Part 131: You Like Ice Cream, You Love God

okay good morning Boer to want to thank our generous sponsors who sponsored the amuna series for the year Dr zavi and Bella Morgan who sponsored in memory of Rabbi Dr Brian gabit B Ru nasan who was and is such a role model to us of how to live a life of amuna of Faith Of Trust of belief of confidence of closeness with Hashem we finished the last packet which was a section in this wonderful saer by the notion that a righteous person lives with Amun as we introduce each and every week we are alive when we know there's something bigger than ourselves that's when we truly live with a vibrancy and a dynamism and a passion that's when we're alive and when we lose that we could be dead even while we are even while we are alive we're sleep walking through life thinking it's all about us our ego our happiness our pleasure our pride our credit the self-centered narcissistic person is dead while they're alive and the person who lives with Incredible faith and knows there's something bigger to which they need to dedicate their life a mission and a purpose that they need to serve a difference that they're meant to make such a person even when they are of limited capacity is vibrant and very much alive even if they are even if they are limited I shared with you our visit uh last month to RTI Hertz when we were in La a person can be paralyzed in every muscle in their body and be incredibly Dynamic and alive and Illuminating the world and a person can have mobility and health and athleticism and functionality and they might as well be dead because of how little difference they're making to anyone other than to themselves that is the thesis of the overall safer this notion of that if we're craving life if we want to be living then the way we find it is with that sense of is with that sense of amuna so we're starting a new chapter here in this book it's on page you have it in front of you the relationship between having fear or awe of God acknowledging God in our life and living with amuna with a relationship of Faith a communication a presence an idea that Hashem is more than just um in the abstract or conceptual God is not something I talk about in philosophy 101 trying to provide evidence to his existence but it's a genuine relationship I'm engaged in I said yesterday in the pares here it's worth repeating for those who heard it and for most of you who haven't that when Yakov is telling um ysf his story and yosef's Sons of how he got to that point and how he survived he describes Hashem he says God is not just the all powerful God is not just the source of the universe but he says Hashem and the language he uses is is a Shepherd the simple way to understand the p is God is the one who shepherded me in other words how I got here and where I am is not the result of chance or coincidence or Randomness in my life but there was a Shepherd who was taking me through and the shepherd's the one who orchestrated and organized and got me to this point but the ramban understands that the root of that word is not Shepherd it's rehea it's a friend but he's telling his children and grandchildren and I would argue this is our mission to tell our children grandchildren our neighbors and their children to tell anyone who will listen is that God is Not Just conceptual God is not just the topic of a philosophy class God is not someone to whom I owe things so I wake up and my day is regimented and reg and uh regulated because I can only eat this and look at this and go there and say that because what can I do I live in his kingdom and he is the king and that's what he demands and I have no other choice if that's the relationship one has with Hashem it's no wonder one's children will say I'm out of here because I don't live in his kingdom and I don't see him as The King and I don't feel obligated know what happens when I violate his word lightning doesn't strike and nothing bad happens and nothing goes wrong in fact the opposite I find greater happiness and greater Freedom when I explore and do things the way that I want to so we can't we can't live a life in which it feels a burden and obligation we're meeting a demand or an expectation what Yakov says is God not only my shepherd that I want you to know that everything that happens in my life I look back and I say it was for a reason there was a Shepherd who loved me I'm a member of his flock he took care of me he n he nurtures me and everything happened for a reason but more than just that he's my Rea he's my best friend he's my Confidant I'm never alone I can confide and tell him anything without judgment does that mean that there's no of course there is Hashem has expectations and there are consequences to what we do but no matter what Hashem designed us he knows our challenges our appetites our Temptations our obstacles our impediments he knows our assets and our virtues Hashem knows everything about us and therefore we can confide in him we can confide in him he is the ultimate what you'd call a safe space there was someone who I recently referred to a mental health professional and he said to me afterwards how refreshing and how incredible it is that there's so much that he lived his life bottling inside feeling he couldn't tell anyone in the world with a sense of Shame and a sense of guilt and a sense of and now he has an address that he can share and he can unload and he can talk to and he gets advice from without judgment now that doesn't mean that what he shares the person says you're amazing you're perfect everything's great tell me more it could be no you know that wasn't the best way to handle it let's talk about how to do it differently going forward or how do you conquer those demons those voices when they when they arise in your head but it means that there's an address well every one of us have that we have that therapist and is a lot cheaper and there's no Stigma and his name is Theon his name is the almighty and we could talk to him every day talk to him every single day ask him for help protest when we don't like the way he's doing things object Express gratitude for the things that went amazingly well you know I I always share with you that almost every time I speak but certainly before big speeches that I give I always have a little conversation with ribon Shalom asking for his help I always have the same conversation I tell him I'm doing this for you I'm trying to get your messages across please help this go well you know it's very easy when you have the butterflies in your stomach and you're about to go on stage and and you've brought to some place where they think that you're a good speaker and you're saying to yourself you know what I should have never come it would have been better if they believed it now I have to live up to it so the butterflies it's very easy to turn to God and do him in those moments like let this go well find the right words let it come across well let me just get out of here alive Let It Go well it's very very easy beforeand with the butterflies in your stomach but how many of us remember when it's done not necessarily in that moment at some point in that day or on the flight home say that went pretty well thank you so much thank you for it working out thank you for finding the right words thank you for not needing to run off stage to need a bathroom thank you for no one throwing rotten fruit at me thank you for thank you it went well how often do we remember the thank you the butterflies before we remember on the way into the boardroom or the operating room or the courtroom or on the way up to the that we remember well but after the fact the thank you when it went well we often we often neglect so there's two lives that we can live we can either live life with him in it or we're living a life with him out of it there's no sort of in between you know when it comes to philosophically there are three conclusions you can come to you can be a believer there's a Hashem there's a God there's a greater power you can be be an atheist there is no God the world came to be by chance by Randomness by The Big Bang or you can be an agnostic and agnostic Hedges their bet and they say not really sure there's a lot of evidence in this direction but I kind of feel in this other direction I don't really know I'm hedging my best sign me up under agnostic you know you can you can in theory be one of three but in practice you have to choose you're only one of two you're either living your life as a Believer or you're living your life as an atheist there's no way to live your life as an agnostic there's no way to choose a lifestyle that hedges in between the choices of your life the lifestyle that you craft and create is either the result of being a Believer or is it being an atheist that third choice you don't have the luxury when it comes to the choices that we make okay so let's start this piece the Jewish people merited A great miracle the splitting of the sea and in that moment we were elevated and we achieved incredible levels Kos is the verse says we read it every morning in our davening we get up to and Snippets hopefully In Our Lifetime the Jewish people saw God's outstretched arm how do you understand the word v translate that word from me here so you can translate it's no coincidence that the same letters the same root means both to see to have awe and to fear if you really see the then you can't help but to recoil with a sense of awe and if you have a really healthy sense of awe you can't help but to feel a sense of not fear ofes it's not a fear of punishment but it's a it's a notion of the the power and the awesomeness and the greatness and the fear of disappointment you know when you're younger you want to meet your parents' expectations because otherwise they're going to take your technology away otherwise they're going to ground you you can't go out to the party when you're younger you do what your parents ask or the expect they sent set because of your fear of being punished I don't want to be punished hopefully you get a little older when you're an adult with adult parents you have a year arus you say no my parents are great they were great I would never want to disappoint them by acting or behaving in a way which would be less than their expectation of me so both will use the word fear but it's a very very different kind of fear there can be a fear of punishment and there can be a fear of I don't want to not measure up I don't want to disappoint I don't want to come up short of the person that they think I could be that they've always taught me and they've always aspired for me to be and the same is true in our relationship with Hashem you can have a fear of Onish I'm going to do this because otherwise lightning is Strike I'm going to be a good boy or a good girl because otherwise the business deal won't go through otherwise I'll have bad Report on health otherwise that's a that's not what Hashem wants it's a very immature it's a very adolescent relationship with Hashem and maybe at one point we were immature in adolesence but it's time to grow up and when we grow up we develop a more mature Rel relationship with Hashem it's a different entirely categorically different type of year it's the year that says God is the creator of everything of all this he's the creator of the universe intricacy and detail and manua if I understand even the most basic levels of biology and chemistry and physics I can see God everywhere he is everything and he has he put me in this world because he wanted to give me the greatest thing he could give me which is himself and he has great expectations of me and my ability to change the world and in fact the greatest pleasure I can have is not the cheesecake it's not the chocolate cake it's not the potato chips the greatest pleasure I can have is not physical intimacy it's not more material physical things the greatest pleasure man is capable of and we all know this we also have tremendous Amnesia from it we have an ability to forget it as fast as it happens but we all know that the happiest most meaningful deepest most profound moments of our lives are the moments we feel we're making a difference that we were there for someone that we changed a life that we showed up that we fulfilled our purpose and why we were here that we made a difference that no one else in history and no one else in the future can make those are the moments that we swell with joy with meaning with fulfillment with satisfaction they are the moments that we feel the most alive that's why we're here to do to do all of that so in this more mature relationship with Hashem it's not about I do the right thing because otherwise God's going to ground me he's going to ground me because I'm not going to make money he's going to ground me with a poor health he's going to ground Me by having miserable children he's going to ground me however it's not a it's not a fear of punishment it's a God is great and he has great things in store for me and I don't want to come up short I don't want to fail him I don't want him to be disappointed in me so this word in that moment when they saw revelation God split the sea he violated The Rules of Nature he intervened in the world and they saw God Vu they saw God it's that same word means they saw God they had awe of God and they also were filled with a fear a fear not of being punished a fear of disappointing God this translation of the word y as awe is lost I've shared many times in this context that we use that word awesome so much that it means nothing to us anymore awesome it's awesome awesome that was awesome were you there it was awesome it's amazing that chocolate cake is awesome that we use that word awesome for things that are not filled with awe or worth our awe whatsoever and it leaves us with a much more limited vocabulary because we have no word left to say to describe the things that are truly awesome my kids know this is my personal hangup I hate when they use the word love to describe anything other than me because when they talk about oh I love that song I love that singer I love that book I love that dress I love that recipe I love that I always say I say you like those things you don't love them you love me why because if you use the same word to describe potato chips and me how am I meant to feel you have no other word left absolutely there's no other word left yummy there's no other word left I love the cake I love the cheesecake and I love you ABA that's it that's our relationship it's the same I'm a piece of cheesecake so I always say and they all they all know they can repeat back I know I like the cheesecake I love you ABA it's like good you got it try to just bang it home over and over and over when we abuse our vocabulary by misusing it we dilute its meaning and then we're lacking in the proper vocabulary to describe then so even even our kids how they going to get married how they tell a spouse what words will they use when they feel when they swell with this feeling of Love of connection of bonding when they know that they were meant to be together and they feel that they are one entity living One Life what are they going to say when their spouse has heard them describe I love the dress and I love the food and I love the song and I love the concert and I love the singer I love that show I love that what what's left so the same is true with the word awe we abuse that word awe and nothing is worthy of awe we have nothing that's worthy of awe I I uh told the story once I wrote the story a few years ago of um in Beethoven's house where there are thousands of people that go and his piano is roped off and uh and there was a girl a teenage girl who came she like oh Betto piano that's a that's awesome I'm going to play it and the museum Personnel who was there told the story about about one of the great pists of of of our time who was there and who was invited to play the piano and he sat down on the bench and he looked at and he got up and he said I I just can't I'm not worthy to play his piano and the contrast of the one who in fact was worthy being filled with such awe and he said I can't I can't touch it versus like the kid who took piano lessons for 15 minutes who says oh awesome that's Beethoven's piano cool let me play it let me let me right let me play it let me get a let me get a selfie with it and let me post it and hash I'm Beethoven or I don't know what the hashtag would be so so we're living in a generation that no longer feels awe and when you no longer think anything's worthy of awe you're not we're living in the generation of what's the opposite of awe e e this is a new language it's a new vocabulary it didn't exist when I was a kid we never said eh now you're like come here check this out the Grand Canyon Glacier National Park the Swiss Alps come here I have to show you something look at this look at this artwork look at this sculpture look at this moment in time where this Holocaust Survivor is holding hands with this new they things that you should look at and and get goosebumps and this generation looks at and goes I once saw a movie where the thing and it was even better nothing impresses anyone so the Jewish people stood opposite the doah they saw the sea was split they were filled with goosebumps and they said you know what I see I don't see the floor of a sea what I see is as what did they see as hasem he said wow filled with goosebumps I'm trembling I can't believe this moment is so exciting it's so invigorating it's so exhilarating it's so overwhelming I don't just see water and the floor the bed of the sea you know what I see see hasem that's unbelievable in that moment when the sea split they got they reached a level of wow now I know he's there now I know he cares now I'm in a relationship with him I don't understand says this isn't the first time they've encountered God by the time the sea splits what have they already lived through they've already lived through the 10 plagues they've already lived through the 10 plagues and the PK describ the people already had Faith they took philosophy 101 they went to the Bible codes class they they already heard the they had faith in God so what was new here what was revived here what was different or changed here that if in they already saw God they were believers they were turned into a community of Believers so what about this community of Believers was different when the sea split that they believe now even more says the following there are many many levels of Amun levels of Amun and the moment of the splitting of the sea they achieved an enormously high level this sounds like the opposite of what I was saying before before we said that there's no agnostic you're either living your life and you're making your choices and you're molding a lifestyle that reflects that you're a Believer or one could evaluate and look at your life and say you're an atheist no no no I'm an agnostic yeah but if I look at your life and the choices you make you're living the life of an atheist there there's no there's only two choices Nowa saying within amuna itself amuna is not binary I'm not either filled with the perfect amuna or I have no amuna there are gradations and there are levels of amuna person shouldn't walk out of here with Y don't be despondent and depressed don't walk out and say well I can't reach the level that he's describing I don't feel him in every moment I don't turn to him at every at every complication I don't feel gratitude for every so I guess I'm not a Believer there are levels it's not binary there's gray there's gradations there are levels and in that moment they went up a level in MIT they were a community of Believers if you woke him up in the middle of the night and said we're taking a census we're taking a survey would you consider yourself to believe in a higher power or not yeah put me under believer I believe there's a higher power but here all of a sudden they're at the splitting of the sea and in that moment everything worked out too perfectly at just the right time when it looked like there was no way out have you ever had that in your life have you ever been in a moment where you say I don't I know how this is going to work out there's no way we're making this flight there's no way they're getting into that school there's no way I'm going to close this deal or get that job there's no way this can work out there's just no way all the odds are against it we're in traffic it leaves the flight at this time there's always a big line at TSA it's just it is impossible in the natural order to be able for this to work out for this to be able to work out and then all of a sudden this clicked and that clicked and the other clicked and everything happened in a way boom you're on the in your seat on the plane and you go wow wow so in that moment you can go wow flight attendant I need a drink or in that moment you can go wow there was a plan for me and I want to see and thank Hashem for the fact that this all came through and for the fact that this all this all worked out that's the higher level so we're living in other words the believer on the way to the airport if you stop the person in the car you're stuck in traffic and there's an accident the lanes are shut down and the flight's leaving and the line you heard of TSA is enormous and you say there's just no way it's just not going to happen it's not going to happen but they said by the way do you believe in god oh yeah yeah yeah put me down under believer I believe in God yeah I ding this morning and I keep to MIT yeah put me under believer but there's no way this is going to happen and I'm trembling and I'm panicking and I'm sweating and I'm anxious and I'm figuring things out and I'm miserable and then you get on the plane you go I just went from yeah I'm a Believer to wow Hashem thank you thank you I feel that you wanted me to get home or get wherever I was meant to be thank you for making that work out so there levels how do you get to that higher level so this PK that we say every single day is the prescription it's the formula for how to do it V first you have to experience then normally we say if you believe in God then you'll have awe and fear of him right so normally we think it starts with faith first you have to believe I got to take philosophy 101 I got to examine the evidence I have to evaluate the circumstance first I have to look at the Bible codes take the discovery seminar oh okay I've been convinced amuna you're right you're right the arguments make sense they're persuasive they're compelling you're right I subscribe put me down under believer and then once I start being a Believer now I'm going to have a he says it's the opposite the opposite so what does it mean to go from to go from this fear awe to a place of Faith how do we describe how do we understand how do we Aspire for that kind of Faith what is that faith when ques the Mas he's talking about he explained is clinging to God is grabbing on to him is feeling his presence is living with that connection that awareness that mindfulness that presence it means that faith in God is I believe there's a God out there I believe there's a source of all I believe he created the universe I believe that there's a God out there what does that have to do with me what does it have to do with my daily life yes there's a higher power and yes there's a greater being and yes even he knows everything that's happening but what does that have to do with me that is the Baseline level that is the Baseline level amuna is a much higher level Amun is De glue it means to stick with Godus means that God's always next to me by my side Hashem come up to the shender to give the speech with me on the way down Hashem thank you we did a pretty good job together I appreciate your help your contribution as the senior partner in this endeavor it means that Hashem is always you're never alone Hashem I'm choosing what to watch let's see what would you want to watch with you sitting here next to me Hashem I'm choosing what to say what would I say if you're sitting here if you're sitting here next to me someone asked me a question the other day about whether they should attend a certain thing and they told me that their the rebi and Yeshiva used to say when asked with this question would say would you would you invite me to go to that and have me sit next to you there if you wouldn't don't go and if you would then beant then go and it's a great metric to measure the choices we make in life would would you watch that or go there if Hashem were on the couch next to you if Hashem were sitting in the theater next to you and if you wouldn't then he's still sitting in the theater next to you whether you think about it or not if you wouldn't then don't go if you have any sense of shame or hesitation or embarrassment about saying that or watching that or going there then don't do it then don't do it a person who lives at that level and who lives in this way has such a Consciousness a god presence in their life that he's with them that when you're struggling and you reach an obstacle you naturally turn to Hashem you lean on Hashem you rely on the explains this the prophet who was the source of the name of the saer and the what I like to repeat whose acronym of course is the righteous is alive through auna we're on the next page amuna is when the rubber hits the road real amuna is not when how hard you Shuckle and shol real amuna is not how much you're underlining at the amuna class real amuna is not how many amuna WhatsApp groups you belong to all those are love lovely and they're great you know it's like it's like you're a member of a recovery community and you're going to meetings all day long and then you go to the bar to have a drink to toast the meeting that you just came from when the rubber meets the road when you're tempted by that by that drink all those support groups and 12 steps and the recovery all that reading and all that listening is is it is it there is it informing you inspiring you is it supporting you in that moment you need it because if you're not I'm not going to say it's a waste it's important and it's good and hopefully it gets you there but it's not being put into practice it's not being executed and mo is the same way Amun is not just about reading the right things subscribing to the right groups going to the right class shuckling as hard as you can and then you go live life where you're stuck in life's challenges which I don't know anyone who wakes up on any day is there a human being who by the end of the day didn't have some challenge now again we should have the proper perspective on it and we should realize how minor minor things are and not be bent out of shape by it but to be alive is to is to have challenges to be alive is to have challenges with health with relationships with finances with children just with the workload with the over to be alive is to be alive is so in those moments of those challenges that happen on that daily basis do we tap into that account that reservoir of amuna that we supposedly were working on in all these other circumstances and settings that's how he's defining amuna amuna is not the knowledge of God's existence in the abstract amuna is when it's put into practice when it's put into play amuna is when in those moments you take that deep breath and you realize there's a bigger Plan and there's someone greater than yourself and whatever happens after you've given it your all is what is meant to be it is the most relaxing and liberating thing on the planet on the planet as somebody who's trying we're all trying to do this every day when you actually do remember to employ it it's the most liberating thing in the world because you sit there and you're you're running late and you're going to miss it or that didn't work out and you're panicking over what will they think of me or what will the impact or consequence of it be and then you realize you know I did everything I could and the rest is up to Hashem and whatever is happening right now is what's meant to be and it's for the best and then you just let go it's the most liberating feeling in the world and we all have that choice within us so either we can get you know Tighter and stricter and more tense and their blood pressure go up further and panic and sweat and cry and be anxious and mourn and grieve and or we can just let go and realize I've done my all we're only natural we're human and we have human emotions but I've done my all and I'm going to let go because it's up to Theon so that notion of sticking with him of sticking with him in all times in all places in all circumstance that's to the person who's a andas go hand in hand said if you have true genuine authentic amuna if you really really believe in him then you stick with him then you cling to him it's not just lip service it's not just Theory and that's what me when he said the the righteous person lives with that's the essence of all Torah now again we're so forgetful the default is not to believe in God and then we forget the the fault is that we live our lives forgetting he's there and we have to be reminded so he created 613 reminders oh you're about to eat take a moment I want you to think about what you're going to eat what you're going to say before you eat what you're going to say after you eat because by doing that you know who you're going to remember says God you're going to remember me and where that food came from and be thankful for it and ask for food tomorrow as well so in every aspect of Our Lives May what we study together at length 100 bras a day and the daving three times a day and from how we wake up in what order we put our shoes on and tie those shoes to as we fall asleep the last words on our lips shma from when we wake up till we fall asleep is all Hashem waving saying remember me because you're going to be tempted to forget because I'm putting you into a world where I'm invisible and you don't see me or hear from me or know me and it's going to be so so easy to forget I'm here so I'm going to send you little reminders little bids for connection throughout the day reciprocate accept the bid and make a connection back to me so that in the middle of your day when you're tempted most to forget that I'm with you in the courtroom and the boardroom and the operating room I'm with you in the kitchen at the gym in the supermarket I'm with you in the car to the airport that's running I'm with you I'll make these bids for connections so you remember and why am I doing that says God I'm not doing that because I have such an ego I need you to bow to me I'm doing that because your life will be so much better if I'm in it your life will be so much better if I'm in it let me help you help me help you says Hashem let me help you have a relationship with me put me in your life and I can help you and I can help you but we have to take that first step so amuna is not in the abstract or in philosophical conceptual amuna is when it's amuna is that when I then cling to him when I stick with him when I believe he has my back and I'm sticking with him like glue but we still have left to Define saysa why do I need a to get to that level of a of why must preced it let's just start with this we'll just do a little bit more and the answer is because we live in a world where our natural tendency is that we are drawn to The Superficial we're drawn to the external we're drawn to the shallow we're drawn to the material because think about our day from when we wake up in the morning we have to relieve our our El and we're thirsty and we have to get dressed and put on that clothing and we have to our whole day is defined by our interaction with the physical world we have physical needs we experience physical Pleasures we pursue physical things we live in the physical world we are physical beings so much so that we sometimes Define ourselves only by our physicality who am I the one I see in the mirror that's me but the truth is that's not us who we are really in our Essence in our core who we are is what you can't see in any mirror and what no one can see altogether and that is ourish we're not a body that has a soul we are a soul and we happen to have a body and we have that body for a very finite amount of time I'll keep coming back to because I've already stated he's one of my heroes Hertz his body has failed him to the degree a body can fail it can't fail him any further nothing literally is working it's paralyzed except his eyes so who is he that body that essential lifeless body the dysfunctional body that doesn't work is that him if that were him he would have given up long ago who is he is everything other than that body the body's been taken away from him and all he has is everything which is his soul and he uses his eyes I hope you've all subscribed he writes a beautiful beautiful blog every week Torah every week painstakingly takes an entire day we saw how long it takes him to write one word but with the movement of his eyes and it's so worth it it's never wo is me and this is miserable and I'm trying to find the courage to fight through it's always how great Hashem is and the beautiful thing that happened that week and how amazing the world is and let me tell you if he can find a way to see The Good the leros Tove that positivity reaction to the negativity bias that R gold spoke about this past shabas if he could find that capacity of Theo's Tove then we can because guess what if you woke up this morning and you're arms worked and your feet worked and you got out of bed you're already life years ahead of most people that's the L Tove so you woke up and you're already you're already winning the game no matter what else you're going to confront that day the leros the leros Tove so we are these physical beings we think we are we make that mistake we're drawn to defining ourselves in those limited ways our senses are all designed to perceive the physical world right we don't have we have a sixth sense but that Sixth Sense doesn't perceive spirituality our five senses are all designed to be able to interact with this physical world so we're physical beings living in a physical world who are interacting with it using our physical senses there's only one problem God is Not physical God is not perceivable or measurable according to the physical standards who sh so the power the force that disconnects us from this physical world is we have to make an extra effort because we don't have one of our five senses because you can't see him or hear him or measure him because you can't Google him we have to make an extra effort to employ an extra sense to perceive his existence and to develop a relationship with him so in other words we have to redevelop the capacity for a you can see Hashem where in the Grand Canyon and the Swiss Alps and Beethoven's piano and the birth of a child and when everything works out you can see Hashem in the beautiful glow of the Kaneka candles or the smile of your child or the cute thing that they said you can see Hashem all around us only you don't see him with one of the normal five senses that we use for this world we have to harness and we have to cultivate and refine within us this extra sense and that extra sense is called the sense of to live life with to be a where you look around this world and you say Hashem is with me what should we watch Hashem is with me what should I say Hashem is with me I'm not going to Panic or fear Hashem is with me I have to overflow with gratitude for everything he just did a mindfulness and a Consciousness a the king so when we live life with the lights on when we live life in high definition then we see him everywhere if it's black and white you can't see him or if you didn't get that cataract repaired then you're looking you're living your life looking through a cloud a haze a phase then you're not going to see Hashem but if you repair your spiritual Cataract and if you get your high definition and you're looking everywhere then in fact you'll see him everywhere Okay so does not want us to be immersed in the physicality of this world not to Define ourselves by those who don't have a Hashem it's altogether different lifestyle we quoted the bashem you could either hear the music or you don't hear it if you walk into a room and you don't hear the music but it's a room full of people listening to the music you say these nutcases they're gyrating they look like they're having seizures they're doing something it's called dancing it's called dancing if you don't hear the music then you don't see them as dancing you see them as actually bizarre as crazy people but if you hear the music all you want to do is jump in the middle and start moving and dancing with them is hearing the music turn up the volume on the music turn down the volume on the gmas turn down the volume on the physical and turn up the volume and seeing Hashem everywhere because he's all around us through the amazing things that happen Hashem is all around us there are brilliant coincidences and random acts of goodness and beautiful physical manifestations there is there are Miracles literally all around us are our eyes open are our antennas extended do we see them acknowledge them and feel them because if we live if we're looking we'll be filled with awe and if we're looking and we're filled with awe it will result in a heightened level of amuna an absolute knowledge of hashem's existence M hasem will pick up with this next week