KLM: Sukkot - Attaining Unparalleled Joy of a Mitzvah with Rabbi Asher Baruch Wegbreit

your Museum [Music] of course we want to welcome the members of yibene and uh who follow us on YouTube and other people that are not joining live but uh I have great admiration for you showed up live for this uh knowing what's on everyone's plates particularly the people I see on the screen right now okay so I'm gonna cut to the spiritual Chase and I want to just contribute something I think is very important for circus all right rosh hashan is over right not exactly says the Paleo Eights that circus is a type of Rosh Hashanah for simcha for joy and I ask you who couldn't use a little more joy in their lives I don't care if you have some now who who wouldn't want more right who doesn't want more joy and we're going to talk about what gets in the way but let's understand why it's so important so important to feel Joy in Circus okay so let's go to something we recite in halal all right uh this is recited in every Hollow okay just let me share this with you okay uh right before we shout out Hashem we should shout out to Hashem we say the following beautiful words and this is the day that Hashem made us right let us rejoice and feel Simka on it all right the eskimos have a lot of words for snow we have a lot of words for joy that itself is I think a major attraction to Judaism okay so Nagila Venus in fact just a an otahaba Nagila uh I remember when I was uh in Los Angeles on on a Shabbos and I was invited to I'll give him credits the pomerances and they actually did their you know in Los Angeles the weather is beautiful most of the year so they did their Shabbos meal in their driveway they set up their table in the shop in the driveway and we're sitting there enjoying Shabbos and the thing is I asked I asked him you know this is great for us but any ever get any complaints from The Neighbors so he told me he looked at me his name's Norm Norm looks at me and he goes well I'll tell you one time you know we're singing shabba's songs and this and like that and we just hey hey so they stopped singing the Shabbos songs and the neighbor yells at do you guys know Hava Nagila they made a request for Hava Nagila okay but nigila is a very holy word it's in this to him okay so it says this is the day Hashem made let us Nagila let us be excitedly joyous and feel deep simcha on it right Bo so the midrish pacita rabasai asked the following question it said this is the day Hashem made let us rejoice and rejoice Bo are we rejoicing in the day that Hashem made like sukis or are we rejoicing in Hashem the one who made the day guess what and this is good this is a deep insight into how to achieve simchush omitzvah guess what it's in Hashem kamash Milan enjoy your circus enjoy the festival this in the festival is a Shem we need to Rejoice with him with Hashem how do we do that that's what we're going to talk about tonight but I wanted to see this Source this is big right and for those of you who um for those of you who've never experienced Mitzvah I want to share um also give him Allah my dad my dad came to our wedding uh which is you know about 30 years ago and it was the first Jewish wedding he had ever experienced if you will and we're sitting next to each other and people are coming up and singing and dancing and etc etc so and my dad obviously I'm a very very perceptive man he says these people are high they're intoxicated but they're not drinking what's going on here he saw this this Sublime high they were high they were intoxicated so if anyone thinks that uh regular intoxication is something nah doesn't compare to simcha shomitzvah so I'm sure we all want to attain this so the first thing we have to do is understand what interferes with simcha shom Mitzvah okay what interferes with kavana Le mitzvah what interferes with tefila what interferes with having uh good character traits with your children with your friends with your spouse what interferes with all that busy rushing we're always rushing right that is a major source of interference okay let me bring you some exhibits about uh the the the busyness issue okay so um the first one I want to share with you um listen to this statistic okay there someone even wrote a book uh a person listen to the title it says let me do that again hectic busyness has become the symbol of achievement it is it isn't the symbol of achieving but listen to this this is a great study doctor said so I think you'll ratify this it says there is a study from the monthly labor review and they asked people to estimate how many hours they work a week okay so that people that estimated they ready for this get ready for this people that estimated that they work 75 hours a week we're off on average by 25 hours do you hear that they they thought they worked 50 and they thought they work 25 and one person surveyed said I probably work you know really workaholic he says I think I work 180 hours a week problem there aren't 180 hours in a week okay so what do we see people have this intense perception that they're busy I'm so busy busy busy busy right and and and the truth of the matter is it there it's not and by the way it was pointing out the people that were um having this estimation are not people doing double shifts in ICU uh I I met this one uh a woman driving an Uber and you know she told me you know she's a single woman with children and she you know drops them off and then works in the late afternoon and in the evening and then gets up in the morning there are people that are very busy right but many of us just feel so busy that we just simply don't have time now you know who I'm going to blame for this right of course if the Yates are hurray right that it's very famous point but let's reiterate it so we'll not attack it it says the Yates are is very skilled says the Messiah says charm at deceiving us okay this is a great example we're not as busy as we think we are all right but he's very good at deceiving us and one of the things he does is what Paro did he keeps us feeling so busy right constantly uh I I've got to do this I got to do that I gotta do this and what happens because he knows if you'll stop for a moment guess what will happen you'll connect to Hashem it's that simple all right so now let's explain that a little more deeply so the point I want to make out is we um one of the things we have to recognize if we want to have a shot at reaping a tremendous year of joy in the Rosh Hashanah of simcha of sukkas we have to realize what the enemy is going to try to do no we got to get ready we got to set this we got to set up the for meals oh someone's coming okay oh and we got to take care of his armamentum etc etc etc etc so be on guard be on guard the and major interference to Joy is the perception of busyness okay now that wait let's just do a little more psychology on this all right Rabbi toerski um I I um in the Yeshiva I taught a vad Musser and one of the assignments I gave people that were working on developing themselves was um taking torsky time that's what we called it okay so this radtorsky said Psalm uh told the story about himself that was I I think many people will resonate with this you know he said he was already a successful Rabbi and author a very successful psychiatrist he you know supervised the hospital a very achieved man right and a busy and achieved so he actually um you know it was time to have a little bit of a vacation so he went to a retreat and I let's say it was in Colorado like a spa and you know he had his uh headphones on right probably listened to a sheer and and he was going to edit one of his books he read like he wrote 90 books right so the person who's managing the spa says um I'm sorry Dr twersky um we have a rule when you go into the sauna right now you cannot bring in earphones and you cannot bring in uh your book to edit you you have to just go in and sit there he said it was Dreadful Rabbi toerski felt Dreadful it was really uncomfortable for this wonderful man that's all to be with himself and he realized he was not comfortable with himself with his thoughts Etc he was filled with let's say negative critical thoughts now if anyone is under the illusion that enough achievement and worthy achievement this man was enriching the lives of people spiritually saving people from addiction um caring for Humanity I mean the person should have had the self-esteem of giant a giant the question is what happened why was this man who was so imbued with selfish uh with achievement he wasn't he couldn't bear to be with himself okay so what did he say you you don't need my uh well I gave you the Missy issue sorry but he's he he blamed it also he blamed it on our yatesahara or evil Incarnation which Hashem put us there to give us free choice right he blamed it on that he says that you there there's that voice is not your voice that voice that is always bashing into you you know my friend Marshall he has a great thing he says that you know how in the uh game shows so if you get a right answer it goes ping right if you get a wrong answer goes so ping right answer wrong answer so he's saying if we took a seriously look at what's going on our mind and I'm talking about you successful people as well or maybe especially all the time and no ping because even if we do something and we feel a sense of success we're saying oh come on that wasn't what we could have done right you know that that that inner critic is always going ah no pings so this so you hear we're a bit we're busy why are we busy because we're not comfortable being with ourselves why are we not comfortable being with ourselves because we have an identity um complex okay an identity complex we think that the voice of discouragement and criticism and all that stuff is our voice we buy the sales pitch of the Yates or horror of the evil inclination right so we are up against a little bit of a challenge here uh to feel the joy that comes from mitzvos even when we're in a glorious situation like circus all right so let's just discuss now number one is you have to know the enemy right and you have to be in guard so what do we do about it right the question is what do we do about it so the uh that's the first thing let me let me um read this to you uh there is this woman who's uh you know gives um constant guidance to parents and she's a from woman and and she has these posts and and she described the situation and listened to her situation I'm just showing you how um people tap into what the Torah is saying okay in order to not feel constantly rushed worried frustrated or overwhelmed we need to give our nervous systems a break on a regular ideally daily basis here's a very inexpensive strategy two minutes I think that's a lot two minutes just there just stare at the wall just hang in there touristy time I call it right try 30 seconds right where you just relax and sit there by the way be careful I practice hypnosis okay I'm using my hypnosis voice if we can do that for a minute or two during sukis we're on our way okay and I remind you that every teeny weensies moment of Consciousness and and and presence is more than a lifetime's career achievement okay we said this more than the you can think of any achievement it doesn't match it and what's my what's my proof for that if you have a second where you're connecting to Hashem and you're doing a Mitzvah right why how do I know that's greater than a career filled with uh constant achievement well it's the pay you get the the career I mean you can turn your career and your work into Mitzvahs that's another class but for right now you get paid here for your career achievements you get the golden watch Etc but in order to pay you for a minute of genuine connection to Hashem the a minute of doing a Mitzvah a minute of Mitzvah Hashem says I can't there's nothing in the world to give you everything falls short nothing will be sufficient pay for what you achieved you hear this so let's review Mitzvah step number one realize we're we're plagued and addicted to busyness why because we're uncomfortable being with ourselves why because the thoughts that run through our head are that's what's running through her head why because that comes from the Yates okay so the solution the remedy is do that but now let's let's make that very holy okay you do that even once or twice uh on circus and you add what are we rejoicing about we're rejoicing with Hashem now let's learn how to do that okay once we do that and we take a minute or two even a minute you just have to realize that you it is so precious okay but let's Now understand how do you rejoice with Hashem okay that's a good question so here's the thing um let's use rally Miller for this I if anybody um did not get a chance to read what he said uh Rabbi Miller's it's all said about Rosh Hashanah it's very relevant to sukis okay so let me bring this up and now this is for you who um daily practice uh you dive in you learn Etc he says what's unfortunately most people's um what is Hashem to most people and he pointed out unfortunately Hashem is a word in the hummish Hashem is a word in the sitter Hashem is a word in those books right so that's let's say that level now those people have a intellectual understanding that it this world didn't get here by itself and somebody's been guiding my life pretty well and helping me grow Etc but experientially Hashem is often a word in the sitter a word in the Hamish so what's the next level up okay so I I'll tell you this story again um the there was uh you know many many Israelis um they're they're travel Choice after the Army when they got their their leaving and now they travel around the world many of them picked India right and many of them went for you know Buddhism and uh Hinduism all these things that was their number one choice okay now when they came back there this one man he was actually from Peru a Jew from Peru and he was um he had evidently seen the light in India and he wanted he knew he was Jewish so he wanted to have an experience of God with Jews so he happened to end up in our revi's Yeshiva in diaspora Yeshiva and our revi Rabbi green sat before him and so the this man from Peru said to him to Robert Green says I want to experience god with you Sir Robert Green says okay the Peru man said again I want to experience god with you for everything said okay this Rabbi doesn't get what's going on I want to experience god with you are you doing this okay so let's step number one to move Hashem from a word in the sitter or a word in the Hamish is to simply draw into your awareness that we are in the presence of Hashem right now okay Hashem is fueling existence Moment by moment Hashem isn't existence himself he's fueling it but you are in the presence of Hashem right now okay so if you want to take Hashem out of the sitter and into your home just do that right to say amenition's presence now okay now before this we have to Don't Be Afraid okay don't listen to that lousy sales pitch you're okay and hashem's here you're not alone you're never alone okay so that's step number one okay and every second you draw him into ex your awareness you should have in mind the Mitzvahs of shavesia and placing Hashem into your awareness it's a Mitzvah you're as Hashem these are huge misses so that's number one when you get in the sukkah find a moment and take a deep breath turn off the critic right and move Hashem from the sitter to your awareness it's really that's a great start if you think a little bit about how Shem is it that helps but now yes what we need to go farther and if we go farther takes on a whole other level avinu Hashem is our dad hashems our father he's a Divine father he's a perfect father a perfect dad he loves us to no end right now Bradley Moore explained and I worked on this on Yom Kippur a lot you know it was on Yom Kippur I think not not Russia's son I apologize look at his his Taurus evictor uh booklet on Yom Kippur avinu right so when we did a lot of bad things you know during the year we were critical of people we lied we spoke Lush and her we got angry we neglected Tara etc etc all those bad things so he's saying you know that created a distance with our dad right or we you know we kind of pulled back and and there was some distance there so guess what when you went through Yom Kippur right when you went through Yom Kippur you were healing the relationship with Dad right you were healing the relationship with Dad you did a lot right now not to mention the king but let's say I want to say to you if you will experience a little bit of a vino right you know if you move Hashem from your awareness Hashem is present and you move it to are dead you know what our dad did he figured out how to get us to improve our character draw close to him have more Integrity he did all these things all ello and then Rosh Hashanah he gave us a taste of his Royal presence and Kingdom and then Yom Kippur he really he really he helped us heal the relationship and now he says come with me if you will we know Hashem has no physical form he says enter the sukkah right Rejoice now the way I'm explaining is one of the classic explainings of why we Rejoice on circus and how rejoices him we are rejoicing over the gift of Rosh hashan and Yom Kippur the healing and the the renewal of relationship and now we bask in joy and uh and realizing that our avina our dad our dad loves us so much and there we are uh sitting in the wings of the divine presence uh under the wings of the divine presence now that if you can have even a moment of two moment or two of that you have tasted mitzvah and I assure you that it is such an achievement it's an achievement of the lifetime okay and we know that uh simcha in general Joy is is look you know um Sublime delight and joy is part of being in the presence of Hashem right so if you want to experience God tap into this Joy accept yourself because Hashem does okay Shem loves you you know I I always tell my wife you know when she gets afraid of the the Judgment which is a healthy thing so if I say look you know uh Hashem loves you more than any of our children you know admit you know he much much more and you just have to realize no matter how we act he loves us right Hashem loves you as as the man who would shout out to parrots okay so I know you got to get back to work building your sukkas buying your Arbor minions making meals uh preparing for this glorious time to uh Nagila Vanessa to rejoice and rejoice no it's externally rejoice and and and reflect and by the way one last point and this is a theme at KLM reflection creates connection right in other words if you can even just shut off the busyness machine for a minute too if you reflect you'll connect hog is I wish it for all of us just pure joy in the uh in the in the sale of the confage yeah thank you thank you okay thank you if I can't just make one comment I think it was President Calvin Coolidge who said very proudly the business of America is business and you know we really have adopted that as you said people Define themselves by how busy they are they're busy their business or they're a great businessman right and you know I take notes I was take that during this to take notes doing this year and you use the word busyness and as I was typing it I realized that the word busyness is essentially the same word as business business is busyness except business you take out the why and you put an i and it's the I right right beautiful you're beautiful you submerge yourself in your business but it's really just busyness and um you know I remember when I was a young lawyer in large law firms they would Pride themselves on billing you know uh uh as many hours a day as possible and the legend that went around is one associate was able to build 27 hours in a day why because it was sent from New York to California and so on the plane he worked and he built those three hours that's the guy referred to 180 hours a week so what a madrega he reads 27 hours a day right so that's the idea you know so so I mean but the whole idea that we've glorified business and it's really business and busyness it's you know it's it's it's the language itself reveals reveals the connection that that is so perfect you know hey when you have when someone has an Insight like that you know I already started to hear it as you were unfolding it that makes so much sense also I saw a book that really made this point I just loved it listen to this title and tell me who doesn't relate to this it says when I relax I feel guilty I hear that that these are the things that uh and and that's what uh Paro Paro didn't want us to relax so this goes back this is essential to Jewish history and connection to Hashem is to be let go now just uh you know to to reframe one thing about business right if it's a Voda business can turn into service right if we do it right as we discussed in the previous class is that Hashem wants us to in a dignified way make something in this world contribute care for a family care for the people we're helping Etc right so we do have that but that's not what we're talking about here like you said uh the uh I I think um I hope I can remember this is someone just said when uh when do you know a Jewish child is weaned right you know when when they've been wait no when do you know a Jewish baby is viable it says when it's completed it's internship in medicine [Laughter] right so then we know this is uh this is our history you know these are noble things but they obviously the HR co-ops them okay so all right so I really I I I I challenge you and give you eight day challenge right to grab as many moments okay as many moments of simcha Mitzvah by turning that machine off because as the um the bill Bobby said you could go and I saw this you can your body your entire body can enter the sukkah but your mind is somewhere else your head is somewhere else so let's completely enter this uh the sukha right by turning off the volume of the etahara okay great beautiful yeah is this one thing um there's a beautiful and in the morning we make a brochure on the busy explode all right so you said wait State out the the difficulty and solve it for us no so I was just gonna bring it as a as a healthier I guess I was more making a statement than maybe I was short shortcutting it but yes how could we be saying that business is uh is a bad thing when we're uh being busy in the morning right right and the turrets that depends on what the business is it's a business or busyness right right so we say last soak right that an essec is a business right right and it's really the I think though the translation might and to solve the problem it's you're it's an occupation it occupies oh okay if you could say that that too but let me just because you brought it up probably Michael when it says do we uh rejoice in the day or in Hashem so it says one of the explanations we Joyce and rashem through his Torah in other words the way to access connection to Hashem is through the Torah so if we're um if we're involved in that that's also a key way to rejoice in Hashem directly right very good beautiful okay yes you call it Rabbi Michael that's a wonderful point to bring out about lost soak right no and I just want to say I think you know a possible turrets is what we say uh when we conclude a day of learning right uh we thank Hashem you know you know I'm running to I'm running and they're running right uh you know I'm I'm busy and they're busy but I'm toiling in there twenty exactly beautiful beautiful now that that could be the terrets yeah speaking it is beautiful yes I I that was in my Arts grow oh okay well uh yeah so I was just gonna piggyback on what Reverend Michael was saying that very often our lenses are inverted in that you know we say oh you know I should be busy with Torah like I'm busy during the day at the office when the opposite is true that you know that I should be busy with Torah and then you know when I'm at the office you know it's borrowing the term the other way I think anyway as far as like uh yeah my real voter is working for Hashem also I'm at the office you know it's a not necessarily yeah but uh but to be busy you know with this is really my my Prime occupation and my money comes through other channels you know kind of thing beautiful beautiful excellent okay wonderful everybody all right back to avoda [Music]