KLM Practical Steps How to Increase Joy in Adar with Rabbi Asher Baruch Wegbreit

[Music] welcome back to kl klm cavanaugh mitzvahs which is an awareness movement to help people appreciate the incredible power of having intention before you do misses during you during the process etc so one of the things we try to do at klm is to take activities that need a little dusting off because they become a little ritualistic and dry and we try to spruce up these myths and activities with some meaning and beauty and of course to bring hashem into the picture that's the main goal okay so i have an act i have an activity that starts in otter that's hodus adar and this activity i think could use a little sprucing up and what's that there's a mitzvah it says the hazal tell us when adar enters the month of otter enters you should increase joy that's what hazal tell us to do okay the question is how is that done so here's the classic the classic is this that there's this great tomb this that is sung when rosh chodesh starts right meesha misha misha misha misha misha misha misha misha nicknasadar [Music] so that's one thing we do right when misha we sing that and then if you have kids so kids that are young kids that are in haiti and base yaakov roshadar you already put on your esther dress and your mordecai clothes and you they the kids dress up in costumes okay says rosh hadish ardar there's this cute beautiful little song and then there's the kids in costumes and then what right there's a week and a half until purim so we are supposed to be increasing simcha joy in adar on a daily basis but basically well poor when purim runs around we know what to do the porn is clear we read the megillah we get drunk we make sudas send gifts purim has clear instructions but what how are we going to do this is a mitzvah the rabbis say they're giving us an instruction this when odd or enters increase your joy on a daily basis okay so what we need to understand is what else can we do besides that tune right what can we do there's actually you're going to see this incredible opportunity here okay so to understand that we have to go to a gemara in tinus this is where we learn this okay there's another month where we're given a the diametrically opposite instruction and that's the month of of okay and it says mission nicknas when when the month of of enters we reduce joy okay now there that's more clear okay when uh when rosh hodish ah the month of off starts or even the three weeks guess what we know what we we reduce simcha no haircuts no haircuts no music no weddings right no joy basically the you know the mogan avram says not just reduce he says no joy there should be no joy because our temple was destroyed okay so there misha nicknas of reduce instructions don't shave no music etc but again let's go back to adar mission nicknas adar increase simra no instructions really except what does it say it says it's in the gemara and in the mishnah brewer it says if you have a court case against the non-jew right push it try to schedule it in adar okay in other words we have some good fortune something like this so uh schedule your court your adversarial situation schedule them another that's it though what else do we do right so that's what i want to explain i'm going to tell us what we do but more important why why are we supposed to increase joy and otter once we understand why again we're sprucing up this ritual right we once we understand why we increase then we'll know how to increase all right so why there if you look in it by the way the gemara is in if i if i didn't mention the source it's huftet ahmed aleph in the maritimes okay so there rashi tells us why do we increase uh simpha because these are days of miracles you may neesim he says adar and nissan right in other words there were tremendous miracles in adar the purim we'll discuss and on to it's estimates ryan so that's why when otter enters you have this mitzvot to increase joy because the miracles now there are a lot of miracles and i mean i don't want to make a magilla out of this that's that's next week next week please god we're going to talk about the missiles of purim right the megillah just count there's countless miracles okay but i want to focus on one miracle for right now and this miracle will really get us we can rev the engine to increase simcha okay and listen to this this comes from the vilna gohan right the vilmigon says why is this holiday coming up called purim right the word purim means lots l-o-t-s when a person throws a lot you know and they make a decision because they cast lots right so the the holiday is named purim because of lots now uh that begs the question why is this holiday called lots all right what's the significance of it so the villenegon explains like this because haman who was the horrible hitler-like enemy of the jews he threw lots to determine when he could get away with a genocide decree against the jews and here's the point says the vilna gohan he nailed it he was a sorcerer you have to understand that haman uh could play ball with bilum okay in figuring out what's going on he had see the the torah actually says sorcery has substance and it's a very dangerous force very dangerous so haman had actually threw lots the 13th of adar next week that at that time he according to the way the world was set up and designed he would succeed in the genocide right so ready you know what the grass says the icker miracle is because of how accurate his lots were the vilnigon says that in order to derail this hashem had to change the masalos meaning the spiritual constellational frameworks hashem had to alter that now by the way when you say hashem had to change the mazel people have a little background will then say to you but wait a minute aim ma israel jews are not subject to muzzle that's not exactly correct okay if you look in the gemara shabbas right it says like this rashi explains everybody is subject to mazel a lot is determined by mazel your intelligence your wealth you know children a lot jews included however what does it mean that there's no mazel to call israel it means that if there is a decree or something against the jews through prayer and repentance to fella and chuva we can overcome the degree okay so here now it's going to make sense you have to we have to realize the masalas the way hashem structured the spiritual universe is very set and orderly and it happens things happen according to it now when hashem decided to bring a marble to destroy the world with a flood he changed a mazel he took a star called kima and he altered it if you will its positioning and that was it so ready purim you know what happened on purim hashem changed the mazzalos he altered the celestial the celestical celestial framework of the universe because he loves us and because we did a darn good shuva we had done it we repented and so that that's so hashem turned this month this month was supposed to be like ah a disaster the ultimate disaster there was never a bigger threat of disaster ever right and hashem pour in he took the lots of ana amman and he reversed them and made it that it's a tremendously beautiful month for us a great month so here now that's a reason to be basimka let's just take that one there's we'll discuss more miracles next week but let's just take that one which is a big one right now how do we respond okay hashem did the most and he did it out of a tremendous love for us right how do we respond so the first eights i have cousin yisro good old ancient cousin isro isro um was a non-jew that heard about what happened to the jews right he heard he came over to moshe moshe bain who gave him a full account of the miracles so you know what he did this is amazing you know we have to think about it he he was not a jew he was not he did not gain from what happened to the jews at all you know what he did when he heard about this he said baruch hashem baruch hashem thank god for saving you he said barak hashem was this but not only that he took money out of his pocket he brought sacrifices you know what a sacrifice is it's a financial sacrifice you pay for that he took some animals and he sacrificed to them for what hashem did to us hashem and you know the truth is that was not a good moment for us jews the gemaran sanhedrin saudi dhalid ahmed alif 94 a says that you know israel said baruch hashem for saving the jews what about ready moshe and the six hundred thousand men why didn't they say bro hashem it was a little bit of a put down says the gemara so you hear this israel hears about someone else's good fortune and says baruch hashem for what he did for you and he even offers a sacrifice to hashem so my first suggestion for us let's do tikkun yisro okay our ancestors on their level did not fully say baruch hashem when miracles were done right so let's have in mind to follow in israel's footsteps right and also let's try them with talking okay so akaddish borhu aka borohu we know he changed the spiritual universe to save us and there were it wasn't just saving us so many good things happened in purim we'll talk about it right but i want us to let let's just say right now okay hashem let's say hashem for what happened in purim right now i say response number one okay and let's do it with simba okay and by the way you know one of the things uh when i give classes i give a weekly class also in klm i always say i don't want this class to be a tv show right what's a tv show a tv show is you watch a tv show and hopefully it's entertaining or good and i would like this to be that way too but you watch it and then you move on right but i want us to live what we're learning here all right so if you say well rabbi wegbright just said that you know we one of the things we can do mr nicknass nicknasa are saying with some simcha for the miracles of purim right but i don't i'm worried that after this is over you'll forget all right so please join me okay you listening right now let's miss otter has entered right there were incredible miracles right so first response when hashem does a miracle hashem excellent excellent okay we have accomplished let's move on okay now i want to move into this uh a strategy to increase our joy okay and i think uh i think you're gonna um see there's such a this is a simple strategy that's going to have a big impact it can have it'll have a big impact on you spiritually but also physiologically okay so i have a little thing up my sleeve okay so we now know that uh we're supposed to increase our joy we know why okay how okay ready yeah smile smile i want to point out to you that if you smile correctly if you smile klm style there are four mitzvahs four commandments you fulfill when you when you smile you can okay so let's discuss the profound mitzvah or action of smiling okay so first of all let's start with this let's start out spiritually okay the safer there's a famous jewish concept says the uh the hisonius is mashpia on the panemius that external actions affect your internal state okay now where by the way that people are familiar with that from machias hasharan he says that he says a key way to feel something inside spiritually is to do something outside physically right but you should also it's good to know the safer kenneth says this and when it and he talks about it in the midst of the peso he's saying physical behavior affects your internal spiritual state right so when we smile okay way to hear the science in one minute okay but let's start when we smile right externally we can affect our level of joy internally spiritually speaking and why is that so significant it's super significant right because it says you say this in the in the prayers in the morning about a kardash it's translated the light like a spiritual joy and delight is in his place meaning hashem has no physical location but the location of hashem as it's alluded to there's hedva there's this joy we also say that the divine presence can only rest on a person in a state of joy that's why you have to end be when you're dominating you have to be in a state of joy so you can experience the divine presence it's super important right why because you're on you're in a vibe with akashborohu you're tapping into the spiritual joy that he exudes right so when you smile you can put a little hedva in there you can put a little joy inside and therefore you can experience the vacus attachment to hashem in other words when you when you adjust your spiritual mode into joy right then you're in hashem's vibe you're experiencing to vacus attachment to hashem okay so that's number one okay smiling mr nicknas adar we increase joy by smiling so that's the first thing let's talk physically okay now when if i i'm a rabbi not a scientist by trade but i do want to use science when it makes an important point what i try to do is i speak to somebody i have a good friend who's a doctor dr setzer who's very very responsible in terms of scientific research and things like this so i'd heard that a smile can help your physiology and i just wanted to double check with him and he sent me some some research and and was completely comfortable with it okay so remember our sages yours before said that the external affects the internal listen to this what happens when you smile okay um when a smile flashes across your face dopamine endorphins and serotonin are released into your bloodstream those are all wonderful mood elevating drugs chemicals okay and listen to this so first of all those those three things the serotonin the endorphins and the uh dopamine they relax you and that's obviously a good right less stress but listen to what it says they also lower your heart rate and your blood pressure do you realize what a smile does my wife thought maybe it takes a amount of time 20 minutes right and doctor says no every time might as well no tv shows put a smile on your face do you realize what you just did you just released these chemicals in your brain and you just fulfilled the mitzvah of nismartim odlano save him hashem commands us to take good care of our health you hear this so you just did you just fulfilled the commandment now again we uh one of the things we try to do here is consciously have intention so right so before you smile have in mind the mitzvah of taking good care of your health it's really good right so so what do we have so far we have that you actually attach yourself to hashem because you mirror his spiritual state of joy and it's great physically next the next thing is and i would say that it would wouldn't be good ideas we are commanded to serve hashem with joy right that's a year-long obligation it says first of all it's a torah commandment says the rebel baha'i it says the jews had a lot of curses and troubles uh sheim iraqim because they didn't serve hashem with joy and also it's a mitzvah medivh so friend it says right so there it it there's definitely commandment to service and with joy right so here we go we can when we smile we can uh we can service him with joy and here's my suggestion okay uh the morning when you wake up in the morning i have them you know uh if you look uh on the internet a lot of people are trying to help releasing videos to help people be successful right so one of the big ones is morning routine right everyone says that your morning is going to determine your whole day right your morning routine so i have a great morning routine for you it's called the high routine high is uh 18 right the number 18 and it stands for life so here's my suggestion for you hi there you make blessings in the morning so if you i i also want to have for men and women okay i'm not talking about a tolerance to filling right now but you have al-nuti lesidayam asher yatsar for the bathroom and elokai nashama for our soul being restored that's three and does anyone know how many uh morning blessings there are besides that fifteen three plus fifteen high eighteen how about this right we wanna serve hashem the simcha right how about putting a smile on your face before the 18 blessings right yeah tremendous for your health tremendous for connecting to god right and that's what we're doing we're serving ishmael so we say hashem it's adar you brought incredible miracles right you want us to increase our simka let's channel it to you let's have 18 smiles on her face just when we're getting started right and it shows by the way serving assembler you're showing hashem what a privilege to serve you right so that's another suggestion so now one more mitzvah okay let me i'm going to review this with you in a second in a way that'll be easy to remember i hope okay but i have one more i said there are four misses when you smile okay attaching yourself to shen nish martin taking care of your health serving hashem of joy last one emulating hashem meaning how about smiling at your friends and family right it's a mitzvah to smile at a person to uh to me cobble person to savor ponte myofos to put a smile when you smile at a person the gemara says that you know if you show them your teeth it's better than a glass of milk right you save on milk it's like you gave him a glass of milk right so how about smiling at people and that fulfills the myth of a haftaraka kamoja in order by the way whenever we do things that are good for other people we're emulating hashem okay because that's what hashem's doing all the time he's doing for others right so for example when you smile you're doing mithra of a hafter right you're showing respect and interest and making them feel good right so you hear this so even if let's say outside if you have to wear a mask right how about indoors with the people you're connected to smile at them as a mitzvah of loving them right loving them like yourself you hear all right so i would suggest that a smile can go a long way for us to fulfill this mitzvah mission nicknas now i came up with a way for us to remember this as i mentioned before i do not want these classes to be like a tv show that you watch them and oh that's very interesting and then you move on and you don't live what we just discussed so we just um brought out the incredible mitzvahs involved with just a simple smile right we said there are four mitzvahs so i came up with a little scheme here uh if you would like to stay sane smile sing okay so i'm just going to do this so you can remember uh the vet the four minutes that is involved with smiling so we start out with s serve right we said that in the morning the you can make the first eighteen blessings with a smile what a way to show hashem that you consider a privilege to serve him and bless him for all the good he does so that's s next a attachment to hashem as we mentioned um oz the hedva bin kamo shen's if you will location even though he has no physical location it's described that he's deeply associated with hedva joy and we said the divine presence only rests upon a person when they're in a state of joy so when you smile you're cultivating joy and therefore you're attaching to hashem to make us because you're in joy and you can get in the wavelength with him who is in joy so s serve hashem a attachment to hashem in nishmarten take good care of yourself we pointed out that there's when a person smiles endorphins serotonin dopamine all the treasured chemicals of good mood and it can actually lower your blood blood pressure and heart rate unbelievable so that's a mitzvah first of all it's great we're going to feel good but it's nish martin right yes sir attachment to hashem by mirroring his state and nish martin taking care of yourself and e sane you will be sane if you keep this up e emulate hashem hashem projects good to others gives good to others right so when you smile at your friends and family you're doing a kindness you're emulating hashem you hear this you're showing them love and respect and making them feel good because it's like giving them a glass of milk so you have it emulate hashem so saying service attachment to hashem by mirroring his spiritual state and nismartem by taking good care of yourself because every time you smile you immediately send healthy chemicals through your brain and e emulate a shen by making others feel good as well by sharing your smile with them so this is i suggest gives us we have a week and a half to porn on purim there's plenty to do right we know the mitzvahs of purim kris magillah shah manos drinking etc but until then mission nicknas adar marvin basimcha let's increase our joy say baruch hashem thank you hashem for the miracles you did in purim and i'm going to smile as much as i can to increase my simcoe on a daily basis [Music] is