Living With Emunah (Part 284) - Finding Emunah in Tragic Times

back to living withun should be a good morning and a good day for should sweeping Victory Safety and Security and only only good things last week uh I had to travel for a wedding and we missed this year and I must tell you as much as I missed giving it and listening to it and needing it the Amai I also little piece of me was um was not sorry to miss it because it's very difficult to sit and talk about and in times like this in pain like this and loss like this with tragedy like this but moreover feeling incredibly inadequate to do so sitting here in boaron Florida when there are millions of brothers and sisters who are all on the front line simply by living in Israel whose lives have been upended and suspended whose schools are not happening and contract work is St stopped and chicken there's a shortage in the Maka and garbage is not picked up whose husbands or fathers or sons are now away for over a week preparing and getting ready for the mission of their lives and that's that's a country of teachers of amuna and the half a million or more soldiers who are singing and dancing to Who are wearing TI some for the first time in their life or putting on Fillin or talking to or about Hashem that's these videos and these messages and these images that's the Amun Florida is not where it's at and I feel grossly grossly inadequate to talk about amuna from this position and perspective but uh but alas what can we do this year's scheduled and have to give it but I I wanted to really Express that disclaimer it's more than a disclaimer I want to express that genuine enormous heartfelt feeling of inadequacy to talk about amuna which it's as complicated as it is is relatively simple from here certainly certainly compared to those our brothers and sisters in Israel those who have family members serving in the IDF those in the IDF so where where do we all get amuna in moments like this where do you see hasem on 14400 for the rest of my life I'll never forget coming to sh morning and being stopped by those who knew the news and feeling overwhelmingly responsible to share it with a community that we're going to find out needed to Pivot in how we experienced Y and Sim Tor and I'll never forget that the first minion I spoke at that morning the number that we had at the time was there were 50 casualties there was an infiltration and I couldn't even say the words and I broke down crying thinking about 50 innocent people who were murdered and now that number is400 it's a staggering number it's a statistic it's mind-boggling it's difficult to even comprehend to comprehend 1,400 over 200 children babies infants women elderly Holocaust Survivors who are being held captive and we know their condition and how they're being treated and if they're alive and the torture their families are going through every single moment that they're gone and Soldiers on a front line and embassies that are on fire and University campuses and I don't have to spend this time filling you in that's not why you're here you all know how dire the circumstance is and how inconsolable we are to this loss where's Hashem how do you talk about amuna where do you find his hand why would he allow why would he do why would he sit by why would so that's what I think about non-stop I know that's what you think about Non-Stop and that's what I am grossly grossly inadequate and unqualified to sit here and talk about and tell you anything so I'm going to share the words of somebody who was qualified on the eve of a who tonight but first let's thank oh to our sponsors the series is sponsored by Dr Al and Bella Morgan in memory of by Dr Brian galin in memory of Bella's mother Ellen shanzer we remain very grateful to the Morgans for their generosity they are in Israel live in Israel I don't know if they've ever been to bokeh and we always have hakar satov to them for their generous sponsorship of this sheer that they don't intend in person and that they're not part of technically a member of the community but as they live in Israel and work in Israel and serve in Israel certainly they are in our thoughts and feels this morning she is also sponsor the coveres in memory of Dr Jacob Hiller who exemplified and modeled how to live with for to find her B and she's growth oriented strengthening her and daily constantly a source of for the person who's sponsoring soem that should all help her find her and lastly by Al and Sarah Gordon who are sponsoring in memory of Al's aunt onite and of course all of our learning is in the Merit of strength and ra and comfort and success for the IDF and for our brothers and sisters in Israel and all that they do at the end of the Amun those who can stay for a few minutes will divide up to hilum the more you stay the shorter it takes you divide up will complete the entire Saum to combine Torah and to combine learning and Ding and hopefully have an impact so I'm un qualified and I'm inadequate to talk about Aon in a circumstance like this but tonight the fourth ofan is the side of the Holy P of colous common shap P PES we knew and we learned but reri certainly when he named his KES certainly enhanced and elevated the learning and the exposure to the holy patner who is now whose words soothe our soul and Inspire and light us on fire so very briefly and quickly if You' never heard of or you're not familiar with the Petna Reb was colous common shapir Petna was a city right outside Warsaw and he was the r of Petna he attracted many to this small outside of Warsaw he created an entire network of yeshivas where he was very Progressive in his thinking and revolutionary in some ways he established the Yesa Das mosha 1923 and became one of the largest yeshivas in Warsaw outside of Warsaw between World War I and World War II very very Holy Soul a very deep Soul very elevated Soul someone who composed music and played music Somebody whose Soul sang out music and he understood young people he wrote long before the Holocaust before the war and if you learn his intellectual diary you're exposed to a person who you feel is speaking right to you a person who's not speaking to your head or your heart but a person who's speaking right to your soul he writes in the introduction of how the young people were maturing or they felt more mature than their years he's writing in the 1920s no internet no Google no access to endless information and young people insulated community of warsa outside warsa but he was struggling with young who felt entitled to opinions and conclusions and more mature even much younger than they really were and how do you deal with and how do you address that he was really preent he was really ahead of his time and he thought that would be the biggest challenge of his generation little did he know and little could he see what was coming for him for Polish jury and for the jury of Eastern Europe his only son his daughter-in-law and his sister-in-law were killed by the Nazis in the bombing of Warsaw September 1939 and after Poland was invaded by the Nazis he was rounded up together with his community in the Warsaw Ghetto and in the Warsaw Ghetto he ran a secret Sho and in that sh unimaginably unimaginably if you think giving a a Muna sheir right now is hard in that sh secret sh in the war so ghetto he gave Dres he gave sermons and he scribbled notes of those sermons and he buried bued them underneath the ground of the Warsaw Ghetto hoping that he would survive and one day collect them and punish publish them and if not they would survive him and those themes and those ideas and those messages would be ones that would be recorded in posterity and for history they were part of the en shabas archives anyone familiar knows that they were Heroes of the wars so ghetto who were determined to record what was happening to them they felt history needed to Mark whether they would survive or not three enormous canisters collections of those notes and those records that included of the hly pet his ish Kesh the name of the work which wasn't named it at the time is kodesh Holy Fire the sermons that were given in the war Soto two of the canisters were discovered by polish workers doing construction near the war Soto where it was the third has not yet been discovered so who knows what other writings or records are in it and only because of that do we have these writings these sermons of the Holy petner he um he was later transported after the war Soto Uprising after it was crushed in 1943 he and other survivors of the uprising were taking to the toniki labor camp which was near Lublin and he was offered an opportunity to escape from the concentration camp but he refused he felt he needed to be with the people inspiring the people giving to the people and he refused and ultimately there he was murdered he was exterminated and after the uprising in trinka and soore there was increased concern by the Nazis and uh the operation Harvard Festival if you recall was launched and in November 1943 onesan the P of Colonus Comm shapira was murdered his story is amazing he was an amazing person I gave once in people of the book we studied about his life and some of his Works after his son was murdered he no longer could play music again again he couldn't his soul couldn't bring itself he was an amazing amazing person so we have we have his holy is KES he have his holy uh sermons is KES and uh and we're going to learn his words together because while I'm inadequate he's the most qualified in the war Soto telling a group of Jews who were mere skeletons who were Shadows of themselves who had lost family who were losing loved ones every single day who were fighting to survive who were living increasingly losing hope and he had to every chabas or Whatever frequency turned to them and try to get a message across that would be truthful and accurate and honest and validate and somehow would touch their soul in a world that felt Godless and where was he and abandoned by him but how could he try to increase that sense of that sense of amuna that sense of amuna so we're going to look at his holy words tonight tomorrow are his UR it so on the eve of his y site tap into his holy words his holy words together then we'll share I forget bring me back some uh emails I've gotten not only from those who live in Israel who connect to this year who share their emails but a few soldiers on my way in I got a picture of a soldier who was standing on the uh edge of a hill he was holding up a cup that says AA it's not auna coffee cup but he had a cup that said AA he said thank you take this into the Amun here with you beautiful picture of a soldier who's listening and and and learning and who is demonstrating for us what we are learning about more than just in theory but in theory he and they are demonstrating in unbelievable unbelievable practice so this is AA what we're learning is something that the P said he delivered this in um in 1941 this is a book called Torah from the years of Wrath the historical context of the ish Kesh my friend Professor Henry Abramson did a remarkable job and made a great contribution by taking the is Kesh and taking each of the sermons that the petner gave and telling us what was going on when it was given if you just take the Safra and you learn it and it does appear in Translation I think it's in English then you don't necessarily know what the context was what was going on when the pest said those words so he has from the years of Wrath 1939 1943 the historical context and he tells us about this sermon that we're about to learn that only two sermons June 14th and July 5th 1941 are recorded in the three months following pesak 5701 the ghetto was rocked by Major developments the tyus epidemic raged on reached its peak over 150 death daily corpses of indigent were left abandoned in the street collected and stacked by the wagon load for the mass burial a major contributing factor for the sharp increase in mortality was the secret Nazi preparations to to invade the Soviet Union which affected provisioning to the whole of Warsaw ironically the Germans themselves recognized the dire needs of the ghetto and for a brief period before the Summer and Autumn of 1941 additional rations were supplied to the udut for distribution this policy initiated by The Local District head was abruptly curtailed in September indicative of the chaotic nature of the Nazi bureaucracy he goes on and on and gives it a lot of context but the immediate introduction to what we're going to learn because I want to get to it he said in the Borderland regions Decades of anti-bolshevik propaganda demon the mil militantly atheistic Soviet Union as the Jewish plot to dominate Christian Europe in the brief period between Soviet Nazi regimes locals frequently vented their anger upon innocent Jewish populations that were completely unconnected to the Soviet atrocities you know before sheras we thought words like pums and beheadings rape we thought that those were words of our history of our past that we would just get together and you we get together at Tish we'd Say Never Again we'd have a slogan but the world pums and then we woke up to 22 pums 22 pums some that lasted for days of which were just scratching the surface of the heinous and barbaric atrocities that the never again has happened again the world is quickly pivoting and shifting away from its sympathy and support and all the more reason that we need to turn to there is no one to lean on or turn to or trust it's an incredible statement of the president that shouldn't be lost on all of us we should be whatever our politics unbelievably grateful to get on a plane and go to a war zone to show support and intervene and send billions of dollars and military aid but with it I'll because With It ultimately we don't trust elected officials and princes and dignitaries it's hasem it's all Hashem it's all Hashem barrage of rockets that were headed for K not one of them successfully launched or reached and instead while we mourn of course we mourn the tragic loss of Civilian lives but that failed to make it across a border as apparently is being reported now hundreds of rockets yesterday failed to get across and out of Gaza there's no one to lean on other than the southern Center of lavv regarding by many as Poland's Second City angry locals attacked Jews in the streets in quasi spontaneous pagram that lasted four days and took the lives of 4,000 Jews this also gives you a a it doesn't minimize what we've just experienced and the grief and the loss and the pain we feel but it it helps us realize how unfathomable everything that happened a week and a half ago in Israel was one run of one gas chamber in a few minutes at aitz of one day 1400 it makes the Six Million number just just beyond comprehension where this pagum that took 4,000 lives in four days that's a footnote it's it's a footnote pums because Jews were blamed by local polish angry local polls for it's a footnote to 4,000 4,000 the magnitude of the Holocaust 4,000 is a footnote reports the violence shocked the ghetto till operation Barbosa the experience of Jews and warsa was one of incrementally increasingly pressure arguments over the borders of the ghetto until it was sealed and so on the typhus the increasing tight rate of typhus punctuated by the occasional Act of Senseless violence the pams of leiv however were of a different order of magnitude perpetrated by locals on a wide scale polish were not innocent byst standards photographs in the period show Jewish women forced to clean the streets with their undergarments before a crowd of hooting onlookers Jews with blooded faces running from boys arms with sticks resulting in thousands of murders in a short space of time Warsaw Jews were not inured to such Horrors on the following shabas the rebbi got up and addressed their concerns so what we're about to learn what we're about to see is how the rebba got up and what he said to petner when those in the war Sago learned that 4,000 of their brothers and sisters were brutally murdered and raped and forced to clean streets naked and in undergarments and the Reb had to get up to a group of skeletons and say something what would he say and this is what he said I gave you the whole piece it's longas is Paras is what's a that which is incomprehensible that which we can't understand that which is beyond our capacity for understanding a you know the type of Mitzvah the category of Mitzvah that we have to Simply surrender we have to Simply submit we have to Simply say Hashem it says your world you're in charge you're in control when you tell me to jump I say how high I can't understand I don't feel entitled to understand I don't feel capable of understanding this is your world and he goes through that in the whole first half of this sermon this drha this essay and I encourage you to look at it but I want to go to the paragraph I don't know the copy it's begins so you have it in the English again I thank Dr Abramson for his translation those who want to follow the English those who want to learn it in the Hebrew it's on the second page you know we've been using that expression Monday night we had over a thousand people here CommunityWide not yov is is when we're not in the state of G and Yeshua when we're not living our best selves when we are not on top of our world where Yakov is is the real ation is is our destiny yov is when we walk with a limp it's [Music] anov so what happens when yob is suffering when there's suffering when there's tragedy when there's challenge around us while it's true that this provides atonement for a person's sins who has his calculations his calculus his ways and the suffering in this world somehow atones repairs for the mistakes the sins we don't dare we don't dare suggest how that works or what those sins are we are not God we don't compete with him anyone who tells you this is why or this is the explanation or this is the punishment or this is the reason distance yourself as far as you can go in the world from them we each can ask how can we learn how can we grow how can we improve what we can take on from this however we dare D dare not suggest an association or direct link of why but this is the rebis speaking to a group in the Warsaw Ghetto fighting to survive and for their lives the day after 4,000 were wiped out in a local pagum and he says aov when there's tragedy and Calamity and atrocity when there's significant Jewish loss and crisis of course it's somehow a konos but the nature of a person is to be ever more aware of themselves to be focused on themselves me how do I feel how am I dealing what am I doing that phenomenon exists even though outside of Israel their own mental health how it's impacting them how they feel how this is how the news is affecting them but those who are the heart of the of the crisis because all day long a person is immersed in their own suffering they feel this is painful this is missing it's all they think about it's all they're concentrating on their child who's in Israel who's studying who's living who's serving their nephews their family claw as a whole because is it possible for a person to be hit to be struck and not to experience physical pain spoke about in C Snippets last night if if you're hit and you don't yell ouch then you're not in pain in the para class yesterday Noah is held accountable there may Noah the whole flood is attributable to Noah why because he didn't DAV ah but he already knew there weren't enough righteous in his generation he already knew that he couldn't Inspire his generation he already knew they were irredeemable so why bother daving how could we hold them accountable if the daving wouldn't have made a difference says the brisker of you know why because when you stub your toe and you get a shot at the doctor when you scream ouch did it help did it make the pain go away did it do anything no but you know if you're in pain you scream ouch and if you didn't scream then the nurse or the doctor or the person in the room with you has no reason to believe you're in pain if you don't scream there's no reason for anyone around you to think you're in pain if you're in pain you scream whether it hurts or whether it helps sorry or not so no they're called May no the because whether the would have helped or not Noah should have screamed just to reflect the pain you're wiping out an entire world a flood that's wiping out in a hard reset and a reboot on the whole world so says the pet of course it's natural of course it's understandable that a person who in their own pain you read the headline and you say ow ow this hurts the Distortion the propaganda and the News telling lies about a hospital and who's responsible embassies on fire rallies 1,400 funerals families grieving an amazing person in our community who I love who came up to me to ask he's saying Kadesh for the loss of his mother and read about entire families that were wiped out and there's no one to say Kadesh for them for children and asked if he could say Kadesh to get their names of course we think how does this affect me how does it impact me how does it hurt me what do I need to do for self-care by and those who are on the front lines those who are the target of the threat of the enemies of our hatred of course they are preoccupied with how do I survive my safe room my brother my sister-in-law in gush and alone who until now were worried about Rockets So the safe room you wanted to make sure that it was accessible from the outside because God forbid a rocket hit your house and people came to rescue you they needed to be able to get into the safe room to get you out but now that they're not as worried about Rockets as they are about infiltrators now the whole calculation is different how do you lock the room from the inside to make sure that if people are shooting and beating and knocking down that door there's no way they can get in and they sent me the advertisement because this is normal right a Jewish Community needs to have an advertisement not a WhatsApp group about the local animal show for pares Noah not a WhatsApp group if you want to buy kala or participate in the kalalake but that Z group of do you want to have installed the special new lock inside your mad inside your safe room so that nobody could get in because which are you more afraid of the Rockets or the infiltration you need to be more concerned about locking it from the outside or from the inside of course that's what a person thinks about they're a Target they're on the front lines these aren't normal conversations these aren't normal conversations considerations let's have a family meeting what are we more worried about how should we take the initiative to best protect ourselves and says the re immersed on his pain and suffering regresses to a lower form of divine service which is predicated on his awareness of his physical condition what happens God is knocked out of the equation because all we're thinking about is what do I need to do to survive those in Israel of course understandably what initiative what efforts what precautions what do we need to do to survive those outside of Israel how do we emotionally practice selfcare and resilience what do we need to do in absorbing the news and showing our concern in rallying and advocating I was on the phone for hours yesterday Qatar is a key here because they're harboring Kamas leaders and they can apply the pressure to let those who are being held hostage be released what are the pressure points with Qatar who have a business deal with the Nets and who are applying the Heat tonight in the preseason everyone's consumed with where are the angles where are the pressure points what difference can we make what rally can we attend but wres the pet the war Soto you're looking for your next morsel of food you're looking for your next little water you're looking for the next place you could hide you're looking for the next place you could survive that's a very low level of a hasem we regress to the lowest level of mindfulness and self-awareness and service of hasem and the of spirituality of spirituality so what do we do skip to the next paragraph skip the next paragraph and this is the message I wanted to get across to you today as someone who's grossly inadequate to talk about amuna right now here's the message I wanted to get across here's the Reb's message you want to arouse Divine Mercy that's what we all want and need we all want some miracle so our boys don't need to go in on the ground that hostages are freed and the Hamas is eliminated and purged and wiped out from this Earth and that Gaza becomes a resort Community extension of Israel maybe the future home of BRS East along the ocean along the sea that's what we desperately want that's what we want to arouse divine mercy and we want Hashem to temper the harsh Divine judgment harsh Divine judgment because that's what we're feeling that's what the rebit turning to this group in the secret synagogue in the wars so ghetto says I know what you're feeling because I feel it Hashem is practicing din Hashem is practicing where's the ra where's the compassionate father he's practicing din strict Justice and strict judgment and it hurts it hurts when a parent is punishing when a parent feels callous and cruel and removed and distant it hurts where's that loving parent where are they we want to turn them and pivot them from the parent who's enraged and practicing strict D from that loving loving parent who's overflowing with ra and with compassion how listen to what the Reb says you want AEM to turn to overflowing and overwhelming and endless love and compassion then we need to practice endless love and compassion and kindness not just that you're willing to give and provide everything you're capable of giving and sharing again where morsels of bread and where drops of water made the difference of life and death the PB is turning to the Jews of the war Soto and saying share what you have don't just be focused on your survival you wantem to show you show you want hem to show Mercy you have mercy arouse that awaken that within you the very Mercy we ar within ourselves has an effect on the Heavenly realm don't become accustomed to Jewish suffering don't become numb to the overwhelming degree of suffering such that our mercy of Jews is deadened their skeletons in the streets they're piling up in wagons they're waiting to be buried people are dropping Dead all around you said the rebba do not become adjusted do not become accustomed do not ever allow that to become a new normal don't allow headlines and images and storylines don't allow videos to ever become a new normal don't watch them casually and callously and forward them and pass them on don't ever let that be a new normal every image every news flesh every update about the loss of a yisha life but a child about those who are running to shelters stop Shake shudder Daven feel feel feel raus feel sympathy feel empathy feel your own pain because we're all extensions of one another on the contrary the heart should melt at the bitterness of this suffering we should be sick sickened over what's happening inconsolable I wrote about it this week but if someone says to me you know Rabbi I need a good distraction for this x fill in the blank we all need a distraction from what's need a distraction your child's in the ICU you want to be distracted from that you can't be distracted from that nothing and no one in the world could distract you from that that doesn't mean that you should watch the news 246 we have to pace ourselves shut it off whatever you need to know you need to know that's very damaging and dangerous and unhealthy I'm not a proponent of it don't be glued to the news Non-Stop and you can't walk around one of the letter writers well see if we have time to get to these letters one of the people who wrote to me said you know I I feel how could I do laundry how could I wash the dishes how could I make dinner with what's going we have to live life we have to live life you can't say tillum all day lose your job lose your income have nothing to eat but within that not want to and not be capable of being distracted it's constantly in the background with whatever we're doing in that moment laundry or shopping or dinner or going to work or having a conversation that's not about the mat of in Israel but still it's playing in the background it's the noise in the background the entire time just like if a close family member one spouse or parent or child were in crisis could anyone or anything distract you from that would you want to be distracted could you be capable said the rebba you know how you arous divine mercy and compassion and Love by practicing compassion and mercy and Endless Love by being acutely connected with the pain of others arousing Mercy within us will affect two things firstly our our prayers on behalf of the Jewish people become more heartfelt more heartfelt when you're living when you're feeling when when I'm picturing running to a shelter locking the door having to make the decision from the outside or the inside having a loved one who you have no idea their fate or where they are or what's going on with them or when or how you'll get them back and in what state your doing won't be the same it can't be the same can't be can't be spoke about in snippit last night if your sh is the same length today as it was before you got to find out if you really are a Jew if you have Jewish ancestry you got to test your DNA you gotta you got to really look in the mirror and ask yourself what kind of connection you have to Hashem and to his people to the Jewish people if your doing is not a little bit longer a second 5 Seconds 30 seconds if you're not inserting if you're not putting into if you're not putting in bring a a miracle and Redemption if you're not saying to hem protect our soldiers bring the captured home give strength a sense in your own words that's what is a template the real most important part of is not what's written in the sitter so what's written in your heart speak talk to him unburden yourself yell at him he can handle it he's waiting for you to do it he wants you he wants to see that the mercy in you has been aroused said the rebba again it's mindboggling to picture he's in the Warsaw Ghetto and there's been a pagum in Warsaw taking 4,000 lives young girls beautiful benos Torah BOS being paraded naked in the streets and the Reb says you want hasem to wake up and intervene you know how hasm will do that when we wake up and when we love and when we care and when we do everything that we can listen to what he said as is known from cabalistic literature there are times when a decree of salvation for the Jews has already been issued in heaven but its implementation is delayed due to its otherworldliness and its inability to descend to this world and assume physical Garb so when it is not merely an intellectual awareness alone that Jews have an obligation to support one another but rather one manifests Mercy with one's entire being then one's prayers are beneficial in drawing down the Salvation into world in the realm of the physical since one is transformed into a vessel of Mercy both in one's heart and with one's character you hear what he says to the Jews of warsa the war ghetto sometimes Hashem has a Yeshua Hashem has salvation he's got a plan he's got a solution but it's not yet able to be brought down to this world there's no vessel through it to express itself for it to be captured for it to be able to manifest we become that vessel when we show that Mercy that love that kindness that concern when we are inconsolable while we are interconnected while we have that Unity then we become that vessel for that salvation to be able to come down it's waiting for us for you and me for that act of kindness for that text or that email that call to someone in Israel I'm thinking about you I care about you I'm checking in on you tell me every day at this time we're going to sit and have a cup of coffee together on on WhatsApp video every day to check in if you want if it means something to you constantly to check in to care to love to make you feel you're not invisible that we didn't move on that we didn't go back that we're involved to pass up on a luxury and take that money and make a difference in the solders life with the military equipment they need and with the love and with the gesture to rally and to write letters and to protest to DAV to do good and kindness Lo for one another and we're seeing that CLA is Has Come Together in ways none of us ever ever imagined or thought or dreamt clel is on fireus a Unity the likes of which I've never seen in my life the divisions and the walls have come crumbling down that kept Jews apart from one another secular and religious and right-wing and leftwing and for judicial reform and against judicial reform a Jew is a Jew or across the globe and in Israel non koser restaurants and T of kering so they can give kosher food to soldiers people Distributing and making tizas who never knew what they were or wore a pair in their lives and love and connection bell saying the forah which for some about time and it's obvious but it's not so obvious in the different traditions and the and the Hashem we're we're turning ourselves into that vessel into that CLE that the PB told us we have to we have to not only increase our davening its intensity its frequency its length it's mindfulness but we have to demonstrate that Aus that love that compassion that kindness because we have to become that vessel that can hold Hashem you have the plan you have the solution you have the way out you have the revenge for those who need to be eliminated from this Earth you have it all ready to go sometimes the parent knows the solution for their children but their children need to first get along the children are all putting time out because they're misbehaving and they can't get along the parents says the vacation's off the trip is cancelled the Kaneka gifts are not coming out of the closet I'm not giving you what you want because you can't get along and the parents is watching they're holding the gifts they're ready to give it they've got the tickets for the vacation for the trip for how they want to spoil those children they're holding on to it they're they're they're in the other room they're listening around the corner just begging the children just just just show a Little Love a Little compassion just give each other a hug just work this out because the second you do then I can shower you with all that I'm holding back that I have that I want to give you I I would never dare suggest this this isn't my thought this is the p in the war ghetto who ultimately will be murdered by The Who already lost his only son and his daughter-in-law and his family and he's telling these Jews who just witnessed to pagam this is what we need to do this is how we demonstrate amuna who lean into amuna and live with we want Hashem to show his Mercy his love his kindness we need to become that vessel he's listening he's around the corner he's watching he says you're doing pretty good you're doing pretty well you've really come together you've really connected but there's more to do there's more to do ding more intensely ding more often ding more selflessly thinking about others do more show up more be counted more care more give more support more support more that's the answer yesterday a soldier sent me a text I don't know him tovia my name is to AB Goldberg my name is toia I won't read his last name I don't have his permission this is the WhatsApp message was accompanied by a four-minute voice note and he says in it we're going in soon and I don't know none of us know what happens after so I want to leave this voice note before we go in because that's normal for a 20-y old to leave a voice note for some Rabbi he never met I'm about to go into a war to defend the Jewish people and I don't know if I'll come home so I want to make sure I leave you this voice note and he left a beautiful voice note which I'm not playing for you or telling you but this was the short text that accompanied it I'm a 20-year-old IDF Soldier currently preparing towards entering Gaza I greatly appreciate if you get a chance to listen to the voice message I apologize for not sending an email but due to the circumstances I'm not in a state of mind to do so thank you for all that you've done for me personally and for your community and for the entire Jewish people which is the most ridiculous thing for him to write me but it's this sentence that I want to share with you this is what he writes we now know in practice what we knew in theory that we are more that we are stronger and more unified than we sometimes mistakenly believe that was his message on a four-minute incredible voice note we now know and practice what we knew in theory that we are stronger and more unified than we sometimes mistakenly [Music] believe we have that strength we have that resilience we have that faith we have that hope we have that love we have that Unity we have it I'll tell you there are things left and right that that are that are worthy of being bothered by this one's reacting this way this one posted that thing this one insisted this this one at the rally they sang this they left this out at the community rally they they didn't have this this was on the Bea this wasn't on the Bea this one participated they didn't participate I I like you can tell you about a billion things that are upsetting but none of them should upset you I am working overtime in myself I'm not always successful but I'm sharing that I'm working hard and even when people and even when people very close to me who I love very much say doesn't that bother you or don't you want to say something nope nothing bothers me right now we're just only tell me about the things that we have in common only talk about the things that bring me together and the organization the Yeshiva the school the WhatsApp group the person who posted whatever they're doing or doing differently than you would want or different that you like or different move on who cares it doesn't matter all that matters right now are what we agree on what we have in common where we find Common Ground how we can feel unified how we can love each other because what we knew in theory that we are stronger and more unified than we sometimes mistakenly believe all that differences and all those demonstrations while the content of them and the disagreements of them are important but the way that we were displaying it was narish was silliness underneath it the real us the true us was this United and unified single one don't let anything bother you right now don't let anything bother you with it you want Shalom you want peace in Israel start with shalom in our homes don't let anything your spouse does your children do your in-laws do your parents do just just more than any other time in your life don't let it bother you it's hard it's hard we're all we have less patience than we've ever had we're on greater Edge than we've ever been we're more fragile EST State than we can remember being in so it's hard it's hard so what so what you want shom you want pieces in Israel why should Hashem bring peace in Israel if we can't have peace in our homes if we can't have peace with our neighbor we can't have peace with the person who next and Sh can't have peace with the person who sends their child to a different School wears a different yamaka doesn't wear yamaka at all we can't make peace with everyone around us we dve in with our lips and we dve in with our actions is what the P was saying we dve with our lips and we dve with our actions we dve with the words and the sit and theum we dve with our actions I want peace Hashem I'm showing you that I can become a vessel of Peace look even though people are frustrating and annoying and encourageable I'm not letting anything bother me I'm looking the other way I'm simply not going to allow it to escalate I'm not we have to demonstrate we have to demonstrate next email Anonymous hi Rabbi my husband and father of my my three young kitties have been on the Gaza border but tomorrow they're doing drills to prep for one day before going into Gaza I'm sick to my stomach I want to puke I'm sitting in my car stuffing my face with soggy french fries trying to numb the fear but it's not working I decided to go and see if you had put out an amuna share this past week on Spotify referencing our current events but to my dismay the last year was dated September I know I need to have amuna right now and I believe with my whole heart that whatever happens is for my best I know that Hashem loves me and is doing what's good for me but I'm scared and nauseous because what if Hashem decides that what's best for me what I need to be is a single mom for the rest of my life in capital letters I will not function I can't breathe at the thought and then I think why am I stressing out about something that may never happen because I'm being practical and a realist and asking my husband now for all the passwords to the banking apps does me being sick to my stomach mean I'm not actually having real amuna I believe is running the whole show but what if I have to go through this for the tikon or the bigger picture I don't want to go through this I'm scared stiff to that challenge help me come out on top of this I want to drive and see him before he goes into Gaza I haven't seen him since lunchtime last shabas it's been more than a week but I'm scared to put myself in danger and desperate for my kids well there are scary sirens and Rockets I don't know how to think anymore on a regular day we do our ASAS and stay safe by not walking into rala today for me to drive an hour and a half to his base and see him when they are advising people not to go out if necessary is that isless I don't know what to do this is the State of Affairs this is where we're at this is how people feel these are our re and teachers of amuna because this woman I don't know who she is this Anonymous writer even in asking those questions and struggling is demonstrating unbelievable amuna these are our teachers these are she's having the conversation with herself she's giving herself the answers to the questions and she's got this she's got this the resilience to persevere but to be shaky and to be nauseous that's legitimate and real having amuna maybe we'll end with this for today there are more emails and more to talk about but another week next week and please God by then this will be over but it likely won't so there'll be more to discuss but it's important to end with this note living with amuna does not mean that you don't feel anxious or worried or afraid that's not what it means yes we learned that da fear is a Biblical prohibition and it reflects a pagam in amuna but that's like irrational fear that's daily the silly fears that can creep in what if we miss the flight what if what if the kala doesn't come out good the D doesn't rise what if even what if I don't get into that school what if those are the fears the say lean into your Amun and you will be able to eliminate those fears but to live with anxiousness all I've got to face this struggle this confrontation it's concerning it's agitating it's aggravating it's anxiety building but I'm turning to you in other words this is how I feel this is what's normal and rational to fear but I'm turning to you and channeling it through you and I'm leaning in with you so if you're feeling it don't feel bad or guilty or ashamed those are natural and normal feelings at this time but we're meant to channel and to lean in and to focus and to bring it and to bring it to to our relationship with Hashem so tonight tomorrow the holy the Earth site of the Holy pah through our learning of his Torah through his touching ourish through our inspiring his elevating AR Nas to have the courage The Bravery the resilience to live with amuna in this incredible time to arouse the divine mercy and compassion by practicing our own mercy and compassion by continuing to be aware of and invested in and loving to all those who are struggling and suffering to not be capable of being distracted even while we have to pace ourselves and take breaks but in the background always remain connected to what's happening there that ultimately Hashem always has and always will bring a g in Yeshua to claw Israel and somehow bring this out of it should happen speedily speedily should happen today please stay