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Parshas Noach: Showing Up for Our Children and the World from a Space of Internal Calm
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And uh Klein, we could begin.
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>> Okay. Perfect. Thank you. Welcome. We're
going to begin with a chapter of
Tahillim for our brothers and sisters in
the Holy Land
and all of the soldiers and their
families, all of the wounded, all of the
berieved.
We'll say capitome which is 140 kuf
which is also the beginning of Today's
Today's the 29th.
Okay. 140
Fore
Russia's for
Welcome everybody. I want to wish
everybody uh an amazing and incredible
year. Uh gaze vinta as we say a healthy
winter and an successful year and
your best year ever yet for you and all
of your loved ones
and all good people in the world. I also
want to give a special thanks to all of
uh your greetings and a very beautiful
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middle of Sukus
and thank you for uh many good wishes
and greetings and the friendship and the
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bless everybody for everybody to be able
should be able to celebrate with each
other
in good health and abundance and
revealed blessings
and uh the most beautiful way and with
open and blissful hearts.
And I hope that this year of learning
will be an amazing year to be able to
learn to internalize and to be able to
uh live it viscerally and radiate it to
our environment with a lot of and uh may
God allow me to uh be a channel
for his infinite wisdom and love.
Today's class is very very graciously
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Okay, you could see there's one source
sheet and uh they're always posted on
the yeshiva.net if you ever want to
retrieve it later where the classes are
also streamed hopefully and uh available
for replay as well. The yeshiva.net.
The first source is from a prayer that
was said on sukus. It's a very
interesting as you know every day of
sukus there's a section of the davin
called hshinus and during the hash
basically the people take the lul and
the estri and walk around the beimma
once and have a very special text in
which we ask
which means please help.
means from the word Yeshua like to help
and no means in Hebrew please like
please
we do it seven times around the beimma
and one of those hayas there's a very
very interesting prayer you'll see it's
your first source
or in the tune that it's usually done in
most shs
translated
Please help a soul from panic. Neph
means a neph is a soul. The word like
means panic, fear, dread, anxiety.
So please help out a soul
from anxiety from from panic from dread.
And we say again hina please help.
And uh in these two words literally or
these four words hina
we have a fundamental prayer because
usually most of the prayers is about
produce and rain and sustenance and
salvation on many different levels. But
here is one that deals directly with the
person's internal emotion. Not just the
environment, not just the world, not
just what's happening in the physical
terrain around us individually or
collectively, but a very internal space
called
and that's one of the prayers that we
say on sukus.
And this really opens up opens us up
what is this exactly? What does it mean?
What is a nephah?
What are we asking for?
Okay, we'll get back to item.
We begin now a new cycle of learning the
terra as everybody knows
53 paras in the kish which is read
throughout the year. Sometimes the par
two of them are connected. We start on
and then shabas and then we finish on
one year later.
The first safer safer beracious has as
you could see in the list berious
which is 12 sections 12 portions. As we
know every portion has a name. You could
say the name is just for convenience. It
is when you want to identify a person or
a thing you have names. It's just much
easier.
The truth is, however, these are not
random names. The names, as always in
Yiddish, are very significant.
We're going to look now at two portions
which would seem to have opposite names.
We would think it would have been
reversed, but it's not. If you take a
look at the first portion, bes,
and it makes a lot of sense. The first
word of the para is
Also in content the beginning it's the
beginning it's the beginning of
everything borius means the genesis it's
called Genesis the book of Genesis so
berious is a wonderful name it's the
first word of the portion it actually
represents the theme great now you come
to the second one and if you look in
your third source this week's parish how
does it begin
these are the offspring. These are the
children of Noyak. Noyak was a righteous
person. He was wholesome in his
generations. He walked with Hashem. The
name of this week's para is Noyak. It's
not the first word of the para. It's the
third, right? You see, told us no. Now,
why the third word? Why not the first
word? The answer would be because a is
just an intro word. Ayah just means
this, right? It doesn't have a theme in
it. And usually the name says something.
So we skip the word aah. So we don't
have the word aah. Okay. What's the
second word of the para?
The second word is told us. What's the
third word? Noyak. Which name does this
para get? The third word. Noyak. Okay.
But here's where it becomes a little
strange because just in a few weeks
we're going to have another para called
us. How does that para begin?
told us exactly like
this is this is and what's the name of
that one told us. You see what's unfair
over here? This is discrimination
against
righty should have gotten told us right
should have gotten
remember told us told us who comes
first. You're giving the second word and
the third word noyak should have gotten
the second word told us he comes first
and then paras should have gotten the
third word yitzk which would also have
been very nice to have a para named for
yitzk right nothing wrong was a great
man he's a second one of our patriarchs
our
make a lot of sense so we would have
berious told us
I know it sounds funny today we never
heard of a para called but that's just
because it never happen that way.
If you look at the other paras for
example,
rightem,
it's not the first word, which means he
said, so I could get that. There's no
theme there. Hashem, we don't name that.
We don't do that either for whatever
reason. It goes to vra is again the
first word. Ver love Hashem.
is the second word
but is not really a thematic name told
us we just discussed
is the first word he left
he sent
he dwelt
is the end
the first word she approached him and
so all of these we could appreciate when
it comes to though there is something
perplexing here because noyak is the
second para and gets the third word is
later and it gets the second word and if
you really want to be fear it almost
seems like something is interesting here
that noyak should have gotten the second
word and to should have gotten the third
word they both begin the same way again
you don't want to use the word a for
whatever reason because there's no theme
there just means this now we can't name
one para two paras with the same name it
would be very confusing so I understand
we can't name them both told us cuz then
when you say paras told us we don't know
what you're talking about so we need to
differentiate but if you're already
differentiating right so if we were if
any anyone here was appointed on a
committee to choose names for the paras
I know you weren't appointed on their
committee at least not consciously
unconsciously I don't know but
consciously none of us were but if you
were on a committee to decide and they
asked you we have no we have told us
they both begin exactly the same
told us
we have to differentiate. We have two
words we can use either the word told us
or the word after that. What would
anybody say? Let get the told us and let
told us get the noyak comes first let it
get the second word. Told us comes
afterwards let it get the third word.
What happened is that's not what
happens. Noyak gets the second word.
Noak gets the
>> the third word and
told us gets gets gets the second word.
Now somebody might say what's the big
deal? These are just names. They're
random. You just need a name. So you
called it you called it. You called it
Teldus. Who cares? It's just an
identifying feature to be able to know
what we're talking about. But that's not
the case because these names weren't
chosen randomly. They were chosen by
great people, great sages, Israel who
were extremely meticulous and precise.
What is more, these names were accepted
by Jews literally all over the world
universally. It becomes like a minis
which we say
who our sages say a min of the Jewish
people has the status of. The BMP
teaches that even what happens to a
leaf, a seemingly random leaf that falls
off a tree is significant. The way the
leaf rolls and where it ends up is part
of the orchestrated divine
>> caligri.
>> Okay. Wow. Thank you. Thank you. Thank
you.
>> Okay. Very good.
Okay. Part of very detailed orchestrated
divine providence known as Ashka and
that's true even with a leaf. Certainly
something that's part of some certainly
something that was accepted by the
entire Jewish nation as part of the
Jewish calendar and as part of the way
we refer to Tyra and it has become
sanctified and hallowed by our people
for hundreds or thousands of years.
There's certainly something significant
about it. Especially when we think about
a name in Kesh the the sages teach us
that names in Hebrew are not random.
They actually describe the essence of
something. Hashem asked Adam to name all
the animals. And this is how he proved
his wisdom versus the angels because the
names were basically describing the
spiritual and inner chemistry the
spiritual physics of each animal of each
insect of each reptile or bird that Adam
names and parishes. The garra says
used to be very very sensitive to
people's names. He saw the name a lot.
That's why when somebody is ill they'll
sometimes add a name at the because a
name is like a channel of energy. The
name is a channel for their energy. So
that means it's also not only true with
with with objects, it's also true with
paras. So the names are significant.
Besides all of this, as we said on the
most basic level, if anybody rational to
make a decision, it seems that the order
would have been different.
Now it seems like a small thing, not so
consequential. But in Yiddish, what we
often see is it's very hot here. No.
>> Okay.
So is always the name in the first
sentence of the par.
>> Yeah. So we know that the name is always
in the first sentence. But you could see
clearly that it's significant because
for example
could have been named. It's not named a
right. It's named even though a comes
first. And we see here with no told that
it's not just randomly chosen. That
means there is some rhythm here. There
is some inner inner system here.
One of the very fascinating things about
Yiddish is the claw and the pratt
sometimes a very small what would seem
like a negligible detail that doesn't
seem very significant holds the key to
very deep cosmic truths and it's not a
contradiction because if everything is
connected to infinite oneness so the
smallest detail reflects the greatest
truths just like the largest truths. One
of the fascinating things is that we
learn today in our generations is in
physics is that the structure of our
constellation and galaxies in outer
space that is so incredible is literally
replicated in the structure of the atom
which is so invisible and microscopic in
physical matter. that structure of the
nucleus and it has then that which
revolves around the nucleus. So the
small the prat and the cl the individual
detail and the the cosmic largeness and
the largeness that we see in the cosmic
system reflect each other and the reason
is because
in the presence of infinity the smallest
and the greatest all come together and
that's why sometimes in one little small
detail it's like in DNA the DNA which is
the blueprint for any living organism
the sequence of the letters of the
chemicals is so significant you don't
say it's just a small tiny detail. It's
not only the devil, as they say, lives
in the details, but God himself lives in
the details, it seems, because if one
would try to change a little sequence in
DNA, it the results can be catastrophic.
Even though you say, "What's the big
deal?" It just seems random. But it's
not random. And that's why sometimes
from these small little reflections,
though it looks like, you know, stop
obsessing, but it's not an obsession.
And it's an opening to th the truth that
these small things carry within
themselves the DNA of existence. And
this too is not is not an exception.
I was a yeshiva ber in 1991.
It's a couple of years ago. Still a
baby, but then I was a bigger baby. Uh I
don't know if that was the right choice
of words, but you get it. I'm still
young, but I was even younger than
right. That's not unusual. No. So uh
this was in 1991. It was paras told us
the end of 91 the se paras told us to
nun bay that's 5752 which was the end of
1991.
I had the privilege of growing up at the
feet of the lab in Brooklyn and in those
years also to be one of what's known as
the one of the oral scribes who would
transcribe his talks on shabas overflow.
Okay. Wow.
Okay. Welcome.
Welcome to our uh new stage. Okay. It's
time for expansion or moving already.
>> Barashem. Okay. Make yourselves
comfortable.
We already have a makita. That's a good
sign, right?
Or a breakaway minion. What is this? A
breakaway minion.
>> Okay. There's a new flow.
>> The women section. Okay.
So uh I had the privilege of
transcribing the Reb's talks then Shabas
and Yam was a team known as oral scribes
and it was three times that week of
paras that the rebbis spoke and each
time he addressed this question again.
It was Monday. It was actually the
convention of the and he asked this
question and then it was again Thursday
and then Shabas paras told us and uh he
gave an answer to this question and uh I
was there it's many years already the
Gmorra says
that sometimes it takes 40 years for a
student to truly grasp the depth of what
their teacher was saying. We learned
this out from Paris
told the Jewish people,
God has not given you a heart to
perceive, eyes to see, and ears to hear
until today. And the Gmorrah says,
"Really? Mosha was talking at the 40th
year. He's been teaching them for 40
years." So Rabb says that
it takes four decades for a student to
grasp the depth of what their teacher
was saying. It was there but the person
needs to learn it for 40 years until
they can grasp it. I heard it then but I
recently went back to it almost 40 years
later. 33 years uh 33 or 34 years later
and I think I understood a new depth in
the explanation to this what would seem
not such consequential comment and yet
really very profound because it seems
that this very question told us and the
Reb's answer to it really opens up a
vista to a very deep reflection about
life that I think today I can't say it's
more relevant than ever but it seems
quite relevant
and for this we need to understand one
little introduction and that is that is
infinite
says that every in every mitzvah in
terra has 600,000 interpretations in
600,000 interpretations in 600,000
interpretations in 600,000
interpretations in we know that has
different layers of understanding it is
the literal is the homalytical dush are
all the interconnections and soy is the
mystical, the esoteric
and each layer is real. It's
significant. It's just like any physical
object has so many layers of
interpretation. I could look at
something and then I could use a
microscope and then I could use a better
microscope and there's so many different
layers of reality and they're all true
and they complement each other and
they're all part of one holistic
reality. So theel says in each one of
the four pares which means a garden is
the 600,000. Why? Because every soul has
its own interpretation and there's
600,000 collective souls. Now you say
that doesn't make sense. How can that
be? And really the answer is because it
comes from a source that's infinite and
because it's infinite. So even 600,000
is just a number and it's deeper and
deeper and deeper and deeper. As the
says
the is longer than the size of the earth
and broader than the size of the sea of
the ocean. So therefore
everything can be deciphered and
unraveled on many many different layers
physically and spiritually and
emotionally and psychologically and re
and s and here too
this noldis perplexing issue has within
it a hint a rem and like everything in
it's nitk it's timeless even though it
happened so many years ago these names
but it still remains means extremely
timeless and relevant.
And the message here is you had a choice
of two portions. One of them had to get
the name Telus.
One of them had to get another name. It
would have made sense that the first one
should get Telus, the second one should
get. But the order was intentionally
obviously reversed. The first one got
the second one got told us. And there's
a profound message here and that is you
cannot have told us before Noyak.
You cannot have the concept the name the
reality of Teldus
without
Noyak must come first and Teldus must
come second. And therefore even though
in the order of the PK it has to be
reversed that's fine. So that the name
forever is and then only after a few
weeks do we get to but what does this
mean? The word told us everybody knows
means what does mean generations
children offspring like we say told us
told us told us the word told is
connected to the word
it's birth told us is always the
continuation the next generation right
you have an av and a you have a
prototype a parent and then the child is
called offspring descendants
children. That's the first that's the
meaning of let's come to the word. What
does the word mean?
>> Relaxed. Serenity. Peace. Easiness.
Did I just make up a word? No. Easiness.
Right.
>> Ease. Okay. Thank you.
I'm going to be I'm going to go easy
with that and with myself. We even have
the word noyak in another context. If
you remember in McGillis Esther, you
have it here in your source. In McGillis
Esther, we have the word quite a few
times with it says
they fought a war in Shushan. They
fought a war not only on the 13th of
14th. And when did they rest? On the
15th, which is why we have Shushur or it
says
they rested from their enemy. So no
represents the end of conflict, the
cessation of war. We even have it in the
word shabas in your next source. It says
in everybody knows this
hashem rested on the seventh day. If you
look in you have it here in your next
source. What does say
again? He uses the word which is
connected to the word. So the Aramaic
translation of Shabas which everybody
knows means rest, tranquility, serenity
is
like we call it Shabas right
the medish in the beginning of
emphasizes this very emphatically. The
Medish says, you look in your next
source, the third to the last source,
Medish Rabbi Paraka told us. And he
says, why does it have to say twice? It
should have said
just say and move on. And the med says
like this
there was means there was serenity,
there was easiness, there was peace for
him and for the world.
There was peace for the parents and
peace for the children.
there was peace for the higher reality
and for the lower reality.
So means that there's a double portion a
double dosage of
of serenity.
So we have the concept of tldis as
children and noyak means serenity.
come the names of the parisha and teach
us something very profound and that is
before you have told us you first need
to have
before I can engage in the work of
Teldus which means raising children
first I need to cultivate what's called
noyak which means serenity it's true
with two types of teldas there are
biological tdas and there are spiritual
tlddas
bi biological told us. We all know what
that means. I don't have to explain it
to this room. That means the children we
give birth to, the children we raise,
the children we impact, and we
biologically give birth to them or raise
them or both. And then of course,
there's also the spiritual told us. If
you look in the next source, Rashi says,
and the question is, you should right
away tell us who his children are. Don't
tell me that he's at saddic. I want to
know who his are. Rashi says,
Sadikim
the primary told us of sadikim of good
people are their good deeds which means
there are two types of children. There
are the physical children of course the
physical but whenever you impact
somebody even if you didn't physically
give birth to them that's also a child.
Every good deed you put into the world
that's a child. The people we touch, the
people we ignite, the people we inspire,
the people whose souls and hearts and
sparks, we help kindle, those are all
spiritual children. The Gmorrah says
when you teach somebody,
it's a it's a form of birth because
there's physical birthing and there's
spiritual birthing.
Sometimes there's birthing a new
emotion, birthing a new soul, birthing a
new awareness, birthing a new lease of
life.
I once asked uh somebody who's a big
healer. I said, "What do you do?" This
person says, "I'm involved in the work
of I try to resurrecting the dead." I'm
like, "Wow." Okay.
There's different forms of birthing and
even if it's sometimes a small thing but
it's basically the productions the the
fruits that we bearer there's physical
fruits and then there's the emotional
fruits and spiritual fruit that's what
is saying my the light that you plant in
the world those are told us they
continue after us they have an impact
whether it's people that we impact the
world we impact in one form or another
those are spiritual told us
amen
Ah so now when we have two names and we
would think the first one should be
Teldus and the later one should be the
first one should be told us and maybe
shouldn't even have a name. So these
names which themselves have deep remas
are teaching us something at least it's
a rem it's a hint and the hint is
for told us
and that's how this system works because
if you look what's the name of the first
para batious what does berious mean the
beginning the genesis it's the beginning
of everything everything starts all over
again what's the second name noyak
serenity so after the batious
The second step right away is
and then after that a few weeks later we
can come to
on a very practical level very often we
can engage in told us without
what does this mean we can raise
children grandchildren students
disciples
with pressure with stress with anxiety
with guilt
with shame, with a heavy, with a heavy
heaviness. There's so much to do.
There's so much to accomplish. There's
so many duties. There's so many
obligations. There's homework. There's
chores. And so on and so forth just to
keep up with what it's what we call
living a successful normal productive
life could be a real real challenge or
at least an endless pressure. So
actually the motus operendo is no you
have nothing to do with your life.
You're not going to sit on a couch and
sip on iced coffee on me. Some people
have that inner voice. This is what you
were created for. You know what has to
get done in this house? You know what it
takes. What are you a couch potato? What
are you a spoiled brat? That's some of
you are like nodding. I don't know why
but okay. I'm not going to I'm not going
to sit and analyze that. But think about
it.
So this is sometimes very
counterintuitive that actually the most
important prerequisite is
the most important prerequisite is an
inner sense of that
by reversing what we call reversing the
yerus by reversing the names is teaching
us something fundamental
noyak precedes all right after bacious
comes noyak if I want to days. Healthy
children, happy children, balanced
children, God willing, normal children
who love themselves and love people, who
love God and love humanity, who can love
others and be in meaningful deep
relationships,
wise and sensitive, perceptive,
and yet also firm and confident with
fear of Hashem, love of Hashem.
What's the prerequisite before?
A sense of calmness, a sense of inner
peace, what we call
soul, serenity in the soul and serenity
in the body. That's why it's there's
serenity in the mind, but the nervous
system is absolutely chaotic and
disregulated.
So there's no
in my higher reality and in my lower
reality. Sometimes in my higher
consciousness I can have ser serenity
but the bottom line is in my body I'm a
mess. I'm a complete mess. So there's
two here
and the same is true with spiritual told
us if I'm involved in
doing good deeds generating spiritual
children generating mitzvah but it's
coming from a place of deep pressure and
anxiety and guilt. We undermine our
efforts. we actually defeat the purpose
and we sometimes create something much
more external superficial rather than
something deep and enduring. The more a
person can go inward and work on their
own inner serenity no youras become so
much more successful because there's a
deep space of serenity that fuels it
from a deeper place. You know I was once
telling a member
I told him that he should that I I was
suggesting certain changes of life
patterns. So he told me I don't have
time you know you know how busy I am. So
I told I gave him a little metaphor. I
said imagine you're driving a patient to
a hospital. God forbid somebody needs
emergency care and the one near you
tells you there's no gas in the
ambulance. We have to stop for gas. And
you say I don't have time to stop for
gas because this is an urgent situation.
And you know the end of the story, the
ambulance broke down on the highway and
nothing happened.
Filling up gas is not called luxury.
I'm spoiled. Uh
I'm taking away from my responsibility.
It's the opposite. It's what allows you
to help the people you help. So the
toddlers then are completely completely
different. Instead of investing in the
eggs, invest in the chickens.
Sometimes I'm busy with more eggs, more
I need another egg, another egg, another
egg. But now the chicken is dead.
But if I cultivate the mother of the
eggs, pun intended,
that's not called narcissism. Think
about the eggs, you lazy
slam. Stop thinking about yourself.
There's eggs to produce. Where do you
think these eggs are coming from,
genius?
And if the hen is being fed toxicity,
what do you think the eggs are going to
look like? What do you think the eggs
are going to taste like? You want good
eggs. Don't think about the eggs. Think
about the hen. You understand my
brilliant Marshall? Isn't that a good
mush?
>> Yes. When you start thinking about the
hen, you have much better eggs. The eggs
are happier. The eggs are galdic.
They're gmach. They give you the protein
you need. You don't need cheesecake and
pizza and all the khazer. Yeah.
Wow.
>> What did it come at expense of? I don't
know if you want to share.
>> Oh, wow. Wow.
>> Oh, wow.
>> Wow. Masletoough.
Okay.
>> Of course. I understand.
And there's a woman who sent me an email
yesterday that she's traveling here from
another country. Um I think it's next
week or two weeks. She says her
daughter's wedding is around here on
Tuesday. So she decided to come in the
morning to the Shir on the day of the
wedding. So like I was like you know her
right? Okay. I said she should introduce
herself. So we and I wish you
a
deep prayer.
That's the deep prayer.
You see, it's counterintuitive
because what I need to do right now is
so urgent and it's real. It's not like
it's fake things. It's like we need to
produce eggs. There's so many things to
get done. It's not fake. It's not in my
imagination. So, intuitively, you say
just get to your responsibilities. But
what we often don't understand is that
that's going to be exactly
as
deeply powerful as where it's coming
from.
The moment you start investing in the
source of it all and that's what you get
cultivated automatically the energy we
radiate is a completely different
energy. The tois is completely
transformed. So on sukus we say
one of the worst things for a soul is
when it's in a state of bah panic. It's
overwhelmed. It's anxious.
Baha but what do you mean there's so
there's so many things of course I
should be anxious what am I crazy so
that's what we have to really understand
in other words it's very nice to say
this but what am I supposed to do
relinquish and abandon and become
neglectful and become apathetic like
some other people I know nothing gets
done and then they completely completely
relinquish all their obligations and
duties I would feel horribly guilty it's
going to be much more stressful
and that's why intuitively We say of
course let the neph be bah the more
panic the better even sometimes coping
mechanism is the more anxiety the more
you produce
right somebody once told me if I'm
relaxed I'm not going to do anything
you have to trust yourself that it's the
other way around when you're relaxed you
won't do things that are counterintuit
counterproductive when relaxed people
actually do things from a much deeper
space what they actually really want to
connect to and it's sometimes very heart
especially if I learned to get my
validation from my productions from my
toddlers.
So now that's the place I go to. Moore
told us, Mo told us, Mo told us
sometimes people become workaholics. Guy
once told me he spends 18 hours a day in
the office. He says, "I need to prove to
all the people that work there how much
they need me." That's what he told me. I
need to prove to them how much they need
me.
That's the thing. And it could happen on
so many so many different levels. And
sometimes I'm even involved in righteous
things. Like it's not like it's good
things. It's told us it's mas
but is it a distraction in order to
compensate for a very deep void and then
actually it's much more skin deep the
impact is much more skin deep because
it's rattled with anxious energy or it
comes from a very very deep place of
of
and that's what we say honor
save my soul from going into that space
of panic, of confusion, of anxiety, of
complete disregulation.
The person who remains anchored in their
center
is is is is living in a different space
and the light that this person radiates
is a completely different type of light.
who is not attracted to a heart that is
serene. There may be a storm but we know
the eye of the storm is very very
peaceful. In the storms of our life, can
you lean into the eye of your storm? I
pun intended. There's the eye as the eye
and there's the eye as the eye. That
eye, the mish has it together.
It's not flustered. It's not
overwhelmed. Even if there's a lot a lot
of things to do, it's a very very deep
place of silence. It's like a meditative
place of mama.
Look how significant this is. Really the
worst name for this para is what's the
whole para about
>> a flood.
Really that's your name for a flood? You
have no better name. That's what you
call serenity to such serenity. Let's
read the story. We're expecting we're
going to read a story about this guy who
lived in bliss, some island at the
Riviera with his wife and children and
the world was perfect. It was gavaldic.
Instead, it's like the worst catastrophe
cataclysmic on an absolute level.
Really, this is the
talk about a name that doesn't represent
the essence. But that's exactly the
point
because it's to be you know in heaven
the real idea of is I have what to panic
about. Of course I can go into panic and
if you're more sensitive and you're more
spiritual and you're more open
it says in mish people who have more das
feel more pain. You know if I'm more
superficial things could be easier the
less superficial you are. Anybody
relates? Okay,
you know, you could start seeing things
unraveling. It becomes very very complex
and that's when the person really needs
to master the and especially when
there's
often it's it's it's it happens often
because sometimes
>> how does it work with a diamond being
produced under pressure? Like how do we
>> Good good question. You mean the pearls,
the oysters? line is a lot of times
under pressure the best payers come out
under duress.
>> Right. Right. Right. Okay. Very good.
The best example for this with you see I
always see this is in when you read
and especially if you don't understand
the Hebrew it's good sometimes to read
in English to understand what Malik
says. You see that this person's life
was extremely extremely tumultuous.
Surrounded by enemies, persecuted by
enemies,
often in danger, physical danger,
emotional danger. And he describes it so
vividly. He does not deny anything. He
doesn't repress anything. It's so vivid.
It's so visceral. I mean how he
describes his pain and his challenges
and the people he's dealing with and the
suffering he's going through
but then in one moment there's a
in in in 131
has an expression it's almost like over
there he he conveys his secret says
there's a part of me That's shi that's
very very uh what's the word shvisi
>> settled
>> settled settled
>> there's a silence do very very silent my
soul feels like a gamul gamul is an
infant who's nursing in the bosom of its
mother
you could see the face of the infant
after it finished nursing you know that
calmness the infant knows about no
issues in the whole world all I know is
I got my milk. And now I'm waiting for
the burp and for the nap. And after the
burp, it's even better cuz now it's just
a nap. At least another half an hour
until your life gets turned over again,
upended.
Really, this is how you felt. He wasn't
one month old anymore. He was a king. He
was a leader. He had a lot on his plate.
It was not simple. But that means that
he knew how to go into a specific place
where he was like a child in the bosom
of Hashem.
Always.
This is a space where the frequency of
surrender meets the frequency of faith
meets the frequency of trust meets the
frequency of serenity and the frequency
of bliss. It's very easy to lose it
because
I can go into panic and it makes sense
and I have good reasons and I have a
checklist and there's around 399 things
to do and the cleaning lady did not show
up. You know those days
and your teenagers are both having an
attitude and your nine-year-old decided
to become a teenager on you and your
seven-year-old also decided to become a
teenager this morning. So the ceiling is
falling in, everything else is falling
in. And you said you're going to make a
braas tonight, which you anyway didn't
want to, but you were guilted into it by
your sister-in-law. And as a result of
that, it's one of those days.
And we're not going to talk about your
mother-in-law told you this morning and
what somebody else told you this
morning.
I can go into that space and this
justification.
And there are duties and there are
responsibilities. I can't just run away
to New Zealand and neglect my family.
Beloved though is teaching us this is
the before the told us. It's checking
in. It's checking into that space and
it's nurturing it. And a person needs to
know what they need in order to be able
to come home back to their anchor, back
to their essence, back to their soul and
not feel guilty about it.
And that's why
no is basically
give your heart peace. Give it that
gift. that space where there's no
jealousy, where there's no negative
competitiveness, where there's no fear
and panic and dread and overwhelming. I
don't have to copy anybody. I don't have
to impress anybody. I'm not living for
other people. It's not about what other
people are going to think. A very deep
place of
as we said in
sometimes
mothers, fathers can know this well if
they're self-aware.
A child will turn to mommy and say,
"Mommy, why are you so anxious? Why are
you so upset? Why are you so terrified?
Why are you so angry?" And the mother
will simply say, "I'm not angry. I'm not
angry." I once heard a child ask his
mother, "Why are you screaming?
Why are you screaming?" The mother said,
"I'm not screaming." Who was right? She
wasn't screaming, but inside she was
hollering.
Her
thunder was so loud that it had to
remain silent.
Her body was screaming. Her energy was
screaming. And children are so sensitive
to this.
So instead of going to told this, why do
you say I'm screaming? I'm not
screaming.
as somebody once screamed,
which means the words of the wise are
are heard with are heard with serenity.
I always want to go into that heartbeat
of noyak noyak whenever I'm giving
before I'm teaching a class before I'm
educating my child before I'm giving
whatever I'm giving in any field in
every area physically emotionally
spiritually intellectually socially am I
approaching it from a space of or am I
supposeding I'm I'm approaching it from
a place of bahala and somehow I'm just
going to do it from that space in order
to get it done but it's far far more
compromised It's far far more
superficial.
The truth is it's not easy. It's not
easy because for this we need a lot of
inner awareness and also a lot of inner
work. For this I need to be able to know
how to handle my thoughts. I need to
know how to handle my paradigms. I need
to know how to handle my framing things,
the way I frame things. Most
importantly, my templates. What are my
templates?
Our inner mental chatter. What does that
look like? If a person doesn't know
about their in inner mental chatter, if
we don't become friends with all of the
parts in us, then instead of us having
control, they just take control over the
sandbox and can drive us crazy and then
we are just victims. Victor Frankl
Jew from Vienna student of Freud Awitz
survivor once said between stimuli
and response there is a tiny little
space it's like a millisecond
and it's in that space where choice
lives and it's in that choice that all
human freedom exists in it's that tiny
little choice there's stimuli somebody
just said something somebody just did I
could react right away from my old
template
Either I implode or explode. Either I go
into fight or flight or freeze or fawn
or whatever the response is. There's a
template response. It's ready. The
neural pathways have been treaded upon
and been cultivated for 53 years, 43
years, 33 years, whatever it is. There's
a ready highway. My neural pathways know
exactly where to go. Guilt is a great
one. Blame myself.
tell myself that the more I hold back,
I'll get more alamhaba and therefore
I'll kill my soul and destroy myself.
Whatever it is, everyone in their own
way with the templates that we use and
the result is that a part of me is
either dead or angry or resentful or
just checked out or disassociated.
So that response
comes with a millisecond break of
actually awareness very deep awareness
and then the power of making a choice.
Now
why is this so important? It's so
important because this is really where
freedom exists.
You know we're so used to blaming others
and it's a very normal thing. If only
this person was different. If only this
person lived in a different space, my
life would be easier. And you can't say
that that's a lie. Sometimes it's true.
Our relationships affects us affect us
deeply. But we often don't realize
that I can live my entire life
projecting my stuff on other people
rather than really really looking inward
internally and going to places that are
very very uncomfortable asking myself
what just happened inside of me? what
just triggered me? And especially
sometimes religious people can be less
self-aware because they have God to
blame for their emotions.
Why am I angry? My childhood in Davin,
why are you at the Shabas table? And
right away I bring in yiddeshkite
religion. So I don't have to be
self-aware.
And sometimes I can get so frustrated
and instead of holding up a mirror to
what's happening internally, I'm
basically like if you would do this and
you would do this and you would do this.
Now it's a delicate balance because we
do want to educate and discipline is a
beautiful thing and relationships are so
so important. Toldness is critical but
after because if not it just becomes a
deflection. It becomes a distraction. it
becomes an excuse not to look internally
and my internal life is a complete mess
with a lot a lot of anxiety and I'm
blaming the people around me and this is
where a person needs to be really really
honest about themselves and ask
before my children am I really a happy
person
is your relationship with Hashem making
you blissful and if not don't look at
anybody else. This is a real question.
Do you have genuine self-love? Do you
like yourself? Am I going to live my
life vicariously through other people
and wait for them to tell me that I'm a
good person? And if I see my success
with Martelis, I could say, "Oh, my
nakas machine is working."
And let's understand this that today the
youth is extremely sensitive to this.
You know, people often I mean, you've
heard this from me more than once. I'm
going to give you now my little
blasphemy here. People like to say that
the youth today is spoiled and rotten
and narcissistic and often I think it's
the opposite. They're actually very
sensitive and they feel very very
swiftly when their parents or teachers
or educators are actually communicating
from a place of rage from a place of am
I right it's not so blasphemous right
from a place of discontentment from a
place of a lot a lot of inner guilt and
shame
yeah I said a sukus a woman told me that
uh
it's not such a funny story but I just
was plotting because I don't know for me
was very very funny. This woman was
telling me how uh
her daughter shared basically her
daughter was going away to seminary
and she came to say goodbye to her
grandmother. This woman's mother-in-law,
this woman husband's mother, she came to
say goodbye to her grandmother and all
her friends came to the house to say
goodbye before she was going to the
airport. And they were all crying and
this girl who was traveling was hugging
them and they were crying and hugging
and this woman says, "My mother-in-law,"
the grandmother of this girl turns to
all these girls and says, "That's the
problem with this generation."
So her grandmother says, "What?" She
says, "You're all so busy feeling you
can't get anything done."
You're all so busy feeling you can't get
anything done. That was her comment. The
woman says, "I was triggered terribly by
my mother-in-law." Okay. I said, "What
about your daughter?" My daughter was
laughing. She's like, "Bubby, you're
hilarious."
Bubby, you're hilarious.
>> All right. I said, so I said, "Why the
difference?"
She says, "Cuz I suffer from this. My
grand my daughter already doesn't deal
with this."
>> But it was such an interesting comment
in many ways. What his grandmother was
saying is, "I love you and I want you to
do what I did."
What I did was, I knew if I'm going to
be busy feeling, I won't get anything
done. So, we shut down a certain part
and we get things done. And the less you
feel, the safer you are, the safer
everybody around you, quote unquote,
will be, the more productive you'll be,
everybody will have what they need, life
will move on, and you'll be happier
also.
I asked this woman, "Did it work in the
family?" And she said to me something so
wise. She said, "The less my
mother-in-law could feel,
the more all of us felt her stress."
She was trying to save us from
uncomfortable feelings. But her shutting
down all her feelings cause us all to
feel constantly how miserable she is. It
was a very profound perception. She was
actually trying to protect her family.
Feelings can be painful. They're
painful. There's a reason we say show
up.
Don't become a zombie and a robot
sitting in therapy for 99 years. My
mother, my sister, my father, my this,
my that. Get on with your life. A lot of
speeches you'll hear, just think
positively and do well and focus on the
goal and have beautiful words, but
sometimes with terrible, terrible
bypassing.
And the ones who rejected it are those
who are sensitive
and they're like I don't want to shut
down my heart in relationships.
When you're living in a generation
before gula a relationship means full
holistic heartto-heart intimate open.
But for that I need to be able to feel
all the blockages also. What is blocking
this bliss? Why is there no bliss?
Couldn't be better. But the Holocaust,
we need it.
>> Yeah. Yeah. I'm not Every word I say is
without an ounce. I I at least I try. I
can't tell you at all. I'm not a saint.
But it's without judgment.
It's without judgment. Not only because
I understand it. Because when there is a
lot of pain, one needs to sometimes shut
down at least somewhat. It's a very very
amazing coping mechanism and survival
skill. I once heard from the famous
herbist Rabbi Shiman Russell. He told me
that there was once a family and the
kids were struggling and he was talking
to the parents and he asked the father
if he ever um feels love to his children
and expresses it. So he says to the
therapist he says in our family we have
a shittita.
You know what a shittita means right? We
have a divine theological approach and
philosophy that we don't say I love you.
He said that's a shittita in the family.
So uh
Russell told me he says I told him I
said it's called the holocaust. You
don't have to turn it into a shittita.
>> It's a tragedy. It's a tragedy. You
don't have to make a tragedy into a
shittita.
Yeah. In other words, it's a tragedy
where when there is so much pain, a
major coping mechanism is don't feel too
much. And even if you're going to feel,
it should be a little bit. And your
brain should control what you're
feeling. Feel more other people's pain
cuz that works. And you can vicariously
live through them. Sometimes you'll read
a novel and you'll cry for like a day
straight from other people's stories.
But internally there's a little wall or
a thick wall that depends on every
survival mechanism. And the ones who
feel it most are children and students
because they feel our nervous system.
They don't only feel our conscious, they
feel our subconscious.
They know when their heart is open. I
once heard from a mother something also
very profoundly emotional. And she told
me, she said, "I would rather stand in
the kitchen for 3 hours every night,
cook up the best dinners for my children
rather than sit with them and play and
look them in the eyes." I said, "Why?
Why?" And she said, "Because when I'm
making the potatoes and the kougal and
the chicken and the meatballs and the
spaghetti and the kale salads and the
spinach salads and the mango salads,
they don't need my heart."
So I actually feel I'm giving to my
children without a heart and it works.
There was so much awareness in that. I'm
standing there and if somebody says I'm
not having mysterious my children I am.
They have good dinners when they come
home. I didn't have that when I came
home. I had to look in the refrigerator
for food. My kids will never tell you
that they didn't have dinner. They had
clean clothes. They had good food at a
nice home.
has nothing to do.
>> No, no, this woman supper is amazing. I
know her. Amazing.
Gavaldic, right? But and and but this
came from a lot of work. She said, "But
that way I don't have to give my heart."
So I asked her, "What do you think your
children need much more? You think they
need the most amazing supper, which is
an incredible thing to have, by the way,
or they need their mother's heart and
their father's heart? What do you think
they really need more? And of course, we
all understand the answer. Not that food
is not important and that there
shouldn't be dinner and there shouldn't
be clean clothes. Of course, there
should. But what often happens is it's
easy sometimes to run away to those
places where I'm tak doing good things.
I'm nurturing my family. I'm there.
But there's no need for I'm not really
giving my heart and sometimes I don't
know how to do it. It's very, very hard
to do. And because life is so stressful
and because life has so much
responsibility, we can get away I don't
want to say with murder but we can get
away with living in self-denial where
this told us and more told us and more
told and more told us and everything is
taken care of skillfully and
professionally. So we are basically
party planners for our kids. We are
amazing party planners who know how to
run the house that just flew in. I don't
know how it we're amazing and it's
amazing. But the deepest thing which I
can give is nayak which is a regulated
nervous system that allows the other
person to become regulated and really
learn who they are internally. That's a
secret energy that can't be replaced by
anybody or anything else.
But this requires internal avoid a lot
of internal awareness.
If I would speak personally I suffer
from anxiety. I work on it constantly,
but I suffer from anxiety from a very,
very young age. When I was a young kid,
I started to pull the hair out of my
head. I didn't know why. In those days,
it wasn't customary to go to a
therapist.
Today, if you don't go to a therapist,
like, what's wrong with you? Like,
what's going on? Are you really so
messed up? And this, right? But, uh,
I didn't know about looking inward. It
took me a lot of years to figure it out,
but it was my body. It was my body's
uh expression of a very deep anxiety and
late and and it continued for many many
years. And I pulled up my beard. I took
a lot of inner work which I still have
to do. It's not you don't snap your
finger
of trying to tune into that seeing what
is happening inside. What are the
responses?
And it's a very very deep pain. And many
of us have it on so many different
levels. And sometimes you can't just
tell a person, you know, change your
thoughts. Like just think positive. I've
done all that.
Get involved in good things. I was
involved in a lot of good things. At
least I tried. Sometimes that's amazing
advice, but sometimes it's like almost a
debok. It's like an internal. There was
somebody who told me, a friend of mine,
and I related to it so much. He said
that whenever he would play with his
children outside, there was a message
that came into his brain right then to
make him feel miserable. It was almost
like a duk like there something like it
was always like, "Oh, you're not you
don't really mean it. You should be
learning now. You're wasting your time.
Your your kids know that you're not
enjoying it." Whatever it was, he went
on vacation with them and right away,
you know, they come to the most
beautiful place and there's this inner
energy. it's a waste of time and they
they don't even look they're not even
interested in playing with you
always to like like deplete his energy
and literally snuff out the soul of the
experience. He did crazy crazy work,
crazy journeys and crazy work. Cuz
sometimes if people don't have this
debilitating anxiety, they don't know
what it is. They're like just do good
things. Now sometimes the best advice is
get involved in good things, stop
thinking about yourself, uh become a do
volunteer with these are sometimes very
but sometimes people have debilitating
anxiety and it does not help that other
people don't understand it.
Unfortunately, I understand it very well
internally. That's why I have a lot of
empathy towards this.
So, you know, you could say noyak, you
know, just become serene and, you know,
I don't know, go to the gym, take a
walk, spoil yourself,
watch a Rabbi Y clip, or if you want a
Trump clip, I don't know what's more
entertaining for you. He's more
unpredictable even than me. And uh keeps
you on your feet. And sometimes it could
be as simple as that. And certainly
schedule and exercises and eating habits
and interactions are very, very
essential for this. I know for me and
probably for most of us or for all of
us. But we really have to be sensitive
to the fact that it's not just always a
snap of the finger. Sometimes the
templates of anxiety are very very deep.
We don't know what means. We don't know
what means. And we do things we learn
and we dab and we say and we ask Hashem
to help us and we're doing all the right
things and it doesn't help. And deep
deep inside you have to be very honest
with yourself. How much anxiety is there
in my heart? What are my kids? Because
my kids are picking it up, consciously
or unconsciously. And this is the deal.
Whatever we don't acknowledge and deal
with, our children will be dealing with.
It's not easy to say and not easy to
hear. But children basically manifest
all the parts of the parents that are
fragmented. The parts in us that are
unresolved and are fragmented, our
children will manifest
and we could go there to them and start
slapping them for help. And sometimes
that's necessary. But the biggest thing
you have to do at that moment is ask
yourself, what are they fragment? What
are they manifesting inside of me that I
never dealt with? It's not an easy
question. It's very easy. Just take them
to a professional. Yeah. Give them some
medicine or whatever it is. Shine nas.
And then it happens to the next child
and then the next child and then the one
who was the most sensitive and the most
spiritual is really falling apart.
So now you can say, "Okay, the whole
system is corrupt. Let's just nuke
everybody. The only place I don't want
to go to is inside myself." And I know
why. It's not an easy place to deal
with. It's much easier to go here and
there and point fingers at everybody.
And there may be truth to what I'm
saying rather than going into the
templates that I have already covered
over with a lid and shelf a long time
ago. I think I shared with you once a
story. There was a Jew whom I had the
privilege of knowing. His name was
Rabbanak Mendel Futafas.
He was aid from the Soviet Union. He
helped Jews get out of Russia after the
war with forged passports. His wife and
child got out and he was caught and he
was sent to the gulag for around 10
years till Stalin's death. He suffered
terribly. He was a wise man, very
intelligent person, a big heart. And he
got out of Russia in the 1960s. So he
was already an older man and he would
come to New York. He would come to visit
the Reba Fatish. So he would he loved
fabbranging with young people and he
shared a lot of wisdom and he would
share stories from Siberia. He's there
10 years in the gula. There was nothing
to do there. It was nothing to do. And
he had a lot of stories. He was a very
perceptive person. And he once shared
something incredible in his barrack. I
wasn't there when he shared the story
but they repeated it from him.
Shikageros
in his barrack at night there was
nothing to do with lights out and you
had to go to sleep and this is Siberia
most people died you know Stalin killed
close to 50 million people many of them
in the gulag Stalin killed more people
than Hitler to survive Siberia I don't
know if you know Siberia it could be 70
below zero certain places of Siberia and
you're talking about people who hard
labor malnutrition
Not enough clothes. It's crazy what
people went through. Like what we hear
now of the hostages. Unbelievable.
Anyway, Mendel says one night in the
barrack, one of the laws were you were
not allowed to play cards. This was a no
no. But in his barrack there were a
bunch of Russians and they had a card
game and they played. But whenever the
Nachalnik, the warden came, they hid the
cards and he never found it. So nobody
was punished because if you were caught
playing cards, you could be in solitary
confinement, etc. Then he says one time
they were playing cards. Suddenly they
hear footsteps. Of course they hide the
cards. The warden comes into the barrack
and he says, "I know you're playing
cards. That's it. I'm done. I'm going to
do a search now." And it wasn't like
there were safes and cabinets and
closets. No, this is a barrack in
Siberia. There was nowhere to put
anything. So he starts searching for the
cards and the menless thing. He himself
never played cards. He wasn't part of
that. But he thought, "Okay, that's it."
And the guy is searching and searching
and cursing. I'm not going to tell you
the curse words in Russia, but they're
much better than English and even
Yiddish. And he's cursing them and he
couldn't find them. And he leaves and he
said, "I'm still going to get you." The
moment he leaves, they close the door,
they lock the door, the cards come out,
they start playing again. Ramen was
perplexed. So the next day, he goes over
to uh, you know, the guy over there and
he says, "You have to tell me your
secret. How did you get away with
murder?" And he says this Russian bulvan
looks at him and says listen listen
futas in Russian I trust you so I'm
going to tell you the secret but if you
tell one person with my hands I will
destroy you I will murder you with my
bare hands and he can do it said I won't
tell anybody
years years later he said it already in
Brooklyn years later it was fine and he
said the person he tell the person says
I'll tell you we have here the best
pickpocketer of Moscow
When the nach pickpocket the nach comes
in, we give him the cards and he slips
it into the pocket of the warden.
The guy checks everywhere. There's only
one place he doesn't check, his own
pocket.
>> And the moment he's about to leave, this
pickpocketer slips it out and we
continue the game. And that's why he
never caught us.
Rendel would turn to the boys and he
would say, "Bakim,
people are searching for their cards in
everybody else's pocket. There's only
one place they don't search for it, in
their own pocket, and that's where the
cards are."
Yet when it comes viscerally in life,
viscerally in life, it becomes difficult
because there are so many things around
us. It is so easy to get distracted.
Let's face it, the people around us are
not perfect besides my wife. But most
people around us, am I right, Gy? Yes.
Okay. Thank you.
Most people are not perfect. We're
flawed and the people around us are
flawed.
And yet yet the real fortitude, real
power is that ability to be able to
truly truly look internally. What is
happening here? And is my entire bliss
on life dependent on others? And if
Yiddish is real and godliness is real
and my soul is real, why is that
relationship not alive?
The relationship with God only begins
when other people are following this
particular path. What about an internal
internal deep connection with yourself?
That's where it counts. That's where it
happens. And you know what happens? Then
you radiate that actually automatically
and everything is transformed in a very
very powerful way. So I don't see a
generation so much as spoiled but as
just as more sensitive to the inner
energy of what is happening inside. And
it's a beautiful beautiful gift. It's a
beautiful opportunity that so many
people are not content with external
work and showing up. But it's so devoid
of real deep relationships and energy.
It's a gift. It's an opportunity. There
was a poet who once said, "Many people
or most people live lives of quiet
desperation."
You ever heard that one?
>> Who?
>> Thorough.
>> Most people live lives of quiet
desperation. I'm desperate. But I
learned to be quiet about it. Even to
myself. That's how desperate I am. And
it makes sense. It's working. When
things are functional, you know, why
open the hood of the car when your car
is driving?
And that's why for those of you sitting
in the room that the car stopped
driving, consider it a gift because you
were forced to open the hood. You were
forced to look deeper. When things start
breaking down, it's an opportunity. It's
a gift. It's a gift that not everybody
has. I know sometimes it looks like a
curse and a destruction of everything.
But really, I've come to see it as a
gift. The gift to crack us open from
complacency, from smuggness, from fear,
from panic, from surrendering to the
mediocrity of a template that just got
used to surviving to graduating to a
place not of surviving but of actually
living. What's the word?
>> Thriving. Very good. Living presence.
Real real presence.
And sometimes I want to intuitively
respond, my kid didn't do this. my kid.
You're late to school. You're late to
this. You're late to that. I just want
to bash out and get it perfect. Like, we
want things to look perfect.
But think about what life is really
about. It's about anything looking
perfect.
Sometimes you come into where there's a
principal of uh one of my children's
school told me, she said, you know,
sometimes you come into a classroom,
it's perfect. It's perfect. Everybody is
behaving. She says in my school nothing
is perfect
but the children are being listened to.
The children are being listened to. I
had once one of my boys in a particular
school and the teacher was PTA the
teacher tells me he said I want to give
you good news. I really felt bad. I
didn't even know what to say. I was
like, "Oh." But he says, "You know, when
your boy came in, he was very
vivacious."
And now Barashem, he doesn't say a word.
And this was like this. And I'm not
blaming it. He has a big class and he's
looking for control. And if I would sit
with those 25 kids, I don't know, maybe
I would have jumped out the window
myself. I'm not sure what would have
happened. So I'm not really judging. I'm
just saying like in his mind, he was
like borashem. So I remember this woman
told me, I yell at Nadav is her name.
She said in over here things look messy
because there is an inner order. There's
an inner order. You know what's the one
night of the year that we call a seder?
Pes. What's the most chaotic night in
Jewish homes? The seder. What's so mud
about the seder? Yankee spilled the wine
already before Kadesh.
is in a bad mood before or you want to
go to sleep already a year before pes
what is so seder about it
right but that's where seder comes out
seder doesn't come out in everything
impeccable flawless perfect seder is an
inner inner rhythm no mu
so sometimes you know it's not it's not
perfect but the people are you're
connecting to real people because you're
connecting to your real self this is Not
the to this is not defiance against
order and children waking up in the
morning and making the bus, God forbid.
But this is a protest against ignoring
the internal mechanisms and internal
energy just for the sake of you know
everything looking externally perfect.
And of course life is always a balance
but nonetheless we always want to
cultivate that internal before the told
us. Now over here we come to the last
the last step
and that is
how many thoughts do people have a day
you know how many thoughts do you think
a day
>> so actual thoughts not not just potent
actual thoughts that we have a day so
it's anywhere between 65,000 75,000
mahad mahadran are 80,000
And maybe in this room there's some
people who do even a little extra to be
for those of us who do less.
So think about the fact that one day
imagine on your to-do list 75,000 things
a day. Now I know for Jewish mothers
that doesn't sound so much right but
actually 75,000 things to do is a lot.
Each thought is actually a creature.
It's a creation. They have personality
and emotion and instinct and luster and
flavor and color and even a scent.
75,000
states of consciousness that we go
through a day. It's very very very
powerful. But there are patterns that
our thoughts follow. There's patterns.
It's almost predictable in many ways
even if the situations and circumstances
change. You know, somebody once said
that basically when it comes to
thoughts, it literally has to be like
the tomatoes you see in the store. You
look at a tomato and you say, "Too red,
too mushy, too soft, not ripe."
Going back to the store, this tomato I
like. This is for my salad. You do it
with avocados. You do it with oranges.
You do it with apples and peers. And
sometimes you got to do it with
thoughts, too.
This thought is a tomato, too mushy.
This thought is too unripe. It's not
denying that the tomato exists. Not at
all. But it's taking responsibility for
the tomato. It's saying, "Is this really
the tomato you want to take home? Is
this the tomato you want to cut up and
put into your salad? Is this the tomato
you want to eat?" That's what it means.
The tomato is there, but I have to
choose what to do with the tomato. There
are thoughts. You say this, I'm taking
home with me. And then there are
thoughts you're saying, you know what?
This is a pretty rotten tomato. I
understand it. I'm not blaming the
tomato. I'm not going into guilt and
shame, but I don't think I'm taking this
home. I'm not taking this thought and
making it my messiah. This thought is
not going to become the dictator of my
life. This thought is not going to
become my deity. It's part of me. It's
teaching me lessons. It's telling me
what to work on. It's telling me maybe
not to come back to the store. whatever
it is.
But that's a real sensitive approach
where a person can appreciate what
they're going through. But yet also
understand this tomato I need exchange
for another tomato cuz I'm not going to
dwell in the negativity that I'm guilty.
I'm miserable. I'm shameful. Maybe
that's the thought. I'm a bad person. I
could never get it right. This one hates
me. That one hates me. It's time to
change the thought. The bump once said,
"My son showed this to me that sometimes
your entire aid hashem consists of
dealing with one thought that you're
having right now."
Sometimes that is the entire aid hashem.
Let's think about this. I also want to
say one more thing in the opposite and
that is sometimes people are always in a
state of because they're emotionally
dead.
>> It's just important to understand that
that's not what means.
>> You're a popular person. I see.
Maybe show her how to make vibrate so we
can have it on vibrate
vibrate. Okay.
So what happens is sometimes a person is
very relaxed because they stop feeling
their but that's equally dangerous
because that's a form of death and the
teldas feel that some of us are so
disassociated
so emotionally dead we know how not to
get angry. We're like detached.
We're detached. Some families are
intellectually gifted and they learned
to detach emotionally. And they have
these words from Tanya called
which they understand to be that the
brain is a dictator. And it tells the
heart shut down you idiot. Shut down. We
have a we don't feel and we're good. And
we do what we have to do and we produce
and we stop complaining and we stop
whining and we don't have to whine and
whine and whine and whine. And when you
stop feeling, you can be productive and
everything is sweet and calm. And
they're good people actually. They're
very good people. But
>> many are jealous of them.
>> Yes. Cuz because they're so functional.
>> They're so functional. Yeah. They're so
functional. Sometimes it's hard to say.
Sometimes people who lead the most
successful homes and schools have
learned to shut down their hearts
and they just do what you have to do and
you get it done. And there's a
curriculum and there's tests and there's
exams and everything is running
perfectly. The only thing that's missing
is the heart is not present and it's a
it's a coping mechanism and it's fine.
Everybody has coping mechanisms. But the
lack of awareness is sometimes so
debilitating
because you think there's something more
important that girls or boys in school
need than connection than attachment
than emotional regulation than
attentiveness than being re being really
really seen. There's nothing more
important and you can't see somebody if
you don't see yourself and I can't see
somebody if I'm disregulated and there's
no way I can impact the tollus with an
open heart if I'm not in that place of
no
for some of us nayak is easier as I said
for some of us nayak is much much much
more complicated
and yet the one rule we have to
understand is that anxiety is not our
essential core. Anxiety is part of our
development. It comes because of certain
reasons. Often it's a response to life
experiences to different forms or things
that happen. Sometimes it may be
inherited in the genes. Sometimes it's
nature or nurture. But it's not the
essence of the soul. The soul is not
anxious at its core. The soul is
blissful at its core. And that's why we
must never ever give up on digging a
little deeper and doing what we need to
do to help ourselves to free up our
souls and lean into a space where we do
not have to live in this fragile
terrified panic dread and anxious
nephesh Bahala. I want to now take the
last few minutes of the class and say
one more point which is a little more
sensitive and a little deeper maybe
and that's the quest the real question
of why do so many of us go through so
much anxiety
it's not just inside of the marble it's
much deeper than that the real thing is
the purpose of the marble is
what does this mean so this is going to
be our last source and with this we want
to complete Complete conclude. We're
going to be here for like another six
minutes. I'm going to read this fast and
you'll get the point. The last source
there's a listen carefully.
Raging waters will not extinguish the
love. Rivers will not overwhelm it. If a
person thinks they can give away all
their money to buy that love, people are
going to scorn him. You can't buy this
type of love with money.
Raging waters represent all the stress
that people have to survive and all the
thoughts that they have in this world
simply to survive. Whether it's physical
work, whether it's emotional survival,
all the thoughts that come with that,
that's called they're raging waters, if
you know what I mean.
But these raging thoughts and waters
cannot extinguish the love.
There's an inner bliss and love that
every single soul has in its very
essence because it's divine.
You must get to know your soul. Before
your soul came into a physical body, it
was basking in the radiance of the
divine presence and it was completely
one with a with infinity. It's literally
a derivative of infinite consciousness.
Even when the soul comes into a body and
it's now camouflaged and dressed up in
all of these garments, don't think that
the thoughts and the anxieties for a
moment can extinguish
this powerful craving and love that it
always has to be one with its source. So
what the balatanya is saying is
something incredible and that is we have
the answer within deep deep inside. You
have a space that is always serene. It
knows exactly who it is. It doesn't need
anybody's validation. It doesn't need to
impress anybody. It's not here to uh
fill other people's voids or be yer for
other people and constantly be in a rat
race. It doesn't operate from a place of
guilt and shame and dread and I'm so
negative and now this. It's actually
most natural state is complete intimacy
with Hashem's infinity and there it's
fully in a place of bliss. So you say
what? You got the wrong guy. Not me. Not
me. May I Rabin? You know what's
happening in my head? There's chatter.
There's this and this class is going
late. Then you know what I still have to
do today. And that's from the easier
ones. And he says it's true. There's
Mayam Rabim literally raging waters.
It's like flash floods. You never see
these flash floods. And yet
it's water. Water should extinguish
fire. But this you can't extinguish.
It's a real space of serenity and
tranquility. It was there before. It's
going to be after. And it's there even
when we're in the body.
But the truth is it's the other way
around.
The soul coming into these raging waters
allows it to get to know itself and to
be sublimated to a space that's even
higher than it was before it came down
into this world which it couldn't have
been higher. It was
it was basking the radiance of the
creates something even deeper. And he
explains
The waters of the flood are called the
waters of what a crazy name. What are
you blaming him for? The waters of what
he made the flood. He saved us from the
flood. It's called inh of this week. The
waters of Why is it called the waters of
the answer is
means serenity.
So why is it?
It's called waters of because the real
purpose of every flood we experience is
to bring us to a deeper place of what
does this mean to bring us to a deeper
place of what it means is and this is
something you know we must say with a
lot of sensitivity a lot of love a lot
of caution I feel comfortable talking
about it because I deal with this so I
don't I don't I feel very comfortable
talking about it because I'm not I'm not
preaching but every flood psychological
and emotional and spiritual that we deal
with or we dealt with in our life. At
its essence, it's Mayak.
It's Mayim to bring us to Nyak. He's
saying, "No, this flood didn't bring
nayak. This flood created havoc or
stress or destruction or crazy inner
fear or no self-confidence or whatever
it is, self-hate, self-loathing. On the
surface, it did. But if we have the
courage to go deep into these painful
things, you will see that below the
flood like the eye of the storm, you
know, the whirlwind. What is it called
in the there's another word for the eye
of the storm? Uh
>> huh.
>> The vortex in the vortex of the entire
chaos. It's eclipsing. The chaos is
eclipsing something that is infinitely
precious. What he's teaching us here is
not just that we have the ability to
emerge from our chaos and anxiety with
serenity, but it's much deeper than
that. The anxiety itself is covering
over a secret. It's almost like your
most precious gift in the world is
hidden behind your anxiety. Our anxiety
developed in order to protect a gift
that it did not want anybody to abuse.
So it becomes like a shell, like a wall,
like a makita, like a safe that protects
it. The problem is we often throw away
the key because we're so afraid of it
and then we have to find it. But we
didn't really throw away the key. It's
just hidden somewhere. When we have the
courage to face
our anxiety, when we have the courage to
face those wounds that are creating all
this internal blame or negativity, you
will see that under it there is so much
love, there's so much passion, there's
so much creativity. A very simple simple
example for this would be if somebody
and some of us know this very
personally. If some a lot of people have
social anxiety, it's very hard for them
with people. Some of you don't know what
I'm talking about. Some of you know all
too well what I'm talking about. Even
when one person walks into the room,
your brain is like hypervigilant.
It's like we prepare ourselves. Some
people don't even notice. Some people,
one person walks into the room,
relations are dangerous for them.
There's a reason for it. One of the
reasons is sometimes this child was so
filled with love. They wanted to connect
with everybody in the deepest way. But
the people weren't available for that
connection. Mommy was tired or
exhausted. Tati had his issues,
whatever. The people weren't available.
Not necessarily in a bad way. They just
didn't even know what it is. Nobody was
there for them. They didn't know how to
be there for their kids. A 2-year-old
doesn't know how to say, "My mother is
dealing with some serious stuff." or my
father got his own traumas. You know
what a two-year-old says? I don't
deserve it.
Or I'm too needy or my emotions are too
overburdening or I'm too sensitive or
I'm too babyish. You understand? So what
does this person do?
They close it down. They put a lock on
it because they want to be loved. They
want to be accepted. They want to be
normal. They don't want to hurt their
parents. They don't want to feel like
they're losers. And that deepest,
deepest part of them is now gone. but
not forever.
You know what it's h it's hiding behind
their anxiety. So now every time
somebody walks into the room, I have to
be hypervigilant because if I'm open
like who knows I'm going to be too real,
too vulnerable, too authentic, too
loving. I may hug them for longer than
three and a half seconds and then I'll
be like this weirdo.
I'll be too emotional. I'll be too
openhearted. They're going to put me in
an institution.
They're going to say I'm not
intellectual. I'm not talented. I don't
get anything done. I'm not a bulla
buster. I'm not a fine schmecka.
Whatever it is. And boom. Of course, I'm
hypervigilant. I want to be normal. Who
doesn't want to be normal? I want to be
a musha.
So really, in a very interesting way,
that anxiety, what is it really hiding?
It's really hiding your gift. Of course,
you're full of love. You're an amazing
heart. You're a healer. You're a friend.
You're actually the most refreshing
thing in the world. You know why people
like you? Because you're vulnerable.
Because you're authentic. People have
enough shows in this world, enough
shows, enough
coverups. That's your power. Your power
is that you're so authentic.
What you're so afraid of is your gift.
So this whole mobble is really mayo.
It's the water that's trying to help me
find and bring me to that space. When I
have a courage not to run away but to
really go deeper deeper, you will find
that those raging and anxious floods
hold the key to your deepest serenity,
to your deepest internal beauty, to your
deepest dignity. And then all your
experiences you'll be able to see really
were just helping you finally crack open
the fear, the ego, the insecurity, the
defense mechanisms so that you could
finally really really embrace your own
nayak and then your tlddus everything
that comes through you and comes out of
you is saturated with so much beauty,
love and bliss. Have a beautiful and
serene week. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Thank you.
>> Yes.
>> Thank you for coming.
>> Thank you. I mean, I usually I'm usually
on here.
>> Thank you.
>> My son emailed you a few years back when
he got colitis, got sick. He emailed
you. He emailed him back.
>> Thank you. A lot of
Frank,
>> thank you for coming. Nice to see you
once again.
>> Such a nice me.
>> Yes, we appreciate it.
>> Beautiful.
>> Very special. Exactly. Exactly.
Thank you again. And thank you for uh
the sushi, the kush, and everything
else. Yeah. You're welcome. Thank you
for coming. You understood.
>> I heard you the lady I wrote a book
about honey.
I can't call you mommy.
>> Yes.
>> Amazing.
>> Wow. Unbelievable.
>> Yeah. She was my classmate.
>> I asked her to come for Shabas.
>> She told me. She told me her. She's very
alone.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Tell her to come. You have
send me your email.
>> Trying to She was with you.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She told
me, she told me that you invited her for
Shabas. I'm like, please do.
>> I think I mean it would be the greatest
pleasure. This was, you know, I was glad
to hear from her.
>> Where does she actually live?
>> Wow. Okay.
>> And her kids are married.
>> My name is grew up together.
>> Thank you for coming.
Thank you.
>> Yes.
>> Wow. Amazing.
>> Thank you for coming and gracing us.
>> Wow.
Yes.
>> Amen.
a lot of
very big.
>> Thank you. But I have only I want to
give you lots of advice. I realize
you're younger than you. So I want to
tell you
you're very busy. You're waking up
fastener and you're making decisions and
you have to be there. But in reality,
perhaps you've changed seats and you're
the passenger and your son and you will
realize this and the first step is
you're still getting to know your
daughter-in-law.
He's got the mother of the person who's
going to raise your grandchildren.
>> Beautiful.
>> And I want to tell you that yes,
you have to be a butter. He is going to
lead you through the rest of your life.
And really your messenger who's making
the decisions you didn't know it looks
like it's your money and everything
else. And I want to wish you marvelous.
>> Amen. Amen.
>> And and because really really he is I
want to tell you he really are the
follower now
and I know that is the time that she
wants it to be. He gives you that
also.