Hope and Healing

good morning good afternoon good evening wherever you may be welcome to this program hope and healing gaining strength from immonitis is wisdom my name is almond duckman and i will be your mc for the program this event is the vision and brainchild of howard and claire goliwinski from toronto ontario they did this in memory of their grand in-laws and parents sarah bassis they recognized the challenging times that we are today and they saw this opportunity to find strength in the words of torah in the words of maimonides and of course with a clear call to action so thank you howard and clear for this opportunity i'd also like to thank rabbi salman schmutkin rabbi menachem posner staff for their efforts in putting this event together today there's a few things converging together each on its own has enormous power and the the these things coming together has great significance in no specific order we are celebrating the completion of the study of rambam it's the 39th completion for those that study three chapters of rambam a day and those that study maimonides book of mitzvos say for our mitzvos it is the 13th completion the bar mitzvah for those that study one chapter a day then we are in the middle of the three weeks last wed thursday was shivasa batam is the 17th day of tamas beginning the three weeks of mourning and remembering the destruction of the holy temple in jerusalem of our base amigdas in addition we have this unprecedented challenge of this virus but all together it made the world a lot much smaller the world is a much smaller place so it's a time for us to get together to be together to be together and study to be together in the study of rambam and to be together as one and this is why it's only natural that this event is hosted by the oldest operating charitable organization it was established by the altareba the founder of the chabad movement of the adi and was headed by each of the each of the chabad represents the mission of habat is to provide support to our brethren in the holy land it was established soon after the first aliyah of hasidim the vashem students to make aliyah the holy land and it continued continues unabated until this very day the rabbah describes kawahabad as an underlying organization that is there to unite the jewish people unite the jewish people by those jews in the diaspora providing support for the poor and needy in the land of israel and especially because each and every jew is has a part of the land of israel each and every jew is connected to the land of israel so through this that jews in the diaspora support the poor and the needy jews in our holy land it provides a unique aspect of unity so therefore the underlying message of this event is to provide hope and to provide healing through unity through the study of rambam that unites all jews throughout the world with the same study specifically during this three weeks during these three weeks that it's here to unite all of us for the building the base of mikdash and we're going to accomplish this through the call to action and support the vital work of in the holy land so we have a lot to accomplish so let's get the show on the road the rambam in addition to his great scholarship and being a great philosopher the rambam was also a medical doctor let's open with a short talk of the rebbe sharing an amazing teaching that we could learn from the rambam and his medical profession [Music] the rabbit's message is clear and the rebel always had a call to action now let us continue the program let us move to jerusalem and it's my distinct honor to welcome and introduce the ashkenazic chief rabbi of israel rabbi david lao rabbi lao please this is a very big privilege very big merit for me to bless you all that you learn today they learn the torah of rambam ramban was very big sage but he was very big doctor also and today we together try to learn his torah because he explained and he took responsible about the torah and the way that asked us to be in our life here in this world and forever this is our torah our habits and our life and because of that i want to bless you all that quest try to help people according to the way of rambam according to the sages of that we can learn from the rambam and because of that i bless you all that we together with healthy and with happiness continue to learn and to finish another time and another time until the days that we can see with healthy and happiness the rambam and the mashiach will come and soon we pray about it thank you rabbi lao may hashem bless you yada i would like not would like to now welcome israel's former spartak chief rabbi and the chief rabbi of jerusalem this rishon lezione amar is [Music] thank you very much rabbi yamar our hearts and souls are connected to jerusalem especially in these three weeks so i would like to ask the mayor of jerusalem mr moshe leon to please say a few words mayor marshall young thank you so much the past few months have been specifically challenging for the residents of yerushalayim for all of israel and the whole year our hope and healing comes from hashem but old villas come through usually in the place of the base amigos one group stands out in providing hope and healing for the residents of our holy city is called khabad for over 200 years and they are not getting old and that is those that bring food to the doorstep of residents looking during these trying times every year is connected to your saline especially now during the three weeks we are here waiting to greet all of you with the coming and we hope speedily to join you in your islam with meshiach spiritually in our days it is my honor to welcome a close friend of kalal khabad a past minister of social welfare who helped develop and implement the the the the food security project that serves israel's poorest families tens of thousands of families each month much needed food the current chairman of the jewish agency you talk isaac or how he's well enduringly known as bhuji herzog we are living today in a unique perplexed and confused world now is the time to read the guide to the perplexed moana of the ramban whose illustrious work constituted the whole scope of what life is all about and where judaism is the center pillar of life and the belief of course that encompasses all of us as proud and loyal jews and here comes khabad because i believe that what khabad does encompasses so much in jewish life and i also believe that khabad as was dictated by the lake rabbit has become an incredible organization which supports and speaks and communicates with so many human beings around the globe and now more than ever in these perplexed in complicated times now is the time to congratulate and thank all those who are lending a hand like i am a huge admirer of calling khabad and its affiliates and of course its leadership i had the privilege of working with colin khabad in establishing the food security program in israel when i started it nobody believed in it that was about 15 years ago today it's become one of the main pillars of helping and assisting jews in need and people in india in the state of israel and that is through the dedication and devotion of the people of khabar fulfilling the the the age-old saying of course and all that stems from the incredible interpretation of the rambam so i want to wish all of you well in what you're doing in your good deeds and my symptoms receive the right response by from the god almighty from hashem and may we all be able to bring people to strength and the ability to function as human beings and as proud jews so about all of you thank you mr herzog you have much success and hashem should bless you now we'll have a short video of some of call habits activities during the past few months when kovac 19 started to spread the israeli government reached out to us requesting our assistance to deliver groceries to israel's elderly we accepted the challenge karla kabad has been a functioning charity for over 200 years since its founding by the altera in 1788 for this challenge we brought on an additional 350 volunteers and employees to make sure this happens i serve in the army right now i've got some time off so i came to work here my name is ilyabin and i volunteer for habakkuk i'm a photographer i have a studio in jerusalem and now because the corona so we do a grocery delivery to the elder people that can go and buy them their self [Music] from the home of the blavatnik food bank at the slager warehouse in kiryamalaki we are sending out 145 trucks that's 1990 pallets to 60 municipalities throughout israel that's 2030 tons of food [Music] yesterday we gave the 84 year old person a delivery we realized that uh he was really lonely and uh we actually spoke to him a few minutes and i realized that just from giving someone a delivery and talking to him for a few minutes you can really change his day i serve in a place that's called the fa it's right outside of jerusalem protect the people there make sure they're safe when i have time off i could protect amazon a different way give people food that they really really need and they're so happy to see you it's an amazing thing it's fill up your heart it's if you can do something with the community for people in this situation in these days it's amazing [Music] one of the greatest challenges over the past few months was the ever-changing situation because kalahabad has ongoing activities and ongoing partnerships with the government it gave what gives us a unique opportunity to be able to hit the road running so it was thanks to that infrastructure that we hadn't that we have in place built over the many years of our activities in the land of israel they gave us this opportunity to leverage that infrastructure and that experience and to multiply two three four even ten times the amount of our food distribution you don't need me to tell you about the uncertainty especially with the news coming out of the land of israel one of the projects that we are going to embark on this summer it's a project we do every summer but this year it has a whole new meaning that is we make many day camps in israel's hospitals for hospitalized children these children were affected more than anybody else the hospitals obviously were not itself visitation was held from minimal even for children so we have our volunteers that are going to go through the training to make sure that they'll be protected and they'll protect others to go into each of these hospitals and to create many day camps within the hospitals for those children that are there this is really providing hope and providing healing for these children if you want to learn more about it obviously you could go to our website search google search you could please put it on the website call alhabad.org healing now part of any rambam celebration we will have a person finish the final halachus the final paragraph of the rambam and then we will have another volunteer that he will learn with us the first paragraph the beginning you always start anew when you come to the beginning we re immediately read the portion of voracious right when we finish the conclusion of zosa bracha and for those people that this is their completion of the rambam mazeltov and congratulations and for those people that haven't yet consider this your first day welcome join us it is so easy today you could sign up to email alerts and reminders and whatsapps and so many different ways to study around you could even just order the book and study each day and next year you will be able to join the celebration together i would like to invite mendel pink to please lead the completion of the cycle of rambam mando how are you i'm doing good tell us about where you're serving and where are you now okay so i'm currently serving in natsaki uda which is a religious combat unit part of the infantry unit called kefir i am just finished seven months i've been long months of training and i'm actually very shortly going to be stationed in an area called minyamin which is just north of jerusalem so it is a very big commitment to add to your daily schedule in addition to all your other responsibilities to study every single day the rambam so thank you so much mendel please lead us in the final paragraph of the rambam okay so the rambam ends off lawyer of allah muhammad kindly sacrifice and in that time when she comes there will not be any hunger no war no envy no competition that goodness will be will be found will flow in abundance and all the delicacies will be available like the dust and the is of the whole world will only need to be to know hashem therefore the jews will be great sages the hidden ideas the seagull does very much grasp the knowledge of their creator kefika had him to the full extent of a person's potential as it says in the past that the world the land will be filled with the knowledge of hashem like the waters cover the ocean bed mazel tov mazel tov on the completion of the rambam may you complete this and have the merit to complete many other times the cycle of rambam and more importantly is thank you thank you for protection because when israel has a strong standing army not only it protects the jews in israel but attacks protects jews all throughout the entire world from mendo for that we would like to learning never ends and move directly to the beginning of the rambam and here i would like to ask a close friend review kitchen for the past 40 years committed he's there every single morning before 7 a.m and it's now after 7 p.m in the in israel so he's every single day he stays behind to do his daily study and we'll ask israel cohen to please learn with us the first chapter of the first section of the rambam beginning the next cycle you ready yitzhak why don't you go go inside the dining hall yeah go inside uh foreign [Music] is foreign may almighty fulfill all of your heart's desires thank you so much here you see the visceral cohen that he is responsible of cooking millions of meals for israel's elderly and poor and homebound over the past 40 years hope and healing the theme of today's event to address the theme it's my honor to invite world-renowned orator a pioneer in online teaching he has thousands of classes across the many platforms on facebook on youtube right here on khabar.org and across the entire web a person that is a great teacher a voice heard all throughout canada on his daily radio state radio shows radio show the rabbi founder and spiritual leader of habada flamingo and a voi in a voice that's been called upon to address modern issues and on many topics throughout it is my honor to welcome rabbi mendel kaplan rabbi kaplan can i call myself one of your first students i suppose you can yeah rabbi kaplan taught me back in high school in the 90s he wasn't that old at the time well i wasn't that old and i suppose that's a discussion for another occasion but i do appreciate this opportunity sure we could continue this conversation another time ladies and gentlemen it is my honor to give the floor i mean the screen to rabbi kaplan rabbi it's all yours good evening in the holy land of heritage royal good afternoon to my friends here on the eastern seaboard and good morning to all of you out west we stand at a very unique time in our national history the land of varys israel the land that the torah says hashem alayke that the eyes proverbially speaking the attention of hashem is always upon is today biliay in hara home to the world's largest jewish community the streets of yerushalayim are filled with the sounds of children playing the country is filled with a vibrant sense of community and extended family torah is studied from the north to the south from the east to the west and until mashiach comes there will be needy people and coil chabad the world's oldest continuous charity serving those in need in the holy land is a source of pride it's a source of inspiration for hasidim for amy's royal and really for all good decent people around the world and it's such an honor today to participate in this event that's brought to you by karil khabad we continue to hope and to yearn for a time when qaral khabad can finally be put out of business because when mashiach will come as the rambam says in the end delicacies and the lights will be so widely available to all that the extraordinary supply will erase any demands we will all have everything we could possibly need and then some and as such our focus our singular pursuit will be ladas hashem belvat but until that great day dawns the work of karl khabad is indispensable and the incredible things they do in our show in our holy land brings bracha divine blessing and venison for all members of amy's role wherever they may be we live with this optimism we are uplifted by a vision of a perfected future but we are forced to deal with the realities at hand and the realities at hand are less than inspirational we currently find ourselves reeling from what might be the most widespread pandemic ever in human history and things in israel are not fantastic either extraordinarily in israel the response was swift and perhaps ahead of the curve but unfortunately a second wave is beginning to spread itself around our beloved homeland and we in canada and really jewish communities wherever they may be are punctuated with a profound sense of anxiety and concern life has been disrupted now for months everything from the celebration of births to the building of new families at weddings life cycle events and saying farewell to our loved ones at funerals hasn't impacted we simply do not have any frame of reference in living memory hashem thank god we are not in the midst of a war we're not in the midst of armed conflict and violence but we are dealing with a very difficult set of circumstances the economy is in shambles relationships have been severely inhibited the larger communal family has been shaken in as much as families toil and sometimes successfully at building tighter immediate units our bubbles are small and we yearn for a greater sense of community and togetherness and with all this disruption has come not only physical or material suffering and anguish but an enormous amount of emotional trauma and the emotional trauma is something that has been augmented by a lack of spirituality if not personally our inability to come together communally to experience twilight sibour to dhavan together with a minion to be able to experience a fabric and a sense of closeness with others something as simple as a shabbos kiddush has been taken from us we are all reaching for inspiration yearning for a sense of clarity as we pray for guidance during these turbulent times we find ourselves in a very unique period on the jewish calendar some call it the saddest time being soren we just fasted and observed shiva asarbatamus the day of hovka year when the walls of our holy city of yerushalayim were broken as we move towards the culmination of this three-week period which is tisha buff a day of calamities the anniversary of the destruction of both batemignosa in a string of terribly consequential events including the beginning of world war one which ultimately led to the devastation and destruction that today we call the holocaust but these are also days of yemen these are also called by us ages days of divine grace and in these days we are capable of finding strength we are enabled to bring about transformation transformation of sadness into joy transformation of negativity into positivity a transformation of a time of difficulty into beizer hashem yes barack a time of plenty in a time in which kulam yeh do asi all of us will together know hashem because as we commemorate the destruction of the baisa migdash and the initiation nearly 2 000 years ago of our terrible gulles odyssey we also look forward especially in this time to bias mashiach at keno to the coming of mashiach and the ushering in of universal peace and prosperity tish above the day we lost our earthly convention that housed the srina is also the day our sages tell us that the spirit of mashiach was and as the born would say so often during these three weeks we need to toil until labor more than any other time of the year to find the silver lining to discover the optimism that has to be available what better time for us to come together being sorry as we continue to be uplifted by the recent siem harambam the conclusion of the 39th cycle of learning the entirety of the oral torah as it was redacted by rabbenu musha bin maiman haswardi the unparalleled rambam we are now just beginning only in our in our third day which makes it gives it particular strength of the 40th cycle of lima dharambam that began on the day after shivasupatamus a day that we look forward to observing with great joy in the third base amigdas together with the for although your sights days of sadness mourning and passing will not remain the hillulah element the element the dimension of joy that punctuates the day of the earthly and terrestrial passing of atsadak who continues to live on is something that will not dissipate and so my friends it is not unreasonable that in the midst of this really terrible time a terrible time of disruption and confusion together in the three weeks that we would look to the banana mashup in my manhattan to the rambam to maimonides for hope and for healing and i would like to share with you the kernel of an idea which is rooted in a foundational understanding of what the rambam wrote because i believe that it can become a catalyst a source for guidance and strength something that can enable us hashem to move forward in a positive and upbeat fashion enabling us to utilize the gift of life and the opportunities that rakadesh baraku that almighty god affords us life is a gift and every moment has to be treasured and valued there is no sense in waiting for the storm to end but there is a great deal of sense in learning how to dance in the rain kanhoyou kanimsu here we are today i'm in toronto some of you are across north america or in europe i know we have viewers in arsenal hagadosha from which this broadcast emanates and there are people watching in what they call the far east but all of us together all of us together must learn how to value and appreciate the gift of today and maximize its extraordinary potential because if we live today as we should then we become the bearers of transformation and good news that will usher in tomorrow the rambam famously wrote in us a single good deed can change our lives our communities and the whole wide he metaphorizes using the imagery of a perfectly balanced scale and the slightest amount of weight applied to either side can weigh that side down and so imagine if you will that the scales are perfectly balanced at this moment and that if we can inspire each other to live lives that are filled with more and moona with more faith with morbid talk and with more trust if we can elevate ourselves to live with a greater sense of a sense of joy and a sense of optimism with the knowledge that hashem loves each and every one of us with the awareness that hashem cares deeply about each and every one of us and that he has given us exactly what we need at this precise moment so that we can carry out the holy sheches the sacred mission of lohovi to bring us into the era of redemption and universal healing one of the greatest sages ever in our history it is not for naught that on the as has been mentioned the epithet states me maisha admesha from moses the son of amram the biblical moses until moshe moses the son of maimon maimonides ly come commissioner there arose none like moshe in the end of meisha abano's life he sought to restate the entirety of the torah speaking to a new generation who was about to cross the yard in the jordan river and to recognize and actualize the ultimate destiny of amir soil by building eretz israel mushrobenu knew that these people some of them were children and some were not physically at har sinai at all mushroom knew that the challenge that lie before him was synthesis he had to encapsulate the essence of the torah what does hashem ask of us hashem alike what does the almighty want from you and from me what does he want from this next generation may sherabenu began his final farewell sermon on the shri deshvat concluding it six weeks later on the last day of his terrestrial earthly life zion other and that restatement of the torah recapitulation of all of the essential principles of life and creation was called mishner the second take or repetition of the torah the rambam realized that he was living at a critical point in our history that the proliferation of oral torah that had become textual had continued to expand and to wax and to grow and it was time for a restatement of the oral torah the entirety of the oral torah under one roof and he called his groundbreaking work his magnum opus mishna torah a restatement of the entirety of oral torah and in this incredible compendium the rambam maimonides places everything everything that a jew must know everything that a jew must do everything with which a jew must live everything is in that good book those 14 volumes contain the restatement and encapsulation of the entirety of oral torah in a way that was never done before and never replicated that speaks to us about the essential principles of our faith he talks to us about the philosophy of torah life as he addresses laws of torah that give us guidance and instruction on a daily and annual basis and he spoke about the things that we have not been able to do or observe for millennia and he concludes of course with a snapshot of the future and the way we should view that tomorrow today extraordinarily the rambam in a very bold move inserts within the pages of his halachas what we could best call medical information is not only one of the greatest rabbis of all time he's one of the greatest doctors of all time on par with hippocrates and galin the rambam's name is known to all who are scientifically inclined or even interested in the medical profession the rama had tremendous respect for the great physicians of history he learned from them at times disagreed many people don't realize that the rambam in addition to authoring so many groundbreaking texts on torah subjects like the sephirah mitzvos written in arabic or as peter shamishnais written in the same language which would make the torah available for every single jew even the ones who couldn't speak hebrew the guide to the perplexed and he get a tame on dealing with the difficulties and catastrophic challenges of the particular times that also wrote 10 medical textbooks and in them he addresses everything from asthma to hemorrhoids he speaks about prescriptions and as many an eminent professor and scientists have observed the rambam was remarkably modern in his thinking long before the term holistic medicine appeared on the horizon the rambam speaks about the totality of the human being when he discusses health although the rambam lived centuries before the invention of the mri and the ct scans there were no x-rays or aspirins nor antibiotics in the days of the rambam he didn't even have a sphingometer or a thermometer obviously the rambam's medicine will be antiquated but extraordinarily the rambam chose to include advice for wellness in the book of mishnah torah and the rambam justifies doing this and say for hamada the first of those 14 books and the law is called deuce attitudes or opinions how one must view the world the rambam at the beginning of the fourth chapter says because having a healthy body is midarke in the present version that says hashem on a number of locations emphasizes that there seems to be a mistake here and based on what the ramen writes in earlier chapters that ebba says the sentence should read because wellness and because health is midarke hashem it is a critical part of serving god or of yadiya's hashem or of knowing god shahadeh eff because it is impossible for a person to fully exhaust his possibilities and actualize his potential insofar as habeda of knowing god which means to have a relationship with god it is impossible for one to be able to expand your soul and to develop the potential for knowing and feeling the presence of hashem in your life if you're a khoila if you're a person who's compromised if you're a person who's ill if you're a person who struggles with a lack of health balance and wellness so the rambam says a person has to distance himself from devarim from things that serve to undermine or to damage the material welfare our corporeal reality so the rambam is saying that to be an observant jew to be a spiritually minded jew to be a jew who seeks a relationship with akadesh barhu to be a jew who desires to make this world into adidale is barak who wants to see this world become the gorgeous godly garden that it was always destined to be you need to be healthy and because you need to be healthy to be able to accomplish that which hashem expects of you you need you need to take care of your health an observant jew does not just simply put on twillon or ensure that shabbat candles are lit in the home the observant jew is not only to be concerned with his diet insofar as non-mixing of milk or meat or consuming the things that the torah bans telling us they are not prepared for consumption and elevation and transformation non-kosher that we should not only be concerned with the mezuzah that is affixed appropriately on a doorpost but rather rambam says we have to be concerned with the air we breathe with the food we eat with the way we bathe and experience intimacy because all of these are parts of the human condition that can be done in a healthy or solemn unhealthy way and we are duty bound to live in a healthy way now the truth the truth must be told nobody ever said this before nobody ever so boldly stated that eating healthy and nutritiously getting enough sleep and ensuring that the air you breathe is clean is actually a part of judaism it's a if you will a sacred a religious obligation that if a person is deficient in these areas if a person willfully abandons their health or wellness that they are actually in violation of the terror nobody ever really said that before the rambam but the rambam's innovation has become part and parcel of the life of every single yid it was the balchemtrav who promulgated the idea that spirituality is not to be obtained through the breaking of one's physical wellness that aestheticism is essentially a contradiction to torah and jewish spirituality that one was required not to harm themselves it was the maggot of mizritch who distilled those words and ideas into the simple yiddish phrase akleine in goof a small crevice or cavity in the body is aggressive a gaping hole in the neshama and it was who over the ages and generations instructed us to become increasingly aware of physical wellness which includes eating before davening if that's what keeps one healthy which includes ensuring and understanding that physical health and spiritual health are not two separate worlds but as that ebb would so often state are ultimately part of the same picture so if the rambam had simply stated these words something that he begins to develop in the third chapter of his deus and left it there we would have no questions but the rama didn't leave it there instead he launches into a detailed digest of health advice now it is true that many of the commentaries have struggled to find sources in the talmud sources in the madras and zohar for much of the rambam's health and wellness advice but it is also true that himself departed from certain ideas and ideals that are articulated within the genre of talmudic literature stating that metabolisms had shifted and changed and it's the same argument that's made about the rambam's advice indeed what the rambam said was right for his time but variables have shifted nature has changed our metabolism is no longer identical we breathe different air eat different foods live in different climates and of course we're at a different age why would the rambam have included medical advice nutrition bathing advice which is very much part of preventive medicine and say for mishna toyota the book that encapsulates everything that we need as many obernesia israel as hashem's holy children to be sure much much of what the rambam says in the fourth chapter of the his deus is almost verbatim from some of the things he writes in his medical treaties books volumes that were authored in arabic they're hippocratic they are reflections of galen and they are not by any stretch of imagination necessarily rooted in torah statements and the rambam must have known that things would change because he saw in his own time how things had changed the rambam was a great sage of the torah a recipient of revelation revelation does not change by virtue of our analysis and we are not really able to draw different conclusions we seek to understand the underlying jurisprudence the philosophies and ideas that are conveyed to us in hashem's torah science is a very different field of inquiry it's based on observation it's based it's based on discovery and the rambam was a scientist and he knew that hippocrates and gallon and many of the other medical or scientific greats had come to their conclusions based on their observations there are those who maintain that science and torah are a contradiction and that ebba taught us that nothing could be further from the truth torah is rooted in revelation and science is rooted in observable phenomena the twain shall never contradict each other for they are entirely different worlds the scientist should not be dogmatic it is not the job of the scientist to stick to old ideas and be unflinching or inflexible it is the necessity of science to be able to constantly question and to shift and to change even in today's day and age science continues to pioneer its various fields and there are arguments and questions and scientific theory which is somewhat oxymoronic for science strictly speaking means knowledge and other theory is an idea but torah doesn't change our understanding of torah deepens our appreciation of torah continues to expand but we do not come to new conclusions our question is simply how to arrive at the halocha and how to best observe the will of hashem in our current circumstances why in heaven would the rambam insert science into a body of torah why would the rambam give us advice that is based on observable phenomena when he speaks about revelation why would the rambam give us a digest of what is nutritious and healthy in the 11th century when he knew that mishnah torah was being written to uplift to inspire to educate to guide and to clarify in that bias until the end of our exilic time and beyond why why would he do that did the rambam not have the imagination to know that this advice would have to be falling by the wayside incredibly the rambam concludes the fourth chapter of hilhas deus with the following words he says follow this advice do as i ask of you and the ani arevley and i am your guarantor i promise you he said iniboli you will never come to even the hands of sickness can harbor until you get very old that's the rule every rule has exceptions the rule is that if you do as i told you to in it sorry you will not need a doctor or even medical insurance charleme your body and corporeal reality will be whole and robust the amid albury you will continue to maintain equilibrium and stamina kolyama of all of your days ah the rule has an exception ella ello mk no goofy ra unless there's an issue we would call this genetics in today's verb verbiage syntax there's a genetic predisposition to weakness or illness or a person may have damaged their body irreparably through repetitive acts that were unhealthy or maybe tova macas dove devore marcus betsaidas or maybe we deal with illness or a pandemic so it's a rule with an exception the rule is live in a healthy fashion live in a wellness conscience fashion follow what i tell you to the tea and i guarantee you'll never get sick except if you will get sick except if there are issues or problems that you may have from the time of your birth if you're born with a faulty heart valve or a predisposition to some kind of foreign growth in your body i can't change this as an nor will eating healthy or nutritiously or getting enough sleep change that and if there is going to be infection there's going to be infection it cannot control the realities of the world around us why would the ram say that why would he make this rule albeit giving us the exception why would he make a rule saying that you and i living in the 21st century who are today privy to so many extraordinary medical discoveries the rambam must have been aware and must have known and whilst it is true that all ideas and torah have truth on some level as the rebbe explains in a very sophisticated and detailed edited rumination that i will not even try to begin to talk about on some level every concept of torah is true but mishna toru was not written for the way things are in heaven mishna torah was written for you and i living here on planet earth rambam why why wouldn't you simply tell us live well be conscious of your health and wellness seek out the advice of the doctor of your day my dear friends i think that this seeming question provides us with an extraordinary insight that can give us the clarity and the guidance that we so desperately seek today think about it you and i living in a world that is awash with information there are so many opinions about what is or isn't good today should we wear masks shouldn't we wear masks should we physically distance well pretty much everybody says it would be a good idea will there be a vaccine want to be a vaccine these are just some of the questions that people continue to talk about in today's day and age and there's vociferous arguments on social media mass media and amongst friends the information that we are receiving is based on scientific inquiry carefully controlled studies things being observed every day being copiously and carefully documented and yet the reality is that you and i in today's day and age can look at just about any food well with the exception of maybe hot dogs and french fries and come to a variety of conclusions whether it is or isn't good and you know the rambam was the master of holistic medicine not the north american style of specializing where something may be good for your liver but terrible for your heart or vice versa rambam understood that the entire body worked in concert and in unison and today oftentimes in the world of pharmacology one medication directly contradicts or even exacerbates another medication so we don't really have clarity we know that the information we have today about nutrition health and wellness is vastly different than it was 20 years ago and you can't even compare the information that we had half a century ago as the world continues to evolve in its understanding and appreciation of the sciences and of nature if the rambam would simply have said to you follow medical advice live healthy do good things you wouldn't know what to do live healthy do good things by virtue of whose opinion who's science there's a conspiracy theory today there's a deviant alternative opinion tomorrow there are different paths within what we would call the science of medicine whose advice do i follow rambam is telling me to live a good life rambam's telling me to live a health conscious life but i would say rambam how do i know what the truth is so the rambam said i'm going to provide you with the information as i have it today this is what conventional medicine believes in now the rambam carefully learnt and examined the advice and the works of the world's most famous doctor hippocrates the rambam knew that some of the things the hippocrates had said had already been disproven we know today that much of what he believed in and said are no longer true some things are still true but the rambam was able to tell us about the things that he knew of in his time the greco-roman physician gallon was an extraordinary physician his international fame was not won because of politics or fortune and yet not everything he believed in was correct and then there are of course shifting realities changes in metabolism whether it be gmos or whether it be simply the kinds of lives we live today or the pollution we're living with things that are beyond our control climates vary and shift the natives living in the northern areas of canada the aboriginal peoples are known for extraordinary obesity and longevity go figure that out my friends the rambam provided for us in deus what is arguably the most important advice we might ever receive and the sense of clarity and hope and the healing we need in today's day and age many will be proffering conspiracy theories and there will be all kinds of competing ideas on the stage of what is or isn't healthy for you the rambam says that as a torah jew you are required to follow conventional medicine and if it is true that in 15 years from now or five years from now the conventional knowledge of medicine that we we think is actual and factual will no longer be so that's not your problem that's not your issue you as a torah jew are required to follow the rulings of the required to follow the ideas and guidelines that are laid out in the mishnah torah and they are not exact israelis feinstein wrote in a groundbreaking shuva making a huge distinction between the halakhas that are found in hilkis deus and the halachas that are found in schmidt's nephew my attitudes how should i approach life speaks about the laws of loss of safeguarding life there the rambam says there are things which the sages proscribed because these kinds of behaviors involve and engage actual threats to one's life and if you violate these things had any and you say i didn't even sacrifice me it's my body it's my life i'll take my chances who is anybody else to lecture or tell me about this machine says a person like that gets a good flogging but maisha says when you take a look in his days not once does the rambam mention the word asur not once does he say proscribed or prohibited he suggests ramesha was responding to somebody who wanted him to halachically outlaw smoking a cigarette the dementia said i can't do that whilst cigarette smoking is unhealthy for most it is not necessarily going to be fatal for all and furthermore that maisha said it in and of itself a single cigarette is not a pill of cyanide he said what the rambam promoted was healthy living ramosa encouraged people not to smoke the fria de quereba long before it was common knowledge forbade people from smoking before the age of 20 and pleaded that smoking should not become a lifestyle for people who are old enough and mature enough to make that decision but at the same time our torah leaders did not say this is prohibited that misha says that the rambam in his death is promoting a regiment of good health it is not as if you eat or drink one of the things rambam tells you to do that it will necessarily guarantee you perfect health or that if you once slip up and have a piece of chocolate cake it means you're gonna die it means you have to live a healthy lifestyle risk to one's life is never permitted ever even if there are very small chances of actually dying from something a health that is nutritious and balanced a life that is based on behavior that is proven to be salutary and contributes to corporeal wholesomeness is the kind of life we must live and in my mind's eye i think to myself had the rambam not given the advice that's found in pedigrees had he not spelled it out for us it would have remained a nebulous concept some idea one in theory should be healthy in theory one should be eating nutritiously and getting enough sleep what is good nutrition what is healthy food what is healthy behavior how to prevent illness there are a thousand opinions and so the rambam's giving us the guidance and the clarity we need today my dear friends we were not asked to reinvent the wheel there are people who have dedicated their life to medicine and science and as torah jews our responsibility is to follow the conventional medical approach and if we follow the conventional medical approach based on the science of our day as a student of the rambam might have done at his time then the rambam says the attitude must be ani aurevle and there's no room for anxiety there is no room for worry there is no room for a sense of debilitating fear as the rabbit that samar zedek said and taught as our rebel promulgated the idea of good with zain good positive thinking think good will be good think good will be good that rabbi explains means that when a yid has a muna when a yid has faith in hashem when he lives with a sense of trust in hashem that that actually brings about good things it lifts us up it lifts us out of the minutia of everyday life it places us face to face with the creator with it enables us to become a convention in an envelope to receive his blessings my dear friends the anxiety and the fear has no place within the walls of a torah life if the rambam was here today he would tell us to follow conventional medical advice to do as the medical profession says and to stop worrying and not to allow fear to destroy life he would tell us any other we as torah jews can be certain that if we did our part if we followed what doctors are telling us then will take care of us and if there is something ram if the abstract almighty god decided that somebody would only have so and so many years and that the heart valve will give out after a certain point no amount of health and nutrition can necessarily change that if the abrasion of almighty god and his infinite wisdom decides that pandemic and infectious realities surround us and we did our part and in the end hashem wants to claim our lives that's hashem's business live with faith live with optimism live with hope live with trust the rambam wanted you and i to know ani urev he is our guarantor he promises us you do what torat ahmet says you followed the instructions of hashem's eternal wisdom and then and then trust in hashem i have heard people say i trust in hashem i don't require any kind of limitations i don't have to listen to doctors if god wants me to die well then i'll die that is ridiculous outlandish off the beaten path it's beyond the pale of torah torah tells us we are required to take every precaution that is reasonable the rambam says we are required to live nutritiously balanced restful and healthy lives we are required to do that we are we're sent here with a mission we have to make this world a godly place and if your body is destroyed falling apart and unable to function you won't be able to function so that's a simply wrong-headed approach what is the right approach is to follow the medical advice of your day and to be battered we will get through these challenging times a far better tomorrow is on the offering but we have to follow the torah's advice today in the here and now instead of suggesting that it will be good it must be good ms promises you that if you do as torah asks of you that hashem it will be good the rebel would say time and again that one is required to follow conventional medicine and then and then don't think again about it instead focus on living an uplifted life of simcha de tuvlev a life of joy a life of wholesomeness a life that's filled with holy meaning mission and purpose i want to conclude with a real time little narrative a snippet of life i recently spoke to a young person who unfortunately is struggling with the worst of illnesses a milder form but nonetheless an illness that we torah jews don't even like to speak out called yena macha that awful disease the big c and there was a question of doing yet another round of chemotherapy and an argument in the medical community and i guided him to the best of my ability based on clear directors from the rebbe in finding a roefi you did a doctor who also cares about you in soliciting the advice of multiple medical professionals and ultimately in doing what the consensus of modern medicine says and in the end it was pretty clear that from a torah perspective the right thing to do was to go through get a third round of that poisonous treatment and then i spoke to this person recently and they said to me you know i'm looking online and i'm finding all kinds of things and i'm i'm feeling this and feeling that and my life is wrecked with fear and anxiety along with the physical pain and i'm i don't know where to turn tomorrow my friends i said to him a digest of what i've shared with you today and i said to him your job your job is to do what hashem asks of you you've done that you listened to the doctors you followed conventional medical advice you've gone through the painful treatments now i said stop surfing the net stop playing doctor stop looking for cures or diagnosing ailments now i said now hashem now know with absolute certitude and absolute trust hashem loves you hashem cares about you and your family you've done your part leave it in hashem sense the worry and the anxiety can become the source of the greatest illness and debilitating realities my friends let us move forward let us move forward with joy and with confidence with faith and with trust let us follow the rambam and gain strength from his remarkable clarity and torah insight follow the good book it will lead you in the right direction we as torah jews must follow the advice that we're given as long as it is sound scientifically based and comes together as consensus from the medical community but we don't believe in doctors and we don't place our trust and faith in scientists that we place in the hands of a kurdish baruch and if we will live lives that are punctuated with faith instead of fear if we leave we will live lives that are filled with trust instead of anxieties if we will live lives that are focused singularly on the time that will soon arrive as a result of the actions we take today for the revelation and transformation of the future says the altar ebba impeded tanya is the result of aveda no call me golos it's what we do today that necessarily builds the world of tomorrow if we become disillusioned and if we become depressed if we are punctuated with sadness if we lose our faith and our trust we are shalom robbing ourselves of the rise of a far better time we look forward to seeing the fulfillment of the rambam's words the words of our sages and our prophets not because it is the panacea for a pandemic for it is not the panacea for a pandemic may be a vaccine or not but mashiach is not about restoring things to the way they were the coming of mashiach which is accelerated through our study of the rambam's illuminated torah is about bringing the world to the state that it can and the ezra's hashem will be zait ala gazunt be healthy be well be filled with faith with our faith and with our trust in our code in hashem we will hear good news we will share good news and hopefully hear and share the best news of all our redemption is finally here we will meet the rebbe the rambam and all the greats of the past as we are reunited in eternal joy in the third base amigdas the mheda will be ameno amen thank you thank you thank you rabbi kaplan we thank each and every person thank you howard thank you claire i'd like to thank everyone for making this event possible extremely inspiring for me and if you're still with us it means inspiring for you too i invite anybody that has a plan to visit israel may their tourism be open soon to come join us in pantry packers you could search us pantrypackers.org today if there's any more information you're looking for you know to to turn to the internet you can just google call aloha or just learn about our many other projects i'd like to thank chabad.org i'd like to thank rabbi kaplan and i'd like to thank the coal about staff both here and in israel that made this event possible i'd like to wish all of us that speedily in our days that we see the coming of meshiach even before the ninth tish above and even before the show may it have happened speedily today thank you very much and have a good day good night good evening wherever you are