Living With Emunah (Part 232) - Celebrate Success

good morning boca do welcome back to living with emunah it's so great to be back together again i want to thank our generous series of sponsors for the year dr xavier and bella morgan in memory of everybody dr brian galbet and in memory of bella's mother ellen chandser who lived a life of great service to the jewish community grateful to the morgans for their generosity this morning's share is also sponsored also by uh merrill and jeremy strauss the commemoration of the earth side of mr michael strauss all of a sudden thank you to our dear friends the strausses my pam and prospero bitpoke commemoration on the earth side of her father lester greenberg eliezer ben mayer the twelfth of the years the show should have an alia and last but certainly not least by our very own linda gordon welcome back linda it's great to have you in honor of oh look at that in honor of the engagement of my daughter leo goldberg to hello storch and in honor of the engagement of linda's lifelong friend our lifetime member andrea charlotte to ken shure and for the four shleima of linda's daughter shelley should have a complete a speedy before schleimer so good to have you back so good to be back so good to be together hi so good to be together i was invited mostly shabbos 9 30. adora leora linda sponsored this morning in honor of leora's engagement so 9 30 it's late at night some of you it's way past your bedtime if you're not a pumpkin you are invited after you make abdullah to a little vort in honor of her engagement uh thank god we're so grateful to hashem and to everybody okay we are continuing richard morgenstern living with ammuna to feel hashem's presence in our life each and every day to know that he's by our side he's accompanying us through whatever we're going through he gives us the resilience and the strength to be able to confront whatever comes our way and to know that whatever happens is for a reason it's for a purpose and that we will figure it out because it is what is meant to be before we turn back into the text that we're learning about simcha how do we experience and how do we enjoy a sense of simha i want to repeat something i said yesterday at the partial class if you heard it already i apologize but it bears repeating because it's related to our topic and i want to relate it directly to something we've said in the past connected to simcha our passion talks about the mitzvot shemitah this year is the shemitah year in israel and around the world there's relevance around the world as well it is a shemitah year every seventh year the farmer lets his land lay fallow the farmer has an unpaid sabbatical the farmer takes six years of work and toil and effort to build up his business and he or she turned their back on it we had the privilege of hearing from alana twigg her husband doron who are farmers in israel she spoke here on a show this morning we later interviewed her if you did not see her on behind the bima you must watch that interview fascinating to get an insight into the life of a farmer today and the heroes it's what ghazal call those who observe shemitah are the heroes of the jewish people who turn their back on all their work and effort and spend the sabbatical year unpaid unpaid to have a paid sabbatical it's no big deal you're not a hero but to have an unpaid sabbatical because that's what god says is extraordinary it's well worth listening to her story so in the shemitah year we turn our we the farmer lets the landlay fallow rejuvenate re-energize the farmer concentrates and recalibrates his or her compass to study torah and connect with the connect with amuna to hashem so the torah tells us in our parsha whether you're listening to this particular or any other time the story and the insight are the same relevant torah says you know what's going to happen you're going to say well what am i going to eat in the seventh year what am i going to eat how am i going to pay the bills how am i going to pay the mortgage an unpaid sabbatical how am i going to get by when you ask so god answers don't worry you'll grow enough in the sixth year for the sixth seventh and eighth year so normally melancholy didn't the torah just tell us that every sixth year god will make enough growth for the sixth seventh and eighth why did it frame it or couch it why did the torah communicate to us in the sense of when you'll ask don't worry god says i got your back there'll be enough in the 60th for the sixth seventh and eighth it's a great question of the normally malefic many answers are given but of bender rosh hashim his beautiful commentary in humish says the following answer i said it yesterday in the pasha class excuse me for repeating it but it's relevant to our study of the moon and i'll connect it to something we've previously said says you know why the torah's telling us that because this farmer is a little bit worried a little bit anxious what am i going to eat and the torah is telling us that's okay it's okay to be a little worried it's okay to be a little anxious you know a person undergoes lab tests a person undergoes medical tests and you're waiting to get the results and to find out what will be what's your diagnosis so do you tell such a person listen go to goldbergs and moonish here and then you'll have no worry no anxiety you'll never look at the clock you'll never check your phone or your email whenever they get back to you they get back to you and whatever it will be whether it's benign or malignant it's up to hashem it's all for the good if you really believe you won't even remember you took the test they'll get back to when they get back to you you won't even think about it in between is that what it means to live with a muna is living with a moon i mean that you never worry of anxiety that you never show concern so a bender says so beautifully so powerfully and he says not only for ourselves but how important to communicate to our children that it's okay to be concerned it's okay to say i have a test and i don't know i'm a little nervous about how well i'll do you say you studied to the best you can the rest is up to hashem but if you have little butterflies that's okay he writes this book was published during corona and he writes you know during corona are children overheard normally children are at school all day they don't hear our neurosis and anxiety we're able to protect them from it but during corona we were locked down together they were exposed to when they heard everything and they felt what will be who will be affected will this ever end what will the world look like will it be familiar and those are okay feelings and he quotes the sacrum that tells us that in this world you say bracha when something bad happens you say diana ms when something good happens you say barack obama in the next world we'll understand that even the things that are painful they're not bad everything is from hashem and we'll be able to make the brach even on that which feels painful so let's say some grace a knocker some big religious high rollers holy roller says you know what i lost my loved one my house burnt down in a fire i lost all my assets in the stock market but you know what i want to prove to the world how religious i am i'm going to make a brach i'm going to make abraham good hashem is because i lost a loved one in my family what are you crazy that's a brachal of atala in this world we don't make a brachato you're not impressing anybody and you're not a holy roller you're faking a fraud we saw the story about this is relating to what we saw earlier the story about um the story about revolby who paid a shiver call and when he paid a shiver call to a russian shiva had lost his wife who said look i have a moon it's all from hashem for the best i'll get through it and showed no grief and no sadness and reflected no pain and tried to present pure emunah and revolba turned to the talmud he had paid the ship a call with on the way out and said this resheba is going to crash and burn he's not doing anything on purpose with malice he's not intentionally trying to fake anyone out but he's trying to present something that's just impossible to feel the torah wants you to grieve and wants us to mourn and wants us to be sad tonight tomorrow we'll commemorate last year's horrific tragedy in meron the loss of 45 lives what do we just celebrate as always and say atova native that's what hashem wanted a stampede in mayron 45 young lives snuffed out no sad this concern i hope everything goes smoothly i hope everything goes well i hope everybody's safe hope everybody behaves it's okay when you'll ask when you'll worry when you'll wonder what will we eat the reason suggests rebecca the torah presents it in that way is to tell us that emunah doesn't mean and this is so important to have this license it's so important to have this permission now there's a fine line to be overly anxious is a failure of a muna to be overly anxious and to fear and worry and to be debilitated and paralyzed by worry and fear as if hashem is not in the equation as hashem doesn't have a plan as if things won't happen the way they're meant to be that's to knock god out of the equation that's a failure of ammuna however it's understandable and it's only reasonable and realistic that we have some concerns in life it's only normal that you underwent the medical test and you're in spill because until you get the call and don't feel guilty and don't feel that you're failing in ammuna feel that that's normal and that's expected and that's reasonable but each time you feel that angst do not worry comfort and strengthen yourself by saying look whatever will be will be hashem will be with me and he will take me through it and it will be the way it's meant to be but it's normal to get the feeling and then to comfort and respond to the feeling with the sense of ammuna to sit shiva and say with a smile that's hashem's plan it's amazing that my spouse died at a young age because that's hashem's plan hatovah native no that's a brachlavatawa in this world we don't fake you can fake other people maybe you could fake yourself you certainly can't fake hashem and revolver told this time that it will catch up and so it's a very very important message because we get together every week and we talk about if you live with emunah if you feel his presence is guiding hand on your shoulder then you won't be envious or arrogant or anxious and it is the solution and answer to everything and i mean it and i believe it and i personally work on it however that doesn't mean it is to the exclusion of having license or permission to also feel the normal feelings of life to worry to be anxious to be concerned what will be will the email go out will everyone get it will they respond will it work what will be what will be it's only normal it's only normal in life okay back to simra enjoy everybody's caffeinating with kavanagh it's the cup reminding you every day the first bracha hundred buckets a day of almost ten brachas a day we said start with the first bracha kavanagh the flow the blessing comes from you hashem eloquenu you're not just an abstract god you're a loqueno you're our god you are the king it's hidden but you are the king of the whole world of the whole universe shall i call that everything in the yeah exists bidvaro your word speech recognition god everything in this world exists with your will that first bracha shackle caffeinate with kavanagh wake up not only your body wake up your soul wake up your spirit and connecting to hashem the first barak of the day to feel his presence ah he's in our day and he will carry and take us through whatever it is whatever comes our way i have us on page kuffman zion 157 page 157 we find when it comes to servants of hashem when it comes to those who are genuinely occupied with serving hashem what comes with that are shifos ambition drive goals ambition drive goals you have to have it not said it is in life that too many people they're complacent they're stuck we feel we've arrived we're done finished products you hear from people all the time they reached a ripe old age they feel there is no ripe old age you could be 100 years old age is just a number i always tell you when my daughter tamara was a little girl i put her to bed and i tell her what time she has to go to bed because of how old she is she'd say alba age is just a number age is just a number why do i have to go to bed earlier than you age is just a number i don't know where she got that from and it didn't work things haven't changed she's she's going to be a killer lawyer one day age is just a number so there is no old but there are people who are old even when they're young you know we say we missed a couple weeks i'm just jamming it all in here today just a free flow of thank you for it's a miracle you show up but thank you for coming to my free therapy session so we say on slikhos we say in the um time don't discard me in old age the simple understanding is hashem when i reach an ipo ripe old age don't cast me away don't consider me done don't don't give up on me but it's it's eliezer eliza voldenberg has a commentary and he says doesn't mean chronologically your age because you could be 18 years old and you're still saying that sentence you could be nine years old you're standing next to your abba and shul during sleekhorse you're still saying don't cast me away so it's not talking about a number chronologically so what does it mean don't cast me away what it means is don't let me ever have the mentality that i'm old and i'm done and i'm finished that i can't change and i can't grow and i can't have drive and i can't have ambition and i can't have goals don't ever let me be finished don't ever let me be done we have to always always have ambition what's his name the great author who died a couple years ago he published his last book at 100 years old 101 years old what's his name he went to um great jewish author died a few years ago it's going to come to somebody here he was 100 years old herman will kerman will publish his last book at 100 years old he was 99 sitting at a typewriter or a keyboard or something yeah i'm sure he took some schluff breaks on it but he was 99 he was 100 years old when he was still reviewing the edits of his publisher a hundred years old don't let me be 18 years old and feel like a hundred don't ever let me feel i'm done i'm old i've arrived i'm finished i can't grow i can't change the person has to have shifos that's what which are myers telling us you have to have goals and dreams and ambitions not only in the physical world where we all have them we want to earn more money we want our money to make money we want our assets and portfolio to grow we want to lose weight we want to improve our appearance we want to marry off which is a horrific expression our children we want to we have dreams and goals and ambitions and aspirations in other areas of life want a nicer car and the newest phone we want to finally learn technology we want whatever dreams or ambitions that we have but what about in the world of rohnius what about in the spiritual world of jakov kaminetsky used to tell a muscle jack of kaminetsky would say can you imagine a little boy at his upsharing not everybody has enough sharing options but a little boy turns three and you cut his hair and you buy him a little pair of success it says yellow toef and the citrus are a little big on him he's three years old they're a little big it says yellowtail good boy it's got little uh train or balloons or whatever it's got in it clowns a little toron yelatov and the boy wears and you cut his hair and he licks the honey off the hebrew alphabet and he's so excited to start learning torah yelatov now imagine his boy turns bar mitzvah so he puts on his sitsis from his upsharing and this little bar mitzvah boy is wearing synthesis that's a yellow tove and now they only come up to his puppet the sisters come up to his belly button they're small on him because they were for a little three-year-old now imagine this little three-year-old is ready to get married he walks down the aisle to his standing under and he's wearing his yellow top titties and they say yellow tof and now they come up to here on him and it looks like an idiot he looks ridiculous that sits us from when he was three he wore when he was 13. sits us from when he was three he's wearing when he's 20 whatever standing under a chupa getting married they're smalling and they don't fit they still say yelatov he looks ridiculous says ravyakov kamenetzky that's not only true for the mitzvoth sitsis how many of us were davening the same way a 3 and a 13 and at 30 and at 80. our understanding of schwann estrella hasn't grown it hasn't changed our kavana hasn't improved our knowledge of the parasha is the same from when we were in hebrew school to high school to adulthood to old age we have the same basic knowledge of the partial we've never dived we've never delved deeper into it it's not only true for the mitzvoth citizens that it doesn't fit and it looks ridiculous when you're wearing what you had at three when you're older but the same is true with every mitzvah of life it's taka you haven't become a more sophisticated philanthropist your idea of stuck is still putting a dollar in the pushka you're not thinking about where you want to give and what difference you want to make and how much you're giving and how you divide it and how you're proactive not only in responding but choosing where you give it your understanding of hassan hasn't grown shifos a jew has to have drive a jew has to have goals a jew has to have ambition a jew has to pursue them and make resolutions to achieve them we have to grow in our mitzvos and our understanding we can't live that same year over and over and over again so of the islam you know what the difference is between a genuine true evid hashem and someone is just going through the motions and putting a check next to mitzvos do you have shifos do you sit around your dining room table with your family and talk about how are we going to grow how are we going to improve how are we going to change what should we work on let's not gossip as much let's let's give more time to showing kindness to others let's be more patient let's not grow angry with one another let's not talk about judgment let's love other jews let's work on our hashem let's work on our davening i'll give a little shameless plug we're almost up to insider snippets of the amidah we're almost up to schmonastery we're going to do a new campaign almost up to 400 center snippets we're almost up to the amiga which is a great place if you haven't been listening to siddish snippets to start six minutes a day we say the show and estrella three times a day 365 days a year our entire life just do the math thousands and thousands and thousands of time you're going to still know the bracha shiva shaftainu from when you were eight years old that's your understanding you're still not going to be able to translate the words of allah mashinim you're still not going to really appreciate what barakalen is telling us if we're going to say it thousands of times let's understand it let's tap into it let's be elevated and transformed by it let's grow as we get older let's miss us grow with us have shifos have drive have goals i want to finish tanakh i want to finish shots i want to be learning every day whatever area of life between us and god between us and people between us and ourselves let's make goals and let's pursue them let's communicate them to the people around us let's let them be our accountability partners let's study how to form good habits so we can achieve our goals shifos shifos he writes in the footnote shivo saying dreams ambitions are good but they have to be the proper measure right if i say today i'm going to finish and mishna by tomorrow i'll never speak another word of lashonara again i'm never eating a cape cod potato chip the rest of my life beline there if you have unrealistic dreams and goals ambitions they're dead from the start they're they're you have no shot you have no chance so you know what the eight sahara does yatsara tells you oh he's sitting in a great amuna class he's pent up all this energy two weeks he hasn't spoken to us on fire i'm walking out of here i got dreams i've got goals i'm going to light my family on fire hold everybody accountable i'm going to change everything by minha you won't even remember you went to the class by the time you celebrate log bomber tonight by the time we light the fire you won't even remember what's a goal what's a dream what's an ambition what was that story with the tsitsis the eight sahara works the moment you're in growth mode the moment you're in growth mode it's our house says uh what do i do they're in growth mode they're setting goals they're in growth mode i'm in trouble because the atari is in the opposite of growth mold so what does the atari do you're in growth mode it's our says the only way to get them get her she's in growth mode i'm going to have her set dreams of growth that she'll never achieve and then she'll implode and face plant and fail and that's how i'll stop this entire thing that's how the atara works we get into the growth mode and then we set goals and dreams that are simply impossible to achieve the show of dharms and then what happens not only do we not achieve our goals you know what happens now now we get sad and depressed it's not that we go back to neutral the way we were when we set goals and we failed now we get all depressed and down on ourselves insecure low self-esteem low self-worth i'm in nothing i'm a nobody i can't achieve anything look how many things i said i would do you have to be realistic i happen to be living with a group of people who are shedding for the wedding i happen to be living with a group of people who are saying look you have to set realistic goals if you don't achieve that if you don't achieve them that's why i'm not participating i refuse to participate i don't want to fail so i just want to no but you have to have in every area of life in every arena of life a person has to have realistic goals they must be realistic he has an entire other chapter maybe we'll learn this next how to set realistic goals what is ambitions and dreams how do we grow how do we grow how do we have shifts what does it mean to be in ever hashem to be an evidence to grow to be never hashem is to never be stagnant describes angels stand still what it means to stand still is to be done to be complete to have arrived to be finished but human beings we're not on them we don't stand still you know what we are we're mahal we're on the move we're on the go we're putting one foot in front of another we're advancing we're progressing we're growing what is the entire framework of jewish life and living called what is the guide to how to get dressed and how to eat and that is speaking what to do all jewish law is called it is accompanying us on our journey through life here's how you walk through life here's the guide of how to walk through life and to grow and to progress and to advance and to elevate we're going higher and higher we're elevating further and further we're growing more and more that is our mission that is our mandate that is where we are going that is what we are all about a year the jew has to have she falls you have to have dreams never let me feel like i'm old and i'm done let me continue at 100 years old to publish and set dreams you know there have been octogenarians who set learning goals that will take 10 or 20 years because that's the dream you're not done you don't say you know who is it ruby wine someone once wrote a book about an old age what's it called don't buy green bananas something like that don't buy green bananas buy green bananas don't buy green bananas you should buy green bananas because you should believe you should be here when they'll turn yellow okay something like that but i keep coming close and then you help me it's a partnership it's a partnership don't ever feel you're sucking in this sense don't ever feel you're old and you've arrived you got to be hungry you've got to be hungry you got to be hungry to be hungry to grow vuo so how does the hara work it says it says you're not succeeding in your dreams and your goals and your ambitions so you're a failure your failure and quantity your failure and quality look what you're missing all you are is a failure you pledged you were going to lose x number of weight and you came close but you didn't get there so the azahara doesn't say but look how far you came it's hara says look how far you have to go the atari doesn't say look what you've achieved yatahara says look where you came up short although you see you're a failure you're an isvar if you're a nothing you're a reject you'll never break through you'll never grow you'll never be that person you can't do it it wants to weaken us it wants to break our drive it wants to extinguish our appetite it wants to make us believe we can't and we have to overcome that data says you can and you will that you've got this go kill it go kill it in the world of rakhnes the answer and the antidote says the exact opposite mentality the exact opposite mentality is to celebrate every small victory you make a little party for every pound that you lost you don't say well i was supposed to lose 20 pounds and i lost 17. i'm a failure i'm a reject i'm a nothing i can never do it i'm a nothing you say i'm going to make a party for every pound i lost 17 candles 17 part not a cake i guess go down to 15 pounds put candles on your kale and uh you make a party a person has to have the capacity to celebrate the small victories celebrate the small victories to pause you know we don't do that sometimes our drive is an overdrive sometimes we're so ambitious and so hyper competitive that we finish one thing and we go right to the next what's the next project what's the next program what's the next committee what's the next goal what's the next thing i can immerse myself in and we don't pause to celebrate we don't pause to take pride we don't pause to say job well done you can be proud of your effort proud of that achievement grateful to hashem for enabling you to do it but the yetzer hatov needs us to do that in order to continue and not burn out in order to continue and not fall on our face a person needs to sometimes pause and celebrate so the secret to happiness to simcha is to feel and to mark and to celebrate success and the opposite of simcha the kryptonite or that which compromises our capacity for simcha which makes us sad and depressed and feel inadequate and feel incapable and feel unworthy is failure so the eighth sarhara tries to have us focus on failure and nietzsche atov has to make us pivot to focus on our success hashem ah hashem i said my shoulder i had 19 brachas i can't believe i only had kavanaugh for one for 18 were a big fail so either the izara could say you know what tomorrow don't bother trying to concentrate on any maybe you don't even bother opening the sitter because if 18 out of 19 you didn't even concentrate why bother that's how the izahara works says are you kidding me i had kavanaugh for one what a day what a davening what a success and guess what tomorrow i'm gonna take that one i'm gonna double it i'm gonna have a hundred percent improvement rate i'm gonna go up to two two out of 19. every area of life we make a pledge and a promise i'm never losing my cool again i'm never getting angry again i'm never raising my voice again not to my children not to my spouse i'm never getting angry again when when you're hangry it's hard to fulfill that promise for the record if you're if you're denying yourself if you have unrealistic eating goals and you're hangry you know what hangry is hungry and angry it's when you think i'm gonna eat 100 calories a day then i could fit into anything 100 calories a day nobody will want to be around you i promise so whatever you're wearing or fit into you'll be all alone in this world so if you're hangry so you say i'm never going to get angry i'm never going to raise my voice i'm never going to lose my cool again it's an unrealistic absurd goal so what happens is the first time you lose your cool and if you by the way make that pledge to the people around you they will remind you the first time you lose your cool then the next they say you know what i guess i'm just not cut out i'm just you know it's who i am i'm a cohen i'm a smartie i'm a moroccan everyone's got their aunts i'm a redhead i'm uh everyone's got their explanation and their excuse why i'm passionate and i'm energized i'm enthusiastic and i fly off the handle with rage everyone's got their explanation you don't know my this is nothing if you knew my father do you know my ah it's nothing everybody's got their explanation everybody's got their excuse but if your goal is to never get angry again the first time you get angry you're going to abandon the entire goal and then you're done but if you say you know i made it most of the day do you know that i did fly off the handle but do you know how many other times i was tempted but i overcame and i stayed calm and i didn't react that way i didn't give in to that voice if we want to feel simple and happiness we have to focus and concentrate on our success and build off of it and grow on it and add to it and improve on it instead of being held back and undermined by the yet sahara which is trying to force us to focus on our failures don't see what's left how far you didn't come and what's missing i'm incomplete and my goal is incomplete and i'm not done yet you know who had this challenge torah tells us i once suggested this i don't know if it's true it's a novel suggestion one of the few i've made when moshe abbay knew kris barclay tells him say for dvaram climb on the mountain and look i want you to give a look look east and west and north and south look in territory you can't go in but you can give a cook kick you could look look look inside but you can't go first of all it sounds cruel by god i know this is your lifelong dream i know it's what you dedicated your entire career towards i know you sacrificed your family for it but nana and akish kish you can't go in you could just look it seems a little bit cruel why is hashem doing that but moreover why does hashem say look behind you i understand look in front of you that's the land of israel look in front look north look south look at the entire width and breath of the land of israel that you cherish that you love that you value that you can't go into but you could look as if you are in virtual reality as if you are in but why does hashem say turn around and i think perhaps what hashem was telling moshe was moshe look in front of you and it's true you're not going to make it to the promised land you're not making it to the end of the marathon you're not making it to the finish line it's true for whatever reason that's not meant to be but lest you think that therefore your life is a failure lest you feel incomplete lest you feel less than turn around i want you to look how far you've come i want you to see where you started and how far you've led this people don't only focus on what's left and where to go focused on where you began and how far you've come that's the secret to happiness and that's the secret of maintaining drive and ambition to celebrate success to stop and to pause with pride in what we've achieved and accomplished how far we've come to be happy and grateful to hashem for every merit for every achievement for everything we've done you caffeinated with kavanaugh this morning so tonight when you fall asleep you could say oh my goodness because of the sheer i made a shackle i made a brock on the first cup i didn't concentrate on one other brachle the whole day i didn't even make one other bracha the whole day you could go to sleep and feel like a failure a nebuchad nothing an ice bar for reject and what are the chances you're going to try again tomorrow or you could say you know what that one bracha do you know it influenced the whole cosmos do you know what that one baraka did for my soul do you know in that one moment how closely connected i felt to hashem the great insight that we've shared charcoal what do you mean everything it's just a cup of coffee the answer is it's not the cup of coffee it's the cup of coffee it's the room it's the air conditioning it's the lights it's the friends it's the faculties it's the fact that i'm alive and well cold so the ambiance it's not just i could smell it i could taste it we've come to learn over the last two years that's not a given whoever felt blessed in their life because they could smell and taste who in their life ever thanked hashem every day i don't know about you every mote shabbas abdallah i make the brach oh thank god still smell i'm good i have yeah i'm i don't even want to say it i'm not going to say it i won't say it but if you still smell you still taste count your blessings it's not a clan is ah it's not a small thing if you smell in your taste our whole lives we thought ah that's a given i don't have to thank anyone for that smelling and tasting if i woke up this morning i'm gonna smell and taste big deal it's not a small thing you smell and taste smell and taste charcoal i could smell the coffee charcoal i could taste the coffee charcoal i'm enjoying the coffee with you charcoal i'm living a time there's air conditioning and lights charcoal i can stream a sheer charcoal i have a safer of which admirer so don't go to sleep and say i made one broccoli with kavanaugh and then the rest of the day i was a failure and a flop it was terrible no that one bracha i changed the world i changed my world i paused and i was present and i was connected in ways that transformed me i'm a new person after i made that baraka that i was before so that bracha was the greatest thing i ever did and tomorrow i'm going to remember to do it more often the day after that i'm going to add more and more and ultimately i'm going to grow and it'll be incredible what you'll see and i'll change i'll be shaving we'll just do a little bit more and even though of course to be a jew to be alive means to have ambition and drive and to grow there are people lying in hospital beds whose entire drive and ambition is when they blow into that little thing where their ball goes up that they can make it go a little bit higher and higher but that's drive that's ambition and when they can blow successfully into it the ball goes a little bit higher they should say yay me let's make a party it's a success it doesn't matter what age it doesn't matter what state doesn't matter what stage of life it doesn't matter your status you have to have shifos you have to have drive i'm going to pass the swallow test i'm going to blow into the thing and make the ball go a little bit higher i'm going to take three steps down the hallway three more steps than i took yesterday three steps without the walker whatever area whatever stage whatever point of life person has to have she ifos you have to have drive you can't just feel i'm wearing the same sitsis yellow toef i look ridiculous in them but i'm stuck this is who i am this is my personality this is my persona this is how i dive in this is my medos this is my cat you have to have sheifos a person has to have shifos you have to have drive and hunger and appetite and ambition to grow in every way in every direction we can uli i want to connect hashem in every way i want to grow in every way i want to understand the cosmos i want to understand the sky and the stars and the constellations i want to be able to name the leaves and the fauna and the landscape i want to appreciate the animals and the birds i want to study every area of his torah i want to become a more giving and generous and selfless and magnanimous person every area i want to improve and i want to grow physical spiritual emotional health but if the ambition and the drive and the competitiveness rob you of your serenity and tranquility and happiness then they are inauthentic they're counterfeit then they're fake and then they're not healthy first has to be mali i made one bracha with kavanaugh let's make a party took three steps let's make a party i learned one line of gemara let's make a party whatever we do we have to mark with pride the accomplishment and then we'll feel the drive to go further and further um if you're so hyper and uber competitive unless you did everything perfectly and unless you achieve the complete goal you can't be happy zootos gedola or mesukenas this is a dangerous and catastrophic mistake that countless people have fallen and stumbled have sabotaged their own success by being hyper competitive and ambitious by having unmitigated drive and appetite and unwilling to be happy with anything less than perfection because to be happy with every success to measure the small small steps what is he getting at we'll end with this point which we should have begun with because this is the key point of the whole thing to be an evid hashem to be able to grow you have to be happy sad people don't grow sad people don't connect to hashem sad people struggle with faith sad down depressed despondent people don't make progress and grow and advance and they don't fulfill a mission in this world they're not serving hashem a person has to be basement you have to have a joy and a zest for life you have to be able to feel a happiness and an energy and an enthusiasm the driver of life the the that which powers us through life is that sense of simcha that sense of symptom so what will promote and reinforce the sense of simcha when we celebrate our success and what will undermine and compromise that sense of simcha when we focus on our failure when we knock ourselves down the feelings pain is the is the predicate to failure so a person has to feel simcha if you're sad you're going to sabotage your own success and if you're happy you could do anything in the world you can do anything in the world so simcha that's what we're studying the simcha that comes from emunah i know you're with me and i know that you're proud of me for every success i have and i know that you will help me add and grow it to do more and advance it the next day and tomorrow and when we do together we can elevate to grow higher and higher the sky is the limit until next time stay happy stay healthy and stay holy