How much am I worth? Am I really important? - Listen to this one! - Rabbi Alon Anava

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] But the topic we're going to talk about today is what am I worth? Because if a person will know exactly what they're worth, then they will probably behave a little bit different. And the the our sages say in the Mishna that one needs to look at it like as if the world was created for himself. For me, the world was created. And the reality is that each and every one of us is such a unique soul and a unique person. Themar says it's the same way that our bodies are different that our souls are also different. And the amazing thing is that if you look at it, there's not one person in the world that has an identical fingerprint to another person in the world. billions of people in the world and there's not even two people with the same fingerprint. That's how unique each individual is. And since our body is unique, so much more so how much our soul is unique. And unique not only that it's unique in its character traits, rather how special it is to a point that it's like as if there's only me and Hashem. And we see a very beautiful hint every morning that we wake up one of the first that we say in we say now if you're looking at the words we're saying elai my god technically one should say elo something in plural because it's everybody's god but I'm saying it elokai my god meaning there's only me like as if Hashem is my God and there's nothing else but me. And the reality is that Hashem deers and treasures each nishama so much that it's like as if there's only one nishama and it's only me. And if you remember in the story that I shared with you how I saw each individual person in those buildings and I gave you the example with my wife that we were sitting in the date and I told her the story and she realized how Hashem knows each and every nama what they think what they what they go through what they feel. I don't know if you remember that that I told you that she had this question that this doubts that stopped her from becoming observant because she didn't believe that Hashem really knows her because there's so many people in the world she was like how can Hashem know me and the reality is that Hashem not only knows each and every one of us rather it's like as if there's nothing else but me and we see the how important man is because he was created last in the beginning The world was created. Then the the the the sky and the earth was created. Then the light and the darkness and all the animals and the vegetation and trees and everything was created. And once the world was 100% ready, then man was created. Of course, there's a there's a there's a contradiction in the there's an argument. One part is saying that the man is like the the lowest of creation. Therefore, he was created last. But the majority agree that the man is the most important. Therefore, the world was first created perfect. Then man was put in this world. And you see that in the beginning, there was only one man. She didn't create the world with 50 million people. Created the per the world with one person. And in the beginning, there was supposed to be only one person. Only later came his wife. And then they Hashem gave them the commandment to be mult to fruitful and multiply. But in the beginning there was only one man. And the thing is that all this comes to show us something very very special that each and every one of us is so unique and special in the eyes of Hashem that each and every one of us is a mirror and a shadow of Hashem. It says in Sephashe and Hashem wanted to create a man. He says, "I'll make a person in my image." The only thing that Hashem made different between him and us that he gave us the option of sinning. And right away there was a sin. There's a reason why right away there was a sin because if there wouldn't be a sin right away, man would maybe think that he is like a god and he can do whatever he wants. So right away, Hashem put the option that hey, don't don't get so excited. I'm going to give you the option to sin. First of all, that did you know that I'm not like you and you not not like me. That's one of the many reasons why right away there was a sin. Technically, one might say, you know, if Hashem wanted everything to be so perfect, couldn't he make sure that the then the snake wouldn't walk into Ganedin? was a big such a big deal to stop this little spaghetti from coming into Ganedin. There was a point there's many reasons why Hashem brought the option of a sin. But one of many is Hashem wanted to make sure that Adam that Adam knows don't don't fill yourself with so much ego because you know I'm much greater than you. But we still see that Hashem created man separate only one. And Hashem did wanted to tell Adam, you are very special. We're just a little difference between you and me. I'm the creator and you are the the the creature and should always be this separation. But the reality is is that each and every one of us is very unique and very special in their own way. And each and every one of us has a very special place in this world. And each and every action that we do is a very unique action. That's why it says that we're supposed to to to strive to look like our creator because I am Hashem's shadow. And if I'm his shadow and I'm his I'm his creation, then I would want to be as close as possible to my master. Now to more understand how it all started then again we go back to the first man Adam that was created in Ganedin. Okay right away Hashem decided that he's not good for him to be by himself. So he created for him right away a helpmate and from that right away came the sin but to understand how we all unite and how we all connected in the beginning Adamishon was one soul was and he didn't have a body Adam and Eve didn't have bodies Adam they they were souls and not only that they were souls and they didn't have bodies there is such high rebel souls that it says that Adam his feet were in this world but his head was in a total different place in Ganed. Ganed is not necessarily a garden with trees and beautiful birds flying. This is just good for the movies. But the reality is Ganed is a state of mind. It's not necessarily a place. A lot of people think that Ganed is a is a garden and dav is walking around there. The reality is that ganed is a state of mind. This is where the mind the the intellect of Adamishan was. But his feet were in this world. And Adam was so big that the gar says that he was 500 amote high. And he was considered what's called a pillar of light. And when he sinned, he fell down from his level. terminology that Kabal calls it is Nafaliato. He went down in his level and not only did he went down in his spiritual level rather that his spiritual light exploded to billions and billions of pieces. This is what's called in the cababalashim the explosion of the vessels. Why? Because his vessel that was supposed to hold his godly light couldn't hold the light mainly because he were he sinned. He damaged his vessel. So the vessel exploded. Therefore the the the his light of his nishama exploded into millions and millions of pieces. And each and one each and every one of these pieces are a a spark a godly spark. And each and one of these sparks are one of the souls that got exploded all over the universe. Nowishon had a shape of a body. So, we know that all the sparks that came from his head are the souls of the Jews. The 600,000 souls of the Jews. Not each and every one of us. Because each and every one of us is is a branch of a branch of a branch of another branch rooting all the way up to one of the 600,000 sparks, the 600,000 souls. But these 600,000 souls come from the head of and the hint that we see is that we are called Israel. And if you mix the letters around, you would make the word Liro for me is a head. So we know all the 600,000 souls of of of the Jews come from the head of Adamarishon. And the body the souls that came out of the body of Adamishon are all the nations which the hind we see to that and how do how do we call the nations? We call them goim. And a body in Hebrew is called gya. So the souls of the nations come from the body of Adamarishon. But in essence we're all one unit all connected to each other functioning as one entity as one system just because of the sin that went down in his level that the got totally separated and up until today not only that we're working to fix this sin rather we have this separation. So each and every one of us, we look at each other and in most cases we don't like what we see. We don't we don't get along really well. The pieces are not fitting so well. It's very hard to find somebody that you really that you really fit that you you you think the same way or you accept their all all their ideas and and and opinions. But the reality is that each and every one of us is completely completely different. And very rarely we find a fit that fits well. But in essence, we're all one big nishama that got separated into many, many different sparks that obviously each one of these sparks went into a body. And each spark has to sift in its place in this world all these godly sparks that got exploded from the soul of Adam and to put them together. That's why we we see that our entire avod our entire work as a Jew is to constantly sift between things. This is called the secret of the tree of knowledge because this tree of knowledge was built from to to good and bad. That's why we see that our entire Torah is separated into good and bad. I have to sift between the good and the bad, the kosher, the not kosher, the pure, the unpure. This is permitted. This is not permitted. Our entire Torah is constantly I have to to sift things. It's called sifting between good and bad, positive and negative, pure and unpure. And the entire Torah is instructing us don't touch this animal. It's impure. You can touch that animal. It's pure. Now the Torah is not limiting us to make our life annoying. The Torah didn't come with so many rules to to to limit us to make our life hard. Rather, the Torah comes and instructs to us, don't touch this animal because the the godly spark that's in this animal is going to harm you. It's going to harm you in a shama. Therefore, don't touch it. Touch it. I mean, eat it. Talking about uncoosher animals. But these particular animals that the Torah permits us to eat, the Torah tells us this particular animal, the godly spark, not only that it's not going to harm you in a shama, rather you have to elevate the spark that's in that animal. That's why you have to elevate the spark that's in that fruit. Even in fruit, we see that there are situations that we're not allowed to eat from the fruit. Whether it's, you know, the first three years, it's called the first three years that the fruit comes from the tree, we're not allowed to eat it. We've seen many times that you know if the if the fruit is heish if it has to give miser from there's all sorts of rules and we see in many places that even in fruit we're not allowed to eat whatever we want all these rules especially in things that we consume into our body like fruits and vegetables and animals there's a reason why the Torah sometimes permit it and sometimes it doesn't permit it mainly because each thing in this world has a godly spark And I as a human being have to elevate this godly spark. We know that we are we are broken into four levels. The lowest level is inanimate. Then comes vegetation. then animal then a human being which is and the thing is that we as human beings the we have the the ability and the obligation to elevate all three levels. So you would take an ananimate. You would take for example water is considered ananimate and you water the ground. From that will come a tree or grass and a cow will eat the grass and then when I come and eat the cow then I elevate the animal the the vegetation and the animate at the same time. And when I say when I say a blessing then I release that spark and I elevate the godly spark into its source. And by me consuming it then I also have energy to to serve God etc etc. That's why we see that in everything that we consume there's a first braha that's when I release the spark and there's last braha this is to sift the the dirt in my body. So the thing is that we have the obligation and the power of first of all elevating every part in creation and that's part of what we do and that's why the Torah comes and tells us in a very clear way what we're allowed to do and what we're allow not allowed to do. The Torah is giving us guidance. This is what you're allowed to to to to elevate and this is what you can't elevate. And there's times that you can elevate this or cannot elevate this. You can take a kosher animal and if it's not slaughtered the right way then then you can't elevate it. This this is not kosher. There's a there's a a spiritual reason behind it that the godly spark that is was trapped in this animal cannot be ele elevated for whatever reason. The thing is that God gave us a certain power that we have to to sift through the entire darkness of this world and by us sifting and elevating these sparks we are doing the main part of creation. Now more than that with that God gave us a whole list of commandments what to do and what not to do and each and every one of us our personal aoda is so unique in its way that no other person can do it. Even though I have the same to do like other people but when I put fill in it's not like when another Jew puts fill in. Thousands and thousands of men put fill in every morning. When I put fill in the effect that it that it does when I do it, it's not identical to any other person because I have my own unique thought and my own unique kavana my the intention and my own unique excitement or my own unique yet to stop me from doing the mitzvah. Each mitzvah even though it might be identical for many different people it's completely completely different. So each and every mitzvah that you do is 100% unique, exactly like your fingerprint, exactly like your face. There's no other person in the world that looks exactly like another person. So the same way that your soul and your body is different, even your mitzvah is different. Meaning that even when you pray, there's no such a prayer in the world in the history. And even in your own personal life, you pray thousands of times. There's not one pair that is equal to the other. Meaning that every second and every action that you do is completely unique. Completely completely unique. If you're looking at it more in a in a tech a technology way, it has a complete unique code. We see that in this world, you can clone things. In the tech in the technical world, you can clone things. You can copy paste. But in our actions you can't copy paste because each action is completely completely unique. And not only that that each and every thought and every speech that comes out of my mouth is never going to be identical to how it was before. And the reason for all that is mainly to to understand that how unique is my connection to my creator is how unique my connection is to each and everyone of my fellow Jews. The point to understand from this is very very simple because a lot of people say okay you know what I'm you know I I I'm one out of many. Does my prayer doesn't does it really matter? Does my mitzvah really care? Does it do that? Does it matter? Okay. Is there any other people doing mitzvah? So in my own world, that's a whole different thing. Yes. If you're looking at in a very uh personal level, then one might say, okay, you know, it's me and Hashem. If I pray today, I don't pray today, it's between me and God. If I give today charity, if whatever I do today, when it's between me and Hashem, then then it's just between us. But today we're talking about in a level that between me and other people. You know that one of the most basic things that the foundations of our entire Torah, you should love your your your fellow Jew exactly like you love yourself. And we see in many different places how our Torah is very particular that we're not by ourselves in this world. Even though we are as unique as we are, but we are always serving as a group. You see it in many different places that one is important in and his uniqueness. But you see that together that's a completely different thing. And the Torah comes and explains to us in many different ways how important is my uniqueness and my individuality individuality but only when it's connected to a complete to a group of people. The point to understand from that is that when I'm looking at it on a very personal level and we all struggle with our yet okay does Hashem really need my prayer today okay you know what does Hashem really care if I say right now you know I said yesterday what's the big deal I dab every day I pray every day today is another one is is it really what Hashem really cares the reality is yes is because your prayer is so unique that every day it's a completely different prayer and every day Hashem is sitting and waiting just to hear your particular prayer because if you take the entire prayer from beginning to end it's never the same. Sometimes you're concentrating in the beginning and you're not concentrating on the end. Sometimes you're completely confused at the at the end. In the beginning you're a little bit more focused on what's going on. Sometimes 90% of your prayer is like your mind wanders somewhere and 10% you maybe you're concentrating every day it's a completely unique prayer. The reality is that no human being besides a sadic has a a good prayer. A lot of people say you know my prayers I know I'm thinking of a million things I don't really concentrate on what I'm saying. Even the reality is that all all the human beings are like that and Hashem knows it to to to such an extent that Hashem says I don't need every day a perfect prayer. Give me once a year a good prayer. So Hashem takes all our prayers for the entire year and he connects them all together and all he says just give me from one day one one word that is 100% with all your your your intention with your kavana and with the right thought I already saw all the prayers together. All the prayers go up together in Shana. But the reality is that each and each different prayer I'm giving just an example with a prayer. It's everything. It's not only a prayer. It's every little mitzvah that you do. Every time you light candles, every Shabbat is a completely different mitzvah. Every Shabbat you have a different intention. One Shabbat you're more excited. One Shabbat you're a little bit less excited. One Shabbat somebody annoyed you. You're lighting the candles with no with no with no patience. another Shabbat, you're relaxed, everything's fine, you're lighting it, you know, happy. Every mitzvah is done in a completely different way, different mood, different action, different energy. The thing is that each and every act that you do has its uniqueness and every thought that you have is unique and every action that you do is unique to a point that one time that you miss a certain act you make a very big difference in the in the universe and the reason I'm telling you that because a lot of people say what is my act really worth what am I worth like if I'm not going to pray today does the world really going to suffer from that does really care if I pray today or not? Yeah, the answer is clear. Yeah. Even if it's like you're not doing it with the right intentions and you're not concentrating or even if you're not doing it with the right concentration. Even if you're doing it because you totally don't want to do it 50% of the time the mitzvot that we do it, we don't do it because we really want to do it. We do it because somebody's looking at me. We're doing it because I'm in a group. I'm I'm in a group of people. I'm doing it for many other reasons. I'm doing it because I feel pressure to do it. Half the time that we do the mitzvah, we don't do it because we really want to. This is the reality. So even if you do something without the right intention, you still did it. It's almost like, you know, you you go to to work, you don't feel like going to work today. You really don't feel it. You feel like staying in bed. You feel like hanging around the house today. You don't feel like going, but you have to go. You have an obligation. This is called an obligation. your boss is is counting on you. It's a respons responsibility. A person is mature. He has responsibility. He can't just say to the boss, okay, you know, today I don't feel like coming. That's a very immature way to to behave that a person, you know, some people that they act like that. They call the boss and they tell him I can come today. They make up some story. But a person that he acts in a very mature way, in a responsible way, he takes responsibility and he goes, he still goes. Is he happy to go that day? No. Is he functioning 100%? probably not. So, if it's a person that works on sales, that's that's his job. He's not going to do any sales that day. Maybe if he's lucky, but if he's in production, he's not going to be so productive that day. And some jobs are very mundane, just answering uh the phone or doing a very uh uh mundane thing. But the reality is that half the times when you function even in the world, you don't do it cuz you want to or cuz you feel like it. every day you function in a completely different level. The reality is that even when you do it without the without the desire to do it, you still did it and your act still counts. And you have to look at it that every act that you do, even though it's looked in a very under a magnifying glass, but it's one dot out of many dots that connecting it all together. A prayer, for example, it's like bu building a a wall. You can't take one prayer. You take a 100 pair, 300 pairs, you build a wall with it. That's why a lot of people say your prayers are not like then then that's something you have to work on. But the reality is it's even if you have 99 that are bad, but one came out good, the 99 are like the steps. Because you know, if you look at a ladder, a ladder can only be perfect if it has steps. You can't have a ladder that has one step. So you want to reach to the top the ladder has to have many many steps. This is this is anything prayer mitzvot anything that you do in this world must go in steps. So could be that the first 99 are not good but every step gets you one step higher and one step higher and the hundth step that's the one that you actually achieve. This is could be somebody's entire life 20 years 30 years they will do something in a very systematic way and seemingly will be very dull or with no excitement or with no meaning or very bad but it's another step and another step and another step and you don't know how many steps you have to go that's why I'm saying that every act that you do is unique because even though we're talking about we're giving an example about praying it can be in anything but saying in the example of praying. You know how many times people say you know I prayed and I prayed something you know somebody was sick or we needed parasa or or or something. We prayed so many times nothing happened. How do you know how many prayers you need to do? Maybe you need to do 200 pairs. You know we know when masher wanted to go into Israel he prayed 515 times. 515 times. the greatest prophet in history had to pray 550 times to to to get something. So sometimes I pray three times and I don't get it and I get all you know upset at Hashem. Sometimes we have to do a very large quantity. We don't know. That's why a lot of times you see people and they say you know somebody was sick in the family and everybody was praying. See nothing helped. Maybe you didn't do the the quot of the prayers. So since we're talking about the example of prayers, you can never have a perfect prayer. It's almost impossible to have a real perfect prayer. Only if you're in the right state of mind and everything is perfect and you might squeeze in like a real good prayer today. But the reality is that that that we don't what you're praying for is like good for you. Like you could pray and pray and pray and like sometimes sometimes you're supposed to just say, "Okay, I prayed and didn't give it to me. So, I don't know. When are you supposed to know when for your best or Okay, so that's totally off the subject. But the thing is that you you want to always prayer with a kavana saying to Hashem, give me what's good for me. So, a lot of people pray for something that they want, but it's not necessarily good for them or it's not necessarily what Hashem thinks is good for them. The point the right way to pray is to pray to Hashem and tell him I give me what's good for me and what you what you think is good for me. That's the problem with most people is that they pray for the wrong thing. The right way is to ask what what what you deserve and what's good for you. But we're talking now about the fact that most people pray and they feel that their prayer is is not that great. And you know we can give another example not not only with praying even when you say a ba you say a blessing when you eat something you know most people the way they say the ba is they don't really think of what they're saying comes up like an autopilot the reality is that is it considered a blessing or not. So the point is that even the the the things that are negative are also have weight and they also part of the steps in the ladder that one needs to climb on. The will always come and tell you you know oh your prayers are worthless your blessings are worthless your mitzvah is worthless because you're not doing it with with the right intention and you're not doing it with excitement and you're not that's what we're taught. Do you think that's what we're taught in school they say oh if you don't so it's not worth anything like so that's not a good attitude of course yeah look if you're looking at in a very general way yeah when you pray with not the right kavala you didn't hit the target but should you not pray now because you didn't hit the target no the right the approach is to say okay today you didn't do it but the fact that you even have the knowledge to acknowledge the fact that you didn't do it so good. So at least you sound okay good. Tomorrow I'll do better. Yes, of course we can kid ourselves if you didn't say the right blessing. You didn't have the right intention. It's it is missing a lot. But the point is in anything in this world in order to get perfect. You have to practice. Sometimes you have to practice you know a thousand times to do one time good. So yes, if you're looking at it from one angle, some things that we do, if we don't do it right, it's like as if we didn't do it. But if you're looking at it in a different completely different angle, you're saying, "Okay, a 100 times I'm not going to do it right." But a 100 times there are these hund steps in my ladder and the 101 time I'll get it right. That's why the one time each individual time is it has its uniqueness and that's how important is each and each individual action because the reality is and it's not only prayers it's in anything you you can use your own imagination to to figure out in any little thing but in any little thing that you do especially when it comes to serving God you never hit it right on the spot on the first time there's no such a thing so yes there's a there's one way of of teaching that yeah if you didn't do it right then you it's not worth anything I don't I think it's the right approach yeah one needs to know what is his is action is worth but on the other on the other side a person needs to also value that even the times that I didn't do it so good you know so it's it's a it's a preparation for the next time to learn to do it better and if I'm going to look constantly at my action as negative I'm not going to get anywhere If a person is constantly going to look at himself in a negative way and saying my prayers are worthless. I'm not doing it right. So might as well not prayer. This is you know how the yet comes in between the lines and trying to tell you listen you're a loser. So drop it. Don't do it. But it's the wrong attitude. The right attitude is exactly what I'm talking about. that each thought that you have, each action, each mitzvah, each prayer, each blessing you're saying, even if you harden yourself and you're saying it's not good, tomorrow will be better and the next day will be better because, you know, I'm practicing it. So, it might take me 500 times to do a certain action, but the 501 will be the one that hits it. And could very much be that you know a person in his entire life will work on a certain thing and you know technically or theoretically a day before he dies he actually is achieving it. That's why our entire life is a journey. Our entire life is like climbing a ladder. That's why we see in the famous dream that Jacob had with the with the ladder. Okay. So most of the commentaries explains that it's referring to prayer that a prayer is like a ladder you know standing on the ground and then it goes all the way to to the heavens. This is the concept of prayer that you go one step after the other. But you can also explain it that my entire life I'm right now I'm down on this ground and shima my head goes all the way up to the heavens. This is my life. My life is climbing a ladder and every step of my way is one step and I'm getting one step closer to a higher level. So you can be born perfect, you have to work yourself up. And that's not only in Abuat, it's not only in serving God. It's in anything in life. You want to do, you want to have a profession, you want to be anything. Doesn't matter what you want to be. You know, my son, a seven-year-old, he wants to be a chef. He cuts all the time the vegetables and he does all his experiments and I constantly tell him you know you know you have to practice. You want to be a good chef. No problem. You got to learn. You got you got experience. You know how many times you have to bake the same cake till it becomes perfect. You might have to bake it 100 times till you get the perfect cake till you get exactly the minute you have to pull it out from the oven. So that can be in anything in life, in any profession, in any trade that you do, but so much more so in Abuat, so much more so when you're serving God. And the truth is that most people and most approach of people is to say you didn't do it good, you're worthless, give up. That's exactly what the wants to come to come to to to you know in Hebrew say to to to to make you feel worthless. That's why the right attitude is said okay look I'm not I'm not perfect right now but I'll work on myself. But the reality is this is exactly what I'm talking about that even the ones that seems to you like they're not good in the eyes of Hashem they are unique. that not only they are unique, they are important to a point that if you don't do it one time, this is the same exact example with the employee not showing up that day, the boss is relying on that worker. Even if the worker didn't really put his 100% effort that day, the boss is relying for that worker to come that day. Same thing with Hashem. Even if you wake up in the morning, you're heavy, you're depressed, you're sad, you don't feel like getting out of bed, you don't feel like doing anything, Hashem is waiting for you. He's relying on your your blessings. He's relying on your on your prayers. He is relying on everything that you do because the reality is it's Hashem how Hashem sees it. It's just me and you, not everybody. Yes. The Torah teaches us that we have to look at ourself as a nation, as a group, as as as that we one have to help each other. Yeah, that's a very important thing. But this is not the topic for for today's class. Today's topic is how unique I am because if I will value myself much more then my performance will be 10 times better and the reality is that not only in the eyes of Hashem I'm unique and I'm special even than a shama in itself is unique and it's special. So my every action that I do is unique and special. So one needs to first of all value himself in to put himself in a very high level that hey wait a minute I'm I'm very important here to the point that a lot of people think you know I'm like what am I in this entire system it's okay I'm another another person you know Rambam says that one mitzvah of one person can tilt the entire world to kaf to to a favorable side meaning that I might be the one that my mitzvah that's going to be the one that brings Mashiach. Can you imagine how important I am? Can you imagine how important my mitzvah today? I don't know. Maybe it's me, maybe it's you, maybe it's you. Maybe it's each and every one of us. That's how important each and every act that we do in aal in a general. Yeah, we working as a as a as a group. Yes. Each and every one of us contributes greatly to the group. Somebody emailed me a few days ago a video of a a bus that turn over on a ban and you see hundreds of people coming and they picking up the bus to take the person out. Unbelievable. But was what was more unbelievable that in the beginning there was maybe I don't know 50 60 70 people. They can't move the bus. Then you see one guy come from the side and he was the last one and they were able to lift it up. So one might say, okay, one person, we're 70 people here. Yeah, sometimes it's that that one person that makes the big difference. And that's not only in the physical world, it's in the spiritual world. The point is that if you're looking at it in a in in a group, then my contribution to the group is is huge to a point that if I'm missing, you know, look in in in in men, you know, 10 men is a minion. One guy is missing, that's it. They can't pray. They can pray, but they're not a minion. They can't say kadesh. They can't read the Torah. They can't do anything. One guy, one guy, he can be sleeping in the corner. Not only that, we see that when the Torah was given to us, all the Jew, everybody had to be there. If one person had to go to the bathroom, stop the show, we can't wait. We have to wait for to come back from the bathroom. One person, we couldn't get to Torah. So the point is that if you're looking at it in a very general way, yeah, we are we're very important piece of the system that my mitzvot are so powerful that the entire nation can't be without me. Now if a person meditates on that fact, wait a minute, I'm a I'm a very important person here, everybody's depending on me, then my entire attitude will be different. If a person looks at himself as okay, you know, I'm one out of a million, then he's going to look at himself in a very low way and you know, his low his whole self-esteem will go down. A lot of people have a problem with self-esteem. Why? Because they don't think that they're worth anything. Either their parents made them feel like that or their teachers or whatever, but the reality is that each and everyone is is as a diamond. But when you're looking at in a very personal way, when it's just me and God and me and myself, even for me and and God, it's like as if there's only me and Hashem. And every act that I do, Hashem is waiting. Hashem is just waiting for me to to do the act that I'm supposed to do. You know, sometimes it says that a person can come to this world for 60, 70, 80 years to do one thing in his entire life, and that's what he was created for. And you know the says that sometimes something is created from the first day of creation from for one person 5,700 years later to come and to pick it up or to say or to say something and he's the one that thing was waiting for him for 7 for 5,700 years. So the point is that you have to take into consideration how unique and special your soul is which right by default makes your body special. You can see by the physical part of the body that is special that it's different. It's completely different and unique. But the point is that in your own personal and private world every act that you do is different and unique and special and it's depending the next action that will be the exact same is depending on the action that you did right before whether it was talked about praying it can be about anything that you do especially in serving God in a hashem my entire actions I can fail 99 times for the hundth time to succeed and that's going to be the time that's when I I actually do the mitzvah that I'm supposed to do. A person can lie 99 times. Every time he's trying, he can't he can't he can't control himself. One time he was able to close his mouth to overcome his and not to lie. That's it. That's that's where the first 99 were steps to grow up. And it can be in every little thing. But the thing that one needs to learn from that that if I see myself as such a a important and vital part of the system then by default it has to make me understand how responsible I have to be. Not only how responsible I have to be is is how important my part is. The same way that you're not going to call to your boss and tell him I'm not coming today. Shem is waiting for you. Hashem is waiting for every act that you do. And when you don't show up, then Hashem is disappointed. Hey, why didn't you show up? I was waiting. I don't care if you did it good or not good. If you're you're in the mood and you're not the mood, it's part of the system. And the thing is that in your life, you know, we know that our body, our our soul is built from five levels. The highest level, we talked about it, I think in one of the classes. The highest level is called comes from the word in Hebrew, a connection. The next level is called and is what's called the aura. This is the the the the or the surrounding light that doesn't come into the body. But the is built from thousands and thousands of pieces. And the amount of pieces that the tilm has, this is the amount of years that we are alive. That's why a person it's already predestined when he's going to die because according to how many pieces he has to fix, this is how many days he gets in his life. And this is how many pieces that sell this piece of the the soul that is called that he has. So if a person lives for 20,000 days, that's how many pieces he has to refine in his and every day that he refineses one piece, one piece leaves the body. This godly spark leaves the body. That's why the zor says that 30 days before the person dies, that's it. Is left only 30 pieces. Every day a piece of the leaves the body to a point that seconds before the person dies, the soul leaves the body. and the shama and mamash as the person dies the leaves the body and then only the nef stays in the body till the body gets buried but through our entire life the the level of what's called every day when I correct when I do my tikun a piece gets removed out of the body and it goes to its source that's why you know a lot of people worried and they say if I did a lot of mitzvot and then one day I came and I did one sin what all my mitzvot went to the garbage. No, because all the mitzvah that you did that you had to correct that certain day, that's it. They went up. That's it. They're safe. Now you there were another day, another if one day you failed and you didn't do your tikun that day, then the next day you have opportunity to do cha and the next day maybe you'll do two or maybe the next day you'll do three. The point is that every day of our life we have a a tikun to do something that we have to correct and when we do it that day that piece of the leaves that leaves goes up to its source. Not everyone that dies. Excuse me. Not everyone that dies. No. But yeah, of course. Because a person can live his entire life and not do one mitzvah even and waste his entire life. Of course. Unfortunately, a lot of people leave this world and they don't finish the tiku. That's why we come back here in so many reincarnations. You don't want to come back here. Why should I want to come back? I want to finish it this time. Get it over with. Why do I need to come here? Like a, you know, like a carousel. I don't want to do that. Now it's completely different. We're in the last generation. There's no more gilim. There's not going to be coming back anymore. But the reality is that probably most of us are reincarnated because we didn't finish our audastes time. This is the exact thing that one needs to focus on and wait a minute. Why? Why? Why? I'm here already. Let me finish the job and get it done. The point is that the attitude of a lot of people is exactly how you said that if I didn't do it right then I'm worthless or my prayer is worthless or my my mitzvah is worthless. The point is that I'm climbing these levels and could very much be that 20 years I'm working on one area in my vodatem and it will take me 20 years to master it and in the 20 years that's it. one time I'll get it right and I did my tikun and I finished that part of my the reason why I came down here can be so many things it's not only to do the mitzvot the mitzvot and the Torah that I learn is air and food to my nish that's what it is mainly what I came down to do here is to fix my to correct my midot my attributes so if someone doesn't keep you can't do that you why you can't do one without the other. It's almost like saying I'm going to, you know, I'm only going to drink water. I'm not going to eat. Or, you know, today I'm not breathing. Today I'm going on a breathing strike. Can't do that. People, excuse me. There are a lot of people that are like they still work on themselves to become better people, but but they're so they're lacking a very piece a very big piece of their aoda. You have to do the mitzvot. That's also part of why we came down here. But if you're looking at it in a very general way, the mitzvot and the Torah are the food and the air for the soul. The main that a person comes down here the main not the only of course you have to do mitzvot because talking about the reincarnations a lot of us can come back here in a reincarnation because we didn't complete all 613 mitzvot explains that we have to do 630 mitzvot in thought speech and action and if I didn't finish it I'll come back in our incarnation. and I didn't finish it. I'll come back again and again again till I finish it. So we all have to first of all complete the the amount of mitzvah that we have to do. Besides that the main aod that I have to do is to refine my which this is what's called a midot and you can't have one without the other because even if you a person really wants to work on his midot the Torah and the mitzvas are the tools that allow him to actually do it. And if a person only is working on his midot first of all I don't know I know very few people and and probably even barely that are not observant and they have the understanding that they have to refine their attributes. So maybe they'll work on things like you know lying and stealing and things like that but to have the the the knowledge a secular person to work on things like you know patience and and jealousy and anger and animosity all these things. I don't know a lot of people that are secular that what's standing in the most of their on their agenda is oh I have to work on my midot. That's not usually the the maybe they are I don't know all the people in the world but even if they are doing it very good so they have 30% of their avoda in this world but they're still missing the Torah and the mitzvot that they have to do the point is to take from this sh is very simple is that each and every one of us is extremely extremely valuable and you know there's a famous story that you know the lobbe used to give dollars every Sunday. He was in his 90s. He would stand there for hours. A 90 year old man standing there for hours and giving dollar after dollar after dollar. One time a woman came to him and she told him, "I don't know how you do it. I'm in my 70s. I don't know how you stand here all day long and you're not tired. Don't you want a chair or something? How can you not get tired?" So he told her when you count diamonds you don't get tired for him. He saw how each individual lubacher not lubacher secular fume he didn't care look at the videos of the dollars when people were passing half the people were not even religious half of them were not even Jews you know how many non-Jews came through the line just to see the phenomenal you know they wanted to see he didn't care for him every person was a diamond and that's exactly how Hashem looks at each and every one of us like a diamond he's not saying okay that's good that girl is more important than that girl. That prayer is more important than that prayer. It's like as if that's what you know that's exactly what it says in the Mishna. A person needs to wake up in the morning and says my God. There's nobody else. It's my God. It's only me. The world was created for me. That's why that's why you start in you don't say it anywhere else. when you say I'm already naming everybody here. This is the only time I say in the morning just me and you. Today I acknowledge that the world was created for me. It's only me here. My actions are so powerful and so worth worthwhile in Hashem's eyes. How can I disappoint my my my father in heaven? How can I not show up today? He's waiting for me. It's me. He doesn't care about right now everybody else. It's just me and him. The point is to to to to wake up in the morning and say, "Wait a minute. The world was created for me. For me to say now, for me to learn Torah now. For me to do this mitzvah. Yeah, there's maybe another 5,000 people doing the exact same mitzvah like me today. But mine is different than everybody else's. Doesn't matter if it's good or bad right now. That's not the point. It doesn't matter how much intention went into my prayer. It doesn't matter right now how much love or or or or excitement. Yeah. You're looking it from this way. Don't take my words and distort them. Yeah, it is important. Don't go now and say, "Okay, Allah said I can do whatever I want as long as I do it." That's not the attitude. Yes, every little thing is important. But on the other hand, you have to value even that the times that are not good, how powerful they are. and the time that I failed. That's also important. The fact that I just came and did it, that I didn't let my tell me you're worthless. You're nothing. Now, this is between me and Hashem, but so much more so when it's between me and many other people have a very powerful responsibility. I need to understand that wait a minute, the entire nation, the entire world is waiting for my mitzvah. Exactly like Rambam says he decrees. He says one Jew just one mitzvah the whole entire world is completely judged to meaning that I wake up an hour in the morning if I don't do mitzvah that I'm supposed to do the entire world suffers from that. That's the reality. The reality is is that one Jew we don't know who he is or who she is can do one mitzvah. That's it. Mashia is here. Might be one of you. So the point is that in the personal level between me and Hashem, this is a personal relationship. Hashem is waiting for every little thing that I do. Doesn't matter right now if I succeeded or failed. It's to it's totally irre irrelevant for now. It's the fact that I actually did it and I still showed up and did it and tomorrow I'll do it better. No problem. I failed. Nothing happened. Not for nothing says. So you do it tomorrow. You didn't. So you failed today. Okay. Tomorrow you'll do it. You failed tomorrow, no problem. Try your hardest. The next day you'll did it. In order to succeed once, you have to fail 100 times. But more than that, if I'm looking at a very general scope, everybody's dependent on me. I'm a I'm a maybe one little screw in the system, but I'm I'm I'm very well needed here. And if I don't do it, everybody's suffering from that. And if you have this attitude, the the the attitude will will by default bring you to be wait a minute I have to be responsible here. I have to take responsibility. I'm I'm I'm a very important part here. And it's not only responsibility, it's being, you know, taking responsibility for something that's that's nobody else can do. And even though even if it's a group and even if it's not something spiritual like praying or whatever even if it's in a group for whatever my effort contributes to the entire group. So either way you're looking at it one needs to to value himself that he or she is worth a lot spiritually, physically, mentally, doesn't matter what it is. There's always going to be one person in the world that if they if if they leave somebody will suffer from that. You know how many people Hashem decides to leave them in this world cuz many other people are depending on that person. Person can be a completely wicked person do the most horrible things. He has kids that depend on him from the heavenly court. They'll they'll say okay no decree right now cuz many others are dependent on him. So the point to take from this sh is to understand how special and unique you are. How unique you are in the eyes of Hashem. How special your inama and actions are in your own personal aoda is is to know that every step of your way is this ladder that you're climbing. And even some of the steps are not 100% perfect then it's climbing to to get to the level of being perfect. And you have to have all the levels before You can't build a building from the 20th floor. It has to be built from the ground and slowly slowly go up and you can only become perfect once you climb the levels. And in in a general way if you want to look at it then the entire needs every little mitzvah that I do. That's how valuable I am. Maybe next year we're going to talk about, you know, different sources where we see that how Mashiach is so close to us. Next year, no, next year we'll do it next year. I don't think we're going to have the we're going to already see that Mashiach is here. But maybe we'll do next different sources how we see how the Mashiah is right around the corner and how each and every action that we do is so important. But the point is that if we really want to bring the gula, the redemption much much faster, we have to take into consideration that every action that I do is actually so powerful that my little action can actually do such a big change that will hasten and bring the gula much faster. So we should that next week we're not even have to sit here and talk about the proof where the gula is coming. We're just going to have it. And if we're not going to have the gulab by Wednesday, then we'll share some uh sources in our beautiful Torah. How we see Msiah is around the corner. Any questions?