Leadership Series 2022 Session #7

is called how to get your prayers answered now one of the things that I'd like to we're trying to do it in two-part series one of the things I always try to say at the beginning of this is that I don't believe it means that you sort of like you'll hear this [ __ ] this class and then every you're going to get all your prayers answered instantaneously after you you hear the [ __ ] that's not if you go with that expectation you I believe you will be disappointed although I hope that you wouldn't be but the reality is it's more of a what we call a Derek it's a process right then this is a process that in my opinion is the of the genius of Rabbi Weinberg that was able to put into one Past dealing with the question how how is it that we are supposed to get our prayers arms and what comes out of this class is tremendous amount of understanding of what it means to have a relationship with God how to have a healthy relationship with God and how to have a real relationship with God and I I personally don't believe that therefore it's going to be that everybody's prayers will be answered we know from the talmud that it says that Hashem loves the prayers of righteous people and sometimes there are times when Hashem for whatever reason is the closeness that you the person gets from that the prayers could be I'm not there's no guarantees but if you want to know how to get your prayers answered this I think is the process that's being outlined now what we're going to do here is there's going to be five different steps of how to get your prayers answered but a big part is that is the prerequisites before you get to that before you get to actually what are the steps to get your parents answered which in in on themselves are a process but there's the first thing you have to there's some Basics that we have to understand about prayer before we can even get to one of those five steps and we're going to deal with that mainly tonight we'll see how much time we get from time but the first thing that we have to understand is who are we praying to and what is the basic understanding of our relationship with Hashem with God so the first thing that we have to realize that God is called Our Father in Heaven he's our father and what does it mean so to speak that he is our father so it means right that Hashem loves us with an unconditional love a love that knows low no limits no bounds infinite love and it's an unconditional love um and there's nothing that he really doesn't want to give us and then there's nothing that he can't give us now that's a hard pill to swallow sometimes but that is that's the this is part of our our belief in God that this is what we infinite being he doesn't he's lacking nothing right we've said this in different parts when we were dealing with the five levels of pleasure the almighty does not need anything from us remember that and therefore you know therefore all of life is about the almighty allowing the almighty to give to us right that's what it's all about but the first thing is our this is our tenet of belief that's what we've taught the world it's the basis of monotheism that there's not just a god there's infinite being that's lacking nothing and therefore he's giving and his love to ask is infinite and it's unconditional now I want to share with you you know people say there's no atheist in the Foxhole I think we're all familiar with that when the going gets tough right you know God forbid you know they're shooting car you know guns and we're in trouble that's when you know there's no way he is in the park sorry so there's a I want to share with you a story a joke which you may have heard before but I think it's a very profound has a very profound point to it so you imagine a guy he's riding a bike he's on a he's on a he's on a hill or a mountain and as he's riding on the cliff all of a sudden a big gust of wind comes and over boy he you know gets knocked over and he's falling down the face of the mountain as he's falling down this 200 feet Meter whatever it is you know drop he's able to grab onto a a a branch sticking out of the the face of the the wool face and he's grabbing onto this branch and he's able to stay there and there's only one there's two two major problems here one is he looks down it's 100 100 meters down he looks up it's 100 meters like he's really stuck but there's a bigger problem right he's an atheist right this guy is an atheist right so like what do you do you see you're grabbing over dear life and you're stuck and he's sweating away all of a sudden you know after a while he plugs up the courage and he looks up and he says you know God you know I've been doing a little bit of a philosophical thinking recently a little bit of introspection especially the last couple of minutes and I know that my whole life I kind of ignored you you know and you know and that really wasn't very nice and I really kind of been thinking about that very deeply and recently I've decided that that's really been a big mistake and I won't apologize and I really you know I'm I'm you know from here on in I'm with you you know so if you you know you're up there God you know please I hope you forgive me for the fact that I've ignored you my whole life and um but you know what if you can help me I'm in a little spot of bother right now I'm not quite sure what to do so if you could help me now I would really appreciate it I'm you know you and me from here well we're like this there's no you know so he hears this all of a sudden he hears this booming voice it says my son don't worry I love you he's oh thank God I really appreciate it just tell me whatever you want me to do and I'm I'm with you so he says he says my son let go of the branch he looks down he looks up is there anybody else up there so that's that's the the story so what's the there are many points to this story right when when things are going well for us you know or you know we sometimes ignore God when things are hard for us we come back to God but if he makes it a little hard then we'll ignore that again there's a many lessons yeah of of how we react and what is out this tell us about a relationship with the chair but the point that I want to bring out is the following is that we all recognize this story as being that even though it's a joke at the end but the fact that an atheist there's no atheist in the [ __ ] a folks hole that we understand that it could well be that an atheist will go through this situation and then say God I'm really sorry please could you help me now right we understand what does that mean about an atheist that even an atheist understands that if there is a God that I if there is a God even if I've ignored that God my whole life even if I have nobody wants and I've so to speak kicked him in the stomach and ignored him and let you know I can come to God and say God I'm really in a spot of bother right now help me and I can come with an expectation that that infinite being will help me nonetheless what does that mean it means that even an atheist has an intuition that if there is a God right that God loves us with infinite love it does not an unconditional love it doesn't matter what I've done in the past I know I can always come back to him even an atheist understand that and we understand that ourselves right in the in our heart of hearts we understand that this being no matter what we do no matter how far astray we've gone we can come back why because he's our father in Heaven he's our parents he loves us just like a parent loves a child it's my child it doesn't matter how wrong how many wrongs the child has done that child is always my child right and you might look at other people's children and think I don't understand how they love that kid he's so obnoxious he's so mean arrogant or whatever no but the parents will say That's My Boy you know I love him you know he doesn't mean to be doing what he's doing right I love him he's my child and that's what we have to that's the first thing we have to realize that the almighty is infinite being that loves that so just like the atheist Intuit said we have to realize that with all our being as a being that loves us infinitely unconditionally and that's number one right now I tell you a little bit of a follow-up story but imagine the following imagine that you were living you know in let's say um yeah let's say you were living in a small town in the Midwest of the United States right and you know you have uh a problem that you've got a large pothole in your front garden and you've called them in your municipality you've tried to get the people you know to come in and try and do no one is responding you can't get anything alone so you have this crazy idea you think you know what I can't get anybody in the new new Mr Paladin to come to my house to fix what's going on you know what why don't I try the president of the United States right now imagine that you try the president okay so you pick up the phone you call the president you know and you think this is a crazy idea you call the president as you call the president guess what he picks up he says yes he said is the president of the United States what so you figured you try your luck you tell the president you tell them like you know I got this pothole and I try to call the the municipality and no one came in I don't know what to do and he says don't worry I'll take care of me he puts the phone down you think it's a joke you know what anyway the next morning yeah income the Marines the Marines come in they fix your pothole and everything is taken care of now what do you think of that is that so with me it if that really happens it would mean to you that the president minimally cares about you right he cares about you but it's not amazing he cares about it he came and he said to the marina but more than that right you see if you want we have an understanding if we want to speak to the president of the United States come on that's a joke you know the president of the United he's so important he's so powerful he's going to take my phone call of course he's not you need all the red tape in the world to get through to the president of the United States it's almost impossible but you have to understand yeah who's cool will the president of the United States take every time or she or he should take every day right who's cool what do you say ladies whose call should he take his parents his parents okay that's true that's a nice book that's good okay I wasn't I wasn't thinking of that but I mean I happen to be true as well anybody else it's good who's cool is the president his children his children right his wife right his parents right his family right that is that is going to take well because those are the people he cares about the most right if his child calls right that's my son you know so I'm contain myself my son's point oh my son I gotta take that because I care about my son right I care about my daughter so we have to understand that if we think about that and this is this is really amazing that if you think it would be amazing that the president of the United States would answer your call wow that would be amazing but that's nothing compared to the infinite creator of the universe who created the cosmos who created everything who's running the whole world he takes our cool every time right what does that mean there's no red tape you don't have to send a postcard you don't have to like try and get through and all you have to do is open your mouth and the infinite created that owner is listening to your desires what you want and it's going to respond to them wow what does that mean it means that he cares about us not only that but but if you think just think about it what does it mean it it means that the infinite create when we ask for something and we know that the almighty can make a difference and he might respond to our prayers we hope you respond it means that you understand that it's infinite being who created the world it is going to change the nature of the whole of the way the world is running he's going to intercede intercept change everything for you because you called out to him and you said I want this and you believe that this is going to happen that the infinite creative universe will change the whole Cosmos for you right and you've got to understand what that means it means the the the the the the the depth of his care outside the depth of his ability which we obviously understand that the the almighty is it is is we call Hashem because he loves us with an infinite and unconditional love and malkado because he's the king says he could do anything there's nothing that he can't do right so we have to understand that this is who we're dealing with right that much greater that if we're Amazed by the fact that you know wow that's a that's just a joke the president of nazia press I think we we have to come to terms with the fact that the internet creator of the universe we just take for granted we don't that Hill's going to answer our prayers don't take it for granted realize what this means it means that that that he we are children of the we are children of the king of kings and he's open to our prayers and he can and he will if it's good for us yeah change the course of our lives and course of history for you you have to under that understand that let's take a slightly different angle on it that imagine if you went a long-lost cousin right and this cousin you know happens to be uh a multi-billionaire yeah and not only is he multi-billionaire or she a bounty billionaire but she's also one of the wisest people that's out there I mean you know wow she's just everybody goes she's just got wisdom and understanding of life and everybody and everybody's knocking on her door to get like what is it what is it I should do and how to have this relationship with Awakening yeah and not only that but she loves you like more than anyone right so let me ask you a question yeah would you what would you do with a cousin like let's eat a friend like that would you say oh I've got other friends to get this friend I got all the friends no you wouldn't leave that friend alone right you say okay listen I need some help over here I need some resources here I need to understand this I miss this I need oh thank you so much liquid because you know if you have a friend like that boy yeah that's someone that you can really bet it for for benefit from your life so you have to understand that the Almighty has more wisdom than any person in the world he created the whole world he has more resources than anyone in the world he loves you more than anybody announced don't leave him alone right these these are all this this we're dealing with despite this what I'm saying is that we sometimes still have a hard time with internalizing this it's all very nice words Rabbi Samson I hear this I hear the idea but I have a personal hard time with connecting to that so I wonder that now this this is a lot in life we have to deal with and there's no simple answers and each person has their own blocks and and so forth but I want to point out one thing which I think is profound um and it's simple but I think it's profound and which is the following is that the reason why Pete most people don't perceives Hashem for love love for that love hashem's love for them because we haven't taken the time to recognize and appreciate everything that he's done for us now now now imagine yeah if someone you know you a person went blind God forbid and someone did an operation and restored your eyesight right you would be totally indebted to that person the rest of your life Wow you know I can't you know because of you we have to understand that Hashem has given us our eyes we wouldn't have any eyes if it wasn't for we don't know what an eye would be we don't do that you know we we there's so much more we appreciate what our parents do for us even though there's been things that I'm sure we all know that they didn't quite do this right or because the way they brought me up I'm I'm not quite there so that nonetheless if you have a healthy relationship with your parents right and I'm not saying that everybody should and sometimes you don't have a number but with a healthy relationship you see you know what you appreciate wow look what they've done right they've done so much despite the difficulties try the hardships right you because you appreciate look at them they they gave birth to me they've given they sweated they took me from another baby wow so I fell appreciate a sense of appreciated we have to realize that Hashem has given us so much more than any parents right but the problem is that we don't recognize now we can't take that for granted now we dealt with this in the five levels of pleasure in the fifth level of pleasure we talked about physical Pleasures right um and and we talked about the definition of happiness and I just wanted for one moment just review that because we have to understand that that what we basically said over there is that each ever and every human being is a walking multi-billionaire even if they don't have a penny to their name right because if I offered you a billion a million dollars for your ice he wouldn't take it he wouldn't take a 10 million it wouldn't take 100 million it wouldn't take a billion right it's my eyes are worth more time than any money and it's the same for my hand and the same for my feed and the same for my liver and it's safe in my heart and save for my brain my nervous system we are walking multi-billionaires and I always say and therefore we should be doing a jig down the street we should be doing the printing down the street every moment of life right because you know because we don't if we really appreciate the world what we have it's like it's unbelievable what's the problem we got used to it we got used to our eyes we got used to our hands we got used to it and then we wake up in the morning and say like I didn't ask to be born right you know oh another day you've got to understand how twisted and out of touch with reality that is right you know and I always say the following things like you know and I think Robert Weinberg used to say maybe I better from him but if you see like how do you how do you make a person you know who's really miserable how do you get them to appreciate life you know what you do a guy is complaining and this is wrong and that's wrong and I kind of you know you take him in an airplane way up high you give them the parachutes right and you push him out of the the out of the out of the airplane and the only one problem the parachute doesn't open right you know Harry now this guy like you know so all of a sudden you know his case calling pulling pulling for dear life and you know you've got a little button in the in your in your plane and you press the button the parish lost and he comes down the power should overcome what does he say when he hits the ground you know what he says there's good for nothing complaining he says thank God I'm alive wow isn't it great to learn right because all of the complaints were disappear when you have a reality perspective is it's great to be alive and I have so many gifts and I'm not saying please don't get me wrong I'm not saying that there's not difficulties in life and painful things in life and and we should empathize with people and there are real issues and difficult yeah that's true right but it shouldn't take we should always be aware that we are still nonetheless walking multiple leaders because that's always true that I'm alive how much is one moment of life worth that I that I that I have Consciousness that I'm aware that I how much is it worth more than any money come on so so so we so I'm just saying our inability to appreciate what we have when we say you know is that you know what God is an infinite beer and he loves us an infinite love and he and yeah come on rap on you What's blocking us and I'm speaking to myself as much as I'm speaking to all of you is our inability to appreciate the Exquisite nature of the existence of life and the gifts that we've been given to take the we take it if we didn't take it for granted then we would appreciate this very simple idea of it of belief that God loves us for the infinite love and really even the difficult things that we're going through are really ultimately for us and we'll get more into that as we go through this year um you know but we know that that's also you know sometimes that's a hard bullet to swallow but the reality is it forget about the hard things even just focus on the good thing the easy thing there's so much that we that that you know it would put it in perspective and it would help us appreciate that there is an infinite being that we owe so much to we have so much regardless observative okay we've got to deal with the difficult difficult things as well and we'll get to that but this is all part of the prerequisites what's our nature what's the nature of our relationship with God um and who is Hashem so we so that's the the first of the prerequisites right um okay now the second quest part of prerequisites is really deals with the issue of why do we need to pray right okay we're talking about prayer I mean why in the world do I need to pray to a God who understands how I think what I want what I need what am I tapping him on the shoulder just to remind hey by the way don't forget about me I just want to remind you what I need you know obviously that it cannot be the case right it's not so why are we why do we need to pray in the first place so the first thing you have to understand about prayer itself is that obviously we're not reminding yourself of anything he knows what we need yes it's true so why we pray and it's the same principle we're not praying for the almighty he doesn't need our prayers right you can't do anything for Hashem right you're doing it for yourself we need to pray for ourselves now let's understand that a little bit that prayer in its Essence is choice right so when we pray what we're doing is that we are growing in a certain way the act of prayer causes us to be different people we grow how are we growing right how do we grow the proud to refine and affirm what is it that we want out of life meaning I once I know I have to pray it's like okay what am I going to pray for you know what do you want to pray for if I say well you can pray for anything what do you want to pray for that's a good question what do I what do I what do I really run out of life what's my purpose in life what am I here for isn't that really what I should pray okay well I don't really know well do you know what your purpose is you know what you really want you know what you're really here for well you know okay maybe clarify that and then you can ask for it so the whole process of prayer it means that we need to work out what are the things that we really want in life meaning what should we be choosing without Free Will meaning every human being has free will right and you'll get I mean what do you want you know in essence and we'll come back to this a human being can you know King David says in Psalms right when I when I look at yours at the sky look at your handiwork I see the sun and the moon and the stars and I say to myself what is man that you should remember him the son of man that you should take note of him and yet you made him a little bit less than God himself who are we were a puny little speck of dust on the face of the universe what are we wearing nothing yet Hashem tells us we're made the salamatic him in the image of God where which which that which which we're told that we're a little bit out of the power of free will the image of God we can choose means that we're we have power like God now that power is right and I mean and we had a I think a couple of passes on on free will provide Rabbi by that guy um over but that that power of Free Will means I got a choice bottom line I can be an animal in this world I or I can zombie through this world I can just let life happen tomorrow to me oh if I really want to be great in life I'm going to have to choose and that takes effort what is it that I really want and I've got to want it we all know people who did great things in their life right Rabbi Weinberg was one of them everybody said about him he had a will of iron there was nothing stopping him right he achieved greatness because he refined his will to know exactly what he wants and not only that he knew what he wanted but he really really wanted it you could want something a little bit you could want something a lot how much you get your whole being behind it so the so the essence of Prayer changes who you are because if you're choosing in a real way through prayer you're using prayer properly it's it's it's it's giving it you're using your free will either every time what do I want do I want to be an animal do I want to be an angel do I want to be someone who's really making a difference in this world do I want to be elevated do I want to be my greatest self do I want to have greatness in life therefore what is it that you really want choose what it is and really and then ask for it so buy buy decide your prayer enables you to choose what is it you really want and really wants it right so that's what the Hashem doesn't need our prayers it's not that we're reminding him anything it's a growth prayer is a growth process by doing this we earn the things that God gives us this is really a second part of this but it's that we meaning by by choosing and going through this process and thinking and asking it's a form of earning you're putting yourself out so that Hashem will say look this guy really wants it this guy really wants it I'm going to give it to her because see how much she really wants it right we all understand the concept of you know you know people I and we've all met people who are Sons Daughters of billionaires and their spoiled brats like why because they just got everything on a silver platter they didn't have to put any effort in they didn't have to earn anything everything just came to them and unfortunately it didn't turn them didn't turn out to be the people who really understood what life is about and it's I have to choose and make decisions and take responsibility so this is the first Hashem it gave us prayer for us to really grow now the second question is okay but if you if God is really there and he sees our problems forget about reminding him but you know listen if you saw someone with God forbid with it who's been about to fall down the stairs and break their leg if you had the power you would stop them wouldn't you wouldn't you stop them from breaking their leg so why has if Shem seized the problems and the issues and everything lets them happen why does he let them happen why are there problems in the first place that I have to pray to get out of the problem right it so it doesn't sound very nice so it's really the answer is a similar type of answer which is that which is that really the greatest thing gift that we have in this world is free will right now imagine if the world was perfect and there was no problems right and every time there's a problem Hashem swoops down and takes care of it for us then again there's no growth for me I don't do anything as well there's nothing really meaningful meaning if I was perfect in every way If I Was An Angel is nice it's nice to be an angel but it's nothing compared to what a human being is a human being is greater than an angel right in in Jewish philosophy an angel is a perfect being much greater than that is a human being that can choose that can to deal with life and its issues that's much greater because because and in order to have free will there's going to be good and bad right it's every time there's something bad is about to happen Hashem takes care of it there really is no there's no free will there's no because there's no real bad I just know it's just been taken there's enough I've got to take responsibility to the bad myself in my life and in the world and that's what being really a part of the god in creation is about that I'm a partner with him but you see that's and this is really one of the greatest paradoxes in all existence and I think you know is this point that the greatest good that God gave to us is our free will Free Will is the true choice to do good or bad so it means that God gave and all the bad that came into the world came into the world because we have a choice to choose it the God but that's still the greatest gift meaning God could have created a world where we're just Angels we're all angels and there's no bad in the world he could have created that but he didn't because it's not as great a world as a world where he creates human beings which have free will they can choose between good and bad because then they can create then they can earn and we insured that right if I would say to you I'm the wisest man in the world and I'm going to make all your decisions for you for the rest of your life no matter where you what you're gonna have for lunch tomorrow where you're gonna go on vacation who are you gonna marry what are you going to do what in with your life what you you'd say thank you very much Robbie Sampson but you know what there's no me anymore right I'm just an extension of you I I need to live my own life we understand that the greatest gift that we have is of that Free Will that's really we understand that's our identity how will we achieve at the end of our life is what did we choose that's really our accomplishments in this world and also in the next so with the greatest gift and this is one of the ultimate paradoxes is that the greatest gift that God gave us is free will even know that that Free Will allows us to do terrible things but we understand that Hashem had to create a world where we can choose to do bad and bad can come into the world and we need to deal with it because that's the great that because only that way when we get the independent beers and therefore that's therefore Hashem created the world that way that we choose we pray there are issues there are problems but that's all part of the gift of life that God gave us so that we can make a difference and we can can really change and grow and take responsibility and that so we have to understand that as well so um so okay otherwise we could just be robots if we want to be robots there's no there's no point in being a robot in fact I remember from I remember many years ago when I was a kid and I used to watch The Six Million Dollar Man I don't remember from Steve Austin if I remember correctly and I remember he was like What if he had a arm I forgot what it was called he didn't it was all made of the bionic man right and he didn't and then there was a once episode where he met these people and they're complete beings with my honor meaning they were just machines so what's the difference between him and them he had a little bit of biolence they had a lot more eye on it no because they didn't have us they were just machines they're not human beings there's a there's a what if they ever let let uh Steve Austin have a little bit more by-election no it doesn't matter because he has a soul he's a soul he's a completely different entity he's a much higher entity yeah but the robots take you can make a robot doesn't do anything wrong it's no point in being a robot there's no point in being an angel there's the only point in life and meaning in life is to be a human being that you can choose and we have to accept and that comes with that is there's good and there's bad and there's choices and there's problems and there's issues now I'm in that Arena to use my free will to choose and to up relate to that infinite being and form a partnership where I can choose ask God and make a difference in this world and really be a great person so so these are um these are prerequisites um to understanding to prayer that we have to understand is our father in Heaven he loves us with infinite love he has a lot of income unconditional love he has he has all of the Power and that he wants us to be independent and that's what prayer is about he doesn't need our prayers it's not for him rule of life is an opportunity for us to choose and to make a difference and that we have to realize that we are blessed and we sometimes don't focus on all the gifts that we have so now so let's just go now into okay so very nice so how do we actually get our prayers answered so we're going to show the introduction here uh and we'll and we'll go through the five levels I guess in the next time the next part part two so advertising is a two-part series um but the first thing to realize is we say a verse three times a day in ashrae it's part of our prayers and we say um we say um Hashem is close to all those who call out him to all those who call out to him in truth and I rabbis understand this to say that if we call out to Hashem in truth Hashem is very close to us and he'll answer our prayers what does it mean in truth really why those sentence to say that means that if you're real with the Almighty what truth means Ms truth when you're real with the reality of the world and the reality of Hashem that's when Hashem will answer our prayer so he used to give a story and this is his story that he used to give of a person who had a prayer that was a real prayer so you just have the story of a guy that came into his office and you know people used to like you know Rabbi Schuster and others used to greet people that used to meet secular people and and they would ask are you interested in meeting a wise man or whatever different people people came up ended up in Rabbi weinberg's office in the old city of Jerusalem so one guy comes in one day and he says yeah he's a dude he's he's learning at Harvard University he's doing his MBA and she's very bright fellow um and then he mentions that he's an atheist so Rabbi Weinberg who had a great sense of humor said to him you're an atheist well I want to meet the guy that uh brought you in he says he says why he says because look you're an atheist and you're speaking to a rabbi I mean I want to meet that guy and give him a medal so the guy says listen Bank guy doesn't deserve any medal he's just surrounded why not he said I'll tell you why not let me tell you a story right I was traveling in Europe and I you know I was traveling I I you know I was doing Europe and uh you know all of a sudden you know I hadn't decided where to go should I go to Israel or should go somewhere else and I decided you know what I better go to Israel because I don't go now I don't think I'll ever go so it gets to Israel once in Israel goes to Jerusalem once you get to jerus Against The Old City because the old city gets to the Western Wall sketch the Western world down and see he goes down to the Western Wall and as he's standing there in front of the western world this guy The Atheist he starts feeling something he starts feeling something he's a little shaken up you know what's this that I'm feeling you know what's this feeling what's this presence that I'm feeling so he says so I said the following prayer he says God I don't know if I believe in you right but I want to tell you I'm feeling something now and if you're there right if you're there please get me introduction introduction I'd like to know that if you're there or not so and that was it Raleigh Weinberg calls that's the atheist prayer I don't know if you exist but if you're there so he's standing at the at the Western Wall and he's wearing one of these you know um cardboard keeper Key Parts you know they I think they have different ones now but they used to have many years apart and he's doing you see you know he sees people walking out of their prayers they're walking backwards you start talking backwards so there's you know then a guy and a guy from Ace or wherever he was he's this guy he's wearing a cardboard keeper he's walking backwards he figures you know what maybe this is a guy that's you know like an interest in Judaism he goes over Timmy he puts his hand on his shoulder the guy that he jumps in the air which is putting out he's like oh I'm terribly sorry he said no no I'm really sorry I just saw you in your experience and I would be want I wanted to know if you're interested in coming to you she said when she said I don't know what he says a Yeshiva is a place where you can find out about God so this guy was just standing I just opened this said this this prayer all of a sudden this guy puts his it's a guy put his hand says he's gonna give an introduction to God he said he felt like a hatchet went right through his through between his eyes he couldn't so he said yeah he said look after I'd have made that prayer yeah you know you think that I wouldn't say yes to that into that the guy who that guy doesn't deserve anything right if he doesn't he doesn't deserve a medal so so so this was the story right this is the story so you know Rabbi why because there's a second part to the story how he meets a girl and he prayed for this girl and he met her he goes back and he started says whatever but the point that he the rabbi Weimer went away from this is that there was something very pure and real about his prayer and and because the the prayer was pure and real so he that prayer was a prayer that Hashem answered now it's an example but what we're going to do in the next session because we're eight and nine and this was the introduction I'm sorry to leave you at this point it's just like you know okay here's the candy the candy is the next the next class right but we're gonna deal with you know five different aspects of what we need to do I'll tell you I'll tell you the first one and I won't explain it right I'll tell you the first one and you'll maybe think about why this is the case it's the hardest one and many of them come out of this the first of the five steps okay is that you need to expect you've got to start with expecting the good not not that not that actually whatever God does for me is good which is also true but you have to start with expecting the good now we're going to come we're going to see this in context next where why is it that you should bet the word what happens if it doesn't happen etc etc but that's what we're gonna well I just want to give you give you that little tidbit and the first thing just you've got to expect the good and you should be based on what we said today you should be able to understand well maybe I'll ask you that question why do you think you would actually expect you're good let me just ask you your thoughts why are you think you would expect expect good why would you expect a good okay I'm not seeing anything here all right maybe you need a week think of two weeks to think about it right but we're going to come back in in two weeks and you're going to think about that between now but all of these different lessons that we've we've spoke about in terms of what is a real relationship with God if you go into prayer if you don't understand these these Basics then you'll you know I I I just there's a joke there's two two jokes it'll finish with that okay Mr Lasky you know there's two jokes one joke is there's a guy who's a rabbi right and he's speaking to an atheist The Atheist tells him what no you know I don't believe in God the Rabbi says it's the atheist I don't believe in God either he says so the Rabbi says tell me what you know the god that you don't believe in he said the guy said I don't believe in God got angry and he gets any and look what he's done in the world and he doesn't care he says I don't believe in God I the god you don't believe in I don't believe you don't the angry wrathful uncaring intended thank God you don't believe in him and I don't believe in him because you got the wrong concept of God and that's what we dealt with in our prerequisites today we have to uh we have to believe you know that's number one the second thing is that all of this is in crucial you know they tell the story of a guy gets to heaven and he's hearing God it gets to hear and God's going to speak to him and he's waiting for God and all of a sudden he hears excuse me can you say that again I didn't quite understand it maybe try in English he says I'm a really sorry this is a funny God says listen you know when you came to pray to with to me three times again you know what you did you opened up your sitter and you said I'm just giving you a taste of your own medicine right so we have to understand that and that's we all relate to that to the extent that we don't have these these first Concepts in our bones that we understand that you know what this is not about reciting anything this is about speaking to an infinite being that loves us on the infinite unconditional love that and this isn't a game he doesn't need my prayers for me it's my growth it's Community great once you do that then you can pick up a sitter or prayer it pray in your own words with meaning and with care and it can help you be a great person so we're gonna to leave it here today and then we'll pick it up next time with five different levels of of prayer how to get your prayers honestly okay if anybody has any questions feel free to ask um and then we can well continue next time you can unmute yourself if you have any questions okay don't all Shadow once but okay all right just uh remember this is a prerequisition of the footage fine Brian May performing Freddie Mercury's of my life by himself that it was very interesting I didn't quite catch the question but it was very interesting um yeah just remember this is all the what we're preparing for now and leading up to um uh and actually it's very interesting because they're learning with the prayer uh that there is this book that they took us a very long time to get because it's our print it's a prayer book and it talks about uh Jacob's dream uh when he'd run off the ladder and the Angels were going up um and then we were coming down the ladder uh and it's always about the prayer and the same goes that um in order for your prayers to be answered you should first ask don't don't don't think that you know Hashem knows well he does know what what you need but also you should be asking and you should be praying and it's probably like a parallel this um all the Patriarchs and matriarchs always asking for things and praying we never had children you know three of them you know struggle with infertility and we had to pray and ask more than anyone else right so I guess um I guess the I don't know if it's a question or it's a statement why should we be asking first and you know why should we be praying first um and is you know it should be praying for everything or should they be praying for like really important things or like how do you yes several questions one is why should we be frank I remember I I refer you to the class that we just gave and why we be praying we gave we dealt with that intensity in the past why we pray so I that was part of what we dealt with today that Hashem doesn't need it but the prayer is for us and we explain some of the ways why it's for us and of course it's for our growth and Spiritual Development and so forth and we display some of the ways how including which I didn't mention so much that you appreciate what you get so much more when you pray for them if if you when we don't pray for the for the things that we have we take them for granted as well so prayer helps us appreciate if you pray for something then you give it then then Hashem gives it to you you appreciate it to give if you never pray for it you think well I think I'll thank my lucky stars right you know it's like you know this thing well well isn't that great I'm I'm so fortunate but it's I you know so but do you pray for every little thing that's your second question who's asking this Mrs Trent who's asking this question oh it's in there Ina sorry I couldn't see who's I didn't see your lips aren't moving there so I can't see so um okay um you know yeah every little thing yeah you should crave for everything you know you should you should definitely know what to pray for most of all but Hashem is all of everything so you know within within reason Nike part you know you've got to live your life and do other things in your life the gamara says what would it be that I should pray the whole day long right meaning not just during the prayer session but the person should you know you're walking down the street you're going into an office you're going for an interview you're there's like children like this my that my my my my whatever it is you know that you realize prayer is an expression that you recognize that your infinite being is the one who runs the whole world in all its details if you don't pray for the details it's usually kind of means that you kind of think that he's not already involved in all the details so what do I need to yeah no so he all the details he wants you to recognize that he's involved in every detail and therefore by doing that he'll help you with the details because you're bringing God and you're bringing spirituality into the most basic aspects of life which is what I'll do is about is raising the physical to a spiritual by brilliant God into every detail you're recognize his involvement is in every aspect of existence not just the important thing everything right God just didn't it's not just he created the world every single thing that happens because of God so of course you know I I you know ask for everything please Hashem you know what help me help me whatever like you know it's all every time you do that it's a mystery you know it's a Mitzvah to pray to to Hashem so you know whatever you said about starting expect the good from Hashem and it will happen they're a saying right uh thing good and it will be good right and it will be good yeah that's that's just that that's a quote from the Bubba to read right it's one of the Roberto Rabbi said that statement it's a famous statement from about it think good and it will be good and it's a beautiful it's a beautiful statement because that's not necessarily uh it overlaps with what I'm saying I guess so what you want you it's also very true in life in general you know that if we you know and it it you're right it it connects with that first level which will come to more next week expecting the good right because why should if you expect the goodness so you know it goes together with think good and it will be good you know then there's such a thing I think we all Intuit that that people who are thinking negatively pessimistically all the time to kind of create their own reality of the negativity I mean I mean when the person is uh pessimistic right it means that he is ungrateful for what Hashem gives him right now very good and you're someone answering my question which is why you should expect it good yeah exactly exactly that's how we need to look uh yes yes there's a lack of gratitude and so if you're expecting you're not expecting the good well it will review this next time is that it's really a reflection that you're going to appreciate how much book He's already given you so why would in the world would be not expected good if you really were real with how much cookies giving me exactly blessings yeah yes one more comment actually something we learned today had no idea that you're when you're praying you should be saying the prayer like shamayo you should be saying it out loud not like in your in your head because then what to mention is you bring in you're making that elevate the physical to spiritual I actually did not know until um a person just thinks you know in their mind God help me with something I'm not saying it's not nothing but really prayer and I'm not saying it doesn't there is a such a thing as a muck shover which is a positive thought but I don't think it qualifies as real prayer real prayer is only when you speak it out on your lips you say it um and when you say uh you've got the the it's you're bringing that you're like you're saying we bring a spiritual thought into the world right but it means that you're getting more involved in it you're using your being more thoughts come and go I can think good thoughts I can think bad thoughts you know they're not as real as as speech speech takes the spiritual world and it brings it into the physical world in a concrete way that changes you much more if you think you know that's that uh if you think good thoughts that's why the the the safer hint of says this that a person can be somebody who thinks terrible thoughts bad thoughts evil thoughts that they do good actions they'll become a good person and it could be and conversely true as well a person could think wonderful wonderful thoughts all day long but if they if they do actions that are bad they will they will become their thinking will go back it's it's that we are physical beings and we only change really to taking our spiritual thoughts and putting them into the physical world and the most basic form is that speech so really it's prayer requires you to say verbalized right verbalize you need to verbalize what you're saying um in order to to fill the miserable prayer um so that's I guess what you're saying yeah yeah okay and then we pray we also pray uh three times a day because it's like a sacrifice in Temple so maybe we're doing sacrifices three times a day so now we pray three times a day that yeah that we cannot do sacrifices but that's what prayer all right actually represents the prayer requisence of sacrifice it's um for now we say that nowadays we don't have a temple so we don't do the a voter the service in the temple what we do instead so to speak is our prayer prayers is sort of you know used to pray in the temple as well of course but so now we don't have the temple but we have prayer so a prayer is is uh yes it's a form of service of God we're doing what God wants but that's yes okay very good we feel pessimistic right for a while meaning that we failed to appreciate what Hashem gives us and we look more at the you know the things that we lack and be somehow Hashem sends us more and more tests this way for us to realize eventually that we do uh behave pessimistically or what how it works like in a short listen all I was saying is that when we focus on the negative so we then we tend to blame Hashem and feel it's a bad world yes and that has repercussions in in terms of how he relates to us but we're sort of creating our own reality there right um and it's not easy and again you know so we need to you know choosing to see the positive is like a muscle right it's hard to do it's much easier to wake up in the morning and to feel like you know I sorry for myself and I it's a bad day it's raining and all these people and that Haze and their neck and my children and this and that it's much easier to do that than to walk through life seeing the good it might takes a muscle it's like it's much harder so yes we should do that at the same time and I want to reiterate this very much is that doesn't take away from the fact that you know people in life can have very difficult times and it and it's not to invalidate that in any way right because that's uh people go through tests and difficult times um and and those are genuinely painful and difficult times to kind of say oh cheer up you know you know that if someone's depressed you go over them slap them on the back and say cheer up that's it's a really stupid thing to do right because it just made them feel worse it doesn't work yeah so we have to understand and we have to that's our job and human beings we have to empathize with people care about them cry with them you know because those things are real at the same time you know there's pain uh you know there's pain and but we hope that the pay doesn't suffering can result if I don't see that there's also either purpose to the pain or that there's also good that I have so much of as outside of the pain so these are things that we need a broader perspective that can help us through the difficult times um but doesn't doesn't take away from fact those are difficult times so um so again that that's something that we need to be sensitive to and uh you know and and just like we've got one somebody to be sensitive to us we hadn't we're going through this whole time and not just say oh just you know be positive okay but but there's some truth and we gotta you know we do have to see the Border perspective and so forth and and learn how to deal with with the difficult times and we'll deal with more of that next week but okay all right I think we'll what's that thank you so much