The Shabbat Table - June 11 with Guest speaker Charlie Harary

welcome everybody back to the Shabbat table just as everybody starts logging on this is a bureau Bert's here in st. Louis welcome back everybody and before we get to our regular program Speaker we have with us Kati Canaan who will from Houston who will share with us a few words and she's a little bit screenshot so everybody please give her your attention with all this ten months really yeah I still I still get excited yeah so I'm well I'm in Houston so Rabbi Johnny brought us into this program but I'm actually Canadian years ago yeah and I'm glad to be here it's really cool to see everyone coming together from all over and thank you for the Shabbat packages rabbi Johnny but it's always good to hear everyone's thoughts yeah so rabbi Johnny just asked me to talk a bit about my thoughts of Shabbat I was very lucky to grow up having Shabbat with my family every single Friday night and we're not especially like observant in other ways but so like during the week you know it's just sort of you do your thing and then comes Friday night like everyone would always come together my grandparents my uncle was like you know there are like 15 of us every single week it was just really awesome to have the reason to have all the family together and so I asked my grandpa when asked me because my grandpa he's the patriarch what are his thoughts unsure but and he said Shabbat well it interferes with my Golf Classic so I said okay well then what she what what change because it's not golfing anymore I'm Friday nights and he said well I changed my god married because when I was young you know I would do what I wanted but then you know once I was married and we had a family then it came very important to have the designated trying to spend together because during the week you know we don't always have sit-down meals you know it's just thrown together kind of you just crossing pads you know you're not really like connecting but then come Friday night you know everyone sits down everyone's cleared the schedule and and you just focus on each other and super cool I'm really grateful for that all right Thank You Katie for your words I appreciate that I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying Shabbat with everybody so this week's topic is the topic of kiddush which we make Friday night as you mentioned you know everybody getting together with a format so that is I would say the beginning of the whole format our first week together we were lucky enough to have mr. Charlie Harare speak for us so for those of you who have not heard him before he was fantastic he's a world renowned motivational speaker so kiddush is the wemake kiddush actually frightened and Shabbat day but really the main one is Friday night and the whole point is to sort of set the tone for Shabbat to get into Shabbat to take a day which is intrinsically holy and make it more holy and we're lucky to have mr. Charlie Ari who's a great inspirational speaker to share with us some inspiration about how to make our Shabbat more holy and how to make kiddush itself more meaningful now further ado take it away Thank You rabbi it's an honor to be here thanks everybody it's great to see you guys again get to your credible rabbis for those who have your videos on thank you it's you know when you when you talk to a screen it's like after a while you're just looking at a camera then I get to see shining faces so it brings me a lot more joy so thank you very much I appreciate that I want to talk to you about kiddush a little bit true reason if you if you look at it we like obsessed with one like we're always drinking it's an amazing thing I remember when I was in when I was in Nam this are one of our biggest holidays is poram right and we have this you know program everybody gets drunk and whatever so I'll tell you story I wasn't school I had a study group of three guys there was three it was four people three Orthodox Jews in an Irish Catholic we were best friends best ones there's so many think we're like aligned and seulement like unbelievable so he likes to drink apparently like you know him and his crew like drinking and he says to me you know he's so interested in Judaism so he says to me I want to find out more like religion city says to me I'm you have to invite me here next I said I know I just want you feel comfortably welcome to car so I said he was listening if we get A's in contracts I'm coming to the next thing I said deal we a days in contracts and come to the next thing okay contracts yet we took our finals in December we got our grades in February the next holiday February is Purim Purim everyone's getting drunk he comes over he's like this is the best religion ever I'm like settle down if I don't Kippur we can oh we could figure it out then like if you think about it like we got a lot of wine in our religion you get your bris there's wine you get him married you don't believe this one Shabbat you go with wine you come out with guys like as you navigate through life like you know Cabernet isn't the worst thing to take you through life but why do we do it like we're Jews we don't do anything for no reason the most powerful moment of the week the rabbi's teach us it's Friday night for one of the most powerful means when you stand at your Shabbat table when you raise that cup when you say the words of the kiddush in fact the rabbi's say it's as if you are testifying to the creation of the world you're like a witness in God's Court it seems like you're just making a blessing they drink wine why is it different than any other pie man I know why are my friends what is wine symbolized why do we care so much about wine why at that moment is it so important I want to show you a little bit of like I want to get people a little bit here and I want to share a concept with you and if we get this conflict of together I believe with my humble opinion it'll change how you see Shabbat it'll also change how you see wine and really the purpose of it I want to begin by talking about spirituality the way that I understand it which is through sports like you grow up like me like I only look at the world peace plug if you can't find like a Jordan or a Brady example I have no idea what you're talking about so I saw this documentary that I became obsessed with don't know if you've seen this before it's called the last dance and you guys seem the last dance they don't seem glass dance it's amazing how Netflix timed it like with I don't networks was behind the virus or not but like there's no sports except for Michael Jordan so like anybody who remembers Jordan in the 90s is like that makes sense because let's go back to the way used today the last dance was like an incredible incredible documentary on greatness and after the last dance they had all these interviews with all these players to sort of dissect it and I saw an interview that took place before that this thing came out with Kobe Bryant and understanding the interview with Kobe Bryant I understood the greatness of Michael Jordan so just stick with me for a little bit as I go into the sports world but with God's up we're gonna bring it back to coach Kobe Bryant said why was Michael Jordan Michael Jordan Kobe I don't forget remember Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan was really close Kobe came to the league anyone who's not following basketball just tick with us for a few more minutes these are very very great basketball players the core Brian came to the league Michael Jordan was like his older brother and they would talk a lot and he said in its interview that was unbelievable you know why Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan because he was able to see past the the indulgences of being an NBA star in in pursuit of true greatness let me say that again Michael Jordan was a world icon that comes with a lot of things you get there's a lot of things you get to enjoy in this world when you are world things but somehow he was able to go past them because he understood but if he would delve past them he would unlock a greatness inside him which will allow him to continuously win championships it was a choice that made to go deeper than all the joys that were in front of them the greatness of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant and Tom Brady and everyone else that's achieving greatness and by the way it's in every ministry is this one perspective and I want to make sure that it's clear there's a perspective in life which is with anything in front of me contains that which I want even more I would like to be comfortable but if I go deeper I'm going to achieve my greatness I would like to have more things but if I go deeper I'm gonna hold back so that I could accomplish this the green I would like to say what's on my mind but if I just work deeper I'm going to treat my spouse my friend the person I'm relationship with with greater honor and will have a deeper relationship what we want in life is the shells of our lives what we need in life is something much deeper and many times in life the only way to get to what you want to what you need is by going past the thing that's the shell that's right in front of you greatness is not on a mountaintop greatness is right in front of our eyes every single day the only question is can you see past the shell if you have a goal can you see past that I can't get up I'm gonna die it's so early I can't get on the treadmill I can't when I was running today might work out some Thursday Friday so those who work they're impossible today today's run I was like I might forget it it's weekend already I'm like stop puffing up you'll be fine that stacking giving up that second if I can't that second of don't that moment when you get past that you go into something and what you're going to is your greatness one of the greatest misconceptions we have is that we think that God is up I don't know when we put them up but somehow somewhere in history put them up somebody put them up somebody said to somebody hey you know we should put God up so then you pray up and you talk up and you sort of get the sense that like the guy off they're sort of disappointed at you like you're not a good enough Jew and I don't really know what I'm doing I'm not like this guy I'm not like that guy we all have our everyone has their Jewish complex and we think that there's like an invisible king who looks down and like if you're doing well he gives you goodies and if naughty there's a point that he's always really disappointed and like he needs things and you need things like he needs players and rituals and you need like health and happiness and like it's a deal like are you good now are you good now like we're good like it's called Amazon God and if you deliver for him and he doesn't love her back you're like what's taking so long as Prime come on so be God and if suddenly goes wrong but you don't understand you like maybe there is any my god when he's up in this little invisible Palace and we're on the earth we could be like whoa baby there's no God because this should it be going wrong maybe you don't know what you doing maybe we should give me the keys couple minutes here's the mistake our God is he's not up I'll tell you that much that's not Jewish you know her God is according to Judaism he's in the divine energy in everything is energy in which this world functions that means that inside you and inside me is a piece of the divine religious not religious into it not into it connected not connected forget it the person doesn't know who's Jewish and the greatest rabbi in the world both are made with the same stuff more spirituality will ever need for the rest of their lives you never have to become spiritual you have to reveal spiritual watch how this works give me like one one that how much times like a guy give me like and really just watch how this works do you know why greatness is passed the thing that you're looking for is because greatness is in grayness is when you tap into who you are greatness is when it's what's in front of you or the physical what's in front of you that says sleep comfort you say I want to be bigger and to be bigger you have to tap into a piece of you that's beyond physical you feel great when you're tapping into that spiritual side of you spirituality is not the negation of physical we don't we don't live on not in monasteries spirituality of the elevation of physical choose a very physical lives they're just elevated with spirituality the focus the goal is to marry the spiritual in the physical the goal is to elevate our lives so that it contains the greatness within it the goal is the spiritual connections and husband and wife not the physical lost the goal is the spiritual connection between man itself of being value not the indulgence it's hard that's what greatness lies elevating everything in front of us looking at my house looking at my life looking at my career looking at my talents looking at my friends and saying I want to deepen it I want to championships I'll pass on the indulgence of being world-famous for a shot and winning a championship when I'm young I want a real relationship I want to really find myself I want a really these men's gonna make a difference I want to walk around empowered all the time not once in a while I want to elevate my life watch how this works there is one food that we have where the outside the shell is worth much less than the inside orange is an orange juice about the same pomegranates and pomegranate juice about the same grapes on the outside are worth X but when you dig to the inside of the grape and you can get past the shell of the grape you get past the physical of the grape and you get to crush them you know what it makes something exponentially more valuable than the grapes themselves wine is the symbol that the inside is greater than the outside that when I could go past eating the grape and crush it and fight for it and wake up earlier and study something I don't understand and try something new and grapple with the Creator and it goes to the process but it has to be processed through whatever it has to go through when it goes through whatever it goes through to get ultimate at that point be the true potential of wine is the symbol that what's on the inside is greater and I have to fight for my life to become deeper so every time there's a moment of happiness and Judaism God said listen enjoy it but remember elevated new baby elevated getting married elevated you have a holiday elevated you sit down in a Shiva there's a moment each week where you look at that table a table can the sustenance of your week it's filled with delicacies maybe the people around the table that you love it's set up like a like a prince and a princess and you're about to start the moment in your week and goggles whoa wait before you do that remember elevate it bring it up to dish so when you look around in their life and say kiddush means to Kadesh to sanctify and you say I want a physical life but I wanted to be sanctified I want physical pleasures but I want them to be sanctified I want my life to be an elevated life when I when I'm done at 120 I want people to look back and go something about him something about her she just there's something about her crimped my finger on it special you'll feel different they just you know those people like that did you know grandparents rabbis and mentors you know I'm talking about like you but something about I don't could they're elevated or they're elevating the week is so busy we're running around so much and finally we stop finally like the treadmill just shuts and for a few moments if we're so if we're able to put the phone away and we get like a second to breathe inspiration comes when everything slows down when you go to a life cycle event when you watch something and you're not in the drum of life all of a sudden you can think you can see you can dream you can find yourself you're running a hundred miles an hour you can't in our conversation let it on find yourself when you're finally stopped shabbat about finding me this can you imagine how the rabbi set it up way you walk in threshold of you walking into the day that is designed you to get down to the core of who you are to shut down the physical worlds that the spiritual world part of you can breathe begins with a symbol of what's on the inside is more valuable called wine and the statement but I testify that God runs this world and I want to bring it up a notch I want to bring me up a notch I want to bring my life locked in on CH kiddush they've done well to chamber because every week you climb a step every week you move up a drop next thing you know you're on a totally different landing it's that time of the week and get to stop sanctify elevate deep in sugar cold and I should have called her I shoulda said that it could be more [Music] this week that's what it means to be Jewish we're great deeper a little bit every week every moment it's the power of the kiddush I think it's done right it's not just some bland ritual could change you my blessings this incredible crowd thanks to all those that have their videos on I'm looking at these stuff okay you guys are awesome future of our people my blessing to you is that we should all the deep lives we should all figure out a way to get inside every aspect of our lives and elevated make it holding it and make it bigger recognize that spirituality the elevation of physical leave me with a little task to think about think about what is a part of your life as you think about kiddush this week think about your grapes what are your grapes in life what are the parts of your life that are physical that you can go deeper in you can crush is it health that spirituality is it religion is it relationships am i spoke to physical and I still do to focus on me every one of us has the grapes in our lives that we're still stuck at the shell that we haven't had the guts to crush and to go deeper in and to take ourselves past the physical past the comfort past the selfishness to becoming more selfless to becoming more stronger everyone has that great and I ask you to think about that and do that just to think of a few groups in our lives and to commit to being deeper at that moment of kiddush maybe just maybe I'll wake up one morning and look at ourselves won't even recognize ourselves step by step growth by growth as we climb the mountain but what really what it means to be a joke to live in this world but to elevate it at the exact same time to merge physical and spiritual to drink incredible wine but to also be able to know that that wine is not just the satisfy my physical taste but to elevate me to a bit of that I want to wish you a shabbat shalom thank you so much for listening thank you for having me and I hope and pray that we get to do this live maybe one day we could do this live what do you think rabbis how about like ever one day we do this and like maybe the Waldorf like what do you think we go to Jerusalem and like that wouldn't be a terrible place to merge spiritual and physical we can get together and have like a chef at home together yes we can walk the streets of Jerusalem you can hang out we could think we'd do it the way God wants it live I bet you by the way like his note I'm sure in the headquarters of zoom they're like what the heck is going on we built this for like companies what's all these Jews doing talking all that oh no I think we just blew up the whole zoom business plan but that's not how we're men we're meant to do this together dancing and singing and being together with one God should bless you everything you want in life you should have the greatest greatest life you should deep in everything you want your life should not only be true one when you drink wine you'll actually want to when you you represent what wine represents the people that were meant to be thanks so much listening shabbat shalom all right Thank You mr. Hari for your words really appreciate it once again beautiful powerful words yeah I just appreciate the fact that you spoke about wine just to throw in one little quick thing about why we make kiddush and one you know one of the things about wine which is different than a lot of other things we eat is that most things have an expiration date and the older the get the worse they become and wine actually the truth of the matter is that the older it gets the more refined it becomes the more special and more beautiful it becomes and you know when we think about life we often think about you know our youth as as the best time and you know most of us here are pretty young and we think that as we get older we lose that but the truth is that if we make our Shabbat and really all moments of our life more and more meaningful then really it's like wine the more we elevate the more our life gets better with age because we tap into deeper pleasures that we couldn't necessarily experience or appreciate in our in our you know less developed stage so yes that's what part of the reason we make Edition wine thank you so much okay so in just a moment we are going to go into the breakout rooms everybody should please make sure to introduce yourself everybody should get to know you and share a little bit about how you're gonna make kiddush how you're gonna crush those grapes how you're gonna make life special sanctify to make it holy okay and without further ado we will be in the breakout rooms momentarily