Part 130: Belief in God Must Lead to Being Like God

bov good morning I want to thank our sponsors for the year for the amuna series although there still is the opportunity to sponsor each individual Shear thank you to Dr zi and Bella Morgan who sponsored Le nishmas Rabbi Dr Brian gavit bar Ru nasan today uh we'll be celebrating a beautiful here in South Florida joining with Jews around the world the hash of the daom it's all dedicated in memory our South Florida seeum in memory of Brian as well his n should have a huge Aliyah we are finishing the booklet the packet that's in front of you today which represents this series of proc we've been learning together in the idea that we actually find life we live life when we live with amuna you can be dead even while you're alive oops you can be alive even while you are even while you're dead and the way that we achieve life the way we achieve immortality is by living with a sense of amuna when our life is informed and animated by the presence of Hashem by a feeling of mission Driven Life by having purpose in our lives by finding meaning in our lives by um conceding that there's someone bigger and greater than us in our lives by not having too much pride or arrogance but recognizing that we're not independent but we depend on him when a person lives life that way they're living a life in high definition if a person lives life without God then in fact they're dead even while they're alive they're not even in black and white it's off all together that to be alive a person has to be connected to hasm we said yesterday in the para class in our paraa when Yehuda confronts yose and he's recounting their whole exchange and the whole episode that led them that point Yehuda says to Y that if he will he says when you demanded that down here I told you our father is inconsolable our father's devastated our father's already broken he's lost one child and if you make us bring the second child he abandons his father V he will die so the simple understanding is who will die his father Yakov Yakov has lost one child and if you make us bring bamin and he potentially loses a second child he will surely die he cannot survive he will never endure however others suggest that we read it differently means that if you leave your father V the child the child who disconnects from his father the child who's living a life as if they're independent born of Immaculate Conception as if they've appeared in this world out of nowhere responsible for everything in their own success in their own life vame such a person is dead even while they're alive that we have a father in Heaven and the degree to which we attach ourselves to him we're alive we're alive means to truly have life you can we've been learning that you can understand that in the simplest sense is if you want to live a life of Serenity and calm and Tranquility if you want physical well-being spiritual emotional wellbeing the more you submit to a higher power the more that you recognize you don't have control but relinquish the control to him we take our own initiative but we balance the initiative with trust and faith in him then we're alive all the studies show that the more that you believe and the more you let go the better your health and wellness the better your emotional well-being the better your relationships the less you let go and the more you hold on the more arrogant and the more controlling and the more envious and the more angry and the more all of this will uh disconnect you from people around you and certainly to the almighty himself so if we abandon Our Father we cannot survive what gives us I'm going to speak later this morning if I have time to finish writing it but I'll speak later this morning about how Torah is ensured that connection and our survival throughout the ages it's really extraordinary I'm going to mention a few stories but throughout the worst atrocities and the worst systematic attempts to exterminate us and the darkest and bleakest times what nourish nurtured the Jewish soul and what kept the Jewish people alive was Torah was Torah we're seeing what happens when you abandon Torah the levels of assimilation and intermarriage in this country and in our world as damaging and devastating as the rise of anti-Semitism what's lost in the conversation is how much it pales in comparison statistically to the annihilation we're doing to ourselves if a person is truly disturbed by anti-semites aggressive attitude toy try to destroy the Jewish people then we should be moved to fight the destruction of the Jewish people by doing Outreach and by getting involved and not seeing our own demise we're killing ourselves at a much faster rate and in a much more egregious fashion than anti-semites could ever be successful we are taking care of ourselves in this country anti-semites should feel free to sit back and watch they don't even need to do their work because we tragically are doing it for them so we should be moved to realize that there's a world of Jews out there who don't feel has don't see him don't know him who don't have access to our sacred Torah don't understand its Timeless messages don't realize that to be alive means for the Jewish people to be alive and vibrant and have a bright future we have to be connected to God not only in abstract or Theory not only in the sh or the B medish but as you've heard me speak about a lot lately in our homes and in our daily lives and in our conversations and in our value system it has to permeate our entire being it has to be who we are and how we behave and how we carry ourselves if we want to secure the future the continuity the life and the living of the Jewish people going for forward soad we're in the second paragraph of page and has just dealt with the following question we all know the story we ended with this last week we know the story that God is in the middle of visiting aam aam has had surgery no anesthesia at an adult age he's on the third day of recovery which is the most painful day he's sitting outside of his tent why is he outside of his tent he should be convalescing and Rec recuperating in his bed at home drinking milkshakes why is he binge watching Netflix why is he outside of his tent because for a ainu it was more painful to think that he was not going to be helping others than it would be to be recovering from surgery with no anesthesia so he's outside of his tent desperate and eager and waiting to be able to be hospitable that is for him the best medicine the greatest medicine for a ainu is not peret or oxycodone or it wasn't anesthesia the best medicine and painkiller for ainu is being hospitable is caring about others is being selfless so God comes to visit him and in that way he's a model for us a model of we have a responsibility to visit the sick to try to take away some of their pain that when we are pay company to the sick we take away a portion of their of their pain there's a doctor Dr Jerome grman happens to be mishak cousin of my father-in-law but he's also world famous New York Times best-selling author doctor physician Harvard Medical School Professor writer he's written many many bestselling books and in one of those books he tells the story about a woman who whom he had been treating and uh she was in the hospital and her health was failing and he came to the conclusion that there was nothing more that he could do so he tells the story that he came to visit her late in the day when there wouldn't be the hust B of the hospital which is also a message of and when we schedule to do it not when it's convenient for us but when it's best for the person that we're visiting and he goes and he sits by her bedside he holds her hands he's usual doctor in that sense his level of of um of of personal concern and connection commitment and he makes small talk and he says I need to tell you something and he said he writes that he hears from the quiver in her voice that she knows exactly what he's about to say but he says it nonetheless and he says to her you know we've done this and we've done that and I've always been honest and a straight shooter with you and I have to tell you that unfortunately I don't think there's any more medicine there's no more treatments that we can give we've run we've come to the end of the line and she paused and she cried and she looks at him and she squeezes his hand a little tighter and she says there is one more medicine you can give me it's the medicine of friendship it's the medicine of friendship and he writes in the book that he realized then that in addition to all of the chemicals and biologics and all the medicines and all the treatments that we give but camaraderie companionship the friendship that we give literally relieves pain and suffering it makes a person know they're not alone where no we carry the burden making it a little bit lighter for the other person and and hopefully that gives them the strength to be able to go through the truth is that he was anticipating a gamar the gamar says that when you visit a sick person you take away 60th of their illness so you'll ask well why don't we just get 60 people to visit them and then we can make them all better but it doesn't work that way the math doesn't work that way but when you visit somebody and and again the research and studies you can Google it if you don't believe or trust me but they show that as well that the degree to which a person feels they have companionship and camaraderie it takes away part of their pain I once called Dr David pelovitz with a very very ult question I had to deal with a very difficult question and he is you know the great psychologist and professor and teacher and role model for so many of us in so many ways so he said to me he goes Ram that's a difficult question and I don't know what to tell you I don't have an answer but I'll tell you this he said he said studies show that if a person's trying to climb a mountain if they're by themselves it feels extremely Steep and the degree to which they have other people around them the mountain feels less steep when they climb it physically literally so he says I don't have a good answer for you but I want you to know I'm here to climb the mountain with you so it feels a little less Steep and it was it was a great answer it was humble of him first of all I don't have the right answer but I want you to know you're not alone so when we visit someone who's sick we're telling them is we hope we're making the mountain that you need to climb the mountain that's in front of you we're hopefully making it a little more shallow a little less steep so K comes to visitu he comes to p and we emulate his way by visiting the sick ourselves and what is A's reaction he sees these Three Angels they're walking in the guise of men oh finally his chance Hospitality he's going to welcome them in and cook for them take care of them and he says TM if you don't mind could you give me a minute could you wait I'll be right back I've got to take care of them and what does God say I would think I would say l life you're talking to me I'm the source of all the King of Kings the infinite the unipotent the Divine and you're going to neglect me and walk away from me and put me on hold to take a call from someone else are you kidding me but what does God do instead he says you give me Pride you did the right thing so asks Rola why did God have to create that conflict to begin with if he sent these angels if they're really just emissaries of his why didn't he send them when he was done with the visit why did he create the conflict to begin with and RBA writes again this is what we ended with last time is that wanted to test and he to see whether avam would understand that to believe in God doesn't just mean in Concept in concept and theory and Abstract to believe in God is not a phys philosophical conclusion belief in God must filter down and translate into becoming a Godly personality we all know and we're terribly Disturbed I constantly am talking to people who are turned off to Judaism or to Orthodoxy because of people who supposedly are very religious but don't act very righteous now in many or most of the cases of the people have turned off they've already been turned off or they're looking for the cop out or the excuse and that's a convenient one if they were really looking in the mirror honestly evaluated the issue for themselves I go to the gym and the trainer I find eating a doughnut in the corner so I'm going to not go to the gym I mean I'm going to punish myself and not work out cu the trainer who's been lecturing me about nutrition and diet I find him in the corner I find him in the in the parking lot in the back of Dunkin' Donuts eating a whole dozen donuts and therefore I'm going to get even with him by saying I'm not going to the gym anymore and I'm not eating healthy that's just foolish it's foolish yes it's disturbing and yes it's duplicitous and hypocritical and yes it's a turnoff but so what in the end we're not doing it for anyone else we're doing it because it's true and it's right and it's for ourselves and yet it is such a turnoff including to me when I interact with supposedly religious people and they're not righteous people I wonder what's the point of religion where is all their religion that's the message God was sending off from you believe in me and you talk to me and you claim to love me can't just be philosophical conceptual it can't be external it has to filter down to molding and shaping who you are so I'm sending you Three Angels while you're talking to me and let's see are you going to Shuckle harder have a longer sh talking to me or are you going to stop and say oh there's people who need help I've got to help them what's more important to talk to God or to be like God the greatest Testament of loving God is willingness to even interrupt your conversation and audience with him to go and to be like him we would all be happy for our children to hang up on us because they have to go do a for their sibling if they say can I call you back because one of my brothers or sisters are calling and they need something I want to help them you would you wouldn't say I'm the parent I'm all of your parent to take care of one of my other children going to hang up on me you'd never say that you'd say that's the greatest joy there is so that's what that's what who set up and that's the message Raa is concluding this entire section we've been studying with that belief and faith and God translates into MOS if we want to improve our character we don't improve our character and then find God find God and finding God should mean and must mean being better becoming better improving our character interrupts his meeting with God his R the Divine and he asked God to wait for him don't go don't leave I'll be back in a minute he doesn't say look God good talk good talk what they what are they call it DMC the kids today DMC I told you did you didn't do your homework you're supposed to call your grandchildren and say let's have a DMC you'll blow them away you'll make them so excited did they love it how excited were they a DMC a deep meaningful you don't have kids at home a deep you do have kids at home that's Lea DMC deep meaningful conversation it is a deep meaningful I had to get a whole vocabulary I had to post a glossery to my refrigerator to be able to talk to my kids today I don't know what they're talking about flex and DMC and this and I don't know what they're talking about all right that's another class but anyway so so God Aram doesn't say to him God good DMC good deep meaningful conversation gotta go we'll pick it up another time he says could you wait here wait here I'll be back and he taught us a very very important principle that being like God is even better more important a higher priority than talking to God being like God is a higher priority than talking to God so the person who walks around all day the person who tells you with God's help and please God and thank God and then they're a jerk they're obnoxious they're mean they're insensitive they're C they're callous they're cruel they don't really believe in God you cannot claim to believe in God and love God and not be like God that's rba's message to us if we believe in him if we love him if we worship him if we if we uh submit to him then we are committed to be like him so we saw in this case that says I've discovered God oh that means I've got to go be hospitable to these three Nomads who need my help points out who does interrupt the conversation with god to welcome three distinguished raban with long beards and long black coats three righteous women who artc books are written about their unparalleled is that who a stopping to welcome interrupting his conversation with god to have in his home who was he inviting into his home three idolators from his perspective pagans people who have so little in common with him but you know what they have in common with him everything it's called Humanity they're other people and they need him so he stops what he's doing and he goes and he concerns himself with them with them so the R P wrote a beautiful essay about the C masas 100,000 people are gathering and Met Life today we have a fraction of that Gathering down here but people gathering around the world he wrote a beautiful essay about the I forgot if you called it New Year's resolutions but the commitments the preparation we should be making for the DFI masas and one of them was don't forget the non-jewish security guards and personnel and staff that today is their New Year's and their day off don't forget to thank them and acknowledge that they're that they're working on their day off so that we could celebrate our Torah Humanity we connect to humanity we care about Humanity we're children of God we're Salim so to love God is to be like God so yeah you know we have we we are God's eldest children not supposed to love your oldest child more than your older children so we are we have the status of being God's oldest child but God loves his other children okay not as much but he loves his other children he loves his other children and we have to love our siblings too however much we have in common or no matter the differences the says when God creates the world he turns and he says let us make man in our image the fact that there's godliness in US means that we have the ability to find God you see I maybe this is arrogant or obnoxious but even the people who claim to me to not believe in God I don't believe them they don't believe in God I think every Jew in their kishkas in their core knows that Salim inside them there are layers and layers and layers of baggage layers of hurt layers of not wanting to make a change layers of all kinds of things that are barriers to the person being in contact with the truth truth that's buried deep inside them the pin as much as there's air in their lungs and a beat in their heart as much as we are alive and animated it's because we have aim inside us and we can no more deny that than we can deny who our parents are or that we were born to to people that Salim is inside us it's what we know to be true that we come from something much bigger and much greater than ourselves that Salim by the way is the source of the obligation of you I have to love my neighbor like myself why what if my neighbor is not lovable there are non- lovable people there are unlovable people in this world don't start thinking of who they are in your life I know right now that's where you all went especially if they're members of your family don't think about the unlovable people but there are people who are Kim they feel practically unlovable so if you look at the end of that we have to love God why Anem why does it PK end love your neighbor like yourself I am God okay nice to meet you God I'm pretty sure we know each other we've had this introduction several times why are you reminding us here in this context and the commentators explained very simply God says hi I'm God I set up the whole world I created all people and that's a piece of me and everyone and the reason that you can and must love everyone is because there is something redeemable and lovable in everyone and how do I know that says God cuz ANM there's a piece in me in everyone and to the degree to which you declare someone unlovable and the degree to which you cannot find anything to love is an act of heresy you're actually denying God you're not just denying the other person because you're denying the godliness in the other person everyone it might be very hard to find it might take a scavenger hunt and a research crew an archaeologist and it might take an enormous effort to find anything lovable or redeemable in some people but everyone has it in them and that's how is go find it go search and find something redeemable something lovable in what way they are at Salim they are embodiment of God because to love other people is to love the godliness in them and to declare someone unlovable is to deny that God is in every one of us it's true about how our relationship with ourselves we often talk about we have a relationship with other people we have a relationship with God but most important and most neglected is the relationship we have with ourselves we are in a world of people who don't love themselves who don't forgin themselves who don't give themselves the benefit of the doubt or let themselves off the hook or don't move past the mistakes they've made there there's a world of people who love themselves too much we know such people too there's a high correlation between the unlovables and those who love themselves too much but not for now but as much as there's a world of people who are unlovable there are people who don't love themselves we're seeing the consequences of people who don't love themselves mental health and depression and anxiety suicidal ideation because there are people who think that they're not lovable there people who don't realize that there's aim inside themselves that they have godliness and a Godly soul and a Godly spirit and they need to nourish and nurture it and bring it out to light that fire as we spoke about last week and fan that flame until it burns bright until it burns bright so when we get to kidu God said let us make man in our image let him be like us so God here has revealed his whole purpose of creating the world he created the world for us to not only know he exists and have a relationship with him but significantly to be like him so amuna must translate amuna cannot just be I tell the world and I preach to the world and I lecture the world about how I found God I found God then I cut Corners in business then I'm a ruthless competitor I cut Corners then I'm insensitive and unkind I don't leave nice tips I don't hold a door I don't say please and thank you I I I'm abusive to my spouse and children and I'm controlling and manipulative if you're doing all those things stop saying you love God you don't know God cuz if you knew God you you would want to know the god in you and you would never be like that to know God is Not only to love God to know God is to want to be like God imitation is the highest form of flattery if we want to flatter and love God then it means a commitment to be like him and so you'll say well my genetics and my predispositions is just not who I am or how I can be I live a life where I get angry easily or I'm jealous all the time or I struggle with arrogance or I or I or I I'm just that person it's not true go back to that word when God said n let us make man he said it in the plural why did he say it in the plural to whom was God talking there was no one else he created a world and true it's the sixth day of creation to whom is God addressing when he says so the ra says that he's addressing the Earth and everything he had created on the first six days he's looking at the earth and the vegetation and the heavens and the animals and he says new n new Earth world I put you all in place I built you all now it's time let us make man because that's why you're all here to serve him so let's go let's make it happen he turns to the Mother Earth and he says you have the ingredients let's gather up some clay and we're going to make men the says that though hasem created the entire world and everything in it he's using the Royal we in order to Model A sense of humility God is the source of everything he doesn't need anyone's advice he doesn't have to say we it's the Royal we let us make man he probably said it with a British accent let us make man let us make man because he was modeling humility for us Rashi says NASA third explanation teaching us a very fundamental lesson no matter how smart you are no matter how good you are no matter how great you are always confer consult with those less than you because God is turning to the angels and saying Nas no you want to help me you want to partner with me what's your feedback I'm interested in your opinion and God was modeling for us that God is perfect omnipotent and infinite he doesn't need anyone else's opinion and he certainly doesn't need anyone else's help and yet he said because he was modeling for us an attitude of humility so these are all beautiful four different ideas about three different ideas about what NASA means but the Z's definition of NASA is the most powerful to me says the Z Nas you know who God was talking to he was talking to every one of us Nas New together let us make you together I'll mix the ingredients and I'll implant the Nish and now you go live your life and you mold and shapee your character let's partner in making you don't be fatalistic and don't say it's predetermined and don't say that I'm predisposed and don't say this is just who I am that we have that capacity to do it together when did we accept that invitation in Partnership God says let's make you together when did we accept it what else does that word NASA appear the med connects the two and says when we stood at the base of that mountain and God said I'd like to give you the Torah and we said that n Okay I accept the invitation I'm in God invited us let us make man let's do this together let's be a unit and we accepted the invitation when we said so don't be fatalistic and don't assume it's who you are and don't say I'm just impatient or I get angry easily or I get jealous easily okay maybe you do that doesn't mean that you can't accept the invitation to be a partner to conquer that and to mold that and to shap that so the final paragraph we've merited to understand now why the Torah goes on and on about this quality of so this entire section that we've been studying together has developed the idea amuna and good character go hand in hand if you have it's not that if I have good character oh I'm a good person I'm a good character I'm going to study Torah now I'll find Hashem find Hashem and it should lead you to want to mold and shape and have a better and have a better character to be who to be better people who we are have less anger in your life realize you're not in control and the world doesn't have to conform to the way you want it to be there's a higher power submit to God and you'll get angry less often Envy realize that there's a God who gives you everything that you need and everything that's right for you and take initiative and ask him for more but don't be jealous and envious and Petty with your friend why you should have it and they shouldn't because whatever God gives each person if you submit to the higher power you're not going to have Envy you won't have anger you won't have Envy you won't have arrogance you won't the meidos will improve by working and exercising on the amuna we usually think work on the mid amuna will improve it's the opposite says work on the amuna work on feeling hashem's presence in our life and when you're about to react with anger when you're about to fly into a fit of rage when you're about to look with a jealous eye when you're about to swell with an arrogant heart when you're about to stop yourself when you're about to panic with anxiety say one second I go to this class Wednesday mornings I've been going for years not just for the coffee for the jolt of amuna and I forgot don't get angry don't be envious don't panic and get anxious it literally can transform Our Lives by working on that amuna that knowledge that Hashem is in our life we will see the results the positive outcome and results please God will be measurable in our lives sorry for the abridge class today but have a see got to get to wishing everyone a great day