't want to explain too much about that. But this verse is just saying to them, look, you have to work in the beta migdash in the temple. You've got all the avoda to do etc. So, you have to be held to a higher standard. And that means you can't walk into a graveyard willy-nilly and just become uh uh contaminated. That's the wrong word, but it's have to do um contaminated wi-i with a dead body. Okay. Other people can without going to the whole thing, but kohanim, no, you cannot. you have to wait outside or go in a special park. So this verse is just telling them this is what you have to do. Keep away and that's it. Now so what does it mean? The the um uh command not to become contaminated with dead body is once for the adults and once for the children. So there's a very deep idea here. It goes beyond telling them not to become contaminated with the dead. It means like this. When you are a um responsible um not elder, a responsible party and you have people that you're instructing. could be a teacher, could be a parent, could be um any anybody who has um charges that he's that he's influencing. There are there's there is a special way that we um teach and then we instruct and that we guide. The way for that is that um we do it in a very gentle way. We do it in a very uh a way that's not offensive, a way that's not uh too harsh because you'll put people off. Teachers nowaday when I was a kid, right, if you did something wrong in the class, you get wall up around the head. That's how we became who we were, you know, with all mental issues. But seriously speaking nowadays they they realize that these methods that they used 30 40 years ago don't work. Okay. Uh uh there's a way to be gentle to be subtle to be inoffensive etc etc etc. So one mention of the word emor is for the for the adults who are the influencers. Okay. The the the um the adults are either the teachers, the rabbis, etc. And the so the second mention is for the children. Now, the children are getting their instruction secondhand. So again, this is the process. You've got God speaking to Moses. Okay, that's the he's in God is instructing the chief instructor. Moses to the kohanim and the kohhanim to the young kohanim. Okay. Now the young kohanim are too uh tender. It's too raw for them to be instructed directly by Moses. That's just not going to work. There has to be um a middle party. Okay. So, how do ideally how do children learn? Do they learn from the the real hardcore like Moses instructing or do they learn from somebody who's already had it and it will filter through? Here's a scientific word like osmosis. You know, when you seep something seeps through and you absorb it's called osmo. You know what osmosis is. You went you did chemistry and physics and general science just like I did. So it means you you absorb it. So children are much more sensitive. Therefore they absorb the material in a way that is uh palatable for them. They don't need the hard instruction. They don't need the the the top instructor. They needs to go through a process. It's just a type of educational uh idea that we can apply to our own kids or our own students who need to be taught in a in a way that's that that you'll get the maximum information with the least resistance. I hope I'm making myself clear. Do you understand my English accent, by the way? Is it is it is it bothering anybody? Should I Should I Uh okay. All right. Cuz I I'm concerned. Sometimes I I speak to Americans like, "What? Why did you say what? At every second word. What? What? What? So, for me, I'm speaking normally, but uh if you have trouble understanding, please um say what and I'll try and repeat it. Okay. So, idea number two, and this is related in a way to the the first idea. The word am or amar or vom is uh compared to the word var the the word dur and omer and dair are related. Their ways of conveying but the word uh omare or ammar is soft. It's a way of conveying something in a soft way. Dbor is more harsh. For instance, if you go back to beresit, it's all about dib. It's all about elim as opposed to um um adnut. Basically, everything the first part of the book of parit is all about elohim elohim and so the for those who know the world was created with in a way that was strict judgment. It was created in a way that was had a standard that ultimately people couldn't keep to that standard. So when you're in a class and it's too strict, it's going to be difficult for you. When you're living a life where if you cross the line, you'll get punished immediately. That's not going to help you. So basically the world was created with strict judgment and then afterwards it changed into uh more like more of what we can take. So mankind cannot take cannot take thunderbolts every time you reach for the cheeseburger. That's not going to work. You have to have free choice etc. So basically what I'm trying to say is the difference between Omare and Dair is soft and harsh. Be soft in your approach. A Cohen when he's got the instruction from Moses, he has to feel that his work that he's doing in the temple is not a service that he's he's not providing a service per se. What he's doing is a privilege. Now, Khan, it's easy for a Cohen to let what he's doing because he's he is doing an incredible service at the end of the day. It's easy for him to feel that, you know, he a sense of uh empowerment, put it that way, a sense of I wouldn't say gava, but like, you know, you you can feel listen, I'm in the temple every day. Not everyone's in the temple every day. I mean, uh, this is my this is my job and I have to be pretty special to be in here every day and doing all this uh, you know, doing the the kamita and offering the sacrifices and going to the m all this like looks good on me. But a Cohen has to feel that whatever he's doing, it's a privilege that's conferred upon him and he has to act like that. That's very easy for a Cohen, like I said, to take also to take things for granted. I talked about this in a in a previous uh class that um a Cohen in the in the beta mikdash will see miracles on a regular basis. Okay, imagine if you're in the beta mikdash and you see a plume of smoke coming from from the misbayak that should really mushroom out like a mushroom cloud. Now smoke rises but it it also disperses and diffuses. Now the smoke in the beta mikdash went straight up. It was one of the miracles in the in the temple. Another miracle that comes to mind is that the the meat that was offered, imagine this, right? Where's the temple? It's in Jerusalem. Jerusalem generally it's a hot climate. Okay? You've got raw meat being cooked. Now, you'd expect that will be a flies paradise. You know, flies will be delighted. They go, "Get this meat. It's that's it's perfect for them." Not one fly was found. And there was meat offered every day on mass. Not one fly. That is a complete miracle. Now the kim are witnessing this on a daily basis. Now they could get very used to this and think well no flies. So what happens every day? Happened last week happened a year ago. What's the big deal? But if we walked into the beta min, we're like what? Where's the flies? Why is the smoke going straight up? Why did no woman misarry from the the the the um gorgeous smell of the club or not? It was in the the the aroma was overpowering and it so much so it could have caused women to miscarry but they didn't. There's there's a host of miracles. So what I'm trying to say is like this is that they could have got very very desensitized to these things but through the coran to which they um had to facilitate which is the thanksgiving sacrifice because of that it sort of brought them down to earth because toad means to um appreciate and acknowledge and have hakar to have have to be grateful. So whereas they could have been used to taking things for granted, they realize that these things should never be taken for granted and one should always appreciate them. Okay? So now so a Cohen must feel as if it is a privilege. Now this extends to every single Jew. If you're a Jew, you have to realize apart from being a responsibility, it is a privilege. It's a privilege. You can't have one without the other. If you are, you think um being Jewish is just a privilege. Well, what are you going to do? You're going to walk with your head in in the sky and say, "I'm a privileged person." And walk around and upset a lot of people. But if you also the other way around, if you think it's a responsibility, then you and you appreciate that it's a responsibility, then you walk around and you will do what you're supposed to do. But at the end of the day to have the responsibility and no sense of privilege of of uh being the the chosen people, you'll start to get very frustrated because if it's all work and no pride, that's not a good combination because people tend to sort of think why am I doing this? Why do I have to do this mitzvah, that mitzvah? Why do I have to to search around for a lulav? Why do I have to build a suka? Why do I have to go to sh three three times a day? That's almost Muslim that like, okay, three times, five times. All right, whatever. It starts to get to get to you and you start thinking, well, what's the point? So, the the responsibility has to be coupled with the privilege. privilege meaning pride in being a Jew. Not feeling like a like a like a nobody like a hazit but feeling these two things together is is what comprises a Jew's job in this world. Privilege that's pride and responsibility getting on with the job I have. That's really what it is. So that's every Jew has to feel like that. Third idea, this is from the Zahar. Zara Kadosh says he uh the Zar asks a question and nobody picked up on this and truth is I didn't pick up on it until I saw this Zaha. So you're in good company, don't worry. So it says um elim speak to the co is plural. Emmore is plural. The second phrase is singular. So who are you talking to? You talking to this big group of people or just one? What's going on here? And you're changing the tense in the same verse. It sounds weird. Here's the answer for the from the zar. The first part is actually talking to the and it we're giving them the instruction not to become tame. The second part says the zahar is what applies to every single Jew cohen ley Israel men women everybody what is that be careful of your nishama don't be mame don't sully your nishama so again the first mention is the the practical approach hey come on be careful. Don't stumble into graveyards. Don't walk into the to the mortuary and start opening up the drawers. You can't do that. But hey, what about all the other Jews? All of you got to be very careful cuz whereas that's that's a practical thing for the what it means to each one of us is be careful. You know, you were given this nishama. You were bought into this world for a reason to to maximize your potential. There we go. are related to the title. Maximize your potential. Get on with your job at hand, but don't make a mess on the way. Be careful of this holiness that you were given because it was given to you perfect when you came into this world as a baby. It was perfect nishama. Obviously, it needs to go through what it needs to go through in this world. If it was absolutely 100% pristine, perfect, you wouldn't be here. Okay? It's perfect meaning it's got everything contained within it to do the job at hand. Now, what is that job? I have no clue. You have you may have no clue. You don't know what your job in in this world is. Okay? We look in the Torah, we find ways, but the real tickon on an individual basis, we don't know. It could take a lifetime of work. But suffice to say, you come into this world with a job. Now, if you if you got a job to do this, that, and the other, whatever that is, and you come in and you mess things up, not only are you not doing that what you should do, if you didn't do that and just did nothing, that would be bad enough. But you're not doing that. You're not even doing nothing. You're doing something terrible. Now, how does that work out? It's like somebody gives you an expense account. Let's say a boss gives a worker an expense account. Go to uh Germany and buy this, that, or the other. Yeah. Here's the money. Uh get a hotel uh and uh the rest is for buying whatever you need to buy. Bring bring the goods back. Good. Okay. Go and do it. Now, the guy goes, he's got all the money and the money goes to his head. So, he gets there. He says, "Okay, the boss said, "I got to find a hotel." He finds a nice hotel. In the hotel, there's a casino and and before he knows it, kalas, all the money's gone. Now, he's going to go back and answer to the boss. Now, what's he going to tell the boss? It will be bad enough if he just said, "You know what? I didn't buy anything. I've got the money. I didn't buy any goods. I just got the money." So, the boss would be upset, but okay, I've got the money. I'll send somebody else. You're you're a majun. you when you wasted your time. But not only did he not buy what he should, but he fritted his money on other things. That's what we do in this world when we mess up our soul because we supposed to do a job. If we didn't do it, we bad enough. But we're doing the opposite what we should be doing. We have to think like that. So again the second mention of uh of Amar which is Amara is telling us be careful. You came to this world with a mission. Make sure you work on that mission. Okay. How much time we got left? Okay just a couple more points. I'm going to finish off with a story. So you know 21:10 carries on this theme about the Cohen and it talks about El Presidente that's the Coen God who if we think that Kohan were holy what about the Coen God he is on a stellar level he's like basically the God had of all Jews at that time he has to answer to God and God alone nobody Okay. Now 20 verse 10 say actually let's go to straight to verse 12. So what does this coin have to do? So this translates as he shall not leave the sanctuary and and he shall not desecrate the sanctuary of his god for a crown the oil of his god's anointment is upon him I am basically what this verse is trying to say is if you're a coen gole and you're in the beta mikdash you can't leave you're stuck there like the prisoner you I am a I'm not a number. I'm a free man. He has to stay there. What happens if he wants to go on a little teal? What he wants to wants to go and buy some curry from the supermarket? No. You're in here for good. You can't go out. So much so that even if God forbid one of his relatives passes away, he can't go out to the funeral. Now, okay, we said the Cohen can't go to, but he can be Matama himself for certain people like for a um a parent or a metitzvah. What's a metitzvah? Met mitzvah is when there's a dead body that's just found and nobody knows who he is. Nobody knows who his family members are, of course. And before you start thinking, well, when does that happen? ever. I mean, there's DNA and this that the other. Let me remind you, those of you who who may know the story will know what I'm going to say. There was a case in Australia, Australia or New Zealand. I think it was Australia um in the 1940s or 50s where they found a man dead on um on the beach. He was I think in a sitting position lent over. He was preserved. I mean, his face was perfect. They could see who he was. To cut a long story short, that dead body was never identified. No DNA could nothing. We're talking about, you know, of course, there was no DNA uh checking then, but you would think they had a perfect his face was completely preserved. You'd think somebody would know who he is. Nothing. to this day with all the you know when you when they disinter bodies from graves and they do DNA testing nothing's helped so yes there is an idea of a mitzvah that there's a dead body that nobody knows who he is so for that a coal can become mame but he has to stay in the beta mikdash why quite simply because more is expected from him. He is the top of the top. He can't just leave up and leave and go here and there. He has a job. He has a responsibility. He can't just relinquish his responsibility and go and do what he wants. No, you have a job. You have you we expect such and such from you without any deviation. Now, I don't know if you you you've heard of this phrase. What does that mean? Let me see if I can remember the fancy art scroll translation. A nation of priests and a holy and and a a holy nation. And a holy ny holy nation. What does that even mean? Who's it referring to? No. You know what it means? It's talking about me and you and you and you. Everybody. We are a nation of priests. Whereas the priests are the priests of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are the priests of the world. What does that mean? Talk me through it. I don't feel like a cohen. I've been to plenty of graveyards. I've done things a car would rip their hair out. What does it mean? It means that when it comes to the rest of the world, we have to be the cohen on the cherry on the cake. Now, you could turn around and say, "I don't feel like it's it's racist. It's elitist." Hang on. This is not my words. These are God God's words. When you see in the Torah, it says the Jews are the people get very upset. How can you say you're the chosen? Jews will tell you, "How can you say we're the chosen nation?" Well, I never said it. I repeated it, but I didn't say it. Who said it? Allah. It's in the Torah. Okay. So, if anyone ever tells you, "How can you say you're the chosen nation?" They're arguing with God. Okay? Make that very clear to them. And I'm trying to make it clear to you as well, so in case you encounter somebody. So, like it or not, some people just don't want the responsibility, but we are the chosen nation. But that again, it comes back to that whole thing of privilege and responsibility. So if more of is expected of the co-en in the beta mikdash then more is expected of us. You can't be like yenna. You can't be like uh u your your gentile neighbor. No more is expected of you. Okay? You have to listen. I'm not saying turn your nose up at every gentile. Of course I'm not saying that. I don't want to be misunderstood here. Yeah. In fact, one of the greatest things a Jew can do is to have good relations with the Gentiles. Right? If you cause a kilishem, that's brilliant. Brilliant. Keep doing that. But understand, you're different. A monkey is not a lion. A chicken is not a dove. Okay? There's nothing you nowadays, they'll tell you, I identify as a chicken. ident. Okay, I'm not talking about that. I'm just talking about normal. I'm talking about you are this is what you are and this is what you are. You're different. But like the title of the book by Rabbi Dr. Lord Jonathan Saxs, who some of you may have heard of. He was the chief rabbi of the UK. still very much admired, very much appreciated and uh uh respected by Jews all over the UK. He had a a a book title. I've never read the book, but I love the title. Just the title, four words is a muser in and of itself. What's the title of the book? The dignity of difference. You can be different from Yenna. You can be completely different, but doesn't mean you have to treat them with any less dignity. You could be different from the from the Jew next door to you, but does it mean you there's got to be there's got to be a separation? There's difference, but it must be treated with dignity. Very very important. Okay. So, more is expected of us in this world. Now, I'm going to I need to leave a bit of time for this story. I'm going to uh whiz through this 22:31 here. This is again I'm picking out all the weird things that could be easily misunderstood. 22:31. Let's whiz through in our art scroll. Thank you Aram for providing me with this 31. Where are we? Here we go. Okay, let me translate this. You shall observe my commandments and perform them. I am Hashem. Okay, let's concentrate on the first part. You shall observe my commandments and perform them. What's odd about that? What's odd about that? Anybody? Hello? Anybody? It's so simple, Robbie. perform and service spot on Robbie Abof works for um when you when you perform something you're doing it when you do it you perform it's it's it's the same same impression right so here's the idea the first mention or shimat means you You you keep the mitzvah. The mitzvah are there not just as some abstract historical fact. Oh, there's these mitzvah that were given at harinai. We don't really touch them because it's old stuff. It's old school. We're with the news. No, keep them. They're there for keeping. Okay. But um what's the other one? Vasm. Where is it? Perform them. Sorry. Um observe them is the actual performance of the mitzvah. But perform them means this means like this you know we're meant to keep the mitzvah that are relevant to us okay not all first of all 630 mits are not relevant to all of us okay because they involve kohanim isim men women people living in Israel people out of Israel the total number you'll be shocked by this by the way uh not shocked like a like a go like a scary movie, but you'll be a little bit uh Oh, I never knew that. The total amount of mitzvot that is common to every single Jew is only 222. Did you know that? That's approximately a third. So, you cannot keep 223. Well, you might do if you were anyway 222. That's that's all it is. The rest of them, you can't do them. You can't be a cohen if you're a ley or is etc blah blah blah. So why? Okay, that's another deep it's a deep question. It means one answer is that if you learn about them it's like you you kept it. So that's why like the are very popular because you learn about the mitzvot that's like you kept them even though like physically you can't but it means like this mitzvot are there for you to do. However, the opportunities to do a mitzvah are not always there. You don't Sometimes you get somebody knocking on your door and you open the door, you know, and that's a mitzvah that's come to your door. Now, most people, most normal people would give something probably because they're a little bit embarrassed or they feel sorry for the guy. Some people would just go like that. I've had that a few times. Okay. Not very nice. Happens. But that's when the mitzvah comes to meet you. What about if you have charity to give? Are you going to wait for the next mushulaf to knock on your door? Or you going to go out and say, "Yeah, I've got this money. Let me find somebody." You go out your house. You might find somebody walking the street. You might go to the sh put it in the pushka or whatever. The idea is mitzvah can come to you, but how many times do you go to the mitzvah? Yeah. Do you do a mitzvah if if knocks you on the head? Or could you actually go out and be proactive? That's what this means here. Of course, do the mitzvah. Of course, we have to go to shore. We have to all the things we have to do. Yeah. But what about going out and say, "Yeah, I don't want to sit at home doing nothing. I want to go out. I want to go to the better med to learn. I want to go and see if I can do a for somebody. Maybe there's a single parent family who uh they they've got a bunch of kids and they're running around going crazy and we can go and help them with the math. He in England we say arithmetic. Math. Help them with the math. No, but we're sitting at home and all this stuff is happening around us. But unless it comes to our door, knocking on the door like the matur, we won't do it. The Torah is telling us, don't wait, go and make it happen. That's part and parcel of it. And you know, if we all went out and made it happen, if we all went to hospital to visit the sick, if we all went and taught the single parent uh kids from single parent family, if we all did that, the world would be a completely different place. That's part of a person's innate potential. Don't just do what you have to do. Do what you should do. And you should do means go out and find things create. If there's nothing there, create it. You think the didn't create? He created. You think Rav Dory didn't create? Now you're thinking who's David Dryan? Let me tell you who David Doan was in case you don't know. There's a place in the UK, England to be precise. It's called Gates Head. Now, had I mentioned this 50 years ago when I was a little nipper, people would go, "Gate? What's Gates Head?" Oh, Gates Head is some little northern town near sort of near Sunderland, Newcastle, up north where people talk funny like that. What's going on in Gates? Cornished nothing. Very briefly, there was a man whose name was David Ryan. He was the Talid of the He was sent because he was a shet. He was sent to this town of Gates Head to do for the local the handful of local Jews over there. Now he said to himself, "Hey, I'm not going to turn up at some hick town. There's about not even 10 Jews there and I have to be there. I I I want to be with a community." So what did he do? He wrote 30 letters to 30 rabbis with the following suggestion. would you like to partner with me to make a Jewish community in this place called Gates Head? And most people went Gates Head Gates Head just like you and I would would have done and partner with me and we'll make a community. By the way, they've done that uh in the last couple of years in a place called Canvi Island in the UK. Canvi Island. Now, I never heard of Canv Island. I live in the UK. Canvi Island. Now, first of all, it it was a seaside town full. There was like not a Jew in sight. Now, it's a community from they've got school. It's crazy. Why? Because they said, "Let's do it here. Prices are expensive in London. Let's move out." Okay. So, it can it can work. Anyway, of the 30 rabbis he contacted with this suggestion, 28 of them, I think, either didn't answer or they answered in the negative. One other one of one of the two remaining said, "It's a great idea. I'm afraid I can't be involved." One of them said, "Great idea. Let's go for it." Who was that? Rav Desler of Leo Desler, the famous strive for truth. He partnered with his Doan and thus Gates Head was born. Now most people heard of um Rav Desler. Not many people heard of Dover Dry, but it was his idea. And Mskei never had any children. He was married, never had any children. But if you think about it, all the people who've learned in gated over the years, they are all his children. Not biological children, but when you teach somebody Torah or open their hearts to Torah, it's like you you fathered them. So, he's got millions of children, just they're not biological. But again, who's heard of him? Nobody's heard of him. Yet he changed the world. He literally changed the world. So don't wait for something to come and hit you on the head. Go out and make it happen. He could have just gone there done at home and lived a very ordinary life. Ex except that he went for it and he became extraordinary. Extraordinary. Um, okay. I think we're gonna finish here, but I'm going to leave you with with a short story. I'm gonna leave my last point here. I normally tell stories when I give Shereim, so I thought I' I'd include one here. This has got nothing to do with anything. It's just I love this story. Uh, by the way, I'll mention now I'm speaking to Marab Zar Hashem in Brooklyn and whoever wants to come there or you know someone wants to who lives in Brooklyn wants to come there. I've got the most unbelievable story that I've told multiple times. I haven't told it for about four years now and you will not hear this story anywhere else cuz I heard sorry my brother heard it from the person it happened to and it's a saga. It's not a story. It's like a 20inut film. So come tomorrow and there's not you'll hear that one. Anyway, today's story. Now um the British Isles contains uh England, Wales, Scotland, and a little known place called Ireland. Now in Ireland there is a place not many people I didn't know about this place called Queenstown. Queenstown Ireland where people talk like this you know they talk like you know like the Irish people. Um there was a small Jewish community there in Queenstown. It was building slowly. They had their own Rav. The Rav's name was Rav Victor Learner. Um they had one shaw there and that one shaw all the Bitzas were there. There was like one million for every by the way. That's an amazing idea. You have one sh everybody goes to the same shaw. There's no like this one fights with this one makes his own shaw one shaw one stop which is okay it's nice to have separate minalin but this was something special about everyone coming and converging in the same place anyway so one shaw all the misters are there etc now there was a father and son came to this rabbi Victor Learner from the shul in Queenstown Ireland and he said to the rabbi rabbi let me introduce you to my son. He's 12 years old. I would like you to teach him his mitzvah, to teach him how to be a man, etc., not just the parasa, to get him uh uh moving on with things like fillin, etc. Like, of course, no problem. When's the mitzvah? It's on such and such a day. Okay, so let me put it in the diary, says the rabbi. No, rabbi, says the father of this young boy. We're not going to have it in this shore. So the rabbi's like, "What do you mean? There's there's no which other sh there's no other shaw here. This is Queenstown Island. It's not it's not like five towns or that's it. It's shaw or nothing." He said, "No, Rabbi, let me explain. We decided we want to do things a little bit differently. So we are going to have the Bitzvah on a boat. In fact, it's a it's a cruise ship. We're going to invite all the guests and we're going to have a little cruise and there'll be plenty of food, plenty of alcohol, etc. because we want to we we want to do things differently. So, the rabbi's like, "Okay, uh it's not something I would necessarily recommend, but um I can't argue with you." So, the father said, "Look, we would like you to come. obviously you wanted to get will you be our guest he said no I I I can't do that I have my responsibility here this is my short I can't just up and go I I have to be here this is my responsibility okay fine so the father accepted that and the son started learning with the rabbi and it was going very well the rabbi was was having a real influence on this young man. And he the boy grew very fond of the rabbi and then he shared something with the rabbi. He said, "Rabbi, you know that my father's organized this uh this cruise, the Bitzvah is going to be on this cruise ship. I I don't want that cuz you're not going to be there. I want to be Bitz in this shore like everybody else. I don't need the cruise ship. I don't need the all the whistles and bangs and crashes. I want an ordinary bitzvah like all my friends. What do you think, Rabbi? So the rabbi said, "Look, I I can't make that decision. Your father's already made that decision, but you're asking my opinion. My opinion is I think you're right. I think you'd be better off having your Bitzah just like every all the other Bitsa boys that you know. Okay. Within a week or two, the father comes to the rabbi and says, "Rabbi, what did you tell my son?" He said, "What do you mean I never told him anything?" "You told him that you should have your his he have his bits in the shore." The rabbi says, "No, no, no. I never told him. He asked me my opinion and I gave him I I was very clear that I can't influence your decision. You've made your decision. Anyway, the father said, "Okay, so why did you agree with him? What do you see in this? I It's a beautiful shaw, but why would you want to have the mitzvah here? We we we're going to give him something lavish. You don't think that's what he deserves? The rabbi didn't want to argue with him. He said, "Look, of course, he deserves everything. Deserves the best. But at the same time, think about it. If he has his bits on this cruise ship, then what's the next Bitza boy going to do?" He's going to say, "Well, I I I can't compete with that, so I'm going to try something else." And the next one will try something else. and suddenly begin a competition will begin and everyone will have this oneupmanship and it will all go out of control. By the way, parathetically there was a great rabbi called the Nabi Huda. He wrote a book called Nabi Huda. So he he in in this in the hakdama of one of the volumes there he gives the exact um template of what a bit should look like even down to the menu. The menu should be this that the other it should be restricted this amount of guests etc. Why did he do that? Because he didn't want things to get out of control. So this is a real thing and we know this. We know that the the Bites can go out of control and people can be forced to spend money that they don't have in order to make something that they don't want to they don't want to do because they just don't want to feel embarrassed. Okay. Anyway, this is what the rabbi said. How would the other boys feel if this will happen? It will cause mayhem. That's my opinion. You ask me, I'll give you my opinion. Fine. So, the father now he's heard it from his son. Now he's heard it from the rabbi and he says, "Okay, you know what? At the end of the day, it's all about my son. It's his day. We're going to do this for him. I know I've bought the tickets. I'm going to give them back. I I I don't care. We're going to have a simple mitzvah." And that's what happened. They had the simple had a simple mitzvah for this the boy in Queenstown. No cruise ship, nothing. That just never happened. Meanwhile, the boy decided he wanted to see the cruise ship. It was a very interesting uh uh idea, although he didn't want to do it for the reasons I described. He wanted to see the ship and it was it had come and docked in uh uh the port in Ireland. So he went there to see it and it was a beautiful ship but he was happy he didn't do it because the name of that cruise ship was the Titanic. True story. Now what do we learn from this story? We learn there's many lessons you can learn. What number one is you know the bins is about the boy. Okay. Unless he's asking for something which is way out of control. If he wants to keep it simple, let him keep it simple. Sometimes we have bitzvas not for the boy but for the parents or for the friends. The boy is almost secondary. Yeah. It's it's how you know I have the esteem. I I've got people to impress. Oh, hello. What about the boy? You know, he's got feelings as well. So, it is all about the boy. Now, again, I'm not talking about these spoiled kids who want elephants walking down in the Bitzvah. No, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about within reason. But the other idea is is that, you know, we're a special people and more, as we said about the Q&A and the the Jews in general, more is expected of us. We don't just tow the line and and uh you know say, okay, this has been arranged for me. I don't want to do it, but you know, give another aim. Or we can just respectfully say I want different. I want sorry I want what's right. I want to do the right thing. Now sometimes we have to extend ourselves more than normal. But at the end of the day we are a Jewish nation. where the and more is expected of us and we should all do what is expected of us and even surpass that. Thank you very much for listening. Have a good evening.