Living With Emunah (Part 211): Can I Get an Amen

okay good morning bocaretov welcome back to living with emunah please help yourself to some coffee and some refreshments everyone is invited and encouraged to stay afterwards to continue to schmooze and to continue to welcome new members who've moved in we have some new faces and we're so grateful that you've chosen to live in our community on your way to living in israel so uh it's great to have you and please stay in schmooze afterwards i want to thank our generous sponsors the amunis series for the year dr xavier morgan memory of dr bayan gabbat zakharon of rock in memory of bella's mother ellen shanzer thank you so much for that generous sponsorship this morning's share is also sponsored by rasa nadas on the first yard site of her passing the shama should have an aliyah and also finally this morning is co-sponsored by sylvia brody we're going to throw in by rabbi josh brodie and loving memory as usual his mother making him look good in loving memory of usher yosebury's 19th year at sight beloved husband father and grandfather he's a special man i was privileged to have known him and his nasham ashraf and aliyah as well thank you all for that generous sponsorship also a reminder before we dive back into the amuna we all need our healthy dose of emunah our jolt of ammuna if you would like to receive a newsletter in your inbox every week that has the shirum the article and a write-up of the parshashir notes from the parshashir so that you have advartora for your table then take out your phone right now turn it to vibrate first of all but second of all if you text the following number text the letters r r-e-g r-e-g to 2-2-8-2-8 text the letters r-e-g to 2-2-8-2-8 and you can sign up for a newsletter to have everything you need in your inbox okay we are continuing to learn together this wonderful new safer called it is a collection of the thoughts the insights of the great of yerushalayim and he's been walking us through the notion of the emunah and the notion of bitarchon the challenge that so many avendavani that's how he began this essay he began with the question he received from an educator in israel who said when the rebbe walks out of the room when the moto walks out for a moment like my teacher in high school used to trade stocks in the pay phone next to our classroom i told you about so when the rebbe walks out everybody stops stopping in other words they're only dominant because they're scared they're only dominant because they're afraid they're only dominant because they're worried they're going to get in trouble how do we get them to dave and even when the rebbe the mora even when the parent steps out even when the parent is not there how do we make sure our children continue and keep and still daven and revolver's answer which is so profound and so important which is true for children and it's true for adults is that the challenge of davening is not dominant the challenge is not the sitter that the hebrew is inaccessible or that the ideas are lofty or that we don't really understand what they mean all of that is a challenge don't get me wrong if i handed you a book in chinese and said say this every day out loud phonetically you can't read the chinese but say it every day out loud you'd say how many days can i do that one day one week but three times a day for the rest of my life i'm gonna read a chinese phone book without understanding one word in it so yeah if we don't understand one word of the sitter how can we expect to get anything out of it but much more fundamental is if we don't believe that we're in the presence of god if we don't believe that we're having an audience with the almighty if we don't believe that we're having a conversation with the king of kings then of course you can't oven it doesn't even begin don't bother opening the sitter simply talk to a wall that's the other analogy imagine i said to you three times a day for the rest of your life i wanted to walk up to the wall face the wall and talk to the wall okay one day you did it you'd say fine i want to make you happy two days by the third day they'd put you in an insane asylum to walk up to a wall and talk to a wall be out of your mind but meanwhile one of the most authentic and beautiful inspiring davenings that i ever eavesdropped on that i over overheard once overheard by accident was someone talking to a wall the wall happened to have been the kotel and i was standing next to an older i think taimani yemenite man and i didn't mean to but he was speaking pretty loudly in his conversation to god and i've never in my life experienced such an authentic conversation he was filling god in on everyone in his family and my daughter this and then my son is having this issue oh but thank you hashem the thing i spoke about last week it ended up working out and i'm sure you had a pardon it so i want to thank you for that but look this week this thing is going on and i can really use your help and let me tell you about my mother her health is failing and it's so painful and i'm standing there i didn't say one word i wasn't dominating at all i could tell you everything about the tim money man's life right now and i felt extraordinarily guilty and invasive that i was listening to the conversation he was having but if anyone would look if the atheist or agnostic would look and they would say here's a man talking to a wall somebody get the straight jacket somebody get you know back in the truck we're gonna take him away we're putting him in the insane asylum here's an old man he's lost it it's official it's absolutely official he's lost it he is standing and talking to a wall but we know he's not talking to a wall he's not just touching the wall the walls touching him the wall is talking to him is what that wall represents and it's any wall that we stand in front of the wall of the shul or the wall of our home or the wall of the kotel or the wall please god we will merit the wall of the basement it's not the wall that we're talking to it's hashem he's everywhere like she taught us he's here there and everywhere so wherever you are you take those three steps forward now you're in front of hashem it's one of the beautiful parts about davening you know in israel especially but you could see it on parts of the throughway and the parkway in new jersey up to the mountains but cars pulled over on the side of the road and someone's davening wherever you are and whatever is happening on an airplane on the side of a highway in our living room and certainly at shul wherever you are you take those three steps forward and you are transported to another place you're no longer geographically the coordinates where you were standing by taking three steps forward you transport yourself you know like star trek like beam me up you are beamed up from wherever you are it's an amazing power that we have if you take three steps forward you're no longer where you were there's a force field around you there's no kids fighting in the next room there's no one calling your name there's no talking behind you there's no to-do list there's no chaos there's no pressure there's no anxiety you take those three steps forward and you're back in the garden of eden you take those three steps forward and you are zoomed up and you're beamed to a safe and a secure and a happy place a place where you're in front of hashem you're now in his oval office you're now in his inner chamber you're now in whatever is that place that you picture in your mind that feels like i'm in front of the person who could be the solution to any problem i have i'm in front of the person who has the power to change anything i need changed i'm in front of the person to whom i have to express the deepest debt of gratitude i'm in front of the person who saved my life he saves my life over and over every day that i wake up and open my eyes he has saved my life over and over and over again so the idea that revolver is is trying to communicate to us and through us for our children for our families is that the problem doesn't begin when you get to show a meals with sugar you open the city i don't connect to this it doesn't do anything for me i'm not interested i met recently with uh the head of arts school happened to be in town in florida very special wonderful manner bizlodowitz and i happened to meet with him this past week and he told me that the genre of of we talked all about article it was fascinating to try to get him on behind the bema to learn about the evolution the contributions of arts girl what article's done for torah learning it's really really extraordinary and um so i was asking him you know what they're working on and he said the number one thing that they have requests for that there's a dearth of is sitter is his fila so first of all i told him i happen to know a guy who gives a decent sitter snippets every day and maybe that can one day be turned into something but we spoke about the fact that the problem is not once you get to the sitter if you open up the sitter and you say i don't connect this i don't really do this i'm out of here it's too late almost the problem is even before you get in the room do you know before whom you're standing are you in the presence of hashem have you ever had a conversation not from the sitter i often like to say if you never talk to god when the sitter is closed you certainly can't talk to god when the sitter is open if you never ever feel him in the presence i can thank him i could ask for him i could protest with anger at him but if i never talk to god when the sinner's closed how in the world are you going to talk to god when the center is open it's much harder the words are a barrier the lack of understanding comprehension is a barrier sometimes being in shul is a barrier people talking around us i don't want the kazan i don't like the rabbi it's too cold it's too hot for this group it's too cold i don't like there's always a barrier there's problems in shul so if i never talk to god when the sitter's closed i don't talk to him in my car and i don't talk to him in my kitchen and i don't talk to him when i'm uh going for a walk and i never talk to him i never talk to him i'm never in conversation with god then how can i ever talk to him once the sitter's open every bar in bat mitzvah young person that i meet with i give the same spiel for the last 20 plus years it's time probably to update it but it includes the fact that i encourage them i say now that you are of age now that hashem sees you as a mature budding adult the way that he knows you believe in him is if you talk to him so yeah i sit here in shul and camp and school we dive in they give out a sitter and i diana i love that i said no no no i'm not talking about that i'm talking about you have a soccer game tomorrow talking about you have a test tomorrow talking about your struggling on your homework talking about your fighting with your siblings i'm talking about you had a issue with your friends do you talk to god do you tell them i need your help i want to win the soccer game help me help the teacher only ask the questions on the things that i studied and when you get back to grade do you ever stop when you get back to grade and say thank you this good grade is your answering might feel it from yesterday we talked about that last week we're always in the asking for mode but do we ever stop and say thank you for the when god said yes we always ask and we always call him out when it feels like he said no but do we ever stop and say thank you for when he said yes the blessings of today are the yes to the prayers of yesterday do we ever stop and say yes thank you thank you for the yes of yesterday so no no young person no barbara mitzvah or adolescent or teenager or adult will connect to god through the sitter if they don't connect with god outside the sitter we don't talk to him when we put the kogel in the oven if we don't talk to him on the way into the boardroom the operating room on the courtroom if we don't talk to him on the drive if we don't ever talk to him like the temani man at the kotel let me tell you what's going on in my life thank you for yesterday first of all this that and the other worked out speech went well the technology held up thank you this thing happened thank you you know that person said yes to that major donation thank you hashem i asked you for guidance i asked you for help thank you thank you first of all for yesterday now let's talk about today every morning when i die i shouldn't say that not every morning on many mornings i try to in my davening think about what do i have on tap today what do i need to sell for what do i thank him for for yesterday and what's on tap for today there's the program there's the class there's the big meeting there's the experience there's the teacher conference there's the what's on tap today i want his help for it what's on tap by the way god you're coming to parent teacher conferences instead of me i don't usually go but you're coming two-parent teacher conferences he belongs in the room he's one of the parents kumar says in conducion that every child has three parents a mother a father and god so whatever we're going to hear in that room god you're you've got to take responsibility too you got to you got to lose some sleep too you've got to help you you are the biggest one positioned to be able to help for the parent teacher conference in that room in that room too so if we never talk to hashem on the drive to parent teacher conference we don't talk to hashem we're trying to cut that deal or work on what we're working on it'll never happen in the sitter the same is true in doubting the most important part of the avenue are not the words we say the reason we have the words we say is if our rabbis didn't institute that you have to dive and here's the text and we only davened when we felt like it how often would we really doubt them so they put it in place to obligate us to create some consistency to build some momentum and some traction but that's not the most authentic davening that's not the most authentic value the most authentic davening are the words that i had in between hashem i'm working on a class please give me some great ideas hashimo i made my mistakes please help me come back help me purify my soul hashem refa'enu here's a list of people i know who are sick i need intervene please their pain is my pain i'm in pain because they're not well and the list of hashem there are injustices there are agunas who need to be set free there are people who are there are injustices in this world god we need your help the shmona sra is a template it's a template but it's just a template you know yet there are all kinds of templates for invitations there's a template for a resume there's a template for an email there's a template for a flyer but imagine if we had a program we just hung up the template it's just blank it's gibberish it's promoting a make-believe program in a church from 400 years ago it's a template if you hang up the template it's there to get you started but now you've got to add your own language so the sitter's a template it's there to get us started but now you've got to add your own language it's not a fake resume template make it your own acquire it it's yours make it your own so that's what governing is supposed to be that's what revolb has been taking us through here in these in these ideas and we last left off where the world is filled with pleasure and possibility like a cup of coffee i think we found a slogan to put on our coffee cups finally got to still fine-tune it but i want to put on the cup count your blessings make this blessing count something like that we talked about producing disposable coffee cups for the slogan that would help us our first blessing of the day cup of coffee cup of coffee for me is an iv drip it's a life force a cup of coffee is like it's like your phone is on one percent and you find an outlet or the person with the charger and you want to give them the nobel peace prize you're ready to like transfer over your whole bank account like you saved my life my life so that cup of coffee is like the charge like i'm on one percent it's not supposed to happen after a night's sleep but you're on one percent cup of coffee is the is the pl oh you've got a plus you've got a battery unbelievable so that deserves a bracha and that starts our day off with bronchos 100 times a day we talked about revolving car just pay attention for 10 of them i say start with one of them that first brock of the day count your blessings by making this first blessing count and that'll get the day started the right way so we're going to make our we're going to make our we have to fine tune it we need a logo you know all those things we're going to we're going to make these coffee cups okay so we're up to we're on page pay hey 85 letter yud paragraph 10. and revolver says the following a gemara omaris the talmud says kelowna i'll name the kokoho postgraduate oh i miss timed my bracha right there i should have read this paragraph and then had my first sip of coffee but you all did pretty well you're amane was emphatic it was a good main it was a strong amen why are we supposed to answer on main with all of our energy the talmud says that when you answer amen you don't whisper in amen whenever i walk by one of the members of my family mumbled a blessing before they ate i said you just deprived me of an amine say it out loud you just connected god to whatever you're eating you just brought him into our home you just open up the shades and allowed a little bit more light let me in let me be part of it say it out loud let me say i'm mean people are shy they're embarrassed they're ashamed cover their mouth they mumble at work and starbucks said that was the only redeeming part of masks you could make barakas all day long nobody knew what you were doing and asha yatsa you could stand in the hall make it an ashrae you have to have 20 minutes no one knew what you were doing so if you answer amen the kokoho kolaona kokoco you hear something a big amen so the gates of ganeden are open for you give me an amen sometimes you wish you were you know we need to incorporate a little bit of that energy give me an a give me an amen so i'm the king who is reliable who is trustworthy that a person who says on main is saying i affirm i believe i believe he's reliable he's dependable he comes through i'm sticking with him i'm attaching myself to him i'm connecting with him he's got my back amine you didn't know that that all of that was in a little anime someone says shakola and coffee you hear in the hazard and repeat this ray someone says that you're in your vicinity and you say amen you just said i mean you know you were given an amen you didn't realize you were saying amen amen amen yeah what he said yeah what she said yeah ditto i'm with her what she said 100 percent god charcoal that everything in the universe that the whole world and its ambiance and its energy and its blessing charcoal that you created it it's all you it's all you that there's no coincidence there's no chance there's nothing that's random ah main it's all from you the power of an amazing what is the power of an amine it opens the gates of the garden of eden we were kicked out we were expelled we were chucked we were don't come back but if you answer our main you get to give a peek the gates are opened a little bit we've all been a moment to explain what that means we studied this previously this i told you was a collection of revolvers teachings we studied this in the primary source when revolver said it one of our other many many moons ago we're up to 200 and something yamuna shirem so we studied it a long time ago but i'll tell you i'll tell you greater moon story i went to a bris our own talia bornstein and a baby boy hashem and the bris was on monday and i walked into the bristol tomorrow by selmars there and by summer big simcha if you know by summer he says oh i have to tell you something i said what is it he says you're not going to believe the sachikaka brought the story you won't believe the story his daughter was in labor she was driving to the hospital and she was very agitated in a lot of pain i'm told it can be painful labor not as bad as gout but it can be painful so uh she was in labor in pain and she said to her husband i want to distract myself by listening to a sheer let's put on a goldberg shir and we'll put on living with emunah and she randomly picked a sheer out of the 200 and it happened to have been a sheer i don't even remember this that we were talking about labor pains and being in labor and enduring the pain because what it's worth at the end and the giving birth and on the way to the hospital the class that she happened to turn on happened to be about enduring that pain because it's worth it when the when the arrival comes what you give birth the birth pangs are worth the birth what you've given birth to and it was just a coincidence right just random right no of course not hashem is the greatest dj in the sky hashem is that orchestrates all the playlists you think that that it was a coincidence that song came on the radio do you think that saying song came on yahweh's amazing apple jewish music playlist just when you needed to hear that or be moved by that melody you think that that shirt when you randomly picked one it was random it's all from them it's all from above so give him an amen give him the amen as he makes the bracha when god makes the bracha when things work out and things come together tell you another great amount of story i have a few for today i have to save some for next week but i have another one i got an email from somebody in lakewood i was on a podcast that comes out of lakewood a couple weeks ago and on the podcast i told the story and in the story i mentioned the vort advar torah from my uncle allah by ila who my uncle was a very special person he died very suddenly very sadly and when he died his family had put out a collection of the divrei torah he gave at family events and there was a certain insight he gave at a bris of a grandchild and i love the insight fine i'll tell it to you quickly only because you're insisting but i'll talk to you very quickly but we have to we have to actually come back to this remind me where we were as we take our detour remind me how to get back to the highway so he said the following we say it abreast standing is right now they fit in the palm of my hand right now i'm holding the pillow on my lap may they become big tall strong and great may they become great maybe salvation had another insight the sun is called the doll the sun is the great light the torah in creation go back to genesis and the moon is the mora katan it's the small light why do they get that name rashi there says the sun is the great light it's greatness is when you're the source of light the moon is called the small light because the moon only reflects the light of the sun so something small is just reflecting another whereas something great is the source themselves so the sun is the great light it's the source of light the moon is the small light it's just a reflection of light salvation said that's what we mean when we say this little reflection right now they're a child they're mimicking they're imitating they're just a reflection of their parents they're teaching their friends may they become a source of great light themselves that's his interpretation but my uncle allah says may this one who's smaller than me right now i know more torah i'm smarter i live life experience i know more s.a.t words i i've lived i'm smarter may this little katan who right now knows nothing experienced nothing is nothing god own me many that for a jewish parent the greatest hope and aspiration is that they surpass me too many people that's what i said on this podcast but i'll repeat it now too many people unfortunately tragically they want their children to exceed them in academics be smarter i just went to whatever school you go to the ivy league i finished at this level you get extra degrees i make this money make more money be more accomplished have more fame have more followers more friends and then when it comes to religious life many people they say i don't want you to be less religious than me i'd be very disappointed but i definitely don't want you to be more religious than me then i'd be devastated i need you to be exactly where i am i come to the nine o'clock minion at 9 40. if you come at 9 45 you're shay gets how could you care not as much as me you got to come on time but if you come at 9 30 now you know you affirmed me now i'm threatened by that it's devastating so that's what my uncle was saying for a jewish parent the biggest knackers in the world should be be greater than i am be more virtuous be more righteous be more strict be a better person more charitable more kind vault be better be greater than me that's all that's our hope good so that's what i said on this podcast whenever it was a few weeks ago so this guy from lakewood emails me he's got a cafe and he says he listened to the podcast whatever reason he tuned in and the next day in walked my cousin who he hadn't seen in eight years and my cousin moved doesn't live in lakewood but was there for a reason i'll tell you a moment he hadn't seen him in eight years he hadn't seen him in eight years and he says to my cousin he hasn't seen in eight years i just heard your cousin on a podcast and he quoted your father he said go to my father what did he say he said there's voids it's really our hope is they should be greater my cousin says you know why i'm here in lakewood he lives in he lives in norfolk virginia says you know why i'm here because i just had a grandson and the bris is tomorrow morning and you just gave me my dvar torah for the briss of my grandson i'm going to quote my father at the bris of my grandson that i happened to randomly after eight years you didn't see me who you happen to randomly listen to a podcast to hear a person you never met say something in my father's name all just chance right what a coincidence right of course not give me an amen that's an armenian that's an unmaine wow hashem you orchestrated that perfectly the right timing the podcast had to come in the right time he had to have been drawn to listen to it my cousin had to have walked in while he was there he happened to have told them that vote happened to be the zebras happened to happen to happen to there's nothing happened to it's all from hashem sometimes we understand this sometimes we see it and many times we don't so if you answer our main okay i'm back on the highway i didn't even need any of you gps ways i got back all by myself didn't even need map quest that's how good i was i got back on the highway so the revolver says if you answer ahmed buko koho answer remain to the actual blessings people say to brothers but answer remain to life when something happens in life and i got that email said amen i cut it and i pasted it to our family brought this group and i said amen the story it's unbelievable hashem you showed your hand most days you're invisible most days i'm trying to figure it out i'm navigating on my own but you showed your hand you gave me the directions to see you to see you that's an amen so when you answer amen because the gates of ghanaian are opened so nifo says it seems to me that hidden here is a very deep and a very powerful message what does it mean [Music] that when we answer amen the gates of ganedan are open and we get to peek inside so says revolb it seems to him the following what does life look like from the perspective of ghanaian what does it look like from the perspective of ganeden everything makes sense everything is coordinated everything is orchestrated everything is curated hashem is in charge right from the perspective of ghanaian you're looking out on the show from behind the stage and you see not just the puppets on the stage but from behind you get to watch the puppeteer and you see the strings and now you know that there's somebody orchestrating the whole play when you're in the audience all you see is the play and you sit there and you say i wonder how it ends i wonder what happens next i wonder what's in the next act i wish i could control it i want to be part of it i wonder and i pray and i'm anxious when you're in the audience watching the play unfold but what have you got to be backstage and what if you got to see the puppeteer the puppet masters with the strings who are making the whole thing happen then you'd say i'm not anxious i know there's an end i know there's an act i know there's a development i know what's going to happen so says revolba from ghanaid in the garden of eden when god first created adam a man and women so they lived in a place in which god was revealed in which you could see god everywhere and in everything in which there was no doubt there was no uncertainty there was no hiddenness everything made sense everything was coordinated everything was true so it says that's what it means really we wish and we want to live in a world where that's the truth where i understand why that person's sick or why i didn't get that job or why this should have fell through or why the deal didn't happen or why i had to get stuck in traffic i understand it because it's not random it's not chance there is a reason and we want to and crave to live in a world where why i have to wait to have a baby or why i have to be single or why i have to struggle to put bread on the table so when you answer a man what you're saying is god i'm living in that world even though i don't see it and can't understand it and can't explain it and can't put it into words but i feel it i feel your presence and i feel comforted and i feel confident that it's all about you and nothing is random or chance and so says revolbe it makes sense that the reward for saying god i'm living as if i'm watching from ganeden is that he opens the gates a little bit again eden so you can give a peek that's the world that we want to live in everything is barak hashem want to live in a world where everything makes sense you know who lived in that world many people but rabbits in machis allah shalom if you read the book about her every time you have to read that book a few i am trying to get rabbi machas to come on behind the bhima tempted to read to you the text messages because you wouldn't believe them unless i held them up and showed them to you rabbi machlas who who was at saddaq should live a long and happy and a healthy life like his wife of blessed memory at rebelton marcus they're just not from this world i wrote the article for this week i put it up last night i talked about being earth angels being angels here on earth what does it mean to be an angel on earth the dream yakov of angels going up and down what do they need a ladder they can't be beamed up and down what do they need a ladder for the answer is angels are not these heavenly bodies who are apart from us we are angels for one another we're meant to be angels for one another we are earth angels we're angels here on earth and yaakov's dream was wake up and go be someone's angel be an angel don't rely on and don't wait for an angel be someone's angel and i told three great stories including henry heimlich who is the inventor of the heimlich maneuver who 42 years never performed the heimlich maneuver until he was 96 years old in a nursing home and the 84 year old next thing was choking and finally the 96 year old henry heimlich got to perform his own maneuver and saved her life and she wrote him a beautiful note and called him her angel how great she grateful she is that god put him in the seat next to her how grateful first of all 96 years old to get up and wrap your arms around someone that's pretty impressive it's pretty impressive he invented it and he waited four decades to perform it shortly after he passed away he had fulfilled his mission to be an angel and there's two other great stories read the article that we are here to be angels so rabbi and rabbits and machlas they're angels on earth there's no other way to describe them rabbi machlas i tried to recruit to come on behind the bhima and i described it we have inspiring people who want to bring the inspiration and he writes back to me if you know rabbi he means this from the bottom of sorry he says you must be confused you said it's a podcast for inspiring people i'm not sure why you're contacting me i wrote them rabbi marcus has a hundred people every friday night in his home his home is is tiny it's a fraction of the size of this room and he has a hundred people every friday night he has people who live and sleep in the back of his car his son-in-law is a friend of mine avramulig once borrowed his father-in-law's car and when he got in the car and started the car somewhere from the back said hey what are you doing and he turned around there's a family sleeping in the back of the car the stories when when when rabbits and macos was passing away in slow encountering in new york and her treatment wasn't going well and someone came to visit her and they found her sleeping on a gurney in the hallway not in the er but outside in the hallway of her room and then looked in the room to see what was happening and found that there was a homeless person sleeping in her bed in the hospital and she was sleeping outside on a gurney in the hall these are just not people from this world these are angels by the way when i tried to convince him that he's an inspiring person he kept writing back to me should i ever become such a person i'll be sure to contact you and i promise i'll come on your podcast my whole life i'm trying to be if i ever become an inspiring person i'll let you know i can't get them on this is not like you know go write a book now about me where i said those things kind of thing like this is who he is this is who he is it's out of this world so if you read that book and i encourage you to read it you'll see that her entire life rabbits and mackles no matter what was going on in her life whether it was the illness that took her life whether it was a child who went off to derek whether it was fertility ish whatever was going on in her life with her children she was always looking into ghanaian it's all hashem everything's for a reason i'm so grateful i'm so glad i have such a happiness such a joy for life she said amen to whatever hashem sent her away and if you're struggling with ammuna if you're struggling to believe and you're struggling to live that life read that book you know who said that not me when tom and shakhar who taught the most popular class in the history of harvard spoke here in a seminar on happiness he said if you want to grow in your happiness don't buy my books don't read self-help books read biographies biographies if you want to be inspired you want to be transformed read biographies read biographies because we can see ourselves in those people they become a precedent for the capacity to pivot and turn ourselves around read biographies and for today's recommendation i'm recommending rabbits and machos by the way they have the full biography and there's a children's version of the biography it's great we haven't read it with tanema before batman so she quoted it that it's one of the books that that had a big impact on her you got to read biographies i'm only invoking her first of all because she deserves it but second of all because she was the living embodiment of what we're describing of we're talking about we are capable of living here on earth where we have a peek into gun eden where we're not living apart and separate we can live behind the scenes where we see the puppeteer and the strings we don't have to be in the audience where we're curious and anxious and and wondering and doubtful what will be what's going to happen how does it end what if it doesn't work out we don't have to be in the audience with fear and worry we can be behind stage and seeing and reading the script it's up to us in the way that we answer our main it takes us there i can't believe i didn't even start yet i didn't even start saying anything i wanted to share with you today hey one day i'm gonna become a good teacher figure this out one day someday okay i think we have to stop here i think we've uh we've hit our quota but please god homework make that bro first block a homework i have a group of people that have a whatsapp group that we push each other to try to grow and to hold each other accountable for commitments that we make for this month the commitment that we'll make that we're working on ourselves is to have kavanaugh to have mindfulness with that opening bracha of the day the first shahakon the first cup of coffee of the day so i'm all including you in that group right now we're going to check in with each other for next week your homework kavanagh maybe you're not going to make a hundred buckles a day maybe you're not going to concentrate a hundred braces a day but have kavanagh the first barakah that first cup of coffee don't rush into it while you're getting carpool why are you getting them dressed while you're still trying to put toothpicks to open up your eyes kavanagh take one moment charcoal i woke up i'm alive what a day what a day i had a meeting yesterday that i went for a walk around the lake with the person and we passed someone else they probably think i belong in the loony bin so they said hello and i said what a day i don't know what compelled me but in that moment you know you have those florida winter days where it's like a clear sky and a little cool but the warmth of the sun on your cheek and it just feels like everything's gonna be okay moments so i just screamed what a day at the person who i don't know probably like called to have me registered to restraining order against me or something but what a day what a day shotgun you woke up that cup of coffee shahakal is an announcement what a day what a day i'm alive what a day it's filled with hope and promise this will be my day the day the breakthrough day my mental health my physical health my spiritual health my relationships what i long for what i want professionally personally private this is it what a day shaco if we could just get that first that first baraka of the day that's your homework the first baraka of the day that's it to hold ourselves accountable and to grow from there tonight we go behind the beam with jamie geller if you don't know jamie geller she's a influencer celebrity chef today she works for media uh chief media officer for aish outreach she's really really special and it's going to be a great conversation tonight behind the bible until next time stay happy stay healthy stay