STOP LIVING THE LIE! The Bible's SHOCKING Truth About PERFECTION | 2 Rabbis 1 Truth

There was a guy that that was so sweet. He came to the yeshiva and he wanted to learn about religion and about God. And [music] he so desperately wanted to believe in God. He said these words to me, "I want to believe in God, but I can't." This reminds me of an unbelievable story I would like to share with [music] everybody. [music] Imagine uh you're you have in this story we go back in ancient times. You have a king and king's servants. So the king has a palace, a beautiful palace, and he he wants to ask two of his servants to do work for him. Servant one, we'll call him Dave. Dave, I want you to go and water this beautiful garden of mine at the edge of the of the field, you know, and we just planted seeds and I want you to water it and and one day I want you to show me this garden that you worked and watered and cared for that it should be this beautiful, beautiful, unbelievable one-of-a-kind garden. And that's his job. And the other guy says, "I want you also to go to a different place to and I want you to water the the that that area also." They both go to do their job. And the second guy, Mike, we'll call him. He goes to do his job and he gets there and he realizes that the the water that he took had a the container had a hole in it and spilled water. The water spilled. He didn't realize it. And he got there and he couldn't do his job. The other guy did his job. He watered everything right and uh and they come back to the to the to the king. One guy is very sad. The king gave him a mission and it was his first chance to do a king [clears throat] a mission directly for the king. The king called him specially and said, "I want you to do this for me." It was something unbelievable because he was just a regular person and the other guy too was a regular person and they were both jumping for joy that they have a chance to do something for the king directly and they both did it. One succeeded and one was so upset that he failed. He didn't say anything. and he sent them both home and uh after time went by he called them both back and he first went to the to the first guy Dave said let's go see what what your work accomplished and they both go and they see his beautiful garden that ended up now was grown from his his work watering the the seeds and the other guy's so upset my gosh you know I I didn't do any he's look what he did look what he did for the king and look at the beauty of it look what an accomplishment and me I failed failed and they said, "Now we're going to go take a look at what what Mike accomplished." And they go to see the the orchard where where Mike went to go water it, but nobody watered it, so it's empty. And he just feels even worse, like the king's just making a fool of me. He goes, "But we're not done yet. Now we're going to walk back to the palace." And they take the same road that Mike took when he went to water the the garden. And they see such beautiful flowers all along the road. Beautiful. And and Mike's like, "This wasn't here when I came the first time." And he and at the end he says to both of them, he says, "You know, I wanted from from you, Mike, one thing, and I wanted from you, Dave, something else. I put the holes in your picture. I wanted you to water the roads. Look at the beautiful roads. This is one of the most beautiful special roads that you will find in my entire kingdom." And you did that. You did that with the with the with the vessels I gave you. Look what you created. And with the vessel I gave him, look what he created. And this is an analogy for the winners of life and they're not so much winners in life. I know what it's like to to be I hope both of them, but I know more what it's like to be the not so much winners in life. I I know what it's like to struggle and to and to suffer, to feel broken and to feel sad. And the beautiful part of the story is that you don't understand what God wants from you. And you think your problems are problems. They're opportunity solutions. You just have to hold on and have faith and understand from the struggles comes an even greater light than than than than from from the night itself. And that's the beauty of that story. And I think it's so inspiring. I hope everybody takes that and takes it literally this beautiful story to understand that they can accomplish so much more than they ever dreamed of. Not only they can they accomplish, but they are accomplishing. And even though they don't feel it and they don't see it, there's much more than the than the the empty beautiful or the there's much more than just the box. You have to know that there's something inside of the box. And even if we don't see the progress we're making, when we live a life based on the true values that we know or we're God-given and we try our best to do something good in God's world for ourselves to be happy and to help others, we accomplish. There's no such thing as failure. When you try to do good, God helps you and blesses you and you end up doing good. You may see it, you may not see it, you may feel it, you may not feel it, but you're going to end up a winner in the end. >> Well, it's a very powerful story. And um I'll tell you that this again is one of the things that we on the like we said micro level when guys become religious and they start their journey of coming to Hashem, one of the big things that many people in our generation struggle with is this idea of self-esteem. We're exposed to so much today. We're exposed to every billionaire and we're exposed on YouTube to watching all these different people, winners like you call them, of life. And what do people say to themselves? What do I fit in all this? What could I add to the world? Where could I have my moment? When could I matter? And I'm I'm not a winner. Let's be honest. What am I? I don't have a yacht and I don't have millions of dollars and I'm not this and I'm not that. So, what am I? And this trickles down to the day-to-day life of people. And they come and they want to connect to Hashem and they want to connect to themselves more. They want to get more real with themselves. want to enter into their heart and into their soul. And then the real questions come out. It's no longer about the box with the bow. It's now about me and how could I connect myself and how could I become more meaningful? And that's where the real darkness enters. And it's like, well, I don't really think I could be more meaningful because what could I really change? And this is one of the things that we have to work in the very spend a lot of time with in the yeshiva is showing people exactly this message. Your job is not not necessarily to be a millionaire, not necessarily to own a yacht, not necessarily to be the biggest, not necessarily to be the biggest rabbi, but God gave you skills. God gave you abilities. God gave you a soul. God gave you a purpose. And your job is to take that and feel good and proud of who you are and find what could you how could you matter and understand that when you find that, this is what Hashem wants from you. And a lot of times that's not so easy to accept for people. But when they do it, they do what their purpose is. They live their life with how Hashem wants them to live their life, connecting to Hashem, doing mitzvah, learning Torah, then they feel like, you know, I am something. I do matter. And uh this is one of the big messages that the world today needs to hear that in the end of the day, you have a purpose and you have value and that you have to just come to bring it to fruition. So, I think the the biggest mistake is people don't understand the intrinsic value they have. And I'm not going to judge anyone because it's hard. It's hard. When you're sad, you're sad. It's unfortunate because if they could only realize you're a creation of God, you're priceless. The value you have just being a creation from God, everything you think that God that's wrong about you, God didn't get that wrong. We have to just learn how to untrain our minds to think in a new way, a new way. I think that the ultimate stories of life are not the pretty stories. They may be the ugly stories because nothing's really ugly. God forbid there's something ugly in God's world. You know, I want to share one or two cases of people that struggled, but but in that struggle, a greatness comes out. And you know what? Sometimes it's tragic. Even in the tragic stories that we are told and we hear, there's something about it that gives you like a it's unbelievable. It's it's sad but but but incredible at the same time. Uh I I I dealt with a person. He we he came on a on on a vacation and he decided to visit the yeshiva to see what it's like uh to hear a few ideas from from rabbis. So I was speaking to three or four boys and I said, you know, have you guys ever thought about this that that that ask yourself, is God real? Is God real? Does God does God really exist? And so, you know, some were like, no, I never thought of it. Some were like, "Yeah, of course I believe God really exists." I'm like, "Do you do you think that he's aware of what's going on in this world?" You got maybe one yes, one I don't know, one never thought of it. So I said, "If God exists and and God is aware that we exist, did you ever try and and and speak to God ever? Did you ever try to talk to God? And the the real answer is sad answer is they were all so busy with with their life and the small things of life or the big things. They just so busy that they never took a moment to stop to say to Hashem, "Thank you or or or or pray, ask, I need help. Can you nothing. They never talk to God ever." So I said, "Why don't you take some time today each of you and go do that?" To my surprise, I thought these were very busy, very cool university guys that were going to be so busy with, who are they going to uh, you know, get to know and and where how much fun they're going to have and be cool that I didn't expect to see them back visiting in the yeshiva. But two of them were brothers. And uh 6 months later or so I end up seeing or I don't exactly know exactly how much time later I end up seeing both of them back in Jerusalem telling me that they're actually learning in in a yeshiva one of the top you know k of yeshivas and they eventually came back one of them at least came back to learn as as as a yeshiva student and I found that to be amazing >> an entire life without even ever having time to think about well god made all this and and he's a part of this and We're excluding him. We're so busy. We don't have a space in our brain and a moment in our time to include the greatest thing about us being here is God himself that wants to to stop everything he's doing to take notice of us and to be part of our lives and and and that takes us inviting him in. Had a guy who showed up, you say a story just from yesterday. He just showed up yesterday and he was a big hustler in a big city in in America making money, you know, young guy having a good time and I like I usually do. I said, "Why are you here?" And he says, "You know, I was hustling. I was making money. I was running around. Having a good time in life. I just needed to slow down. I just needed to slow down. I needed to start where is my life? What am I doing?" And someone recommended, "Go to yeshiva. Come to Jerusalem." And I just picked up, left my life, gave up a lot. He told me gave up a lot. And I'm just here to slow down to just start thinking and just start where am I in all of this? So like your story just this just happened yesterday. Literally yesterday. >> Yeah. I It's beautiful. You know, I have to say that I I just hearing that story, I'm so inspired and I want to share this thought. You know, at about 20, 22, I gave up everything I thought I have and found everything I never knew I could have. It's an unbelievable >> black and white night and day shift. It's just incredible what what's available to us if we're just willing to let go of what's holding us down. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> Um just want to quickly share, not every story is pretty. One tough story, just understand we go through struggles. There was a guy that that was so sweet. He came to the yeshiva and he wanted to learn about religion and about God. And he so desperately wanted to believe in God. He said these words to me, "I want to believe in God, but I can't." And I was dealing with him for a couple of weeks and talking back and forth. And he was such a good boy, such a sweet person. So I said, "Enough is enough. Enough of this nonsense. Does God exist? Does God not exist? Do I believe? Do I not believe? Come with me. We're going to go to a very private area, secluded, just us and God. You're going to go to one corner. I'm going to go another corner and we're going to talk to God and see what what comes out of that. Now, I thought forcing him into the idea of actually trying to talk to God might help push him over this block that he had. So, we did. We both did it and we came back and I said, "You see, did you talk to God?" Because if you talk to God, then obviously you're going to talk to someone that exists. You wouldn't talk to God if if you don't think he exists. He goes, "Well, actually before I started talking, I said, "If you're real, then I'm talking to you. And if you're not real, then I'm talking to myself." And so what I took from that is sometimes people are trapped and we think there's an easy solution, but not necessarily is there an easy solution. This boy was trying all he can to to break out of what he was trapped in. And I could say, "Well, it's simple. Just believe. We can't judge others. We don't know what darkness they're buried under. We don't know what kind of situations they're coming from. And we have to be non-judgmental. We have to be all heart and all hope to help them. But we can't be judgmental because we cannot know if we would be in their shoes if we would be worse. And we can never put ourselves above those that that struggle. And it's important thing to to always know wherever you are, no matter what you are successful in, you cannot look down on those that have less than you because we can't accomplish anything on our own. And sometimes the challenges are so strong that that it's beyond a person to to do what we think is simple. You [snorts] know it says the labra used to say this all the time that you live with the times. What does it mean to live with the times? The para of the week that's living with the times. So of course we're right now in parasyak the story of the flood and all the rabbis one way or another explain the idea that the flood is constantly even in our lives everywhere around us there's the chaos the darkness and the emptiness of life and that's the flood and our job is to create a ta create an ark in our own existence within the flood we're not escaping it we're part of this world there's no way to escape this world maybe great great sadikim could live in the higher realms and be totally disassociated with this world. But really most of us are not. Most of us are living in the flood. But we have to create our own ark. We have to create our own safe space like they call today a space space a space a safe space of godliness, a safe space of morality, a safe space of meaning. But what's one of the ideas of the ark is that really the ark was the the merit that there was allowed to be an ark was because of no. [snorts] It was only because of no but his wife and children were able to come along because he brought them into his space and he was able to make them feel connected and he was able to bring them along with him really with their own merit they wouldn't have had the uh concept of an ark but they connected themselves to Noah and it's our job in this world to an extent to be an ark unto others make that space and bring others into it the issue is that a lot of people feel I don't want to go into this ark if anyone Everyone would have turned to Noah in the time he was making the ta the ark and say I'm going to do chushuva I want to join you we see that god would have said for sure if someone would have done chuva anybody they would have been able to join no ark not even one person joined why because they felt I'm going to be trapped I can't leave this life I can't leave this world I can't leave all the enjoyment I can't leave all the you know the money and the wealth and the fun I'm going to be trapped in your ark but really the ark was the savior but they couldn't allow it for themselves and that was really the struggle and that's the struggle today. We have arcs in this world. We have yeshivos. We have yeshiv we have but you know Jerusalem we have Jewish homes. People there's all around us there are arcs that we could connect to. But in the end of the day unfortunately many people are still struggling out there. And that's what I think me and you are doing over here and many others are trying to invite people come into the ark. Don't be scared. Don't be scared to leave the morality. Don't be scared to leave the the emptiness of your life. Don't be scared to leave. Jump in. And it may feel in the beginning like it's a little constraining and it may feel like all these religious obligations and godliness and I it's too much for me and they have to give themselves excuses. If a God exists, I'll talk to you if God doesn't exist. That's a defense mechanism because they're scared to have to jump in. They're scared to have to commit. But in the end of the day, they don't realize that this is this is what God created you for. This is what this world is for. If you think for a minute, entering the ark is the greatest thing you could do for yourself with the tra with the challenge and the struggle that it is to enter the ark. And it's not easy. In the end of the day, staying out in the flood is much much worse. And that's really the message of Noah. Wow. You meet many different kind of students as I I do. We both we are familiar with wonderful boys that come from around the world. They speak different languages. They come in different colors, different attitudes, and different places in their their spiritual life journey. What sticks out? Give me one Give me a story or one or two stories so that the people listening out there can just get a feeling of what we're dealing with. What what it means to be a a a surgeon, a brain surgeon and a heart surgeon spiritually dealing with these kids in ways that go beyond what they might have even ever fathomemed. Because you know they say that today in such a broken generation we're not just giving a class. We're not just rabbis that talk and give a class. You have to be you know kind of like surrogant parents. You have to be therapists. You have to be psychiatrists. We have to be so many things for these boys. So let's give give them a taste. Give me some of one or two of the stories that stick out from your personal experiences. So absolutely you know this the interesting thing over there is that in the micro everyone needs to be dealt with individually with their own individual background their own individual struggle and their own individual reason and desire of what they're there for. But then on the macro level on the greater level I feel like no matter where they're coming from in the world and no matter how old they are and no matter what their background was in the end of the day we all live in the same world and we all have the same struggles in a certain point. And the truth of the matter is that the world out there is full of chaos, full of darkness. There's tremendous amount of uh lack of god, godliness, meaning, purpose, value in this world. And whether they're coming from college campuses or coming from hanging out in the streets or coming, you know, working, there was a certain lack of meaning in their life. And they couldn't tolerate the chaos and the emptiness of their life anymore. And that's really what brings them there to find meaning, purpose. And they believe that they're going to find meaning and purpose in the people that they truly are, which are Jews. And it's their nishama that brings them there. And the stories are endless. And they're crazy stories one after another. But the truth of the matter is that at the end of the day, after all the details of the stories, the truth is that all they're trying to do is trying to find meaning and purpose in their life through Hashem and connect to their heritage, connect to the Torah, connect to the mitzvah. And that's what and that's what matters to them. And that's what they're coming for to understand what it is that they're what it is that they're seeking, why they're seeking it, and how to get there. So, it's interesting because I recently said over in a parable, you know, there's a big question. Why does God give us these moments of inspiration, these moments of feeling high, these moments of feeling excitement, and we wake up in the morning feeling great. You know, today we're going to we're going to do something good. We're going to learn all day. We're going to pray. We're going to we're going to get better. We're going to do toua. And then shortly after that, it's gone. We don't really feel that inspiration anymore. >> Why does God give us that initial hope, that initial excitement and then take it away from us? >> Excellent question. This is a question that's asked, but I I heard once a very beautiful mush, a very beautiful parable to explain this. A person is lost in a thick forest and he's trying to get out and all he sees is trees and trees and darkness and darkness and he's wandering around and there's no hope and suddenly it gets really dark and it's it's, you know, he feels lost. But suddenly, Hashem sends a bolt of lightning, a massive bolt of lightning. And with this momentary bolt of lightning, the person is able to see the direction that leads to the end of the forest. But then that moment is gone. That moment is gone. That at least he has now >> for that moment of focus. Where am I heading to? What do I what do I which direction do I need to go to to get out of this? And of course in life, people are stuck in deep forestes, darkness. But those moments of inspiration when we feel good, when our minds are in a healthy place, when we're connected with Hashem and we say ourselves, "This is what I want. This is what I need." And you get that moment. Now you go, then that moment's gone. But you're able to live off that moment and inspire yourself from that moment to say, "At least I know when I felt Hashem in my life, I felt good. And now I got to figure out how to get there." That is a beautiful way to bring out the this feeling of God's always with you. But if he would let you feel at every moment, then we'd be no different than angels and our life would have no real purpose, no struggle and no accomplishment. And so it's amazing. I could just I could picture it that that moment of of of brightness where you where it all becomes clear and then it disappears. And in that sense, it's some of that clarity remains with you and that's what you that's what you hold on to in the real confusing times. Beautiful, beautiful analogy. Even in the darkness, within the darkness, God is there as well. We just have to tap into that clarity, >> right? >> And we have to add into that. How did you get into or do you know that from 50 years, how many rabbis wanted to and would have loved to have opportunity to teach in the one of the most influential Kiru Yeshivas in the world. It happens to be in Jerusalem, the center where where everything whereim kimitra from from yushalim comes the true light and wisdom of hashem and you happen to be in one of the most prestigious sought after baluva kiru yeshivas that bring those that are nonobservant closer to a recognition of God and God's Torah. How did you get there? >> So that's a good question. It's a great question. Well, before you start, let me just tell you because I also am working at Orsame and the question is how did I get there? So, don't tell anybody cuz I don't want them to find out. I snuck in the back door. >> Uhhuh. >> Cuz I'm a nobody from nowhere and somehow I found an opening in the back door. I slipped in and thank God almost 20 years later I'm still there. But don't tell them cuz I don't want to get kicked out. >> Uhhuh. They should have noticed that you slept through the back door. >> Right. Listen, it's a big zus to teach there. It's a big zik to be part of the great organization. They're doing amazing amazing things really and uh every single day that I'm there it's uh the stories that come out the nephesh that I see and just the beautiful beautiful transition that people come from all types of backgrounds and lives and really from around the whole world and to spend time with them and watch them grow and be a part of that is a great sus and great honor >> as I hear that how that happened. >> Oh you was >> how that happened also very very similar to you. I got through the back door. It was an opportunity that came up for a small little job in our and I grabbed it because why not and as was really with Hashem's help I was able to grow and grow and uh so far I'm there and uh >> and as they say the rest is history. >> Exactly. >> Now you've made a name for yourself. I see that you have videos on YouTube. You know the amount of zeros that follow the one is something to be happy about. I see you're successful. May we all add zeros to our YouTube numbers. >> Our YouTube numbers are making our numbers.