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Rabbi Mintz Live - 1/1/13 - "Faith - Leave All For God or Get Involved?" partII
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Oorah's founder, Rabbi Chaim Mintz, giving his weekly Tuesday night class at Oorah's Torah Spot in Staten Island. This week's class is titled "Faith, Should I Leave It All Up To God, or Should I Get Involved?" part II. For lecture material go to: [http://www.oorah.org/handouts/2013-01-01.pdf] The class is streamed live at http://www.oorah.org/rabbimintzlive each Tuesday night at . "Ask the Rabbi" session begins at . Send your question to be answered by Rabbi Mintz to [email protected]
Categories:Torah
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Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
if you remember
two weeks ago
we were in the middle of a very
interesting episode in the life of
yaakov avinu and rachel and leia
last week we had the wonderful shower
broke us
here we hope to have more of them
some of the young people about to get
married soon and we'll make sure
everybody's from them too
and we'll have i'll
dance together and be very happy for
their simcard
we up to the part where
rouvain the son of leia brought home the
judoyan the mandrake plants
which are
helpful
to
help a woman conceive
and he brought it to his mother leia
and rocco
asked leia for them
and leia got upset with her as we
mentioned i don't want to go into the
whole thing just to bring us up today to
refresh your memories
and she said you took my husband away
from me now you take him to do dying
away from me
and therefore russell said therefore
tonight
was my night to be yaakov avinu
but you may take over this night and
give me the dodoing give me these
mandrakes maybe they'll help me become
pregnant
remembers
leia already had
four children
and
bill had two children zilbathus and
broco had no children at all at all yet
she was looking to find some way that
she should become pregnant and to have
the child
so she figured maybe the two dorm might
do the trick
to do him have that that
power
to help along
and because she
gave up that night to be with the great
sadducee
she did not lay with him that night she
gave it over to leia
she
was punished not to be able to be buried
with him to lay with him after they
leave the world
and
it seems like such a punishment came up
one night to be with him
so we want to understand
what
exactly
exactly we can't know exactly great
people we know exactly what's going on
with them with their ideas and their
thoughts and their aspirations and their
and their depth but on our simple level
of our understanding the torah wants us
to
delve into the torah according to our
understanding of the torah to get out
what we can you never get to the depths
of such great people
what was the problem here what was the
terrible thing that she did
we have to go back
to the beginning of time
and work ourselves up
to her time to our time
as we know
there's such a thing a number one art
glossary sheet
faith in god
faith means
not talking about belief belief means
god exists
he's a creator
faith in god means
that we look up to him
to realize
what's happening
is through him
that we ourselves cannot survive by
ourselves we cannot ourselves
be healthy
be rich or make
our sustenance our panaso
our livelihood it's all him that's faith
in god we're not ourselves we can't do
anything
he makes our heart beat he gives us
knowledge to understand how to do things
that's called faith in him
not his existence as a muna
but his relationship to us and why he
runs the world it's called faith
in hashem
of course there's another step in that
too that we'll come to
and here we're talking about rachel
and leia discussing things
how to go about to get things happening
to them they want to become pregnant
leia wants more children
but she did that she had more children
raquel wants children
how did they bring hashem to the garden
to their life how is he
playing a role in getting them to get
what they want
of course they realize that it's only
between god they can
have children naturally
but to what extent should they get
involved with doing things
for that to happen to them
or maybe they should rely on god
altogether god you take care of it i
don't have to go
mandarins potions and medicines
you take care of it
to what extent
you say
that
god should be on our life
in what extent do we have to do our own
for god to help
us so we're going back now to the
beginning of time
where god created adam and eve other
merchava
he put them in grenadine
and
the garden of eden
where they didn't have to do anything
to live
or to eat
everything was in front of them they
didn't have to work the ground they have
to plow the plant
to reap to harvest everything with the
silver platter
they were in granada in the garden of
eden other machava
of course we got a very
distorted
idea of them you can see the pictures
they're rather than like some cavemen
over there was going to have to close on
them look like wild people
they were god's creations the holy of
the holiest
such holy people god created they're not
born from father the mother they're born
from god himself god created them
imagine what the holy creatures they
were
the ideas of the world greater than
moses
they had ideas
of an understanding of the world and of
god even
that's how great they were
and there were this garden of eden
then
and everything was ready for them they'd
have to do anything
everything they wanted to eat it was
there whatever you wanted it was
all they had to do was connect with god
no distractions nothing else they had
such a wonderful relationship it was so
much full of of of pleasure
of of
a feeling of of
the
greatest pleasure possible to connect to
god
without any distractions
but
they still had
the
evil
trying to make them sin
it's a hurrah
and he was successful
because we discussed it very very back
in the beginning in the first
schmoozin that we talked about exactly
what that's all about but we can't go to
that right now today
but to bring out the point they sinned
and they were chased out of the garden
of eden
god said no more
the life was very good till now
but now that you sinned you must leave
and he gave them the klola the curse
number two bizarre
you
will have to sweat
in order to eat food
no more on the silver platter
you're going to have to from now on plow
the ground plant the seeds
water it
cut it prepare it
you will have to eat
only through the sweat of your face in
other words you're gonna have to work
hard from now on it's not gonna come
easy
why
did god
make it such a
way
for a person to get
what we need we have to work hard
in order to get money to live
to buy clothing to eat shelter
that was all not necessary before it was
chased out of garden of eden
the shelter was there clothing was there
they needed clothing ethan and they had
what to eat what was the purpose
of
making men
have to work
for
what we need animals most don't have to
work animals are very easy they don't
have to work hard
they just go and graze whatever grass is
around or they eat up the smaller
animals or animals have a very easy life
considering uh
what we the way we see that they live
very easy for them they don't have
problem with clothing
shelter they very easily go into a cave
or under a tree for animals a very easy
life almost like a grenadine before they
were chased out of the garden of eden
but man
has to toil
and work
in order to live
there are three reasons for that
we said number three three reasons
why
man has to
work and labor and toil
for our sustenance for our livelihood
and these are quoted from the great most
of the two reasons for travis alvarez
the great
save for duties of the heart which we
quoted many times one of the most
classical
books that were ever written for judaism
about twelve hundred years ago by the
mikhail adayan
one of the books studied in all
study halls of jewish people the
yeshivas and
one of the great
classics that were written
i hope you all have a chance to study
that book someday
it's a very fascinating book
duties of the heart covers all of us
one reason is
because god wants us
to
have a challenge
as we are working
and toiling
to
produce what we need to live
with the job to make money what's a
farmer who's working on the field
milking his cows
whatever
person finds himself profession
professional who has to a doctor who has
to get up early in the morning he has to
do all kinds of
things to keep himself going keep
himself alive everybody has their thing
everything is connected to some type of
mitzvah
we have to
work
and be employees employers
they all have misses connected to them
a person works with somebody else
he has to be honest
can't waste time
wasting time is wasting money he's
getting paid for his first service for
being what he's doing for doing what
he's being paid for that some people
take off
this coffee break that coffee break you
start talking in the middle
and they don't do their work
that's not terrible kind of
of of of an employee employee has to be
honest
he has to
do what he's supposed to even does his
boss is not watching him and what's the
other was not watching let's go on top
of schmooze let's talk you know let's go
after her for the walk or do this get on
the telephone whatever it is
that is not what
a jewish employee has to do
that's called stealing stealing time
stealing money
how do we get along with our fellow
people at work
nice to them
we do kindness to them
there's all kinds of laws employer the
same way how does he treat his employees
does he really pay them the way he
should
does he treat the way he should
everything that we do a farmer who's
working in the on the field
all kinds of laws and
that have to be careful about they can't
plant collide you can't plant two types
of plants together
you can't work with two type of animals
together they have to be separate
you ask them shabbos you can't work on
shabbos
every every type of profession or work
that we'll think of is connected to some
midst of the total a lot of it's a lot
of things to do
you have a doctor
the doctor has a lot of loss to do it
very carefully life of people in his
hands
how do you treat life what how to what
extent do you have to go to put yourself
out to watch over people's lives to see
make sure that they get the best
treatment
it's a very
a very responsible type of job to be a
doctor because you're treating people
and their life and death is in the
doctor's hands it's not a simple thing
some people say oh doctor he's great he
went through
medical school and makes a lot of money
and so yeah that's not uh
but
a doctor who's really
dedicated he really knows
what his
responsibilities are
it's something that's very
very difficult sometimes to uh to come
by
you can meet up in the middle of the
night and you think of something well
maybe you have to
we can go on and on and on but that's
one of the reasons why
god
made man have to toil and work for his
living because he has to face the
challenges of whatever his employment is
whatever he's doing for his livelihood
there are a lot of laws connected to it
it's number one
number two
he says
to keep people out of trouble
that people wouldn't have to work for
their livelihood they have so much time
on their hands what would they do
they might get involved with things they
shouldn't
like we see a lot of people today
the unemployed young people especially
they get into trouble
they have time on their hands if they're
busy doing things you see adults like
that many adults who are unemployed so
they start doing things that are not
correct especially don't have any money
not employed or something that's we know
as a fact
that uh
the crime rises at the time of when
unemployment is high there's people even
older people that you wouldn't expect
them to do any crimes to rob banks and
so on
to be uh petty uh thieves
but people
have the pressure
and they need the money they don't need
the money so much everybody depends on
their circumstances but to have a lot of
time on our hands
we could use it for a good thing and
some use it for bad things
so therefore it's
the rabbits tell us by
idleness
brings a person to do things that he
shouldn't do
you have to busy with ourselves so
that's another reason
third reason is
because
we want to connect to god
we need a livelihood we have to pray to
him
that's number three we send them
the first one is
we have to in order to number four
to in order to perform those
commandments that are connected to our
employment
number five that we should not be too
much time on our hands we should be busy
not to sin
thirdly you should
pray
and depend on god we have to come on to
him
we know that ourselves what can we do by
ourselves without god helping us
so we can't get any place
seeds won't grow in the ground if god
doesn't make them grow and we won't have
any muscle power if god doesn't give us
muscle power
we won't have a way to think if god
doesn't give us the capacity to think
all these things
are
become apparent and much stronger when
we
know that it's not coming by itself we
have to do something something it's not
coming by itself not not the government
eden anymore it came by itself
so we have to come on to god help us
we cannot be somewhere and ain't somehow
nice number seven
we cannot depend on miracles not anymore
in the garden of eden
adam and eve admirable dependent hashem
will take care of them we can't depend
on that we have to do something
generally speaking
but there's a great danger
when we do these things
and we
get what we need
we in the danger of thinking that it's
we're our own
intelligence
our own strength
like we've warned in the torah and
devarim god says you're going to the
land of israel the jews were in the
desert at that time and god says that
we're going to the land of israel and
i'll give you abundance of blessings
you'll have what to eat and what to wear
and everything will be fine but i'm
afraid don't fall into the trap saying
that my
power and my brains
and my
giving over to my
to my employment
and spending hours that's what did it i
i i was able to this and i'm so smart
and then how to invest
and how to uh out of a farmer knows how
to plant and then which year and which
seeds and which land and everybody knows
things if things are going good
people have tendency to pat themselves
on the back and say i know how to do
this i know how to do that
i think i once told you the story a
while ago but
the doctor
of
one of my children who did a
very
very serious operation
he was a very great doctor a
pediatrician
a
surgeon
and
orthopedic surgeon and i told him doctor
you know
what the satwik river says about you
you're such a great doctor that when you
operate there's a special angel that's
standing right next to you
so i'd be very complicated right
especially angel he got so angry
you know who that angel is he says
that's me
i'm the angel
imagine that he was so angry an angel
you're taking away from me
taking away from that
i'm so smart such a great doctor world
famous doctor and he's like an angel i'm
the one i'm the angel
but i i'm shocked to hear the person
that's such a uh he's a great doctor it
wasn't too humble
but
that's what people have tendency to feel
i'm successful i'm the purpose
the source of the success that people
have that tendency to think that they're
the ones
and we have to understand
that
left out some of the things here
that when we
do
actions
to
bring out and to get our livelihood
it's an act
we're not doing it
we're just acting you know charades can
play charades and then charades you can
make actions as if you're doing things
so it's got people to guess what's
behind it but it's not really
the real thing you're just making
actions as if you're doing it
but we do things
it's god that's giving to us he says you
have to do things remember i'll give it
to you but don't depend on the miracle
you have to do things in order for me to
give you but i'm giving it to you our
actions are just
like play it's with the playing and
playing actions we go to our
employment and we do this and we do that
we get paid
it's just god would send us
whatever we need as long as we do some
actions we can't since we're out of the
garden of eden today we have to do
things but it's not that we're doing it
not our brains that's doing it he's
giving us the brains he's giving us the
power to give us the muscles it's coming
from him
we have to rely on him to realize
that what getting is coming from him
tells us i'm saver
a person who puts his faith
in others
then god says
then rely on him don't rely on me
you put your life your faith in
somebody's to help yourself a different
person
oh i'm so friendly with him he'll make
sure to take care of me he'll take care
of me i'll take care of myself i him me
somebody else
god says they don't need me so then
let's see how they can do without me
and that's no good because we can't do
anything without him
that is the normal thing but most people
are
obligated to do
there are some outstanding people who
very close to hashem
who can live in the garden of eden
there were those great people
who had such faith in hashem they were
so strong in their faith
so holy
and pure
that they were able
to be taken care of by hashem by god
they didn't have to do anything very
little
they're so great
many of you heard
people go to his like go to miron where
he's
buried shimbun yokai
lived in the cave he ran away from the
romans
he lived in the cave of the sun for many
years and god made
daytree growth there made water come in
didn't have to do anything he sat and
just studied torah whole name connected
to god had the great pleasure like being
the garden of eden he was so great that
he was god took care of him
such people like that
we have a story of the gomorrah
of uh i'm not mistaken
outstanding
talmud
person who studies works much in the
thomas of the study of the talmud
that his wife
was ready to light candles right before
shabbos
and she found out
that in the flask in the bottle instead
of oiled it was vinegar it was right
before shabbos
so he said the one who said
number 10
the one who said
oil should burn he could say that
vinegar should burn what's the
difference to god
so i put the vinegar in like the vinegar
we can't do that because we'll have that
because it happened to us
wow
what a miracle
look at that that's why it doesn't
happen to us because the god doesn't do
miracles just like that for him was no
miracle so what's the difference to god
oil burns radically get burned all the
same thing
they're so close to god god takes care
of him you don't have oil yeah vinegar
whatever you need take care of
that's how great people rely on hashem
they don't have any
feeling that they had the power on their
own
they realize that every second that
we're alive god's giving us light every
beat of our heart god's making it beat
every breath that we take god's given
his power to take in the breath
on their own with nothing only through
god
or last
kagamu alaihimai
like your nursing baby king david says
i am to god like a nursing baby with his
mother this is about his mother baby
can't do anything
he has to rely on his word for
everything can't do anything by himself
not eating not sleeping not taking care
of him everything
king david big mighty wonderful king
david said i'm like a nursing baby with
his mother i can't i'm nothing by myself
that's how much he felt relying on god
to that extent that god takes care of a
person like that doesn't have to do too
much
and that brings us to what we're talking
about came to rocco
welcome
she was so great
that she have to come on
to the doctor
to medicine
broccoli or mater and broccoli she was
so great
that was
not be fitting for her
to say
give me this medicine this mandrake this
potion
and
sacrifice
the chance to be with this great sadiq
to lay with him for that night
that would be the way to get children
rely on hashem rely on being with the
sadducees the great person
rather than
take the root of
medication
of the potion that you want to take
you're too great for that
for us we're not in that
that in that level of greatness
we have to go to the doctors we have to
take medicine because we're not that
level of greatness
but when we do go to the doctor we do
take medication we have to realize it's
not the doctor
people say what a great doctor
look what he did for me he didn't do
anything for you god did it for you
he said you can't rely on the miracle
you have to go to the i'm not gonna do
miracles for you you have to go to the
doctor and make the charades as if
the doctor's helping you take the
medication but that's great medicine
i took it and took care of my pain took
care of this took care of that
that is not what we're supposed to think
you're supposed to think
thank god
he gave me that medication a lot of
people take him out take him aspirin
some people will die from masculine some
people react to allergic to medicine
medications but
there's a special prayer we're supposed
to say before a person takes medication
you are something that made the will of
your god that this medicine should help
me
that's what's supposed to say every time
we talk about occasionally it's my
special prayer
that's that's what that's what we're
supposed to do
take them back we're not supposed to
rely on the medicaid not rely on the
doctor not rely on anybody not rely on
ourselves
we have to act we have to do things
charades it's like we're putting on a
plate because we've been doing actions
but that's not what's causing the result
the result is god's making the results
that's what ruckle that was her mistake
according to her greatness she's so
great the guy said you
welcome you're going for that for them
that's what you want he's giving up the
great sadiq for that night
because last week
was said to be with the tadic for that
night like bingham kipper the greatness
of it seems like a mundane physical
action being together
but those great people they had such
lofty ideas
when they got together
in an intimate way it was
greatness it was kedush it was holiness
it was purity
to be with the great sadiq imagine
yaakov
being together with such an unbelievable
connection between them it was so
spiritual
and that's what the third said oh that's
why he said rachel you did the wrong
thing how could you go and do it give up
that's you are too great for that
and therefore she was punished that she
would not be able to slay with him have
to have to leave the world
this is something we have to a great
lesson for us in a day-to-day life we
started off with grenadine
that was a place that nobody had to do
anything
but
it evolved to a situation we're chased
out people have to do but there are
those great people who can get away with
not doing actions very little god takes
care of them they're so close to that to
him
but our lives were not that great but
what we are
obligated to do is not to think
that we are making things happen
we're just playing a game of charades
god's making it happen as long as we
do our part to ken
cannot rely on miracles
we're not great enough to round we can't
say let the
vinegar burn we have to do our
part in order for god to give us what we
want to take
so that's where we're talking about
tonight
and now i think we're ready for some
questions maybe from over here or from
forever i don't even understand a
question or any comments
thank you
rabbi so um obviously we know that rahul
sinned and and she you know she got a
punishment so did rochelle know
that
she was punished i mean because
obviously the punishment was after her
death really so did she
know that she was being punished for
this while she was alive
well i imagine that she realized it when
leia
conceived right afterwards
and uh
with two more children you said last
week
obviously she saw that it was not the
right thing to do to let leia have that
night if she would have had that night
she would have conceived
so she would possibly
so i imagine that was the biggest
proof to her that what she did was the
wrong thing so should we consider the
punishment of not
being buried with uh yaakov to be sort
of a
bigger punishment than if she got
something while she was alive
is there sort of something in the torah
that's called me the negan meda measure
for a measure because god punishes a
person the type of thing that they
send in they get the type of punishment
she didn't want to lay with him then
then she did not lay with him afterwards
that's that goes meeting from me can i
get me there so that's why it was
put off to that time
thank you
by number three we said we have
there is three
uh reasons
that we are working for panasonic right
which are followed up in the next next
few yeah so what's happened before we
got punished why didn't think about
those reasons oh very good
because
they weren't necessary
because if you think about it
certainly wasn't the problem they needed
had too much time with this to sin
they were not ready to sin
and because of not timing their hands
they were connecting to god the whole
time
and
the mitzvahs that the person is
challenged to do
they
they connected to god mitzvah's art for
a person to connect to hashem that's
what mrs are made for though we should
every step of our life we should have a
mitzvah to do if you think of hashem we
eat we have to make sure to do the right
thing
you have to eat kosher food
so kosher we're connecting to hashem
because we can't just eat whatever you
want why can't i eat that because hashem
said no god said not to eat it we're
connecting with them at that time make a
rock on the food looks like that's going
to be the next night we have to fast in
this day all of them think about food
we're connecting all the misses that
we're doing
are connecting to him again they're
connected without these myths because
some say the mitzvah is a question
but they were connecting to hashem
without having to do all these
challenges that were saved
so
what they were missing when they i went
out of the granada
so that's why they had to have the work
you know what they had
but when again they had all these things
were were going on didn't happen i
didn't need this
oh yeah
roof lama should have a speedy recovery
version
rabbi my question is kind of classical
question
freedom of choice that person has versus
god's will
how can we distinguish between the two
whether it's
whether i have freedom of choice to do
what i want to do
at the end of the day this is god's will
yeah it's sort of a classical question
in the jewish literature maybe maybe you
could expand very important
matter to explain
that
the question is we're talking about if
everything's god's will
and it's not we that are making our
livelihood it's not we that are
have muscles to work and brains to think
uh different ways of our life god gives
it to us so where does the free choice
come in with a person that speaks or it
says bakira
so
so where does
stop but where does god's power start
and how do we
put the two things together
the answer is
that
we must believe that's one of the
fundamentals of judaism that we have
free choice to do good to do bad
without that there couldn't be a
punishment reward the person is
forced to do what he's doing
you can't punish him for that he can't
be willing for that the only person has
free will
then you can say well you had free will
you did the right thing they get they
get rewarded the wrong thing you get
punished
the answer is that definitely there is
free choice for a person but
that has
parameters to it we don't care the free
choice of whatever you whatever we want
want us to go and
shoot somebody say why anybody want to
show i can shoot them no that's not free
will
some people maybe yes not everybody
on the way running to shoot somebody
will trip on the floor and fall she'll
make put a banana peel in his way you
know falling down
a person wants to uh
uh do certain things maybe for good
things sometimes might do a good thing
and god doesn't want to for some reason
she won't be able to do it so this
within certain limitations
of free choice
and uh
what
we get
in what we do are two different things
what we get from god is giving it to us
that's not our free choice god's giving
and handing it out to us
makes this happen makes that happen he's
making it happen to us
it might be according to our actions he
might give us naturally what's happening
to us is going to the way we act
punishment and reward
but what we're talking about when we go
and we do things god's given us the
power to do those things
even bahira
we choose to do the right thing
but god's giving us the power to do the
right thing we want to give it to the
documentary of charity
god gave us the power to make to earn
the money to give to charity god gives
the
power in the hand to hand the charity to
somebody
so he's giving us
the the life and the uh energy for us to
do what we're doing we can choose to do
it but he's giving us the power to do it
so it's not any contradiction we have
the bahira to do what we want to do
within certain parameters and even what
we do do god's giving us that good thing
so we're going to make a livelihood
that's also we have bakira we go and the
person wants some people like to loaf
around they want to get welfare and get
government programs not do anything
and they want to just sit and do nothing
the whole day so that's a person's
choice doesn't want to be productive
a person wants to know i don't want to
be a free law of free loaf and
get things for nothing i want to produce
i want to be active that's the person's
hero
but
how are we able to do what we want to do
how are we able to get a job a brain job
for a physical job
god's giving us the power to think give
his power to to live and to act and to
walk into whatever we're doing so we
have the here a free choice but we have
to rely on god to give us the power to
go through with the features that we
have it would give us the power to do it
we wouldn't be able to have the free
choice
israel schwartz from delhi new york
says how much effort do we put into
accomplishing today as compared to how
much effort into working towards the
future is there a ratio given by the
terror for how much
we should
build for now as opposed to looking
towards the future or should we not look
for the future at all or what is the
terrorist perspective on that
i don't know exactly what the future for
retirement it means or exactly what uh
what i don't know exactly what the
question is
um
i don't know what it means for its
future our
spiritual future or it seems like it
means uh physically saving for a rainy
day like it's cold or planning for
an expense that you're anticipating down
the road a retirement or a huston or
whatever
well naturally we have to think about
the present more than the future a
person doesn't know how long he's going
to live i mean they can't live for the
future how much can live for the future
right now we have to put our main
energies
and our main focus
on the present
and produce what most of what we can't
for the press but i don't want to wear
myself out
and be so productive because i want to
save my stunt for the future
well who knows what the future is going
to bring first person might not live for
the future it might be sick for the
future i mean right now you have the
opportunity right now you have the
energy so use it don't put it away for
the future because you don't want to
overdo it make yourself sick naturally
but people want to live in the future
and not for the president
i think to make a big mistake we right
now we're living in the present we got
to do whatever we can for the president
the future is we'll come to that we'll
take each thing as it comes in their
life but to say that uh i'll lay low now
because i want to think about the future
i think that's big mistake i think he's
facing more on the opposite not laying
low but working and putting the money
that you're earning now
towards the future
as opposed to doing other things with
your time and energy
that you could be doing now
in other words well again if putting a
lot of money for the future a person
might be able to do something work his
time in a better way a person that has a
job of nine to five and he makes a
living
so
uh then after that was it after five you
can get a second job and make more money
put away in the bank or he could study
torah for for an hour two hours so he
could go to schulte to the senate guy to
pray he said well i would put more time
and more a person that has to put in the
amount of time that shouldn't come to
not relying on miracles
so but uh
if a person has a normal job he's making
money to
discuss the livelihood that he needs so
the person should be happy with what he
has
many people just want more money more
money and they neglect their their
future of the real future of the world
to come
and they put so much time and energy
into this world and uh they're wasting a
lot of time
so uh i'm not saying it should not put
something in for the future
but but to put his whole
the way some people do that everything
every minute they have they want make
more money and what puts them safe they
have to save for the future for their
spiritual future and not neglect the
spiritual future and put so much time
into the physical future
rabbi so um obviously you know we said
in point number two that we now have to
sweat you know we have to earn our you
know right to eat food and so on so
what is is there a chance now to sort of
change that around to get back in
hashem's graces and where things become
easy for us now what does it take for
everybody to keep shabbas for everybody
to you know
is there a way in does that have
anything to do with alam haba or is that
something that's possible here
well to keep the laws of the torah that
we're
able to do
i mean we're not talking talking about
not
uh
living earning a livelihood that's
something for great great people only
that we can't do that we're not in that
level yet of greatness that we sit down
the whole week and say don't worry
they'll take care of us and we just stay
in the and do spiritual things
but to keep the basics from what the
torah says
that we certainly can do obligated to do
we can't say
many people come to shop and say well
that's my most busiest day of shabbos if
i don't think with shabbos what's going
to happen
says what are you telling god you're
telling god you created the whole world
all that money all the diamonds and all
the gold and all the silver and
everything in the world but you can't
give me a few bucks if i'm gonna work in
the chapters but god says don't worry
your job is don't worry no no i can't
feel good
i can't make a livestream so that's
that's silly because
we have to realize that god takes care
of everybody and first most of the
shabbos is not going to lose by it so it
might be challenging it might go through
it
but uh it's easy sometimes hard but it's
it's it's doable those type of things
the basics are doable and asking people
to do things that are not normal but
that's considered normal keeping laws in
the torah and not working shabbat says
not
doing uh getting involved in certain
occupations that might not be according
to torah law and so on
that we're obligated to do that's called
normal if we do normal things god will
take care of us basically
but to say to the to the extent to get
back in the garden of eden that we
should just sit down and do nothing
that only the greatest of the great were
able to do
right so connected to hashem so they
they were able to
bring themselves back into such a uh
such a situation but
we can't go to that extent
for instance and he uh had a grocery
store
his wife ran the grocery grocery store
and he
opened up for a day or two made enough
money for that week closed down
enough teeth to live
great people even close to our time
they're great people who don't look to
make a lot of money
enough to live to live a happy life but
nothing
nothing uh
outstanding
luxuries they're not looking for it but
they want to put their time into
spiritual things to realize the person's
life is short we don't know how long
we're going to live so they want some
people
to understand called the golden years
people go to florida the golden years
they want to stop around get everything
good and go to florida enjoy and go to
it's up for the golden years i say
retire and now he wanted to serve hashem
the last years of my life i want to
serve hashem
that they uh
retire it and and use the golden years
is where they get the gold the real goal
for the future for the future that's
what your outlook is confront what what
you think that the the future of a
person is after a person dies what's
going to be
so it depends uh it depends what your
outlook is
when when rachel gave leia the signs
so that jacob would
think he married the right
woman right
explain that to me why that's that was
okay it was a deception
but when she tried when she wanted the
mandrakes
that was
not good
well the mandrake says between man and
god that's with man and man giving over
to leia
what is the deception for triacom you
mean that yeah yeah yeah so they both
you know deceived him
that was considered a great great deed
that rachel did yeah right
why was that a great deed you're asking
well the uh it's a very very strong
question it's it's asked by
the great commentaries this question
that what right did you have to do that
you know
answer to that is
that
we know that the
matriarchs
sarah rivka rochelle were prophetess
their own prophetess prophetesses i
guess the prophetess preferences
she knew that eventually
leia is going to be his wife
and she just hurried up the process
faster but it was not something that oh
you've got stuck with leia what it's
supposed to be it was supposed to be
and
she just made it happen sooner
than later
and even the oca from the beginning was
upset with leia for doing that he said
we want something
for him because i played it why she did
that to him
but didn't that and that's what i said
we studied saw that she was not disliked
by yaakov therefore he gave her children
one after the other
and he's ready to to divorce him he told
you he was so upset
but after he had reuven and shimon
his great
children there were such big sardicas
righteous people said how can i divorce
the lord he gave me this great joke he
changed his mind
so rachel knew that he has to marry leia
sooner or later
and hashem
knew that also
and he did things in order for yaakov to
calm down
eventually to be happy that he they did
that later
so it was a great thing that she did but
it wasn't deception it was only a matter
of time
so that's not considered anything really
wrong
but and then if she's a prophetess she
couldn't foresee that she would
eventually have children
well prophets cannot see everything
and sometimes you could see something
but they could change
she's supposed to have children but
maybe she's
not acting like she should maybe she's
doing something wrong
we studied in the beginning before we
mentioned that after leia had the
children rocco was very upset
she said must be she's greater than i am
she's all these children i can't have
any children so she's very upset with
herself it must be that she's not so
great she must be doing something wrong
must be sinning why does she have she
she took advantage to heart and took it
personally but she is not what she
should be so that even though that's not
and that's not the case really
but um
we know that god wants sadikam to pray
so we mentioned many times sorrow didn't
have children ripken and every children
all the way to except for leia
because god wants them to pray to him
and once they pray for themselves they
pray for the whole world like once the
god misabo
and god desires looks forward for the
prayers of the righteous people because
when they pray of themselves they pray
for everybody masara were told to have a
child when she was 90 years old
there was a great
joy in the world because many people
couldn't have children had children at
that day people that were sick and got
better and that day god gave into the
world this great uh infusion of of of of
help of happiness so through sora she
her greatness her greatness she brought
down to herself and to everybody she
brought this joy into the world many
people were helped in that day
sorry from their problem so god wants it
sadiq him to pray to him so there's a
lot of different different things
involved
but keep it coming it's good
if she
had to rely on what we would think
miracle right
is not allowed to do anything
but prey
for her children to have children
and yet we're not supposed to rely just
on ripples
on the greatness of the person that was
my point
that it depends
most people
99 percent of the people after garnet
after they were chased out of the garden
of eden we have to do actions in order
for us to get what we need we can't rely
on miracles the greatest of the great
they could rely on there but
i mentioned before
god took care of him and ultimate people
like that the people in the midburg in
the desert
god took care of the millions of people
they had the men that come in every day
and one came to the sherman they had
food to eat water came out of the rock
he took care of them without them doing
anything the clothes grew with them they
were pressed every day and cleaned every
day by the clouds i'm told they went
through at 40 years of
living a miracle life
when they came to land of israel then
they had to start working the land it
was the only of those 40 years but are
those great they were considered the
dardaya the the generation of knowledge
they were a special outstanding
generation in the in in the desert at
that time
but uh great people still
they
exceptions to the rule
they are expected to align god
altogether and not to
be distracted by
mundane physical actions
and rock will have to be one of those
great people like that
because of her greatness that was a
problem she she
she
diverted from the greatness a little bit
but what the mandarins were then and
that
said no you should have done that
especially if he had the opportunity to
be that night with the outcome but he
gave it up that's the main thing over
here to give that up for that
you can't do that
i i just had the question on on on this
miracle um
uh number seven
didn't we have a miracle when the sea
parted and when
on hanukkah
the miracle of the oil so does that mean
we're not going to have any more
miracles or we're finished or
shouldn't believe in it
this ain't something we cannot rely on
miracles we don't feel like god will
make wrinkles and we'll make miracles
for us but we can't rely on to sit back
and say okay do me a miracle we can't
rely on that
god made split the
red sea for the jewish people he did a
great thing for us
miracle conduct a great thing but we
can't rely on that we can't say we don't
have to make oil for the menorah because
god will give us a miracle that we don't
need no oil we have to make the oil to
make sure it happened at that time
there's no oil around so god made a
miracle but we can't rely on that if
we're just
desperate it's not we can't do anything
brett sees in front of us what he's
supposed to do it's a god made a miracle
but we can't rely on that we wouldn't
say okay god i don't do anything make me
miracle everything will be fine we can't
tell god to make miracles
we're not asking miracles no
god did miracles he will do great
miracles for us when the shia comes
and the jewish people go back to the
land of israel and we will have our
land back and the holy temple back we're
going to see a lot of miracles the
greatest vehicles bigger than bigots of
egypt will be bigger bigger wrinkles
than them but right now we're building a
time of
nice this term called hidden miracles
that we have all the time but open
miracles that we're waiting for that's
going to happen
definitely we'll do miracles
like a baby
relying on this mother they're not
worried about it they're not worried
it's not that oh what's going to happen
i need a miracle what's going to happen
they're not worried about it
if oil can burn
medication
god will take care they're not that word
in the least
it's easy to want to come to that
to that level it's not easy to come to
that level but once you're in that level
then it's easy for them but it's not
easy to come to that level
once you're there then it's
it's like
it's something are difficult to reach
but once you reach it so then you're
you're okay so that's what that's right
it's hard to come to such a level but
once you're there you're there
you got a question sent in from a um
jason guterman he wants to know we speak
a lot about how yaakov loved rachel more
than leia why why did he love rahul more
than leia obviously we're not talking
about regular people what was it that he
saw in rachel more than in leia
he saw her greatness
and spirituality
that she was
very great
and a little bit more than leia was
at that time
and she was his main basut because he
was so great in in his spirituality and
she was so great the spirituality they
fit together that was his main
vasude's main
mate that god
set forth even though he married other
three other wives too but she was the
main one because they she was considered
the outstanding
one more than the other but she had she
was she's greater than the other ones
maybe uh they have any other questions
so maybe i'll just
hi uh i just had a quick question yes um
we learned that
we learned that uh rahul not being
buried with yaakov
was punishment for a ruckle but is it
possible that that could have been a
punishment for yaakov as well
because i would imagine that it would
have been it would have given yaakov a
pleasure to have been buried with rahul
who he loved so much
uh and here rocco uh here yaakov was not
able to uh be buried alongside rocco
so i would think
uh in a way that would kind of be a
punishment for
uh for him too even inadvertently i mean
surely if yaakov loved russell so much
it would have been yaakov's wish his
request to have been buried alongside
her
and knowing that that would not happen
um
that
i would imagine that would have caused
him pain
that's a great question i never thought
of it before it's a very very good idea
you brought up that's a punishment for
for for
yaakov
he's also suffering from them from that
i would say was brought up last week
and maybe by mentioned about the other
reason
there was another reason why raquel was
not buried next to him
because she
was there when the jews were sent into
exile
and they were really
coming down on the very
hardly
harshly
they were being
killed and tortured
by their captives
captors
and
she came out to pray for them they went
right by where she was buried she came
to pray for them we just read in last
week's parachute
that yaakov
told yosef yaakov was mitsuram the last
years of his lives and mizrahim was in
egypt yaakov the last 17 years of his
life was in israel he died in israel
but before he died he told the other
save make sure to take me to land of
israel to bury me there don't bury me
him it's right i want to be buried in
israel so he listened to his
wishes and he took them to the land of
israel at that time you said to yourself
but you might have a big question on me
i'm telling you to take me to bury me
there how come your mother who was rocco
i didn't do that to her
she died on the way i buried her embrace
him
and i did not take her to the marathon
to recover to baby over there so it
seems it might be strange in your eyes
here you said you might be a little
upset with me that i'm telling you take
me to bury me in the chevron whereas
you took a rivka berry take me i was to
be buried there also but i did not do
that to your mother when she died i
buried her on the way and my slacherman
didn't take the day
so and i'm asking you to take me over
there
aaron says he told him because i buried
him for a purpose for a reason
for her to come up to pray for children
when they will be the jewish people and
they be sent them to goddess so it seems
that the academy took
comfort in the fact that even though
that he was not there next to her
but he knew that was for a great purpose
for their children his children her
children all the jewish people
that she was going to be there for them
when they need her
so he took comfort in that and
even though he didn't have the great
pleasure of being very next to her but
the fact that he knew that she's going
to do that great
deed for the jewish people that
compensated for what he was missing
well maybe we could just say so
especially off now how often after year
but i just want to bring out a very
important idea that i heard from my
rebbe
great rabbi the
dean of students and the nation of
baltimore congress
that he told us over this we're talking
we're talking about that it won't be
complete unless i say over what he said
to really understand
faith in hashem faith in god
when we have faith in him he does for us
he comes up with something we don't have
faith in him we have faith in our own
power faith in somebody else so he says
so go to them don't bother me if you
come to me i'll take care of you faith
in them
so he gave an example of
a man
who was very
pressed
because he had
a
child
who was very sick
he was an emotional example emotion
and he's very sick and he didn't have
the money to take care of the child they
did big money doctors the great doctors
wanted a lot of money and he couldn't
take care of him so he went to one of
his friends
one of his boyhood friends became very
rich
he came to him and said
listen uncle
i have a big problem i have a child i
need a hundred thousand dollars to pay
the doctors
i have nobody else to rely on
if you don't give it to me
i don't what you're gonna do
there's nobody else you can go to don't
question that i know
so uncle how does a person feel like
that he comes to me a good friend he's
coming i'll rely on me nobody else to go
to
we all have that
in ourselves and sometimes i need you
because none of us can help me
so we feel obligated to help the person
to come to me
not nobody else so we have an obligation
to help the person
let's say you come and says listen
listen i need a hundred thousand dollars
if you don't give it to me
i got 10 other people we got all the
friends and go to to to to
like the shipment
you know so yeah i'll go okay listen you
don't need me really but i'll give it to
you i have somebody else to go to so you
go to them whether you need me for it
the same way
we come to god
we have trust in god come to god we i
need you
we need somebody sick you have to you
have to
we need money you have to get the money
need whatever it is
we're coming to you have to help me if
you don't help me nobody who's going to
help me
so you know everything that we have in
ourselves we feel obligated comes from
god if we feel that way that means god
feels that way he'll be out so to speak
come to say god you have to help me
nobody else can help me so god feels i
have to do something for the person
they come to you and say listen god
please help me but listen i got my own
brains i know how to make money i got my
friends so guys okay you don't give me
so much so go to your friends
so that's how faith in god works if we
have truth faith in him
he reacts and he gives us what we need
unless there's some reason why he can't
there might be certain other reasons why
but having true faith in god come to god
we we pray to him we say
daily prayers
give us reform give us
hell give us sustenance give us
livelihood so if you really say we
really mean it come to you god you have
to give it to us so then we'll get we
simply forgot to come back and do what
we need
if at all possible for us to be
worthy of it but if you come to god in
this lip service and god we pray to you
but like this doctor said i'm the mother
i'm not it's me it's my brain just wait
don't realize god gives him his brains
god gives him everything in his hands
and whatever he operates
first it feels like that i don't need
you god because some of us said we
recorded before god says you know you're
relying on other people so go to the
other people you know they're going to
me i don't have to i don't feel
obligated anymore because they don't
you're not relying on me so this is a
very big
lesson in faith in god we're talking
hashem
that we have to live with we have to
work on ourselves to realize and to
know
and not be distracted and think i can
listen i can do that he can do that it
all comes from god without god dealing
with every second life
the person would just
live a second or heartbeating a breath
of breath that we take if we don't
realize that
then we'll miss the boat because it's a
person who'd be very foolish to think
that we have our own power our own
brains
that god's given to us every second
that's what we're studying over here
god comes from everything
question how much do we have to do that
depends on the individual the greatest
of the great don't do anything
greatest people to certain things
people lower level have to do more
but there's a limit how much worse to do
except before a person wants more money
and more and more of this world work
that we don't have to do that
as long as we do things we're not
depending on miracles
we do what's necessary to to live
without a miracle we're doing what we
have to do
to do more than we have to do that we
should leave up to god and use our time
for
more important things
so thank you for listening everybody
tonight any other questions and comments
and oh we have another yes
no we got a whole night tonight
everybody's here nobody left look at
that
how did
well it said it says that the water they
the the animals drank the water it says
when the plastics are they drink the
water
and uh the uh
the water seems to be you have to have
the nutrients it seems that they
they drank the one melted and went into
the water
we were told that the
the nations of the world the animals
drank that water to the monument they
came every day it melted and every day
the discipline went into the water
the animals ain't take them drank that
water and then when they were
slaughtered and they ate it
wow delicious they had a little bit of
taste of the month so they had an idea a
little bit the jews have the money in
the midwest so it seems that the water
that they drink was uh nutritious enough
to keep them uh to keep them alive
it says the opposing advice
people drink and they're animals it says
in the process that they drink the water
from the iraq so it's very nutritious
water coming from the rock
shams water directly
very very good idea
they say they're mandrakes there are
mandrakes here yeah
that's called a mandrake it looks like
it's true it looks like a person
there's two the roots are by like two
legs coming down and it has a body
and they're mad like so that picture
they're pictures of it if you look in
the encyclopedia
or in the in the uh
what's uh by the captain's uh
uh
living target living torah
by rabbi do you have one here that they
found him victoria from robert kaplan
are you captain so he has a picture of
the mandrakes over there i looked it up
or encyclopedia or online i'm sure you
can find it uh mandarin so you'll see
all about it i'll tell you about this so
that was believed i don't think so
believe it today and that term says it
seems to have some kind of power to uh
to help for childbirth
that's the whole question what is
exactly something outcomes all kinds of
versions of this
yes any other comments or questions
so mr shem will get your next next week
again and
nice to see you
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