Creating Light Out of Darkness

i am so appreciative to the wechsler family for this special privilege that i have to be here with you and learn together connect unite and be here with each other in an expression of those three powerful words that we just said two days ago together as communities all over the world gathered outdoors or indoors near their homes or in their schools khazakh khazakh vanessa be strong and be strong and let's strengthen each other this special sheer that's happening here right now streamed around the world with so many hundreds and hundreds who have come together i see the numbers are quite large hashem i don't know exactly how many people but i see a lot of people here right wow okay before was a thousand i see now three thousand three thousand three hundred and sixty six people kane yearboob lea and hara so it's really very special it's very special i wanna thank the whole family for for being behind this and for organizing this as a special token and as huss for a complete and speedy recovery a reforced limo crava for our dear friend ramosa mahal ben tamaleah and for hayasara past himalaya and i begin with extending my blessings and our blessings on behalf of the thousands of jews on behalf of people who are here with us so we'll watch later all around the world davening and praying tashem that he grants a complete and speedy recovery in the military mahal and tamaleah many many long prosperous happy healthy years fully healthy and wholesome to be able to go from strength to strength a life filled with serenity good health good spirits tranquility tremendous nachos from all the children and grandchildren to be able to dance at all of their weddings beside us smugglers and to be able to enjoy with your families many many years with bracha and nigler revealed goodness and that hashem should really give you continue to give you the strength the inspiration to overcome all the adversity all the challenges and experience only light and a full recovery or a shleimo amen everyone who's joining us here i need not to tell you about the work and the life story of our dear friend michal michael as some of you know him rebecca mccollum and himalaya one of the pillars i know he's not going to like this but i'll say it anyway one of the pillars of the jewish community in great britain in england in london a person who continues to personify humility sensitivity dignity inner strength resilience faith integrity kindness everybody knows if you need a favor clandestinely without fanfare without drama there's an address to go to a person who embodies a life dedicated to learning torah and not only learning torah but living torah breathing terror exuding the light the warmth the love the dignity the fairness the justice and the compassion that a jew who really lives with terror lives by a source of blessing and inspiration not only to his family really do i hear children speak about their father as your children speak about you and your wife but also to friends to relatives to the community to people close and to people far and all in such an unassuming and dignified beautiful beautiful way the life story of khayasara her dedication to prayer to faith to inspire people constantly with hizu is equally legendary so on this special time as we gather together we offer you all of our love all of our all of our inspiration all of our blessings all of our light and we dive in together yes i'm also going to ask everyone who's gathered wherever you are to take a few coins or a few dollars or a checkbook or a credit card and give some sadaka charity in the merit of rabbi mccollum and himalaya and the merit of khayasara basta malaya and we're now going to learn some torah so together the combination of prayer and terror and charity the three pillars upon which the world stands as it says in prikayavas the big world and the small world the macro and the micro the ulam godland islam cut and the three pillars of life of the world is the study of the work of the service of the heart of idaho and acts of kindness and generosity which is what makes rab mahal and khayasara such pillars because they live by these three pillars of terror vedic militias may all of this add and increase even more light and more blessings for a complete and speedy recovery and maybe be able to see it with our eyes here and now and very speedily in our days may you ever reform slammer israel and may we all see serious typhus yeshua's hamas for you for all of our brothers and sisters the world over and for all good people the world over until the great moment of healing of our entire world the amsakule shabbos so oh i was asked to speak about transforming darkness into light and i think perhaps the best way to open up such a conversation you'll forgive me but you know we often like uh opening our speeches with some humor the gemara says that before rabbi would begin his sheer you would start with a mils of the difference he would start with an anecdotal comment the rabbis would laugh they would kevel and then josef yasub then he would they would sit and aw and he would begin he would begin to shear anyway they tell a story about this jewish couple they got into a fight and they were bickering with each other and they were you know a little mean and rude to each other and unfortunately they unfortunately they were they did not make up before they went to sleep you know it's always good too sometimes you can't make up before you go to sleep sometimes you have to sleep out at night and tomorrow you both won't be tired and everything will be fine but they did not wait make up with each other and they went to sleep now he had a flight the next morning and he was not a morning person he used to sleep late the problem is his flight was five o'clock in the morning so he had to wake up three he had to wake up three o'clock in the morning in order to make his flight his wife was an early bird so he he he would usually ask his wife to wake him up problem is they weren't on speaking terms they got into this fight and they're ignoring each other so what does he do he knew that his wife wakes up in the middle of the night a few times so he left a note near her bed and he says do me a favor please when you wake up wake me up three o'clock in the mornings i should be able to make my flight anyway he wakes up 10 30 in the morning he looks at the clock he wants to start screaming at his wife but then he sees a note near his bed my dear beloved husband it's three o'clock in the morning it's time to wake up we all know that humanity is divided into two groups and forgive me for the superficiality but there's actually arashi massachusetts who says this some people are night walls they're night people some people are morning people there are those they will not sleep after sunrise david malik says i wake up the dawn and our sages say and the dawn should not wake me up they like to march to the rhythm of mother nature dawn has broken it's time for you to get out of bed sun has risen there's no excuse anymore to be attached to the mattress it's time to wake up together with the roosters together with the birds and start singing the symphony of life these people wake up with sunrise and once the sun sets night comes they're ready to go into bed i just met a neighbor of mine i mean we were walking home friday night we were just talking about you know schedules and he tells me listen he says i wake up every morning 4 15 a.m not a minute later it's been decades 4 15 a.m now these days here in muncie sunrise is around 7 20. so 4 15 a.m is three hours before sunrise so it's pitch dark it's it's it's a long time before dawn it's pitch pitch dark and uh he said i wake up 4 15 a.m every single day i said when do you go to sleep goes to sleep 9 p.m after 9 p.m you will not catch him up he said what happens you know barak hashem in new york and london a lot of symbols i said what happens if you have a similar in brooklyn because i have a similar in brooklyn it throws my week off i'm jet lagged for a week it destroys and ruins the week because there's a rhythm there's a rhythm 4 15 i'm up 9 o'clock i'm in bed it's one type of people but we all know there's another group of people we call them the night people when dawn breaks they decide to go to sleep you know they suddenly come to life 10 o'clock at night they come to life other people are falling on their feet they turn into pumpkins they can't function anymore and these people night comes and they become alive and if these two people are married to each other good luck celebrity confront people you know they love to wake up 4 15 at latest 5 15 they open the door to bring in the newspaper right they make their coffee they know exactly when they're cleaning the table after the coffee they're the ones who open the shoal for chakras or are sitting at their desk in the office at 7 30 in the morning at least pre-corona they know exactly their schedule they are predictable they are meticulous they are precise and they have the trajectory for their day set out before them they even know exactly when they're going to nap they take their 12-minute power nap at 1 30 in the afternoon if you'll call them after 10 o'clock at night you will probably get a pretty tough response in what planet do you live how dare you call me 10 o'clock at night for something that's not an emergency but then there's a whole other group of people they start their day when it gets dark you will not see them in the office too early in the morning even 10 and 11 10 in the morning they're still they're still in a bad mood late afternoon evening that's when their souls are resurrected that's when they start thinking 11 o'clock at night now is the time to return telephone calls now is the time to answer whatsapps to respond to texts to answer emails now is probably the time for exercise as well one o'clock am they will probably send you a message on what's up i'm looking you i'm searching for you for an hour why don't you answer now the way to figure out who you are is you have to figure out when you wake up on vacation when you don't have to work or during corona when you're quarantined there are those no different true work no shall no work they're up when you have to be up and then there are other people who are they follow very very different different schedules what we want to discuss today is tonight today by me it's day by you it's night we're going to try to make peace in this class what does god believe in how did hashem work when god created the world when did his day begin when did god's day begin did god's day begin five o'clock am or did god's day begin five o'clock pm well we all know the answer open up beratious open up genesis i'm translating it to english because i know we have a lot of diverse people i want everybody to understand in the beginning god created heaven and earth god said let there be light and there was light he gave light the name day and he separated between light and darkness and what does it say afterwards vayi erev voice there was evening there was morning day one then comes the creation of the second day there was evening there was morning day two there was evening and it was morning day three same with day four day five and day six in other words when did god when did hashem the reborn shalom start his day not by day he started his day by night the first day of creation according to jewish tradition is the 25th day of elo according to one opinion according to yeshua is the 25th day of other disgusting sectors hashanah when did the 25th of el begin god created the world so to speak on a sunday we call it a sunday when did sunday begin sunday began sunday morning sunday began saturday night midnight sunday morning midnight of saturday night no vahi erev it began with night with the sunset of the night before that's when the 25th of ello began and indeed this is the jewish tradition until this very day unlike so many other cultures around the world when do our days in the jewish calendar begin they don't begin with sunrise they don't begin midnight they begin the night before in fact this is sometimes a source of confusion for people people who come to shul rosh hashanah or yom kippur they often don't know that yom kippur starts the night before yom kippur starts in the morning so you come to shilliam kippur and you stay till the night they don't know that the next night is not yom kippur the next night is the day after yom kippur yum kippur starts the night before shabbos doesn't begin saturday morning it doesn't begin friday night midnight it begins friday evening when the sun sets that's the full shabbos that's when shabbos begins sunset and nightfall every single calendar by us follows the system of creation as the gomorrah says in the beginning of bragas the governor says why does the mishnah the opening of the whole mission to begin with the words from when do we read shma at night why do we begin with that and the gomorrah says that follows the creation system of the that follows the system of creation first dark and then light bereti voice god started the day at night he finished the day with daytime as the sun sets a new day begins this is how it is people have often asked the question why does judaism function this way it seems a little strange to start your day at night usually night evening is the end of the day come home from work you take off your tie if you wear a tie these days you take off your tie i'm talking pre corona i know everything changed now you don't go to work you don't come home from work depends on the situation but in in in you know those days of normalcy if we could call them if we could call as any era of history normal night is the time you relax you uh loosen your bones you come home it's the end of the day you know you say you tell your wife it doesn't it's been a long day i'm happy to be home plop down on the couch i'm very happy to get in bed the night always represents you know the sun sets it's been a long day and we finished the day tomorrow there's going to be a new day anayatang the sun will rise and there'll be a maidan because every normal person knows evening is the time to finish the last projects of the day you go to sleep and tomorrow you begin a new day our system here today in fact makes a lot of sense 12 o'clock midnight we go from pm to am and we begin a new day in other words we divide our night into two sections the first six hours of night from 6 p.m till 12 a.m belong to the day before that's like finishing up the day you come home at six you have seven eight nine ten eleven twelve you go to sleep you prepare to go to sleep you go to an event you go to a simba you catch up on some stuff whether it's a social event or you're or you're learning whatever it is every person according to their lifestyle and their capacity and then you get into bed 12 o'clock am whether you're sleeping already you're going to sleep depends who you are it starts your new day psychologically 12 o'clock am starts on new day you're preparing for the new day in fact the gomorrah says in brachis of gibbel hamelech had a harp that was suspended above his head and when midnight came a northern wind would start playing the harp and david would get out of bed and he would learn a whole night that's why he said i woke up the dawn the dawn didn't wake up me in fact this is a well-known tradition and custom by jews throughout many generations especially great people pious people who made sure not to sleep after midnight they went to sleep with nature and at midnight they woke up before nature they woke up before the roosters and they would spend the second half of the night studying meditating praying for redemption is learning in fact the zohar discusses the auspicious energy that starts uh vibrating throughout the cosmos by khatsu salilah by midnight if you go to places in eastern europe i remember when i was there in the summer a few years ago you're dealing with places that can already start getting light at one in the morning two in the morning so it wasn't always a long time but the point is they got up then why it was the beginning of the day and yet the jewish strong even though people get up in the middle of the night at midnight and it's the time to wake up but ultimately our tradition our culture our rituals halacha follows a different system you begin with night and that's the beginning of the day i want to give you one very simple but i think sweet explanation and then i want to get into a deeper explanation the first explanation has to do with human nature and human relationships everybody knows when you wake up in the morning you're fresh i'm not talking about if you didn't have a chance to sleep and you're miserable and exhausted but if you had barak hashem a fine night a normal night you got back your energy in the morning we think differently when you answer an email it's with more thoughtfulness when you study when you read when you learn whatever you're involved in you simply have more vigor more energy more alacrity there's more stamina and vitality the beginning of the day the end of the day we're exhausted very often people go to the office they work very hard they're creative there's deals to make there's issues to deal with there's challenges to overcome you want to make ends meet then you want to be even more you want to be successful you want to be affluent beijing hashem you come home you're exhausted but here's the question when do we meet our children when do we meet our family when do we spend time usually in the evening hours and what often happens is those are the hours we're already depleted we're just looking forward to go to bed comes yiddish judaism and tells us no no no when you come home from work at five o'clock in the evening six o'clock in the evening that's when the day begins the day didn't begin when you left to work that was already the day was almost over when you left to work when you left home to go to work the day was almost over that's the morning the day was already going on all night you know when the day actually begins when you walk into the door coming home from work that's when the day begins those are the hours when you want to be fresh when you want to be on your best behavior people often talk about the fact that they don't they for their children for their spouse they have all the time in the world but in reality you don't end up spending any time with them because there's always other considerations and i say treat your children not any better but not any worse than any client you would pencil in a half an hour for them an hour for them right from two to three in the afternoon pencil in two hours for your children you say no i don't have two hours for my kids i have 24 hours for my kids and you end up giving them nothing can you pencil in that six to eight there's no phone there's no appointments there's no email there's no social media there's only sitting and schmoozing or playing or having fun and enjoying your children bonding with them so the terror comes and says when you come home don't be at your worst behavior this is your best behavior this is the moment when your day begins this is the moment to embrace life in all of its freshness but i want to go one step deeper and share with you an insight that we heard from the love that was shared by the laboratory shabbos beresha's tough shinyur aleph shop is beratious 1950 1950. yeah 1950. he was actually not pleated officially his father-in-law passed away a few months earlier but he was for bragging in show shabbos beratious and it's before my days but there's a transcript of it and i saw this a number of years ago i left a very powerful impression on me and he said for this we have to study a very strange story that the gemara shares in tractate shabbos rebzera was one of the greatest talmudic sages of the time this is the fourth century after the common era living in babylonia present-day iraq and abzada once meets his rebbe the great sage the russia shiva ravihuddha rabbi huda was considered one of the greatest sages of all times and repubzed to see that is very happy he's in a charming elevated and elated mood his composition exudes a sense of comfort and serenity and rabbi huda says to the zeida his student this is your opportunity to ask any question you would like any question you want to raise i will answer so now imagine you are given a few minutes with one of the greatest sages of the generation somebody whose mastery of terror and of wisdom in general is legendary and you're given a few minutes and he tells you any question you want to ask ask what would be the question that you would ask i want to know think about it you could put it into the comments well let me tell you the question that repeater buhood at that moment you know what he asked him he said i want to ask you a question if there's something called anti-climactic i think it's this i always notice that in farms and in fields the goats walk ahead of the sheep why why are the sheep usually behind the goats this is what he says my time is in mass gibberish and you know what tribute answered him instead of saying rip zeta this is the question you're gonna ask me he said i'll tell you why they follow the energy of creation first darkness then light usually as rashi says usually most goats at least in that region were black most sheep are white what comes first darkness or light blackness or whiteness evening or morning take a look at genesis first came night then came day first the goats walk and then the sheep look the goats are black and the sheep are white and blackness comes before whiteness darkness comes before light night comes before day that's how god created the world that was the answer to the game now i ask you a question if you had an opportunity to ask the greatest sager question this is your question is this relevant he wanted to become a farmer he was a zoologist he was studying the nature of goats versus sheep and why are you asking abu hud go to somebody who spends years with sheep and goats and i don't think that was your hood and find out do research google the question and you'll figure it out i know there was no google in the fourth century after the common era i know that but what i meant was that the gemara says talmud shabbas a torah scholar is called chaba so somebody asked why so this answer is very simple because the rest of the week you have google you don't have to be google everybody's you actually have to know your stuff because shop is there's no google what is going on in the story the truth is the message of the story is profound and it teaches us the secret of life my dearest friends and it teaches us the secret of today's gathering zeta wasn't only asking a question about goats and sheep he was asking a question about life and the question about life is what yehuda was addressing yes it's coated in sheep and goats but it's really a profound question and that is why is it that we live in a world where darkness precedes light why is it that all great people in order to achieve greatness must go through equally great challenges why is it that the greater the person the greater the challenges why is it that the greater the discovery the deeper the anxiety and the toil and the stress that preceded the discovery why is it that the greatest light is always born from darkness why masha breaks the tablets he's sad he's melancholy god says make new tablets moishe can't comfort himself and god says don't worry the second tablets will be superior to the first tablets why couldn't those tablets be the original tablets why is it that from confusion comes a deeper form of clarity from crisis comes the deepest opportunity from addiction comes the deepest recovery from illness comes the deepest form of health from darkness comes the deepest form of light why is it that i have to descend into the abyss in order to touch my infinite depth why is it why is it that i sometimes have to go through so much pain and so much heartache and so much grief in order to be able to discover who i really am in order to be able to discover what life really is in order to be able to discover god in order to be able to discover truth why must i have to dig through so many layers of falsehood in order to discover truth it was your leader sir winston churchill who once said that in a time of war the truth is so precious it must be protected by so many bodyguards of lies why is it that if i want the superficial truth it will be there on the surface but if i want the real truth i'm going to have to dig and go through layers of gravel and debris and dirt and soil and earth until i find the wellspring the mayam khayyam deep beneath it why the gemara says in megillah davao if somebody says i toiled and i didn't discover don't believe them i didn't toil and i discovered don't believe them you guys what's the secret says let me tell you something let me explain to you how creation works first is darkness then is light first of the goats then other sheep what is he telling him in fact sheep and goats are very different types of creatures yaakov is compared to the sheep hakusav frida is considered the goat the goats goats are much more sly they're much more shrewd they're less tamed they're much more wild they're less inhibited they have much more chutzpah sheep are much more docile much more reserved much more submissive much more compassionate till today in english we call certain people sheep they're followers they're not leaders they're much more submissive they surrender easily goats are much tougher you say ah is as stubborn as a goat via in yiddish an altitude an old goat an altar book tough so the path to the sheep goes through the goat rep zero wants to understand the secret and the behood that tells them i have to explain to you something about life the destination of life is not darkness the destination of life is light life is about light not darkness because life comes from the source of light and the source of goodness and the source of clarity we don't end off our day with darkness we do not we start off our day with darkness we don't end off our day with darkness we end off our day with light when the sun sets it's the beginning of a new day that's going to end with light because the ultimate destiny and purpose of everybody and everything is light you were not meant to live in darkness and in confusion and in sadness and in despair and in depression and in melancholy and in toxicity and in confusion and insecurity and in fear and in trauma you were meant to find and live in a world of oi and a liver lively s the ultimate destiny of the cosmos says we sit and we glow in the radiance we bathe in the radiance and the glow the zev our days don't end with darkness our days end with light the jewish answer to the question did mashiach come yet is not yet he's coming but not yet anima but not yet the dark the light is not behind us it's always ahead of us so what is then the work of creation the work of creation is and this is you have to understand the world god did not create a world of light god created a factory to create light when you create a factory it's a place to manufacture to produce to take raw materials and to turn them into the end product that's what you need a factory for there's no factory to create oxygen thank god we have a world filled with oxygen that's how we can live there's no factory to create water god provided water in our planet thank god and 70 of our bodies filled with water that's how we live when we create a factory it's to take raw materials and to transform them into something our world is a world with his darkness with his confusion with his promiscuity with his temptation where there's inclination to violence where there's an inclination to negativity a world where there is room for distortions for confusions for scars for wounds for trauma from within or from without directly or indirectly consciously or unconsciously but this is the world which became this was a factory to manufacture light out of darkness to take the night and to transform it into day v and reveal that they're one that they really want that even the darkness is a prerequisite it's a prelude for life the whole purpose and function of darkness is to serve as the raw material which now you running the factory you are the manufacturer every person is the manufacturer you take this raw material and you turn those very circumstances into light that's the human calling that's the human destiny that's the revolution of the human being hashem himself pre-creation could not do this so to speak god is light thyrizal begins his famous kabbalistic texts pre-creation the infinite light of god pervaded the entire space and expanse physically and conceptually of existence there was no room for anything else how does the creation begin with simpson simpson is not a chinese dish simpson is a kabbalistic term everybody isaac luria 16th century kabbali passed away 1572 in sfas simpson is spelled t-z-i-m-t-z-u-m tsim tsum tsad kamehameha what is simpson symptom is basically vahirif the beginning of creation is an act of self-suspension the light has been suspended the light has been concealed god creates what's called in arizona's writings a hollow an empty space a makkampano a space that's vacant from the experience of the divine infinite presence in other words creation begins with darkness not with light the gemara says the word the word for world in hebrew is islam allah means a world that tamology of the word olam is helen concealment it's in this week's parishes i'm just quoting the talmudic words quoted in rashi alam comes from the word helen why because the very definition of the world is that it conceals why is this so important it's so important because when you understand the purpose of the factory you never get disillusioned and you never get despondent if i walk into a factory i don't understand the function of the factory and i'm expecting the final product to be here ready then i'm disappointed i get into a bad mood what's happening everybody is paralyzed but when i walk into the factory and i understand that the function of the factory is that i bring in raw materials and through the work through the machinery and through the skills of those who work the factory i transform and metamorphosize the raw material into the end product i don't get the solution i don't get upset this is my avoider why do we get ejected in life we get dejected in life because we're expecting no concealment so god says no no no the world starts off with symptoms the world starts off with a void the world starts off with darkness but let me explain to you not because the destination of dark is darkness because you are empowered at every single moment to look at the darkness and to say i know your secret you are here so that i can transform you into light king solomon writes in koheles in ecclesiastes the advantage of wisdom over follies like the advantage of light over darkness and the zoya says really you need king solomon to tell you that wisdom is better than stupidity and light is better than darkness so one of the explanations in the hasidic text is the greatest wisdom is the wisdom that comes from folly there's no recovery and no healing like the healing that comes from addiction from tasting the other side from knowing the language of pain when you transform negative energy and turn it into a catalyst for recovery it's the deepest energy in the world there's no light like the light not the advantage of light from darkness that vendor light over darkness the advantage of light that comes from darkness the revolution of the jew in this world is to be able to take the erev and to turn it into our raevos to turn it into sweetness call you stroll arrave him zebza said the balsham the gemara says in schmooze all jews are guarantors for each other the word irava means a guarantor or if it also means sweet all jews are sweet towards each other you know how when you eat cotton candy you feel the taste of sugar it's sweet or you eat some other things and they're sweet i'm not discussing if it's healthy or not but it's sweet your taste buds get excited while something says you see another jew if you're in touch with your soul you feel a sense of sweetness overcoming you call yourself himself is like a smack a piece of food you meet a jew ah it's like a schmuck if i'm not feeling the sweetness when i meet you you know remember how the russians would drink tea i mean it's the house i grew up they would have a cup of tea right and a sugar cube they wouldn't put the sugar cube in the tea you put the sugar cube in your teeth and you drink the tea and the tea passes the sugar cube an interesting way of drinking your tea you see your jews say ah here's my sugar cube you sweeten my life vahrehv everything is mixed jews are sweet towards each other because we're mixed we're integrated we're one and that's why we're guarantors for each other we take the darkness of arab we turn it into arrivals you turn it into biker you reveal anoid mulvada everything is achtos it's really one there is light which appears as light and as light which appears as darkness in order to empower and allow for the human being to flex his psychological emotional spiritual and physical muscles and transform the erev into biker and then we create the achtus the oneness in creation so yes i'm born with a nature that has darkness in the sight i sometimes have impulses and sometimes i'm carrying around scars and traumas that are very dark they're confusing they are overwhelming sometimes i'm dealing with toxicity i'm dealing with pain so i'm dealing with a crisis in health that's why we're here today sometimes you're dealing with a crisis in finance and dealing with the crisis in your marriage and your relationship with your children in relationship with your family sometimes you're dealing with a crisis because of things that you didn't even choose it's not about your choice sometimes it's just childhood situations and sometimes it's not even our generation epigenetics there's intergenerational trauma that's coming out today as we speak somehow after corona even more the question is not whether you've chosen and if you're guilty or not vaheref life begins with so many forces that can overwhelm me that can derail me that can confuse me that can break me but the end of our day is not night the end of our day is light because the whole purpose of erev in life is only to be able to transform it into light that's its whole purpose so you say but who needs it why why i don't have the answer why god created the world the way he created it ultimately there are questions i certainly don't have the answer it's very hard for a finite brain to wrap itself around infinity but one thing we do know our world is not a place of light our world is a factory to create light and that's that makes all the difference shiva you pulled for come even the tsadik i fall that's not the problem the problem is if i stay down if i don't realize that the only reason i fell the only reason i stumbled the only reason i went through what i went through even if it's difficult and painful and it warrants a lot of tears is in order to be able to bring me to a much deeper and brighter and lighter place and to be able to turn me into an ambassador of that light and hope and goodness and love and healing and redemption for the people around me for the communities around me for all of my people and ultimately for the whole world that's what tribute was telling do not get discouraged do not get disillusioned do not get despondent do we know why we go through struggles no we don't we don't have prophets among us to be able to tell me or tell you this is why you have to go through this this is why you have to go because of this because of that but what we do know is that every crisis is an opportunity and every obstacle is a challenge that is here to be able to help us transform darkness into life how it happens we don't always know why it happens we certainly don't always know but never should we doubt our ability to be able to look at the darkness and see it and feel it and feel the pain feel the texture of darkness you don't have to be afraid because what this teaches us is two points and both are equally powerful number one all darkness is here to be transformed number two you never have to be afraid of darkness don't fear touching the texture of darkness you know why because if you really touch it you will discover its secret that it's light we are so afraid of touching the texture of our darkness because we're scared it's going to kill us but it's really the opposite when you can actually touch it you will find god there my shrapnel is frightened to touch that snake and god says no no no it's my stick that became a snake don't be afraid no no no we are afraid of my snakes god says go go go touch it and you'll see it's my stick because judaism doesn't believe in absolute darkness because judaism doesn't believe in ultimate darkness unlike the greeks and unlike many other cultures therefore we're not afraid of it we can walk into that space and touch it because we know that what i'm really touching is an invitation of the divine to transform my darkness into light and that's why when creation is over after every day what does it say vayara lakim god saw and it was good the end of the day it's cove and goodness is always associated with light at the end of the day it's light there was a girl i knew very very special person she is already in the aloma ms and she used to sign her name her email she would at the end it's going to be okay and if it's not okay it's not the end we are the nation of hope we have seen darkness throughout history who have we see in darkness but when we look at the darkness we know it's the beginning it's never the end yes but the hud singular means one it's very different before creation god was yahed yahid by lama after creation there's a lot of multiplicity there's darkness in the light now we have to reveal the echad and echad is of course the monologue of 13 which is the numerology of love we do that always through love that's why the gemara people are learning nowadays begin so for two pages the gemara struggles with the word oi what does i mean what's uh the light of the fourteenth you have to check the comments it's also the parachutes of these weeks to figure out what oil is finally slam dunk the gemara proves that is night you check the comets not by day you check the comets at night the night of the 14th the night before the city you checked the comments and finally we want to know my timer why doesn't he just say laylee just say night no he has to say and for two pages the gemara has to struggle struggle what it means come on so the eerie asks this question and he says pay saktv got to open up with light you have to open up with where not with night with light one second we just said you should start in the sector but the answer to this my friends is very simple and very profound we all have muhammads in our life khamit represents the unleavened bread things that have to be worked on the inflated ego which always comes from inflated insecurity because the ego compensates for com i have to have an ego because i have insecurity ego stands for easing god out i have to compensate for my insecurities i have to have a pompous ego you know narcissistic people are the people who don't really exist inside if i have no place to call my own i need every place to be mine we have comments that we have to search for but the mission says earlier boss you search your comments at night not by day but you always have to do it with the vision of ear with light if you don't believe in your ultimate light if you don't believe that you are light we say every morning the soul that you have imbued in me is tahir what does tahrir mean means pure but in aramaic tahira means light to hero is light the soul that you have imbued in me is filled with light it's light because it's divine and godliness is light it's light and it's light in both meanings pun intended it's full of light it's full of radiance it's full of brightness it's full of clarity it's full of attachment but that soul that is filled with light is sent into a world that is oilum that is filled with darkness but the soul comes from a place that's deeper than oil and therefore you're never entangled by darkness you're never defined by darkness you're sent into darkness in order to reveal that the darkness is also a version of light ain't it and it doesn't mean the darkness is not sometimes overwhelming and confusing and painful and difficult and mysterious it's very mysterious but the soul doesn't get disturbed by it because you have to have a vision of you come from light and your destiny is light and therefore you go through darkness and you transform the darkness into light and that's the story of history that's the story of creation so at the end of every day god says it's good and at the end of the six days god says everything is wonderful it's beautiful and yet there's a talmud the gemara says in a riven where some of you learned not long ago you give that there was a debate for two and a half years between the school of hillary and the school of shaman and the question was would have it been better to be created or not would have been easier for a person not to be created or to be created for two and a half years that's 30 months this is what i call a jewish debate two and a half years some of the greatest sages of the time the school of shaman the school of hillary this is the first century after the the first century of the common era two and a half years they're debating rome is taking over the world jerusalem is soon going to be torn apart but they're sitting in their stable and what are they arguing about would have it been better to be created or not to be created and the question is what do you mean god says that it was good how are you arguing with hashem it says he decides it's good and the jews are saying maybe not this seems audacious the answer of course is it says in lakota the argument is not if it's good or not the argument is if nayak if it's comfortable there's two words in hebrew there's a word called taive which is good there's a word called which is comfortable very different words god says that creation is good there's no question about that the question is is it nayak is it comfortable is it easy is it smooth is it serene this stay debate for two and a half years the school of hillel says it's comfortable life is good life is geshmaq the school of shaman says no no no no it's good but it's not comfortable life is tough the road less traveled by i think starts off with that line life is tough and once you can accept that life doesn't have to be tough anymore shaman says no life is tough and once you can accept that that life is tough and life is scary then it doesn't have to be scary it doesn't have to be tough once i can come into a place and know this is a factory of raw material that has to be transformed then i can celebrate now i can party taivleigh mr mid a good heart is always feasting but i have to know i'm coming into a world that can be confusing once you know that you know your mission statement you know your objective now you're not startled now you're not overwhelmed you don't get dejected this is my work my work is the work of transformation until mashiach comes what's the verdict in gemara the verdict of gemara is a mission it would have been more comfortable not to be created there are those who feel that it would be comfortable to be created but the verdict is it would have been easier not to but you know what it's still good it's not a contradiction because the fact that i'm facing a challenge doesn't mean it's not good it's good if it wouldn't be good god would have not given it to me god is the source and essence of good but this is a goodness that travels through a challenge this is the light that is created from darkness and through darkness yes it would have been wonderful if i had no temper it would have been wonderful if i had no binging habits it would have been wonderful if i had no confusion it would have been wonderful if i had nothing to fix in my life no middles to repair but when i do bite my lips and when i do repair myself and when i do grow deeper and when i do challenge my instincts and when i face my fear and when i transform my addictions and when i deal with my anxiety ooh it's not comfortable but it's toivoid i create not just goodness excessive goodness the madrid says you know what very good means god so was very good good and very good you know the matter says good is the angel of life very good is the angel of death is this comical or what is what's the answer my dearest friends the answer is there is goodness and there is infinite goodness the goodness in life is that which appears to us as the angel of life the infinite goodness is that which appears to us as the opposite of life that which challenges my life that which takes the energy it depletes me from my energy it deprives me from my stamina that which seems like the antithesis of life that's where the infinite goodness lay it's so powerful that it's completely concealed because it's beyond my vessels it's not something i can see with my eyes the way my brain interprets it is this is horrible so the guitarist says this is my oid it's not taivo it's my height it's beyond your calendar it's beyond your hassan it's beyond your containers therefore you can't see it as good you see it as the opposite and when you take this and you look at it and you work with it you go deeper into it you'll discover the maoid the taiwa the victory the transformation the era of the ah i have the privilege of speaking to people a lot reading people's emails speaking to people in person or not in person hearing from people and during my travels over the last two decades i had the privilege of meeting so many different types of people from all different communities and walks of life and backgrounds jews religious jews secular jews traditional jews right-wingers left-wingers this type of religious jews this type of religious jew and also non-jews and there's always that common denominator that i see that is people who were faced with challenge and not only did they not surrender but they embraced it with resilience and clarity and faith even though there were a lot of tears there's a lot of pain and there's grief and you cannot skip that step i cannot make believe that there's no night and there's no darkness and you know why not only because if if i will i will be in denial and denial is not only a river in egypt it's part of people's lives and denial comes back to bite me not only that because if i deny it i actually can't transform it sometimes we think we're going to deny the confusion and the darkness and we'll be in a better place then you can't transform it if it's there in my life i have to embrace it because my job is not to run away from it my job is to transform it the sawyer has an expression to transform darkness into light and bitterness into sweetness and i've always met these people and they are such a source of inspiration they teach us all how we can take our own moments of weakness and our own failures and our own struggles and our own adversity and our own skeletons and demons and ghosts and insecurities and fears and instead of ducking and surrendering to mediocrity and surrendering to fear to really allow these very forces to be able to turn us into the greatest people that we can be to turn us into ambassadors of infinity not only ambassadors of toiv ambassadors of taiwad and certainly our dear friends rebecca always was always is and will be such a person such an ambassador to teach people about taive and taiva even in circumstances that are not charming and not fun to put it mildly as his sibling sarah so on this day on this night i'm speaking to you during the day i know in london the sun has set in jerusalem the sun has set so we have here the synthesis of as we come together to fuse darkness and light to fuse night and day to transform night into the day and darkness into light we come to that place that the tehillim describes in 139 laila kaiyoimi when night will shine brightly as day because of hashem because we'll be able to see the divine light in everything and then night will shine just like day may it be speedily in our days amen thank you so so very much i'm going to take some questions you can uh you can oh people here wrote so let me go to the questions and we'll take a few minutes of questions you see near the video on the yeshiva.net there's quite when you when you you see it says either on the side of the video or under the video depends if you're using a phone or a computer or a tablet just ask a question and you could put in any question you would like okay how do i get the video of this to show somebody later well it's going to be here it's going to be posted on this website the yeshiva.net where you are now if you're watching t-h-e-y-e-s-h-i-v-a dot net and here my videos are posted and the live classes are played and you could watch a replay afterwards so you'll you'll be able to watch it when is your next class our next class is tuesday morning 9 45 a.m eastern time new york time we have a weekly class tuesday morning 9 45 it's a woman's class but the men usually tune in that's going to be tomorrow morning new york time 9 45 obviously in britain or israel it will be in the afternoon and you could watch it here too on the yeshiva.net this is where i give my live classes they're streamed here question before darkness before creation there was light so the darkness was for us and the divine light that existed before we created before that light will come back yeah that's what that result teaches pre-creation there was only infinite light god created us a space of emptiness it's called a void and now we bring the infinite light into the void but we do something much deeper than the state of before creation before creation it was just light through creation and our work and creation we now transform darkness into light that didn't exist pre-creation next question how do you define you mention the word spiritual how do you define spiritual okay well that's a that's a deep and philosophical question but generally speaking the idea of spiritual is i would say that which is not tangible which we don't grasp the five senses we grasp it more through transcendent experiences things like faith hope love or reverence right although some want to say these are just products of the brain the brain is a machine and it just produces all of these sensations and emotions it's nothing but the physical tangible reality but even those hardcore people who deny any aspect of a soul or a transcendent reality have a very difficult time describing consciousness the source of consciousness how a physical machine can produce all these types of thoughts right so it's uh it's so the spiritual is really that which allows us to tap into the that which is not brute and tangible and today we know that even the brute and tangible is not really brute and tangible because if you have a microscope you see that there is a uh there is a very uh powerful universe there i want to thank you for this class full of light hope and healing and i want to ask a question and that is how do i implement this in my life how do i apply this in my life i think the first thing that we have to it's a great question i think the first thing we have to do is every morning when we wake up i think it's important to meditate on this because we wake up after night we wake up as the sun rises a little earlier a little later the advantage of waking up before sunrise before dawn break or ira hashachar is that you wake up during the night and you can welcome the day so you get a head start on the transformation but whenever you wake up in the morning it's important you say like to align yourself with this core of light that exists in you the divine light every soul is a helic it's a fragment of god so in the morning you want to anchor yourself in your core divine infinite essence and then you take on the day from that inner space so you take on the day with much more serenity with much more equilibrium and when things trigger you during the day you have the stamina and the hashkafa the veltan xiaomi the perspective that allows you to respond to it from a place of inner alignment and serenity at least that's the beginning the beginning of this process next question if darkness precedes light are there moments that are just too dark for us to handle yes what should i tell you there are moments of very very heavy darkness and it's important to accept that these you know this can be a speech but it's not a speech when it comes to people's challenges it can be very very tough and it's not just oh it's dark you'll transform it into light we have to be able to sit with the pain and to be able to really feel it in our body and then from there we can come to a deeper clarity so we can't always just say oh every darkness i can just transform sometimes the darkness is so shocking it's so confusing it's so powerful it's so tragic we have no words we just have to be humble and take off our shoes like moisha did in front of the burning bush but but ultimately ultimately we are the people of eternity the people who have always had the courage to look darkness in the face and say we're going to stand up again we're going to live yet again the motto of the jewish people has always been as the late rabbi jonathan sacks would say amos i will not die i will live and tell of the glory of god and knew a thing or two about this sentiment because he could have easily just surrendered to the spear but he woke up every day and he said how do you do how do you transform a situation when the person you're trying to transform doesn't want to be transformed i would like to help somebody but he doesn't really he doesn't really want to be helped so how do i how do i transform him at such a time at such a moment you have to transform yourself instead of getting angry and judgmental and dismissive and blaming him this means that he may not be ready yet or she may not be ready so go into yourself you got to do the inner work you know we are all limbs of one body sometimes your trainer or nutritionist or physician or healer will tell you we can't help this limb but we can help other limbs and by strengthening other limbs this limb will also be affected because the blood circulation that flows through this limb will will increase and other side benefits so by work will help this limb that's ale that's in that suffering that's ailing the same is true spiritually we are all interconnected you remember call yesterday raven i may not be able right now to transform your limp but i can transform mine i can go into a much deeper place within myself i can find a deeper place of love and acceptance and light and you know what my mindset will help you tracked good with zengut when i'm in a certain mindset it affects you by osmosis we affect each other we all affect each other especially when you're dealing with close family members where there's even a deeper connection biologically not just spiritually and not just over a long genealogy and a long chain of history but there's direct connection my mindset my attitude my work on myself affects each one of my children that's number one number two be open to every opportunity to be able to reach out to them don't be afraid sometimes it may be humbling maybe you have to be vulnerable maybe buy a gift maybe apologize i don't know the situation send an email but don't stop don't get angry don't get resentful don't cut yourself off emotionally from another person if there is value in that connection sometimes there's a family member you're not on speaking terms with don't cut them off from your life it's important to mend relationships and even if they're not ready continue to reach out and ultimately when we show love that love comes back to us come i am upon them upon him the the king solomon says right love is like a mirror the image i show the mirror the mirror will reflect back to me another person is like a mirror when i show you love you don't even have a choice you're going to show me back love that's how that's the nature of a human being a healthy sometimes a person is locked up they're in a dysfunctional state fine accept that embrace it grieve with them pray for them but you don't shut down you don't shut down so that when they're ready they'll have somebody to reach out to can you talk more about this we have people who have to go to sleep i spoke before about people who go to sleep at night you want everybody to stay up all night listen we could talk a lot about this but but but i think you get the point and you know i often talk about these things so if you want to learn more about this you can go to the website to the yeshiva.net and you could search forgiveness or these types of topics and you will see some other classes that we uh that we have about this okay my friends i want to wish you all well i want to thank everybody for coming again thank you so much to the wechsler family who have dedicated this year for the schools for a complete and speedy recovery of maisha mchale of martial macaulay and tamaleah and saribas tamale and as we began may god grant you both a complete and speedy recovery for slayer forever many many long happy healthy beautiful amazing incredible powerful passionate years filled with of a sauce of a car by all the darkness in your lives may all the illnesses may all the challenges be transformed into blessings in the most revealed way lilac the light the night should shine like the day all the obstacles should be transformed into opportunities and to blessings amen thank you very very much good night [Music] yeah yeah [Music] [Laughter] [Music] la la la la [Laughter] um da