Emunah For The Non-Jew | Siddur Shaar Chag Hamatzos #2

Good morning everybody. Good morning. Good morning. Give me a thumbs up. You could see it here. Wonderful. Welcome everybody. Thank you very much for gracing us with your presence. Last night we had a wonderful session on dating for parents, guidance for parents whose children are in the dating uh environment together with was yours truly together with uh our resident therapist here at Misha Zean and um God willing we'll load it up probably later today on the yeshiva.net. So we had a lot a lot of people a lot of interesting questions and part two is going to be for boys who are either dating or post-dating or pre-dating but in that you know para of their life and that's going to be the 22nd the 22nd of uh of March which is Tess Nissen the 9th of Nissen Monday evening at 10:00 on Zoom. I have a sim in the family. My sister is making a wedding uh next week in Florida. So, we're not going to have the Monday or Tuesday morning class, but we're going to resume Thursday morning. So, please take note of that that next Monday and Tuesday, the the morning class of Monday and the women's Tuesday class is going to be cancelled next week. We are going to have the class on Thursday and then the next week we're going to resume. So if you didn't hear the first class on this mimemer, please try to review it because it's really the and talmudic basis of everything that we're going to be discussing in this mimer. And uh the main point that was made in one sentence is that the Tyra says in par you should only eat matzas on six days for six days even though elsewhere it says seven days. And the deduce from this the eighth principle in the methodologies and formulas of Tyra learning that the seventh day redefineses our understanding of the first six days just as the seventh day it's clearly a voluntary option to eat matz not an obligation. that hence the Tory singles out six days. This redefineses our relationship to the four first six days that it's also voluntary as explained at length in our first class Monday morning in this bal said 1804. In order to understand this, what's the the deeper meaning of this? Why is it that the seventh day is voluntary? And why does the Tyra first say seven days and then six days which means that it's the seventh day that teaches us about the first six days. He says what is this concept of eating matzah? And he quotes the zah which calls matzah the bread of faith. But why do we be called the bread of faith? doesn't mean that it represents the faith of your so it's just a symbolic commemoration of the amuna that the Jews once had. He says no for this we have to understand the amuna which means that there are the shepherds it says amuna shepherd faith there are shepherds who feed who give who help reveal amuna because really the Jewish people are called amuna every Jew has amuna in his or her essence it's part of our genetic IC spiritual genetic inheritance so to speak. But in order to make it more alive, more revealed. This is where we need somebody to to shepherd like you shepherd the flock, make sure they have all their food, all the sustenance, all the nutrients they need. Somebody to make sure that the nutrients of amuna help us accentuate and actualize and be able to breathe and live with this gift of faith. And that's what the matzah does. It strengthens a moon in the heart of the Jewish people. This is now where he goes on to the next paragraph. If you have not downloaded your source sheets or open your source sheets from last week's class, you can do it now. I'm not sure they loaded the source sheets in today's class, but if you go to Monday's class, if you go to the yeshiva.net on the homepage, you scroll down, you'll see Monday class, and over there you can view the source sheet or uh or download it or print it out. The second paragraph to understand the reason. The reason for what? Why is it that matzah strengthens? What does it even mean? Not surprisingly in the bala's vintage style, we got to go back to the basics. We got to go back to the beginning of everything to paceious. Every mimer he always goes back to the beginning to the beginning. What is the source of amuna? What is amuna? What does it mean to believe? Why do we call it amuna? Faith. There is a conception and it's often used the term is used blind faith which means faith requires a certain component of blindness. If my eyes are open, how can I have faith? If my eyes are open, I want to discern truth from falsehood. I want to discriminate. I want to dissect. I want to analyze. I want to categorize. Why am I believing? So faith, they say it's blind faith. Or people say, "I'm not ready for the leap of faith." In other words, faith is a leap. Is that why it's called faith? Because it's irrational. Something that's rational, something that I can explain. I don't have to believe. I don't have to believe that now is daytime. Nor do I have to believe that the earth is round. I mean, I may believe you if I never did the research myself, but uh you could uh look at pictures that were uh that were taken from out of space that were taken from uh from outside from those who have who have left the environment of the earth and you could see that it's round. I mean, unless you believe it was all made in Photoshop. So then you do have to believe it. But I'm saying the point is you don't have to believe certain things. You don't have to believe that I'm speaking to you now. Right? So what is this concept of ama? Why do we call it amuna? Why do we call it faith? Does it mean it's not rational? What exactly does it mean? So some would say and this is brought in I believe in the safer by Rab Albo one of the greatest Jewish philosophers who lived in the 14th century and he argued with the ram held that there are there are the 13 principles of faith and he said no there are three principles of faith only three but the writes and it's also in other that the reason we call it amuna is because ultimately if I could see something with my eyes Then I don't have to call that belief faith. The fact that I'm speaking to you, the fact that this is a a little schmat, that this is a tie or this is a mouse or this is a pad, right? I could see it with my eyes. I mean, yes, I could be suffering from optical illusions and some of us have optical illusions, but generally speaking, if your eyesight is working, Barakashem, you don't have to believe it. You see it. You see it. What do they say? seeing is the best form of believing since some of the fundamentals of Judaism even if they can be proven and explained rationally at least to a significant degree but since it's something that I don't see with my eyes I I can't remember standing at Mount Si I don't see God with my physical eyes or in the laboratory so it's called amuna because there's a certain a certain maybe maturity or soph sophistication or courage or or commitment that's necessary in the development of this process. So that's obviously true. But here in this m the bal is going to take it one step deeper. What is a what is the sh of am he the says all the famous the opening of the ten commandments opens up is the revelation at Exodus Exodus 20:2 I am the Lord your God who has taken you out of Egypt this is the opening of the revelation at Maharina at Sinai. I am your God who took you out of Egypt via on this there's the famous question of the commentators. Why does Hashem not specify a miracle that is even greater than the miracle of namely that he created heaven and earth? In other words, this moment when Hashem is introducing himself to the Jewish people, giving them so to speak his resume, if you will, his curriculum vet say I am your Lord the God who has taken you out of Egypt from a house of bondage. And he continues, you shouldn't have any other gods etc. According to the in the beginning of Mishna, the fundamental chapter one, he says that the knowledge and the awareness of God's existence is a mitzvah. That's how the Rambam begins his entire magnum opus. The foundation of foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a primary being and this being is the source who brings into existence every existence and every existence from heaven and earth and everything in between has not emerged only from the truth of his existence and continues developing this and in six says knowing this he doesn't say believing this knowing Knowing this is a positive mitzvah. It's a mitzvah say it's one of the 630 mitzvah according to the because it says God is saying this is his first commandment. The first of said just like respect your father and mother. Don't kill. Don't steal. Keep shabas. Don't testify falsely. Don't covet. Don't commit adultery. The first one of the ten commandments is what? I want you to know that I'm God. So Hashem is introducing himself so to speak. Shouldn't he go back to the basics? I'm the one who created heaven and earth. That's even more impressive than going out of and he explains why. Not to underestimate or minimize the miracles of the exodus of Egypt, but it was basically a development from one state of being into another state of being. The first plague is certainly supernatural for all the waters in Egypt to be transformed into blood. So water was transformed into blood or frog suddenly emerged over all of Egypt or lice and so so on and so forth. The continuation of the plagues the very fact that Egypt was brought to its knees and this tyranny was subject this tyranny was ultimately weakened to the point that the same pharaoh would let the people go from no no I will not let you go. It's like get out of my country. Certainly extraordinary, miraculous, supernatural, but it's changing one state into another state. It's called the but you can't compare this to the creation of the cosmos. This is something from nothing. How do you compare the two? So when Hashem is introducing himself to the Jewish people, I am God. You want to know what God is? Yes, I've taken you out of Egypt. But even greater than that is I created heaven and earth. Taking you out of Egypt is certainly a wonderful thing, an extraordinary thing. Jews were very grateful for it. We're still grateful for it. As we say in the beginning of the opening of that, if he wouldn't have taken us out, we may have still been there or been slaves in some form or fashion. But you still can't compare it to the very creation. From nothing came something. Literally from nothing came a something. Think about that. This is the question that the mafaram asked. Now this happens to be a very ancient question among the commentators. The Evanzra Rabenu Ara Iban Ezra who was the great 12th century Spanish linguist, astronomer, scientist, commentator, sage, poet asks this question in parasra the khari. Rabbi Yehuda Halevi in this famous philosophical timeless classic safer kuzari asks this question. In fact, Evan Ezra quotes it in the name of Rabud Halevi because the kuzari asked this question. It's quoted by the Ramban. The question is discussed in Turisbanel Maharal. In footnote number 12, if you look at footnote number 12, he gives the wonderful all the references in the footnote to all the commentators who asked this question. Different answers have been given. Here is the alterbasis. Here is the answer of the bal. The explanation is the some say some say the basic answer that the exodus of Egypt was personal and it's what they just experienced. Of course, creation of heaven and earth may be greater, but this was personal. It was their personal moment with God, so to speak. That's a great answer. Others talk about the fact that creation of the world could still put God in the category of something impersonal. You know, he created this amazing amazing world. Does he care about it? Mia means he didn't only create the world, but he takes personal, if I could use the word personal, he takes intimate and individual interest in the fears of mankind. that when one nation is oppressing another nation, when one nation is subjugating and torturing and trying to commit genocide on another nation, the creator of the world takes that as a as a deeply disturbing and horrific offense and he gets involved and makes that statement. That's what God is saying. I care about the affairs of mankind. These are all classic answers that were given by and here takes it again one step deeper explanation is creation of the world no question trumps every other miracle that happens in history. The only reason it does not is because in our mind we take it for granted. We are so used to existence that we cannot imagine what it means not to exist, right? So we take it for granted. But if you really take the time and the mental space to reflect on what on the miracle of Bria on the on the very act of creation on every single level, the cosmos, the planet, the details of the planet, an individual organism, an individual plant or tree, bush, insect, reptile, mammal, fish, bird, animal, homo sapien human, being an individual cell. The act of creation both if you talk about it in a general sense or in an individual sense a particular creation is is is the greatest miracle ever hands down. And the interesting thing of course is and I should mention this you know for many generations there was at least uh there were at least many many philosophers begins with already Aristotle who maintained that the world was always here. The world didn't need a creator because it was always here. It's particularly in our generation where the theory of the big bang has been embraced by most scientists and that revolutionized our understanding of cosmology first and foremost in the fact that the universe has a beginning. That timeless word with which the terra begins beracious there is something called a beginning. There's a beginning. There's a beginning for matter. There's a beginning for space. There's a beginning for time. The big bang explosion which ultimately develops into the universe that we know the galaxies and the planets and our planet. There is a beginning, a moment of boratious. That's extraordinary. Something happened and the question is what caused that? How did that beginning happen? How did that seinal point prebiotic soup or chant it's exploded? Where did that come from? That point where does that come from? You say well that was always there. So why did explosion happen supposedly 13.8 billion years ago if it was always here? Well, it was too much pressure. But if it's here infinitely so it was too much pressure. So then it should have exploded billions of years before. Besides, time was created. Steven Hawkins proved many scientists. Time was created with the big bang. There was no before. So what happened suddenly? So even in modern science, these are troubling questions that many people like to ignore. We know how it all science explains everything really. Science today only creates much deeper and larger questions about the genesis of it all. If there's a batious, where did that beraceious come from? Why suddenly? How? How out of nothing comes something? What triggered that? That's a serious question. How out of nothing comes something? Never mind. If you analyze what happens a moment after the big bang, how from this explosion a univer a universe is formed, how fine-tuned that explosion had to be. Cuz if it would expand a little faster, we would be reduced into dust. And if it would expand a little slower, we would experience what they call the great crunch and become toast. And that finetuning is not a little small fine-tuning by a few seconds. You're talking about fine-tuning that is so exact and so improbable mathematically that it staggers the imagination to believe that such a thing can happen randomly. Especially it didn't have to happen once. There are so many constants so many constants to allow for an existence of a universe and for life on the planet that the finetuning here is beyond incredible. That's not our topic today. But it's important to emphasize this that when you speak about briay it's you're looking for a miracle look in the mirror. Look at an ant. The fact that and then our planet this is the cosmos. The fact that our planet supports life. What has to happen for that? Despite all of this, despite all of this, Dr. goes one step further and he says that the creation of heaven and earth from nothing to something when you're talking about the essence of the mats means the essence mats in Hebrew is the emanator or the source of mail which means the one who is responsible for all the emanation of his light of his energy to create the worlds. So he says ultimately it's not so wondrous relative to him. What do we mean? evolution of all of the natsom. Natsum is all of the manifestations of divine energy and of all the created beings are essentially a manifestation of what we call divine speech as the says heavens were created through God's utterance God's words or as the Mishna says mashem created the world through 10 utterances is in other words it's identified as divine speech it's the next page we know the concept of speech down here below when we use the word speech it's metaphoric it's allegorical speech words represent a certain revelation and manifestation of a person's personality wisdom inner thoughts inner emotions Right? I communicate my ideas. I communicate my feelings. I communicate what is going on inside of me. But you're not going to say that your word captures your full essence. It's a certain revelation and a manifestation of a certain aspect of what the person is experiencing. The same is true. When it comes to the dural the divine speech of Hashem as a creator though this is only au it's a certain revelation of something that was previously concealed in God's essence this is called what we sometimes call the attribute of his malus is defined in z as the quality of speech of communication which is the source of the entire life force of all the worlds. All the worlds are basically an embodiment and are vivified and animated by the divine words by the divine speech to give a metaphor from the kingship of a human being. human king of flesh and blood. The subject of the king, what they're experiencing is an expression of the royalty of the of the monarch, but not his essence. Many of them may have never even seen him. Many of them don't have a personal relationship with him. Don't know who he is at his core. But his malus rules the country. His kingship rules the country. This is a metaphor. Yeah. Is that is that the is that the That's what he means. The says which means it's the word of the king that rules. That's how the king rules through his words, through his as we say in every morning. God is great. He's excessively extolled. His greatness has no which literally means has no inquiry. What does it mean has no inquiry? There's no way to investigate it and inquire it and capture it and explain it the way it is in his essence. Everything that we see in creation is certainly a manifestation of Hashem. But it's only a drop in the bucket. Imagine if you ask me to show you the Atlantic Ocean. You have heard of the Atlantic Ocean. So, I go and I fill up a cup of water from the Atlantic and I show you this cup of water and I say, "Here, this is the Atlantic Ocean. It's humorous, right? I didn't show you the Atlantic Ocean." No, I did. This water comes from the Atlantic Ocean. It certainly does. But it doesn't capture anything of the magnitude, the grandness, the beauty, the largeness, the depth, the width, the length, and the massiveness of the ocean. When you come to see and you see the Atlantic Ocean, I remember I was once on a cruise in the midst of the Atlantic. It was the middle of the night and the boat was going very fast and I was like 2:00 in the morning and I went out to the deck, you know, and you're like and you look at the ocean, I like I mean my uh my mind right away went to the scenes of the Titanic, a night to remember 1912 April after Pes. But you you know you you see the magnitude of it and even then what did I see? I just saw that which I was able to see in that particular region where we were that night. You see the whole ocean. But when I take one cup of water, I showed you what's called a tip. I show it's true. It comes from the ocean. No question. And you know what? One cup of water is incredible. One droplet of water is incredible. How many molecules, how many atoms are necessary in order to be able to create any tiny piece of matter, even one drop of water. That's all part of the of the miracle of creation. But certainly you can say that this captures the essence of the ocean or like the ray of the sun doesn't capture the solar core, right? The ray of the sun is now coming into my home. Barashem is beautiful but thank god the sun itself is not coming into my home because that would be the end of this class. So similarly these are the examples he's giving that the whole world is a divine word. It's divine speech. It's divine energy. But what is expressed here? What is expressed is a certain limited harnessed mitigated uh filtered condensed and contracted energy that creates the whole world. It's true since Hashem is infinite. So therefore even the light that he emanates the rays so to speak are also infinite because your emanation is always a reflection of who you are. Somebody's inner power is going to be expressed in their work. Even if their work doesn't capture all of their capabilities and all of their creative powers, but whatever they're expressing is going to be a certain reflection of who they are in the inside. So even the revealed ray which you call divine speech which true. Thank you. You could say hi. You could say hi to everybody. So even the revealed ray which is speech we know from the writings of the great cabalist known as theel who lived in Egypt and came to for two years and passed away on the 5th of of the year 1572. Hey Allah from Shin and is buried in the writings of the we know that even just the energy is extended in Allahel talks about the duration of existence as being 50,000 jubilees 50,000 we often speak about the 6,000 years followed by a seventh millennium then speaks about 50,000 jubilees the ali Because the cosmos and the planet ascends and then further ascends. The states of consciousness are infinite. But it's all an expression of that one, that one word of how can you say how can say but then give the example of which is the finite number. You're asking first he says it's infinite and then he gives the the that's what you're saying. It's an interesting question. I have to think about it. It could be what he means is what Darizel is what what he's trying to say is he's not here focused on the number. He's focused on the fact that even if you look at the wisdom in creation, it may be a drop of the Atlantic. That's true. But that drop has infinite wisdom in it. In other words, that drop you can analyze and analyze and analyze. And furthermore, because there is so much there and there's so much infinite growth that's available there because as the sun is infinite, even an individual ray also has infinity because it's ultimately expressing the sun. Nonetheless, despite that, so he gives an example of that reason. I don't think he's focused so much on the number. He's just giving an example. You know, we look at the world, right? How much is the span of our lives? So you live 100 years, 120 years. They say soon they're going to double the lifespan. So you live 160 years. That means you're out of a job for 100 years, right? If you retire at 65. So think about that. But in any case, so what do we know about life? You know, we know our 50 years, 100 years. We read a little history, so we know a little back. We speculate about the future. But then you go back a 100 years, a thousand years, right? 50,000 years and then 50,000 years times 50. In other words, that the span of existence, even existence the way we define it and know it is so beyond our imagination. It's so mind staggering. I believe that's his point. So what so so so to conclude the theme of this of this chapter of this peric base this chapter is that creation of heaven and earth is amazing. It's the most amazing thing we can imagine. I think it was Mark Twain who said when God created the Grand Canyon he did not create the adjectives with which to describe it. So, if I may use that that phrase and say when God created the world, he didn't give us the adjectives with which to describe it. But if you take the time and you focus on it, it is the singular greatest miracle. Much greater than the splitting of the sea, much greater than any other miracle. Again, we take it for granted cuz we wake up in the morning, we're breathing, we expect the earth to be solid ground that we could step on it, but nothing should be expected. Nothing of it makes sense rationally. We say the laws of nature as though that explains something. It's the laws of nature. Gravity, of course, it's supposed to be that way. We have to appreciate the fact of how much we don't appreciate anything. You know, we look at our system, it's working. I'm speaking now. I just lifted my hands. Oh, that's simple. Really, it's simple. It's simple that 70 trillion cells are functioning in your body in perfect harmony and symmetry and everyone exact knows exactly what to do and it's perfect of how that two three pound brain is governing everything and making millions of decisions every millisecond and you have 100 billion neural neural neurons each interconnected. Again, we take all of these things for granted, but but there's not a moment of life that should not be experienced as a miracle. If I can quote Albert Einstein who once said, either nothing is a miracle or everything is a miracle. Or as the med says it says at the end of chapter 150 we say it every morning every soul should praise God. So the med says nama comes the word nima every breath for every breath one ought to celebrate to start dancing every breath you take deserves a song you're here you went to dance I hope. Yeah, every breath you take deserves a song. So despite all of this, Alterba says, but let's go one step deeper if we may. And when I I'm giving these disclaimers because as we go the one step deeper, don't forget the basics. Sometimes you go deeper and deeper and you forget the basics that this miracle trumps every other miracle. But he says, but then think about it from the divine perspective. From divine perspective, the whole world is a speech. It's a few words that Hashem utters, comes from him. It expresses something of him, but it does not reflect the core. Again, it's like the the ray of the sun relative to the solar core. It's like a few words that you say, they capture something of you, no question. But how much do I know of you from listening to a few words of yours? So the alterb says and this is the beginning of the explanation why focuses on not creation as we will see it's known. This is a fasc now an fascinating piece. Oh, so which means the pious ones from among the nations. They believe and they comprehend. What words? They appreciate the which means the power that activates everything that exists within every reality means the power of the activator is in all of those things that are existing and being activated. In other words, the pious ones from among the nations of the world. This is not a gift that only Jews have. Even Gentiles go good on one who are good people. You were discussing yesterday two a few days ago your relationships growing up good people means pious fine mention who are not Jewish and many of them have a real appreciation this is alterba's words they have a real appreciation and a comprehension that there is divine energy that creates the world made the world from nothing into something. This is a real a real understanding a real understanding of the that the world is a manifestation and an embodiment of Hashem's energy of divine life and vitality that brought everything into existence from nothingness into somethingness. Exhilo in the Latin. Furthermore, And some of them are affected by this emotionally and it causes them to live a life in which they're careful not to do something immoral, not to Huh. Interesting, huh? What? What' you say? It's so beautiful. Yeah. And I would we and yet and yet we we need to remember very strongly that we have the 613 mitzvah. They have seven. We have a special relationship with Hashem. It's sort of like if there's a big family. There's one favorite son. We're the favorite son. It doesn't mean that we're more specific with more responsibilities. It's not that we're or they're better or we're worse, they're worse. It's we have a certain special relationship and therefore we were given more responsibilities. They also have responsibilities in relationship. It's a different type. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's very beautiful. Um and it's messianic. You're saying that this is messianic. Every person has their place in the world as you say and every person has their mission and it's not about being better or being worse. It's about being faithful to your unique vocation. It's within people themselves. Every person has their unique role to play. Look at a body. Look at an organism. Every limb has a unique contribution to make and in its own way. It's indispensable to the divine cosmic symphony. So the Jew needs to be a Jew. We have no obligation in Judaism to proitize a non-Jew and force him to become Jewish. Judaism never had that slogan there is no salvation outside the church as another religion maintained writes in the pious ones from among the nations have a portion of the world to come they have their I saw this one of the cabalist voides rabbi mayor ben gabay 14th century capitalist says the same is true with the Msiah world he says even the resurrection he applies to is applicable to that sobb says can also appreciate listen the divine energy and power that lives within every being creating it and furthermore for some of them it's not just philosophy It's not just a nice idea. I maybe read about it or heard about it. He says some of them are affected by it. Means they're moved by it. And not just moved emotionally, but it affects their behavior. They will not do something wrong. They may hide a Jew during the Holocaust. They may hide an innocent person from the horrors being inflicted on this person. This may give them red lines in life in terms of loyalty and honesty and integrity, fidelity, commitment to a relationship, commitment to a marriage, commitment to truth, to integrity, to kindness. Dr. Reba says, "Yeah, true. We wish that this would be the universal choice of every person that we're waiting for the gul to come." But he says it's a phenomena that we see. Now you do have to understand that the person saying this mimemer in 1804 suffered an enormous amount from people living in his area. He suffered also from Jews. But he was arrested and persecuted quite mercilessly. even though he was exonerated at the end. But Alterba says and he has met you know in prison he has had numerous conversations with some of the great uh philosophers and thinkers in Petersburg especially connected to the Tsarist regime. So says there there are who live this way? If so here's the question. What is the amuna that was designated uniquely for the Jewish people? What is it? Comes back to the question of amuna. If amuna is about believing that there is a god, this is the property. This is the right. This is the inheritance of all mankind. Beautiful words. And is not a Jewish thing. In fact, it's one of the mun not a Jewish thing. You don't have to be a Jew to be a mment. That's his point. If you're real, if you're open, if you don't allow confirmation bias to dictate your life, if you are inquisitive, if you try to emancip emancipate yourself from preconceived notions, if you're not here to justify instincts, every instinct and craving and proclivity, and if I really have the ability to be curious and to help myself, immense and help emancipate myself from preconceived notions and indoctrinations. He says, "Many people, Jews and non-Jews, can develop a profound amuna, a profound awareness of the divine and one that will move their mind, stir their heart, and direct their actions. What then is the amuna that was designated for? What is it?" Oh, now we'll understand why when God introduces himself to the Jews, he doesn't say, you know why that's not only Mount Si for the Jews. That's for every person. I am your God who created heaven and earth. That's a relationship with every single person. Here he's speaking about I am your God. The relationship with what is explanation in this is if one is moved merely by contemplating on and meditating on creation something from nothing for this purpose was the divine soul humbled and sent down into this world because again this is something that the pious ones among the Gentiles can recognize the miracle of creation something from nothing. Not for this did God dispatch the nephe the godly consciousness and soul that vibrates within every Jew. Not for this purpose. This is a that even a good a solid a gentile must and could have. The says in verse tells the Jewish people that for which the kiss comes down into the world to create the reality of a Jew is what Mosha says. You have shownen us to know that there is nothing outside of it. This is why the came down the reality of are incredible words is basically it's everything we talk about so often that in every nifl in every created being there's a kaya I once read an article from a professor a neuroscientist professor professor of neurology in McGill University, Dr. Jacob Brower and uh he spoke about his first exposure to aid. It was in Boston. I believe he was a Harvard medical student and he came into a shul and he saw a kabad who was davening and he would davin for many long hours. It was Shabas morning and he had his talis over his shoulders thinking. He was thinking when Davening was over he left Shul and he saw the in the same position same posture talis over his shoulder still thinking. So he had to get to know him. So in their first conversation this looks at him and says what are you searching for? What are you searching for in life? He was stumped. How do you answer that question? So this tells him, I know what you're searching for. You're searching to see the that's what you're searching for. You're trying to look and find the ben. And this began a transformative journey for him. You want to find the divine energy that vibrates through everything through every flake of snow and every drop of rain, every blade of grass and every neuron and heartbeat and molecule and atom and cell. You want to find the ben the divine activating force that is that constitutes the DNA of all creation. that says here is not only a Jewish thing it's universal on many levels it defines creation and you want to know something he says well you wouldn't even call this because even the eyes of flesh which means the mind's eye and the physical person if he or she is ruthlessly honest and committed to truth and nothing but the truth and only the truth, you will be able to discover that there's a benef. You don't need faith for this. You don't need to believe. If you really analyze the world and you really want to understand, you will be compelled to reach the conclusion that there is that our world is spiritual energy. That matter is a derivative of consciousness. True. It's not so simple. Since the divine soul isn't clothed in sackcloth, you remember when he puts on sackloth whichclipses you. When you're wearing a sack, nobody could see you. This is the divine soul is dressed up in sacklo of kipas which means there are shells there are husks that eclipse vision which is the coarse brute material. So we have to meditate, we have to think about it, we have to learn about it in order to remove the blindness of our physical eyes which often look at the secondary and turn it into the primary. We look at the symptom and we turn it into the cause. We look at the outer layer and we make that the inner most important layer. And as a result of that, our blindness does not allow us to see how the is completely subsumed and completely nullified to the ion. What is ayen? Ain means nothingness. What does really mean? Nothingness. You hear that Abdanil? Nothingness. What's it mean? No thingness. Godliness is not called a thing. It's not something I grasp with my hand or with my nose or with my ears or with my eyes or with my taste, my mouth. It's an iron. It's no thingness. But I don't see it. I don't touch it. It's not tangible. The table I touch. So the y I can relate to. The iron I can't relate to. So I say it doesn't exist. It's nothing cuz it's no thingness. So it becomes nothing. But really, it's the core source of everything. Imagine somebody says, "Viruses don't exist because I never saw them." What would you tell them? How intelligent is that statement? Viruses don't exist. I never saw them. The table exists. This exists. A virus doesn't exist. Germs don't exist. Bacteria don't doesn't exist. Uh, electricity. Electricity for sure doesn't exist. Electrons exist. You're crazy. And what are we going to tell them? These things that you don't see are much more powerful than anything else that you do see. This state this statement of the alterb, as you put it brilliantly, the matter is a derivative of consciousness. Is this not the problem that's plaguing the medical establishment today? But with all its sophistication with corona, everything knows it's measuring. It's measuring everything from the from the gof and the structural perspective and misses out on the mind body connection. Yes, long this long co doesn't exist. It's a mind body disorder. There's so many ailments. I'm not saying that if a person obviously falls off a falls from a cliff that's a they break their leg that's a structural problem. But many of the problems with refur today perpetuated by the medical establishment not truly acknowledging you get some of the doctors who will say something like we understand that your condition is exacerbated by stress but that actually stress and the way one perceives the world is like you always say the body holds the school. Is this not something missing in today's in today's Absolutely. What you're you're pointing out is brilliantly accurate and that is that this is missing in the scientific community where everything is perceived as just plain dumb matter when really all of matter is a derivative of consciousness. You talk about stress or you talk about anxiety. You talk about the inner state of the mind. It affects the body in ways that are indescribable. The impact is so powerful. Even when you talk about co you often see the shallowess of scientists how impoverished they are because they may have brilliant brilliant data and they may be brilliant people and analyzing the data and an analy analyzing the facts but completely divorcing the yeses from the ion. Besides those few doctors, the doctors say who see the sobb is telling us here that even to reach the first place the first state which is how do you like that of you have to work on yourself. It's far from simple because we are blinded by the anxiety, by stress, by pressure, by the veneer, by the veneer of a world that eclipses the iron. So imagine again somebody says electricity doesn't exist. Atoms don't exist. Cells don't exist. I don't see them. Sorry. We know today that what we don't see is much more powerful than what we see. In fact, here here is the deal. The fact that you see it already means that it doesn't exist in such a real way. That's the truth. If I could see it, which means my retinas, sensors absorbed it and interpreted by my brain to be this picture. It already is a level of reality that is much more externalized and concretized to the point that my eye can grasp it and my brain can interpret it. Much deeper realities, more fundamental realities, you're actually not going to see. Not because they don't exist, because their existence is far profound and far more impactful. Nobody ever saw I never saw an atom, but we know that they exist. But if you would have microscopic eyes, you would be living in a different world. So even within the scientific world, we understand that things that are invisible are often much more consequential. You think genes are important for life. You think DNA is important? Do you think chromosomes are important? None of this is visible. In fact, till the 50s, we did not know that DNA exists. We lived thousands of years. Just like till 150 years ago, the 1860s, we did not know about germs. Until the 1890s, we did not know about viruses. We blamed it on the devil. Or on some wells, the Jews poisoning wells of the black plague. The Jews poisoned the wells. But it doesn't mean they don't exist. It just means we're not sensitive. We don't have the tools to dissect reality. So is saying what happens in our world is we can often be blind. And what's the blindness consist of? It consists of the fact that we don't see. We don't see that the isful. It's subservient to the isful to the which is the ion. We don't see that. We get lost in the yesesh rather than searching and seeing the ion in the yesesh. The ion in the yesesh is the spirituality of matter, the consciousness of matter, the divinity of matter. And furthermore, the alterb says that one understands that every single physical existing being is bottle. It's aligned and it's subservient and it's nullified relative to the spiritual divine power that brings it into existence. Now these are amazing words. What does it mean? It means if my eyes would be able to perceive reality, it would be exactly the other way around. I wouldn't even get I wouldn't even I wouldn't even I wouldn't even get I wouldn't even take note of the gashi. The physical expression of it is such a minute fraction of what is really going on. It's just like again in science I'm I'm pounding on this table and for me this is just a solid piece of wood. But if my eyes would be more developed, I would see a whole universe inside this table. Millions, billions, trillions, trillions, trillions, trillions, sectillions of atoms, even in one tiny little piece of matter with electrons revolving around the nucleus of the atom in in such speed and perfect perfect symmetry and harmony. There's a whole world going on. But I don't see that world. So what do I see? I see the externality. I see the external aspect of the world that is concrete that is tangible. So even within the scientific world itself we know that there are levels of yeses that we completely don't relate to and that the outer level of yesesh is completely bottle. It's completely subsumed and it's just one aspect of the manifestation of the inner world that my eyes can pick up based on my limitations. That's it. I can't see things that are so small. Do you know that 99.9% of an atom is empty space? Which means basically that all of the matter of our planet you could fit in to a carry-on suitcase. Do you know that? And that's the truth of reality. But my eyes can't make peace with that truth. So therefore, I see everything as being matter when really most of it is empty space. It's just too small for me to perceive. So my vision turns it into a solid piece of matter when it's really empty space. That's what I do. What is the truth, however? and you go to a deeper level, the truth is that that is just one way of it being expressed and manifested based on your tools of perception. If you go deeper, what is the 99% of empty space of the atom? What is it? It's hashem. It's divine energy. And the yesesh is only a manifestation of that. That's what it is. But for this, you need training. You need to cultivate this consciousness. And for this amazing words for this they instituted the whole system of people wonder why do we say it again and again every day. We do all this ever wonder about praising God excessively. We speak about God creating the world and being a master of all the creations of the world. We start off You said it yesterday. How many times are you going to say hallelu? You created this and you created that and you created that. What is this? Says you can't say it enough. The reason is because we naturally live in a world in a life that eclipses our vision intuitively. We're not living in the real world. We're living in a bubble. We're living in a fake world. Every day, once again, I need to battle for transcendence. I need to wage battle for truth. I need to excavate MS. I need to remove that veil, that mus that veil that blocks, that eclipses. I need to cleanse my doors of perception and free my brain from toxicity, from confusion, from uncertainty, from darkness until even your animal consciousness, which means your biological mind can experience and appreciate that that the is only it's subservient to the ion which is the essence. Then no thingness is real. The thingness is just a manifestation a poor limited manifestation of that al to understand that the ay is the essence and the root of all existence. says based on ail everything in his presence doesn't have separate significance. This is the focus of ding in order to be able to get in touch with the of it's still not the reason the kiss came down into the world that's we'll get to that soon. Yes. You wanted to ask something? which I mean these are phrases in a lot but I didn't know it was based on which yes if you'll open up they actually they they didn't they didn't footnote it so there's expression which is from footnote 28 but that expression itself comes from Denil which you know you're Denil you should know Denil you want need to know denil. That's your job. You have to know the prophets of your namesake. I don't remember. You can look it up easily. It's uh it's easily accessible. But I'm glad that you're uh I'm glad that you're uh you're you're eager to know the source of all these phrases because many people just uh many people just you know gloss over them. Question. First of all, if you look in today's comments on the yeshiva.net, that somebody wrote a very very moving comment about last last year about youth who leave those who were in the leave the beautiful amazing amazing comment it's a must readad okay some would say that amuna is beyond rationality you have to take a giant blind leap of faith I say on the contrary. It's the epitome of rationality to know not believe that our logical rational brains can only go so far each according to his ability and more that there are matters, concepts and realities that are beyond the limits of our logic and rationality. It's quite rational and logical to know and realize as a matter of fact that the realms beyond our logical capabilities contain truths such as the existence of Australia, the existence of Hashem, etc. For me that is rational. Is creation really the biggest miracle? If the only difference between nature and miracle is frequency. If man came down every day until now. If ma if mana came down every day until now and wheat grew only infrequently. The former would be called natural and the latter miraculous. And Hashem perhaps created creation once though the medish says that he created many worlds and then he destroyed them. So then creation is a miracle because it was only infrequent from our perspective but occur just once but perhaps from the perspective of above and beyond creation. That simpum to enable a space of void in order to allow for creation is a greater miracle than creation. For God to create creation is huge a one-time occurrence and therefore miraculous from our point of view. But for God to create anything is no big deal. for the omnipotent. Perhaps a bigger miracle is that he withdrew himself and created an empty space devoid of his infinity where he could create the world. That's maybe even a bigger miracle than the creation of the world. Well said. What does it mean that a did you get to the point that ama is beyond logic? If each person possesses varying levels of amounts of logic and rationality, that which is a ma for one person because it's above his rationality may be logic for another person. If so, it behooves each and every person to exercise his logic and expand it. Not to bodybuild and gym and develop huge muscles, but to mind build in the yeshiva and develop a huge mind. The more the mind is built up, the less reason there is to rely on anything being believed because it's in the realm of amuna. If so, part of a is to build up our logical minds, lessen the turf for amuna until the point when the knowledge will cover the earth. So I believe that amuna is relative and you could build up the muscles of your mind so that what was yesterday's amuna becomes today's logic. Very very good. The inner world of the seemingly inactive inanimate world is extremely active. If so, even the dried up bones of those buried in the ground have atoms racing around each other. Otherwise, even those seemingly inanimate bones wouldn't exist. So these bones are alive just like a rock is alive. So even the deceased whose bones remain in the ground are alive to a limited extent. And going to the grave can attach us to the person buried there. Is that why we go to the grave? That's one component. But also the soul some a part of the soul is connected to the place where the body is buried. So So it's true what you're saying, but it goes even one step deeper. beautiful ideas. Thank you everybody for sharing. I wish you a meaningful and inspiring day, a beautiful Shabases of renewal. Please remember I'm away next week. So Monday and Tuesday there's no class. We will resume this class Hashem next Thursday, Monday, March 22nd, we'll have our second Zoom session on dating, particularly for boys. I wish you all a beautiful day and send you love, light and blessing. Yes. Ask ask. You can ask ask. How far can you go in knowing and consciousness of consciousness of? Yeah. With conscious. How far can you go with consciousness? You can go very very far with consciousness. Go to Yeah. or the great they would have gone all the way. It says it said the balatanya writes that the nama the soul of moherenu the soul of these were namas of which means their daily natural state of consciousness was the perspective of oh thank you so much yeah some souls are from some souls are bria some souls are yirus some souls are what does this mean we all come from the same source but the way the soul is manifested in this world. Some souls operate with a consciousness of atilus on a regular basis and some souls operate with a more diminished form of consciousness and they have to work more on opening themselves self themselves up to deeper layers of consciousness. So what's the basics of davining? What's the basis of davining? What did we learn? What's the exercise that we learned today? the basis of Davin. We talk about the snow and the fire and the vapor and the animals and the trees and the insects. Why do we talk about this constantly in all of Tukim? I'd read through the halalucas. What we're trying to help ourselves, it's not just saying words. It's cleansing my doors of perception. It's opening myself up every single day to remembering that I'm living in a spiritually organic holistic divine world. I'm not living in a brute, ruthless, coarse, external material world. I am living in a material world, but that very material world is pulsating with divine infinite energy. And that means first and foremost you, first and foremost, me. The ability to be able to cleanse my own perceptions of how I see myself. I'm not just a piece of meat and potato. I'm not just a traumatized victim. I'm not just an angry, impulsive, impatient, petty, jealous predator. You like my adjectives? I'm not just that person. I may be I may have all these stuff inside of me, but who am I? What am I really? I am an ambassador of infinity in the world. Infinity vibrates through me. That's what I am. That's who I am. That's who you are. So every person I come in contact with, my spouse, my child, my loved ones, strangers, people I see in the street, people I see on the subway, people I meet in the supermarket. It's the ability to be able to connect to the soul, to the soul of people, to the soul of matter. Even when I look at a bird, even when I look at a tree, even when I look at a squirrel or a groundhog or the beautiful deer roaming in my backyard right here, what am I looking at? I'm looking at God's world. Zimra is there to doning is there to sensitize us to the world we're living in. And therefore, once we do that in the morning, our whole day is different, our paradigms are different, our reference point is different. So those of you who got to go Davenin, go Davenin. Have a wonderful day, my dear friends. You understand? Rabbits and Schulman. Yes. Yeah. Is there that says seeing is believing? Is that a I don't remember. I have to research it. The source of seeing is believing. If it's a I don't know if this research I know it's a saying, you know, in the world, but I wonder if it's from Remy mentioned that um mentioned earlier speaking about scientists that that they have um troubling questions about the creation and other things. I guess just made me think that like kid really doesn't have any troubling questions because because they know because they know that there's answers to every question. Well, we're soon going to see what is today. We really dealt with which is pretty deep. Yeah. very very quickly I'm just learning at the moment the end of Morocu and the idea that if the even if the if the identity of the of the murderer of the hier is known even if even if you can't even if you don't know where the murder is just the fact that it's known that is that connected to this idea that consciousness itself changes the changes the reality yeah so that's a that if the identity of The one who killed the victim is known even if he was not obtained. Yes. It already changes. It already changes it. Yeah. So, and the ais wasn't even expressed in words. Right. Even if the if even if there was no legal testimony yet in the court, nonetheless, it already changes the status. And you're asking if that's a a manifestation of the idea that consciousness already changes the reality. I I I think there is a truth to that. Hold on one second. I I certainly think there's a truth to that and you see it in different how consciousness itself changes already the reality of things. In fact, interesting about a girl who's raped and then there's a secondar unbelievable Yeah. Yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah. Right. If there's a second, it affects her virginity. Right. Yeah. Right. And um the wants to um to to live in the world, not to depend on. And here hashem gives over to the bin kayak. Here you see the power of the bassin so powerfully that it can actually change that uh girl. Right. Right. Right. I think that's what we're speaking about. Right. Yeah. So you were shown me brings it init there's a mitzvah about a leper and at the end he discusses a lot this point the consciousness okay thank you very much have a beautiful beautiful day everybody Okay.