Growing Through Challenges - Rabbi Moshe Weinberger Shlita

like to welcome everyone to tonight's push speak on growing through challenges sponsoring or email IST.com tonight's share sponsored by Mendy Pomerance and tonight's share sponsor of Josh Melman she for coming back to my cover at the corner of Wineburgger for tonight's discussion. Always a privilege to be part of the the concept that Shir brought into Claw Israel. The summer is a pause. We're fond of saying over points out that in par there's no and there's no fay. No till you get finish the whole par with bum and there's no and there's no fay. So what's the significance of that? So because what was the difference between and bum? How could it be that Mishra who spoke to it was aes spoke to was the biggest the answer is that by you find that when he heard a parish in the he reflected upon it that's the that's the fa so when he processed he said who did I just speak to him I just spoke to the what did he tell me and he processed it and it became part of him and that's why he stayed in he just spoke to the he spoke to the bum never stopped to think life to him was a run-on sentence no periods no commas no exclamation mark how else can you explain that someone's should begin to talk to him and he should answer him. What would happen if it happened to you? So I used to give a marshall, you're in your car and your car starts talking to you, that Marshall's bottle already cuz the car's talk. So that that marshall's gone. But but but the idea that just to sit there in the you don't you don't think what's going on? How could this be happening? What's what's symbolic in this? So summer is the s on life. Summer is even if one is still working and he's still in the city there's a pause there's a chill and that's a time to reflect on inanim you don't have time to think about all year I look through the topics of people don't think about these things a whole year summer comes you're able to be in life and in those things that will certainly give us thank Thank you. Tonight's topic is growing through challenges. I'd like to first talk about growing. Growing everything almost in the world besides inanimate object grows. Plants grow, animals grow, people grow. Rabbi made it like that for a reason. Rabbi wants us to grow. Why is a child born small? You know, in the times of the mul, a child wasn't born small. Child was born full-sized. It was a It was a remarkable world. You threw down a few seeds, things grow. You have beautiful weather every single day. It was a remarkable world before the marble. Hashem changed it. Now children are small. You need to work to make the plants grow, the tua to grow. What changed? What was it that changed? In the times of the Mabel, they had no concept of growth. The way they were, that's the way they stayed. And that's what led them to just fill all their base desires. There was no mus of growing, no mus attaining a higher level in life. And therefore, they wound up doing nothing with their time. So, Hashem said, you know, it's too much time. 900 years is too long. How about we cut it down so that a person feels he's in a rush to accomplish the idea that a person has to grow and want to grow. Some of us when we get older we begin to plateau. What does that mean? Rashi learns leis means that when the nights begin to get larger as summer tilts into autumn one should use those extra time at night since he's not working presumably to learn the lisf someone doesn't add on time to learning when nighttime comes and he's not busy with his mundane affairs y is like he doesn't deserve to be here learns that a person who comes to a point in life and he's not growing and he's not trying to add onto his life he has no reason to be in this world the reason a person is in this world is to grow but don't understand that but we we understand we want a child from youth the brings a fascinating medish the medish says that was sitting by the higuml party ofu and he said oh that child he's so small I can crush him with a thumb now we know was a giant what was that he saw init that made him say I can crush him with a thumb can crush anyone with a thumb so the madesh that the first child that was born small was the first child that was born small was yet. Why? So Yitzk should grow up relying on his parents. A person that's born full size doesn't rely on his parents. Takes care of his own needs. There were no parents till then worthy of relying on. Why should a child grow up relying on his parents as a Russian? But Aramino the Tadic So had to grow up relying on his father for his daily life for normal life. So rely on his father for everything else. But it's more than that. Yets had to have the power of growth and that power of growth makes a yid perfect makes it showing. The rabbi of gifasal used to say over we find a big difference between growing in cottonos and growing in godlas. Child comes to yeshiva the first day in school. It's so exciting. The next thing you know he gets his olive based. There's a partyish party. Mishnayas party. Gamorra party. And then what? No more parties. Why isn't there a tyus party, a Rajba party, a Rambam party, an ADA parties? When a child begins to walk, you see the accomplishment. A person has to grow every day. The mo of person has to grow every day. Just you don't see it. That's part of the challenge. The challenge is to grow. Not just to grow through challenges. The challenge is to always want to grow. Why is it? Because there always has to be a challenge. If you don't have a challenge, you won't grow. Person comes to the Olympics. He's a high jump expert. So they take the bar and they put it at six feet. He jumps over. Then they raise the bar and he has to jump higher. And that's what happens after you conquer one victory in life sends another challenge. It's not the same maybe that you had for a trade for candy bar when you're young is not the same later. makes he saw for each individual person and says go ahead take the challenge was a fellow was very wealthy gave taka did everything he should and then he lost his fortune loyal lenu we always had this question by me and the family is it better not to have always or to have and then lose it at least you had it for a time or maybe no the pain must be insurmountable so seek Briska and he said, "What happened?" I was a good man. I did my money. I supposed to do and he told him as follows. A person goes to high school. He said in his lion, we just apply it. Person goes to high school in ninth grade learns algebra. 10th grade doesn't learn algebra anymore. He passed the algebra test. So now learns geometry. You passed the test of Ashirus. You passed. Now you need a new test in life. And the new test life is anas. The new test life is not having it. A person has to have a desire to grow because every minute that we're on this world, we need to accomplish something. And even if we didn't do anything more the second day than the first day, but the fact that we were able to be consistent and not let ourselves get distracted, that's growth. The mass tells us that the whole world is just one big rich poor sha everything's a test person looks at that like life he can handle things much better I want to talk about a few nishness in particular I want to start off with external nyinness not personal the world we live is an assign of oops it's okay in says I don't like what you're saying what we say you said it's Why do you keep We're walking around decrepid, bowed from serving Hashem. No one's us. No one appreciates us. The world looks at us like we're some type of low person. We should give praise to the No, I say look those who are who look how they got built up. They escaped. Hashem didn't do anything to them. Wow. What a world. Sound familiar? Sound familiar? Then people say to each other, "No, no, no, no, no. It's not right. What we see with our eyes is not what's really true. A person has such a behuno that the nan of an outside world and what it's trying to sell us should not appeal to us. I was once took my children on a trip. Went to Liberty Science Center. Liberty Science Center. I know the machines on the first name already. But the Liberty Science Center and I saw over there they had a big screen was a huge schwartza and you had to go into a room and try to shoot a basketball over his head. Gavaldic. My children were so excited. Who knows which professional player is in there. Perhaps I too would like to take a shot against this great player. Children come out, they're laughing. Why are they laughing? There was no basketball player. There was no basket balls, nothing. You put on a glove, you put your hand up and down and outside of the screen, it showed as if you were shooting. Well, there's really nobody there and you still got it in the basket. Half of a fella. That's the world. The world's virtual reality. Whose audience? And on those days that we're able to strengthen ourselves and happiness smile is growth. Somebody once told me I should always speak what I'm passionate about. So I want to share something with you. I know I saw myself passionate about it but I want to read you what the says and you think he was saying it today. It says that a kadesh sometimes sends a nisher and that novi can makeisim maybe he'll make the sun stop he'll turn a frog into a person he'll make mountains into dust and you can't be says why did he give him this power to test. Now, here's what he wants. Those who against Hashem have not only they make miracles, but they actually have all the luxuries in the world. When he wants to test and he says this is going to be at the end of time. This is going to be the test. He's testing us. Do we have that real love forem? The test is going to be that those who do not follow the path of tremendous and it's all this says going to happen in our generation. Is it happening today? We're the Osnis brew. This room is an osnidru. You know when you go to a foreign nation, you can go to United States embassy and you're not in that nation. You're in the United States embassy. Every shul every base medish is the embassy of barak in this world. And those are the brewer is there's the via there you see things clearly that rabbi bald when he picked out this topic didn't realize how appropriate it is for this week's parasa benar what was going on install should we pause a second summer pause what was happening The ban may nidian were unleashed unleashed on Israel. Somehow their ts overtook them. And not only were they being miser on a huge scale, but they were actually serving a desolar and said, "If you want to live with me, you got to bow down to this." And they did. And there was a mu and 24,000 people are dying. and and and it's it's it's chaos. It's confusion. Zimbo, do you know who Zimri Ben Solo was? And Maj says he was from the people that went out of and Ben Solo comes along and he's a Nazi he's and he comes over to this lady and says live with me. She says my father's bo and he said I should only live with my I should go with my I'm not going with you. You're not enough. He says I'm equal to and then he does the whole Mish and I are not crying it's chaos and he says he knows one thing says in the someone lives with a ga in public can bite he goes over to Misha and says is that true and Misha says yes go do it and he's to fake like he's one of them and he killed him. That's that's called in tells we used to call it the hero hadash clite a clite and what's right and what's wrong even though the whole world around you doesn't seem to say that and that's a challenge. It's not only with shim, it's also people that sometimes water water down yiddish kite and suddenly it's not pure anymore. It's all different types of thoughts about materialism and other distractions that take away from the godless of being a Ben, the godless of being an and one has to have a behus, not to get swayed by those outside forces that we live to stay in the world of Osnibid and to see things in Osnibid light. Today's tamas kamas and tals was a very very big day is the day that the city of tels took out their men was taken out they were killed by the Nazisman and in tells we used to say and I was a young boy and I didn't really understand what was going on I didn't relate to tells and more to bells than tells But the reba told us once that kamas was just an example every city really should have its day. What was Thomas and tells? They took out the tells of and the Nazi said to him, "Where's your God?" And with the tremendous gavor that tells in its he turned around and he said, "I not just my god, he's yours, too. The whole world's going to know about it." Then they slaughtered the men. on Zionel. They went and they slaughtered the ladies. One of the Rebbitsons went over to the Nazi and bribed him. Please kill my children first cuz she wanted to make sure they have poorest Israel and closed their eyes and say goodbye to them. And then they were killed out too. That should be the end of the story of Telza. You should never heard of Tela again. Finished. What happened? two people rebal M cats were here in America and they could have given up and they should have said we don't know what's going on and for years they didn't know what happened and they went and they made yeshiva and they made yeshiva built in the foundations of tels then rebel is sitting one day he's writing a smoo and then he hears about what happened to his wife and children and what happened to a mutal's wife and his 10 children and in the letter he writes as he's smooing you would think how is it possible for me to continue writing do I have no heresim do I have no emotions he says no the has to be greater than the that's called being that's called not losing oneself before we talk about growing weed know not to fall apart when something doesn't go our Hey, what did he do wrong? 100 years of suffering with a love on them with an asov and he's 100 years old and he wants a little sha. What's wrong? The rebuck. Shva doesn't depend on your situation in life. You don't look for shva. Shva is in your mind. A person has to learn to live in the eye of the storm. I saw nift Yash. Rabbi Yashiv's house was was losing electric power. Something was wrong with electricity. So he had an electrician in sheir that went to his shear. His grandson said, "I'll get the electrician to do it." He says he's not going to let me pay him. So he went to electricity. You have to let my grandfather pay you. Every day said, "How much do I owe him?" Cuz it says in the you're not allowed to leave the wages of a worker overnight. Okay? And the electrician told him, "When I finish the job, I'll give you an invoice." Fine. The day that he finished Thursday will be Yash's daughter was Nifa. So he calls in his grandson and says before the Leva I need to pay the electrician because even though he's in on that only part you for mitzvah I say you still have to admit his license say you can't let he goes to electrician said my grandfather wants the bill he says bill his daughter died don't talk to money about me he goes back to bash says we're not going to Levia till I pay the electrician Talk about gurus. Talk about being talk about not losing oneself. Ambas every little thing. I still remember when I was in Chicago tells they didn't have like from a container. Somebody went in the morning and they they milked the cow and by the end of the week it was all cream. Wasn't we couldn't even call it milk unless you wanted. I remember sitting in the dining room and I wanted a coffee and there was a picture and I wanted so much that coffee and I poured the coffee and it was cream and I got upset and I smashed the picture down on the thing and the cream shot up to the ceiling just as my rasha walked in. I got angry because it was cream. No ketchup. We have bigness. You do health the bigness can't lose ourselves. I want to read you over a medish. I'm going to elaborate a little bit on the medish. The medish explains three understandings of why hem gives it and we're all sadik. The flax merchant when he has he goes and he bangs on it cuz when he bangs on it it gets better. So the bangs on the tadic said it's like somebody has barrels. He bangs on the barrels to see which barrel is the strongest. And there's a third mushel. A person has two two oxen and he needs to put a load on one of the oxen and he goes ahead and puts on the one that's stronger. Hashem three Mich one about the barrel to prove what's stronger. One about the flax to make it stronger. One about the pur because that one can carry the load. one reads this medish and he says this is not just three micham there are three different reasons why Hashem gives nus let's talk about the barrel hashem gives an so the world can see how someone is and maybe he himself should also see how strong the word nan comes from the word n it's like a flag the nian raises a person that everyone could be what a Yid can be, what a person can be, what a person could take a vinu the world should see without a doubt he deserves to be the auda was having a with him against the rabbim and he said if I'm right the water should flow backwards and the water flow backwards. Didn't agree with him. This tree should be uprooted. The tree was uprooted. Did not agree with him. Then he said the walls of the base me should come down. They started coming down. R Yeshua got up and said no. And they stayed on his land. Finally said if I'm right, let a bas come out from Shmayim. And Abasco came out from Shmayim. Allah is like Reza all over. Almighty Yeshua got up and said, And they put rebel in one of the very sad stories in Claus. What's going on? Why is Hashem listening to Rebel? Why were the walls coming down? Why was the water flowing backwards? If it's not right, it's not right. Have to apologize. I should do it. It was a test to see if it was a test. It was a test of their Hashem wanted to see and wanted them to see if it's possible for them to be able to go against all these because it says Hashem wants to show us who we are. We sometimes don't know our own and the world has to see them too. Sometimes we have an opportunity, we have a nayan in our house and our children are watching us and how we act by that nan can make all the difference and how children will view life. But the second is that makes us stronger because when we have to harbor our when we have to pull back our when we have to pull our amun out that makes us stronger and perhaps we can never become who we could become if we don't have those nishas. Raika is with his wife very very poor and Elon Novi knocks on the door says my wife just gave birth I need straw and Raba turns around to his wife and says ah see someone's poorer than us does even have straw and that's the story later on Kea became rich and he bought his wife show one of the master kasha alo Oh, no. You want to make Rabaka feel good? Give him a house. Give him some furniture. You there already, Elio? You're going to make Rabika feel good by showing someone has less than him? I have a better idea. Give him a house that he never would have become rabbaka. He never would have become rabbaka that got that from the rebate gift to set over the rash was very rich. What's rich in those days? He had a table. He had this ridicul from still in Russia. So he had a table that the swaram on the other end he had a crank that the table could turn the swarm to him. He shouldn't have to get up. Rash the rich and rich of his time and he walked and he's working on a tyus and the nitiv walks in and he asked the nitiv what's shat and tyus and the says there's an extra v in the tus extrav says how can I figure that out says because you learn you learn with comfort I learn I suffer with myra There was a fellow was sick. He was sick in and out of yeshiva. In and out, in and out. And someone asked him, "How does he keep his?" And he said, "You know, when you play cards, you have to play with the cards that you get. You play scrabble. You can't play scrabble with the with the letters that you get. You have to play life with the deck that Hashem gives you. Hashem knows exactly what you need, when you need it, how you need it, and the tools to get where you want to go. And you have to go. That's the second. The third is sometimes people suffer to save the world. is the reason why everyone has food. He just has one little amount of buxer from one arabas. Sometimes we know why someone suffers but his suffering saves the world from who knows how much sus and that's the two porus. So there's banging to show, banging to improve and then who can carry the load. That's all wonderful. But now and parcel of DNA. An example means a person giving everything up and move. How many people you know that did that? I have a friend of mine. You might have heard of him. His name is Zev. Zev Levka. Good old days. Zev Lev. Zevle. Zevle was a r in Miami Beach, North Miami Beach. Beautiful house, a swimming pool. I was there once for sukusam adored him not beautiful. He was a young Israel and they felt he didn't love enough. He wasn't didn't have a stroll. He never was there. So for his 10th anniversary in the shore, they bought him and his wife tickets. They farmed out his children go become an old city. He put on his children every day from his apartment. Walked down to the kaisel. Came back to North Miami Beach. Goodbye. And he went to live on Mosha Matiso which was then nothing more than a dirt road without any named streets. How did he give that all up? How do you give that all up? Ramavina was able to do it. You could do it, too. How many people left the comforts of Europe and traveled over dangerous seas to go to Israel? How much do we love? How much do we think about? How many times do we say there's a war of Ramino fights against four powerful kings and years later the Makabim fight against an entire Greek army outnumbered outmaneuvered stronger than they are. Where'd it come from? that nerve where the says that withro that if we would get up and fight we could have been abolished the gaz where does that power to fight come from from au there's a hunger comes to par and mishenu tells jab it's no good par andem says ma you're not like the others They never had any thoughts against anything he did. Doesn't complain. Doesn't complain. Hashem says go to a hunger and he has to go around to the moral civilization of the world. He doesn't complain. Where do yen get the to complain? Where does the it get the power that when things aren't good? Many of us sitting here, our children or grandchildren are people that went through World War II and their our parents came and my parents came and came here and they founded Yeshivas and Bidim and they held on to that moon in Yiddish. Never did I hear my parents complain ever. They were sad. They said over the stories. They never said I don't understand. No cautious. There's no cautious. Where does that come from? That comes from then the becomes us. You want to know who he is? Learn learn braces. What about says it doesn't say Rashi says why? Because the ashes of are always in front of Rabbi. There is no such thing as ashes of never got burnt. It was an aisle. Never got burnt. It never got burned. What's that? So he learned because whatever he did to the aisle was like he did to so the aisle got burnt. like that every who died up is and those yidden that when they went to the gas chambers they were ding and they were dancing and they were singing and they sang on immen and they danced and saying where did it come from came from Ramino's arcade means and when we think about it that we have the it says that was able to go through Sara was not S heard about it she was na but S we know is greater than Ara in a certain so why was S not able to handle it so says it wasn't ision and gives you he gives you the to handle the really really what it all boils down to is that everything does is for good and when we have that every we have I saw in says no one should ever say he's ins I'm going through a hard time I'm going through an that's what it is going through a is another limma too today we have children says it one way I like to say it a different way says like this it says says and one is for your father, one bro is for the son. What's going on? Sometimes a person's a big sadic. He has he had a hard life. Maybe he wants to make sure his son doesn't have it so hard. He doesn't want to be mit on his son. He doesn't want his son to have difficulty. So he's make on his sons even in even even in things that are he's easy on them wasn't like that you raised your son totally giving him over to me. Today we have an interesting crisis about people getting into yeshivas and sometimes we have children and we want them to get into yeshiva and it might not be the best yeshiva for them but there's pride and there's ego and there's otherness that we want them to go to a certain yeshiva but if you want to give your child over to the rai your ego and self-interest cannot play a role in raising your child. Ak means I'm able to give over my son. I went to tells I was 12 years old. I was about the size of that table. I'm not much bigger now, but that's how big I was then. Why? I lived in Sheep's He said Bay. There's no tire in Sheep at Bay really. It's pretty empty. And my parents said I have to go. Then I got a so I thought I'm great and my parents are great. Then my roommate was from Karacas and his parents had sent him in eight years old to a boarding school in the he came to tells today's he was my roommate. So think about it. I tell if I tell people I went to tell I'm 12 years old. They can't believe it. But eight years old to send your son away. Someone's not over. He lived in Australia. His wife gets up in the middle of the night and she's crying. So why are you crying? I'm going to have to send my boy away to yeshiva. So he's one year old. Hold on. Relax. Relax. He's one year old. You go away. Don't cry yet. So mean to give away your child for Tyra. That's a So we went through a lot of them now. And now so so where's the it's all about we come back to it's all about we have to believe whatever Hashem does is now it's easy to talk about if there's somebody else's but when it's yours it's like overwhelming people have she people don't understand I have such a wonderful daughter I have such a wonderful son and I have an assignience So what are you supposed to do? Wants to hear your voice. They're standing by the andem gives them an running after them for one reason. He wants to hear the nobody else can heal him besides and a year has a different den. Somebody's sick. Let's talk about being sick for a minute. So I have a physical ailment to difference. I once had a my family someone came and told me who's head of he said I want you to know a yid is not a statistic. What a line. A year is not a statistic. There's a fellow was very very ill and the doctors were having a meeting. They wanted to pull the plug. It's enough shanuki suffered. Goo ter. So there's one from a doctor. He didn't want them to pull the plug. So they're having a meeting of doctors. He says I want you each to tell me on a one to 10 what is your quality of life? So he asked who Dr. Dr. So and so he said I'll tell you what my children don't speak to me six how about you says I have a wife she's a shrew you know what shrew is shrew so my life's a four says let's go ask Mark's the sick boy go to Mark pipes what's your quality of life quality of life 10. 10. I get up in the morning and I can say, "My daddy, my life's a 10." How's that for looking at my Sometimes the shinyness are so we don't really understand it all. There was one lady, one lady. She was sick in the hospital for a long time in a coma. One day the doctor came, nobody's looking. He pulled the plug and she came to him in a dream. Said why' you do that? Another few hours I would have had my kaporish. Another few hours I would have had my capor. Do we know why people go through ninus? Do we understand how for our benefit? Sometimes all we have to do is hang on points out something unbelievable. They complained in m there was no water. Later on we see they got to alim a lima and over there there was water beautiful waters and mayonas how far is it from morma nothing it's a spot small distance sometimes you think the science and you don't realize that the right around the corner if you just hang in there with yamuna there's going to become a gaval of Yeshua when it comes the are nice and do we then doubt that we have anything less than we really need my favorite grocery store and I don't mean to make an advertisement is middleman's grocery I asked what's your slogan if we don't have it you don't need it that's mayick if you don't have it you don't need it if you don't have You don't need if Hashem didn't give it to you, you don't need it. Life is a middleman's grocery. You don't have you don't need. One time I was driving by was a pouring rain and I picked him up. He said, "Oh, you picked me up. You just drove by." And then I told him, and he liked it. I told him, "If I wouldn't have picked you up, it would have also been practice, but you never would have appreciated it. If you don't get picked up, it's also practice. Not every time you miss the plane is the plane going to crash. Not every time. Sometimes the plane will just go out without you. And then you have to figure out why you're there put on this world and every time something happens is a possibility for growth. But I want to tell you one more thing. We have to make our own challenges. It's not just we have an assign, we have a problem, we're going to grow, we're going to show who we are. Hashem wants their own challenges. I had a friend of mine, an elder in his 50s. He decided you know he never had a chance to learn Ian took a ba bash gamur sliced it in half made two volumes above a basher and this is baabasher and he went to sheer with the 17 year olds for four years he made his own challenge you learned that only once day only once not twice why not pesak the char you We used to have a and we had a thing you had to do a day. Do you know a person can go a whole day without doing? You know, challenge yourself. You don't have to wait for the challenge yourself. You want to grow. Challenge yourself. Make a mafi. Somebody gets sick, you make a maxim. We're not going to speak lash from 2 to 3. People said to pick from 2 to 3 in the morning. No, you got to pick from 2 to 3 in the afternoon. make a maximum fee on your own. If you really want to grow, we go back to the beginning. We need to grow. That's what we're here for. You don't have to wait for a tragic mess. You can make your own, if you will. But where's the desire to grow? Every day of life is growth and precious. Good enough. [Music] >> Okay. Good night. >> Yeah. give bigger for the very inspiring Joshua is challenging the to sponsor the shum. We go through great expense to bring this to the call 718851-8651 or email.com to Mandy Pomerance for sponsoring tonight's shared wineberman and family for sponsoring tonight's shares.