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Project Inspire Leadership Series 2022 Session # 1
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water
absolutely
elisa will you mute everyone
yeah that's they'll meet everybody now
okay
okay so let me just see give it a
different view
gallery maybe that's better
ever since if you just unmute yourself
right
okay
fine so um okay fine so let let's start
i think you know people there will
definitely be people strolling in as
this happens but i guess we have a short
amount of time so let's uh try to make
the most of it so first of all thank you
all for attending we really appreciate
it and it's a pleasure and a really
annoying for us to do this for you and
with you
and to me it's very very exciting to be
honest and i'll tell you why because
this material is really material
that really comes from
my teacher and really the founder of
asia torah and the founder founding you
know the idea of project inspire really
came from rabbi weinberg who was my
teacher for 26 years founder of asia
torah and he was a person who was just
you know i was thinking as i was
preparing this he was a person who was
what a tremendous merit and joy i had in
life that i had met such a person who
had such wisdom for living such insight
such clarity
was such a big person a happy person a
loving person caring person and a person
who was dedicating to dedicated to
making the world a better place and this
syllabus is really um a tribute to him
in a certain way why because this is
really his torah that he put together
and it also reflects in many ways who he
was what he was able to to do in his
greatness was to define
what is it that we need in life to live
our lives to the full right
for ourselves
and for others
right
and so these insights will both help us
with ourselves in our life
and also if you can learn and understand
the insights
they're they're shareable with others
and that what's what we've tried to do
in this course is give you you know in a
short amount of time and i discuss it
with rabbi cynthia barnett who will be
teaching this series together please god
um
that you know how do we give you in the
short command of tomorrow we didn't want
to burden you with too many
classes and too much we know you're all
busy and so and so forth so how do we do
this in a way that's most effective that
gives you the ability to hear the ideas
but not just that you hear the ideas and
then you walk away and it's like they
come and they go
so what we're doing in this in in what
we decided as one way of doing that
probably many ways what we decided is
you know what we're going to give you
for every insight that really we share
we're going to give you like let's say
like a one-pager document right
and you can take that one pager and it's
shareable with others now we're not
telling you if you come on this course
you have to share it with others we want
to make this pretty simple we don't want
people to feel obligated and resentful
that oh i came on this this course and i
didn't realize i had to do this and i
don't feel comfortable at the same time
we feel that if you take these insights
and you share them then you have two
weeks to share in this class today
you're gonna get two insights right that
we'll share there'll be many more
insights that i'll be hopefully giving
over but there's two insights that we're
gonna share with you
and we and we recommend
sharing with someone now if you have if
you don't have someone to share it with
you can say to us email us email me or
be in touch with taylor and just say you
know what i'd love to share this with
someone i don't have someone to share it
and we'll match you guys up if anybody
wants that we can match you up you can
each person can share with each other or
else another way to do it would be to
share with your family with your
children with your with your friends
with anybody right just take it's a five
minute idea share take it and try to
share it so we're asking people to do
that um
now we're going to be giving um this
over several
months this course and we would very
much like it that people come on
that they commit to the series that's
what we would like to know it doesn't
mean we understand that people
are busy and are not always going to
make it there were many people tonight
that there was an event in
toronto there's events in birken there's
many different things going on and
people have their own lives and we
understand that from all of you that so
if you can't make it no problem we'll
send you the recording i'd also like to
as well send you a synopsis of the
actual outside of the idea shares but
here's an overview of what we said so
you could review it that way as well so
so we're very excited for you to be part
of this to learn it so that really the
goal here is that you become really
what we
powerful people
people who really understand the most
basic insights in life for ourselves for
our families for our friends and for all
of the jewish people and that's what
we're going to be sharing with you it's
beautiful stuff sometimes people feel it
it's very simple it is simple but simple
things are sometimes the most profound
so we're going to go straight into the
first of several classes we call these
classes the foundation series by the way
we'd like to and i didn't quite finish
the conversation with with rabbi barnett
and and kate alaski of what
reward we'd like to give but i
personally feel that people to go to
this car this course and did every
course should we should as an
organization we would like to reward you
because we feel that it's wonderful
reward people when they do good things
and we'd love people to finish this
series and we'd love to be able to give
you a reward for finishing it together
with us so
so maybe for the first six classes every
people did that would give some kind of
rewards i'm just gonna
you know to be continued we haven't
quite worked out what it is but i'm just
letting you know okay so let's go on to
the first of these what we call
foundational series there's foundations
of life and this is the first and we're
calling it the first one is based on a
class of raleigh weinberg called the
four misconceptions people have about
judaism tonight we're going to try to
cover
two of those four misconceptions and
we'll be next to the the the
but what is this this is a
basically a statement that there are
four prevalent misconceptions people
have about judaism but in some ways
because there's a misconception it
blocks their ability to really
appreciate judaism and to get involved
in judaism
that's and that's all of us and they
apply it to us
to some degree as well
so what we what what we're going to do
now is just you know bring this out
and there's a little story that i i i
often share and it goes like this it's
sort of like you know i spent i was very
fortunate to spend ten years studying at
asia torah which is you know uh an asian
tourist college of jewish studies i
rabbinical college i became a rabbi
there i lived there in the old city i
was very fortunate i lived there for 10
years
and you know as you lived in the old
city it's a wonderful experience there
were certain things that happened and
one time you know of many times the
following thing might might happen and
all of the students who were learning
there in this in the yeshiva in school
would know would basically know what is
going on and it's the following that if
you if you were walking through the old
city and you saw two people who were
backpackers right
and you go over to them and you get into
a conversation with these two jewish
people that you know they they just did
in the pool and you know and they're
going through israel they came to
jerusalem and they're going on to to do
europe
and you know it's fast and then at some
point they ask you
so what do you do
so we would we would answer them you
know if we tell them i go to a yeshiva a
yeshiva you know they never know what
ishiba is
so we said we would explain to them what
it is so what is it what is it youtube
you explain to them you know i study at
a college of jewish studies and then we
tell them what what is it that we you
you learn there so we tell them to tell
them that they wouldn't know what it is
so to explain to them you know
we study about life yeah how to get the
most out of life to understand what's
meaningful in life life how to be happy
how to have sex successful relationships
how to how to use your potential to the
full how to understand what the meaning
of life is
now you would sometimes if you won't
have two reactions
one fellow
responds and he's like wow that's
fascinating i'm really wow can we come
and see it i mean that sounds like
amazing but the other guy
he's looking at you and he's like you
know um i don't know you know if we want
to really see it we're going to go to
the israel museum he's like you know
he's sort of like backing off a mile
right so why why
did this phenomenon happen
right so we often understood that the
guy who's really really interested
he's not jewish right now why no but the
guy who's backing off a man i'll explain
that in a second the guy who's backing
off a mile right why why why is he
backing off a mile because you know what
he's got all kinds of ideas in his head
of what judaism is
and and because of those
misconceptions of what judaism is he
looks at julian as being a threat to his
life and so this is dangerous stuff he
had red lights flashing he wasn't
getting me out of here the last thing i
want to do is end up in yeshiva and
maybe get involved in jesus and why
why is that because just to understand
the non-jewish person has a benefit has
an advantage right because he's not
threatened by this right because he
looks at it for what it is and says wow
that really sounds fascinating there's
no threat to him because he doesn't see
it that oh maybe i should be involved in
this so he just takes it at face value
which is a beautiful thing but the
jewish person is like
uh you know what this really could be
should be me
and you know what and i'm a little bit
i'm thinking that there's something
about this that might be threatening to
me might be like i i don't know get me
out of here right so why am i sharing
this story with you
because
what's really going on the head of this
what this jewish person is he has
misconceptions about judaism
and because he has misconceptions that
forms
his his view of judaism and he looks and
because he sees it that way right so
then he wants i went out get me out of
here
what we're trying to do in this class is
basically take those misconceptions
show
why they are misconceptions show what
the truth is what's the truth that
that's the reality that's not the
misconception and therefore if you could
turn those misconceptions around in his
mind and to the extent that we have in
our minds turn them around then we think
when we mention judaism to ourselves or
to someone else wow that's beautiful i
love it i want it
right because i've taken away the
misconceptions about how you know bad it
is or whatever it is that i i have in my
head right so that's what we're trying
to do
so in each misconception we're going to
basically try to try to do the following
things understand number one why it's a
misconception number two how can i share
it with somebody else that that it is a
misconception and number three is each
of these misconceptions gives us a
practical way of educating of sharing
the wisdom that we have with others and
we'll see as we go through it what we
have to learn in terms of educating and
helping others
in terms of their growth and their
connection to to judaism so the first of
the misconceptions is the following that
that and this is really the
misconception that really keeps most
people away from even coming in the door
to a relationship with their heritage
with torah is the following that
that people feel
that religious jews
look down on or religious judaism that's
perceived better religious judaism looks
down on non-religious people right
it considers them to be bad like that's
the first so
i'm saying that's a misconception now
i'm not saying it's a misconception that
people that there are orthodox jews and
religious jews who look down on other
jews
right but we're saying that's not part
of judaism right it's not part of
judaism so how do we how do i explain
and how could you explain
to others that that is not the case so
i'm going to share with you our first
idea share right and that idea share
with is a one-page idea share which
you're going to get and as i said
earlier that we'd love for you to take
that idea and during the next two weeks
share it with others so the first thing
is like this the talmud asks the
following question if someone would put
a gun
to your head goddess forbid like this is
a scenario from the talmud and and say
to a person will kill somebody puts a
gun to someone saying we're gonna kill
you
unless you kill an innocent person
right so do what is the jewish law can
you kill an innocent person to save your
life you understand the scenario
someone's putting a gun to someone's
head and say i'm gonna kill you unless
you kill this innocent person is he
allowed to kill the innocent person to
save his life what do you say ladies
so i'm getting i'm not sure if you could
if you're you're all muted by getting
some
no you can't right okay you cannot and
you are and you are everybody everyone
says no so you're right and that is
correct now why why is that why can't
you you kill an innocent so you know why
the town that says
a very famous line which is the
following it says you don't know whose
blood is redder right which means to say
you don't know who the better person is
in god's eyes and therefore that's the
reason that the talmud gives you
probably kill this person because maybe
he's a better person in god's eyes than
you okay now i want to ask a follow-up
question and the follow-up question is
like this
imagine
someone put the gun same scenario to the
greatest rabbi in the world right the
greatest the wisest the biggest psychic
the most righteous person and says we're
going to kill you
unless you see this guy over here he's a
good for nothing layabout he never he he
you know he's he he pickpockets people
every day you don't want to know how he
treats his wife he's just that good for
nothing parasitic society so someone
puts the gun to the big rabbi's dead and
we you kill him or we kill you so is
that i'm asking you the same question in
this situation
can this big
yeah that is the head of the game whoa
can can can you oh i see there's chats
over there right um okay good can you
kill elisa pressman and said they're the
chats also you cannot you cannot the
biggest rabbi also can't kill how so but
wait a second let's just think about
that why not this is the biggest rabbi
what do you mean you don't know whose
blood is redder what do you mean that
this guy isn't a better person in the
eyes of of god what are you talking
about this guy's the biggest rabbi he's
the wisest man he's the biggest
the most right and this guy is a low
life let's call his fate of spain so why
can't he kill him don't we know who's
the better person this is the genius and
the greatness of the torah the answer is
no we still don't know who is the better
person why
because there's only one person that
judges people right oh one being and
that is the almighty
right we don't judge people we're not
allowed to judge people why why is that
because you don't know what his
chemical makeup is you don't know what
his genetic makeup is you don't know how
he was brought up you don't know his
father wasn't jack the ripper and his
mother wasn't any better you don't know
you don't you just don't know right and
you don't know even what good deeds he
or she has done
that on her level for where she's at
might outweigh all of your
good deeds you just don't know
and there's only one being that knows
who that is right
who
who's greater and that's the almighty
and that's why we say
oh it says in the ethics of the fathers
i'll dinner
actually give up
don't judge another person until you
reach his place
meaning because you can't judge him
because you don't know if you're in the
same position as him or her you truly
and honestly don't know
that you wouldn't be doing the same
or even possibly worse and therefore
right this is the torah concept of
tolerance that we believe in judaism
that every human being is made in the
image of god everyone has infinite
potential and that we can look at each
other in the eyes and say i don't judge
you as a person i sincerely believe that
you could be a better person
in the eyes of god than me and more than
that the mission empirical in ethics of
the father says
who is the wise man hello men they call
adam somebody who learns from everyone
and we should look at each other in the
eyes and say you know what i have so
much i can't learn from you so i want to
bring this out a little bit further but
because imagine
you know you saw a religious guy you
know a religious guy he's wearing the
black coat and the black hat the whole
garb he's got it and you see this guy
and he goes into mcdonald's right you
know and he sits down and he has a big
mac and a chocolate milkshake right now
outside of the fact of giving him the
benefit of the doubt that he's got a
stomach ulcer and he has to eat right
now and it's you know he has to give to
save his life yes no no no no this guy
between you and me is going in to have a
good time right and he you know he just
you know for whatever reason
this is what he's doing he's going in
he's transgressing the laws of the torah
from he's a religious person and that's
what he's doing so what would we say
about such a guy you know what we say
the guy looks religious yes where are
you he's not quite as religious as he
looks because you know there's certain
things that he's not quite doing 100
okay fine so i say the same to you if
you if a religious guy is walking down
the streets right and he's meeting
non-religious jews secular jews and he's
looking down on them and he's judging
them to be bad
you know what we say about that guy the
same thing
he looks religious
he's not quite as religious as he looks
because he's transgressing
a cardinal principle of the torah just
like you not allowed to eat non-kosher
meat
pig
in the same way
judaism says you are not allowed to
judge another human being you're not
allowed to look down at them you have to
look at them as if they and understand
they're made in the image of god and
it's actually it works both ways right
that it's true for religious sometimes
religious people make mistakes too
you know and when and when we see a
religious person make a mistake we can
be very judgmental all of those
religious people in love with their hand
i can't believe it so we have to
understand this works both ways
religious jews should not look down and
judge non-religious jews and it's and
the other way to that religious normal
magician judge
religious they're also human beings and
imperfect and make mistakes so this is
something that um an idea shared that we
have to understand this is this is the
jewish destination of tolerance we can't
judge other people okay
now this is true
in terms of if you want to help someone
to grow right
the most what we said is it's a
prerequisite imagine i said to all of
you you know i'd love you to come to
this class tonight and and come on to
this zoom and if you knew that everybody
on the zoo was looking at you and
judging you and saying you know
you're a bad person you know you're a
bad and i don't and i'm gonna and i
don't like you say you know what you say
to me rabbi santa i'd love to come to
your your zoom video but you know i got
to go to the to the israel museum today
you know i got a few things
we all have a need to feel accepted and
loved and if we feel judged we're out
we're out so this is just not
this is just
not doing the negative meaning
what we're saying here is if you want to
help people
have a relationship with torah and
growth that it's never going to happen
if you judge them right that's why it
says again in ethics of the fathers love
people oh wait there's a breeze from
republican torah love people and bring
them to torah you can't help people grow
youth like their potential develop a
relationship with god and torah unless
you don't judge them you have to love
them so
so so now that's true
of a relationship with it with a friend
it's a true relationship with your
children if you come on too judgmental
with your children they're not gonna
you're gonna have a hard time helping
educate them this is not just a
principle for bringing people back to
torah and introducing them to this in
principle all relationships so i want to
ask you this is just the negative what
not to do don't judge people what do you
think would be the positive meaning what
we're saying so far is if you want to
help people
grow
and and healthily and have a positive
relationship with with the torah
if in the way if you're the person who's
trying to help them in that way don't
judge them
what do you think you should do what's
the positive that you should do okay so
this is jennifer levin already is saying
accept them and appreciate that
beautiful right don't just don't judge
them don't just give them the benefit of
the doubt right appreciate that
appreciate them would be
don't
give them compliments right don't just
say you know how about saying saying
something nice to some someone else
right what else what else could you do
that would be positive a positive way to
have an influence build a relationship
with them okay what else
build a relationship okay good what are
other things that you could do listen
fantastic rabbi weinberg had a story of
of of a guy this is my last gun story
for the night a guy comes with a gun
puts it through goes up to a person and
says listen
you're going to listen to me now for the
next hour whether you're liking it or
not i've been trying to get someone to
listen to me for years i can't find
anyone whether you like it or not you're
going to listen to me we all have such a
deep need to to be listened to right so
here we've got smile empathize about
shelby eva also beautiful
if you could listen sid especially with
all these phones these days you know
it's like you can't get anybody to
listen if you can listen to people more
than that what about empathizing who
says that but yeah empathize with them
right
not only listen feel their pain give me
that for them not more than more than
that and i'll i'll tell you the last one
which i is what is it do they need in
life how can i help them
you know i remember when i first came to
to to to new york
and i was working for asia from the
upper west side there's a guy called
steve eisenberg who many many of the
students there at h i asked them how did
they get involved and they told steve
eisenberg steve eisenstein
so when i was steve eisenberg who was a
friend of mine i said steve what is the
secret of your success you've made so
many people to torah it's it's
unbelievable so he told me the following
thing which i'll never forget he told me
whenever i meet someone my my first
question is how can i help them
he said on the upper west side which is
where we were people need a they
need a job and then an apartment so as
soon as i meet people i find out what
they need
the next day in their inboxes here's how
to get an apartment here's how to get a
job here's how to how to meet people yes
and so because he
cared sincerely
then then he was able to have an effect
on others and that's true again this is
true for all relationships i was
teaching this one time and i was
thinking you know what wait a second
if i did this with my wife don't judge
accept compliment listen empathize
give you know
what she needs he said that would be the
end of my mind my shoulder bias my
relationship but we're having it but i'm
just saying that is the panacea if you
can do this this is the way for your
children your friends your to to have a
really healthy relationship and bring
help then use their potential and to
grow and have a relationship with the
torah so this is this is the first
misconception um and so
and so you know
people feel judged judaism is judgmental
it's not judgmental it goes against the
principles of the torah there's only one
being the judges that's the almighty
we're not here to judge you should judge
ideas
and actions meaning ideas that's a wrong
concept that's truth
we care about you can't say things that
are not true in philosophy and jewish
law what's right and wrong there are
rights and wrongs you you do judge those
things but the person the essence of the
person we don't judge right so let me
just ask you
why do you think
that we have such a hard time and i
think we do
with
judging people why are we judging people
so much
i don't know you know if you could i
don't know
um
elisa if you can unmute i'd just be
interested to hear any thoughts but or
you know you can you can keep it on the
chat but it's nice to hear
well i'll go ahead and unmute everybody
give me one second anybody just a couple
of ideas before we move on
why do we feel why don't we have such a
hard time you have to realize we're
doing this all the time ourselves why do
we why are we so judgmental you know
they say that a person if a person is a
little bit more religious than me he's a
fanatic and if he's a little bit less
with the religion than me he's a heretic
right it's gonna be just where i am just
like me you're okay you know in fact
it's gonna be me to be okay why are we
so judgmental what do you think are we
internally
oh we got a lot of people at once
okay one try one person try speaking
good
are we internally judging ourselves at
the same time okay yeah that's a very
interesting that's bet right um you know
we we i think we sometimes are hard
that's why it says love your neighbor as
yourself right we're hard on ourselves
all the time and therefore when we're
hard on ourselves we naturally do it
with others as well i definitely think
there's some truth to that anybody else
don't be shy now
by nature people are drawn to negative
and we will better and quicker find
something negative in others then that's
definitely true we're going to see that
throughout the series we are drawn to
negativity it's just easier to focus on
the negative it's much harder to give
someone a compliment than it is to say
to someone you know you know uh
you know that oh you did that wrong or
you did that wrong negativity is always
easier any other ideas that's definitely
true
one more person come on
we have our own insecurities that we're
you know we're busy with
our own insecurities for good who's
who's speaking
elisa
alisa yes that that is that is um right
that i that's what i think that's what i
was thinking is that you know we all
have our own ego issues and insecurities
it's so much easier to look down on
others that makes me feel better about
myself it's a little bit like what we
call lush and horror like gossip
negative gossip is we like to put other
people down and it makes me feel good
about myself but the reality is you
don't really feel good about yourself
it's cheap it's it's a cheap and
non-real way of you really need to feel
good about yourself by appreciating your
own individuality and being
non-gentleman judgmental about others is
really part of that is that it is
appreciating every single individual is
unique was put in this world you know
for their own purpose it says that every
human being is like a letter in the
safer torah in a torah and every torah
if one letter isn't there it's
considered it's a it's not a it's not a
kosher same torah if you take away that
means every human being every single
jewish person is needed in the jewish
people no matter who they are they're
special they're unique they're made
of infant and we have to live with this
ourselves so okay so this is um the
first misconception now we haven't i
what i shared with you um elisa do you
have the the link for the idea share
yes give me one
can you can you or can you just bring it
on
online can you just show it on the
screen
yes the sharon shareholders chair right
now
the one for respect right
respect yes
we're gonna send you this idea share
it's a one page i do share which it sums
up
what we what i just said it should it's
almost pretty much word for word as soon
as we see it if we don't see it then
we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna
we'll send it to you yeah sorry i'm
actually not letting you but i'm gonna
put it in the chat box for everybody to
see okay okay fine so um
so that take that idea share read it
over
and share it i just suggest share it
that way you'll internalize it more
yourself and and people are usually
fascinated by it so okay fine we're
going now on that's the link there's the
link you can you can you can uh
oh and i shouldn't do that maybe because
cool okay fine um oh yeah there it is oh
okay fine it's not okay forget about it
okay all right fine so let's go on to
number number two the second
misconception is the following that
well let me just hear
um
misconception number two is that and i
want to start this way imagine that i
said to you you know what
i want you to keep judaism
but on one condition
if you keep judaism
you have you you have to do what
everybody in that room next door is
doing
so you go into the next door room
and you see that every single person
there is shackled it's got chains it's
chained to the ground
right so let me ask you a question if
you knew if you had to keep judaism
you're going to be chained to the ground
for the rest of your life do you think
you're going to do it
the answer is no of course rabbi sampson
that's ridiculous so look
many people feel
that they get involved in
judaism i'm going to be shackled
by the torah and all its laws right
these laws are every day
they are laws that are going to stop me
from having the relationships that i
want it's going to stop me from going on
the vacations that i want eating the
kind of food that i want having fun
it's going to judaism if i get involved
with that it's going to take away all my
fun and pleasure in life now the reality
is
i would say that this is something that
even if you speak to orthodox jews they
also sometimes have this misconception
they think you know what he's right he's
right i wish i could never do all this
stuff so this is but that guy is wrong
right it's a misconception so i want to
share with you why it's a misconception
right
and this is this is also an idea share
that you can you should know for
yourself and try to share it with others
so
here's the second idea
right which is if what
if you would ask someone
what do you think a religious person
would say
in to the question of what is it that
god really wants from us what do you
think he wants from us what does he want
from us in this world you know you ask
what do you think religious jews think
that it is so what would what would they
say so
they might say you know what he wants us
to be good right or he wants us to keep
his commandments or he wants us to make
the world a better place or he wants us
to believe in him or to pray to him and
then they come out with answers like
that or all of those answers are good
right and have aspects of truth but a
way that we answered this question is in
the following way and the way the torah
answers this question is that we see we
refer to god
as our father as a parent we say now and
now in our prayers
our father our king we relate to god as
a parent and if that's the case and
everybody understands that and if that's
the case then we're like his children so
if we can unders if that's the case
therefore if we can understand what is
it that parents bottom line wants for
their children
then that will give us an insight into
what is it that god
wants for us does that make sense so
then you so that leads to the next
question which is what is it that
parents bottom line one for their
children i'm seeing already that to be
joyful to be happy right so
you know so the bottom line is you see
is that yes you want your your your your
children to use their free will and you
want them to belong and to
accept others difference you want all of
that you want them to be healthy you
want them to be moral but the bottom
line is if your
children
are moral and miserable
then you feel terrible
if they're you know
uh healthy and miserable that's what
what bottom line with a pep i just want
you to be happy i just want you to be
happy and we see that when it when a
little baby
is you know is is is giggling and
smiling and and there's nothing that
that tickles a parent more wow my little
baby
but when that little face the mouth goes
starts going sour and then and starts
crying and you can't stop that baby from
crying and yelling oh there's nothing
that hurts
more than that because what we bottom
and i want for our children we just want
them to be happy all these other things
are what we want for them in order for
them to be happy to be settled down to
get married
all these things i wanted to live truly
fulfilled lives that's what i want for
you right just listen to me will you
right yeah so so that's so if that's the
case then our understanding is the same
that's what
hashem
wants for us that's what god wants for
us he wants us to have all the pleasures
in life in this world and in the next
and it makes sense right because our
concept of god is god is an infinite
being who's lacking nothing right and
that's that's an infinite being means
he's lacking nothing right so there's
nothing you can give to god he's
infinite so when we serve god and we
pray to god it's not it's not what we
pray to god and we go the great the
mighty and the awesome and god goes
you know i was feeling a little down
today you know i need a little bit of a
pick up you know maybe a few holy holy
holies i'll really be feeling good
that's ridiculous god's infinite we're
not praying for him so if we're not
praying for him who in the world are we
praying for
who if we're not serving him for him
who are we who are we serving why you
know what the answer is
we're serving god
to enable him to give to us right that's
what it's all about it's right he want
that the almighty is here to give to us
and that's what this world is about and
that's when it makes sense even more
that you know it said that god created
man and he put him in the garden of eden
right that's where he put him where do
you put him in a garden now what do you
do in a garden you know when you take
out the deck chairs you do a little bit
of
on a nice sunday afternoon you might do
just do something with the flowers yeah
it's you go into the garden because you
want to have a good time
god put us in the garden of indians to
indicate that's what this world is about
he's putting us here to get
edenic pleasure right tremendous
pleasure in life and more than that what
was the tree in the center of the garden
you know what it was the tree of life
right the tree of life
now the tree of life what does that
represent we we carry the turtle we pick
up the turret in the synagogue and sure
we we go hey
the tree of life the torah which was the
which of the tree of life represented
total was in the center of the garden
why
because the whole point of the torah is
to help us get tremendous pleasure in
life and that's what the torah is the
torah calls it itself tarat
cayenne an instruct instructions manual
for living from the creator of the
universe how to get the most pleasure
out of life in this world and in the
next and that's what the torah is all
about yeah
so
so in you know so that's so we have to
understand so that's the idea sure that
we don't we don't this whole world is is
we say
god created a world of kindness and
created it to give to us
ask not what i can do for my creator
ask what is it that i that i can uh that
i can do that i can allow the creator to
do for me that's what we that's judaism
and therefore the tone's instruction
manual it has 613 commandments
instructions
248 positive 365 negative each one is
helping us grow so we can be full of
human beings so we can get the most
pleasure out of life we have another
class on this called five levels of
pleasure which will go into the five
levels and counterfeit levels i'm going
to understand that a lot more deeply but
we have to understand that the total and
just think about it a little bit more
that the torah you see is imagine if i
would come to you
and i and i would you know god forbid
there was somebody here and uh
and they seemed to have a heart attack
and i would say oh give me a knife give
me a knife quickly so why i i'm gonna
i'm gonna operate so oh rabbi samson we
didn't know you were a doctor i said no
i'm not i'm just giving it a stab you
would just say like are you uh
everything okay rabbi samson you don't
you don't you know just give a step what
about you know your 17 year old uh son
or daughter comes and says you know what
can i have the car keys i want to go go
you know i give you know uh give the car
a spin
they said oh we didn't know you passed
your driving test she said no i didn't
pass my no i just want to give it a spin
you say no don't play this game at home
she's crazy you can't
do open heart surgery if you haven't
studied at a medical school you can't
drive a car if you haven't had driving
lessons and you've gone taken the
instructions on how to do it life is no
less complicated than than driving a car
or even open heart surgery but what we
do in life is we lunge into life and we
get married and we have children and we
have we all kind of live our lives we
try to find happiness and meaning and
you know what you know it goes sour
because you know what we didn't read the
instruction manual you know 50 what's
the divorce rate where about 50 why now
what you know
if you never inspire the instruction
manual well you've got to know how to do
it and it makes more sense that you know
if you were
you know a buyer a a plug it comes with
instructions put the red wire here the
blue wire there if you buy a computer it
comes with a book if you buy a car you
need all things oral instructions right
because otherwise you could put the plug
in the wrong place and you'll blow
yourself up right if god created the
world he must surely have created with
an instruction manual for living how to
get the most out of life and that indeed
is what the torah is so i just want to
finish with a question for you which is
if in fact
you know that the torah and the way to
get the most to to help people
understand this is why people are are
with go i don't want to have anything to
do with it because they're looking at it
it's going to
red lights flash and get me out of he's
going to take away my pleasure what
we're saying is no no no it's going to
give you pleasure right so if that's the
case if you want to share judaism our
heritage with others what would you
what does what's the implication of this
concept what would you need to do
to show them
that you know to to to help them in
their journey in judaism what would what
does this concept imply what does that
mean we should be doing as a way of
helping a person have a relationship
with their heritage and with with the
torah
based on this
um concept what should we do therefore
what does this imply
do you understand
my question
i got you baffled here right
but the importance of learning torah
without it then then you don't have that
instruction okay that's that's true
that's the second part you need
instruction manual for living from
creator of the universe but i'm going on
the the pleasure factor right judaism is
about pleasure hashem wants us just that
pleasure at night that's all that we're
that's all that is about
so if you want to share
the beauty of our heritage with other
others
what do you have to show them
it's not a complicated question
to live a life of simpler
okay right but okay good but what
yes
maybe the beautiful parts of judaism yes
who's thinking
right exactly right you want to show
them the beauty of judaism the warmth
the pleasure of it how do you do that
you don't want to show them you know you
know
uh you know you know you know everybody
you know
i think i think steve eisenberg used to
say to me that people go to shalom rosh
hashanah yom kippur they're fasting and
it's a day of church they should be
going to hanukkah and purim right
and i think he's right you know that we
need to be able to share with people the
beauty of what we have uh and that's why
you know see the beauty of shabbos go to
uh go to jerusalem to jerusalem and go
to the western wall and have an
experience of pre right there
you know so
that's one way so show the beauty of
that and the warmth of it so people
connect to it because it is so
profoundly beautiful and enjoyable the
sec the second way is to share insights
with them people don't understand that
there's so
many insights if if the torah is from
god and it's instruction but manual for
living
it says that our rabbis
keep digging digging into the torah
everything is in it
how even how to have better friendships
how to bring up your children how to how
to understand yourself how to deal with
every situation it's all
the torah has everything in it so to
give people the insights to share people
share with people we're going to get
through the definition of love
definition of happiness we're going to
get that but when you can share these
kinds of insights with people then they
say oh wow there's something that's in
it for me which i never knew right
that's profound and beautiful and
insightful will help me so show them the
pleasure of judaism because it's really
there and they may never have seen it or
touched it before and show them the
insides so if you do this this is the
second insight in judaism is that
judaism is about pleasure the almighty
is is gave us instruction manual for us
to get the most out of life in this
world to become beings that are happy
that are joyful that are full of life
and the torah in the instructional
manual how to get there so so we're
going to give you um two
um
idea shares one's called the pleasure
principle which is what i just explained
to you
in one page and the other
is um
respect real true respect and and
tolerance those two insights if you have
the opportunity and i recommend it
highly
read it over you can even read it read
it to your family or or if you can do
them better
share it without reading whichever way
you do it if you want to
have rooster
a study partner or five minutes or a
week you give one over thank you one
over and then next week you want to
let us know and we'll organize that for
you but these are the first two insights
two misconceptions next time we'll go
through the next two the first is don't
judge people right whoever they are
right it's very easy for us to do we're
very prone to doing that but that you
know if you if you're going to love
people unconditionally you've got to
care about them sincerely authentically
and then you have a chance of helping
educate people and and helping people
use their potential whether it's their
wife your wife no i don't think anybody
here has a wife never know these days
but your husband right your husband and
your children and your friends and
whoever it is and all of the jewish
people
don't be judgmental and be yeah
enjoy judaism the first thing start with
yourself make sure that you're enjoying
it and just make sure do i take pleasure
am i just going through it by roads and
just you know you know going through the
the prayers
do i feel the connection do i feel glad
and i connect to it the more you are
happy in life and the more that you're
getting from your judaism you can share
that with others as well so that's a
process it doesn't happen overnight
we're all on our own path but these are
the first misconceptions i thank you
very much for joining us
and if you have any questions by the way
anybody here can uh email me uh with any
questions um we're here for you we're
thrilled that you're taking this course
um and we hope that you will benefit
from it personally that you become
powerful and and insightful human beings
uh this you know this is what
lived with he lived with it in such a
profound way and he was a truly great
and powerful person and it's true if we
can internalize these ideas please god
will all become
eternally great and then we share it
with others and we'll help all of the
jewish people live on a level of
happiness and love and taking pleasure
in their in their judaism their
relationship with god and i i give you
that my blessing that should be all of
you too so thank you very much if
anybody does have any questions they
want to ask um we're officially over
because we said we're done with that if
anybody does have any questions yeah uh
something yeah so unfortunately the
projects our website is currently down
we're working on fixing the website so
the links are not currently working but
holds on hopefully within the next hour
the website will be restored and then
you can look up the source see the
sources okay so we'll give you those
what's up and anyway we'll email it uh
to you i think as well hopefully we'll
be able to email it to you um and also
i'll give you the overview of the whole
of the whole class so you can have it um
but thank you thank you ronnie for
joining us i see you and and for
twitching on your zoom it's so nice to
see you and
and everybody and if anybody has any
questions feel free to
ask thank you so much
wonderful pleasure my pleasure
thank you beautiful thank you good night
everyone good night good night
thank you
thank you so much
haley do i mean on the zoom
what's that
should i end the zoom now
anybody else with any questions and we
could we i think it doesn't seem like it
but i think we've done i think we will
put your you guys on your channel in the
chat nice to see you guys
coming from your first
very very helpful information for me
yeah yeah learning
my passion
great
okay thanks very much
everybody and have a wonderful day