God: First, Last and Forever - The 4th Principle of Faith - Rabbi Lazer Brody

my lord. It's from you my lord. [Music] It's all good my lord. [Music] Oh Lord. >> Good evening from the south of Israel. This is Laser Brody with the muna hour number 205. Tonight we're learning the fir the fourth principle of muna first last and forever. The fourth of the 13 principles of muna it teaches that the creator defies time and space. He's infinite and he's eternal and he precedes the beginning of time and exists forever long past the end of time. Okay. But as we like to do before we were be begin the last three lessons we didn't do a review. Do a quick review. Now we're in the fourth principle. I'm going to do a quick review of the first three lessons. our first three principles of amuna and we love to review because it strengthens our retention. We internalize more and more and more until the amuna becomes part of our our DNA. The principles amuna and we can live by them. So let's do a quick review of principles 1, two, and three. Principle number one taught us that I believe with complete belief that the creator blessed be his name is creator and director of all of creation. He did al he alone did does and will do every deed. Now this is the belief that the existence the creator he's the life force behind all of creation. Nothing could exist without him. Nothing could exist without is divine will. And we're talking about the absolute mega the mega galaxies to the absolute macro the miniest the micro the miniest parts of an atom. every part of an atom. It's Hashem personally controlling. It's mindboggling to think about what Hashem personally does. And the creator makes any everything happen. Nothing can happen without him. And this is what the Torah tells us in Deuteronomy chapter 4:35. There is no one or nothing but him. Okay, that's principle number one. Principle number two, uh the my codified these. He says, "I believe with complete belief that the creator, blessed be he, his name is one and there is no unity like under him uh like him under any circumstances and he alone is our God past, present and future. This is the belief that the creator is one, the one and only God and he's a perfect inseparable whole with no code deities. He's got no uh no assistance and no no codeies whatsoever and he's independent of everyone and everything. Hashem doesn't need any anything from anyone as we say in the Schma prayer. Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That's also in Deuteronomy chapter 6 but verse 4. Okay. Then we go on to principle three. Principle three we learned last week. This is one of the most difficult principles to learn and one of the difficult principles for human beings especially intellectual human beings to grasp. I believe with complete belief that the creator blessed be his name is not a body nor can any physical entity comprehend him. He is incorpial and with no image whatsoever. So the creator defies any description any physical properties nor can a m mortal individual understand his workings in any way. you can't understand him in any way. So, coalistic terminology and uh often refers to Hashem as the an S which is the infinite because there's nothing tangible or finite about Hashem. Uh you can find the replays these lessons on laserbeams.com. If you go into category 13 principles of amuna, yeah, the lessons will go right down before you. And it's a good idea to review them. And more review them, the more you attain them, okay? because there's something we can't learn. You think this is something I review every single day of my life. The 13 principles of muna. Some remind myself every single day. So now we're going to learn principle four. If you're following in the 13 principles of muna, uh it's page 67. If you don't have this, it'd be a good idea to pick it up. It's available on in uh ebook or paper. You can put it in your your phone or your computer or your tablet or put it in your pocket. That's why he printed these books that books small you can put in your purse and your your your your jacket pocket. Okay. So principle four once again I believe with complete belief that the creator blessed be his name. He's first and last. What does that mean? That Hashem is first and last. This is the belief that Hashem defies time and space. He's infinite and eternal. He was way before the beginning of time as we know it and it's going to exist way after the end of a time. Bashm is forever, forever, infinite, infinite. And we see we open up the chapter 44 of Isaiah. Isaiah the prophet says like this, "Thus says Hashem, King of Israel and Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first, I am the last, and beside me there is no God." Sing this all the time. Like our third principle of muna, this too is a principle beyond the grasp of human intellect because you have to when intellect leaves us that's where amuna begins. So there's always been a sheem and there always will be a shem and he alone precedes creation and he prevails once uh once creation is is terminated because without hashem there can't be any creation there there's nothing. Okay. The garra warns us not to try and contemplate. In other words, we believe in this, but to try and contemplate this with our logic, it will drive us crazy because the nature of Hashem's existence before creation or after creation, the Gomorrah and track and the Gomorrah has got a lot of coalistic implications and it says that a person is not allowed to investigate something that is impossible for the human intellect to comprehend because it made crazy that the person can never could comprehend it. It's like uh uh you want to train and train and train and train until you can become a great runner. How much can a human being run a champion runner? No. You want to run like a like a race car? What? 120 mph. You're not going to be able to run 120 mph. And you could train and train and train. You won't get past 30 miles an hour, 32 miles an hour, and even that for a short distance. And you keep on trying. There are people that went beyond their ability and they killed themselves. Their heart just gave out and this our brains give out just like this is an example of of a heart. It's something that we exert ourselves too much physically. That's why a person needs a trainer. Person has to consult a physician what he is he or she is capable of doing and not to do on our own. That's the same token person spiritual guide. What am I capable of understanding? What am I capable of learning? I've had a lot of people that have come in uh newly enlightened amuna people and they right away want to jump into cabala. Oh did it's like somebody that doesn't know how to read and before learning ABCs right away it's learning nuclear physics. You can't you can't learn nuclear physics until you start off one and one is two the first grade arithmetic. So this is why we all need a a spiritual guide and the same thing if I take on a new learning project I won't take it on until I speak to the melb to my spiritual guide rebish I teach this or not teach this he knows me he knows my capabilities and he doesn't want me to do damage to myself so this if we try to learn something understand something that we're capable of doing then would be crazy this is the khaga talked about I mentioned it two two weeks ago but Alban Masula Praes for the parable of the four sages that they went into the uh the metaphorical orchard medical for the upper worlds Rabbi Kea was the only one came out alive because he was the only one on the spiritual level to handle that even though we're great holy sages Ben Azai and Ben Zilma one got killed and one went crazy because they saw things that their souls were not strong enough to handle. So the Gmorrah is not telling you don't learn. Okay? Don't try to understand what you can. But don't bother investigating things that no one has the answer for. No one could possibly have an answer for because there's no answer in science. And this is not science. It's not logic. It's an amuna and nobody knows what went on before creation. And it with all the thing with trying science this way and the big bang theory and it's all you can't have something happen without a creator. If everything they talk about a manifestation in creation that is a creation even the happening is a manifestation. Someone created it. It can was created. So always can go back to the original the creator. the creator the creator. There's no such thing as anything in the world without a creator because someone is even either a creator or created or any action has either been created or it creates something. This is uh this is this is people can't can't grasp this. Okay. So, we don't ask what went on before creation and what's going to be after creation. We don't ask that. We're worried about the word. We're hoping Mashiach comes. Well, Mashiach comes. We'll see Messiah in our in our own lifetime. after after creation. Nobody's thinking about that. It doesn't it doesn't help us. Doesn't make us healthier. Doesn't help us serve Hashem anymore. And it doesn't help us in this world or in the next world. But as far as the next world, in the next world, there's a lot of things we can understand because we shed ourselves of the body. We go into the next world, the soul. And that's we have to strengthen our souls and amuna and Torah and good deeds as much as we can. Okay? Because anything that is hidden from the human intellect and what goes on before this the tells us went on before uh the world existed or after the world existed. This is hidden from the human intellect. No one not the greatest person Moses did not have an answer for that. If Moses didn't have an answer for that sorry folks nobody else has an answer for that. Okay. So we ask ask ourselves a question. If investigating what preceded creation and what will follow creation is something dangerous that our sages warned against then what's the practical purpose of this fourth principle and not learning this fourth principle close to Hashem so we don't stop probing this we can't answer okay so wait a second laser you told me that I can't investigate what goes on before creation and I can't investigate after creation but you tell me that Hashem is first and last is before creation and after so so why are you doing that King David says In Psalm 102, remember we learned Psalm 102. You endure, Hashem. He's talking to Hashem. Hashem, you endure throughout the generations. You laid the foundation of earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They shall perish, but you shall endure. Your years have no end. This right away in Psalm 102 at verse 25, 26, 27, and 28. In four verses, King David tells us the fourth prince. King David was king of Israel. Mashiach. He was the Messiah, the anointed king of Israel was the Messiah. Mashiach is the anointed king of Israel. King David, he tells us right here. But King David, he tells us as a fact, as a fact of amuna. He says, "My cherished children, accept this and move down. Go accept this. This as a spiritual fact just like accept the fact that there's a creator that there's a shem in the world." That's the 13 principle muna. That there's a Shem in the world. Look if someone wants to argue with that logically we don't this is something else we don't learn amuna on a logical basis there are the great logical minds why do we not learn amuna on a logical basis there the meliter often talks about the two ways to learn amuna the ways to learn amuna logically and this the ram he wrote a book called guide to the perplexed we do not learn that book and the famous duty of the hearts We don't learn the first chapter because the first chapter is on a logical approach to amuna. We don't do that because if a person's amuna is based on logic than some atheistic professor with a brilliant IQ and as a graduate of the the Harvard debate team, he could come and convince you that there's not. And then if you run a logical level, you can't add logically spinning words. No, we know one thing. We our amuna is built on what's called kabala. What does kabala mean? Kabala really means tradition. It's a reception from the earlier generation. The earlier generation from teacher to student from son to father from mother to daughter all the way back to Moses. And it's not that long from my generation to Moses only 110 generations. My children 111 my grandchildren 112 my great 113. We we know what happened to those generations. And we know everyone that was. So even if a person is is a newcomer okay suppose wait a second you say well my might my I don't have tradition either I'm a I'm a amunah hide or noahhide or I was born into a a non-observant thing doesn't matter if you've got a spiritual guide who he's connected I too my parents weren't religious but the fact that I attached myself to the meliser and for years over 30 years his student 11 years as understudy uh this is he's a a great-grandson to BMT and he's son after son all the way back to to Rashi and Rashi to King David and this all the way back. So you connect it. He has this tradition generation after generation in addition to his predicious holiness and his unbelievable off-the-charts Torah scholarship. And forget about the humility. He's so humble. He's so brilliant. He's got everything to be arrogant about. And everything he's got arrogant about. He's nothing. But that this is uh this is I don't tell miracle stories about uh the ribb even though you can there are miracle stories. David Dome saw something his own family what what happened when he got a blessing from the Melisar Rebbit. Ask David do I'm not telling micer stories. For me it is a it's a marvel how such an spiritual giant is so humble and hides himself from everyone. And this is a marvel but this is where we get that's where I I get my tradition. So you learn from me. You too are connected just like I am because you're connected with me and I connected with but this is generation to generation. If you're connected with me and you learn with me, then you're connected to Melissa. If you're connected to Meliss, you're connected to Rebel Lach, his seventh grand gener then the Balsham to before that and all the way back to Rashi and all the way back to King David. And this is what Rashi tells us in the Torah Vinantum. Rashi says that your students are your children. And that's what one one thing that I really did. I don't know what it's uh I I can honestly say that my students there to me no difference between them and my my biological children. In fact, I have much more interaction with my students than I do with my biological children and my grandchildren. says it's a it's you could you feel you feel because uh okay my kids they got my physical DNA but may not necessarily go according to my way my students they're my spiritual DNA that's even closer the spirit is is higher so don't worry if the fact that in this group connected all the way back to Moses that's a good thing to know so we would know this is what King David is telling us we're connected back to King David Psalm 102 King David gives us verses 25 to 28 this principle. Now what's the great thing about this principle? Okay. So why do we learn it? Because it gives us peace of mind. What's greater than peace of mind? Peace of mind extends our lives. It gives us longevity. Stress and anxiety they shorten our lives. Now the knowledge that Hashem is both infinite and eternal. Wow. It gives us such tranquility of the heart in two special ways, two distinct ways we're going to see this. Let's compare Hashem to working for a flesh and blood employer. So even if you love your employer, there's always a chance that he or she is going to sell the company and you have a new boss that difficulty getting along with or maybe they'll lay off. Maybe the new owners want their own their own staff in there. So anything number of things can happen to your boss. Uh he could retire, he could change jobs, he could sell the company. So you never know what to expect every day you go to work have a new boss it it's not peace of mind a person doesn't Hashem does that so we be have to depend on him and not depend on the boss but this is the first distinct way that Hashem's infinitude and his eternality they give us enhanced inner peace and freedom from all this outside worry that there's never need to worry about it we don't have to worry about a regime change is not going to sell the company. It's not going to be a new creator who's uh not an an unkind creator and not a benevolent creator who doesn't feel like feeding his creations. No. So even if we get a new president or new employer, a new boss or anyone that influences our life in one way or another, we still know that they're all puppets on a string because Hashem decides our income. Hashem decides their health. And Hashem himself is pulling the strings of the new boss with the new company that that's the new puppet. Okay? And Hashem gave us a new chessboard and there's new players on the chessboard. So in the same way that whatever happens in our life, that's Hashem moving the pieces on the chessboard and Hashem's pulling the strings of the puppet. We don't have to worry about anybody. So let's return to our example of the flesh and blood employer. Who knows what problems our employer has or what challenges he or she has or what they're dealing with. Maybe they have a health issue that affects their mood. Maybe they have a marital issue that really affects their mood. And look at the myriad of day-to-day changes that affect our moods. Well, our employers or people we work with, they're flesh and blood, too. So, just as we have moods, they have moods. And sometimes people look at us a skew. They don't look at us very very nice and and we're all worried what's wrong with you. No, nothing is wrong with you. It's the person you don't know what's going on with the day how he left. He was arguing with the spouse how he the slam the door on him and okay was even though the person is the president of company or the president of United States look at the mood changes that the president of United States has in Israel. You see, one day decides this, one day decides that. One one day is our best friend, one day is pressuring us to to all kinds of mood changes. They're dealing with flesh and blood. There is nothing predictable about flesh and blood and worried about, oh, is the boss going to smile at me? Is going to yell at me today? What's going to be? Look, open up. Prophet Malaki chapter 3:6. What does Maliki say? says, "Calm down, beloved children." And he quotes Hashem and he says, "I am Hashem. I have not changed." That's what he said. That's so great. Shem, there's no mood changes. There's always a smile. Even if Hashem gives us a little slap, it is something to to make us do chuva, it's still with a smile. So we now see the second way that Hashem's infinitude and his eternity give us enhanced inner peace. We never need to worry about Hashem having a mood change. And Hashem is always the same and his expectations of us. They are clear, crystal clear and constant. And they too never change. And that we'll learn that in the ninth principle that the Torah never changes. We've got the Torah. There's going to be no new laws. There's no new session of Congress that Congest no uh new codification of Torah. There's no new meeting up on Mount Si. And even with the Sanhedrin and the holy temple, they don't change the law. They can't change the Torah. They can't change one part of a letter, not a letter of Torah, the tiny little point of letter of Torah. So, let's talk about free choice and consequences. People ask what about the good days and the bad days and what about the wonderful times and the awful times. Okay, life has great times and life has awful times. Talking about good times. Uh we all know our Sunonny Levy. Sunonny Levy this morning became a grandmother. So want to say masleto to Sunonny Levy. Okay. Her oldest daughter Aiden. She gave birth to a baby girl. So Brad, we're talking about good times. Okay. Masletov Sunny. Everything wonderful for you. The whole group sends a masleto. Okay. So uh we learn the first principle that everything is from Hashem. So how can we say that Hashem doesn't have mood changes? Hashem never changes. One day he gives us a great day, a great day where everything goes wonderful and the next day gives us a terrible day. All right? So that's another question. But you see this is the way we learn. We are not hiding the difficult questions. We ask ourselves difficult questions. But these difficult questions have answers. The Arizal it's got the results Laura Ashkanazi the father of Kabala he asked the same question in his magnamopas of Kabala the tree of life and this is the source book of Kabala and elaborated on his answer difficult to understand but the beneshai Beneshai by Ysef of Baghdad who was a unbelievable cabalist he didn't live that long ago let's see he maybe died Ysef of Baghdad he died maybe 120 years ago. He was a rabbi in Baghdad and he great the benesh high a prolific scholar written many wonderful books. Okay. He wrote a book called data which means knowledge and understanding that Hashem surely does not change but the good and the bad are things that humans do because our actions trigger a cause and effect chain and it's like divine energy. You go into chemistry chemistry lab and you put chloride with with the sodium you're going to get salt. That's very predictable. You know, you put one chemical with another and you come out of that a third which is a a distinct compound. Maybe even not even have anything similar. You put uh hydrogen and oxygen and and it comes out water. Okay? So, it's it's all predictable and it's all good at the source because the this is the divine energy. divine energy. It comes from uh compassion on the right side or stern judgment on the left side. And what we do and where do we see this in the Torah? We see the Torah in par where says I I I gave you the good and life or the opposite and then and death. So it depends what person chooses when a person for 30 years 40 years smoked two packs of cigarettes a day and now he's suffering from emphyma or even worse and he can't breathe. Hashem, why are you so mean to me? No, my brother, your actions, they triggered. It was a long time. There were a lot of times where you had you had the flu, where you had coughs, where Hashem was trying to wake you up. No, you went back to the cigarettes. That's it. person has cerosis of the liver. Hashem, what it do to my liver? Uh, excuse me. How many years did you couldn't go through the day without the knocking down the four or five genonics? Okay. All that alcohol that affected your liver. We see what's good. What's good? A person brings good to the world or good to himself, he gets it back. Person brings the opposite to the world, the opposite himself, he gets that back, too. So you can see you have the same power that could bring good or bad. Let's talk about fire. Look at the fire. Imagine that uh fire is good or bad. You're camping out with friends on a chilly evening and you light a charcoal fire and you take a finan fjan Arabic. That's a small demask where we slowly cook uh coffee over a a charcoal fire and then you pour steaks on that fire and you have this wonderful coffee and the aromatic stakes and you're camping out and you're happy as a lark. But heaven forbid in a moment of carelessness that uh somebody's hair somebody's got long hair or a long scarf leans over the fire and it catches on fire and then the winter parker get catches on fire too and and it's suddenly in danger. So the same fire that a minute ago was a best friend is now the worst enemy. The fire hasn't changed. This what you have to understand. The fire hasn't changed. It's the same fire that boiled the streaks is the same fire that's burning the person's scarf or or whatever whatever got get into the fire. The fire doesn't change. It's what the person has done with the fire. And that's why again when Hashem said, "I am Hashem. I've not changed." Then in Deuteronomy chapter 4 uh in verse 24, the Torah says, "For Hashem, your God is an all-consuming fire." So he's learned in the third principle, Hashem defies description and defies any bodily properties. So why does the Torah speak in metaphors? Torah does that so we can grasp that whatever knowledge of Hashem, we can on our level. This is something it's a metaphor to help us understand what Hashem with in in the limits of our intellect, the limits of our vocabulary. So Hashem as a fire quote unquote accepts a gratifying sacrifice on the altar as a fire from the heavens descends miraculously and consumes the sacrifice. People would see this daily in the holy temple. This the same fire that burned the two sons of Aaron because dove because they entered the holy of holies and they made an unauthorized incense offering and and no sentiments. You going to holy of holies and playing around with the rich uranium and they weren't authorized to do that. Only the high priest only their father our high priest on yum kipper they couldn't do that and we see how they died in chapter 10 of Leviticus. So Hashem never ever changes as we learn in principle nine. Hashem, God willing, we'll get there another five weeks. Hashem's Torah never changes. Hashem tells us explicitly, I call heaven and earth as witnesses this day that give you options of life and death, blessing and curse and therefore choose life as part that I just mentioned earlier. So Hashem gives us free will and he also informs us of the consequences. You have to know it's cause and effect. You choose good, you get good and you choose the opposite, get the opposite. Uh King Solomon, the wisest man that ever walked the face of the earth, he says in Proverbs that a person's fool skews his way and then he blames Hashem. So we talk about the smoker, the smoker's folly. All the doctors, everybody warns you that smoking brings lung cancer, smoking brings diseases, smoking is not good for your health. No, but you insist on smoking and then you get sick and you blame Hashem. That's what that's that's a fool. A fool's folly. This makes the fool damage and then the fool blames Hashem. That's a fool. There's a fool double fool because of what he does is folly. And then from the outcome, which the outcome is predictable, the doctors told him what would happen. Okay, maybe it won't happen in 10 years, maybe 20 years. They think he's okay. But if he would have tried even 20 years before he got the lung cancer, he couldn't run around the block and he'd always take the elevator because smokers don't like to climb stairs. They don't like to do anything that makes them breathe hard. And usually the smokers are in terrible physical shape usually. Okay. So, King Solomon says that a fool's folly, skews his way, but he blames Hashem. And this is uh a couch potato. Same way. couch potato watches movies all day long and he drinks cola and eats potato chips and but if the couch potato would invest in proper diet and a bit of exercise that he could be like the weightlifter who spends his day in a gym and eats nothing but but natural and and strong food. So you could see couch potato sitting watching the football player. Oh, I want to be like the the linebacker. I want to be like that. You're now got to be like that dwind sitting on the sofa. Okay, that's if you want to be like him, you got to get up, turn off the TV, put on your Nikes and your New Balance and start hit the road. So until now, we spoke about the benefits of believing in Hashem overall infinitude and eternality. So when learning the fourth principle of amuna, we can also glean a wonderful benefit in knowing specifically that Hashem is first and an additional huge benefit knowing that Hashem is last. And what's that give us? Okay, let's go see what what we gain by that. Okay, it's going to help us live a longer life. This fourth principal muna is a insurance policy for longer life cuz scientific research repeatedly points to anxiety as a culprit in shortening lifespan. So although we don't have clinical research can't say to say something that we don't have Torah's got to be honest we don't have clinical research but uh serenity the opposite of anxiety it lengthens lifespan we can certainly deduce that if we remove a lifeshortening factor from our lives then naturally we live longer so if a person that same smoker if he removes the cigarettes from his life he's going to live longer that's true and then and if it's hasn't succeeded doing um and doing total damage to his lungs then lungs could get better. His lungs can get better. It takes time but they'll they'll clear up. So empirically let's say empirically though we have clinical proof looks like empirically and give example of some in this generation giants of Torah that uh giants of Torah and Muna in this last generation and we see an amazing pattern. Okay. Rab Aaron Udelstein. He was head of the Shivas and he died in 2017. He died eight years ago. He lived to 103. Rabbi Schmo Levy Vosner personally was one of the great greatest uh rabbitical lawgivers in this generation. He lived till 102. Rabbi Shalom Alashiv who died uh 2012 that's 13 years ago. Tomorrow is his site. In fact, tonight already it says Rabashite, he lived to 102. Rabbi Yakaduri, he died 19 years ago. He lived to 108. The Zuchkare, the Zuchkare, uh, he lived to 104. And go on more. These are some of our great spiritual leaders in this generation. And what's going on here that each of the above sadikim sadikim they're pious and righteous they were colossal Torah scholars and they had unshakable amuna and they were righteous off the charts righteous. So each was a walking encyclopedia in his respective area of Torah expertise and each was a living book of ethics of the Musa living book. So how do they all live past the age of 100? Let me give you a parable. Okay, this is an original parable that uh is in our book 13 principles of Muna in chapter 4. Okay, a guest came to a synagogue for Shabbat and you probably maybe you've seen this in your own community. Well, he sat down to an elderly gentleman with a long white beard and obviously this was the was he had a seat next to him a vacant and this was obviously the oldest person in the synagogue. So during the Torah reading, the guest commented about every person who was honored to call up and read the Torah. And the guest, everything, brand new guest, he doesn't know what's going on in the synagogue, but he says, "Why is the Gabby, the Gabby is the beetle he handles, he's runs the synagogue, the order, who goes comes up to the Torah, who gets honored, who doesn't?" Okay, why is he calling up this person that is not wearing a suit jacket? That's not respectful. Why is he doing that? And then it goes he says, "Well, there's only supposed to be seven aliot, seven honors meant in the Torah. Why is he adding an eighth one and everything's about it?" And then he ratted off another question. And the older gentleman saying next to him, he said, tried to politely get a tell we're not supposed to talk while the Torah is reading, but he's got a question about everyone, why this one, and why that one, and why the young person, not the old person, why this person, why that one. When the service was over, the guest the guest he raced up to the Gabby to the Beetle and he fired away his questions in rapid succession like a machine gun and the Gabby answered impatiently. He says, "Young man, this is the first time I've ever seen you in the synagogue." You know something? I've been gabi here. I've been beetle here for the last 32 years. I know everybody. I know their backgrounds. I know this. We have what's called intoim a a person before his wedding gets called up. A person that just came out of the hospital gets called up. That's to say a blessing. A bar mitzvah boy gets called up. Sometimes it doesn't go to to what you think. You don't know what's going on. Who said you're new here? You know whether this person just came out of the hospital or a person just came back from overseas. When a person comes back from overseas, he flew over flew over the ocean. He has to make a blessing. say thank you to Hashem. He came home safely. He gets called up. So, uh I can't explain to the whole congregation the considerations in the middle of Torah reading. Okay, I'm now calling up this person because of such and such and such or this person because he hasn't had an honor to the Torah in the last eight weeks and it's his turn. No, we don't do this because this would triple the time in the Torah reading. People, okay, they're going to come to the synagogue, but they want to go home and have their Shabbat meal. So, uh, the guest, he was unsatisfied with the gobby's answer. And the guest turned around and leave the synagogue. And as he was leaving, the elderly congregant, the old man, uh, he was getting his hat and walking out of the cloak room. And the inquisitive guest says, "I hope you don't mind asking me, sir, but how old are you?" Well, the old man says, "I'm 95em. Thanks to the Almighty." And he says, the young person that guess, he says, "You still walk to synagogue? That's amazing. Well, what do you attribute your long life to? He says, I don't ask questions how the almighty runs his world. That's it. That's our parable. That's the whole thing. And it's a parable. I don't ask questions how the almighty runs this world. I took this parable from the Gmoran explained before that we don't ask question about things we can't understand. We don't understand. All right. Now even there are things maybe we could understand. We can't expect the person who is leading the services in the synagogue to explain to people what he is doing, why he is doing. He is the representative, the chosen representative. The the rabbi approves him. The whole congregation elected him. The guy's been doing this for 32 years. And if people didn't trust him that he wouldn't do it. And then there the guest comes in. He's a a guest in the world. And he's a guest in the city. in in the in the synagogue first day and he's all got got these questions. So the five holy centinarians the the the holy sages that I mentioned that lived in this century they lived in this century they had one thing they did not waste emotional wear and tear on asking questions why Hashem runs the world. Each one of them had predigious spiritual awareness. Phenomenal. The militarbi he would ask questions to Rav Vosner. He would that would I can't even begin to describe that Ravos's righteousness and his knowledge and what you see but we heard things that he said what he he predicted things that happened exactly and what the Gomorrah says that uh a sage a Torah scholar is preferent to preferable to a prophet because he sees things out of wisdom out of the wisdom of Torah. a prophet, not necessarily his wisdom. He got the word of Hashem. Okay? He's a holy person. He got the word of hem, but is that's what the Gmorrah tells us. The wise man is preferable to a prophet. So, but they didn't ask questions. So, what we're in this world, we're like the guest the first time in the synagogue. The world has been here for a long time, 5,785 years, and still be going. And how old are we? And how old is the universe? The universe has been here much longer than we are. And the creator's been here longer than the universe. Yet we have all types of questions. Why is she doing this? Why is he doing that? We're like the ridiculous guest in the synagogue. What are you asking questions for? Want to understand something? First of all, we can't understand understand of all's considerations. Hashem has a plan for the world. He had a plan for the world. The Gomorra tells the world's going to be 6,000 years. And after 6,000 years, it's going to be the time of Mashiach. Another thousand years. And then then then it's going to be that's it. We're almost at the end of 6,000 years. And that's why said shine your buttons. Shine your buttons. Lov said Mashiach is almost here. And he would say this was his father-in-law, the Morites. His father-in-law would say that shine your buttons means we've done everything right. Mashiach is ready. Just going to shine our buttons. That's all we have to do. All we have to do and there's the words of the say that the reason once I just saw in in that this week's last week's para is commentary on last week parha says the only reason that Messiah is delayed is to give us a chance to learn a little bit more mun get a little bit stronger so that we can appreciate Mashiach more and that's why we talk why we amuna and I said this I was so happy. Wow. I came home I came home from from from synagogue. I said what are you you're at light at Shabbat. I said you know what said is exactly what our group is doing. We're strengthening ourselves in the morning to get ready for mashia. And said this wow marching order like thank you was like a kiss on the cheek from this is everything that's going on now. He saw it. He's always greater than a prophet. Because of his wisdom, he could see deep deep deep into the future. Okay, that's because of his Torah wisdom and his holiness and the fact that he loved every single human being. Fact there was one human being on earth he didn't love. Okay. So with this in mind, we know that uh we shouldn't have any questions and we certainly shouldn't have any criticism and despite the fact uh just accept it and be happy. Accept it and be happy. Let your life be happy with what Hashem is doing and realize that Hashem is a loving father. So you're going to have difficulties. Ask myself why the difficulties. Maybe Hashem wants me learn here wants it. Today I had the most tremendous difficulty and it something a difficulty that usually would take me two minutes to do. It took me two hours to do and I realized why why did I get this difficulty? Uh because I wasn't utilizing the time as it should have been said because you want to waste time laser but to get prime time take it away. You could see, but I could see why he make it do. No, no, no. I know my father in heaven. He loves me. He loves me. This go with this all the time. No matter what happens, no matter what happens, whether you're full of pain, you're full of pain and and you go this one of the doctors came in the hospital and they checking up the doctor would take uh the hematologist and the special blood test that they want to do for me and uh they said, "Oh, they told me they said that that the guy lying in his bed, he smiles all the time." I said, "Who are they talking about?" Me. Oh, you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Why not? He says, "What makes you smile all the time?" I said, "Because I got a great father." He says, "Well, I got a great father, too, but I don't smile all the time." Yeah, but your father doesn't create the world. My father's king of the world. My father doing everything. So, it means if he's got me in here with the pain I'm going through, okay, that's good. Doesn't matter. You can make be in pain, but don't be unhappy about it. Okay, but it hurts. It hurts. Good. It hurts. It's a better better. So, so what? What's so good about being a hurt? I'll tell you what's great about being hurt that I feel the hurt and not my wife and not my grandchildren, not my great-grandchild, but Hashem Hashem handled it. That this is great. That that's fantastic. Thank you, Hashem. Thank you, Hashem. Right? So when we know that Hashem is first and he's last and he's a creator who precedes creation as long after creation it's a long life because it gives us peace of mind could breathe deeply just after you tell yourself that Hashem is first and last before creation after creation and take a deep breath and I promise you try it your bre your beer than it was before if you're breathing shallow and you do this now you could take Take a deep breath. It's great for breathing. This is a body and soul. So, uh this is when we embed this in our hearts. Then get ready for long life. Get ready to dance at the weddings of your great grandchildren because that is going to be with Hashem's loving grace. And look at every one of you. That's right. Okay. Remember that Elishva stay healthy. Tell Guth to stay healthy because he can dance at Leo's grandchildren. All right. Bashem. Oh, he said but they they just got married. They don't have kids yet. I don't care. And grandchildren and then like I said to cousin every one of you, every one of you poem. So when we have this fourth principle of ma internalized it's like eternal life because if we know that Hashem is conducive for long lifespan then uh we could we'd really be happy that we're going to get the max. We can't ask for more than the max, not more than 120 years. We had in on in our neighborhood, we had a Russian immigrant. His name was Ysef Schmil. He came from Russia. He's originally from Poland, from Warsaw, but he fled the Nazis and he went to Russia. And from Russia and after Parisa in 1991, he came to Israel. Well, he was a comedian in the Yiddish theater in Warsaw. He was so funny. And I used to have him over my my house for for Yamovi and this and that something very serious holiday on and he would make jokes and he joke all the time everybody everyone laughed at him. Okay. So uh I once told him in Yiddish this is Yiddish expression said Yseph he was already 98. He died at 103 is another example 103. He was 98 and he came to my to my house for uh one of the holidays and it should be the solemn holiday. He's making jokes, pantomining the table and my family's cracking up and the guests cracked. Everybody found forgot about the the holiness of the holiday and it was a it was comic. But I think maybe Hashem I think the angels that came down our table they were laughing too. Okay. So I said to Yseph, I said Yseph, I told him in Yiddish, I said, "You should be healthy at 120." He says, "Ler, why are you cursing me?" I said, "Cursing? I'm blessing you." He says, "No, you want me to die on my birthday? Tell me that I should be h and healthy until 120 in 3 weeks." 120? No, I don't want to die on my birthday. Have happy birthday. Okay, so I remember that. But really a profound joke that nobody's going to go past 120. Moses didn't make Moses died on his 120th birthday. Make it to 120. Okay. So, well, everybody's got a blessing. Make it to 120. I had one thing. We should make it to 120 or Messiah, whichever comes last. So, the Gomorrah tells us eventually the world as we know it will cease to exist. But Hashem, he's here forever. And Hashem will be around when nothing else is. So afra that when a person clings to the divine presence to the even if he or she dies an early death and especially if they die a martyr's death they merit eternal life that's eternal life in the next world as the Torah says for posterity and those of you who cling to Hashem are still alive today when we look at the long term with life life is the soul that's the soul Not the body. The body's here finite. Even if the body does make it to 120, that's still finite. But the soul forever and forever. And that's the great news. So when a person knows that Hashem is first and Hashem is last and clings to Hashem, just like Hashem is here forever, you're clinging to Hashem, you're going to be here forever, too. So we all merit long life in this world in the next. Amen. [Music] Hey. [Music]