Part 13

OV happy shushan pum Kon oh y I love have a cup of coffee enjoy shushan pum if you want this some Scotch you can have an Irish coffee and really enjoy sh okay this morning we are continuing our study of amuna and um a reminder of the importance of mindfulness in this area I think when we miss a class I know that I miss the reinforcement of the mindfulness so we're looking at a piece in rbe this is from alore all right every week we've been doing different things we've fluctuated between the SL and alore and other miscellaneous uh things thean so we're back in Al was the great Mas of and here in the 20th chapter of his book Al which was a collection of the mus he used to gather students and they would be working on different attributes and working on different character traits and working on different aspects of their lives and then it was collected in Al so he says the following there's more to talk about in the effort the aod now this is the key word there is aod it takes work it takes work to have amuna the best things in life take work you know we live in a world nobody wants to do work anymore about anything everyone just wants everything coming to them and pleasure delivered to them and they want their marriage to be perfect this to be perfect their job to be perfect without having to exert too much work but it takes work actually posted yesterday somebody sent me an article from the Washington Times that showed the serial industry is down 30% and the reason is Millennials Millennials don't eat cereal and when pulled why Millennials don't eat cereal it's because they like cereal they like milk but if you eat cereal and milk in a bowl somebody has to wash the bowl and because they don't want to have to make the effort of washing the bowl they don't eat cereal so the cereal industry is down 30% want they can eat throw out the wrapper so so it takes it takes aod so the key word here all we've read so far is five words but there's more to talk about in right if you're not willing to wash out your seral bowl then how much effort are you going to put into your marriage if you're not willing to work wash out your cereal bowl then what's your work ethic going to look like at work if you're not willing to wash out your cereal bow then how much aod are you going to put into amuna how much work are you going to do to live a life of Faith he warns us that the topic of this chapter is not something which is going to pull on the heartstrings these are difficult these are uh complicated difficult topics neveress we must we are obligated to reveal to the listening ear the truth um in the depth of these issues which are part of the very fabric part of the very makeup of a person right that's pretty Stern warning Okay so here it is the says we say this every day in it's from the Jewish people saw God's strong great hand excuse me what he had done in Egypt and they had what does mean so trans classically translated as fear they had fear of hem I prefer the translation of awe they were filled with a of the almighty so first first they were filled with awe then then they had faith in God and in Moshe his servant which is its own perplexing question what do you mean p seems to equate by Moshe they had faith inem and Moshe and there's a big discussion among what that means but for our purpose says say a famous question why does the Torah Place awe or fear before Faith really logically it should be the opposite you first have to believe in someone and then you can have awe of someone but if you don't have awe of them how could you I mean if you don't believe in them so it's the wrong order the P shouldn't say it should be sayu right first you believe someone exists and then you have your reaction to them you don't have your reaction to them and only later do you believe they exist you got to follow the question are you bothered by the question do you have an answer to the question I mean I could understand if you if you fear then you believe if you change the that's what he's saying it says fear then believe but it should be the opposite first you should believe yeah and then you fear you have to acknowledge someone exists and then you can react to them with awe but if you're not even sure they exist you're not going to have awe of them so the first level the more basic level is belief is Faith then you intensify that with a sense of awe or fear seems out of order but in the case of Hashem he's not P we can't see he's not concrete he's abstract so if you I I like to translate it as all also because if you look at everything and you see everything in the world and old Miracles that happen then you're in awe of him and you're so thankful that you have faith in him oh okay in other words first you react to what you see in the world and then you say oh there is a Gody right okay good so let's see what he says the from in his book he asked this question and to answer it he points Us in the direction of the Z in we're not going to read it it's in Aramaic let's continue with where he translates it he says it's not coincidence and it's not out of order at all it's only a person who has awe of God who can dwell with god with a true authentic sense of and only this person is really complete is whole is full in their service of it's not out of order in other words you're right a basic acknowledgement that God exists that you need to have before you have y but that's not what amuna is amuna is much more than a basic acknowledgement or concession that there is a God it's really the faith it's the belief it's living a life with Hashem in your life that Hashem is involved hashem's guiding hand hashem's Divine Providence hashem's love that Hashem is responsible for everything that happens to us in life so to see Hashem actively to be mindful of Hashem consistently to feel presence in our life which is the real amuna that's only after first you have to have the humility to realize wow oh there's a God he created the universe it's a magnificent World complex and detailed sophisticated there's an unbelievable world and it has a Creator who guides that world wow I guess if he guides that world he's also involved in in my life so you're right the basic amuna that comes before but the real found amuna of consistently feeling hashem's presence in your life seeing him in your life that only comes after you have the capacity for a sense of yeah I gave a drush a couple years ago I don't remember it it was about a scientists had done some research that talked about the capacity for a the importance of the capacity for a and I said I still believe that we we are to a certain degree losing the capacity there's nothing that Wows us anymore nothing gives us Goosebumps so every little thing awesome then God can't be so on the one hand we've diluted the word use of the word the word a means awesome and a means nothing anymore cuz everything's awesome that's awesome oh you got Dunkin Donuts coffee that's awesome it's not awesome just want dut is awesome my an it all day long yeah you know what I'm talking about no I'm I sing it but the Lego movie it's a song Everything Is Awesome there you go so if everything's awesome then nothing's awesome listen to the song but think about that it's really cute if everything is awesome if everything's awesome nothing's awesome cuz all by definition is not everything it's it's particular so I think we we are to a certain degree losing our capacity for a and it's a byproduct of a wonderful thing which is the unbelievable progress and advancement that we live with so in other words when the world changed super slowly and there was a major breakthrough you're like wow we went from not having a car to having a car like I used to have to ride a horse to California now I could drive a car to an airplane those are like major transformational it's unbelievable now the things that we couldn't even imagine 10 years ago it's like oh did you hear that came out oh okay cool and everything is obsolete in a month you all right everything's obsolete in a month we're progressing so fast things we never like do you remember when GPS's first came out remember when cell phones first came out you know people had a cell phone that huge block they plug into their car they walk around suitcase the that ball you would see like FaceTime you know gosh you can talk to someone on the screen confering s like FaceTime big deal you know so the point is the things that used to make us filled with or don't so and that's true in almost every area of life now is just that we we're like nonchalant we're casual we're callous things don't we're not filled with awe anymore and that's a very dangerous thing and the I spoke about the importance of the capacity for awe because what ends up happening when you don't feel awe you're arrogant you feel like nothing impresses eh even that language we didn't use that word when I was a kid that's like a new word eh eh eh that doesn't impress me how was this eh how was the r how oh did you see the you go to the program how was Disney eh it's like as this word it basically says I have no awe nothing impresses me eh nothing impresses me so it takes to feel a sense of awe takes unbelievable humility it requires you to say wow I'm small and that's great that's amazing that impresses me that gives me goosebumps I'm blowing away by that but we live in the information age and we live in the technology age and we live in the age where nothing impresses to me everything's I I've been in a company of people who were impressed with things that happened but they don't see it it's the hand of God they say oh what a coincidence right right so that's the next level is to feel a sense of awe and then to realize that which I have awe of is the almighty wow somebody coordinating somebody creating somebody who built this universe manages this universe who involved so that sense of awe of Y which is different than fear I'm not sure how roling intends it but I believe it's a much healthier view of y a less paralyzing debilitating view is to see it as a it's a healthy view rather than a scary view so he says only a person who has a and says wow this is an unbelievable world this Incredible Universe only he or she only that person can turn to the subject of their a and say wow you're involved in my life I'm only here because of the your good graces so he says let me explain let me expand on this as the ra brings in his book of three components of the mitvah of this is the and here they are the first the first component of the first part of that Mitzvah the first Mitzvah ofun is to know there's a God I the Lord your God is to know that we didn't come out of coincidence we don't exist by chance we don't exist because of a big bang maybe it is a big bang but God made the Big Bang We Exist because there is a first cause right other philosophers CA called that the first cause argument part and others yes for the ra these are part of absolutely so these are three mitzvas that all deal with the first is to believe that God is the first cause that if I trace the universe back to its origin I get to God and the second mitah the second component of is to believe that the first cause of the universe and the continued source of the universe is one and that is God so it's not that God set the world in motion but now there's another deity called nature it's not that God created the world and moved on to another project and now there's something else responsible for the way the world works but the statement of unity of God's existence that we say every day means that all everything that exists all traces back to Hashem he is both the first cause he's the source of the universe and he's the continued cause of the universe that's the second component and the third component is also says the ra the third component is the reaction or the response or is driven by the first two components if you really believe that God created the world and you really believe that God runs the world then you will arrive at the third Mitzvah which is the conclusion that wow I have to be filled with all and here he throws in fear which is important also I mean think about it with our children we want our children to respect us we want our children to have a of us and sometimes we need our children to fear us we want them to respect us and honor us we want them to want to emulate our ways and be inspired by us and ultimately have respect for us we would hope we are living a life that fills them with awe that they are AED by by who we are and the contributions we make and the role we have in their life and there needs to be a little bit of a dose of fear a little fear that we can we can create the consequences in their life that it's important for them to listen to us because we are in a position of authority over them so that's the third component of the Mitzvah if God created the world and he runs the world then I say wow I'm filled with all that's un that's awesome that's unbelievable and we can't be like those Heretics who go through life um thinking it's all chance right soon we're going to it's we're less than a month now away exactly one month from yesterday's perm and right preceding perm we have and we remember about amalik when amalik attacked us what was their strategy their methodology what was aik trying to do to us what is rash there quotes three different possibilities one is um core they splashed cold water on us we were on fire we just came from our CI we just walked out of the Amun we just walked out of a great mus we just walked out of an unbelievable shear and we were on fire we were ready to change the world and change our lives and conquer the world and they splashed cold water on us you know someone splashes cold water on you like I was so inspired I was so gungo I was so excited about that thing did you have to tell me that did you have to bring me down did you have to Splash cold water on me that was a mik but the other that rash brings is MRA mikra means chance chance happen stance coincidence which is by the way another way that people Splash cold water is I'm on fire with a and that person comes they say God it's chance it's nature it's a statistic it's data what are you talking about that's how they Splash cold water on you is by saying this is not providential this is not this is not God this is It's chance it's a coincidence so it says the rambam that the Mitzvah to remember amalik and to wipe out aik is to is to um never subscribe to a life of carry a life of carry is a life of chance and happen stance a Malik's attempted influence on us is to say abandon God walk away from this belief that there's a higher being it's all just chance there's something called nature there's a natural order everything that happens is just chance it's all just coincidence and we say no it's not coincidence at all the ram actually writes in the laws of titness laws of fasting that the purpose of a fast day is to withdraw from this world to be more spiritual and to remember that the world is not chance in coincidence to triumph over the attitude the philosophy of carry so for the r there's three components to the Mitzvah number one believe God exists number two believe in divine Providence that he not only created the world but he continues to interact with the world and number three as a result of the first two beliefs have awe of him and fear Him understand these consequences in other words your boss at work your boss at work you hopefully have respect for your boss at work you hopefully have awe of wow they're so impressive with what they've done but you also have a little bit of a dose of fear that if you don't produce that if you don't come through that if you don't fulfill your role he's going to fire you and he has that strength he has that capacity to fire you Theon has the ability to fire us it's called not waking up in the morning it fires us we're done either we've completed our mission in the world or we're undeserving of continuing so those are the three components but what do you see from here says R the ra count when the RA in that third component included in amuna subsumed under the obligation to have faith in God is a component of you see from the r as well that all our fear of is part of or a prerequisite to Faith inem by the way understand it two from this perspective the moment I think that I'm equal to God as God there me we both have opinions we both create things we both do things the moment I'm equal to God I don't really have faith in him faith in him means I understand that I am categorically different than him he's infinite I'm finite he's omnipotent I'm limited he has no beginning and no end I'm fragile I'm mortal so amuna is predicated on understanding that I am categoric God is categorically different than anyone and anything that exists God is alone he is unique so if you lack the you don't really have auna if you don't have a of God you don't understand how he's categorically different you're not filled with the awesomeness of the concept I I remember as a kid this is going to sound crazy I remember as a kid trying to think about like what it meant that God was here before the world okay I have parents they have parents they had Parents they had Parents I go all the way back okay before them was God what was before God nothing God always was and I remember I would get migraine headaches like as a kid I would try to think about that I get migraine headaches I just have to like train just stop thinking about that we can't grasp that we can't understand that because we're not God we can but that's awesomeness and you can say the opposite direction too everything will cease to exist he'll still be here like what does it mean to be here with nothing else we can't relate to that we can't identify with that we don't understand what that means but that's the awesomeness so the moment I think yeah there God there me we're equal Partners you know we run the world together both have opinions we both do things we're both responsible for Success so that's not realuna and Muna is predicated on understanding that God is categorically different than I am he's relatable I can't relate to anything about God in fact the ram writes that's why we always talk about God not in positive terms because we can't relate to God but in negative terms he's not bound by time he's not bound by space he's not bound by this he's not bound by that what we're saying is here's everything I know and he's not any of that what is he I can't relate to that try describing what coffee tastes like to somebody who never had coffee try describing to somebody who's color blind what the color is blue and pink and red look like if you can't relate to something you can't explain it we can't understand what God looks like cuz it's unrelatable so we Rah says we only describe him in the negative yesterday in the class you talked about the attributes of God though the positive attributes correct so we but they're anthropomorphisms meaning we attribute human character traits to God so that we can try to relate to them so when it says in this week's para after that God got angry God doesn't get angry there are no emotions for God why do we say he got angry he behaved in way that we would relate to as anger but he doesn't get angry God needed God doesn't need he's infinite God this that or the other thing so when we talk about anthropomorphisms we are projecting human character traits onto God as a means to identify with him but he is not any of those things so what he's getting at rolba is you need the humility to be filled with awe you need to have the capacity to sit back and say wow the constellations of the universe or biology chemistry physics or the beautiful sunset or the Grand Canyon or the the what others might have thought was chance but look at the amazing seeming coincidence that God orchestrated you need to be have the capacity to be filled with a sense of awe and in that space of awe now you can have amuna that wow God's in my life but if you have no capacity for allil if you are so arrogant that nothing impresses you oh God miraculously healed that person oh it totally worked out for them when it wasn't supposed to oh that Sunset oh that e it's all then if it's all e then you have no room to have of hem if you have no of hem you don't really have amuna the prerequisite of amuna is the acknowledgement the concession he's categorically different than I am I therefore have awe of him and as we learned in R earlier remembera talked about the importance of using imagination in amuna the importance of imagination in amuna that you have to be able to picture you have to be able to dream you have to be able to have Vision you have to be able to imagine because Hashem is invisible because he is intangible because he is abstract it requires invoking your sense of imagery and Imagination so this going to sound like heresy but Hashem is your imaginary friend only he's not imaginary now there to the degree that a child walks around with their imaginary friend and to the child that friend is real as real as you are their mother or father they about the friend is with him and don't forget to feed my friend there's my friend coming to the party and what's going to be with my friend right to the child that friend the friend is absolutely invisible and we know the friend doesn't even exist they're purely imaginary but to the child an imaginary friend is as real as their mother or father so to us is our imaginary friend only he's not imaginary kind say great story last night at dinner we're just sing there and it's me my six-year-old she's the one who's always talking about Hashem so she says no offense but I really love the show more than any of you out of nowhere that's where her brain is you know no offense to anyone no offense none taken n taken that's such a great analogy because that's really a level that we should be able to get to like in archa I my tra is terrible I I can't really connect with my tra for some reason not like I doing learning and I always think of fider on the roof standing up on the roof and talking to God and really talking to him and I I think that's like the imaginary friend analogy such that's exactly it because that is it you know I learned in earlier this morning with our men's group at the that you he we're concluding the book and at the end of the book of Pinkus is talking about the fact that too many people think that davening is for the realm of shul and the sitter the reason that we have the Liturgy the text the sitter and the obligation to Davin is because if we didn't have it days or weeks or months might go by where we wouldn't even talk to AEM so you need to have the obligation but that's just to make sure that we're doing it the real doing is outside the sitter the real doing is while you're making dinner or driving carpool or going to work or walking into the business meeting or at the gym or that's the real doing could you tell them the card analogy that's such a good my card analogy yeah cuz that really brings it sure to yeah that was one of those moments of of like Divine assistance that card analogy I don't know where I came up with that but I said the following you know it's your your wife's birthday or anniversary so you have to give a card so on the one hand if you go to the store and you buy a card and you hand her the blank card you have to give a card or you want to give a card you heard have to I said sorry said I said want to I don't know why you heard have to get your you got to get your hearing check so you go to the store and you buy the card that you want to give and you hand the blank card to your spouse to your husband so he'll say to you thank you I appreciate the effort but there's nothing written in the card like I appreciate the effort that you went and got the card but there's nothing personal there's nothing this in no way endear you to me me to you there's nothing here so on the other hand you say you know what why do I have to waste the money in the card I took the back of a napkin I take out my pen and I write the most beautiful and so so happiest birthday many more years been the best years of my life blah blah blah blah blah you hand the napkin so your spouse says sentiments are beautiful I really appreciate you take the time to write how you feel but you couldn't get a card like you didn't have the you couldn't make the effort to get a card so I like to say that when you do in from the sitter but you don't add anything personal it's like handing a blank card on the other hand you can't just Dove an outside the sitter and and write on the back of a napkin and never make the effort to go get the card it's the combination of the two which is really critical and that's what our rabbis envisioned they said here's the formula here's the template it's called The Sitter it's a template but fill it in make it your own you know like if you open a Microsoft Word or Microsoft Publisher or um or or um PowerPoint I don't know if you've ever had to make any of these presentations when you open them and it says you know create new document there's templates that pop up and you choose the template you want now you can't just print out the template and hand that to your boss that's not the presentation you got to actually write the presentation but what makes it look nice in the background and gets you started is the template so the sitter is the template wants you to make it personal so talk about you hop for the stock market that day and about the we supposed to learn s mayaan we're learning for her this morning so in you have her in mind and all the people you know are sick andu you know you D that the country wises up and chooses the proper president or candidate and of course Israel is always on your mind and Hashem wants us to to scribble in between you know on the card you got to underline and double underline the right words and you got to write your personal message in the card because that's what that's what makes it personal so R is developing here maybe we'll end here and we'll pick up we'll do the other half next week no that's okay I got to go too but what Revol is saying is y is the prerequisite to amuna if you lack awe of God you think you have amuna but you don't have am you think he's your buddy he's your friend he's your equal and he's not he's that also he should be your friend he should be accessible there should be some affection but he's different so the year sets God as different now you know he's different now you can have a sense of amuna amuna is not in somebody who's in your image amuna is a guy who's categorically different so he's proving here both from the P of why it first says they're standing at and they go wow sea split that's unbelievable wow the Egyptians pursuing us behind us and the sea in front of us and we're doomed and what was this all for and we're going to die and all of a sudden the wind blows and the Sea splits and there's a clear path for them to walk they say wow that's awesome that's unbelievable that's not chance that's not coincidence that's not happen stance there is a God who created the world who just orchestrated this for us right now now I have amuna now I know he loves me now he's in my life now I'm going to cling to him now I'm sticking with him first you have to be filled so you'll say but how do you achieve that if God never splits a c for you you're still waiting for that breakthrough moment of awe maybe we can talk about that next week but y and only then that's why for the is of all right happy we will pick this up next week