How Your Thoughts Affect Your Reality -- In Halacha, Science & Psychology

Welcome everybody. Thank you everybody for joining us. Want to thank all the people who have made this special evening possible. Tonight, today, it's Gimel Tammuz, the third day of Tammuz, 26th Yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Zeya Chaim Zalman ben Baruch So, I'm excited to teach and learn together a shiur, a sicha, a talk of the Rebbe that he presented on Shabbos Parshas Eikev Tav-Shin-Mem-Hey. That summer, 1985, one of the Rebbe's takanos was to learn a shiur Rambam every day, Mishneh Torah Rambam, either one perek which finishes the cycle in 3 years or three prakim which finishes the cycle in one year. So, the Rambam's Mishneh Torah that Shabbos, it was the halachos of Trumah, which are discussed in this week's parsha, Parshas Korach. [snorts] So, the Rebbe then gave a long shmu, a shmu is a shiur, a pilpul, a sicha on some of the halachos over there in the Rambam, Hilchos Trumos, as we shall explore in a few moments. It's going to be a text-based shiur. So, I'm going to ask you to open your source sheets. If you go to the yeshiva.net, the yeshiva.net, and you'll see the first class that's featured, it should say live now, how your thoughts affect your reality, and there's a PDF under the video or source sheets above the video, so you can open the source sheets or open up and download the PDF, print it out, whatever is more convenient for you, so you could follow in sight. Um If anybody [snorts] wants to ask questions at the end, bli neder, we will make time to ask questions. You could You'll see on the same uh on the same item page on the yeshiva.net, it says ask a question, and you can put in your question, and I'm going to make sure it's open by me, so we'll be able to uh receive everybody's question, b'ezras Hashem. Okay, yes, it's open. It's going to be a text-based shiur. Oopsie. Okay. Okay, wonderful. Can you talk louder, please? Okay, I'm going to try to talk louder, and I will lower the mic a little bit, so maybe that will help. I'll lower the mic, so Okay. So, you can download your source sheets. We're going to open We're going to begin b'ezras Hashem in 1 moment. [snorts] The topic we are exploring this evening is how your thoughts, how my thoughts, how our thoughts affect reality, in halacha, in science, and in psychology. The first part of the class is going to deal with the halacha. Then we're going to explore the way it's reflected in science, in modern physics, and the way it's expressed in psychology. The first section of this sicha, of this shiur, this address by the Lubavitcher Rebbe, which is published in Likutei Sichos, Chelek Lamed-Ches, Likutei Sichos volume 38, Parshas Korach. Likutei Sichos is basically 39 volumes, and it's a compilation of many shiurim, many classes, many sichos, many talks that the Lubavitcher Rebbe presented over the years, divided according to the parshas of the week and according to the holidays. So, this is volume 38, Chelek Lamed-Ches, Parshas Korach, and it explores Parshas Korach is of course dedicated, part of it, to the laws of matnos kehunah, to the gifts that were given to the kohanim, including Trumah, which we're going to explain all of this, and that's why it begins with the halachos of Trumah. Now, the first part is an in-depth analysis of a mishna in Maseches Trumos. Let me give a very brief introduction to the halachos, so that we should be able to appreciate the discussion. What is Trumah? The Torah obligates that a Jew who owned a field, a farm, an orchard, so if I was harvesting, say, my grain, my wheat, my barley, my spelt, my my rye, approximately 2% I had to tithe and give to the kohen. The kohen was the priest serving in the Beis Hamikdash, and they didn't have assets or real estate, their entire life was dedicated to the service of the divine and teaching the Jewish people. So, the Jewish people supported them, and one of the obliged One of the obligated taxations was Trumah. I separate 2% of my grain, so if I had a If I have a hundred, I have a a hundred kernels of wheat, so I take two, and I give it to the kohen. This becomes now the kohen's property, and it's sacred, it's holy food. A Yisrael or a Levi is not allowed to eat this food. The kohen can eat it. His household can eat it, his wife can eat it, his children can eat it. Even his non-Jewish servant can eat it, because it's part of the kohen's family. But another Jew is not allowed to eat it. It It is strictly forbidden with very serious penalties. That's called Trumah, it's sacred, holy food. That's the reason why today in Eretz Yisrael, they also separate the Trumah. You have to separate Trumah, whether it's today it's biblical or rabbinic is a separate discussion. But because the kohen must be pure when he or she consumes Trumah, they must be in a state of purity, because it's sacred food, and today we assume that many of them are impure, that's why practically we can't give it to the kohen, because it's impure Trumah, and he's not allowed to even eat it. Impure Trumah actually has to be burnt. So, what we do is we bury it or we dispose it in another very respectful way, because you're dealing with something that is seriously sacred. This is called Trumah. And if I'm a Yisrael or I'm a Levi, I am a Yisrael, I'm not allowed to eat it. Once it's Once it becomes Trumah, I can eat the rest of the grain, but this grain belongs to the kohen. Here is now the problem. My wife just went to the grocery, and I asked her to pick up some figs, cuz we'll be discussing figs, but there's no figs, so there apples. Okay, so here are the props for this shiur. So, here are apples. Yeah. What happens if I separated an apple for Trumah, and I gave it to the kohen? Great, it's now holy food. I'm not allowed to eat this. I can eat the rest of the apples. What happens now is, before it goes to the kohen's house, my dear boy sees an apple, it's isolated. So, what does he do? He takes this Trumah apple, and he throws it back into the bowl of the apples which were serving Friday night for dessert. What happens now? The Trumah is now mixed in to all the other foods. So, what do I do? I have a very serious problem. I'm not allowed to eat any of the apples. Why? Because one of the apples is Trumah, and I don't know which one. I don't have a sign that says Trumah. So, I have a very serious problem. There's only one person who can eat this. Who? The kohen. He can eat it, because he's allowed to eat Trumah, and he's allowed to eat chulin, and he's allowed to eat regular, ordinary, mundane food as well. So, what do I do? I sell the entire bowl of apples to the kohen. It's going to be a cheaper, much cheaper price because of the systems of supply and demand. There's no big market for such apples that most Jews cannot eat, only kohanim. One apple I can't take money for, because this actually belongs to the kohen, it's Trumah, cuz my child threw it back into the basket. But the rest of it I sell for a minimum price, so at least I don't lose so much, even though I lose somewhat. That's what happens when the Trumah falls back into chulin. Chulin [snorts] means ordinary food, Trumah means sacred food. I'm going to ask forgiveness from those who are well-versed in all of these terms, but since I want that everybody should be able to understand what we're talking about, so therefore I'm translating things, even though for so many of you, great scholars, it these translations would be superfluous. However, there is a unique dispensation here. Our sages, the Chazal, derive from sukum that if there are a hundred ordinary apples, and one apple of Trumah falls in, so now there's a hundred and one, the ratio of the ordinary to the holy was one to a hundred, it gets nullified. This is called bittel. The Trumah apple gets nullified. It becomes submerged, subsumed, so to speak, lost. Its identity gets lost or nullified in the huge quantity of a hundred apples that overwhelm and overshadow the single Trumah apple, and now you can eat all of the apples, even though you may eat the Trumah apple, right? The Trumah apple may be eaten, cuz I don't know which one is Trumah. The Torah teaches this is the concept called bittel, nullification. And this is a concept that applies not just to trumah, it applies to all food that a Jew is not allowed to eat, all non-kosher food. There's a concept called bittel, it gets nullified in the mixture. Now, it's true, one of the apples I will still retrieve and give it to the cohen, because I do know that one of them is trumah, I just don't know which one it is. But I can eat all of the rest of the apples, even though I don't know which one the trumah is. Why? Because there were a hundred. What happens if there were only 99? It's not going to work. The number 99 is insufficient to nullify the trumah apple, and therefore all the apples become forbidden to me because of that one trumah apple, and I have to give them all away to the cohen. I sell most of I sell all of them besides one to the cohen. But if there were a hundred ordinary apples, or of course 101, 110, 200, 500, if the ratio was 1 to 100, no problem, it becomes permissible. This is the discussion that we begin discussing. Says the Rebbe, "Korech Sif Aleph, the din a bittel trumah b'mayah d'echo, chah trumah o ilu b'mayah b'echo d'mayah, sh'neinu b'maseches trumos." When it comes to the laws of nullifying trumah, which trumah gets nullified according to the halacha, it gets nullified b'echod u'mayah, which means if you have a hundred ordinary apples and one trumah apple, it gets nullified. "Sh'neinu b'maseches trumos." There's a fascinating mishnah in tractate trumos, which is dedicated to the laws of trumah. This is perek dalet, mishnah ches, the fourth chapter of maseches trumos. Says the mishnah, "Rebbi Yehoshua and Rebbi Yehoshua says, t'einim sh'choros mal'os sah, l'vanos l'vanos mal'os sah sh'choros." Black figs are combined with the white figs in order to make them all kosher for consumption. And white figs will combine with black figs in order to nullify the trumah and make them kosher for consumption, meaning the Bartinura explains, "T'einim sh'l trumah sh'chorah l'vanah sh'naflah l'mayah t'einim sh'l chulin, kulan mitztarfim l'vatlah. V'im sh'chorah naflah, mal'achas min hash'choros. V'im l'vanah, mal'achas min hal'vanos. V'asher chulin k'shehayu." Let me explain. What happens? I have a fig of trumah. And the fig of trumah is a black fig, and it falls into a basket of 50 black figs and 50 white figs, or 50 green figs, 50 light figs. You have black figs and you have green figs, or white figs, light figs. What happens now? You have a a fig of trumah. [laughter] I'm going to give you my props with apples, okay? You see it? See this? [panting] So we have 50 red apples, 50 green apples, okay? Now, one green apple of trumah fell into this mixture of red and green apples. What's the halacha? Comes Rebbi Yehoshua and says, "It's not a problem. The red combine with the green to nullify the trumah." Or in his example, the black figs combine with the white figs to nullify the one white fig of trumah, even though you would think the trumah fig was white and there's only 50 white figs. Comes Rebbi Yehoshua and says, "It's not a problem, because you have in this bowl, or in this basket, or in this box, a hundred figs all together. Even though their colors are diverse, they all join forces together to nullify the trumah fig. It's just you have to take out one of the figs and give it to the cohen, because you do know that one of them is trumah. So if it was a black fig, you give a black fig to the cohen. If it was a white fig that fell in, you give a white fig to the cohen." Rebbi Eliezer oiser, Rebbi Eliezer says, "I'm sorry. This whole mixture is forbidden. You're This is not going to work. Im sh'chorah naflah, sh'choros asuros. Im l'vanah naflah, l'vanos asuros." If a black fig of trumah fell into 50 black figs and 50 white figs, all the black figs are forbidden. Why? Cuz there's only 50. It's 50 to 1, it's not 100 to 1. Ah, you have 50 white figs. Rebbi Eliezer says, "The 50 white figs are not part of this mixture. They cannot nullify this one fig of trumah. I'm sorry. This mixture is forbidden. You can eat the white figs because the trumah was dark, the trumah was a black fig, but you can't eat the black figs." He disagrees with Rebbi Yehoshua. Rebbi Akiva oimer, Rebbi Akiva says, "It depends." He's the mitigating opinion. "B'yadoa man naflah sh'chorah l'vanah im may l'zuzah zu. K'she'eini yodea man naflah, mal'ozuzah u've'Rambam nifsak halacha k'Rebbi Akiva, v'im ein yodea im sh'chorah oiser, v'im l'vanah, oileh b'echod u'mayah min hakol." Rebbi Akiva says, "It depends. If we know, if it's known what fell in, if we know whether the fig of trumah that fell into the mixture was black or white, then Rebbi Akiva says, 'Ein may l'zuzah zu.' The the other color cannot combine forces with the 50 of the second color to nullify the trumah. I'm sorry. But if it's not known, if we know trumah fell in, we don't know the color of it. Here Rebbi Akiva says, 'No problem. Now you have a hundred to one.'" So we have three opinions, Rebbi Eliezer, Rebbi Yehoshua, and Rebbi Akiva. Rebbi Eliezer is the stringent opinion. He says, "You need a hundred to nullify a fig of trumah. Sorry, if the fig was white, you only have 50 against one. You don't have a hundred against one. The black figs cannot join forces, and therefore all your 50 figs that share the same color with the trumah are forbidden to eat. You got to give it to the cohen." That's Rebbi Eliezer. Rebbi Yehoshua is the other extreme. He says, "It's not a problem. The two colors of these figs join forces. Even if it was a black fig and you saw it fell in, but there's also 50 white figs plus 50 black figs, it nullifies the trumah, you can eat them all." Rebbi Akiva says, "Depends. If it's known what fell in, we know if it's a green apple or a red apple, we know it, so we know that the trumah can only be one of the dark or one of the white, then there's no bittel, there's no nullification. But if we don't know, it's not known, the trumah We know that trumah came in, but it was not known which color it was, for whatever reason, then Rebbi Akiva says, 'There is bittel.' Then he agrees with Rebbi Yehoshua." Three opinions in Mishnayos Trumos, perek dalet. "V'hinei," says the Rebbe, "ta'am Rebbi Yehoshua Rebbi Eliezer oiser b'dinim zeh l'chumrah u'v'pasul. Sh'arei b'metzius ein arubah trumah ela b'chamishah. Im l'vanah b'chamishah l'vanos, v'im sh'chorah b'chamishah sh'choros. U'm'man nafshach l'chaker mayah im chamishah naflah." The view of Rebbi Eliezer is very logical. Rebbi Eliezer says, "Rebboiseh, ta'amei d'eidin, I know that you love your figs, but let's face it, the fact is the trumah got mixed into 50 figs. If it was a white fig, it got mixed into 50 white figs. If it was a dark fig, a black fig, it got fixed into 50 black figs. And I'm sorry, there's no bittel. For bittel, you need a hundred. Why do you need a hundred? He brings in footnote two, the Rambam learns it out from a passuk in parshas Korach, perek yud ches, about trumos u'ma'asros. The chachamim derive that you need a hundred to be m'vatel trumah. You don't have a hundred. How do the white help you nullify a black fig? I'm sorry, you didn't have a hundred black figs, you had 50 black figs. You have other figs, wonderful, eat those figs. Go eat your white figs, but your black figs, you have only 50. Rebbi Eliezer says, "There's no bittel." Very logical. But the K'sauv u'Meforshim, come the commentators, the Bartinura, Rabbeinu Ovadia Bartinura, "Sh'Rebbi Yehoshua svira lei." They explain Rebbi Yehoshua holds, "Sh'keivan sh'mayu right side dosin um achal b'yachad, v'chein kulan mitztarfim l'vatlah. V'af she'ein m'vatlin issur l'chatchilah, m'va'er ha'Tosfos Yom Tov, "Hane milin l'harbeh b'hetek d'l'vatlah issur. Aval b'hai gavna sh'einam m'varrin b'hetek l'mishanah issur b'chumrah o im mafrikin k'shehayu mikodem, k'dei l'arvem yachad b'chai gavna nir'eh l'einay ha'shoresh l'vatlah l'chatchilah." The Bartinura explains Rebbi Yehudah holds, "If you want, you could have smashed up all the figs and made them into one big cake, and there would be no distinction between the green figs and the black figs, the white figs, the white figs and the black figs, there would be no distinction, if you wanted. So therefore, they can all be considered one mishmash, one cohesive entity, one cholent, and they can all join forces to nullify the trumah, that trumah fig. That's what the commentators explain. If you want, you could smash up all the figs, smash up all the There's no There's no black and white anymore. They're all one. You can do that. Since you could do that, says Rebbi Yehoshua, therefore, even though you didn't do that, the 50 black and the 50 green combine to be m'vatel the trumah fig, even if you know that it was green or black. Ah, we have a problem. There's halacha ain mevatlin issur l'chatchila. You're not allowed to intentionally nullify something prohibited. For example, if an apple trumah falls into my apples, and there's only 10 apples here, I'm not allowed to go and add another 90 apples. If it were a hundred, it's fine, but I'm not allowed to go and nullify an issue initially. This is the question of the Tosafos Yom Tov. Tosafos Yom Tov says, "Don't compare to this case. In this case, you're not going to add new figs. You're not doing anything new. You're not adding new figs. You're just taking the not the the figs that are questionable. Let's say it was a black fig of trumah and it fell into 50 black figs. You take them and you smash them. That's what you do. You're not adding something new. You're dealing with the same reality, with the same entity. You're just manipulating it a little bit. You're changing its form. Instead of being a self-contained fig, you're you're you're mashing it up and you're turning it into one big like a one big dough, one big cake. Fine. Gesundheit. Pressed figs used to be they was very fashionable to have pressed figs. That, the Tosafos Yom Tov says you're allowed to do. That's not a problem. You're allowed to do You're allowed to change the format of what is. You're not adding new figs. So, therefore, Rebbe Yeshua says, "Since you could do that, therefore, the 50 of the other color combine." What's the logic of Rebbe Akiva? Rebbe Akiva who distinguishes between whether you know the color of the trumah fig that fell in or you don't know. What's the logic to distinguish? Kasvu on this they say This is the Bartinura says this. They explain as follows. Rebbe Akiva is making a distinction. If you know what was the color of the trumah fig, so the other ones are not forbidden. You can eat them. If the trumah fig was a dark fig, you can eat all the other white figs. If that's the case, if that's the case, so those figs that you're allowed to eat are not part of the equation, because you're allowed to eat them. So, therefore, they can't combine with the black 50 figs to nullify the trumah fig. But, if you don't know the color of the trumah fig, so as far as you're concerned, you're not allowed to eat anything. Cuz you don't know which one it is. You don't know if it was white. You don't know if it was dark. You don't know what it is. So, if you don't know what it is, you can't eat both mixtures. So, therefore, Rebbe Akiva holds, "Now, because both of them for you are forbidden because of your ignorance, you don't know the color, so now they could combine to create bittel." If you want to use a little bit to different terminology, bittel is really the war It's a war. You have trumah and you have a hundred, and the hundred fight the one. So, if it's 99, you can't win the war. The trumah [snorts] wins. But, if it's a hundred, your quantity is large enough to defeat, to overwhelm, to overshadow, to subsume, to nullify the trumah. Says Rebbe Akiva, "That's only if they're joining in battle. If the white and the black are joining battle, the white figs and the black figs together are battling. In other words, they're all problematic here. They all became forbidden from the trumah. So, now they're all, so to so to speak, fighting back. And therefore, the trumah gets lost in the hundred. There's bittel. But, if you know the color of the fig that fell in, so now the white ones, they're out of the battle. They're we're fine. We're good. We got no problem. The trumah is not bothering us. We're white. The trumah is not bothering us. You guys got the problem. We're not joining you. So, Rebbe Akiva says, "Okay, so there's no bittel anymore. They're not joining forces." Interesting svara, very interesting idea. Asks the Lubavitcher Rebbe says, "The reason of Rebbe Yeshua we have to understand. Bartinura tells us Rebbe Yeshua says, "If you wanted, you could have smash crushed the figs and mashed them up into a cake. Great. Wonderful. But, you didn't. [laughter] That's not the case. You have here two distinct figs in terms of color. You did not mash them up and turn them into one battle. They're distinct. So, how does Rebbe Yeshua say that they could combine to be mevatel the trumah? I don't understand. Rebbe Nesanel says, "If you wanted, they could have become one entity. Okay, if that's what happened, that's what happened. But, that's not what happened. If you took a mashed up all the figs and now you just have one big dough, one big cake that includes everything. So, now there's no green and there's no black anymore. They're all the same. Once they're all the same, now the trumah falls in. Fine. They taste the same. The color is gone. But, that's not what happened. Rebbe Yeshua is saying, "Even now, when the figs are whole I'm sorry, I'm using an apple. Even now, when the figs are whole, there's still bittel." What's the logic? Because if he wanted, he could have. Bittel is about the reality. [clears throat] Rebbe Akiva's view is also difficult to understand. Rebbe Akiva's logic we also have to understand. Rebbe Akiva tells me that if I didn't know the color of the trumah fig that fell into the mixture, I can eat all of them because there's bittel. Why? Because all of them are in a doubt for me. I'm not allowed to eat any of them. Asks the Rebbe, "How does that help bittel? Bittel is about a reality. It's about a metzius. Let's say you have 50 figs and 50 oranges or 50 watermelons or 50 cherries and a trumah fig falls in. Will anybody say there's bittel? Of course there's no bittel. Why is there no bittel? And the answer is because 50 oranges cannot nullify a fig of trumah. I you have 50 figs, but you need a hundred figs. Bittel is a metzius. If you have 50 figs, there is no bittel. So, Rebbe Akiva tells me, "If you know the color, then there's no bittel. But, if you don't know the color, so since you have a doubt which one you're allowed to eat, then you're not allowed to eat any of them. Therefore, it creates bittel." But, I don't understand. There was no mixture here. The trumah did not fall into a hundred figs because it's white. You don't know if it was white, but it on its own is either white or black. It's one of the two. It's not both. So, if it's one or the other, he asks, "I don't understand the idea of Rebbe Akiva. In reality, the white figs and the darker figs are not mixable. They have different colors. I don't know what the color is, but how exactly does the bittel happen?" And he quotes the Tosafos in Zevachim Zevachim 9 Gimel who explains that in the view of Rebbe Akiva. My son I learned this with my son. So, he gave an example. This is his example. He said, "If somebody is color blind, and there's a bunch of brown a bunch of brown sefarim. Yeah. Somebody takes the red sefer. And he puts it into the brown sefarim. Or the the color blind person himself. So, somebody's going to say that the red book is mixed up in all of the other books which have a different color, and it's nullified in them. You're not going to say that. Even though he cannot recognize the color, but the reality of it is that it's not mixed. The reality is that this white fig of trumah is not mixed among a hundred ones. I don't know the color red. So, for me, I can't recognize it. Fine. But, it's not mixed. It's not bottle. White figs are white figs and green figs are green figs. It's bottle in 50, but not in a hundred. [sighs] The explanation is You could say the explanation [snorts] about a general concept. And this has to do with what we call in halacha taruvus yavesh b'yavesh. There's two types of kosher and non-kosher mixtures. One is called yavesh b'yavesh, solid with solids, and lach b'lach is liquid with liquid. If you have a non-kosher soup which gets mixed into a kosher soup, it all becomes literally one cohesive entity, and one soup is affected by the other soup. They're They're part of one soup. You mix on Pesach, you take chametz the kabir and you mix it into wine. That's called lach b'lach. Kosher wine and non-kosher wine. Non-kosher wine and kosher wine. That's liquid mixtures. Yavish b'yavish is solid with solid, yeah. If you have a bunch If you have a non-kosher egg and it falls into many kosher eggs, that's called yavish b'yavish. They're not really mixed. They're They're You just You don't recognize which one is kosher, which one is not kosher. If you have a bunch of steaks that you get from the store and one happens to be not kosher and that steak falls into the mixture of the other steaks, one is kosher, one is not kosher. That's called solid in solid solid a solid food, a yavish, a dry solid food that mixes in to another solid food. Here, it's a different type of mixture because the mixture is not that physically they became one entity. They did not physically become one entity. It's not like a drop of milk that falls into a chicken soup. Here, the milk and the soup are both liquids. Here, you're talking about two solids. When you have an apple, let's say this apple is from orlah, which means it's it was produced the first 3 years of the tree, which is forbidden to eat. And this apple falls into the other apples. That's called yavish b'yavish. The apple's taste doesn't affect these apples. In fact, the apple is not really mixed into the other apples. They don't become one. I just don't know which apple is orlah, which apple is not orlah. Yet, the mixture is forbidden. How do you define How do you define this mixture? You could say it two ways. aleph The mixture of solid kosher and not solid non-kosher indeed is not like liquids kosher and non-kosher. Over here, the mixture is not in the object. It's only in the person. I'm mixed up. The apple has no issue. The apple fell in. He knows who he is. I got the issue. In other words, the taruvis is not in the cheft, [snorts] it's not in the apple. It's in the gaver, it's me. I'm mixed up. I just don't know what is what. This egg fell into the other eggs. And you know what? That's fine. And because it gets mixed in, that is enough to be m'vutal the issur. The fact that I don't know makes it become nullified if In this case, trumah would be 100 to 1. base gam taruvis yavish b'yavish b'cheftsa ki geded taruvis hu zeh she'ishar l'hakir bein ha'dvarim. Or maybe, there's a different definition. Even when solid gets mixed up with solid, it's called a mixture in the object because the definition of the mixture is that the distinction between the permissible and the forbidden is not recognized. Even though they physically did not get mixed up, it's not like liquid with liquid, but the fact that [snorts] one cannot recognize the distinction between that which is permissible and that which is forbidden is called taruvis in the cheftsa. The object became mixed and therefore the object is nullified when you have 100 to 1. This is the logic behind the argument. The gam tam mishu d'Rabi Akiva d'svilalei What's the definition of bittel? The definition of taruvis, of a mixture and a bittel, it has to be in the cheftsa. The object has to be nullified. How does the object get nullified? Because one cannot recognize the distinction between the permissible and the forbidden. That's called nullification. In this case, when you have a trumah which is, say, a white fig that fell into 50 white figs and 50 black figs, Rabi Eliezer says, "I'm sorry, this is not called bittel." In the object, there was no bittel. It's recognizable. You may not know the color, so you have a problem. But this fig is not buttel. This fig is not mixed in. It's not nullified. It's not overwhelmed by the other figs. Why? Because there's only 50 of the same color, not 100 of the same color. What about the 50 of the other color? The 50 of the other color don't combine with the other 50 because in terms of the cheft, in terms of the object, it is distinctive. It has a unique color. It's not mixable with the others. And Rabi Eliezer says, "Bittel has to be in the cheft. So, the object has to somewhat be transformed." Rabi Yeshua and Rabi Akiva have a different perspective. For them, the halacha of bittel is about the person. If I am unaware in my experience, in my observation, in my knowledge of it, this fig is mixed up between 100. Why? Because I don't know the color of it. And because I don't know the color of it, so therefore, in terms of my understanding of it, I am confused in terms of all the 100. That's what creates bittel here. That's what he's saying. For Rabi Yeshua and Rabi Akiva, the taruvis is enough even if it's in the person's knowledge. I don't know where the issur is. I don't know. Is it in the white ones? Is it in the black ones? Because I don't know the color. Since I don't know, so therefore it becomes buttel. And that's what Rabi Akiva says, "If you don't know the color, there could be bittel." Why? Because in my knowledge, in terms of my my awareness, this one fig is mixed in into 50 or into 100. Where is it mixed into? It's mixed into all the 100. What do you mean it's not? It's white. It's dark. It can't be mixed. But in terms of me, it's mixed into all the 100. [gasps] I cannot eat any of them. All of the 100 are affected by it. The trumah is in it because I don't know the color. You're right, it's about me. And that is bittel. Now, we'll understand Rabi Yeshua's view. Rabi Yeshua says, "If you wanted, you could have smashed them and mushed them together and make them a cake." This was the system. During the Mishnah's times, people used to take figs, crush them, and turn them into a single dough and make from them a cake. This was the common way how you treated figs. According to Rabi Yeshua, what's the definition of yavish b'yavish getting mixed together and being m'vutal? Not that the object is actually mixed up with the other one because it's not in this case. That's not what taruvis yavish b'yavish is. That's lach b'lach. Yavish b'yavish is just that in my knowledge it's mixed. In my knowledge, I don't know where it is. So, for me, they're all one big bumble jumble. They're all mixed up. If so, says Rabi Yeshua, since the common behavior of people was to crush the figs and mash them up and turn them into one cake. This is the person's common behavior and this is his desire. So, in his mind process, in his thought process, he doesn't distinguish between the dark figs and the light figs. So, therefore, in his thought process, all the 100 are mixed up and therefore there's bittel. In other words, Rabi Yeshua says, "When this man, when this person, this man or woman, is looking at the figs, what do they see?" What do they see? What do they do with these figs? They don't eat these figs as self-contained figs. They turn them into a cake. So, now there's 50 white figs, there's 50 black figs. What does he see here? From his perspective of what I want, what do I I see here the potentiality for a very good shmaka cake. And in that cake, there's no distinction anywhere between the color. If it's a green fig, it's a white fig, or it's a black fig once you're making a cake. So, now you have the trumah fig got mixed in to the other figs. Even if you know the color, says Rabi Akiva, all of them become a din of bittel. Why? Because since this taruvis is not about the cheft, it's about your cluelessness or ignorance. It's about your perspective. And from your perspective, what are you seeing? You're not seeing here figs. You're seeing here the potential for what? For one massive cake that will come from all the 100 figs. So, therefore, in terms of your experience, this trumah fig fell into what? It fell into 100 figs. Even though you know the color. That's the chiddush here. You know that it's a white fig. [laughter] And the white fig fell in to 50 white figs and the 50 black figs. So, Rabi Akiva takka says, "Sorry, here there's no taruvis anymore because I know the color." Comes Rabi Yeshua and says, "Since the whole gather of bittle here is the human thought process, not the chef sir, but the gatherer, my thought process here, that's what we're looking at. Because without the chef sir, there's no bittle." It's yavis b'yavis, there's no bittle here. The whole taruv is yavis b'yavis is a din in gavra, not in chef sir, contra b'Yeshua. There's no bittle, it's not nullified, it's not mixed in. It's just I don't know where it is. It's retains its identity, it's somewhere. It doesn't have a problem, I have the problem with the definition here. It's about my experience of the mixture in my mind, I'm mixed up. It's not mixed up, I'm mixed up, let's put it that way. I'm mixed up, not it's mixed up. Somebody once told Reb Chatzkel Abramsky, the famous author of Chazon Yechezkel on Tosefta, "You see a bachi?" He said, "So that p'sak far vorfen a Tosefta." There's a p'sak a Tosefta which is like an outcast. So he says, "Nein, nein, nein, nein." The Tosefta is nicht far vorfen, du bist far vorfen. The Tosefta is not lost, you're lost. The fig is not lost. [laughter] The fig is the fig. You're lost, you don't know what to do with it. So Reb Akiva says, "If you takka don't know what to do with it, fine. So there's bittle." That's what bittle is, bittle is about you, not about the fig. Comes Reb Yeshua and says, "Let's take this one step deeper. In your mind, what do you see? You don't see figs, you see cake. You don't see the distinction between the white and the black, so therefore, the truma got mixed into what? Into all of them. The truma got mixed into all of them, so you have bittle. I the truma in reality didn't get mixed into them, but the whole definition of taruv is yavis b'yavis is the human experience." Two ways of understanding this type of bittle, it's interesting. That um He says in footnote 11, there's two opinions in how bittle works in bittle b'raiv. Biblically, even by truma, you don't need 101. Rabbinically, you need 101. Biblically, you need raiv, you need a majority. Acharei rabim l'hatos. [clears throat] If you have a non-kosher, non-kosher apple, it's arlah, it falls into two apples. Biblically, the two are the majority, they nullify the other apple. It's one to two, a ratio of one to two. The rabbis added numbers because of different different reasons, not for now. So there's a huge machlokes among the Rishonim. Machlokes between the Shulchan Aruch and the Tur in Yoreh De'ah. It's a machlokes between the Rashba and the Rosh. The great Rishonim have this machlokes in Maseches Shulchan in Yoreh De'ah kuf tes. Question is, are [snorts] you allowed to eat all of them? Or you're not allowed to eat all of them. What does bittle mean? Is bittle about statistics? Meaning, statistically, if you have one versus two, one in contrast to two, so statistically, the one that I'm eating is probably good because there's two, right? That are kosher. So the one that I'm eating, so statistically, this is fine. Then, this is fine, and then this is fine. Is that the p'shat? But then, one you're not allowed to eat. You can't Could you eat all of them together? You're not allowed to eat all of them. If you're eating them all together, certainly one of them is forbidden. That's what he says in 14. Do you say that it's about statistics? Each one, if you have 101 apples, each one statistically is not truma. But are you allowed to eat all of them? For sure not, because one is truma. Are you allowed to eat all of them simultaneously? That would be a very serious problem, even if you could. Can 100 people eat them simultaneously? That would be a very interesting question. You just say, "Each one that I take individually, I assume that it's not truma. I assume that it's kosher." That's one way of learning bittle. And then, you're not allowed to eat all of them simultaneously because now you're contradicting yourself. But there's another view that the bittle actually means that the prohibited food is transformed, and it becomes permissible. So now you can eat all of them simultaneously, it's a whole different definition of bittle. And in many ways, this may be the difference that we're discussing here, whether it's a bittle in the chef sir, or it's a bittle in the gavra. Bittle in the chef sir means [clears throat] the object is changed, that's Reb Eliezer's view. Reb Akiva, Reb Yeshua's view is no, the person doesn't know, so therefore, he we follow that, but then the object, there was no change. We now come to the last element here of the halacha. There's a fascinating new argument to Reb Yeshua. In our mishna, it says, what does Reb Yeshua say? The 50 black figs nullify the truma white fig with the other 50 white figs. That's what he said. Reb Eliezer argued, Reb Akiva mitigated. In Yerushalmi, it says actually Reb Yeshua agrees. He holds, "If you know the color, there's no way there's bittle." So what's the argument between Reb Yeshua and Reb Akiva? If you knew when it fell in and later you forgot. Reb Akiva says, "If you knew the color when it fell in, you saw, you saw. Your child took a black fig and threw it into the basket with 50 black, 50 white. You knew what it is." Then Reb Akiva says, "Even if later you forget, there's no bittle." Reb Yeshua says, "No. If you later forget, there's bittle." Very interesting argument here. So Reb Yeshua agrees that if you actually know the color, there's no bittle whatsoever. The argument between them is more subtle. Reb Yeshua holds, "If you knew, but later you forgot, great, now there's bittle because you don't know the color, so therefore, they're all mixed in together because you don't know the difference. In terms of As far as you're concerned, there is 100 apples that you can't eat." According to Reb Akiva, "If you knew the color when it fell in, even though later you forgot, there's still no bittle." That's what the Yerushalmi teaches us, and that's the halacha. The halacha is like Reb Akiva, that's what the Rambam teaches us. That what? If one white truma fig falls into 50 figs, white figs, and there's another 50 black figs, if you didn't know the color, Reb Akiva says what? There's bittle. If you knew the color, there's no bittle cuz you know the color. You know that You don't know about one one group of 50, we know the other group of 50. What if you knew and you forgot? Says the Rambam, "It's still all truma, safek truma, you're not allowed to eat it." The logic here is strange. Why? If I forgot, what do you care? Right now, this fig of truma is mixed into 100 figs. B'man of shich. If you're talking about the fig itself, the fig itself was never mixed into all of 100 cuz it's either white or black. We're talking about the fact that I don't know because I don't know the color. So therefore, as far as I'm concerned, as far as I'm concerned, this is called bittle. Why is it called bittle? Because in my knowledge, in my ideas, we explained before, this one fig is mixed into all 100. If you ask me which one is truma from all 100, I don't know. It This may be This may be truma, this may be truma, why? Cuz I don't know. So what's the difference if I knew it in the beginning and I later forgot, or I never knew it in the beginning? So you might say, "Well, if you knew it in the beginning, it already became prohibited. It became prohibited later when you forget it, you can't alter the status." But that's not true, the Rebbi says, "Because there's a mishna in Maseches Truma, the next chapter, perek kaf, let's say you had 50 apples of truma, 50 apples of truma, and one apple, I'm sorry, 50 apples of chulin, ordinary food, and one apple of truma falls in. You're not allowed to eat any of them. Now your child comes and throws in another 50 apples by mistake. He doesn't know that there was a problem here. What's the halacha? The halacha is would they all become permissible? I Initially, they were forbidden. Initially, they were forbidden because there were only 50. And because he added another 50 by mistake, he didn't mean to nullify the issur, so the halacha is they suddenly all become permissible. So why would Reb Akiva distinguish in our case? What's the logic here? Initially, if you would have not known the color of this fig, it would have been bottle. The problem is you knew the color. So when you knew the color, so therefore, there's no bittle cuz there's only 50 white figs, there's no 100 white figs, granted. But later you forgot the color, and that was a mistake. You didn't try to forget, you forgot, it was a mistake. So why can't the figs now become forbit permissible? Now there's bittle cuz now there's a mixture in all the 100. Great question. How do we understand this view of Reb Akiva? And as we said, this is the halacha. So now here we see a phenomenon. V'Yesh L'eimar Sh'lo Da'as HaYerushalmi U'Psak HaRambam S'varas Reb Akiva He Eifen Shlishi B'Geder Taruv B'Yavis B'Yavis. Reb Akiva introducing a third halachic formula, terminology. What is taruvus yavish b'yavish? How do you match this idea of Adam? She finished putting taruvus yavish b'yavish. introduces a third perspective. According to Rebbe Yehoshua, the whole definition of taruvus yavish b'yavish and bittel is what? Only something that happens inside of me. I am confused, and because I am confused, therefore it's considered a mixture in halacha and it becomes nullified. Granted. Here, I'm confused. Why am I confused? I knew the color, I forgot the color. Rebbe Yehoshua says it's bittel. Comes Rebbe Akiva, and he says something else. It's true, yavish b'yavish starts all within the knowledge of the person. That's true. But Rebbe Akiva says, halachically, what halacha is teaching us here your awareness of these fruits affect the chefsa. Your state of mind, the way you see them, your machshava, your idea affects the object. That's the chiddush of taruvus yavish b'yavish. Even though, mitzad the fig itself, the reality itself, they're not mixed. It's not lach b'lach. It's just not recognizable. It's not recognizable. You can't distinguish one from the other. That's what the mixture is. It's not really mixed into the other one. That's true. That's how it starts. The yesod of this taruvus is because of my knowledge or my lack of knowledge. Comes Rebbe Akiva and says, "That's true." But this state of your knowledge halachically affects the status of the apple. In other words, my awareness of it, the way I become aware of it, that actually affects its reality in halacha. That's what Rebbe Akiva believes. My idea affects [laughter] the chefsa. That's what he holds by taruvus yavish b'yavish. It's not like Rebbe Eliezer and not like Rebbe Yehoshua. And therefore, according to this, we can understand Rebbe Akiva's svara. Why? Rebbe Akiva says, "In order for my knowledge to affect the chefsa, it's when my knowledge is associated with something that happens in the object, some movement. So therefore, if when it fell in, I did not know the color, so when it actually fell in, I did not know the color." So if I did not know the color, that lack of awareness affects the object itself, and it's called bittel. But if when it fell in, I knew the color, so when it physically moved into this basket, when it fell into this basket, I actually knew the color, Rebbe Akiva says, even though later I forgot it, Rebbe Yehoshua, who says it's all about the human experience and observation, says, "Perfect bittel. You're confused, great, it's bittel." But Rebbe Akiva says, "No, the chefsa [snorts] has to become bottle, and therefore bittel cannot happen now, because the fact that you forgot it later when it was already in a status static mode, there was no transients anymore, there was no movement anymore, your forgetfulness later can't redefine the chefsa of the taruvus yavish b'yavish and create a bittel. And therefore, Rebbe Akiva says, "Once you forgot, even though initially you knew the color, so you would think if you forgot, great, now there should be bittel." He says, "No, if you initially knew the color, so the fact that you forgot later the color of the apple is a confusion inside of you, but nothing changed in the apple as a result. And therefore, because right now nothing is happening in the apple, it's just you forgot. Your forgetfulness doesn't have the ability to affect the chefsa of the apple the way it would have if you did not know the color when it fell into the mixture." That's the view of Rebbe Akiva. [sighs] So when the when the black fig falls into the other figs, and I don't know which color it is, this mixture in my mind affects the mixture, so to speak, in the figs. But if I forgot, I knew the color, this left got that, forgetfulness cannot do the trick. What do we see here in halacha? According to Rebbe Akiva, what do we see here in halacha? We see here a phenomenal concept. Here is a person. He's having an observation. There's a state of awareness of how I see this trumah fig. What is it? Rebbe Akiva says, "I don't know the color." When it fell in, I don't know the color. Because when it fell in, I don't know the color, so Rebbe Akiva says, "It's not just about me. It actually becomes, so to speak, halachically halachically, it becomes the reality of the fig. [laughter] The reality of the fig is, so to speak, altered. It's mixed into a hundred figs, and therefore nullified by a hundred figs, cuz a hundred figs can nullify one fig of trumah." If I did know the color, Rebbe Akiva says there's no bittel anymore. There's no bittel if I know the color. Because it's mixed in between whites, but not between the other ones, if it was a white fig of trumah. Even if later I forgot, Rebbe Akiva says that works, because I'm confused. But Rebbe Akiva says that doesn't work, because you need here bittel in the chefsa in the chefsa of the apples themselves. That's the chiddush of Torah that taruvus yavish b'yavish is assur, that even though mitzad the metzius nothing happened, Rebbe Akiva says, "My state of awareness vis-a-vis this object affects the definition, it affects the object." Now here, the Rebbe goes on to explain why this mishna came out in trumah, because this is a fundamental idea in trumah. In trumah, there's a unique halacha Chazal tell us that says, "Venischevu lachem trumaschem, you can create trumah with your own thoughts, just with thoughts." It's a unbelievable halacha. Usually, to affect change, you need action or at least words. Trumah says, "Venischevu lachem trumaschem in parshas Korach." What's the halacha by venischevu lachem trumaschem? Machshava is enough. I have a thought. I look at I look at my basket of apples, and I have a thought. I just think, "I want this to become trumah." And now, a Jew who eats this, a Yisrael who eats this, is subjected to misah b'dei Shamayim, heavenly death, because you ate For you, it's toxic food, it's poisonous food. I just thought. I thought. Your thoughts affect reality, the halacha tells us. Venischevu lachem trumaschem. Now, there there are other opinions that it doesn't become trumah through your thoughts, that's true. But everything else becomes permissible through your thoughts. Nosein einav b'tzad zeh v'ochel b'tzad zeh. I put my eyes on this apple, and I think I want this to be trumah, even though this itself does not become trumah before a verbal declaration or action, according to some opinions. But everything else now becomes permissible, so their status changes from tevel to becomes kosher. How does all this happen? It all happens through my thoughts. And here too, here too, we have the same concept, that what? That the person's machshava, my thought process or my lack of awareness actually changes the reality of this fruit. If we would learn this many, many years ago, it would seem very strange. It's like, "What are you talking about? This is a physical, technical fig that fell into a bowl a bowl. How is the status being affected? The status is not being affected. You could tell me that you're confused. You could tell me that you don't know about it. You don't know where it belongs. You could tell me that if you don't know the color, so therefore you don't know which one you can eat. So it's all about your perception of it. What What does this have to do with reality?" But today, we know how relevant this halacha is, because Rebbe Akiva is really addressing cutting-edge science and physics. Because after arguing for decades about the nature of the tiny electrons that comprise matter, some sought as waves, some sought as particles, in the last few decades, great physicists concluded that electrons don't exist as a fixed model. There is an endless field of potentiality around every energy particle. It can be here, it can be there, it could be a matter, a particle, it can be a wave, it can go through one slit, it can go through both slits, it can go through neither. Experiments has proven all of this, as as as it sounds. It sounds insane. The fact is that when you're dealing with this level of energy, you're dealing with the tiny electrons that comprise matter, they cannot speak about it in any fixed model. And you know what causes electrons to collapse into a specific and fixed model? I once read a scientist wrote, he said, "If you see a basketball dribbling on the basketball court, it's in one place, right? You're dribbling." He says, "No. At that very moment, the underlying particles of this basketball are bouncing all over the court." Now, it sounds crazy. What do you mean? What is the reason that all the electrons collapse into a fixed model? What causes me to see the basketball as bouncing in one limited location? And experiments have shown that the electron assumes one fixed model and one fixed type of behavior when it's being observed. It's the consciousness of the observer that influences that particle particle, and it decides where it will be, what form it will take, and how it will behave. My observation of reality is what creates reality. In other words, reality is a product of my consciousness. The father of theoretical physics, the father of quantum series, a man named Max Planck. He died in 1947. He won the Nobel Prize. He once wrote I saw a line of his. He wrote, "I regard consciousness as fundam- fundamental. Matter is a derivative of consciousness. Consciousness is not a derivative of matter. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness. In other words, matter is a derivative of consciousness. Because I think it is here, therefore it is here. The way I observe it to be, that defines its reality. And it's based on my thought process. Our observation and the limits that we use in our observation, because our observations utilize the instruments that we use in life, that is what affects what affects reality." Scientists like asking a question. If you leave your home, does it disappear? [laughter] Well, the telephone company doesn't think so, and the bank doesn't think so. But they say, "Absolutely. Of course it disappears. Because the home that you observe is not objective reality. It's a marriage between objective reality and my observation of it. What my mind is capable of perceiving affects the reality which I perceive. What I could perceive affects the reality. So, when I leave my home, it reverts to what it is on its own. What is it on its own? A realm of possibilities. The world is your mirror. It enables you to experience in the physical plane what you hold is true until you change it. So, the laws of nature are not written in stone. They're written in the mind. When our mind changes, our reality changes. Change your mind, change your find. It used to be this is insanity. Here we see in Halacha how it's affected. It's reflected. A Halacha takes into consideration subatomic particles. It takes into consideration electrons. It takes into consideration the fact that the reality of physical matter is changed by my perception of it, by my thoughts of it. And now at last, the last few moments, we go to the psychology of it. How it applies to my practical life. And here we come to the last the third to the last paragraph here in the Sicha at the end of Sif Daled Umiza Ayra. Page You see page 63 Umiza Ayra. Umiza Ayra Bidvar Godol Eruchios Deios Umachshavos Adam. From here you learn the power of thoughts. Here you learn the power of your attitudes, of your thoughts, of your perspectives, of the mental space. How much you have to be careful of allowing your thoughts to get schlepped down into toxicity and negativity. Not only is it not good for me, he says, "You affect the world around you. You affect the people around you." Now, learn about the positive. When you have positive thoughts, encouraging thoughts, motivational thoughts, wholesome thoughts, thoughts that are rooted in the essential divinity of your soul. With yourself and with other people, with your children, with your spouse, with your loved ones, with strangers. You think about their goodness, you see it in your thoughts. You know what happens? It's not just you're doing something good, it's better for serenity. That's true. You're actually helping them. You're affecting their reality. My thoughts of you, my observation of you actually affects you. Something happens in a way that you may not be conscious of it. Sometimes we're dealing with a level of electrons. But not because it's not real, it's more real than anything else. The fact is, if it would if it it's so real, therefore I can't see it. Coronavirus is real because I can't see it. What I could see is very limited. Usually what I don't see is far more real than what I see, right? Bacteria, viruses, very very real stuff. Cells, molecules, atoms, cells, subatomic particles, electricity. These are things I don't see, but they're very very real. They're very powerful. In fact, what makes them so powerful is that I don't see them because my limited instrument the limited instruments of my eyes and my brain's interpretation of it can only observe that which my limited vessels can observe of reality. And Halacha takes this into consideration. The Rebbe says we have here a new homiletical insight in the Gemara in Kiddushin Mem. Machshava Tova Kedusha Baruchu Metzarif L'Maaseh. A good thought, a positive thought, Hashem combines with action. Usually it means if I have a thought to do something, even if I don't end up doing it, God rewards me as though I did it. The Rebbe says Machshava Tova. When you think only positive thoughts about yourself, about your loved ones, about other people, you know what happens? Hakadosh Baruchu Metzarif L'Maaseh. The Ribono Shel Olam was the creator of the world. He takes this thought and Metzarif, he combines it to action. It actually creates Maaseh. My thoughts, your thoughts, my mental space, it creates Maaseh. Think differently about your life, and there will be another life. Think differently about your child, you'll have another child. Think differently about your reality, you can have another reality. Think differently about the people around you, and you help them reveal themselves. He says, "You bring out in every Jew, no matter who he is, the inner tov that is there that it should come to the fore and actually affect his or her life." And he says, "In thought, in speech, in action, in their daily life saturated saturated with Torah and Mitzvos. Change your mind, and you actually change your find your find." This is the famous words of the Tzemach Tzedek. Tracht Gut Vetzei Gut. Think good, and it will be good. He's not just saying, you know, be a positive person. He's saying that actually our thoughts are very very real. Our thoughts affect affect the world. Like the Baal Shem Tov once said that God creates the world through thought, through energy, through his thought process. The world is divine consciousness. Max Planck said it from a physics from a point of view of physics. Matter is a derivative of conscious. Where whose consciousness is this? Tell me. Whose conscious Where does consciousness come from? Where did we get consciousness from? How does blind matter turn into consciousness? It's all rooted in divine consciousness. Bemachshava Achas Nivra Olam. God's consciousness. When my thought when my thought process becomes associated with God's thought processes, we change the world together. In other words, when you take when you realize who you are, and therefore you allow your thoughts to become part of the divine oneness and harmony, so it becomes divine thoughts. If it becomes divine thoughts, so now divine thoughts affect the reality. This is a a wonderful interpretation of the Baal Shem Tov. And now I want to end with this very funny story. The Shiur is over, but I want to finish with this very humorous story. I always found it very very cute and very charming. I guess I should say a L'Havdil, but I think it's worth telling the story. It happened in 1940. There was a couple. They went on their honeymoon. And when they went on their honeymoon, they decided to be creative. So, they rented a rustic wooden cabin near some lake. And they decided to go there for three nights and really kindle, you know, their relationship and their affection. Great. The first night, they retire, and they try to have a good night's sleep so they can have a a lovely, charming, and beautiful day together, and a very noisy woodpecker decided to come pay a visit. [laughter] And all night, this fellow had a coil he did he make them sugar the husband wanted to shoot him. His wife didn't let him but they could not sleep and suddenly before dawn when it started to rain they realized that the woodpecker managed to bore to create a real holes all over the roof of the cabin and hence they and their pillows and their mattresses and their blankets became saturated the rest of the day they were trying desperately to dry up their clothes and their bed wear and guess what night two they were exhausted and who came back for a visit? Mr. Woodpecker. He was beside himself. But that was the second night and there went their sleep and you know what the third night? The visitor was back. [laughter] Oy gevalt. By all means this was a miserable honeymoon. They're on their way back home. Three miserable days without a moment of sleep and difficult and miserable conditions with the raining in the cabin. What would have happened with many a Jewish couple? [laughter] You would turn to your wife and say what? I told you we should have gone to the Ritz-Carlton. I told you we should have taken a room in the Hilton. Who comes up with this idea to rent some weird wooden rustic cabin or is this camp? And I guess they would argue for the next 60 years about this. You know usually the arguments of 60 years are just repetitive of the arguments of the first few weeks. They're just manifested in different ways. This couple decided to do something different. They looked at each other and they said you know this was an amazing honeymoon. But now we got to figure out how and why. He was an animator a cartoonist and his wife said why don't you turn this into a cartoon? And Woody Woodpecker was created. [snorts] And 50 years later a journalist interviewed Mr. and Mrs. Lance and he asked them what was the most successful experience in your life? And they both said when the woodpecker came to visit us that night in the cabin. That became our portal to success. That's where we made our money our glory our fame our popularity. The impact that we had through Woody Woodpecker is all the credit of that woodpecker. Now I found it very interesting because they could have and maybe should have easily concluded this was such a miserable reality. That's it. Let's face it. It's not a fun vacation. It's not called vacation it's called miserable. But they decided to think about it in different ways. And the power of thought is incredible. You affect reality. [laughter] You change reality. This is what Rebbe Akiva already taught us 2,000 years ago before they knew about electrons before they knew about consciousness before they knew about quantum mechanics and quantum theory and possibility theory etc. But Rebbe Akiva teaches this we already see it in the halachas of trumah. Today we see it in science. Today we see it in psychology. We see it in human life. [snorts] You think positive. Thinking positive doesn't mean I don't have negative thoughts doesn't mean I don't have trauma. Doesn't mean I was not abused. It does not mean I don't feel guilt. It does not mean I am pure and holistic and clean from everything. What it does mean is all types of thoughts come in but I have to choose where I'm going to go. I have to choose to take my thought process and align it with the harmony of existence with divinity. Align it with goodness with hope with positivity with my core that's indestructible. Think about that when I view myself and it's hard. This is real avoid it's not easy. It's hard. But when I do it machshavah tovah Kodesh Boruchu metzaref l'maaseh let the creator of the world show you how your thoughts have an incredible incredible impact on your life and in the life of the people around you. I'm now going to take a few questions. I thank you all for coming those who want to stick around for questions please feel free and we're going to continue with some questions here. I'm just opening it up. Choose. Why don't I see the questions finished? Let me open up my laptop. Let me open my laptop so I could see the question. I thought they would come here. Give me one moment. Tell you a beautiful story in the meantime the Baal Shem Tov the Baal Shem Tov was it lived in Mezhibozh in Ukraine and the Baal Shem Tov once heard there were two baalei batim in Mezhibozh two Jews who were businessmen so to speak in Mezhibozh in Ukraine and they were you know one of them was I guess some a little brute or a little crude in his words and the Baal Shem Tov hears that uh one of them is talking about his friend. They they got into a huge fight. And he was so angry he was so furious. He tells the other fellow he says I'm going to tear you up like a fish. I could do kri'ah k'dog zeh. I'm going to tear you up like a fish. That's what he says. And the Baal Shem Tov heard this and he he shuddered. He shuddered. And and they they asked the Baal Shem Tov what happened? So the Baal Shem Tov he had his students put their hands over each other's shoulders you know like we do in camp. You remember that? And uh I'm just looking here. Okay. It says an error. So the Baal Shem Tov had them put their hands around each other and they sang a niggun. And when they sang a niggun they saw a vision of actually him harming this individual. And the Baal Shem Baal Shem Tov told them that when a Jew has a thought it affects reality and in a certain plane of existence even though you can't see it with your eyes that thought is actually materialized and he says if this is true in the negative understand how powerful this is true also in the positive. That's what the Baal Shem Tov told them. [snorts] And uh Okay. So I wish you all some technical glitch on my computer. I don't see the questions. Chevra, I'm going to see you. This was great a great beginning very exciting and I wish you all a beautiful beautiful Shabbos a beautiful beautiful week. May we all take the energy of this auspicious day internalize it to be able to become ambassadors of love and light and hope and healing and positive attitudes and and good thoughts machshavah tovah about ourselves about our spouses about our children about our grandchildren our friends our loved ones our communities and the world and the Jewish people. When you when you when you operate on this level of mental space when this