Rabbi Shocks the World, The Truth About Divine Protection, WE are in God's HANDS!

I believe it's important to face this question about how do we handle the fact that there are missiles and threats of annihilation, genocide, not in Gaza, but where the genocide has always been been attempted to take place with Jews around the world and Jews in Israel. So, what How do we How do we manage all of that? How do we handle it? So, I want to talk about trust and faith and clarify what can be very confusing and that is this. Like all things in Judaism and life, there's more than one perspective, which means in Jewish talk it's a machlokes. In Sefardi talk it's a machloket. Now, what do I mean? Let's be practical and use our brain and it'll be very simple what it means to put our trust and faith in God. It's balanced because our brain forces us to be balanced and logical. And so, the answer for trust and faith when we use our brain is Look, God's in control, God punishes, God rewards, God loves, God God gets angry. And so, ultimately, you know, there's times of danger. And in times of danger, unfortunately, it's possible for people to get hurt. We know that people are are dying to the left of me, to the right of me. So, why should I assume that I'm immune from the people that are dying to the left of me, to the right of me? I should assume that I could also be struck in this in this time of danger, this war time, which is really, by the way, the worst that a human can be is in the time of war. And so, it's funny you want to You want to like point the finger, "YOU'RE NOT A TZADDIK. You're not a saint." Yeah, we're at war. What do you want? War is war. Abraham, simple. Abraham was the kindest man that ever lived. Nobody's going to outdo Abraham in kindness. He is kindness. According to Kabbalah, he is the kindness of God that that comes through him on Earth. That's That's Abraham. Godly kindness that is revealed through a human being and that is Abraham. Okay. So, so And yet, he went to war. He went to war to save his nephew and to to to wage war against kings that were not doing the right thing. And he fought with a And he And he And he had to kill people. He went and fought war. So, how could the kindest man that ever live fight a war? Because, unfortunately, when it's necessary and you don't do it, that's not being kind. That's being cruel. Allowing innocent victims to die in in genocide and massacres like we see all around the world and not doing something about it, that's not being ultra kind. That's being ultra fool An ultra fool. A fool and a And And And a achzari, um which is in English My English is funny as a My Hebrew is better, my English gets worse. Achzari in English means cruel. It's being cruel, not kind. So, there's a time to fight. And when there's a time to fight, rule number one is win. Stay alive so that your children don't become orphans. And rule number two, if there's going to be an orphan, it's going to be your enemies' kids, not you. That's rule number two, simple. Am I Am I evil cuz I said that? No, I'm just practical and smart. Because if we're going to If we think that we're going to die for the sake of of saving our enemies' children so that they come and kill my own children later, it's stupidity. You know, the the the the the the the the slogan of today is Go to war against your enemy and adopt a country. Have you fed your enemies enough today lately? Are they getting their minerals and their vitamins? We want a shalom. Am I insane or is the world insane? It's not enough. Did you give They don't have enough food. They need a balanced diet. And you know what? Believe it or not, free therapy. You Could you imagine? The Palestinians are supposed to call the Israeli medical systems and insurance companies for free therapy because of what they're going through. That was a joke, but we're not far from such demands. Anyways, so back to the point. Logically, trust and faith means that if he got hurt and he got hurt, why should I be any different? So, we have to have a balanced approach. God can do anything. We're not heretics over here. God can do anything. God can decide anything. He may decide to save me. He may not. Now, what would a basis be? We're not just, you know, throwing We're not just flipping a coin. I may deserve to be saved. I may not deserve to be saved. I trust that I could be saved cuz God can do anything. God could save me. But I I'm logical enough and practical enough to know that he may not save me cuz that In danger, we don't all survive and I may be one of them that don't survive. That is p'shat number one. It's very very logical and very safe. And of course, that only works if I understand that I'm not perfect and that I have And I have sins and And those sins could be kind of like a a point of where it all starts, where the where the where the middas hadin, where the strict judgment of me will allow me to be killed is because I'm not perfect. And nobody's perfect. That's approach one. We see it actually from Chazal, the sages say it. And we learn it from Yaakov, Jacob, our forefather, who was pretty pretty darn righteous. Can I say that or is that's Darn is a curse word or no? No. It's not. Okay, with the Southern accent, was it a word Was it Was it It's a machlokes. Excellent. Everything's a machlokes. Basically, Jacob was pretty righteous and he still was worried. He said, "Maybe I've sinned and maybe the promises that God directly told me may not apply cuz I may not deserve it." So, if we see Yaakov behaving that way, that is the basis for this entire approach in the Rishonim and and and in all of the different classes you're going to get on trust and faith, it doesn't mean that I'm guar I have no guarantee. God didn't make I didn't make a contract with God that I'm going to live to see Mashiach, although I would love to live to see Mashiach. We should all live to see Mashiach. Amen. Amen. But it means possibilities. That's the the the most basic logical approach. How What do you think about that one? How does that That works for you? That fits in your brain? Yeah. It should fit in your brain. In a big brain like you have, it should fit. But the real p'shat, the deeper p'shat, the more Kabbalistic p'shat cuz the Kabbalists are embracing it, but it also comes from Chazal. Our sages have also told us this. is that's not enough faith. It's not enough trust. And now I'll explain you why. The sages that that point out that Jacob, Yaakov, thought maybe he's not deserving of God's promises, okay, that's out of humility and it's it's an important thing to have humility. However, when humility gets in the way of your trust and faith, what's happening is, you know, you're you're applying the wrong positive trait of humility in the wrong place. Because it shouldn't detract from Trust Trust is its own virtue. And if you Your humility makes you trust less, then you know, you just trust less. That's the other approach and it says like this. It says that both Moses, Moshe, and Jacob, Yaakov, were both afraid. The Bible The Torah goes out of its way to say that Moshe was afraid and Yaakov was afraid when Esau was coming to kill him. And they criticized both of them. We don't pull any punches. We want truth. We want reality. And reality and truth, there's another level of scrutiny where God says, "Jacob, how could you be afraid, Yaakov? I promised you I'm going to take you home safely. How could you be worried? Moshe, you did a good thing. You saved a Jewish life and you killed an evil Egyptian. Why would you think that Pharaoh's going to kill you now? Why would you be afraid of Pharaoh?" And they criticized them for being afraid. This approach demands from us. Faith and trust has no limit. Why? Because ultimately it goes beyond your brain. Yes, the guy to the right of me didn't survive. Yes, the guy to the left of me didn't survive. But I ignore that because God doesn't have to fit into my brain. And I have to go out of my brain and into God's infinite world. And God is kol yakhol. God creates contradictions and he and he he balances those contradictions and he goes through those contradictions. He makes miracles. He made nature, which is things that I can expect, and he makes miracles, which I can never expect. And therefore, when it's about my story, my story that on a certain level God created the entire world just for me, how dare me to say that God created the entire world and universes and everything just for me to kill me, to let me die in the hands of these wicked animals? God forbid to think such a thing. Never. Never would he do that to me. That's trust. That's faith. What's going to happen tomorrow? I'm not a prophet. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow and I don't have to know. That's trying to squeeze too much into your brain. I know God loves me. He cares about me. He's holding on to me. And I have nothing to fear because I'm full of faith and trust in the one that does it all and can do anything. And that's it. It's not It's not a Gemara. It's life. It's God. It's me. And just like when we go to pray, beautiful beautiful insight. When we go to pray, for years and years and years I thought it was the wrong statement that they're putting in in on top of the Aron Kodesh, where we all face to pray. It says, "Da lifnei mi ata omed." Know who you you in the singular are standing before. And I'm like, "Why is this statement in a synagogue where there's hundreds and hundreds of people, why is it in the synagogue? It should I'm sorry. Why is it in the singular? It should be in the plural." And the Gemara speaks in the singular. You know why? Because even if there's a million people standing there praying to God with you, God came to hear you and to see you and you came to see God. And it's as if you're the only one there. Every single person that stands to pray, creates his four cubits that are holy and sacred like a cotton and collar, like a bride and groom in the room that they go into privately for the first time that they're as their husband and wife. And nobody would dare walk into that room. That is the most private, intimate, sacred room of bride and groom. And every time you go to a synagogue or even at home and stand to pray, those four cubits become your unique, private room with just God and you. And it's in that room and in that moment where God says, "I created all of this for you, Ike. I created all of this for you, Joe. It's all for you." Because it's just me and you at And that's the Holy of Holies. One man walks into the Holy of Holies. It's a place that has to be exactly measured, yet has no measure. It's an impossibility, the place of the Holy of Holies. It's an infinite God meeting a finite creation, finite person. And therefore the Aaron had to be exactly measured, 20 amot. But yet, there were 20 amot empty there because space and infinitude when it meets, it it doesn't it doesn't add up. And that's what our relationship with God it doesn't add up. He's my God and he'll never let go of me and therefore I should never let go of him. I I may not deserve it. It's a good question. It That's for your brain. But ultimately trust and faith is for is beyond your brain. Hugs and mass. Hugs and mass.