Living With Emunah (Part 141): Sometimes You Have to Cover Your Eyes to See Hashem

good morning Boker Tov to all thank you so much for being with us and continuing our study of Emunah and our growth in emunah together so honored to have this group and to be together and to be working in this together I want to thank our generous sponsors for this year dr. Zambian Bella Morgan we sponsor our I'm gonna share for this year in memory of our dear and beloved friend rabbi dr. Brian Abbott barks he's been Rubin nothing is eternal of ruffles and Shama should have an Aliyah I mentioned last week I mentioned again that Brian's life was filled with him Hoonah not just in the good and joyous and happy and successful and triumphant times but he remains our incredible role model worthy of our emulation because of the outstanding extraordinary extraordinary Mona had in the challenging and difficult times to the very end of his life through tremendous suffering he nevertheless never stopped saying Hashem is amazing everything is great everything is amazing and he gives us that power he reminds us that we have that capability to the emotive class this morning particularly guys is also sponsored by dr. Gordon and a half's in commemoration of the outside of her beloved father Hyman Waichman - our own Pentecostal avi whose neshama should have an Aliya we have been studying and living with Amana we have been working on a Mona and as I mentioned last week those who've been part of this class those have been working on this together for a hundred and forty weeks or so we've been working so that we're ready for this moment this challenging crisis time in which so many of us are our faith our Emunah is a little bit shaken is a little bit challenged we're looking to find that sham where is he and why is he doing what he's doing how do we persevere and how do we endure and where can we find the resiliency to get through this moment whether our challenges are the best of challenges like having to make pace off being the worst thing happening to us or hospice oh and God forbid they are much more horrific challenges we're starting to get to a point where there's almost no one who doesn't have a family member a friend an acquaintance someone they know in their circle who has not been negatively affected or struck by this horrific pandemic and by this by this pernicious virus and so where do we find that I'm gonna where do we find that strength we don't wait for that moment if we're trying to we have a crisis and we have no income and we need money if our bank account is empty we're in trouble Oh saving hopefully you've been putting aside for that rainy day hopefully we have that emergency account and the same is true with our sense of Emunah in these moments hopefully we have been saving hopefully we'll be making deposits hopefully we have enough that we can take from that will sustain us during this difficult time you know learning this piece by repeating our Schwartz the author of the bill Bobby Michigan Edna where he says does become enough I know your be tough home and he taught us that the source of be tougher where does it come from trust in God trust in God is not this blind faith well I hope everything's gonna be okay I wanted to be okay I wish it to be okay so I'm gonna assume it's okay God's gonna keep I trust God God's gonna keep everyone around me healthy and I trust God he's gonna continue to make my partner flow I trust God he's gonna make everything happen exactly the way I want that's not be tough on its foolishness it's naivete that does not be tough on that's a wish list what is Batak Oh genuine be tough on the trust is not that I believe God will do it the way I want that's worshiping one itself not God that's asking God to conform to the reality the way you want it the way you see it that sees yourself in charge not him the whole notion of be tough own is to concede to submit to forfeit to recognize he is the source of all he runs the world he controls the world and things will happen the way he sees fit the way he choreographs the way he writes it up the way he thinks is best for all of us are accepting that and receiving that are willing to Steve and embrace that and recognize that that is the core of be tough on so how do we do that how do you do that when we're living in a time in the world where it's so difficult to reconcile our reality with our trust and belief in him how do you reconcile a good kind compassion to just God with terrible things happening to people yesterday alone two of our members began sitting Shiva for losing a sibling two of our older members lost the sibling and in each case their sibling one week ago was healthy healthy and struck by a virus that in one week ended their life I would have nowhere how do we reconcile how do we make sense of such a God and I don't have an answer to that question the ultimate loss the the tragedy is one that none of us have answers to and anyone who claims they can explain why you're a dancer's - is themselves playing God that is an excel expression of heresy but we do understand it says there Schwartz there are two realities we're living in simultaneously when he calls the external superficial and when he calls the internal authentic the external reality is defined in our world as a place of tension and conflict the external reality from the moment I wake up don't be lazy don't stay in bed don't eat the wrong thing don't say the wrong thing don't look at the wrong thing go to the wrong place don't act the wrong way don't feel the wrong feeling from the moment I wake up my life I'm confronting tension I'm dying to do the right thing be the right person be my best self that's the external sense of self I'm battling to make my partner nuts on these difficult times I'm battling to abide by the precautions and the rules I'm battling to avoid getting the illness myself I'm battling to come up with the right policies everyone's battling from the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep the external sense of self is engaged in a never ending conflict and that's the reality of the world that's where we break through that's life itself but says there Schwartz there's an internal reality and in that internal reality in that place of godliness within me in the place of be taught of truth trust Basha then everything in the world comes together in perfect harmony there's no conflict and there's no tension there are no battles and there is no friction it's all harmony it's all the will of the almighty it's all the will of Hashem and the word be tough when he says comes the word but better that route that the Shimon and lady entered the city betta when they had stacked the odds in their favor when they knew the outcome even before it happened when they knew it would fall in a way which was good for them that was better they had confident they had surety they had absolute knowledge would it mean so it would be tough on us to go into life and say I know that God has my back so whatever happens it's in my favorite into it's meant to be it's what's right for me I go into every situation and I do my whole and I try my hardest I take all the initiative I need to but once I've done that I lean back and I let go and I let God and I say my internal sense of self has peace of tranquillity because there is a harmony to the universe and there's a harmony to my life I'm not going to worry I'm not going to fear I'm not going to be filled with eggs particularly about the things I can't control because worry anxiety and fear never made anything better never make problems go away only worse make us sick and lowered our immune system and compromised and forfeited whatever happiness and peace we have left so therefore the core of the room the goal of a life of the tough home says Herr Schwarz says the Malathi is not just saying I'm happy to I'd be tough on everything's gonna be okay I'd be tough on my pronounce welcome I'd be tough on everyone will be healthy I'd be tough on this is going to go away I'd be tough on the tough ones not a wish list be tough on is a mindset it's a perspective it's a filter it's a pair of glasses that we wear in which we look at our world and we say rather than see a world filled with conflict and tension and battling and challenge I live in and I see a world that's filled with harmony and peace and godliness that's dictated and organized orchestrated and choreographed by the one above who knows better than not only anyone else but everyone else combined so let's continue with this piece sorry oven shall he dumped it be tough on in a southern South Dakota office partition the Crisco from baton should be nefesh you have to know that living this life of be tough on living a life of a relationship with God and Trust with God and a calmness and serenity in a piece of mourning that says listen whatever comes my way I'll deal with it I'll deal with it because if it weren't meant to be it wouldn't happen and whatever happens it was meant to be it was meant for me to to have to deal with so this is not just lip service it's not just rhetoric it's not simply platitudes that we pronounce what a sham I mean it's such a maja station you know don't just drip from our lips like it's what we're supposed to say it's not just something that you say to get through Khafre man Nick vocalist on nefesh Aneesh Chopra heard of our first dates on udemy comes from its owner Maha Shiva said any loud articulate my mother's meet us at my talk on then I've some hanger the proper approach for a simple Jew precious simple Jews who are trying to arouse an awakened within themselves this is best part of themselves you see when we are living with fever and angst and anxiety when we're living with tension right now this is a very difficult time where of one another this frustration there's disappointment there's worry there are people who are going out of their minds they want to get out of their house they want to interact with other people we're living in this time where people are losing their cool and their patience people are blowing up an anger frustration is a sense of envy for those who have it different than they do all the worst possible character traits within when someone are under enormous magnifying glass called coronavirus coronavirus is holding a magnifying glass to each and every one of us and it's bringing out or it's amplifying it is magnifying what could be our best qualities or it could be our worst qualities it said I'm putting you under one roof in one house I'm telling you you can't go out I'm severely restricting and confining your lives get along let's see what comes out the best of you are the worst of you do you look the other way are you quick to forgive are you quick to help out are you quick to judge others favourably are you a mother are you willing to forego when things happen are you happy with what you have are envious of others are you sharing what you have or you are simply keeping everything to yourself this episode this pandemic this crisis is a magnifying glass and shining down on all of us to be able to promote and to be able to magnify either our best qualities or our worst there is within every one of us a best quality a pintle in the in a simple holy jewel that is connected to and it believes that the all-mighty the rebar slope there's the godliness in us that says even in these moments when I don't understand and sometimes when I can't see nevertheless I trust I know that everything that happens is for a reason I don't believe in randomness and chance I don't believe in happenstance I don't believe in statistics and data I believe in them of course I don't believe in them as an pure random statistics and data but everything is died in from above how could it be how could a human being a sophisticated intelligent human being be looking at the world today and not recognize that there is a creator that none of this is coincidental but it's by design how could it be the world has turned upside down radically different than any of us lived it a month ago and in ways that a monthly told you this is where we'll be a month from now none of you none of you whatever platform you're listening or engaged to us with right now if I told you this a month ago zero none of you would have believed me none none of you and yet here we are with an upside-down world something that's affecting the entire globe I saw a picture yesterday a meme which really affected me wasn't a funny one it was a picture of the entire globe Mother Earth wearing a mask wearing a mask and it just it struck me this is a global universal human challenge this is not affecting a township or a city or a state or a country or a region or a continent this is global is there a more poignant direct message from God the disses hid now I'm not going to get into the business of I don't believe in it why would God do this that's planning God that to me is fanatical there's a God and we are not he so why is he doing this maybe in our lifetimes we'll find out likely we won't the question is not Lama why is he doing it but Lama for what what can we take from it what can we learn from it what can we learn from it I published an article this morning on my website that will be on soon about the difference between what's essential and non-essential and here in Boca Raton as of this past weekend we had a stay home order and the orders then you're only allowed to leave for a sexual activity and I went on to define what's essential versus non-essential most of the essentials we would all agree provisions food to be able to care for your pet you know home aid you're helping an elderly person medical professionals we would all agree they have liquor stores as being essential which is the interesting observation on humanity but essential versus non-essential and one of the things that strikes me about this entire episode and pandemic is I think it causes all of us to examine our lives and ask what is essential and worth to non essential what did we used to define is essential and we've come to learn is not essential and what did we think was non-essential maybe like coming to shul regularly that we've learned to realize is essential and I'm bereft we are without it what's essential and what is non-essential there are many lessons of llama what can we Lim are what can we take from it but we shouldn't get stuck and paralyzed by asking llama why which is a question we'll never have an answer to so deep within every one of us at this time we're being asked to shine that magnifying glass on it is that holy spark the pimply in the holy simple soul that's connected to God and that knows that this is from him and that nothing happens by chance or by randomness and that even though we almost take every precaution we can matter so our responsibility that is our obligation when we've done it would all said and done when we've done what we can and what we must you have to let go we have to realize it's up to him so since I'm short says the beloved you who didn't occur in precious holy Jewish mister makishima say Indian who are waking themselves to the significance of this nominal I have vowed to work out particular my mother's meeting some Macduff from an option I want to work on a sense of trust within us we know no Kela miss Ashley will say four focus olive elbows closer Michelle Michelle be tough on you Sidon you study Romania Bakshi even pakodas monumental work hummus Allah knows the duties of the heart and one of its most famous sections the gate called Shara be talk on the gate of trust laughing became nothing less Bonin and driver in my college battle and then you begin your conversation with God then needed again that conversation you know we didn't shared a few weeks right before this whole thing broke out which in some ways was timely about his food to just how to live how to be alone how to not only not be tortured by being alone but how to crave I had a great the most out of being alone his father dis simply put the ability to recognize it's just me and God it's just me a nutshell and in that context to start a conversation I showed us our best right to talk to him unburden yourself on him lean on him be supported by him feel his loving embrace he was loving embrace and talk to him he's right there he has a dealer Batak Tony's right down here in the world is accessible to us he's not only in sure he is right now in each and every one of our homes that we have transformed into jewels and miniature but the image and just talk to him talk to him you can protest him Avena did i'm from our forefathers set a precedent for us when he taught us you can challenge God when you think that God is doing something unjust or unfair challenge him ask him why protest him and say do it differently I think that this at the end if he doesn't want us to concede to him but in the meantime he's almost asking us inviting us protests while I'm doing show me you care show me you believe and know that I'm the one doing it talk to me talk to me we have that ability I show you smart he gives an example I need mom and sugar I thought I shouldn't come upon sot ilya genre oh god the back and rushed Hashanah and the yellow and the gates were closing and I was crying I know that then you determined how much furnace I would make this year then Keynes Aloma show me Mela collaboration combat bias laughter chef Ernest it's like yay Mela before my grand marshal greetings are Eliza Marshall yeah it may look like oh no Taylor pronouncing member amygz an ally then loyal exploiting my invitation leaves diamond ACTA miscarry next of an afterglow diaper Hashanah I came any book will he show me by slipped up fellas you see lavota so the one i'm you could say god I know you determined rush on how much I'm gonna make I'm not sure I don't have to exert effort I'm not to get up off the couch what am I trying to make up are nothing was a very determined if I do nothing I'll make X and if I overwork if I'm a workaholic if I never see my family if I neglect my own health because I'm working insane hours I'll make the same thing because after all isn't that exactly what you determined for me to make that's what a person is tempted to want to say um however nothing should you show you BMS on the one hand there's a truth to that if a person is living with a reality that there is God and then he determines all that's going to happen then where is the room for our initiative however long he shows you in a no gasps that's a shortish can be talking on a demo but that's not a genuine or authentic sense of be Tahoma it's counterfeit Lewis asked us in Paris scarf a bit of an important event maybe tell her that is a counterfeit expression you're just trying in a benefit from the fruit of a betta whom you're trying to say well I'm such a trust in you God I live with such a an absolute knowledge and a consciousness of your presence in my life that therefore I don't need to do anything therefore I can take risks therefore I can be passive Zoe I hope you sharing cars I'll be talking good car but I've had enough look Coco's a nebbish in zoo mashhad mothers Colonus you're so dis sure ships and the phone about what I'll be talking I have a motion that could ensue ciemins rather I should write but not gonna miss a second copy Telegraph tomorrow we'll often a colleague our official I'll be tough on showing on the camera what we're supposed to work on be tough on is entirely different be tough on it's not God I'm not going to go to work because I know you already determined my partner so god I'm gonna take risks with my health because I know you already decided whether I'm gonna contract the virus god I'm going to that's not betta home foolishness it's counterfeit it's a cop-out be tough on is god I'm going to do everything I'm meant to do I'm asked to do I'm responsible to do right they say pray like it's all up to God but work like it's all up to you I'm gonna do everything that I have to do but once I've done what I have to do I'm putting on my pair of glasses called betta home without my pair of glasses I look at the world and I see that everything is a function of me it's a result of my free will I take credit when it works out and I have to blame when it fails and I look at a world was filled with randomness and chance and coincidence without my pair of glasses I see there are people who hurt me because they're bad people and they hurt me and I seek revenge without my pair of glasses I look what other have and I say that's not fair I deserve it and I feel a sense of envy without my pair of glances I look at the world that I said look how much I've accomplished look who I am and I inflate with a sense of arrogance but I put on my care of glasses called betta phone and now I look at an entirely different world I see a world not with objects in my way not with battles I have to confront not with conflicts I have to fight I see a word of mouth filled with tension I see a world that is defined by harmony I shall not look around this is all you you are the chess master you are the puppeteer you are orchestrating everything from above when I'd aware that filter when I put out that pair of glasses when I enter that perspective that mindset when I live in that reality the internal view the internal reality that it's all you then you know what I see somebody who hurt me I say I'm not gonna focus and concentrate on that wicked person I'm not gonna seek revenge which is prohibited I'm gonna realize that they could not have hurt me unless that was God's will there's a lesson for me to learn when I see what someone else has I'm not going to feel a sense of entity I deserve it I want it I wish it I should have it I'm gonna say everything makes sense they have what they deserve but neither I'm getting what I deserve what I need what's allocated to me from above when I see my own accomplishments and achievements I'm not going to oh that's me I'm so special I'm not gonna fleet with arrogance I'm gonna recognize that the senior partner and every one of my endeavors the almighty above it couldn't happen and it wouldn't take place without without him and his partnership be tough one is not a platitude it's not rhetoric it's not a statement you don't just say butter fishermen nutrition maja station be tough and it's not how hard you chuckle or how long you davon be tough on our weather you're living life with your glasses do you wake up in the morning and put on your glasses now here's an interesting metaphor that I just thought of so I had LASIK surgery several years ago but before it now I'm just old you could tell so I need these things and when I used to just record this alone nobody knew how old I am but now that we do all the some of the technology platforms you all get a direct perspective to see what an old man I've become so I had LASIK surgery when I was younger I had a terrible terrible prescription when I woke up in the morning I would fumble to find my glasses and without it I couldn't recognize somebody two feet away in front of my face so what happened without my glasses I was blind without my glasses I can barely see without my glasses I thought I knew what was in front of me but nothing was an accurate picture of what I was seeing and with my glasses now I saw the reality now I saw the truth but there was that choice back in that day I could either not wear the glasses and make my way through life trying to pretend that I can see things clearly inaccurately or I could put on the glasses and now I have a clearer picture once I had LASIK surgery then now I don't even need to wake up without the glasses and if I go swimming or I play basketball over the shower or I'm falling asleep or waking up I don't have to reach for glasses the LASIK surgery was a correction to the lens that enabled me to see clearly all the time that's a life of be tough home that is exactly what if Schwartz is saying be tough runners not a pair of glasses that you put on be tough on our LASIK surgery that you take that you have the pair of glasses you put on me sometimes you forget to put them on sometimes you lose your glasses sometimes they're not accessible to you it means that sometimes you're still going to see in a blurry way having LASIK surgery is a permanent change it enables you to correct the lens so that now every time you open your eyes you're seeing clearly that's the beat on that we're trying to get to is not just saying Baruchel I am it's not just rhetoric or a platitude it's not just something to comfort us or a cop-out be tough on is a mindset it's an attitude it's a perspective it's the way that we live our very lives it is the approach that we have and the attitude that we have in the perspective we have and the way we're coming to life and stuff but I want to go back to something he said my shorts was describing imagine a person remember I said the who didn't you come in the holey precious Jew who's trying to awaken that sense of self you know how you awaken your betta hung you now you enter that place you put on those glasses you wanted to go to LASIK surgery do you know you will increase and promote the ability to live life and look through that perspective of seeing a Shem by talking to him talk to a chef yesterday it's all hands on deck with homeschooling our kids these days we're not home scouring our teachers are doing an extraordinary job just not on their campus so we are partnering with them so when you have borrow fashioned several children each on their platform they need to be separated the a D D of everybody on top of each other trying to do schoolwork and so on so we've been rotating kids who come with me to my office and do work here yesterday in the middle of the afternoon I said to my ten-year-old daughter who was here doing work in my office let's go on the other let's go at the sanctuary squat to the shul and down in the club so without a mentor she doesn't fit so beautifully she made me so proud we Davin them for their ensuring it's not safe for everybody I'm not suggesting it for every rabbi in every community I work next door there's no one on the campus it's safe and for me it's very meaningful to ensure every single day that the sound of tequila is still filling our sanctuary just me and a safe way to mounting distance things absolutely nobody else so we down and then cut out the words I said to me mom let's talk to our son what's on your mind tell him and we had the most incredible conversation with him talking about her grandparents and their health her concerns and her worries what's happening in fears and schools and peace I talked to a Shem may you walk away feeling on fire you walk away feeling you have just contributed to a genuine relationship is there a relationship in our lives which is not enhanced and enriched by communication ask any therapist or counselor read any article on the subject ask any guru and they'll tell you that the core foundation of any relationship its health is determined the communication we have are we communicating with our Creator do we talk to him and I don't just mean the words of the sitter which of course represent the template that a son gave us did the rabbi's gave us in order to talk to him best they gave us the script in the language but we're supposed to speak in between the scripts fill in the lines with what's happening in our life talk to him thank him for what's going right and what's going well and the gifts and blessings you have and protest and object to the things that are not and thanked him and turned him confide in him unload on him unburden yourself on him that's what he wants and that's how he knows that we believe in him so we can live be talking with a pair of glasses that we put on and take off platitudes that we say feelings that come and go or we can enter a chamber we can enter a place we can enter a reality we can undergo a LASIK surgery which is a permanent correction to our lens so we live life and see him everywhere we see him everywhere we see him in the sweetness on Apple different Apple than yesterday yes but it's new Apple we can see him and feel him in the sweetness in the Apple and the Bravo were gonna make on him we see him in the beautiful day in the fact that the Sun still rises in the sky even when it feels like the sky is falling we can see him in every breath we take about an article last week or two weeks ago not coal initial not : issue Metallica we know the miracle twelve to twenty second honey breaths a minute that we don't even think about autonomously we simply breathe and we forget to thank him that God is present in every breath asked those who got forbid are on ventilators or struggling to breathe who are needing oxygen to get what the value of every breath is where the breath is something that we should take for granted and feel entitled to or with every breath : is shima to halakha with every breath see and praise and thank him the bronchial all the things that have to work the mechanisms not to function in order to simply be able to breathe so you can see how Shemin your breath and the Apple and the Sun which was rising and the people who are around us in the network of Crescent and the goodness and graciousness of the people I shouldn't really continues to be all around then the choice is ours are we putting on sunglasses and we don't see him at all do we have to put on reading glasses so when we wear them we see clearly otherwise things are blurry or do we undergo a LASIK surgery we enter that perspective and that place in which we live out our lives and we look at everything around us and we see him absolutely everywhere continuing Curnutt in new ink I will make sure theses will be tougher and pro sarkodie Sisyphean be talking to you tear me to pieces climb it Sonia Shh bison ideas the thesis I'm a fuuka behind me my batch has panini Ishida at an ancient de murcia called the hits my gate what it means to undergo LASIK surgery and to clear up the blurriness to see him everywhere is to go from a place that we see history I knew us we see tension and obstacles we see things that we have to overcome to a place that we see only harmony we see only his will we see only the way he wrote it up Loma Duberman a Cudas Proteus Pratt shall be talk on Pratt Solomon approach allowed other Africa mocha he says I'm not talking about individual mitzvahs I'm not talking about how this expresses itself in individual ways for example the specifics of be talking the specifics of one of the specifics of love your neighbor as yourself well the ashram cherishes Saudi I thought there's one root there's one quarter there's one there's one foundation please so Shan Shan coffee ever listen I gain there's a way of being that nothing can stand against but there is no obstacle there is no tension to overcome uma Mela means so calling for sure she's a nobody miss Taft income abaca money don't mean and everything close and everything comes and everything emanates from here so you'll say you know this is all nice when everything's going well around us I can see in everywhere and thank him everywhere I'm feeling everywhere but these are incredible difficult times how am I supposed to see and feel passion I want to share with you I want to end by sharing with you something from the seder but I gotta get ready for Pesach because we can tap into the people who went through a time and atrocities that are infinitely worse and there's nothing infinitely worse than any of you or any of us who've lost a loved one who are themselves sick and struggling and battling I don't want to minimize that there literally is nothing worse than that but if we zoom out that lens and we're looking bigger dull at this entire crisis of episode and for the overwhelming majority who are incredibly blessed and fortunate whose biggest problem is making Pesach at home for now thank God then we look to our own heroes those who had incredible faith before us who maintained that sense of the muna almost unimaginable and incomprehensible yet while going through the worst suffering in history Marty for a period of us your wife's the necklace Ashur and it's not God though and I can read it to you in the Hebrew - I got the article put on together in English I have it here as well and he says the following assertion are elements from the sky above singing it's time we know that at the Seder we eat the matzah and we eat tomorrow and sometimes you can help the Wonder was Marta doing at the Seder this is our night of freedom our night of royalty a night of majesty why are we still tasting bitterness where is the place for bitterness in a night of celebration we might have happiness and many asks this question and many answers are given with cook gives a beautiful answer he says you can only appreciate the matzah you can only appreciate freedom when you notice slavery you only appreciate sweetness when you know bitterness the contrast is what creates the appreciation of what is and sometimes only when you've lost something do you appreciate what you've had and I hope and frankly I fear that when we come back from this that many people will very quickly lose that sense of love of coming to shul we'll lose the things that we don't have right now that we so desperately crave and miss I fear that many people will lose that sense of we'll take it for granted once again we'll take it for granted once again so of kooks says that the murderer presence that the Sailor is a reminder that sometimes going through the Mara moments makes and enhances them at the moment even more even more special even more meaningful but here in Russia West is the following we eat Mara to instill a form of affirm awareness in our hearts that even when misfortune seems to strike it's also for the best because all that shame does is for the best the plastic says bottom at any location we are children of my Shem we're not allowed to cut ourselves can't create a bald spot between our eyes when someone dies and even as their comments that a Shem loves us more than any father could love a son we should therefore not mourn excessively over sorrow that the false because all that happens is for our best we might not always understand the shut-ins design but we have to trust him like a child trusts his father nonetheless and this was a really keep his approach to life we're going to talk about this Monday Shabbos Thomas Russian optimism the glass half-full and maintaining our hope and who was the paradigm of that if not ready Akiva who even as he's going to his death and the Romans are flying his skin continues to nevertheless project an eternal hope and optimism he bound the sense of faith that I was gonna be a key become a from on top of it everything he does even as so difficult as we're doing and going through Verbier cuba laughed he laughed yet that positive endless outlook says her Russian Weiss I heard from my read me the question Berger read me you know the Khoisan Perec you read me was if you know it now is not the time of Russia why story about his father who was in the barrack next to the poison Berger Reba his father was not a crazy Berger husted but he heard that the krauzenberg grandma a great sadly can gonna tomahawk am an unbelievable individual was in the next barrack and his father of Moshe Weiss traded places with a man in that barrack he was in the barrack with that man's son and he traded places and the man said you know if we're found to be in the wrong barrack at roll call it could cost us our life and reverse or I saw his father said to him we're likely going to die anyway shouldn't you at least be here son I want to be with the quays in big Arab and he came to the red but he said no let's talk and learning and they're never said here in his darkest deepest place of Ganim talked ona bruh and he said we have nothing else left we might as well let's talk to her they began to talk totally talk to her through the their time in Auschwitz and he remained the concert of his after the cousin burger ever lost his entire family his wife and 13 children he rebuilt his caste this after the war but I don't know anybody and I can't think of anything each life is so precious and anyone who undergoes the loss of life and anyone who is concerned and threatened by a loved one who right now is in danger we got him from the bottom of our hearts they have a speedy and painless and quick and complete recovery I should bring a catifying as quickly today as this entire episode became to us we pray and we dom it and we hope and we turn but whatever anyone is in during the class of agora ever lost all of his children his wife his entire family everything and he said the following insight after the war he said why do we cover our eyes only accept our sovereignty we say Shema we take our handle we come like declare hashem elokenu hashem Ahana he said I shall like in Russian my card represents that shuns attribute emergency locater the attribute of justice and smiley the clear that both names are one the attribute of justice is also a manifestation Russians mercy Hashem is justice often appears to be so harsh that you must cover our eyes to hide the outward appearance and we declare a show like in Russian my front expressing our firm belief that everything he does somehow some way is for our best coli I offers a beautiful explanation of the person which a Shem Tov's yakima be no don't fear to descend Egypt no single place his hands over your eyes Yaakov considers descent to Egypt the terrible misfortune but I'm sure we have reassured him that a end he would see that was actually for the best like you'll see this sentence slavery yo see his descent also seemed like a terrible misfortune at first but in the end it became apparent the entire story had been a manifestation or I shouldn't say didn't kindness Yosef became the vice to her power was able to support us family during the time of famine when a Shem Tov Jakob Yossi replace his hands over his eyes he was referring to the practice of covering her eyes when we say SH man he remind the outcome that we must ignore outward appearances and trust that I shouldn't actually the justice is actually part is actually bit of a mercy in other words that the quiz burger ever sometimes the only way to believe in a shared was to cover our eyes stop looking at the ICU bed stop looking at the lack of ventilator stop looking at the viruses stop looking at the stock market fallen stop looking at that reality sometimes the only way in the best way that we can continue to submit and to put all of our faith and in is to cover our eyes when we say smile to really believe that okay near my shadow okay no and I share my fun to believe I chemin they're located the God of justice and the God of compassion I really won that even that which feels like justice and harshness is itself an expression of his love you have to cover your eyes sometimes in order to be able to even just say those words and says they're mushy wise that is the significance of the the morrow that's at our table to realize that the murder is also part of the matzah story that even those moments of bitterness even those experiences of harshness even those times in which we struggled to see him to feel him to find him it's part of a bigger story and that's what it means to dip into and to tap into our sense of faith to know that he's there talk to him protest object argue intervene interested advocate on behalf of the people that we love davin from the depth and are being Tim talked if you're blessed to minimally be affected by this thank them from the bottom of your soul you don't know how lucky you are if you your lungs and you know a device in order to be able to breathe thank him from the bottom of your heart and if you know somebody who stick down from the depths of your being turned to him lean on him object protest and advocate to him you know suddenly end that we should not have any more murder in our lives but only matzah we shouldn't taste the taste of bitterness but only the freedom and redemption that those for a sick the suffering and the people who love them should find healing and solace and strength and courage faith but they should be better as quickly as they got sick and be returned to their families to celebrate a beautiful and a festive Pesach and that almost married to get to the level of our dear friend to whom the shear is dedicated our dear friend Brian who whatever was happening in his life would continue to say Hashem is amazing everything is amazing and everything be amazing in our lives the focaccia the semantics of a holy Yom Tov Akaka Emunah how they have faith how they have redemption national human global and personal they only the best of everything and please God will resume immediately after Pisa