Deep Dive with Michoel Barnett 3 20 24

oh here record got it okay okay thank you so much everyone for joining us for this special one-on-one Deep dive learning program for um a of porum for before porum and I'm very grateful today that we have as our special guest speaker M baret um he is a senior vice president with idb bank in New York City he is also a Dartmouth graduate and he is a frequent presenter for project Inspire he lives in faraka away with his wife and children and he is also an avid cyclist so thank you so much for joining us tonight I'm going to pass it over to you okay what an introduction thank you thank you Danielle I appreciate it so much and we appreciate all you did you did amazing work um hanging out with people like me putting it together thank you um and I also I want to thank meline because meline asked my wife Brookie to join her very honored to have Brookie with us in the chat room and lastly I want to thank um got some guys I learned with they'll be having a lot of fun with tonight Cliff Matt and Elon and with those Qui quick introductions um I want to say that I want to devote this class this learning our growth to the the situation in Israel and it should be a great Merit for the soldiers theim and all the Jewish people around the world okay so with that um let's get started um as you might know you all of you probably know the Book of Esther McGillis ES and that's really the the primary source that we use if we want to get to the depth of what this tremendous holiday is about what you might not know is Millis Esther means to reveal that which is hidden to reveal that which is hidden and what I want to do is I want to start off by giving three stories one of which is made up and two are actually real and then after we go through study partners and we come out I want to sort of bring out um some insights from purum that illuminates the hidden value of those three stories I think gives us a deep message about what we're striving for um this coming Sunday okay so with your permission I want to tell you that I am often confused with two very famous people two very famous people one of those people is very famous in the project Inspire community and one of those people is in the broader community and I'm always confused with both now you might know the person I'm confused within the project Inspire community and that is my twin brother Rabbi simple Barnett I want to tell you that Rabbi simple Barnett put together these wonderful this wonderful module that you will be going through after I give this introduction and so this is clearly a deep dive with the Barnett boys so that's the first introduction Deep dive with the baret boys M and Sim Barnett does anybody know who I look like in the general world out there it's famous person you might not know I'll take off my glasses I'll turn to the side does anybody know you can come off mute don't be bashful but I'm going to tell you I need to get my picture back here I don't know where I am here SP okay right okay that famous person is an actor and his name is Woody harlson and throughout my life I've been confused with Woody and I want to suggest to you that if we had if you you wanted to make a movie a current Day movie about per and you want Woody harlson to play your protagonist in the show what would that first meeting be like when you and Woody went over the role so imagine you meet Woody and Woody says you know tell me what's this film about you say it's about an orthodox Jew on Perm I want you to play an orthodox Jew on perm and he says well what's perum and you say to him well well you know we on purum we all get dressed up in costumes oh so he says you mean a Jewish Halloween it's said well yeah yeah kind of like that you know and and then also we we have a commandment in during perm to drinkle up oh wait wait you mean like like a Jewish St Patrick's Day they said well yeah I guess so you know and then before we sit down to this big great meal we have in the afternoon we run around town giving a lot of gifts to people we like and friends and family and the poor people and he said well that's like a Jewish Christmas so we know wait a minut that's kanaka right Jewish Christmas so Woody puts together in his mind that from the outside looking in pum is about eating and drinking and being married across between Halloween and St Patrick's thing but yet as you will see as we go through sources the Rabbi says this day is Holier even could be even holer than yum kapor so how in the world is that possible that's the first story and the first question and in addition it sort of seems like going around and running around and giving things to the poor and your friends nice thing to do but how is that Central to PO so that's the first story and the first two questions Second Story is actually a real story and it happened to the brothers Barnett that's how other people call us our friends the brothers Barnett 34 years ago 1990 in wono Long Island see I was a banker in New York City in 1990 and my twin brother Simka had just spent close to five months I think four or five months in Jerusalem at aor he came back very excited and committed to Orthodox Judaism and this was going to be his first p he came home and just like this year hm was the night after Shabbat Saturday night and Sunday probably know we read the Milla Saturday night and also the first night of for and also in the morning so I told Simka I was dabbling in Judaism and I knew only thing really I knew is there was an aatur party in New York City that night and it was starting an hour after Shabbat they were going to have a reading the Milla and then a party so I was discussing this with with Sim I said Sim got a great place to go for for the the laning for the reading you know we'll leave WTO we'll go right to New York City we'll catch the mcgilla reading there and we'll have this great party and my brother said to me no we can't do that you know we can't miss the mcgilla so I remember saying to him wait a minute when is it ever at night on Saturday night when do we ever not make it into the city in an hour he said I don't want to do it so I gave in we saw that we let we had the McGill reading in Merck Long Island at amazing place called OAB sholom it was a beautiful beautiful authentic joyous occasion AB wenberg was the rabbi at the time in his Joker costume we're feeling very very good about it and after that reading we sped into the City and as we're going up the top of the Long Island Expressway as it crests to see the view of the city on its way down to vanam Street the car absolutely died but I mean absolutely died as if someone pulled the buug out of the car I've never ever seen it before or after was actually a timing belt which if you ever had that problem your car dies because we were going about 60 going down a hill the car went down to the exit in vanam off the road and at the bottom of the light we turn right right into a gas station barlock locked up the car and all of these cabs were getting gas at the gas station ready to go in the city so we jumped into a cab and we were off now my brother says wow that's amazing we had such luck and he looks over at me and I'm white as a ghost He said what's wrong it was great we're not going to have a problem we'll come back tomorrow and fix the car we'll go into the city someone asked to mute on there um on their computer yeah so I turned to my brother and I said you don't understand that was a message he said what are you talking about I said that was a message from God I'm not in control he is Story number two story number three happened 15 years ago 15 and a half years ago Kaneka story on Kaneka and I have a family Liv in faraka and the five towns is right near me and in Woodmere kabad was giving a Hanukah Fair called Hanukah Wonderland Great crafts and games in a very crowded storefront on Broadway in woodner Broad Broadway Avenue in woodner about 2:30 in the afternoon the place was packed my young son my 16-month-old shopsy was in the front playing in a Lego bin that was shaped like a drle about 15 feet from the plate glass windows on the road my daughter my two daughters and my wife were back I think making candles in the back in a craft about 2:30 we're there and I'm sitting around semicircle with the parents watching my child play all of a sudden he goes into the Lego bin himself not a nervous parent but I said you know really shouldn't be in there he shouldn't be he shouldn't be in there so I got up and I took him out and he played again outside fine and then couple minutes later did the same thing again I kind of overcame my nature I got up I took him out and as I took him out of the Lego bin I had him on my right hip I look up at the plate glass window and there's an fub hurdling through the window absolutely straight for the Lego bin and me and shopsy instinctively I just kind of moved to the right shopsy dried off on the floor the SUV came right through the window shattering the glass right over the Lego bin its front tire hit my legs rolled forward spun me over my hand went out the back tires as they gained traction went over my hand broke my wrist in my fingers and proceeded to go back through the storefront it was a moonwalk behind me tons of people and that was Kano Wonderland 15 years ago I was literally hit by a car and I felt like I was and I knew it was like to be hit by a truck now there's 11 people were taken to the to the hospital myself and chopsy included thank God chopsy only had a cut on his hand and thank God no one was killed and as we collected ourselves and I didn't break any bones in my legs and we fixed my arm up in New York City and my wrist and my fingers on Shabbat someone was visiting us in the community that named Danny isenberg and after Small Talk he said to me did you see me with my son near the Lego bed I said no I didn't he said you know my son was also in the Lego bin and when you took your son out I took mine out second open Miracle second open Miracle third open miracle I was coming I was very I was slow and so I was ding near right around the corner in our house Rabbi CH the rabbi saw me he said what happened I said I got hurt in kanuka Wonderland he says you're kidding my grandson as well four-year-old grandson I said where was your grandson said he was by the Lego bin so what what happened he said well the car ran him over and his father found him face down thought he wasn't alive her and zad broke his femur open Miracles occurred that day I don't want to talk about the point now but that's my story three stories I want you sort of to have in your back pocket we're going to go through the sources um before that if I might if you haven't taken a look at the back page which is the summary of the story very important we just have a familiarity I'm G to take two minutes really quickly it's a very quick read if if if you will permit me let me read you quickly the story of the Millo so it says like this the samary sets the Jews were in a hard place it was the first time in 850 years that Jews were in Exile after being in Israel the temple was destroyed after standing for only 410 years they were exiled it was a thousand years of Prophecy which came to an end and there's a prophecy by Jeremiah that the Exile would be after 70 years akaz veros the king of the time in Persia so all the Jews were not redeemed after 70 years so he held a six-month Feast invited the Jews wore the high priest's garments and serve food from the temp temple goblets this was a disgrace to the Jews at the feast averis was drunk ordered vashi his Queen to show up in the party dressed him modestly when she refused A veras ordered her death King AK veras then held a beauty pageant to find a new wife Esther a beautiful Jewish girl is chosen to be the queen Esther's orphan being raised by Mori the leader of the Jewish people during this time two Palace guards in bigson and sarish B to assassinate the king Mori overhears them outside the palace Gates and gets them eliminated this Saves The King's life imagine there's a break nine years doesn't say it in the Milla but there's a nine-year break in time hum was promoted to become advised to the King after that he had power to issue any decree he made everyone in the Kingdom bow down to him might recall morai would not do so it enraged it enraged H Mori not bowing down and he convinced AAS then that the Jewish nation was a threat he legislated a pagum against the Jewish people and cast lots on the right day to wipe them out the Jews as you see in a very horrible state they're scared they pray they rally the troops and protest how can they defend themselves against the kingdom of 127 Nations imagine being in in in in in anywhere with that many people against AK can't sleep at this time he calls the advisor to read the book of records the book opens the part where Mori Saves The King's life at the same time hman comes in because he wants to kill Mora wants to hang him on Gallows AK Vera says you can't do that he does just the opposite takes him out dresses him up and and H has to lead him in in on his Royal Horse through the streets of shushan Bai tells Esther now it's your moment go save the Jews Esther was scared to go speak to the king AAS without being called could put the person to death Mor tells her if we are meant to be saved God willing God will save us a different way but maybe this is your destiny maybe this is why you were chosen to be Queen Esther then makes a big banquet reveals he's a Jew and tells the king of hamman's plot the king is shock hangs H the day of the planned attack the 13th of Adar a veros grants the Jews the right to defend themselves and the Jews defeat their enemies Mori declares a holiday fostering Jewish Unity we come together the mill Milla we give gifts for friends we give money to the poor and we celebrate the lavish Feast okay we did it quick if you want to review with your study partner please do and then work through the sources at your own pace get it's beautiful what my brother put together get from it what you get from it and then we'll come back and we reveal the hidden insights in the stories I told to get a deeper meaning about per okay and M send it back over to you okay guys I really enjoyed the learning I I really enjoyed my brother's my brother's module great job SFA thank you um I want to take this away okay good put this bigger okay great so what I want to do is I want to go back through ah can hear you what happened one second sorry I'm back now I apologize was on mute um I want to come back and talk about the significance of the three stories that I mentioned first or Woody harlson Story how in the world can we see what looks to be a very light sort of Friv frivolous holiday where we eat and drink and be merry and we splice it or spice in giving and good stuff seemingly is an afterthought how does that get us to a position where perhaps we can have more Holiness than yum Kipper so I want to talk about in two two ways the first way is I want to Define Holiness I want to say in Judaism Holiness is not separating from the physical world it is not a wise man a Torah scholar that goes up on a mountain doesn't have children is absonant not the case with us we marry we have children we're very much in the physical world our approach to physicality however is we use physicality to get spirituality we uplift physicality through making blessings through having people over on on Shabbat wearing good clothing eating good food we take the physical and we consecrate it and make it spiritual that is Holiness so with that Dimension that understanding of what one can use the total person to be and have I want to tell you how perhaps one can see the ability the potential on purum to be even holier than yum Kipper would be as follows you know we don't have any distractions let's face it if we're in SHO for 11 hours and we're not eating we're not drinking we're not in that realm at all we're not distracted that it's perhaps easier to connect to God perhaps easier to reach out to who God is perhaps easier for us to do that but in the physical world eating eating drinking running around to be able to Marshall physical and spiritual together as one in synthesis and nevertheless with purpose reach a height of connection to God Almighty that is potentially a very high level of Holiness so I want to suggest that's one approach to the topic and I think it's quite important because we want to step back and understand that that's jud's view of Holiness that's amazing there's nothing separate in our world Jewish view of pleasure it's all one we just have to know how to use it like a connoisseur who knows how to use wine we Jews know how to use pleasure first thing I want to now go to my second story because learning the Second Story will give us a deeper insight into the first story okay so the second story is Barnett boys traveling to New York City to an aor party and Mitch at the time is just insha God controls the world now what does that mean what does that mean we say it every day here oh Israel Lord Our God the Lord is one what's the Oneness that we're talking about certainly monotheism Oneness means one not two not three but it also means Oneness that everything has unification everything is Unified God is Unified throughout the creation the creation yells screams the Creator you can see God's Unity expressed in all of creation but you can see God's Unity also expressed in the orchestration of our lives another level of understanding of unity Oneness of God is that God is the master orchestrator of our lives so I'll ask you if God's the master orchestrator of our lives and he can do anything so why don't we have an easy sale why does it just look like this for all of us why do we have the ups and downs the difficulties the tragedies the problems what's going on so step out of the page of perm for just one second and I want to suggest to you all a very important Insight that I've learned back 30 years ago I've never forgotten and that is that life my friends is not a spa I.E for Comfort but rather life is a gym and in a gym if you want to grow muscles if you want to grow you have to have resistance and when you know you're going into a gym to grow you don't resent the weights and I want to suggest to all of us that we're here for growth and the obstacles the turbulence the ups and downs the problems which hurt and they're difficult they're problems they're difficulties but nevertheless they come from God with love he is putting issues in place for each one of us as we need it that we can grow to be the people we need to be he is the master orchestrator he's that coach when he raises the bar he wants us to jump over he knows exactly what we can achieve that's our view of God in our lives in our world okay I want to now step back step into the perm story with that understanding of Oneness and I want to suggest that look go back to our story brilliantly put down the last page summarize the view of the world go back to this the name purum purm comes from poor lot if you remember hon picked out the poor the lot to say what day was most auspicious to kill all the Jews by chance by chance our prot an Agonist the evil H is one who proliferates this notion there is no God in history of the Jews there is no connection to your lives he's gone that set that ship set sail you have no future that's what the whole celebration of AK verz was about a life of random disconnectedness you are no longer a chosen people it's now our turn reflect how interesting perhaps a different narrative but how interesting the world is telling the Jews you don't have your place you don't have distinction you are not of moral character you are in your actions permitting genocide and you should be wiped out many quarters very interesting parallel then and now what we're saying guys is the following that that was the struggle between morai and Hama it was about a world view and recognize when we look through all the seemingly unconnected events in the perm story which could be chocked up to nature but they were so fantastic so unrelated so hard to put together that intuitively in their souls in their bodies in their minds everyone intuitively understood that it was the hand of God hidden in those stories again Millet EST coming to reveal that which is hidden what's hidden what's hidden is God there's very interesting I had to read a book back called God a biography someone was wanted to talk about Jewish Consciousness he was reading Bible criticism and that book God a biography their proof that the god of the Jews was was gone is that he was not mentioned once in the story of the last book in Tanakh Millet Ester we Jews understand that's the whole point of perm it's coming to a recognition that in the days in the ongoing life that we lead both in Jewish history and our own lives God is leading us with love to fulfill our potential and our destiny but let's not go back with that understanding to our first story let's understand this very difficult thing to understand how can we have a Mitzvah to be inebriated to drink till we can't know the difference between blessed Mori and cursed humm how does that fit into spirituality and I'll suggest to you that what we're doing is we're taking this understanding that from God's Vantage Point all the challenges all the struggles all the difficulties and and believe me there's a lot of struggle and a lot of difficulty in Jewish history but they're all coming for an amazing awesome conclusion and from that perspective there is no difference in God's world World between good and evil with respect to how we're going to ultimately get there and what we need to do and who we need to be and who need to become and so we drink purposely on purum because we want to blur the distinctions between good and evil bad and good we want to dull them because that's what's going on in the depth of our soul and our bodies and our minds want to live with that reality that God is in control the master orchestrator doing all the things we need to do with him for love and that ability to use that Insight through drinking to come to a recognition that it's about God and my connection is awesome and lastly I'll tell you that Unity amongst us is the triat is the third part of the stool which is essential that that Unity is essential to reaching the connection you want to have to God how does that go I believe it goes like this there's a saying in Judaism I do it in English Torah the Jewish people and God are one Torah the Jewish people and God are one we through Unity through coming together we express godliness and we are connected to God and in order for that Unity to occur such that we express the unity that PM is all about we have to grow our hearts we have to spend the day running around and making people happy and feeling good and giving and giving and giving and giving because our heart expanding is what binds us together and that true Unity is a key ingredient in our salvation and in perm so it's Central it's not on the side but it's Central to our journey in perm and lastly and I'm going to conclude with this what's the last story about why do I find it compelling when you have a near-death experience when you have a Salvation know it's one thing to try to get yourself to appreciate all the wonderful things God does and it's a lifelong effort lifelong we have to try have a lifelong effort but I can tell you the love that God had for me and my son and the people there is instilled in my heart seared in me because I had salvation it was clear I was coming with God from Love and that's the feeling was all of the hearts of our of of Jews at the time of perm that's the feelings that we have to inspire ourselves from the Salvation we have in Jewish history the salvations we have in our own lives that's the level of love that the almighty brings to the table and on purum through using our physicality through using our bodies through drinking through giving through using our minds in the perm store to see the Oneness and the love God has for each and every one of us we can perhaps in the highest way we can as Jews on P I want to to say that those lessons that we just learned and the unity of the Jewish people we all also understand that that is what will save us from all problems so all of us having Unity with purpose respecting one another and loving one another is the way we are all going to overcome our enemies God willing in these days and forever more have a Wonder beautiful perm amen thank you thank you so much and thank you join us and thank you Alisa for doing all the backend Tech stuff and wishing everyone a wonderful porum than thanks thank you great program thank you thank you so much everybody you very much easy fast to allbody good to see everybody byebye bye-bye