Part 14

okay BTO I don't know why I always it's been a little while exactly okay we continue our weekly dose of coffee and jolt of amuna and we're going to pick up where we left off last week which was in the middle of this piece by in his Al again the great Mas of who really inspired a generation to work on these aspects personal character growth you know so so traditionally in yeshivas the emphasis was gamar study garar gar and the Assumption was that character development personal growth would result simply from engaging in the high level study and rant already and instilled that tradition which has now permeated and penetrated all of our yeshivas and seminaries that it's not enough shouldn't say it's not enough that we are not at the level that the pure study of Torah has the impact to transform impact on us that we need to engage character development directly as a subject as a curriculum and to deal with it and that's really what rant the founder of the Muslim movement um really um really contributed and so is one of the links in the chain of that mus movement who has his own fascinating background we just concluded the people of the book last night but maybe for next year we should do an entire uh series on on muser put that there and revola would be a great uh R would be a great one so here R is talking about and just to summarize what we talked about last week and then we will continue he noted we say every day in daving this comes from the story of The Narrative of the Jewish people when we left Egypt and the Egyptians pursued us they were behind us the sea was in front of us we were trapped with no way out we had given up hope and K God created this unbelievable Miracle he split to see we given up all hope you thought the impossible and suddenly there was a path it's a beautiful beautiful image for our own lives where we sometimes feel trapped we can't imagine any way out whether it's a failing marriage or disappointments in our children or a lack of a perosa or hope to have a child or a sense of loss that we're going through whatever the case may be we can feel absolutely trapped as if there's no way out and somehow God performs a miracle tantamount to the splitting of the sea all of a sudden there's a clear path that we never imagined you wake up one day you know when you have the flu you know when you're sick you have the cold and you think like this is it the rest of my life I can't breathe I can't feel I'm miserable and all of a sudden you have that day you wake up you say ah I feel a little better it's like that breakthrough day where you say I've turned the corner I'm feeling better that's God opening the path and he does so in many different ways so anyway when the Jewish people experien this the Torah describes the Jewish people saw the great the strong the mighty hand of God what he had done they feared they had awe they had reverence for God and then they had faith in him and rev is bothered what do you mean they feared Hashem then they had Faith doesn't it work the opposite it's counterintuitive first you believe in God and then you can have all reverence and fear of him but what do you mean you fear Him and then only then do you believe him don't you have to believe him as a precursor as a prerequisite to fearing him and he answers no he says and he quotes from the safer the the the re of of is and he says no first you have to understand who God is before you can have amuna you see am to say yeah this is a God he created the world but not really know him and not really have a relationship with him and not really feel him in your life that you can have without awe but we spoke about last week and I don't want to repeat entirely the concept of awe we've lost that concept of awe to us everything's awesome it's awesome it's awesome everything's awesome and we're so great that nothing impresses us right we are the generation of eh the generation of eh it's okay we should be blown away by things be blown away by Steph Curry that guy's unbelievable anyone other than sh know I'm talking about they Blown Away there are things happening in our in our there amazing views and experiences and and things that happen that should blow us away that we shouldn't say eh but we should say truly that's awesome that's awesome to feel or you have to be humble if you think you are great if you think you are so high and mighty if you think you are so powerful so all knowing then nothing's going to impress you and in fact arrogant people struggle with awe arrogant people struggle with gratitude but arrogant people struggle with awe cuz that painting I could do that that sculpture I've seen better this restaurant food was okay that the speaker h i could have given that speech if you think you're all that nothing in the world impresses you everything is uh there's no room for a so to make room for God in your life you have to be humble because even God's things the Grand Canyon I could have done it better that Sunrise that cloud if it were moved over a drop the sunrise would have been improved oh that coincidence I would have orchestrated it differently if you think you're so great you don't even see God so the prerequisite to seeing God in your life is the humility of saying I am categorically different than God he is infinite I'm finite he's omnipotent I'm Li he's all knowing and I know nothing I am pathetic not that it's healthy to think of yourself entirely as pathetic but at times it's good to think of yourself as as pathetic so that's what Rola essentially answers is that y to feel awe of god wow he's the Creator he's engaged in my life he's The Guiding hand in my life he's awesome His World Is Awesome the things he does his value system his nature it's awesome I feel so small small I feel so tiny next to when I think and contemplate about God and only once I reach that realization now I'm ready for amuna now that I understand who God is and who I am in contrast now I'm ready for a relationship now I'm ready to feel him in my life now I'm ready to lean on him and to have a relationship with him ra come pull up a chair so the we continue and that's what the rambam when the rambam went through yeah when the r that's prettyy much how it usually goes when the r when the r goes through the Mitzvah ofun the r counts three um components of that's this paragraph in the middle of the page the ra counts three components ofun the first is which is to believe the concept of God that there's a first cause right the first stage of amuna is to know that the world did not come to be by accident the world does not exist by Chance the world might be the result of a big bang right Accord to Dr gerd schroer it could be but God is the source the originator God pressed that button that launched the Big Bang so the first level of amuna is to know that um the first level of amuna is to know that there is a God and he created the world and I don't want to spend the time now to bring all the pieces of evidence of God's existence I would argue and I have argued in the past that Judaism does not assert that you can prove God's existence but nor does Judaism assert assert that you could prove anything can you say that again Judaism does not assert that you can prove God's existence what Judaism believes is that there's overwhelming evidence of God's existence and here's the key point there is the same amount of evidence for God's existence as there is for most other almost any other thing that we do many of you are drinking coffee that I brought this morning in a box from Dunkin Donuts I didn't purchase it I carried it from the office where Linda had purchased it so why are you drinking that coffee how do you know there's no poison in it how do you know that the Dunkin Donuts people didn't poison it how do you know Isis didn't penetrate Dunkin Donut I'm going to scare you all now but how do you know Isis didn't penetrate Dunkin Donuts and decide they're going to take down the wom they're going to take down the women of baton by targeting our Dunkin Donuts munir they're going to poison the coffee or that y or I poison the coffee or that no one did it intentionally but there's a contaminant in the Dunkin Donut's water system and they all about to get the zika virus and who knows how do you know that going to beant how know that the answer is you don't have proof you have a lot of evidence there is quality control there's no reason to believe that could happen that would happen you have overwhelming evidence how do you believe how do you know when you cross the street and you think you look both ways that there wasn't an optical illusion or that your brain didn't play a trick on you and you're about to get run over by a car why were you willing to cross the road how do you know and I would say that if not 99 100% of your decisions you will make today or you've made already you did not make with absolute proof you made with overwhelming evidence and that same level of overwhelming evidence exists for the knowledge of God and Judaism asserts that it's not faith in God that's not the word we use we talk about knowledge God says no today that I'm here you have been shown to know that there is a God you can know about God like you know about the other things in your life you just have to be willing to examine the evidence and you have to be willing to examine the evidence without a bias without preconceived notions without already having reached a conclusion clean the Slate come blank examine the evidence and Judaism asserts with confidence that you will conclude he exists but doesn't Judaism also assert that when it gets to a point that you can't understand then there's something called Blind Faith yes where you kind of have to just well the difference between the overwhelming evidence and taking that leap is where the faith comes in but you take that leap when you drink the coffee when you cross the street when you take the medicine when you drive the car you're taking that leap all the time our whole lives are built around taking little leaps of faith in people that we absolutely submit ourselves to circumstances which could end our life so you know somebody who didn't ever drink coffee from somewhere or didn't eat anything they didn't produce we'd call them neurotic we would call them you know that person has mental health issues they OCD so another words to be healthy is to take leaps of Faith leaps of faith that you can drink the coffee that you can cross the street that you can drive the car that you can trust how do you know in every light that you're at when it turns green for you that there's not a malfunction it's not still green the other way and that you're not about to get into a life-ending accident how do you know again I'm not trying to make a group of naric people here I'm doing a good job another car isn't going to come how do you know you don't you got to watch how do you I'm just thinking about all these right now no they don't bother meore talking to a guy who jumped out of a plane so these bother me but how do you know the point I'm trying to make is we take leaps of Faith all day long and the same leap of faith we take in the functionality of the traffic light and in the quality control of the coffee and in everything we're doing is the leap of faith that we can take to come to that conclusion that God exists now it's by design that there's no absolute proof it needs to be that way and again this was not for now but maybe we'll just end up talking about it it's by Design why does it have to be that there's no absolute proof because many of us say why can't God just talk to me he spoke to Moshe and a and yov and why can't I just have proof I'm living this limbo I'm hedging my bet so I'm living this observant life but I really have so much doubt I have so much uncertainty I don't know and I'm inclined to believe God doesn't exist I don't see him in my life he's disappointed me why can't God just talk to me why can't there be a proof If I had a proof fine I'm on board I'll do what it takes why can't there be a proof and the answer is very simple there is no absolute proof that God exists because then it wouldn't be very much it wouldn't really be impressive that you jumped on board would it it would mean nothing that you came on board once you knew with absolute certainty and there was a proof that God exists in other words What Gives Life Meaning is Free Will That's What Gives Life Meaning that we have the choice to believe or not to believe to do or not to do to observe or not to observe to keep or not to keep to be faithful or Unfaithful that every moment of every day we have choices is what makes us human and not robots or animals it's what animates Our Lives it Gives Life Meaning and purpose is Free Will the relationships we have are influenced by the choices we make make good choices yields fantastic and pleasurable and fulfilling results make poor choices and suffer the consequences at work at home in our personal life with what we eat or how we work out with every area of Life the choices we make create the results there are results that are beyond our choices our choices can't always influ I I understand the details but I'm saying generically that we have Free Will and the Free Will is what gives meaning and purpose to our lives and influences the results and the circumstan and the consequences that we live if God would reveal himself with absolute proof to the world then there's there's no point to life you've lost your free will there's absolutely no point to living so in order to for life to be meaningful in order for them to be a purpose to our lives God has to hide God hides that's the whole story of puram that we're about to approach maybe we'll talk about it the closer we get to purum puram is God being hidden in the story God's name does not appear in the Milla if the atheist or agnostic wants to read the Milla and say all right it happened to all right it happened all right so just happened and he fell on the couch okay coincidence chance that's the challenge of is that there is an illusion it's easy if you want to write God out Milla God's name doesn't appear if you want to read the Milla and say God this has nothing to do with God this was a historical event The Narrative it's a nice story it unfolded this way lots of stories could unfold this way then not only can you you're invited to God's name doesn't even appear in the Milla so what's our goal on purum what's the name of the Milla millas Esther the root of the word Miga is to be migal what is migal mean to reveal Esther comes from nister which means hidden p is all about an exercise in mig's Esther being migala the revealing that which is hidden the whole challenge of p is read the Miga and you write God's name in you fill in where you see it wasn't chance and it wasn't coincidence and it was God so God is hidden in our lives as he was in shushan that's a I've learned Esther my whole life and I've never heard anyone say that Gala Esther you should listen to the rabbi I said that that's maybe we'll we'll we'll study as we get closer to the perm we can talk more about perm I'm just giving that as an example you learn something from your not necessarily this is the one where the theme of the Milla is that God's name does not appear no no that's the theme of the Milla is that God's name does not appear and our exercise on purm night by the way that's why the whole theme of PM is dressing up the whole idea is that which is hidden and that which is revealed the whole essence of purum is to acknowledge that the world is an illusion right that everything looks one way but there's really something behind it God right I never make references to pop culture but I will make an exception what's the movie I'm talking about the Matrix does that the called is that what it's called the movie The Matrix okay so remember the anyone you see the movie The Matrix it's an old movie the whole theme of the movie The Matrix is that the world is a matrix it's an illusion and there's a real world happening behind it and the people people living in the illusion think they're in reality but the reality is an illusion and the real reality is that's us we're living in this elusory world where we think we're in control and we think we call the shots and we think what you see is what you get and we think we understand everything and therefore what do we do on per we acknowledge and recognize it's all an illusion and we buy into the real reality that a world without God's name is an illusion it's not chance it's not nature it's not happen stance it's God and how do we exhibit that we dress up so that we show the difference between that which is hidden that which is revealed you may not like this but some suggest we get a little inebriated because when you're a little drunk you don't even think that you can understand things you submit you concede that you don't understand anything and really what we're saying is even when we're sober we're drunk even the whole year long we think we know why things happen the way they happen we think we understand the world we think that we can predict and anticipate and manipulate and control the world we never can it's not us so that's a little bit about about so again coming back so the says the first component of is to know God exists there is a first cause and that's not a hard leap to make I'll give you just one example one piece of that evidence the Third Law of of um thermodynamics is called entropy it means the nature order goes to disorder in the natural world order goes to Disorder so you leave something alone the molecules dissipate you leave something alone you get decay you leave your coffee alone long enough it's going to cool off you leave your bread it's going to mold order goes to disorder what the natural thing is for order to go to disorder naturally we age it's the natural it's the natural uh the way things work whenever you see disorder go to order you know that there's something Supernatural I don't mean God but I mean somebody else controlling nature so for example if you look at a painting you look at at at a building if you look at words on a piece of paper and you say wow that's disorder going to order somebody took ink and organized it into words somebody T took paint and put it into an image somebody took materials and built a building disorder turns to order what do you know that it wasn't natural that somebody interceded somebody intervened right and that's the way we live our lives if I would have said to you you know it's amazing what we're going to study today this isn't revoli somebody knocked over a bottle of ink and look what happened and let's read it because it's filled with Brilliance you'd walk right out of this room and you'd say this guy's a I'm not going to his class anymore if I told you that this building would you believe there was a pile of wood and a hurricane a tornado came and it blew all the wood and it it landed and uh now you've got Fredo's house on the corner you'd say that's crazy obviously there's workers there every day there's blueprints they're taking the materials and they're building whenever you see disorder go to order you know that there is somebody interceding it's true with clothing and a watch and light it's true in every area so what are you going to tell me that the world which is the greatest act of disorder turning to order do you know the intricacies and the details for the human body to function for the human being to live I'm not going to say relax do you know the details and the intricacies to build a building to write words on a paper so there's not an intervening being that's a simple piece of evidence for God's existence just apply what we know in every other area of life to the question of does God exist of course he exists this isn't all by accident or chance it couldn't be every time we see this order go to order there's somebody there a being the same is here true so the ram says that the first stage of amuna is to know that there's a Creator but the problem with that level of amuna alone is that you might conclude okay there's a painter to the painting and there's an author to the words and there's an architect to the building but I don't know who they are and they don't have a relationship with me and they don't affect my life at all so maybe God created this world this universe and maybe he moved on he brought this order to order he created a world nice project way to go God impressive wherever you are and maybe he moved on how do I know that he's involved in my life so that's the next level he didn't create a world that move on that everything that exists is an expression of God everything that exists is God the unity of God's existence and then the third level to know well if God created a universe and he's involved in my life he probably has some expectations of me I probably have some accountability towards him if God created me and and God is involved in my life and responsible for all the blessing I have then I probably have some responsibility to him that's the third level of amuna is what amuna means applied what amuna means practically for my life so what you see again what is trying to show again from the rambam here is that one of the aspects one of the levels one of the components of am that the ra talks about is is to realize that wow if God exists and if he's involved in my life and he loves me and he's so good to me then I I owe him then then there are expectations he has of me there are consequences that I'm accountable and if I don't do the right thing and I don't show up then there's consequences there's consequences to everything in life I think that's our primary responsibility as parents and I think it's the number one way that parents are falling short our responsibility as parents is to teach our children there are consequences in life and every time we bail them out and every time we protect them from a skim KN and every time we give them a participation trophy then we are denying them the lesson that life is trying to teach them that there are consequences and I think that's a terrible mistake we're raising a generation of of and we will see we will see the consequences of our own mistakes in how we're raising them that's our responsibility and God is our parent and he has consequences of us of our ignoring our mission our mandate our purpose in existence so the whole point that R is trying make that I'm trying to make is amuna and Y go together in other words you know you sometimes know people who are they love God I'm in love with God I feel God I'm so spiritual I'm so spiritual I love God God loves me I love God I love God but what about some of the details of what God's asked of you like shabas kosher this that I love God God loves me we have an understanding we're good no the two things go together like I can't say like my wife you know Rabbi Weiss was here this pabas and he told that story it's my favorite story of his right about father flying in and oh yeah it's the great story you had just told that story a few weeks ago I told the story a few no no no you just told that story Rec I tell told it with in the last six weeks I did tell it story it's a great story love me less and pick me up at the right in fact I tell it better than he does it's his story but love me less and pick you up to the airport so that's what got right so somebody you say to your wife you say to your husband your wife you know your husband says to you gives you cards and love and I love you and I love you and I love you but then ignores you is never home and really doesn't do the things that you care about then you say do me a favor love me a little less buy me a few fewer flowers unless gushy cards and just do just take out the card just be around just do the things that that we've talked about so that's this third level you can't claim to love God you can't claim to have that amuna in God and then write him out of your life or not care of what he's asked of you or not recognize that there are consequences they go hand in hand so that's why the first step is wow God created a path just when they thought they were closed in just when they thought they were in the darkness there was no light the world was caving in on them they couldn't escape just when they thought it was all over they were so down and depressed and despondent and pessimistic and had given up all hope the world was caving in and God created a path chamu and they realized that's awesome that is so beyond we are so small we are tiny we're so accountable we are so submissive to God only then when they understood with a sense of that's awesome now there's room for Amun now there's room to walk with Hashem to feel Hashem to live with Hashem okay we're on the bottom paragraph now we can start the belief that God exists the that he is there makes the deepest impression that transforms our life the difference between the life of an atheist and a Believer is knowing that God exists wres commentary in the R's book ofz how do you acknowledge God's existence this is the Mitzvah that we have which is to submit to God our generation struggles with this tremendously because we live in a generation of personal autonomy no one has Authority I do what I want I do what pleases me I do what makes me happy and the one barometer the one measure that we have to decide whether it's okay or not is does it hurt anyone else and as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else whatever makes happy obey your thirst just do it whatever makes you happy personal autonomy is the motto of Our Generation whatever makes me happy whatever I want to do whatever pleases me so that all runs contrary to is no tough guy your life is not yours you're not entitled you woke up this morning and your legs work your eyes work your ears work you woke up and you're alive means not that you have rights and entitlements but you have duties and obligations what are you cont ruting to the world not what you're going to take from the world not how can you get more pleasure how can you give more pleasure which happens to be the best way of getting pleasure but how can you live the most meaningful fulfilling satisfying life is not by being a taker but by being a giver and that requires to say to yourself there is a Creator to whom I am responsible and accountable and who has a mission for me in this world and how will I make him proud and how will I fulfill that mission and fulfill my purpose and thereby end up getting the greatest happiness not by personal autonomy and what makes me happy but by submitting BOS it's a famous footnote that the r has in the lonely man of Faith it's a famous footnote where he elaborates that it's very unpopular today he says religious experience is submission right for us religious experience is spirituality Sunset a car minion feeling good feeling uplifted it's clapping and dancing and singing It's meditating it's yoga it's right we we think of religious experiencing all these new age things cuz that's what's infiltrated our world we think of it in the context of what makes me happy I love yoga I love meditating I love singing I love I love I love that makes me me me feel good that's religion but that's not religion at its core RAB salvic writes philosophically in this famous footnote at its core religion is submission and if you're unwilling to submit that there is a higher authority there's a higher being that there is a first cause that doesn't mean that he doesn't want you to be happy when when the r says that religion is about submission he does not mean you know it's about sacrifice and unhappiness and just serve it's the opposite you know there's a PK inum it's my favorite PK inum and and the expands on this and R writes you know what the purpose of life is these are his words what does the word on mean enjy means pleasure he says the purpose of life is to get high to get high on God to get pleasure in other words God did not create us to suffer and sacrifice and submit created us to get great pleasure he's the most benevolent altruistic being he got nothing out of his creating us why did he create us for us to get the greatest pleasure it happens to be how do we get the greatest pleasure to get high not in a counterfeit fleeting way but to get high in the most authentic way on God to get high by realizing that there's that which is greater than us to get high by thinking of ourselves as small not as big to get high by thinking of ourselves as givers not as takers to get high to think of ourselves as having a unique mission to transform the world not as being insignificant and invisible that's how we get high so the reason God asks us for submission the reason religion asks us to obey and to observe is not so that we forfeit our happiness but it's the actual highest way we can achieve it it's the greatest way to have happiness now how you can have happiness shabas in this world of chaos and noise in this world of addiction and connection we have shabas Dr Ruth spoke a few weeks ago I won't do my imitation but the gift of shabas how fortunate how fortunate we are to have the gift of shabas the quiet and the space and the communication of chabas right when I asked her what is the what would you say is the greatest component of Love and Marriage what do you need and she said you need to disconnect and then she said you're all so lucky and blessed you have shabas she shabas we have shabas shabas is not punitive Ask a kid they'll say it's punitive it's restrictive I can't go here I can't go here I can't do this I can't do this you're trying to torture me let them get a little older and we sometimes need to mature and realize that it's not restrictive and it's punitive it is the most liberating thing in the world it is so liberating it's unbelievable I was just having a conversation with someone this week who is so inspiring to me they've changed their life a young family in our community who in the last couple of years alone has switched the kids to day school and has moved on to the circle and has taken on greater observance and had to downsize the quality of their life physically materially in order to achieve that and I said you know what's it like how do how do your kids feel is it harder because you're in a smaller house and you're in this he said are you kidding me shabus comes and I don't see my children they are out and they're friends and when their shabas meals were finally talking to each other because those stupid phones are away and when shabas afternoon they are running around and they're actually experiencing friendships rather than just texting or FaceTiming or Snapchatting or taking selfies of themselves all week long he's like this is the greatest thing who cares about the smaller house and that's so we think it's restrictive and punitive and it it restrains us and it punishes us it's the opposite it is so liberating that's why shabas shabas commemorates freedom and liberty because it liberates us and frees us from the to-do list of the week and the obligations of the week and the noise of the week and the connection of the week and all of that all of that which which takes us out of our life so the purpose of life is the purpose of life is to get high is to feel pleasure it happens to be that the way you feel pleasure is to submit it happens to be that our generation struggles with submission because we believe in autonomy God you can't tell me how to feel pleasure I tell me how to feel pleasure and I feel pleasure by this that the other thing all these new things in in the world so don't tell me how to feel pleasure I decide how to feel pleasure how's that working for the world everyone trying to feel pleasure on their own wellow there's more anti-depressants being sold than ever there's more anxiety than ever there's more divorce than ever there's more infidelity than ever there's more drug abuse than ever there's more alcoholism than ever it doesn't look like the experiment of personal autonomy is going so well if God designed us and designed the world he might have a little inclination as to how we can get the most pleasure and maybe we should just trust him and try it out so at the core says thean of this Mitzvah of is at its core is submission maybe for next week or two weeks from now I'll copy that footnote from the r we'll take a look at it that religious man religion is about submission again submission so that you get the highest pleasure it's not submission so that you sacrifice and suffer it's submission so that you get the highest so that you get the highest form of you get the highest form of pleasure that's a challenge for us to say you know what life's not about what I want to do right now it's what's God's expectation of me and how am I accountable for how I respond and how I react to that expectation so we did get to the end of the first side we'll continue we'll continue on the second side all means the Yoke the acceptance of the Yoke of Heaven I don't like to use that word because it's so negative and it's not negative it's it's positive it just has to really be understood understood fully all right have a great day and a great two weeks we'll resume amuna in two weeks