Hoshana Rabbah: Moses - 120 Years Young, A Lifetime of Achievement - Rabbi Reuven Lauffer

[Music] what it says but yo Malian they made the cinchona Nike is moisture I've been on the last day of his life for claims to cloudless all these 120 years old good morning sir doctor you came along with days says shame Tom would lay my IOU well what's the need for the word I own today could just say I'm 120 years old says the Guevara I a Malloy yum Irish noise i the boy Joe Beimel is teaching clownish all that the day that he died is also the day that he was born and he completely filled his days and his years says the Gemara love letter made come to teach you shy college ball from a stationary same shop Siddiq him young the herbal McCoy dish - holy Sh it's a deacon when they live here in this world so Kaddish Bosco completes their time here in this world deceived because it says aspire Burt Hummel Erick Richburg who said that I'll fill up your days says a for Cirque low hollow good tasteful avoid well sure I been who tells the Jewish people that he can no longer take them out bring them back asuka Bora milah Tate's Villa boy what exactly is my sure been teaching us that he can't bring us out and take us in he label it tasteful avoid Manish it can't be that it's talking about being able to leave the Jewish people force it because it says worship they may invest in Shana but why say like nos never says about your baby was Ireland 20 years old but nevertheless he never lost his strength since the Guevarra more than that it says or perceived and it's written the posit says they out moistured that at least my fellow hana boys the boys show available before he dies goes fraud my am ugly smile until honda height which is where he's got to be buried it says the Gemara the tonya stem estate Mallory's Thank You Sean there were twelve steps to go up or possibly shipoopi after us make sure I bagel let up to the top without having to step up the stairs he was full of lega he was full of strength or my rabbi shmuel Don asked money on our abuse on the taste fell avoid means but every turret that he wasn't able to teach something returned anymore Milani Cheney staff will they know Shia Kozma but a Kurdish both were closed off the gates of cost more to it there are few interpretations what that means the Ray MS from Gore says that I college vocal took away moisture Bain is an ability to teach Torah to the people not the boy sure wasn't as wise as he used to be not the moisture didn't know as much as he used to know but rather his ability to be able to transmit Torah to the Jewish people was taken away from him so maybe the first lesson I'll be here is a wisdom can't be taken for granted I saw a quote once many years ago I don't remember who was attributable to but it said that age doesn't bring the age doesn't always bring wisdom sometimes age comes along which means that wisdom is something that we have to aspire towards wisdom is something that we have to want to attain and it's not something that we're going to receive simply we live here in this world year after year after year that all of a sudden is just going to be given to us Absaroka Cohen from Lin points out a fascinating thing about human beings says one of the differences between human beings in the animal world is that the animal world normally when it's left to its own devices doesn't become fat which is probably not the best part for me to be telling you but in all events what animals do when they're hungry they eat whatever they need to eat and then they stop eating once they once I've finished once they're satisfied they stop eating humans on the other hand have the most incredible capacity to keep stuffing themselves they may just eaten the most enormous yontiff Sudha they may be lying comatose on the sofa and yet when that chocolate pie comes out somehow or other they find inside of themselves the ability to be able to get up and take a piece since upside of little glint where does it come from this desire for a little bit more this desire to drive ourselves even though we don't want to do it even though we don't need it even though we're not really interested in it to get up and to take another piece of cake it's not just cake we as a human race we're driven whether it's a piece of cake whether it's another academic degree whether it's another trip another experience we're always looking for something else to do it's fascinating give a cow a pile of hay and all the cow will do it's start to eat it it won't look at the cow next door to see how much hay that cows got it won't look at the cow next door to see what color their hay is or how crunchy their hair is they just begin to eat and they're happy with what they've got it's like a little in explain says there's something absolutely fundamental over here something which is unique to the human race that touches on the very the very foundations of who we are a human being has an hashanah and a neshama has to be attacked it has to be it has to be connected to something which is eternal and Hashanah needs to never be satiated and a shaman leads to yearn for law that's its natural state of being a prosecutor Hillard says some Aloha - e come on acaba sorry my soul longs for you my flesh yearns for you will always strive for war we must always strive for more that's what I polish 12 the ones from us it's about so extraordinary idea nothing in this physical world would ever satisfy us on a deep and internal level because at source were spiritual beings the plastic from a couple of weeks ago Pasha begins bashes but Yale air but Yale equation very simple my show goes the metric Tantalus says amy of Colossians Valley left a litter taco that whenever the word bailiff is used it's always referring to some kind of rebuke and if you take a look at the beginning of the partial passes by NF you don't see anything at all but yeah an equation where is the total ask where is the rebuke that my show Boehner was giving the marriage is teaching us about unbelievable idea so Yale equation he's not rebuking the people verbally orally he's not telling the matter thing this is the last day of my show Bella's life my show been 120 years old but yay laughs my shisha what's he doing he's going to find another Mitzvah to do that's all he's interested in he's living the last moments of his life and all he wants is to be able to fulfill another Bitzer all he wants his cell am self to connect to our college baku and it even close the way that he was up until now there's no greater rebuke than that there's no greater tribute than that for us who know had a waste our time expertly to watch moisture available on the last day of his life running to do another mr. naka mitzvah that's the ultimate Takako a very oaky talk says no startling idea says in this world that which a person does not own is his greatest asset because what we lack in Dells us with the greatest possible potential the potential for aspiration for yearning to turn what we don't own into our own Roth Pam used to say what is a difference between an expeditious person from a hasty person we taught that when it comes to doing mitzvahs we have to be Zuri's we have to run rush to do mitzvahs we have to try to grab them as much as we can as soon as we can what's the difference between Azura's and a ball somebody who just does things without really thinking about it and he explains that as or is somebody who thinks somebody who prepares before he acts the other person he goes out he does things mindlessly he's rash she does it with impatience Jesus means that it's well thought out our intentions are correct our devotion to our shape is correct in our hearts in our minds in our souls that's what we have to aspire towards to run to rush like Glacier Bay them to fulfill as many mitzvahs as we can to think to plan to work out how we're going to get closer to Usher I came across most extraordinary story everybody over here is probably familiar with the name Howard Schultz our child to see odor of Starbucks it's Jewish Howard Schultz actually had a relationship with rep Lawson C Finkel the late Russia Shiva in the mirror doesn't see Finkel his mysterious nephesh his ability to sacrifice his entire being in order to let Claudia Shaw grow closer to our shame was legendary Howard Schultz came and met him once together with some other people it was a very moving experience the next time he was in Israel he came back and he went to visit that doesn't see again in private the only people that were there was wroth Lawson see and Howard Schultz and the person who looked after elastance weed and took care of his calendar for him at the meeting after they'd finished speaking Howard Schultz took out a checkbook signed his name on the first check in the book tore it off and gave it up nice and see and he sets in here rabbi fill it out for whatever you want any figure at the time that this was happening the monthly budgets in the beer was two million dollars two billion dollars per month and a dozen see who was suffering from the most terrible disease it was his responsibility he took on the entire responsibility the financial burden of running the issue and this blank cheque he's sitting in front of him waiting to be filled in with any figure that he wants to ride and a doesn't see looked at Howard Schultz and he said to him I can do whatever I want with this cheque and how actual says that's right grabbing whatever you want and the person to think all filled out the cheque for $1,200 and he gave it back to Howard Schultz and he said take this cheque to the store across the eeschema and tell them that I sent you to buy a pair of to film and then put them on every day that's what you can do for me instead of looking at Howard Schultz and saying what can I get out of him but nothin C looked at him and said what can I do they as to take the wisdom of a college bar who and to use it to use it for the benefit of others this is a nice incredible idea of resourceful and to the founder of the muscle movement used to say that a person can possess broad knowledge in Talmud they could be a font of deep penetrating analysis and yet they're not called a Talmud cause of they're not called a Talmud scholar because if he doesn't allow his wisdom the Torah to refine his midders and to restructure his personality that he's nothing more listen to his words he's nothing more than an armor orit's who happens to know how to learn and I'm artisan is an ignoramus he's nothing more than an ignoramus who knows how to learned in the Jewish world of scholarship being called an AMA orit's so what are the worst things that you could say to somebody ask the Schleck oddish where does this phrase Emirates where is it originating from what does it mean um Haaretz literally means a nation of the land and explains a strong coverage and Emirates is somebody who looks at the RS he looks at the land and it being his home he belongs to the UM of the world the nation of the world the more that we can understand and internalize that were only here temporarily then the less chance there is it will become and I Moritz it's a shame should it's going to be simple siren a Vienna sniper shoots in the key in aware of you everything I wish it was the wrong so once a very wealthy but very unlearning man board cos and Tyra and going against the trends he didn't give it to revered nurse and I be shoots as a gift for the Torah learning the Torah scholarship there are Vienna saliva should tan he kept it for himself so be honest I wish it's half jokingly he said that this wealthy man he was a real tonic he's a Hassan he's that happened he hasn't seen his color for the entire year and I my aura to somebody who imagines that this physical world that we live in this is it this what this is what it's all about there's another phrase which is used the opposite in a certain way of a nama Oryx is a ban or llama bomb what does a bin or llama about what does that mean someone who recognizes that the true place is not here in this physical world it's in the world the government we're traveling through he's a been a lot my body's a son of the world to come because he understands that being over here is something which is temporary it's a very famous story of a wealthy businessman that came through raden to speak with the hoff it's hired and he sat in the cupboards hangs home which was had nothing in it there weren't even chairs in the puppet science home there were benches because I thought that I met a freshman that you can sit more people down on a bench than you can on a on a chair on chairs so it was a it was it was a better idea to have benches and whilst he was speaking with the cop it's time he looked around and he couldn't believe that there was just nothing so he said to the Hoff it's time where are your things where are your possessions at the forfeits hang on to them he says where are yours and the businessman said I'm just I'm passing through and just traveling over you and the sockets kind of looked in him he said so am i if we understand that if we internalize that we attach ourselves to something which is far far greater but this physical world that we live in which means we have an obligation we have an obligation to try to understand ourselves and to try to understand the others around us as well the once saw a description of hudner with his great mind one of the greatest thinkers in the previous generation the hoodlums great mind was able to understand the heart of another of some of rifles with his great heart was able to understand the mind of another that's what we need to aspire towards to understand in order to be able to help others there's a tremendous Talmud scholar somebody called the riccati Ruffman a theory cannot II just hear this incredible thing in the introduction to his safer which is the most astonishing work the riccati comes to explain how he wrote the safer listen to this he writes how he became this incredible town with awesome this incredible scholar and he writes about himself that he loved Torah that he was born with a weak mind gas has a thyroid that's a lotion that he uses he couldn't remember things he could couldn't pick up concepts so he dumped a lot to a cottage brothel that I should help him and he fasted a lot that I cottage boxer should open up his heart open up his mind to the wonders of tyrant one day whilst he was fasting for himself one of his fast days and he was dabbling so hard and he was completely exhausted and he fell asleep in the vase of medrash and in his dream somebody came to him and gave him a bottle of water and the man woke him up in the dream and he told him to drink from the water and before he could finish drinking from the water the man disappeared Akhenaten says it he woke company went back to his studies and all of a sudden he began to hear and understand things that he never understood before his mind became sharp all of the something to pick up things that haven't been able to pick up before he became like a new person and that's what he wrote his commentary on the time the story would be extraordinary enough but there's one little detail that I didn't tell you all of this happened when Robin act American a teen was approximately 80 years old which means for decades he'd be beseeching a Kaddish barkal and for decades he never gave up he continued beseeching Hashem they should give him insights into the Torah and two years before he died a college bar for granted in his wish all the fulness of his lifetime finally paid off and in the last two years of his life he wrote the most incredible sparring sparring that has studied up to and including today by the greatest temptation the stapler dog writes in his safe asylum he cites a story tells all with a story of the riccati and how old he was and then he writes listen carefully to what he says he writes truth is even if one has a weak mind if you will place all his strength into studying Torah he will be granted shiatsu - Maya and become a God Alberto even if it's completely beyond his natural abilities stylist said that people stopped learning because they have a weak mind [Music] but the truth is it's the opposite they have a weak mind because they stopped learning but they would have persevered they would have succeeded in learning Torah it's a story that I like to tell her very often about an inner-city school in New York that had a particular class that was worse than all the other classes and none of the teachers were successful in being able to get these kids to understand anything to cooperate to learn and finally in desperation the principal of the school gave a brand-new albeit very enthusiastic but completely inexperienced teacher the task of trying to teach this class and she went in and she started teaching and lo and behold it didn't take very long will of a sudden she was having a tremendous success with the class they were listening they were doing their assignments and by the end of the year the turnaround had been absolutely incredible so after the school year was over the principal called in the teacher this inexperienced teacher and asked her how did you do it and she said how did I do what and he said this was the most difficult class in the whole school by the time you came to teach in that class they'd been through three experienced teachers already in one year and each one had given up and you walked in with no experience whatsoever and you succeeded how did you do it and she says I have no idea what you're talking about she said it was a very bright class and he said so how did you know and she said because when you gave me their names when I started to teach so on the piece of paper with their names was also their IQs and I saw that everyone had IQs in the high 90s and the low hundreds and I understood that these are very bright kids so I taught them accordingly and the principal looks at his teacher he says I don't know what you're talking about we don't know what their IQs are we don't measure IQs over here so she digged into her folder and she pulls out the piece of paper that she was given it when she had to go and start to teach his class and she showed it to the principal and there were the names with the numbers next to each name and the principal looked and he looked and he looked and finally under study says no he says those are their Locker numbers it was a class that was waiting to be taught it was a class that was waiting for somebody to come in and to treat them as people that wanted to learn but because they had such an appalling reputation none of the teachers in the school were able to do that because they couldn't see beyond what they already knew about them the governor Dorian I'm Daphne Malik Amidala says a bunny in a bird a real poverty is ignorance the Bernese Oscar right I mean in order that a buyer who's the author of that statement is teaching that the greatest poverty is the lack of wisdom and therefore says a Burmese Oscar the greatest form of the stalker is to share wisdom with somebody else the Abenaki rights there are two folds at stalker the first is to simply give money to a poor person and the second is to give wisdom to the ignorant to guide a person to teach them to do chuhwa is a greater level of Stockland says they're having us the government site has said the moisture Urbania was no longer able to teach Toyota clannish so that's what a college ball who took away from him his ability to transmit from one generation to the next was taken away that's the case that's the understanding that moisture Urbino has reached the end of his physical life because if he can't transmit if he can't give to others torrent knowledge you can't share it with other people then there's nothing for him to be in this world for since our chinchilla fall Hirsh it is safe to horrid it's not how much or how little you have that makes you great or small but how much or how little you do with what you have Krrish Bhogle created us all different we're all individuals but the thread that threads our soul together is that a college Blanca wants us to give to others we have to keep aspiring we have to keep trying to grow we have to keep wanting to grow one of the great tablets had caught me one of the great personalities from a few hundred years ago the Shocker Soraya made a seer when he was very old he made a seal on Schatz finished the whole of the babylonian talmud and his tummy they were very surprised because they know that it was something that he did pretty often why now was he making something special was it wasn't the first time that he done it and he told them that it was the thousandth time that he'd completed the whole of shafts with Josephus you got to keep going gotta keep aspiring for more same way that we get off that couch in order to get that next piece of chocolate cake so - we've got to get off the couch and we've got to get that next piece of time I read a beautiful story many years ago I don't know where it appeared originally probably Reader's Digest or something you'll hear it's a read is that just kind of story but at the beginning of the class one day teacher takes an empty glass jar and she puts it on her desk and then she takes large rocks and she fills up the jar she puts him into the jar and she says to the class is the jar full and all the children say yes which their successor really let's see and she takes gravel and she pulls gravel into the jar filling up the spaces between the rocks then she says that the kids is the jar full now and all the kids shout out together yes and then she says so really and she takes a bag of sand and she pull sand into the jar which fills up the space in between the gravel and then she tells her children she says now the jar is full and then she asks them what's the lesser one of the kids of the class says no matter how full your life seems there's always room for more and the teacher said that's good but it's not quite you're almost there she then took the jar turned it upside down pulled all the contents on her desk and she told the students to come up and they should fill up the jar in whatever water they wanted they should fill up the jar so they didn't know where to begins me she said okay you know what start with the sand and then move on to the gravel and then to the rocks so they put it in the sand and then they put in the gravel and then they started putting in the rocks and they couldn't get everything in wasn't possible because the sand and the gravel filled out a certain amount of space inside of the jar and now they can't get all the rocks in so she told them she said if you don't put it all the big rocks first you're never gonna get them in what I learned from that story it's very very beautiful very cute story that big rocks represent things that are truly important in our lives the Torah the mitzvahs family when we put what's important first that we can find time to fit in the smaller things around it once we put in the big rocks our relationship with that college ball has been established our relationships with our families have been established there we can add other things into our lives but when we fill up our lives with trivial things to begin with that we'll never find time for what's really important keresh Boca wants us to be great he wants us to take what it is that he's given each and every one of us and to use it to become bigger and better than we were every single day Serena Williams possibly the greatest female tennis player in history once said am I the greatest I don't know but I'm the greatest that I can be that's something to think about that's something to internalize not to measure if I'm the greatest compared to anybody else but to aspire to become the greatest need that I can possibly be it's possible that there's a Sbrocco it's that she will read it and simply story inside of it my shirt bangle gives a proffer to every single Shepherd and the broccolini gives a chef at OSHA in part is bartholow malicious minnow lurk on the key on their hodo vehicle which means that your borders should be sealed like iron and copper unlike the days of your prime so may your old age be Rasheed understands the words to be teaching the chef at Asha were living on the border of the Land of Israel and despite the fact they were living on the border which is normally the most dangerous place to live they would be safe and the borders would be lot I see if it was with iron and copper the space ms the second Rebbe from gore takes a lot eggs an idea that he heard from his father that he to share it the first remedy from girl from his grandfather I'm sorry that he - charade the first rabbit from Gore and he expands on it separately Ducie area battlin officiously no therefore it's not referring to physical borders rather it's referring to us to our human borders since the fasteners that in order to grow we have to be able to control ourselves in order to grow we have to be able to know when to do things how to do things when not to do things but more than that says it's SMS the processor can be read so that the last words of the PUC are the reason for the first words of the classic that the degree to which a person is successful in holding on to his coitus in holding on to those powers that are college bound who gives him and his meters from his youth would allow him to retain those assets and help him handle old age as well Sisyphus Emmis a young person's lack possible lack of focus is very dangerous I had a Talmud who told me once he said to me you know what the world you know what the letters ADHD spell thought he said attention deficit hey doughnuts if we allow ourselves to lose focus even momentarily that we've lost the connection of who we are says it's our sadness that when a person is young he should lock up we know therefore to control the gifts that he was given by a sham lest they get lost in indulgences these Pichette spa hoods to allow the tremendous gifts on our College bronze was given to each and every one of us to dissipate into the world of nothingness miss vasanas cites a verse from coelus which we just read this morning but the heart as it was a fart of over the forest but therefore be made before a surfer remember our cottage bar who when you're young either shallow your volume a along the gue shown in my shirt or my ami by elephants before the evil days come and those years which arrived in which you'll say I have no pleasure in them since am adressing coelus robber you may ha what are these days of evilness only America know what a person becomes old and what does it mean when it says Amy been paid that's what does it mean when it says that I have no pleasure in them anyway he's foreign those are the difficulties of old age this famous is teaching us that the key to utilizing old age the key to having old age is to control ourselves when we younger to learn how to control ourselves when were younger in order to retain the coitus that I couldn't blow who gave us in order to be able to use them later on it's the semi sites Ozora Kadesh that old age is not necessarily a bad thing when you read through his minor you begin to imagine that plants old age is not so great he says it's not such a bad thing but there's Arkady says that's not only applicable to siddiqui so exotic to live here in this world for many years in order to connect themselves to a college bar who in a closer and closer passion for that it's worth to be old like Yale equation 120 years old it's the last day of his life and all he's interested in doing is what another Mitzvah at another Mitzvah when you read through the paper of the semester you begin to think that youth is preferable to old age why would that be said to sorceress himself a battles ikkaku yeah that when we're young that's an e-card cough that's what we have all of our powerful that's where our strength emanates from the passo key to healing the pericolic basis or even even be savor the Shamy Vrana be new you they'll still be fruitful in old age full of SAP and freshness that will be but only if they are she soon in Vevey /m only if they're attached to a shared sense of fulfillment sense of satisfaction comes from being attached to our share the Mishnah Canon Peggy Moe says that an Emirates becomes more confused as he gets older and a Talmud Hawkins mind becomes clearer as he gets older which means that if a person lives the life that includes a sham at all times when he's young in his youth then he won't have a hard time when he gets older what Shura beta was 120 years old and yet he has the vitality and the strength that he had when he was younger that's what the Torah teaches us why because he lived a life of she suelen the vase hashem being attached to a college bar it's important to understand what ll think our strengths and our talents and our personalities are given to us by college Bolton they've been given to us to enhance a college brothels majesty here in this world that's why we're here every single one of us we here in order to enhance the college bothwell's majesty here in this world that Portia finds team C acknowledged poised the CAD or in the previous generation died 30 32 years ago 31 years ago well I think authority throughout the entire Orthodox balls during he carried the Jewish people he can a Jewish nation on his shoulders and he collapsed and he was rushed off to hospital and the last words that he said before he passed away whilst he was in the ambulance being taken to hospital he said he needed it happen in East Kent Coyle had normal strength strength in the Jewish world is not measured by how many press ups you can do strength in the Jewish world is not measured by how many marathons you can run strength in the Jewish world is measured by how you're able to help other people how you're able to transmit to other people how you're able to teach other people not necessarily in a formal setting just in the way that we need to relate with each other you know it's launching its Carolina bays are sure that we should be able to utilize the wondrous gifts that are Krrish both was given each and every one of us and like my show Abby knew we should reserve her to reach beyond ourselves every single day to touch the infinite I mean [Music] [Applause]