Keep the Faith by Rabbi David Walk

good morning everyone and everyone should be having a a happy joyous Kaneka uh even though uh this year uh obviously our our joy is a little bit tempered on Sunday uh my wife and I went to a funeral yesterday uh RI and my wife went to make a shiver call it you know we're going through difficult uh times uh so this is a good time to talk about the concept of of uh and not only is a good time because of what we're going through both this week's parha Mikes and kanuka emphasize this concept of beton the uh the bmov at the beginning of this week's paraa his first comment on this week's paraa It quotes from The pasuk Happy the person who makes the the Lord makes Hashem his B and he says that PUK talking abouton is a reference to yadik in our parha that that yose had this tremendous faith in Hashem and Hashem always came through for yadik uh and that's why when he first speaks to far M MIM he immediately says it's not up to me to get this right and and to help the country the interpretation of your dreams and what it's going to mean for Egypt and your Empire it all comes from Elohim comes from AES uh in in Kan of course this morning we said Hal and in the full Hal we said uh and then we have this um this trust this Faith this uh confidence in a Kadesh and um and then okay very good in modern Hebrew in we all know the word beton has been adopted as a very common word in modern Hebrew I mean Bon is what you go through at the airport Bon is what you go through at the mall uh you know some of us are old enough to be collecting and we have so the word has become a secular Concept in uh in modern Israel and it's a concept of some official or person or organization taking care of your safety so in modern Hebrew the word be does not mean what it means in Biblical Hebrew which is faith and trust and hope in modern Hebrew it means security which is fine but but what do we really believe as uh ASM what do we really believe that the term B means so um rabar lonstein wrote a long essay on this topic and I just want to read to you I think it's four sentences from from this where he where he proposes that for Jews in the modern world there are basically two approaches to understanding um B we must distinguish between two fundamental approaches according to the first approach trust is expressed by the certainty that God stands at your side and will assist you okay this approach is fundamentally optimistic this approach is expressed in the familiar formula with God's help I call ye everything will be all right however there's another approach the other approach has a completely different meaning it does not attempt to raised expectations or strive to whitewash a dark future it does not claim that it will all work out for the best either individually or nationally on the contrary it expresses a steadfast commitment even if the outcome is bad or sad or not what we wanted um we will remain faithful until the end and shall not exchange our trust in God for dependence on anyone else this approach does not claim that God will remain at our side what it means is it asks us to remain at his side be means we stay with Hashem not necessarily that AES is always with us the B in his comment that I quoted from a couple of minutes ago uh went on to explain that there are three ideas in this rout bet and it is first you have the B the person who has this faith and trust then you have the M you have a h a body could be the Israeli Army but generally it's G God who assures us and gives us the sense he is there and will take care of us and then the third thing is the mve the mve is that purpose that idea that I want to turn out well right now of course it means you know destroying Kamas bring all the hostages home speedily quickly healthfully um but it also it also means something else according to the B this founder of theic movement said even when a desired purpose isn't achieved which is the second idea in Rabbi lonstein the person shouldn't lose Faith because we really need only our relationship with God Hashem is not only the M Hashem is Al so the move what do we really want yes we want you know health and security and safety we want all of those things but what we really want is our relationship with Hashem Hashem is not only the guarantor Hashem is also our ultimate goal and ultimate desire the Kish who is basically the mentor for or at least yeshivish here in erel talked about this uh talked about this concept uh when he wrote his only book of uh I guess you say philosophy um and he says there's an old error that has become rooted in the hearts of many concerning the concept of trust trust has come to mean that a person is obligated to believe that whenever he is presented with two possibilities one good and one not the good will always happen that view of B is incorrect for as long as the future outcome has not been clarified by a noi by prophecy the outcome has not been decided rather trust means realizing that there are no coincidences in the world and that whatever happens Under the Sun is a function of God's decree whatever happens ultimately is what Hashem wanted to happen is that always what we want to happen are we always on the same wavelength sadly not but what we really want is and the Kish also says this that a true B is always calm because that person knows that whatever happens will be an expression of God's will of the of hem um we have to have not just on khah and in par Mikes uh every day before we leave minion before we leave schul in the morning or as we're ending our morning Shak we read the long and at the end of we have three psim three of the four last psim are all faith in hem blesses that person always have faith trust confidence in hem and all those who know respect Revere and love your name all of them have faith be theone in you because you never you never forsake those who seek you out seek you out in truth raber salvic said that the reason that our sages arranged these three verses before we leave schul every day is to remind us when we go out into the world we leave the four walls of the besset or the B midash and we go out into the difficult world that we have to go there just like in SCH with faith faith security and Trust in Hashem that Hashem has to be with us not only in the synagogue but when we leave the bit knesset and go out into the world to work or do whatever it is uh that we have to do these ideas are very very powerful but they're not a guarantee that the outcome that we want is the one we're going to get and we have to have the true which is reliance on hasem to do what will ultimately be the best thing for CLA Israel and for the entire world in these dark days we must allow our Kaneka candles to light our way to True bet Faith trust in Hashem and hopefully and we pray that that faith in Hashem will bring us as well to the end of the darkness that we're experiencing on our borders and it should come speedily but what's most important is not only the victory but our relationship trust faith and conted Reliance and connection the to aish that's what gives us the true strength to carry on and that's what we all need uh this Kaneka this paraa and this uh this time in all of our lives so thank you all for joining this morning everyone should have a and everyone should find in themselves the to carry on and do all the important necessary things to help Isel and er Isel and Medina Israel have brighter days be of your men