R' Moshe Meir Weiss lecture on "CHANGE"

nowadays that we have uh uh the internet with all of its uh terrible T at our fingertips so therefore Hashem gave us so much kadus and so much learning at our fingertips anyway we now address the camera as well welcome everyone and we thank kazak for sponsoring this year and for all of you wonderful people for coming Alam who gives us his for the learning of the uh and I'd like to thank Yaniv for uh uh helping to uh publicize the [Music] share I'd like to start off with a gar in chabas the gar in chabas on tells us that mosenu went up to Shay to receive the T went up to heaven to receive the Torah and the malim looked at him and said in consternation what is a human born from a woman doing by us I have to understand that when it says yud Isa they said heaven isn't the place for something a creature that comes from a from a smelly drop the Angels were created from the celestial fire they belong in heaven what's this what's a your Isa doing in our environment so you ever hear of the expression adding fuel to the fire theam gave an answer that added fuel to the fire and he said I'm giving him the Torah to this theim were a Gest what you're sending down the Ty at downtown Burbank you're you're sending the Torah down there the Torah is a k KES the Torah if anything is the antithesis of a world of materialism of a morass of decadence it's the Torah and they said leave your glory in heaven here it's pure you know you have a Sho you have to keep the Torah in the safe you have to there's a fire and we know that the Torah is it's it's all pure it's it's not safe to be around Tuma around the Torah that's why you know a lot of time is spent on the sin of talking and Sh and what's so terrible about talking in sh I mean it's better than talking Lara talking you have to understand that the sin of talking in SCH is aggravated because it's in the presence of the sa it's like the ramban says why was nuked by Hashem there was so many other places that did terrible sins why did Ste get the nuclear treatment says because is located in and behave that way in the Palace of the king to behave that way in that's that's so they said leave your Splendor in heaven it belongs here soem told give them an answer now we know we know that the simple answer is that the Torah doesn't address the angels as M would later tell them do you have a father and mother that it's appropriate to you do you have a inclination to kill or to commit adultery that we should say do you have businesses that we should tell you it doesn't play but that's not the first answer that because you see that answer is not a complete answer so you'll say why isn't that answer a complete answer you have to know the Torah has no punctuation it has no nudos no vowelization no commas the whole tah could be read differently the asks how did M it says M wrote the entire Torah and gave it to CL right how did how did how did M write the whole Torah if the Torah says and if he wrote it it wasn't T says but it says by and he's not dead so it's not a asked this it's a very big says wrote and translated the T in 70 languages but how could he give the Torah if it says and is not dead so the G says that MOS wred BMA now different explanations in this gar one explanation is he wrot it with tears not with ink and it would only be filled in with ink by Yeshua now while that is a clever answer it's not really simple because if the Torah was written in tears it's not a it has to be written by if it's not a then he didn't give them the Torah so the answer that is given by the V is BMA means it was mixed up it was mixed up the letters were WR written but it didn't say it was combined the same words but I give an example bares could be read which means he created in six days you could you could form the Torah in many different ways and the r tells us the whole Torah is a combination of hashem's names all the different manifestations of so the were going to get that so why was Hashem giving the Torah a water down version of the Torah so to speak down here water down maybe it's two a different version of the Torah down here why why would did Hashem do that so he said Hills CH give them an answer says the bells of rebba you have to appreciate when you talk about the Bell this is you have to understand who was it it's you have to appreciate it when he was running away from the Nazis in the ghetto he spent a different night every night he spent in a different home this is a a documented you know our great rebis their lives are documented so he spent a different night in the ghetto every night in a different home I heard from one of my talid frim Schwarz he told me this is very well known this a very well known that uh every house that the bell of rebba slept in that family completely survived the Holocaust it's documented at the time people didn't know why he was playing musical houses every house that the BBA slept in that house everybody survived the Holocaust these people are not you know anybody that knows from the tyus ofis Bells like I know a lot of his I mean every thought is so profound and so beautiful so on this gar he says he in this gar he says H what does it mean when Hashem said give him an answer so the B said Hashem was telling Misha what to say Hashem said tell them it's All About Cha hem answer them CH the whole T is given that we should do Chua and malim are not capable of doing chuva that's why the Torah has to be sent down to this world a Mal doesn't change and the whole Torah is given to change now this is such a profound lesson you see we're put on this world with certain amount of raw material and raw potential and Hashem says okay now I want to see you make something out of yourself in KES we say on Friday night aim why did he shut that oh shut uh in kidish in Kish welcome bar in Kish it says that hem created to do now the simple meaning of that statement is is that hasem made us that we should be productive we should be productive rer used to say that if he heard that there was shom Bas problems in the family one of the first things he wanted to know is if the husband was out of work not just because it says that if the cookie jar is empty Kad noish when the cookie jar is banging there's mariva in the home because when there's Financial stress in the home uh it's a problem but also because great is work for it brings honor to the one who does it we are people that are meant to be productive that's why as soon as came out of G and that was the first because of the sin on M shabas that was the first time he saw Darkness he never experienced Darkness because in Ganan there was no Darkness that's why it doesn't say in the you ever wonder why doesn't it say the answer is because shabas night there was no ER in ganen he only had light he experienced the light of for 36 hours 12 hours on Friday 24 hours on shabas that's why there's 36 lights to the manora the says if you count 8 76 5 4 3 2 and 1 it's 36 cuz those that are 36 so when he came out he was frightened frightened it was black so hasem showed him how to R rub two stones or two pieces of wood together and create a fire so that's why we make the onas and that's why we only do it on M shabas except for y we don't do it m because the anniversary of the creation of fire was on Mo sh and by the way I always love to say this because it shows how different people have such different things in mind when they make a br we might make a if we think about it we might make a br that we enjoy light but ra used to say that when he made a b he thanked Hashem that he was able to learn in the night he says that when he was a young man he he was running from the G they were trying to kill him but as he ran he wanted to learn so in those days how do you learn in the night so he said he would go into synagogues and he would scrape wack ax off the tables and he would he had one shirt he was running he had one shirt he would every night tear a piece of cotton from his shirt to make a wick he said he walked around he looked like a wild man because his shirt was ripped into pieces and then he would rub and create a spark and he would be able to learn until the wax ran out and he he made the with a hope that he should have fire for the week to learn T the things that we take for granted things that we take for granted so means that Hashem the reason why why did Hashem why didn't Hashem have a fire ready for ad because hasem said you're coming out of Ganan now you have to know your job is lass to produce to create man is at his best women are at their best when they're creating when they're doing so the simple meaning of is that we're we were created to do to accomplish but it's more than that we were created to make something out of ourselves to take the raw materials that Hashem gave us and make out of ourselves more and this is what Hashem said to tell the malim I got to send the Torah down to the world because I can't leave it up here with you you're not changing aik is not a amalik is anade AAL does what hasem look what's the premier example the Moon the son what do we say by right they never change from their role the m is to the millisecond from thousands of years ago it never changes it does exactly what it's supposed to do never different never swerving same thing with the Sun these are hashem's Heavenly hosts they can't do CH the the T doesn't belong up here was given to teach people to improve somebody asked me when I said this recently he says so you mean Hashem is hoping that we fail because our purpose is to do chuva but we have to sin in order to fulfill our purpose he answer is Chua is not sin Chua means to improve to be better you could say that's semantics because if I'm not ding as well as I could be isn't that a sin no ding better is Improvement malim don't say better see this is one of the ways that we transcend the Mal there are many ways that we transcend the Mal although we say we sanctify your name in this world like they sanctify you B in the upper Heavens but it's not the same it's not the same for many reasons first of all it's interesting when when yov was wrestling with the Malik so the Malik said let me go let me go it's morning says rash and I need to say song that Rashi is troubling I tell my children always don't say I have to bench I want a bench so what does the mean when Rashi says with the answer is that's an angel the angel angel has to he doesn't have a choice he doesn't have free will we transcend we choose to we don't have to no way we don't have to we could choose not to come to me we could choose not to them that makes our doing more not only that what do we say right before we say to declare that you are one or as we say in our to say with love whoa we have to choose to love to do it that's but more than that the Malik kadish kades kades is always the same not ours not ours you know there's a mishna it's such an exciting [Music] mishna it's such an exciting Mish the Mish says that he quotes it's he's very practical man but he quotes an ancient mystical saer called the he does this in the Mish in the Mish says listen to the words of the Mish the Mish says that the writes that Malik revealed that AEM says tell my children that when they say in kades kades they should lift up themselves and look up to me I have no pleasure in the world like that moment that their eyes look up to my eye and my eyes look down at their eyes we're locked at that moment I look at Theus yov that's on the I I hug itka I remember their and I admire their that's a Kesh kades kades you know how how I get turned on when I say kades kades kades now you have to know what you're saying in we translate why do we say it three times so we say kades the first one is bishaya you're holy in heaven the second kades is you're holy down here and the third kades is we translate it every day in a person lifts in heaven kades down here kades forever and ever and I'm looking up at Hashem I Clos my eyes I'm looking up atem and hem is looking down at me and my eyes are locked and he hugs and he remembers my that's a kades kades kades now amik can't do that kind of kades kades kades he does a standard kades kades KES all the time never changing never uplifting that's why Hashem said CH tell them I have to send down the Torah I have to send down the Torah to this world so that a person could improve and say you know what I I I got to work this summer I got to work this summer on I'm not going to sit under the on umbrella table by the pool and talk about counsel and talk about this year's teachers I'm not going to do it I'm not going to talk about my neighbors I would it be better can't do that never talks about other Mal that's why he CH you have to tell them it's ch life is all about improving now I I I want to give you a drill it's a drill and it's a drill that I think if you work on it it could be very very revealing let's say I would be privileged to have a meeting with a time machine with a five year younger MOS 5775 I would be allowed to meet with Rabbi Weiss 5770 so of course the initial uh meeting the younger me would look at me and say you're so gray you have such a bulging waistline but then what else would the younger me see would he be proud of me 5 years later would he say oh I see your you're you're staging would he see in me a more learned person a nicer person a more charitable person or is it same old same old that's a big question and I think all of us need to ask from ourselves this question what would be if I met a 5-year-old version of me would the reaction be nice or what a downer what what would we see a bettering of ourselves because that's what all of life is That's Why by the way we don't just say that's in in the second but the first it says now the word is a difficult word it's one of those words that even though kishma has said in any language you're not supposed to say in a different language we don't know how to just like we don't know exactly how to translate it but one of the meanings of isant is to change our children that's why the word mishna the body of oral law is the word m to change and so the letters the soul is the same letters as M to change because life is all about how are we changing we never good Jews are never satisfied with status quo status quo is no good it's easy but it's not why we were put on this world and this safety in changing because as long as Hashem sees that we want to change he says well I I'm going to give you more time there says it says walked with God and he's not here for God took him away so the question is obvious what do you mean God took him away why did God take him away why why did God take him away if he was walking with God says shot to the Zenith and then he St stayed static Hashem said if you're going to stay static then it's better to be taken away because otherwise you're going to fall life is always about becoming better giving more teda d better being a better spouse I have to tell you that there's so much in life thankfully to better ourselves whether it's a in the morning hamap in the night how we greet people are we smiling enough do we have cavana when we say you do we have kavana when we say the with its difficult words there's so much to work on but a person has to have that Focus you know somebody once asked me it's an interesting thing rabam get themselves into all kinds of interesting situations there was a group of about 60 people that gathered together to watch on tele ision the um Super Bowl but they didn't want to be tempted to watch the halftime show so they wanted me to come to the house to say Torah during halftime 60 people so many of these people were and I worked it out that I should be around that they should call me like 2 minutes before halftime and I came and I said it and I want to tell you one of the messages I told them what could you learn from football what you learn from football is you can't play football without having a goal an end zone you need to have goals can't play baseball without home plate you can't play hockey or Soccer without a goal you can't win without a goal in life in order to score you have to have goals you have to have a sense of mission without goals in life without a home plate you can't score our goal is to change and improve so let me give you an example in one what what I think is one of the more important Garis CH the says a person always should pray not to become sick I can't say this enough times person should pray not to become sick here I know a hover who last summer was healthy I haven't talked to him the whole year I find out this year he has a problem with yla and has a failing kidney in the course of one year from complete Health to severe health challenges multiple ones he's a young man a person needs to pray not to become sick all and says it's important to pray beforehand because once a person become sick then the Shem says oh now you have to bring in order to get healthy beforehand a person doesn't have to bring big papers but afterwards oh now person has to come with a lawyer and bring it's much harder and by the way I compare this to there's a differ if my child calls me from Yeshiva to say hello or if he calls me that he needs money I'm much more moved if he's just calling me to say hello he calls me to need money and then he says hi Dad that's not as it's much more if we call AEM before we need something so what it says those that calling truth not in need it's always better to pray before one gets sick says that you should pray in because doesn't mean to get healthy it means to stay healthy like it says all the sickness that I gave I won't give you for I'm your doctor but if we're not going to get sick what do we need a doctor for I'm your preventive doctor so prevent me from getting sick R then I won't get sick that's we the DI for everybody should di for from young to old everybody should D that's why sometimes we have young people get sick so that nobody should say I don't need to D always at any age any age even if a person is a robust in perfect health I knew a man perfectly healthy played ball three times a weak specimen of Health one day he took a blood test a routine blood test he found that he had leukemia just like that two years later he was gone and by the way this is why we get together we get together that we should know these things and we should do them it's a matter of life and death so let me tell you a story tell you a story I made a br already for those that didn't hear it it's always good it says that you should be above suspicion it's always good if somebody sees you after you made a to let them know that you made a br otherwise somebody from a guy doesn't even make a br we have a suspicious bent of mind you know when I buy a at a and I'm eating in one place and then I continue eating in another place you know you go to the sweet breads and then you find a piece of stuffed cabbage so you want to eat it when I do that and people are seeing me for the first time I say a say say so that people will think I'm saying a person has to be above suspicion we learned that you know we we learned that if you're at the corner of a block you should have a manura at two windows so people that coming down one side of the street shouldn't think that you didn't like the man I know Bru Feinstein does this Feinstein has a manura on to like people people are going to think that Ru Feinstein didn't like the Manara right but uh you're supposed to live above suici now R zilin tells a story there was a man that sent him the following letter that a man in sent him a letter that he was having pains in the head Lena and it was growing worse and worse and he told his wife something isn't right something isn't right something isn't right finally went to the doctor they sent him for an MRI and the worst news they found a growth so he said he fell into a he fell fell into a depression and he said he was trained that when you're in trouble pray to Hashem so he prayed to Hashem what should I do and he said shortly after he remembered the gar that whoever says with all ones cavana his decree will be torn up says a even a decree of 70 is so what he did was interesting he didn't rely on his own cavana he went out and he hired 10 to say with a special in his and he paid 10 to do it and he said three months later he went back for a scan and the growth disappeared he sent this letter to R zilin it's printed this letter is printed in the in the no I'm sorry it's printed in the in the B which is a much later safer by r zilin r zilin said the initial letter became worldwide known and a yid in London had a MAA in his feet was a young man who became confined to a wheelchair and he read this and he to hired and what they what happened was is he started slowly getting better and one month he had a terrible reversal so he called the T and each one said they were not really diligent that month 2 months later he was out of the wheelchair this is recorded in the we don't have to wait for problems to say in with all our cavana now first of all you have to know it's not as easy as it sounds first of all the of is going back on the previous statement that and that it should happen which sounds rhetorical speedily and soon but it means the process of should be speedily shouldn't linger and it should happen soon what does it mean to become great and holy that almost sounds like blasphemy God can't become great and holy he's the greatest and the holiest but it means the messia should come that Hashem should be known by more people so thus he will be in a sense greater and Holier So to that we say which means I believe it will happen it's true and and then we say may Your Great Name be blessed not just here but forever and all eternity I believe in forever and all eternity now a person who says that with kavana that's a great opportunity how great how great CU we're talking about improving how great so first of all you know that bous the word stands for or with all your strength like says that's the actual letters of bous is aonic for which means that the whole world was created for this the moment of a woman comes to she can answer and it could tear a decree now people will say but I know decrees that warrant t h it's not uh it's not a guarantee it can help at the same time this person could be uh saying not nice things to their parents and that's life shortening this person could be embarrassing somebody imp public you know there the the the people have always questions well why didn't it help well because there's you know there's uh the scales of Justice are not simple and by the way we can never figure them out I tell people never try to figure out hashem's way of doing things your judgment is very deep very deep we don't understand hashem's judgment evenu who was puzzled and asked why is there a righteous person that has good A righteous person has bad and a wicked person that has good and hasem told him sorry it's beyond you sorry it's out of your ballpark it's above your pay scale mosu can't know it and we shouldn't even try to understand try to understand suffices to say but you want to know how great is another Mish now you heard the mishna whack so eloquently earlier about kades kades Kadesh that Hashem says there's no time like that that our eyes are locked and I look at the I remember M paskin let's say you go into a minion machine like sh machine and one minion is saying one is saying KES and one Min is saying says trumps so as great as is is bigger so here you have an improvement just to work [Applause] I want to talk to you for a moment about a m kazal there a m kazal that says the only good in life is to Shen this is based backed with a goodly merchandise I have given you don't forsake my time okay what does it mean anti the only good is tell you what does that mean what does that mean so we have to understand that everybody here wants the good life want a good life we want to have good times we want to have a good summer is there a way to lift the air condition there you know I think a lot of people are hot if I'm not mistaken I see a glazed look on people uh and and I'm like dripping sweat uh what what does it mean a good marriage now you should know that the good life is a multi- trillion doll business in America America invests a tremendous amount of money into the good life for example just to give you an example there is a computer game called Black Ops that on the first day it was released it sold it net a billion dollar a billion on the first day that's how much money we invest in a good time what a good shabas so many people will tell you a good chabas is if the chant bubbled the whole night on the black and the pcha was prepared correctly what's a good summer ah we got to do everything we wanted comes and kazal tells us a real good is only T now that's it's such a signpost for Life sh thank you goodly Merchant I have given you now by the way gri is exactly 155 which is the exact of Da because Dai is an example of regularity of Torah that's that's what Hashem wants from us K but you have to know and and when when tell us one of the challenges of life and as a r i see people really mess up in this area one of the challenges of life is having the right priorities having the right priorities if a husband is always glued to the computer and never there for his family he's failing even if he's not doing anything wrong with the computer even just doing work a wife who is always busy out of the house with sedus and has never there for her home she's failing because she's not setting her priorities right she's dropping the ball in selecting one's priority in the goal that we talked about the home plate in order to win we have to know that the said and looked at the world hasem saw everything that he did and it's very good so if everything is very good then what does it mean and here hasem says listen to me I'm the manufacturer I made pistachio I made lamp chops I made the Riviera I made the pleasures of a beautiful woman I made all these things and I as the manufacture I'm telling you ain't to you hear that hasem says you want to know to set your priorities that's why it says the serenity of the Mind the Tranquility of the soul the sweetness of the heart is unmatch to Hashem is begging us taste it and you'll see it's good but you got to taste it so the good summer is the summer that we make Torah projects I know people that they make sure before the summer to make Torah projects they're going to learn M this year this summer they're going to work on M they're going to work on they're going to really learn the sum they didn't learn it well in school they're going to really learn it well finally know it getting older they make a project some people say I'm going to buy myself a commentary on the sitter and I'm finally going to learn sitter so that I know what I'm saying ra Miller has a wonderful peish on on daving there's a wonderful saer called you can get it in any Farm Store there's a wonderful saer withas easy to learn and these explained daving so that at least when we DAV I always tell people learn daving if you want to know what to learn one of we have a problem it's called retention it's a big problem somebody comes to a share by me they go out and somebody meets them you went through year yeah oh was very good what do you speak about it uh I'm not good at that but I know it was very good so what did he say good stuff so what did you get out of it I think he said that you should change I think so yeah remember remember he said you meet 5 years younger than yourself yeah what else did he say that was about it we have a retention problem but one area that if we work on WE review every day and that's prayer cuz if we work on prayer we review it every time we di you know I came across one of my daughters sedur from when she was in seventh grade and she had posts posts it on sh EST it was great I told her afterwards I had such a good and the teacher told them that in the of they should have in mind that they were born to a Jewish family so now when you say that your others those are your others you thank hasem that you you could have born been born born into a Arab family could have been born into an Indian Pagan family when you say to BR of course when you say to BR you should have in mind first and foremost M that since AB he's been protecting us so I have a mind when I say m it's easy to have a mind that hasem protected AB when Nimrod threw him into the furnace of fire I know that that's the meaning so I have that in mind automatically I tell you that and you could review that every time you or you could review that you should have a mind in the first bra which is so critical because if you don't have a mind that you really don't fulfill and the reason for that is is because that's the password to get into the palace we come to the door and not everybody is led into the Palace of Hashem to come but the password is is that I'm a descendant of abob oh then the doors swing open if you don't have that in mind you're talking to the wall you never got in that's why if you say it don't have Cavani you really have to say it again we don't say it again because we pasing that you probably won't have kav the second time either that's what that's what it says in and even though it's aama but the hold like this ra even though the only hold like the but the like this raama right you shouldn't say it over because you don't have on the second time either so you make a project in the summer that I'm going to say my daving with more I'm going to learn daving or you make it a project that I'm going to learn this year peras this summer I'm going to learn pis by the way as a commercial you could get my pavis I have 12 CDs on the entire pavis every mission explain with a moral lesson $36 for 12 CDs it's it's a steal but whatever you use whether you use Irving punam's ethics of fathers whether you RAB a wi's excellent purish on pavis whether you has a on P whether you use the art P these are all excellent but remember it's called P because it's the syllabus for parents that's my favorite it's chaps for parents parents are expected to teach their children to be B but how do they know how to teach them MOS is a measure a Measure of a Man how do they know what to stress what to not stress so they learn it says the only time in we would ever uses such a lotion very very humble so your child comes in and says everybody got an Al on you shabas and I didn't get an Al it wasn't fair so you tell your child look it says in that such a thing shouldn't bother I have a tomorrow night is texting me furiously he doesn't know if he has a br to give me he has so many relatives he has so so I sent the back I'm coming don't worry don't worry so what should I tell him what you don't have a for me would that be if it said one okay so I could say yeah but I'm my wise that's why it says very very very very so you make a project but remember I I can't emphasize this enough I can't emphasize this enough remember what it says what what Hashem told the Mal why am I sending down the Torah of Purity to downtown Burbank of planet Earth to why am I sending it to such a morass of decadence and promiscuity where Petty people fight about Petty things and they gossip about Russ why am I sending my T there cuz the whole purpose of being a b Tyra is to change and improve and this should be a mantra for us some people do it every night they go to sleep and they say they go through their day and they think what could I have done better today what mistake did I make with my spouse was I a little bit irritable did I back my spouse enough did I defend my spouse enough how was I with my children did I give them enough time what about my parents how was I wor when I wore my filling how was my SAS today how am I bras you know bras changed the Kusa and the success in a home when we make good bras in the home it's a PK if I I make a good as at home a good bous a good shahak it says every place you mention my name I will come to you and I Will Bless you that's what it says I would like to thank all of you for coming out on a hot sweaty night to learn with us Tyra remember you want to succeed remember you can't play football without an end zone you can't play soccer with and hockey without a goal we need to have goals in life what's going to be your goal for this summer what's going to be your goal in what way do you want to change do you want to improve you going to spend more time with your spouse a big problem time maybe take walks together maybe cook together maybe go antiquing together maybe take a little weekend off and go to bed and breakfast whatever it is am I going to reconnect with this child that I haven't been so great with am I going to reconnect with my gamorra with my sitter with my Fillin with my muza remember that's why hasem sent the Torah down to us the Mal can't change that's why the m at the yam always bothered me when the Jews was crossing over and the 9 million Egyptians were drowning looked puzzled and asked these are doors and these are idolators because they know we sunk to the 49th degree of T but we don't understand that comment because we know that we were changing the answer is a Malik doesn't understand the concept of the change that's not on the Malik's radar a Malik is always the same it doesn't understand it doesn't it it's like a blind person you can't explain colors a deaf person you can't explain the pleasure of a symphony a Malik you can't explain change cuz doesn't change we change but only people of alyah Aliyah means people that improve that rise we have to ask ourselves and we have to at the beginning of the summer we have to set for ourselves defined goals it might be the that I won't raise my voice to some I'm really going to work on that it might be that I'm going to be more complimentary this summer some people they never compliment them yeah yeah yeah what what I have to say it for your child's been good all the time you know you want me to say it okay it was good yeah the sweetness of a compliment less criticism a better davic holding the hand on the miza for a PO pause once a day to think of its message there are so many things in the Merit of bettering ourselves may give us Better Lives happier lives healthier lives and once again we want to thank kazak for supporting the share with all those that chipped in towards it and we should be to the