Journey to London: Ambition - The Key to Success (at Hasmonean High)

this torah class is brought to you by torahanytime.com thank you rabbi gawker for the very warm introduction but i did not squeeze you into the schedule adaraba we had many opportunities over this weekend but in my mind in many ways this was the most important so thank you for squeezing me into your schedule there was a rebbe you know the rebbe had many talmidim and he was the big time of and he knew a lot of torah but he was not really connecting with the students and it was uh recommended to the rebbe that he needs to spend time with the students and you know hang out with them do with them what they like to do so the rebbe was told maybe you want to go hunting with one of your tamidem so the rebbe says you know i'm not really familiar with the process of hunting but maybe it's a taco good idea so rebbe takes the class out on a hunting trip and they're out in the fields and they they're all armed everybody's armed they're ready to and all of a sudden there's a deer and they all shoot and the deer dies the deer drops dead and now there's a big macho like us who shot the deer the rabbit or the tummy them so rebbe said it was me tell me he's gonna come out right you don't know how to hunt the rubbish i know it was me look at the bullet hole in one ear and right out the other any event let me share with you the following question we all know haggadah passage we all want to be what does the maha what's going on over here what are all these mitzvahs what's the matzo what's the mara and it sounds ridiculous that's the wants to know what the mitzvahs are i mean this is basic jewish knowledge this is the most elementary level of yiddishkai he doesn't know what to do the night of the say there maha i want to share with you what i consider to be the most important information that a young man needs to know during their yeshiva years we all know rabbino yoina yandong of the great sheinem wrote the classic work shari chuva reflection writes about the shari chuva kol haswarim kodesh shari chuvas says is kaidos kadashim because many swarm talk to different people you know some people are connected with ram some people are connected with shari chuva talks to everybody if i were to ask you a question what are the two most important mitzvos in the torah so you say you know we can't answer that question what do you mean what are the two most important myths in the torah the mischievous says in perique voice be careful with all the mitzvahs we don't know the reward for mitzvahs no but really what are the two areas of avoidance hashem that we really need to focus on more than anything else there is a clear answer to that question there are meat and potatoes of judaism the gemara says i believe on that that children walked into the base madrid and they said to russia that even from the time of yahushua nobody ever said such a powerful drasha says the gemara they darshan the allah phase aleph base gimmel dalid and these children darshan aleph bayes alef bina gimmel dalid gamal dalam bayes learn torah gimmel dalit dukha said have then the name of hashem will rest on you writes that we learn from this gemara a very important lemur that there are meat and potatoes in judaism and that is what are the tui karim in the life of a yid in other words what do i need to devote my focus my emphasis my drive which voice says number one is alafina limura toira is the most important mitzvah in yahadas it's the aleph base aleppina but lima data cannot be without gamila's khasadam gamal dalam so number one is lima torah al-fina number two is gamal dhalim all the other mitzvots are in third place and the explanation is very simple when we perform a mitzvah we're listening to what hashem commands us when we do we're doing more than that we're acting like hashem we're not just listening we're acting like hashem and when we learn torah we're thinking like hashem okay the two most important mitzvots in judaism lima da torah and gamilas kassad if i may i want to ask you a question and it requires a certain level of sophistication which we all have rabinoyano is a re-shine every word of a re-shine you could analyze you could ask yourself why did he say it why did he say it this way why didn't he say it a different way every word of a re-shine is a nugget it's gold it's a treasure and we're entitled to question it and prove its death depth rada in the third section of safer shari chuva talks about something called mitsvas assay now we all know there are many mitsubishi where it's fill in where it sits is make kiddish friday night fila in general there are many there are 248 mitzvahs assay avraham 248 ramakhibaram but says yes there are mitzvahs assay but there are general fields of avoidance hashem that are not just mitzvah they're called mailoys milos holyonas means it's not just a specific act but it's a general category i'll give you a list of some of them but then i want to tell you the order for example hashem love of hashem it's not just a mitzvah arise a dry act like to fill in but it's an it's an all-encompassing area of the service of hashem there's yera sasha and fear of hashem devekos kedusa if i were to ask you to make a hierarchy of the mylois hoelyonoise i would make the following hierarchy number one talmud torah number two gamilas khasadim but that is not how rabinoyano makes his list says the greatest attributes are given over with a mitzvah say you know what they are number two and i'm going to skip number one for a minute maloy's talmud learning tara number two number three hashem walking in the ways of god okay drum roll please what is thank you good job good job number one number one on the list number one on rabinoyeno's list of miles the attribute of bahira and the question is what in the world is ravenous talking about milos the attribute of free choice that's not even a mitzvah deutsche what does he mean free choice free choice is a philosophical theological concept we know that when faced with a challenge you need to overcome the challenge but there's no mitzvah in the torah of bahira the hero is not a mitzvah but hera is a concept it's a philosophy it's an imam and it's a fundamental principle of faith it's not a mitzvah di raisa and not only is it a mitzvah in the world of ravennayana it's number one on the list before talmud matara and before khasad and i was bothered to try to understand the words of rabbenu and i've seen many perushim and then i think i came across the definitive explanation in the words of rabbenu because it's not an idea that somebody had but in one of the other safari of rabbenu he writes explicitly what he means let's talk about the jews in the desert for a moment you know they come at him it's ryam let's talk about their personality in mitzrayim let's talk about their character mitzrayim think about what they were doing there for 210 years they were working like janitors like schleppers they were working with cement like laborers no skill no ambition they were building buildings didn't require great technical acumen and then they come out into the midbar and hashem says i want you to make the finest tapestries i want you to make the most ornate klim i want you to craft and mint bur and furnace gold silver and orange kruvim a menorah i want you to make something on par and much greater you go to the tower of london you see the queen's jewels i want you to make ornate kalem more beautiful so the jew said what are you talking about us we have no background we have no skill we're schleppers we're a bunch of slaves you need to go to somebody who's been training for 10 20 years under a master artist professional craftsman how are we going to accomplish that task and the torah hakadosha says and you know who stepped forward the people whose hearts elevated them writes the ramban these are people who had no skill and no ability and no study they were slaves however they had one thing going for them they had ambition to reach high levels in the service of hashem they said to themselves that if the riban islam has given us the opportunity to make a mishkan for him then even though we don't have the physical ability and the acumen and the technical skill and the craftsmanship but we want it so badly and their hard elevated them and lifted them up to inspire them and to bring out of their personalities abilities they did not have says the ramban looked carefully at the words of the torah kalish ashar nasa levi their hearts carried them they didn't know how to build an orion they didn't know how to weave tapestries but by igbo hashem which means their hearts elevated them they wanted so badly to come close to hashem they had such ambition to do something for the jewish people that that ambition somehow invested and instilled in them ability they literally did not have this is the concept says ramban of nasiya slave nasiya slave is you could be 10 years old 12 years old 14 years old 16 years old and you could look at the shelves of shas and you could say to yourselves i can't even read two lines of gemara without breaking my teeth but i want to do something for the jewish people i want to be a talmud i want to be god-fearing i want to improve my midais i want to be a leader in cloud israel and maybe i don't have the mental acumen and the intellectual ability and the character but i want it and you know what the only thing it takes is you need to really want it and if you really want it the concept the the phenomenon of nasia slave of ambition will elevate you to the highest levels from the all-time great bali mossar he says something that is just so powerful [Applause] we have reshainam a rambam a ramban or abenuyna now what's the difference between them and us right what bottom line the rambam what's why are we not producing ram bombs why are we not producing rebikiva eggers why are we not producing villain guns like what's the difference between the vilnigan and us so i would have said what do you know what the difference is vilna going was a genius and we're you know we just don't have intellectual ability the vilna going was holier he had more discipline like what if we could pinpoint bottom line let's cut to the chase where are the goddardly stroll of yesteryear why are the young men not developing into gadoislam that we had a hundred years ago 500 years ago what is the difference is it physical ability mental ability sanctity purity discipline says rabbini rookhum no no no no no it's not what you think it's very simple go out into the business world who is successful if you could find a common denominator between all the successful entrepreneurs businessmen doctors professionals what is it says one thing they all have in common ambition they want to reach the stars it's not mental acumen it's not intellect it's not personality it's not charm it's one word yazma ambition desire they want to reach the stars says i i could never say such a thing the main difference between the rambam bro the villain of some sofa and us is they had ambition to reach the shamayim and be the greatest and drive to be the biggest hashem they possibly could and we don't we cut ourselves short we say you know what i'll just study for the test hope i get a good mark and hope to be like an okay jew one day does a person go to sleep at night i am going to do something with my life i want to be raphaim kenievsky reverend labs diamond rabbi yosef a god of israel i want to know shas i want to know humish i want to know mishna i want to know the torah i want to do something for clau israel i want to bring people back i want to educate clau israel i want to make the jewish people bring them to a higher level but just say whatever i'm just going to be what i'm going to be says the main difference between the godolam of yesteryear and us is we don't have nasias haleigh we don't have the same ambition the tana de bellio says listen carefully a person is obligated to say when will my actions reach the actions of abraham yitzchak and yaakov it's ridiculous first of all my actions will never reach the actions of abraham yes so why would i be obligated to say when will they reach i mean isn't that let me imagine your science teacher would say before we begin everybody stand up and say when will i reach the level of albert einstein come on let's go everyone together right imagine if you would start class every day it's ridiculous you know einstein was a genius why should i say that why do i need to say that no because i'll tell us we're obligated to say when will we reach the madriga of there's 613 mitzvahs so now they made a new one there's a new mitzvah you ready to get this when you wake up in the morning you need to dive in you need to put on sitzis fill in hashem and also don't forget to say hi i mean that we're we're on the tourism where does it say where in the does it say that i need to say here you have a guy he's a god we say pal but did you say when am i going to be like no i forgot to say that oh you blew it where in the torah does it say i have to do this rabbi nuyna wrote another say fair the name of the safe hair is shared in parikh memphis i think rabbi nuyona very clearly opens the shamayim to us and gives us an insight into what robin is the one thing in this world more important than learning and more important than after all it's number one on the list the number one area and arena of avoidance hashem the first step in away this hashem is myla sabahira what is bahira every day you have to strengthen yourself to rise from level to level from step to step higher and higher the ahmed you need to desire the if you need to yearn to reach a level that you're not able to when you wake up in the morning you should say i wish i knew the entire shas even if you're not able to know it when you wake up in the morning you're required to say when am i going to fear hashem like the rambam like the ramban even if you're not able to when you wake up in the morning you need to say when will i be of al-qasad like robari levine even if you're not able to that you're not on yet yearn for it want it desire it even if you really can never get there yes means desire desire to reach that level the siga choose to attain it for choosing it you'll be rewarded as if you attained it meaning if you wake up in the morning and you say i wish i knew kala toi rakula you will be rewarded as if you know kalatarakala and if you wake up in the morning you say i wish i was about like abraham avinu when you get up to shamayim you'll be rewarded as if you're about to like and if you wake up in the morning you say i wish i was mispalo the avoid like yitzhak you'll be rewarded as if you do that is a positive command meaning rabbenu yana is defining bahira as a decision and a desire and a yearning and a chuuka and a pursuit and an ambition to reach the highest levels of aveda hashem it's a mitzvah in the torah amazing thing because none of the other reshinam speak about this says before you start avoid this hashem yes learning is the most important mishap and is number two but there's something that comes before everything there's something that precedes everything there's something that all the service of hashem is based on and that is the mitzvah bahira that's the midst of the sia slave that's the mitzvah of you know we can't just come and approach judaism and yiddish yeah i'll try to keep the halacha and i'll try to learn a little bit and i'll try to dive in as best as i can and i'm going to be an ok jew no no you haven't reached the olympies yet even before the olive phase of yiddishkai is what do you want to be who do you want to become what do you want to accomplish in this world you need to shoot for the stars says if a person has an ambition to be a sadiq tamil or ishmael he will be rewarded as if you are you know why because i'll tell us mitzvah venenas if you have an ambition to know shas even if you can't do it you'll be rewarded as if you know it because if you never get around to it never it was annoying us you had extenuating circumstances things didn't work out but if you want it it's already in your bank account i think we could suggest correctly do you know how hazal no of odom is we're in the torah does it say i am obligated to say when will i be like abraham avinu when will i be like israel when will i be like yaakov it's a positive homicide choose life choose to want to be like abraham choose to want to be like yitzchak choose to want to be like yaakov like we're showing in machreinham like irabayam so you'll ask it's illogical why should i want to be like avraham if it's what rabino yonah calls a madrega no yohala it's a level i can't reach if i can't reach it why should i want it continues there's another advantage of the hera kimi toivka god will help you get there if you really want to be like the rambam you will be like the rambam rabbi rukhlam the only reason we're not is we don't want it bad enough we don't have the drive we don't have the ambition we don't have the desire but if you really want it but i'm not able to learn shots you know i have a weak memory and i don't read so well and i don't understand so well so really if i really want it if you really want it you're going to be rewarded for it and if you really want it nothing is impossible says god will help you get to levels that you're not able to get to that is the milo of bahira that is the first step in avoidance hashem and as a young man in yeshiva yes our limu are number one and our torah personality and our kassad and our midos but there is one thing that precedes everything what do we want out of ourselves who do we want to become what do we want to accomplish you shoot for the stars in shamayim you're rewarded as if you got there and shamayim will help you get there rabinoyano lists three miles number one mila sabahira number two myles tamatora number three myles kn this is step one in the development in available i'll end with the story 1946. so you know in america for last i don't know 50 60 70 years one of the greatest educators in america tamil historian producer speaker maribeth's torah rav rashishiva rabbi barrow wine a very multi-faceted individual and he's 11 years old and uh you see he grew up in chicago his father says you know beryl we're going to the airport a big sadiq is coming to town the chief rabbi of palestine of the time herzog revised herself he's coming to town and all the rabbanim and all the yeshiva bahrain are going out to greet him and we're going to escort him to the skokie yeshiva now herzog was a very impressive figure so he comes off the plane and he's wearing his shiny top hat and he's holding a silver cane he's carrying a tanakh in his hands and raleigh wine said we all accompanied him to the shul and he gathers in the shoal and he proceeded to give alamda shashir and yadish and after the 45 minutes here rav herzog changed his language he started to speak in english he was a love in ireland he spoke within iris brogue and he tells the young men the following so i want you know i just returned from rome where i went to visit pope pius xii and by the way my grandfather told me the same story he met rav herzog after the war in the dp camps says of herzeg i brought to the pope a list of names of 10 000 jewish children who the jewish families gave over to monasteries to christian families to save their lives during the holocaust and herzog presents the list of ten thousand jewish children to the pope and he says pope these are our children you're kidnapping them now give them back we only gave them to you to save their lives we didn't think we would be alive but now that we're alive return to us our children and the pope flatly refused the pope said i will not give back to you even one child the rule is once a child is baptized he can never go back to another religion all these ten thousand children have been baptized i pleaded and they slammed the door on my face and repurchased standing there in the skokie yeshiva and he's overcome with emotion he puts his head down on the podium and raf herzog this elegant man this sadek great going he weeps bitterly at the podium says rabbi wine the whole seabour shook they were frightened i was never so frightened in my life and then the rabbi defiantly lifts up his head and he roared at us like a lion he said i cannot do anything for these ten thousand children but young men i ask of you what are you going to do for the children of israel what are you going to do to help rebuild the jewish people and he repeated himself again and again what are you going to do for the future of the jewish people and then we lined up and we shook his hand and he looked each and every one of us in the eye and he said what will you do for the future of claude israel a young man in yeshiva today is from the miuta de miuta de miuta of the entire world and of the entire world history you know what kind of miracle it is for a young man to be learning in yeshiva today after 3 300 years of jewish history when the vast majority of the jewish people are no longer part of our nation even today in claude israel what percent of jews go to a jewish school minority of a minority that means if you're here today hashem cherry-picked you hand-selected you i guess he wants you to do something i guess we have a mission so what are we going to do what are we going to do for cloud israel what claudiuso needs more than anything else people who know the torah hakudaisha people who know hashem's torah people who are ambassadors for hashem's torah eurasia mayam bali mido estoy voice who's going to give over the torah to the next generation if not us if you're here today we have to answer that call what are we going to do for the future of cloud israel we need to thank hashem every day that we have the opportunity to come and learn in yeshiva take advantage of the opportunity and be seated shoot for the stars aim for the stars hashem we could aim to be sam the rambam voiceover may we all get there thank you so much for listening you've just experienced another torah class brought to you by torahanytime.com