Transcript
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We're back here on a Sunday night
continuing our series of
this is Kanuka. It's the last day of
Kanuka, [snorts]
the last evening of Kanuka where uh this
is a uh special night where you could
ask for miracles and provide all the
miracles that are good for us and for
all of
tonight's going to be for the
for
and all of all the righteous Noah. that
continue to support, continue to watch,
continue to grow with us. Anyone that uh
wants to get some of the new books that
we have in the Kiru store, we have a
couple of new books in the Kiru store
and it's also a brand new website. Go to
kirutore.org.
You get some of these new books. These
uh books are more for Yeshivot and uh
rather than the general public,
especially the brown one. It's for
Tommy. It's not an easy read, but
needless to say, it's extraordinary to
that has toiled over and we've uh we've
published
more stuff is going to come out uh in
the next uh month or two that's more for
the general public. But of course, this
is Torah and this is Torah. So,
we've uh taken a big break on this uh
series an hour back, but uh just to give
everyone a reminder where the
taught us how the duties of the heart
based on logical reason
are an obligation, not just a suggestion
to inspect our heart when we're doing
what we're doing. We're doing mitzvot
when we're giving taka where we're doing
the mitzvot of we're doing the mitzvot
of
or the mitzvot of sukkot. All of those
mitzvot all of the things that we do
require us to investigate and inspect
our heart in order to have much meaning.
But the question is does the Torah
actually obligate us to to inspect our
heart? And after clarifying that logical
reason shows us an obligation to inspect
our heart, the is going to bring us on
what the Torah has to say about it and
whether it's a suggestion from the sages
or an obligation from Hashem. And
through that, we're going to explore the
Torah hearts of some of our sages and
get an inclination of their greatness as
well as how we could apply some of this
to our lives. And in a world of
confusion where every other day there's
a fake Messiah or some other psychopath
or heretic whatever it is the is really
unveiling our eyes to see the beauty of
the truth of Torah and how it can be
fulfilled and enjoyed by each and every
single one of us. So the
is now going to tell us what the Torah
has to say about it. And really he
writes it in a way where he's taking us
through his own inspection. And he says
as follows.
When it comes when it became clear to me
that according to the dictates of
reason, the duties of the heart should
be obligatory, I said to myself, perhaps
they're not mentioned in the Torah. And
that's why no one has ever written a
book about them to familiarize us with
the subject and to reveal its
principles. Here the
is in essence taking us through his own
holy reasoning
where usually the way things would uh
work is that first you find something in
a and then you elaborate it. But here
the has found something
makes a lot of sense. But now he wants
to see where the Torah has something to
say about it. Now this is not something
that today we're supposed to do. It's
supposed to be the opposite.
But to give a comparison of the minds
and the hearts of
today versus the previous generations,
especially the the ones that like the
from a thousand years ago, 800 years
ago,
the briskav said it where
when he would see one of the
writings of the rashbah, the rashba
wasabish
lived about 800 years ago. He was one of
the talim of the Ramban.
And any time the Rashba or the Rambam or
any other great sages from that time
would write, they would give, you know,
the different
clarifications of what the Torah says.
But from time to time you would see the
words
or
meaning it seems to me.
Now if somebody would say it seems to me
today
doesn't really mean that much because
seems to you that you should put ketchup
on your eggs. It seems to him that uh
you should uh watch a movie tonight
instead of a it seems to people a lot of
things.
But when the Torah sages
from that time
would write, it seems to me the brisk
would say, "At that moment, I knew
there's nothing for me to challenge
here." If he would bring a specific
gimmar that would give an idea, I could
always give another gimmar that
potentially would have a conflict with
it. But if he says and it seems to me
then I know this is the entire Torah
that he has evaluated
and therefore concluded and for that I
have nothing to challenge.
This is what we saw in the last when we
talked about
where in Alf in chapter 24
in verse number five and six
is in a position where he could kill
Shaul which technically was his enemy.
Shaul was trying to kill him. And Shaul
brought his entire army to the desert of
Enedi
and went into a cave
to relieve himself
not knowing that David was there. And
Davidid had an opportunity to kill him.
But David says to Hashem
that he wants his Torah to be part of
him
to be make the Torah come into my
inards. And therefore David
didn't just go and kill Shaul, but
rather he tested himself by cutting a
piece of his garment of his tit to see
how his heart feels.
And as soon as he cut that garment, the
puk says live. David's heart
was hurt.
This is Mashiach Hashem. It's not for me
to kill him, even though he's trying to
kill me.
When the Torah sages
would say things like, "It seems to me,
it's not the same thing as somebody
today seeing it seems to me.
said that he knew that every time
somebody would ask him a question that
the first answer that came to his mind
was the right answer
because he has toiled and toiled in the
Torah to such an extent that he says I
have filled my mind only with Torah and
nothing else and therefore I know that
the immediate response response
is Torah
and therefore that's the right response.
The is telling us
that
he has searched
through reason
and he has found.
He is now searching for what the Torah
has to say about it.
And when we review this, we have to
understand like anything else, it all
depends on who's saying what. If
somebody that has only learned for a
couple of years says something versus
someone that has toiled for several
decades says something, certainly there
is a different weight in every aspect.
It's funny that if an expert doctor says
something,
people listen without question.
If someone that's still in medical
school says something, people most of
the time do not really respond. Why?
Because they understand logically. This
one has experience while the other one
still does not. But in the world of
Torah,
when some heretic says something that
has no foundation, that actually goes
against the foundation,
if it's pleasing to people's ears,
they'll take it over the words of the
Torah sages. They'll take it over the
Rambam. They'll take it over Raben.
They'll take it over everything else.
Why? Because in the second example, it's
the
that's manipulating people to fall
trapped into the illogical.
When Rav Kany would give somebody a
blessing, it would not only make their
day, it would literally make their life.
When people came to him for advice,
they gave him questions and they would
literally hope that he would just say
just a few words and that would be more
than enough for him. More than enough
for them.
He saved on his time so much that even
he turned his blessings into a acronym
bukfki
such a enormous Torah heart, Torah mind.
Well, perhaps this will give an example.
One of the times the Raf Kvski
did not feel well the family called the
doctor to come
and when a doctor came he asked Raf
Kanevski so how are you feeling
and Raf Khani said to him I don't I
don't feel well
what's wrong he says well the truth is
I'm not getting enough time to learn the
taa
So, I don't feel well. I don't know if
the doctor understood what to do to
means. So, he asked a follow-up question
and said, "Well, do you have any
appetite?" And he says, "Yes, I'm very
hungry for more more toa."
Perhaps the doctor told the family,
"Maybe you can make him toa with some
milk in it." Maybe he didn't understand
perhaps that this means one of the
bodies of work of a but this is what he
actually felt. This is what he actually
thought. This was not a figure of
speech. This was not to show off. There
was nothing for him to show off.
So when the is telling us, I found
that reason obligates us to inspect our
heart. And now I'm going to show you
that the Torah also obligates us.
He's now bringing us the verses or at
least some of them.
He says, "When I searched for them, I
found them mentioned many times. And
here are some of the examples."
The first verse is what we read every
single day in our prayer.
Love Hashem your God with all of your
heart and with all of your soul and with
all of your might. These words which I
command you this day must be on your
heart. This is in Deuteronomy chapter 6
5 and 6.
So here the is telling us
here the Torah is obligating us is
obligating us that the words that he's
told us the words that he's written for
us must be on our heart meaning we need
to inspect them and
says what does it mean to inspect your
heart
it means inspect it
when you pray
many times times
when a person first starts doing chuva
they are usually after they get
acclimated to to to praying and
everything they get very excited and
they take their time when they pray. But
as somebody goes on and they become more
and more used to praying, especially for
men, praying three times a day,
they get so accustomed to it that many
times it becomes robotic. Many times it
becomes monotonous. Many times it
becomes just something that you need to
do.
You forget that you're talking to Hashem
and that he's right there in front of
you.
And this is applicable to all of us.
Whether you're praying in a big
synagogue or small synagogue or you're
praying at home, when you're praying is
there.
But what can we do that the makes us
forget about it? Not by ruining our
memory, but rather by scattering our
memory and putting other stuff there.
Like the bills you have to pay, the
phone calls you have to return, the
messages that keep ticking every two
seconds and make a sound on your phone
or computer,
the different things that you need to
do, the chores, the problems,
all the different things go on your
mind.
dapka. When you pray
and when you go through prayer,
sometimes
you forget that Hashem is right there
and you just want to go through it and
finish it as if your goal is to just get
a check mark next to praying.
In reality, you missed the whole point.
Because if this was an important meeting
where you're meeting with a customer
that's going to potentially give you
millions of dollars or you were meeting
with some leader that could potentially
give you what you need, certainly you
would think about your words. Certainly,
you would evaluate
what you're going to say before you say
it. Think twice about everything.
But when it comes to prayer, the
get you to forget that you're talking to
Hashem. Sometimes it'll even get you to
forget by making you think about all the
Torah you need to learn and you'll start
thinking about, oh, I need to learn
this. I need to open this. I need to
call the rabbi. I need to return this.
And in essence, yes, all of that seems
like it's a mitzvah, but this is not the
right time for it.
And therefore the is telling us to love
Hashem with all of your heart,
with all of your soul and all your might
means that you're commanded
to have this in your heart at all times.
Inspect your heart
before you pray, while you pray. Think
about the word you're saying when you
pray.
And this is not easy.
Shimon Salon Salomon Shalom was the Rab
Fry's rabbi when he was young
and he studied with him in Yeshua for
many years.
And he says that when all of the Bahim
would pray, one of the things that
everyone could never could never forget,
could never miss was watching the Rav
pray.
Because he would pray every single word,
all every single word out loud with
excitement
to such an extent
that by the time he got to Amida
that
he has exerted all of his strength to
the point where he could barely stand
and then his Amida would also be very
long.
every day.
Every day putting his heart out in the
prayer each and every single time, three
times a day.
And this is the difference.
It's not just
like the world celebrates somebody's
one-time achievement
and therefore decides that they're great
because they won some match or they won
uh some trophy or they won some award
based on a single performance.
To be a sadik, to be an evidem
is something that gets evaluated
every single day.
Especially when it comes to the things
that don't give you so much notoriety,
don't give you so much recognition.
In fact, only you and Hashem know about
it because it's in your heart.
then brings us another source.
It says also in Deuteronomy chapter 30
verse 20 it says to love Hashem your God
to obey his voice and to attach yourself
to him.
A person that has read this each and
every single year when they're reading
their weekly pel
if they're not
delving into the words
then it just seems like oh love Hashem
that's good I love Hashem I could put a
little rub band on my hand or some type
of you know medallion or something say I
love you Hashem and that's enough
but really
the puk means means a whole lot more
than that. To love Hashem means that you
obey his voice. To love Hashem and obey
his voice means that you're cleaving
yourself. You're attaching yourself to a
at all times.
Whether it's in the morning before you
start your day or during your business
meetings
or it's simply when you're getting
coffee or when it's you're having an
argument with somebody
whether you're making a business
transaction or a marriage proposal
whether you're having children or
raising children
cleaving to a
is something that gets evaluated with
every single move that a person makes
from beginning to end of life.
And based on how much
means to you,
that's how much you're going to cleave
to him.
You could easily blurt out the words
that you love Hashem,
but if you forgot that he even exists
during one of your transactions and
corrupted business, then it means that
your love is empty.
You could say that you believe in Hashem
and you love Hashem and you even donate
it to publicize his name. But if that's
with stolen money, or if that's while
you're committing immorality on a
regular basis,
if that's while you're violating his
laws and driving on Shabbat,
then your love is a lie.
When a person thinks about these verses,
he understands that in order for you to
fulfill the love of Hashem, you must
inspect your heart.
Would you want Hashem to love you that
way
the way you love him?
If you were the father, would you want a
son like you that says I love you and
with one word
but goes against you with another.
So the then says another verse also in
Deuteronomy 11:13,
the Torah obligation to love Hashem, to
love Hashem your God, and to serve him
with all your heart and with all your
soul.
Each one of these seems repetitive, but
they're not. They're completely
different commandments.
This is the commandment where a person
is literally
obligated to sacrifice everything for
the sake of Hashem. Whether it's
business profits or different types of
pleasures,
the more you're considering something
that violates the word of Hashem,
the more lacking you have in the love of
Hashem. And needless to say, if you are
violating the word of Hashem, then
certainly there's a lacking.
And then in chapter 13:5, it says,
"After Hashem your God should you walk,
in him should you fear."
Or in Vika 19:1 18 says, "Love your
neighbor like yourself." These all seem
like
just statements that we've read or we've
heard, but each one requires an
inspection of the heart. How can you
fear God?
And what does that have to do with
loving your neighbor like yourself?
Fearing God means that you have to
recognize where you stand and where he
is.
The greater a person thinks of
themsself,
the more likely they are to think that
Hashem needs them. The more likely they
are to go against Hashem. The more
likely they are to think that Hashem
owes them something.
But we see that the Torah sages and
giants thought the exact opposite. The
greater they were in righteousness and
kadusha,
the less they thought of themselves.
Prime examples are always used of
these are the greatest of the great yet
they all thought of themselves as
nothing. As David says, "I am a worm but
not a man."
Said, "I am dust and ashes."
Andu said, "We're nothing. Not even
dust, not even a worm."
And this type of mindset,
this type of belief
transcended from generation to
generation
with each person that was close to
Hashem in their own capacity.
The greater their Torah heart,
the less they realize they are. And
thereby they feared Hashem much more
because they realized that everything
is in his hands and nothing is in their
control.
Everything is from heaven except the
fear of heaven.
Now what does that have to do with
loving your neighbor like yourself?
Another Torah obligation people like to
talk about how you're supposed to love
everyone. Well, first of all,
Miller
itself always talks about
means your neighbor is your your your
brother in mitzvot meaning it's a Torah
observant Jew. It's not a Shabbat or a
heretic that you're obligated to love,
but rather someone that is
partners with you in there's an
obligation for you to love him
like you love yourself.
How can you love somebody like you love
yourself?
If you're in need, you want people to
help you.
So when someone else is in need,
you need to help them.
And even the way that you help them has
to be the way you would want to be
helped. Just saying, "Hey, here's a
phone number. You can call this guy.
Maybe he could help you." That's nice.
But you know that if it was you on the
other hand, you'd want the other person
to perhaps make the call for you, maybe
make the introduction.
The more you love
your fellow Jew, the easier it is going
to be for you to see all of this.
They say in the name of
Shalom
that
whenever a person is lacking
in their love of Islam
because teaches us
made himself one with
and as we've said in previous lectures
if you want to show that you love
somebody the best way to express it is
by loving their children
you want to show that you love Hashem is
by loving his kids
so many time people say well I love
Hashem I want to do what he says but
they can't stand other Jews they don't
want to help anybody. They don't have
any patience for anyone. And they forget
that someone sometimes they're the ones
that need help. Sometimes they're the
ones that are a problem. Sometimes
they're the ones that are annoying,
but yet they still expect help. They
still expect somebody to have patience
with them. They still expect somebody to
be there for them.
When a person loves Hashem,
they have to think about all of this
because you can't say that you love
Hashem, but you can't stand his
children.
You can't say that you love Hashem,
but all you can see is the bad in his
children. Certainly there are times
where you have to rebuke.
But as I've told you guys in the past,
there's two types of rebuke.
There's the rebuke that you give to the
general public and there's rebuke that
you give to specific people. These are
two different things.
When Mosheu
would speak to Isel and yell at them
and say that they're complainers,
how could you go? How dare you go
against Hashem? And he'd scare them with
all types of punishments that will
happen to them.
But then when he would speak to Hashem
on their behalf, he say, "Oh, Hashem,
they're only kids. They don't know what
they're doing." They would have never
made the golden calf had you not given
them gold in so many words blaming
Hashem for their flaw.
But that's what Hashem wanted.
That's what Hashem wanted. The same goes
when Moshe Rabenu would speak to
individuals.
At times the person
would come with all types of problems
and Musher Rabenu would listen and Auna
Coin would listen and David would listen
and Abrau would listen and Raady would
listen and the Rambam would listen and
all of the great rabbis would listen
patiently to whatever the issue was and
deal with them with patience and deal
with their annoyance and deal with their
lack of gratefulness
and still help them. Why?
I'm obligated to. I love them.
They're Hashem's children.
But then there was a separated time, a
different time when someone would go
against the Torah
with zeal and like
and there Mosherenu did not skip a beat
and told everybody stay away from these
wicked people lest you die with them.
So there are different types of rebuke.
A person has to have the logic
to know when to do what.
And the best is usually to not rebuke
your personal friends and family, but
rather send them shim. It's much easier
and it's more successful. But needless
to say,
if a person
thinks about
how they could fulfill this mitzvah of
loving Hashem and loving his children,
if you think about it,
you'll find a way to succeed. Why?
Because you'll start looking at it from
a different perspective. Not just the
what the person should do, but rather
how can I help him do it.
Not just, OH, HE'S A BAD PERSON, but
rather why he's mistaken, why he's going
in this direction. How would I want
someone to treat me, to speak to me, to
convince ME IF I WAS in his shoes?
And perhaps
even if I was in issues, I wouldn't
understand because we have two different
personalities.
So how
can I be convinced
from his perspective? It's called
empathy.
The more a person delves into it
and digs into their own heart,
they will discover whether they are
actually in love with Hashem or simply
what he gives them. Most people love
what Hashem gives them.
They don't have any concept of what
loving Hashem is.
And that's why the says the next verse
also in Deuteronomy 10:12, "And now
Israel, what does Hashem your God ask of
you? Only that you fear God."
This is what Mosheu told to Israel.
You don't have
so much to think about. What do I need
to do? How do I need to do it? All you
got to think about fear God. Why?
Because if you fear God,
you won't go against him.
But how could I fear God?
How could I fear God if I don't delve
into it and figure out
how glorious he is,
how much he controls, how every single
one of the over 84 86,000 seconds or
84,000 seconds per day that we have
every day, he controls, he's receptive
to, he monitors, he calculates.
24 hours a day he's there every single
second.
My entire life he's been there.
When I thought that I was walking alone,
I didn't realize that he was carrying
me.
The more a person
delves into
where Hashem is
and where they are, the easier it is to
fear him,
the easier it is to follow him, the
easier it is to obey him and ultimately
to love him.
But the more a person is selfish,
self-centered,
and only cares about their own interest,
the more removed they are from Hashem.
And they'll even go to the extent of
using Hashem to build themselves a
stage.
One of the ways
that
allows us to express the love that we
have for him is through the mitzvot. He
tells us
to love your fellow Jew. But he also
tells you another one of the sources,
you must love the stranger, for you are
strangers in the land of Egypt, meaning
the converts.
And the Rambam my manades says
this is different than loving a Jew from
birth.
Why? Because we see
based on the rules of
interpreting the Torah that the way that
this verse is written
that you must love the convert
that there's an extra word.
And yet when
we compare this to another verse
teaches us this means that more than
just loving Hashem also love his sages.
When you respect
honor your father and your mother the
always means more. So what does it mean
when it says
that you must love the convert in the
same level as you love Hashem? Meaning
more than a natural-born Jew.
Even if that convert is not your color,
is not your background, is not your
tradition, is not your language.
You have to find a way to love him a
whole lot more than you can possibly
imagine.
When somebody asked
why is it that Hashem put our heart on
the left side of the body
when we know that most good things are
in the right sideb
in his way
explained this in a wonderful way and he
says yes you're right your heart is on
the left but when I look at it it's to
my right to show you that in order for
you
to fulfill the word of Hashem, you can't
just look at yourself, your perspective.
You got to look at another Jew.
His heart's on the right. Even though he
may say something that you don't like,
he may do something you don't like,
his heart's on the right.
When a person spends their entire life
cleaving to Hashem,
it becomes much easier to love his
children, becomes much easier to love
the mitzvot, becomes much easier. In
fact, it becomes natural.
But when a person is a faker,
they could use Hashem as a stage
to build for themselves even while they
look religious. And this is not just my
words. This was already written
thousands of years ago
has a whole ba about it.
Everyone knows that the Pharisees
these were theim
but this ba says there are fakers
seven types of fakers
that also call themselves pushim.
Who are they?
says there's the
the shehite
he really circumcised himself for
ulterior motives motives meaning he does
whatever he does
because he's trying to get money out of
it because he's trying to get
recognition out of it
like
the from that sold the
Then there is the
the knocking pos. What's this knocking
pos? This is a guy
that tries to portray himself as if he's
a sadik because he walks around with
dragging his feet, kicking rocks so
people will pay attention to him. Oh,
look, he's so humble. He doesn't even
pick up his feet.
Then there is the real expert,
the kizai. That's the bloodletting pose.
What does it mean bloodletting pose? He
pretends that he's watching his eyes so
much that he only looks in the floor and
he wants you to know that he's only
looking on the floor. So he runs into
things so much so that he runs into the
wall and blood splashes.
Oh wow, look at this sadik. Look, he
doesn't look at anything. He wants to
protect his eyes from looking at women
that he runs into walls. No, he's just a
liar.
Then there's a guy
that's unfortunately very common today
among lazy people, especially those
that
do chuva and really want to run away
from their life.
That's the
That's a perouch who had work. What does
it mean? Is a per says, you know what? I
can't handle being in this world with
all of these sinners and working. I have
to just stay home and uh and just, you
know, I'll I'll just study. Okay, but
how you going to eat? Your wife, you
have kids. How you going to eat? Pay the
bills. Oh, Hashem is going to send it to
me. Listen, if your amage is really that
way, go do it. But the truth is every
two seconds you're asking people for
money. You're asking people for uh for
all types of things. So you're a faker.
If your amuna is very high and you're
really going to study like an sure, no
problem. But in reality, all day you're
on TikTok, all day you're on Twitter,
all day you're uh playing sports,
playing video games. You're not a
publish. You're just lazy. But you're
pretending that you don't really want to
be in the social world and you don't
want to be in the business world because
uh you're so such a righteous person.
That's a
meaning he used to have work but now
he's using the Torah to quit his job so
he could pretend like he's religious.
And then there's the
another faker that says,
"What have I not done? What have I not
done to serve Hashem?" Is a guy that
wants everybody to think that he has
DONE EVERYTHING ALREADY. OH, I learned
everything. I've studied everything.
I've given everything. I'VE DONE
EVERYTHING. WHAT HAVE I NOT DONE?
Fakers is not a new thing. Fakers is not
a new thing.
There is old as time.
And says that in order for you to not
fake yourself out, to not fall into the
trap of the Satan that tells you that
you are more than what you really are,
you have to inspect your heart and
check. Are you righteous or lazy?
Are you righteous or selfish? Are you
righteous or simply a liar?
Where do you stand
when you pray to Hashem? Are you talking
to him or are you thinking about your
bank account
when you learn Torah? Are you learning
in order to show people you know better
than them or are you learning because
you want to cleave to Hashem and see the
wonderful insights that he can open your
mind and unveil your heart to?
Why do you do what you do? This could
only be done through inspecting what's
really in your heart.
Moshe shalom.
Every day after you would complete
prayer on the way to walking home, there
would literally be a line of people
following him, asking him questions
about every single aspect of the Torah.
Whether it's a that somebody didn't
understand or somebody discovered or
somebody uh wants to know or it's a
every type of every type of question
and Moshe Feinstein would answer them
one after the other one after the other
each and every single day for decades.
And one day
somebody asked her Mosha Feinstein,
how do you remember
the entire Torah by how do you remember
all OF THIS? EVERY POSSIBLE QUESTION IS
ASKED AND YOU give them answers,
sources, place, everything. How do you
remember?
of Moshe Feinstein in his humility
sees this Jew really wanting the answer
and he says to him,
"If you saw an elephant
dancing in the middle of the street
while painting and singing
in English,
would you remember it?"
I says, "Of course, Rabbi." Yeah. Why?
Why would you remember it? because it's
it's it's it's amazing. It's it's one of
a kind. It's something unprecedented.
Mosha Fin says, "Exactly.
That's every single time I look at the
Torah. That's what it is. IT'S ONE OF A
KIND. IT'S UNPRECEDENTED. IT'S
UNBELIEVABLE. Every single thing is new.
So I get excited about what Rao said,
what the Rambam says, WHAT THE SAYS,
WHAT the says, what Raaka says
all over again and again and again each
and every single time. And therefore I
remember it cannot escape such an
amazing thing. Perhaps
you're more excited about elephants.
The great Torah scholars did not become
great because of genes,
because of DNA, but rather because of
their Jewish heart that they literally
used in every possible way to cleave to
Hashem by inspecting it and trying to
figure out which part of it is not
performing and fixing it.
When a person looks
at themselves
with honest eyes.
They should be able to
know
what needs fixing, what's work in
progress.
The is giving us not only rational
reasons of why we need to inspect our
hearts, but rather a Torah obligation to
inspect our hearts.
And this Torah obligation
is on each and every single one of us
because if we don't inspect our hearts,
we're missing the point.
We're going to be able to
do certain things
but
completing them without achieving them.
When a person learns Tawa,
they like to hear stories of great Torah
scholars
or how this one knew the entire Tawra or
that one knew the entire Torah.
And of course, the average person says,
"Well, I'm never going to be the gold.
I'm never going to be maz. I'm never
gonna fine, but you could still be the
best version of yourself."
And that's why
Shalom never liked to give to tell the
stories of the child prodigies where
they knew the entire Torah by the time
they were eight because the average
person is not someone that's 8 years old
and knows the entire Torah. Rather, he
liked to tell the stories of the Torah
sages
that toiled to become what they are in
every single aspect of themselves.
One of the
Khim that my dear Rav studied with was
the son of Ara Mosh Levi.
Moshe Levi was one of two students of
Mazal.
There was Moshvi and Mosh.
And these two maz would say between the
two of them the entire the entire Torah
they go back and forth
going through the entire Torah by heart
and they asked Moshe Levi once
how did you get
this way? How do you remember all of
this? I mean very few shimm of his
and online and but you'd see that
literally in a matter of an hour three
400 sources
how
he says well I used to be like everyone
else study and forget study and forget I
completed
seven times and forgot everything didn't
remember anything
and then at that point
I realized what the
says that when you learn to without
excitement it's as if you're saying to
Hashem that his laws are bad
so I started learning again but from
that point on with excitement
with excitement
abay wow abay who is aaya was an orphan
ABAYA WAS SADIK ABAYA HAD ALL THE
DIFFICULTIES IN THE WORLD but yet he
succeeded in becoming one of the
greatest Torah sages. What did he say? I
see him here. I see him there. And you
start getting into it and you're excited
learning. He says when you're excited in
learning Torah,
it sticks. It becomes part of you.
It becomes part of you.
It's not like anything else
because you can learn a lot of things
and remember them.
But the Torah, every bit of it that
becomes a part of you helps to improve
you.
And there are great bits of knowledge
and there are things that you would seem
that are irrelevant to the world of
Torah. So when people think of Torah,
perhaps they think of laws of family
purity, Shabbat, holidays.
And yet when it comes to
other subjects, they go to the
philosophers and destroy their minds in
that world. They don't realize that
everything is in the Torah.
One example
is people that want to learn different
things
and they go into the wrong places to
find them when they don't realize that
all of this is in the Torah. One example
that I just learned from my dear is
something that the scientific world
really has no explanation for.
If you notice,
anytime that you yawn, even if you know
if there's somebody that's across the
room from you, if they see you yawn,
they'll yawn also. In fact, even if you
see somebody on a screen yawn,
you'll want you'll yawn also. And
really, the
scientific world has no idea why you
even yawn. Now, the average person
thinks you yawn because you're tired.
But really, it's not true. You're not
always tired.
of breast shalom explains the yawn in a
fantastic way
and he says
yawning is not for
rather
it's a message from heaven that someone
has put on you
someone has put on you and itself says
that there are countless reasons
countless reasons of why somebody could
put some on somebody or even on
themselves. And guess what?
Is so detrimental
that
99% of deaths happen because of
and of breast says you're yawning.
That's a message from heaven that
somebody has put on you and a is trying
to save you. how when you yawn you
breathe a lot and it's to remind you to
thank
that you have this extra breath that
you're still alive because somebody's
trying to kill you with their
so he's sending you a big breath
a big way a big and forcing you to
inhale a lot more than you typically do
in order to remind you
of all of the amazing things he hashem
has given you without you even realizing
it. Who thinks about their kidneys until
they hear a story of somebody needing
one? Who thinks about their appendix
until they hear about somebody that had
a surgery to remove theirs? Who hears
about who who thinks about the necessity
of of having good eyes until they see
somebody that's blind?
So many things a kadoshbahu gives us and
we forget the value. We forget the need.
We forget the endless gifts that a
kadosh gives us.
We take a lot of it for granted. We cry
about meaningless things. We complain
nonstop
about all types of things because we
want this, because we want that, because
we need this, because he said that,
because she said that.
And in reality, all of this complaining
is simply a lack
of understanding what has given you. If
you have time to complain, that's
because you're not spending enough time
saying thank you to Hashem for all the
things you do have for all the things he
does give you. So even something as
simple as a yawn is a message from
heaven
that's trying to save you. But the
average person thinks of a yawn as, "Oh,
I'm tired or it just happens."
No, no, no. Nothing just happens.
Nothing just happens.
When a person starts to look at things
from a Torah perspective,
they'll understand why our own dear
Diani
wrote in a recent write up that he said
to
stop saying O meaning enough.
Instead say per say tale number 100
which is
and the whole message there is
if we simply say thank you to
we won't have anything to to complain
about because there's so much to thank
him for that everything else that's not
working to our likings simply doesn't
gather us any of our time any of our
attention.
It's insignificant in comparison to all
the good he does give us.
Now when a person
is sick, is in pain,
they can think of, "Oh, poor me."
Or they could utilize that gift that
Hashem gave them and recognize his
greatness of how every part of your body
exists.
The fact that your legs hurt, think
Hashem, you have legs. You know how many
people would love to replace their life
with yours, their body with yours just
to have your legs
when your back hurts? You know how many
people would love to have back pain
instead of being a paraplegic and not
feeling anything from their neck down?
When your teeth hurt, you know how many
people would love to have a toothache
rather than simply having nothing there.
When your eyes hurt, you know how many
people would love to have eyes that
actually work just like you do, even if
they hurt.
When a person is having difficulty,
they forget Hashem.
They forget Hashem until they become
hopeless.
And that's not really the right time.
You're not supposed to think of Hashem
when you become hopeless.
You're supposed to think of Hashem at
all time because that is what makes you
hopeful
because you know he's the one running
the show because you know he's the one
that gives. He's the one that takes.
And in so many words, anytime that
Hashem
gives us something that hurts, it's
simply to get our attention. No
different than the yawn. It's to give us
a message. No different than the yawn.
Your pocket hurts because you lost some
money. That's a message from Hashem.
What have you been doing with your
money?
Your situation hurts. What have you been
doing?
Everything is a bah simply giving us
guidance to inspect our heart. And it's
not just a recommendation based on
logic. It's an obligation. It's not just
a recommendation based on the Torah.
It's an obligation because if we want to
serve Hashem,
we must inspect our heart.
And when we do, we'll arrive at
completely different conclusions,
completely different perspectives,
completely different lives.
And perhaps
realize that when we're praying, he's in
front of us and not just listening.
That when we're acting in the world,
he's there watching every single move.
And not just after the fact.
When we're speaking, he's listening word
by word.
Everything he's there.
He's there. The more we inspect our
heart,
the more we can express our love and our
fear of Hashem. [clears throat]
And by default, our love
and fear
in the way we serve him, the way we love
fellow Jews, the way we respect each
other, in fact, even the way we deal
with all of the nations,
whether it be our friends that are from
other nations or our enemies,
the more we inspect our heart,
the more we know what is the will of
Hashem.
The less we inspect our heart,
it's like walking blind
and expecting to arrive at the
destination.
This
is some of the things that we learned
that should give each and every one of
us some food for thought until
the next time we inspect our heart a
little bit more and dig deeper into it
with
written nearly a thousand years ago but
is as relevant today as it ever as has
been ever. Thank you very much for
learning with me. Anyone that wants to
support can donate on our website
bzashem.org
especially those that want to help us
grow, get further. There's also tax
benefits to do it before the end of the
year. But more than anything else,
support generously because there's
simply a lot that we can do together.
These books that we give out for free,
boxes and boxes of them, almost 300,000
books already have been distributed by
our organization. They cost millions of
dollars. the USBs, the uh all the other
things. But
all of that cost a lot of money and we
want to do a lot more with it, a lot
more with it. So any contribution
certainly helps. Either way, thank you
very much for learning with me and we
will learn again later this week. Go to
We're finally here. The new Kir box
opens up. A nice little cushion here.
We got
Let's see if it's charged.
Isn't that amazing? Still bless your
life.
>> Now available at batashim.com.org.org.
Get yourself 20 of them, 30 of them, 50
of them. distribute them to all the
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and you get people to do the cha.