Farbrengen 19 Kislev Part 4 The Rebbe appeals to all of us; Chassidus applied. Rabbi Paltiel, 5783

foreign [Music] at your own risk but you need to be uh you need to be uh on the camera oh it's kabbalistic things to sell you this is a recorder and this is a broadcaster why because uh that's the people who I have a website you know that I'm shamelessly promoting as you probably are aware uh called inside yeah so this is being done live this is this and this is recording it why you need to because the quality of the online recording is so that's where I got two phones now the question is why do I have two phones and not two cameras but that's a really kabbalistic question because I don't know the answer but it works it works and people help me so how does your website my website is all about teachers you see the honest truth is I'm much more teacher than lecturer and speaker and even for bringer I love to teach and I teach to see this because it is actually an involved philosophy it's a brilliant commentary on Jewish philosophy a Jewish mysticism again I don't know how much you understand but the Jewish people have two theological pulse the non-mystical theological poll which is sort of headed by rambam and people like that Ebenezer and others and the mystical theological Pope which is headed by the Zohar and then radius and othersidas really created a synthesis they wanted to create a a theology that doesn't teach one at the expense of the other and they found brilliant ways of of synthesizing them and it's scholarship it's actually boring learning for geeks and I'm a geek and that's what I do so I travel and I tell stories and I make people stand and dance it's amazing it's amazing this is fabric this is if you've read about this is we just participated in a real farm it's not so complicated we just got together and we said a little like we got comfortable enough to stand up and dance in the middle of the night on a Tuesday in the Miami Beach it's pretty cool that's pretty crazy yeah I got meat I wouldn't get caught you know what doing that but listen we all danced but Hashem for that we participated in this event uh but I like to teach hasidus so my website has over 10 000 classes and I teach a lot of good stuff check me out there's a lot it's not so hard to navigate so YouTube is all about this the the outside who's who's day this is he was redeemed from prison and we uh we celebrated his Redemption and he wants us to celebrate his Redemption I read I heard and I read that he says that anybody who participates in his Joy he's going to make sure that the doors of Heaven are open this is a great opportunity said you get together on my birthday in my day of my Redemption and you say hello and you wish each other good things I will assure you that the Gates of Heaven will be opened and the abuse give us all the things that we need that we want okay [Music] but this is a special opportunity what I just want you to understand that abhishness almond was a brilliant intellectual and he he I'm at alcohol by the way he he created a form for the teaching of mysticism which is very original he used real philosophy laws of logic to explain mysticism and he he really is unique and his teachings are brilliant and we have seven generations seven rabbis of khabad second seven success Generations a father a son a grandson and a great grandson a great great grandson tiller who have been teaching Chabad which is amongst other things an insight into mysticism slash philosophy of the Jewish people and enlightens it and makes us understandable to an over to lay person that's my business that's what I do I try to teach it and try to explain it to make the people bring it to people so the story was that when he was incarcerated this is the story that's what Robbie wants me to say that when he was incarcerated he was visited by his holy Masters the ultra sat in a little tiny cell and a little tiny cell and two rabbis came to see him problem is these rabbis had passed away some decades before they were his teachers the holy maggot passed away 36 years before the bashamta passed away 49 years before something to that effect and they came to see him with a spiritual experience and he said to his teachers why am I sitting in jail what am I doing here so they said to him you're sitting in jail because you're teaching too much you're taking this this very deep mystical stuff you're embodying it in the form of philosophy making it available to Ordinary People and the upstairs is a lot of noise says okay I'll stop he said no no no no no if you survive this only do more that's exactly what happened so after he came out of jail it was it was the last period of his life last 10 to 12 years of his life he actually adopted a whole new dimension of interpreting command and he's the father of is the father of everything we study and learned that I teach that I make a living doing so it's a very important day for him for us it's interesting it's very interesting it's very interesting you know you know of like but Omer you know like who doesn't know if like Boomer right it was like what's like bomber what's like trees La Grimace fire right like Bomer is the day that a really holy capitalist who lived 18 centuries ago died lived in the second century he passed away and people over the world religious and irreligious whatever see them and snag them they get together and they make a bonfire they sing songs and they wrote marshmallows here's the thing if we knew anything about this holy man rap shipment we would know that we have nothing in common with he was so holy and he was so pure and he was so brilliant and somehow we all relate to him the holiest rabbis who have the least to do with the common person have the broadest appeal and that's part of this I mean has anybody in this room is anybody in this room has anybody instrumented ever you've met 11 okay um I don't know how we'll do it when you were an adult you were a child how old were you huh you were a child you remember that ever but you didn't get a dollar from that ever you probably got a dollar okay I grew up in Granite I grew up at his feet [Music] the thing that people miss about this Rabbi was he was a serious Jew it was a man who calculated every minute of his life didn't waste a second he was so intense and how he lived and somehow we all think he's cool no seriously think about it you watch films of the review you see how every single Move Motion of his is measured it doesn't waste a second it doesn't even move his hands unnecessarily and um we we in our behavioral lives have nothing in common with him nothing but somehow the really really great rabbis even children can relate you know what Dean Steins out you know what Dean Stein's art was I didn't have any style you know that is in the 70s the New Yorker did a Expose and some professors said that a mind like his comes into the world Once In A Thousand Years shy death was an unbelievable genius and he dedicated his life to teaching Torah he wrote a complete commentary on the talmud and he was incredible over 300 books over 300 volumes it was a brilliant brilliant brilliant man and he was very close to that and one of the things that really got him was he would come to 7-7 and he was this really great intellectual and all around that ever and I mean literally around that I have a little kids they're they're this close to him and they're just a sea of them and then I'm just comfortable with the children the children are comfortable today but they have a Common Language even though they they have nothing in common he as an intellectual said get the little kids away from me Dad just they're nudges they're disturbing you know one of the children he tied the name of his shoelaces together one shoe to the other shoe you understand he was busy with bored so that's why they said okay so the kids can't go under the table but they would sit they never had no because they were literally they would be under the table and one of the kids then I got up the Rock and he was in it his feet were Shackled because some kid died his realizes together and the devil was not going to bend down in public and undo his shoelaces I don't know the end of that story so they didn't let the kids but they sat all around them and he was so comfortable the really holiest of holy somehow we all relate to and that's a big piece of hasidis one of the biggest parts of the Hasidic culture is the involvement of the regular person just me and you and a holy man that's why people get on a plane and they travel to New York and they go to the river's resting place you come there and there are so many people and what are they doing here why are they here today and then you discover there are always this many people all types not necessarily religious certainly not Chabad they all somehow relate to this rabbi because he was so incredibly holy that he was able to speak to every Jew to reach every dude to touch every Jew no matter where they were and um that's why we're seeing them I'm I'm spoiled I'm really smart I grew up I was born in Crown Heights I grew up in Crown Heights as a child my brother and I would go to 770 which is that episode I'm sorry and my father would teach a lecture and some other synagogue to a group of people my brother and I would go to 770 and we'd stand behind that ever it was the summer time the only two kids Behind the dead both of the kids were in Camp and they would turn around and look at us and we looked at him I mean we thought it was perfectly normal and now more than close to 50 years on my brother and I reflect back at those moments and we say how much did it give us I'll tell you a story that I don't even remember okay I I eventually going to remember it I'm going to tell myself the story so many times when I was three years old so you do a haircut right let's do a haircut inside them do a haircut so you don't cut your hair till three and then you cut your hair and you leave a Yama keeper and the past the Cyber is very important and you start wearing scissors so um in those days this is 19 68. I was born in 65. so uh in 68 I turned three so you would go over to the rabbit by Fabric and by your garden just like this except that they were not 40 people there there were 400 people there or a thousand people there and you'd put down a bottle of vodka and you'd walk up to the rabbit he'd pour a little glass then he'd give you some and then you would say when you took it with you and then when you made your party you had one alcohol to distribute so my father took with me me with him I was three years old and they read me without hesitation give me a bunch of what I don't know how many three-year-olds to get vodka anyway I don't remember this but like I said I'm gonna tell the story enough time until I remember it I drank it and spit it right back in the devil's face my father said I was so embarrassed and they never thought it was the funniest thing in the world and I wonder I I really honestly I wonder how much of who I am is a reflection of these interactions these little stories these simple stories before I was born [Music] my parents visited and the Deborah referred to me as him and they didn't do my sonograms you know him he uh Remy new stuff and he sometimes shared and those of us who were fortunate and grew up near him we basked in his light we saw what it means to work so unbelievably hard to never rest and to just love they just love that ever what he accomplished in his lifetime it's impossible to it's about to understand how much this man did he carried so much responsibility and he had time for a three-year-old to give him vodka I I've asked people who are in the know if it was that was in the habit of giving three-year-olds alcohol I wonder was it a normal thing and my father just okay he could have said to them you know I don't know this is going to go down but but the rebbe gave you much guess you drank it I gave it right back and then I thought it was the funniest thing in the world my father didn't think it was so funny but everybody else in shows that it was funny so that's my story that's my story connections are tadik and that's why people from here and from overseas travel to Queens go to the river and they stand there they try to feel his spirit and we pray to God we pray to God for those things that we need to give us health and success and wisdom and grown-upness what can I tell you you know it really is true that life is simple if we allow it to be simple but there's so much Temptation into complicating life and we so often forget how expensive that complexity is but we have to give to get it and if we could figure out how to simplify Our Lives I honestly we will be that's what is a Jew a human being on this Earth who never forgot what's the most important thing it's his wife it's his family it's his community it's Toyota it's mitzvous it's wisdom it's kindness It's responsibility it's hard work that's really what it comes down to and if we succeed in applying those values to our lives and you know I say this a lot and I truly believe it you need to understand my father's an immigrant if I was an immigrant because he's an immigrant I love America that's the way it works my kids can already hate America but I was brainwashed my father came to this country at the age of 15. my father was born in the Soviet Union my father remembers the bombardment of Moscow my father who spent the world used in Siberia my father went through a lot of stuff that I can't even fathom [Music] um and he loves this country when I was a little child he would lecture me on freedom I was talking about he would walk the shoulder and Shabbos he's talking about Freedom do me a favor you know I don't know what you're talking but this was he raised me kind of love this country and one of the things about Americans I I think there's two things about Americans that are very special number one I think Americans really want to be good we want we care to be good we don't care to be called God we care to be good a lot of us are very stupid so we can come up very convoluted ways of being good but we care we really Americans want to be good I think it's in their nature it's not the same in Europe that's number one and number two Americans are never too old to change 70 75 80 I can still stop putting on film I can still start to keep Shabbos I can still I'm gonna say it straight start to be nice to my wife after whatever number he has a marriage really I could if I decide to and I don't expect her to to do it first you know I this is I can fix what I can fix you can fix what you can fix a lot of times we have relationships with our spouses with our parents and with our children that have just they're in a bad pattern they're in a bad pattern and this is our choreography you know again I teach teenagers so I'm always coming up with metaphor so what are my metaphors which is a very it's a very realistic metaphor is cheetah you know what a cheetah is a cheater is a slender little cat that's very very tall it's got the lungs the size of uh I don't know what um but he's a very delicate animal a cheetah is not a leopard he's not tough and cheetahs hunt they can Sprint for I don't know half a mile 50 miles an hour it's incredible how fast they can move and they they hunt down gazelle sometimes they'll hunt larger prey if they're hunting in pairs whatever the particulars are but the way you cheat a hunt is he chases down the gazelle the antelope and he takes his right Port slaps at the animal down the animal flips over the cheetah pounces on the animal grabs it by the throat to the animals laying on the ground his legs are flailing and he suffocates it what would that happen if one of these Antelope instead of running away would stun around and look at the cheetah and say I dare you to kill me the dance is over the cheetah can own the prey animal and the predatory animal are in a dance that's how it's described by behavioral scientists and the both animals need to play their part if the prey animal stops running away the cheetah can't kill that's why you find situations where lions are looking after little baby gazelle It's the funniest thing because the Exile is not running away the line doesn't run after it this is not to do so it looks its little face and doesn't know what to do about giving it milk or whatever the particulars are but it's you see this happen all the time because in order for the hunt to work both animals have to play their part and relationships are the same way probably one of the hardest things in America maybe the hardest thing in America is our relationship with our parents which is one of the Ten Commandments under thy mother and thy father is so difficult for us it's so different for everybody and I understand that all of us got a list of grievances there's nobody in the world that we're more angry with than our parents but you know what else no one else in the world that loves us as much no one else in the world is going to take all this crap that's why we can't afford to be Grievous Grievous Grievous because they take it and if we could say you know I'm 40 years old I'm 45 years old I'm not complaining to my parents anymore what happened when I was 16 and they missed hockey practice I'm just gonna love him because they're not here forever and I'm just going to be and then you come home to your parents and you're nice and sweet and they're waiting for you to bring up some old grievance and you don't bring it up and they say Michael what's going on nothing's going on you're not yourself today he said why you didn't insult me I'm not insulting oh come on Michael if you know what insult me what kind of relationship are we going to have I'm going to kiss you on both cheeks let's be our relationship with you yeah but and then God forbid your mother feels best right she tells you that you're overweight and you're eating too much and then of course she feeds you you know so these are these are patterns that we fall into with our parents with our children and most of all the person closest to us in the world our spouse the person we love the most and um if there's a lesson we could take from any is that we're not stuck we're not we're stuck if we allow ourselves to be stuck can I see this says we all have a soul the worst of us is all the people I have a daughter who worked for an organization called Olive which is actually anchored or initiated in Miami Beach here in Florida where they're looking after people in prison some of whom are not in prison for for you know what I'm saying for doing jaywalking but for rather criminal and the whole idea is they advocate for prisoners they're people and they need to give an opportunity to live their lives and to be given what they call Second Chances obviously you're not going to give them permission to hurt anybody but this is this is part of the philosophy you know find a good in everybody and bring it to the fore and the first of that is finding the good in ourselves really find it and go to me I I know me I know I know what's wrong with me I know a lot of things that are wrong with me believe me a longer list than you want to hear um just ask my no I'll tell you if you have a moment of truth and then you you say you know what I'm not I'm not repeating that behavior I'm going to stop it and you could it's hard it's very very hard but it's possible and then I'll say it's Daniel has it in a small way if every person let's just say this okay I don't know how many of you have parents that are alive if you could decide that your relationship and your mother is old and obnoxious and she criticizes you and the minute you walk through the door and every time you call and you say she's an old lady and I'm just going to love her and I'm Gonna Take It you'll be happier she won't know what to do and you'll be a better person it's a simple thing and the same is true in a relationship with our spouse and the same is true in our relationship with our children and it this is I think this is one of the gifts of America American civilization I believe these two statements to be true a Americans really want to be good and B Americans are never too old to change so here's an opportunity it's a fabrangian okay hi I'm everybody [Music] foreign [Music]