Part 133: Don’t Forget He is Here

good morning Boer to looking at it's like we're giving sheer we're learning together in uh New York the truth is in New York you wouldn't be wearing your winter coats and your Uggs because you'd be indoors where there's heat only here in Florida sometimes Hashem mixes things up so that we can appreciate the small things like walking outside without a coat it's a big br okay want to thank our sponsors for our living with amuna series for the year doctors Ai and Bella Morgan we're so grateful for their generosity who've sponsored the Z nishas our dear and beloved and sorely missed friend Rabbi Dr Brian galet should continue to have a great Aliyah we are finishing up this piece in as I mention every week we actually saw those learning the da probably not a lot of people in here but yesterday's da had that the um the righteous even when they die are still among the living because their lessons their values their ideals we draw from and the wicked even while they're alive are considered to be dead because they make no real contribution they have nothing to offer they make the world a darker place instead of Illuminating and making it lighter so to live through amuna amuna amuna illuminates our patha gives us life and to a degree amuna gives us immortality that we're able to live forever not just in the Here and Now not just in this world but when we live with and when we transmit to the Future Generations a sense of a moral compass and amuna Compass of who we are where we come from and where we're going then we achieve a level of immortality so we are on this piece called year ofuna we've been discussing the relationship between having an awe and fear of hem and faith and belief in him first you see and then you recoil with a sense of awe and then you trust with a sense of amuna it's not that if I live with amuna I'll see Hashem everywhere it's that if I choose to see hasem everywhere then I'm going to live with amuna because if I see him everywhere he's always with me I have nothing to be anxious or worried or envious about I have nothing to fear because he's always with me and by my side so let's start again the bottom of page and turn over the page and continue from there gives us a general principle how to attach ourselves to him he commanded us he said be holy some seats up here ladies come right near the coffee you could stay warm stay warm and stay awake two important things so Kad to remember last week we discussed that as Jews we live not for happiness we live for oh boy we live not thank you we don't live for happiness we live for Holiness our mission our mandate our life our values our goals we measure every day by the end of that day not how happy we were how holy we were and again holy is a Christian word not a Jewish word how holy means how much did we take the physical world in which we live and did we Elevate did we transform it did we enrich it in other words we had to eat but was our eating gluttonous did we dive straight in was it all you could eat did we stuff our face was it UND Discerning or did we eat in a way which nourishes not only our body but our soul by eating kosher and by making a br before and after and by eating in a healthy way and stopping when we're full we engage in conversation relationships so do we do we uh transact in Gossip or are we careful that we build people up and we are scrupulous with our language not to use profanity we operate in this physical world so the end of the day we measure whether it was Holiness or Happiness by how much we use the physical world to advance our soul do we nourish just our body or also our soul I think I mentioned last week that the conversation the question although apparently it doesn't matter what I said last week I could say it every week but when you see someone you don't just say how are you doing and you don't just say what's the good news you say how is your Nish how's your soul how's your soul everybody cor is about their you know their body my hip and my knee and my back and my sugar level and my this and I'm tired and I'm hungry and I'm cold that's nice how's your Nisha doing when's the last time you noticed your soul is your soul on fire or is your soul ice cold is it wide awake or is your soul fast asleep is your soul connected with the one above and with those around you or is your soul hibernating like an iguana about to fall out of a tree what is how is your soul how is your soul wish I was joking you got to be careful when you're walking out there today because if we want to attach ourselves to Hashem if we want to feel his presence in our life then he's holy he's the source of Holiness and we're defining Holiness here as discipline self-control self-regulation Integrity dignity and if we want to attach ourselves to him and feel close to him then we have to be like him you can't be near him or connected with him if we're not like him and that's why we strive for Holiness not just for happiness because God says he is purely spiritual and we operate and we are limited and we are defined also by our physical characteristics and the physical world the more we are able to transcend and lift ourselves above only being defined by our body the more we can connect with him and what is the means or mechanism through which we attach ourselves to him made a command because he really wants to feel connected you remember the rebba who told the bring me back the fancy cigars from Paris not because he wanted the cigars he wanted the to remember he has a Reb when he's on the business trip so the mitzvas throughout our day are not just because the Mitzvah themselves enrich our lives because the Mitzvah is the blueprint for how to live a most meaningful purposeful holy and happy life but there are also ways that Hashem says remember me throughout the day every time you come out of the bathroom remember me it all went well everything worked you're able to eat digest eliminate and function in a healthy way don't take that for granted you have no idea how many people can't and when you walk out of the bathroom remember me you're about to take a sip of that coffee remember me you're about to do a business deal and there legal ethics that that inform it remember me oh the sun's starting to set remember me oh it's time for lighting the candles or blowing the chauffer or hearing the Milla remember me our lives the Mitzvah are defined by Hashem saying I want a relationship it's a bid for connection interrupt the day because by operating in this physical world it is drawing us down here it's drawing us down every time you see Ines in the total the word or erit used it means Earthly material physical and there's nothing intrinsically wrong with that God not only created it he put us in it so it's not that there's something intrinsically wrong in other faiths the material and the physical are intrinsically evil and the more one is aesthetic and rises above it the more you attain Holiness we don't believe that we believe our mission is to take that that animal Soul the neish bahami that's in us and to have it be obedient to The Godly Soul so that eating and relationships and money and material possessions and intimacy they're all beautiful and wonderful and pleasurable and says I created them for you enjoy them but the ultimate way to enjoy them is not only to enjoy the physical part of them but to find the spirituality within them so you make a you eat you didn't just have something that tasted delicious but you emed something spiritual that was delicious for your soul and in relationships all the laws of modesty that guide intimacy with the right person in the right place at the right time in the right way with the right feelings all that means enjoy the physical component of that there's no merit there's no righteousness to depriving ourselves of the pleasure of that enjoy it have the pleasure the pleasure is a Mitzvah in fact it is righteous in its own right but by doing it in the prescribed way time person place so on you've now not only had the physical pleasure part which is fleeting and temporary and only leaves one wanting more but you've had the spiritual component of feeling connected with another of souls uniting to become one of feeling connected to something bigger than yourself all the spiritual that is our prescription for life not just the physical the Arts is drawing us down but we're trying to stretch for the shamayim that's why the animal walks on all fours because it's just looking at the Earth cuz that's all it cares about it's next meal it's next moment it's next pleasure the human walks on two legs and reaches and strives to get up to the heavens because we we're we're reaching for the heavens our feet are firmly planted here on Earth but we're reaching and striving for a Heaven's type of life for shim type of existence yes is there a special type of braa or something that we can say if we're about to do say difficult work that we other than just sort of thinking Hashem in advance is there a special that's a great question so in other words we have formal with liturgy and text and it's wonderful but it's there to give us the words when we're struggling to find them and it's there because we have to say them and if we rely only on our own internal inspiration we may come to never talk to God but the most I say this all the time the most authentic form of is not what appears in the sitter not even what appears in tum it's what is written on the walls of your heart it's what you creatively personally intimately talk to that was the she that we gave last shabas afternoon at some point we'll give it in the context where we could record it but the whole source of hisus and how to do hisus to which I'm a novice I'm at the beginner level I'm 101 so I'm not sharing it because I'm an expert I'm sharing it because I'm taking you on my journey to try to learn it but the idea of hisus of disconnecting from the world of being utterly alone not lonely but alone alone in the best sense of being alone in order to discover ourselves and have a personal breakthrough but also in order order to talk to like you're talking not like you're talking you are talking to your best friend your closest Confidant who knows you P Pim he knows everything inside you everything going on so you know you go to a therapist and you feel comfortable in that setting because the things that you don't disclose anywhere else to anyone else because you're so worried they'll judge you and the shame and everywhere else that's your place that you can go is our Collective therapist all of us can go to him because I'll tell you what with the therapist talk of telling them things that they otherwise don't know and hopefully they've sworn the hypocracy they're not going to tell anybody but you know what unless you tell them they don't know it but here's the thing with Hashem whether you tell them or not he knows it so you can't keep secrets he knows everything in your head in your heart and on your browser history he knows everything in your text message and your WhatsApp he knows everything about your bank account your business dealings he knows it all he knows it all there's nothing you can hide from him so when you talk about you say Hashem as you know if you were reviewing uh my bank books you saw that I cut some coin if you reviewing my tax returns with the great accountant upstairs you saw that I struggled this year and I failed I I cut some Corners you know I got a call yesterday it's an unbelievable phone call it's an unbelievable phone call I don't know who the person is they don't live here but they're trying to track down they have for many years there is a store it was a chain of stores that existed in the 80s that went that no longer that closed down and the person said back in the 80s they once got too much change and it's stealing to keep the change and they've been trying to return it and finally they tracked down that the owner of the store who passed away the son lives in bokeh do I know this son can you imagine the 80s wow what took him so long it's unbelievable right so why is it now he had this I don't know I don't know but who does that it's unbelievable you talk about a moral compass so you could say you know that I walked out with too much change and all right forgive me hope they forgive me but his POS this is talking to Hashem so the most authentic type of is not what you read from the sitter it's what you recite from your heart and I've likened it before to a greeting card you give a birthday card to your spouse an anniversary card to your spouse You Give A Mother's Day Father's Day card to your parent so if you just hand the card with the text that Hallmark or American Greetings wrote so they say it's nice that you stopped you got the card but you couldn't write anything you couldn't underline any of the words underline any of the words we all know those moves right easier than coming up with our own composition so but you couldn't write anything personal you just handed me a card on the other hand you take the back of a napkin and you're right dear Mom you're the greatest Mom that ever lived and I'd be nothing without you and I can't tell you how much I love you and there no words describe my love to you and you hand the napkin your mother says the sentiment is so meaning thank you so much you couldn't get a card $3 I don't know what they call homark American Greetings CVS you couldn't stop you couldn't get a card once upon a time they talk that now you got to take a mortgage to get a greeting card but you couldn't stop and get a card so we all know that you have to find the blend of the two here are the words American Greetings decided I had to give you in the form of a nice card but I read something personal too and it's the combination of the two that are the most meaningful says listen all you do is ever talk to me from your heart in your car and in your kitchen and at the gym and on the way to work you can't ever open a sitter open a sitter an Saga composed Words which have timelessness to them they tapped into exactly the composition the formula you know if the if the lawyer said you're going to appear before the judge I want you to memorize this script because I know the judge for many many years I've worked with him and I've been close with him and my grandfather's close with him my father's close with him and I've been in the back in his chair we have barbecue every July 4th and just read the script I'm telling you these are the right script if you want the judge to look favorably on you read the script and you say ah nah I'm going to wing it anaga wrote us the script and they know the judge we four and three times a day open the sitter DAV wrote the words was there anyone closer to D Bon that level of connection of Love of closeness and he says I wrote the words for you I know what you're feeling your highest highs and your lowest lows and the entire range of human emotion I wrote you the script open it up I wrote you the script and you can know there's many many chapters and they reflect different feelings in different moments of time familiarize yourself with them here's the script so on the one one hand we have the script but we got to put in our own words so it's a long answer to your short question is yeah you're about to do work say help this flow help this go well when I sit and write a Dr and it's not flowing and Friday the clock is ticking I I leave the keyboard I close the safer and I have a little conversation with Hashem goes something like this I'm not doing this for me I'm doing it for you trying to get your message across if you want this to be a big strikeout then fine the people will go home and they won't have learned anything but if you want to be my partner and let's help Let's Help knock the socks off them help me find the right Story the right V the right application the right whatever and uh so you could do that for every line of work I was once in Starbucks working and I saw two women sitting at a table and I saw that and I ease dropped cuz you can they were in Starbucks it wasn't like I you know broke into their home was listening in and um and they were working on something together no idea what it was and they hit a they had a wall and they literally stopped and they they took each other's hand they said let's pray on it for a moment let's pray that we can have the Breakthrough and figure this out whatever we're working on pray for this wisdom and I looked at them and I said what a bunch of weirdos but the truth is I said they're only weird that we think they're weird that's exactly who we're supposed to be it's the non-jew and Starbucks who should see two observant Jews sitting working on something who take I don't know if you hold each other's hand whatever but you say you know what we're stuck Hashem help us help us come to the right conclusion help us have a breakthrough here help it work out they have no shame they're not embarrassed they're not hesitant to invoke God and talk about God and show that they're praying for things and we make the BR we put our hand over our mouth we hold our cell phone so it looks like we're talking on the phone saying a br on the on the lousy cup of coffee anyone should see us in Starbucks that we look religious that we're making the BR that we talk to God that he's involved in our life we're hiding under the table to say the BR we don't anyone to see came up with all these you know ways out and there you God you're screaming from the middle of a Starbucks God you know everyone give me an amen hallelujah so the answer is you could open it to H and say gave us the words or just turn from your heart you could have said you could have hisus in a crowded room you could be in a crowded Starbucks behav hisus you could close your eyes and you could be screaming at the top of your lungs with your mouth closed that's what writes if you're talking to Hashem from your heart you could be having a conversation somebody walks by that you look like you're just thinking but really in your in your mind you're screaming out to Hashem screaming out to him so whatever the case is in whatever in whatever venue you could have a conversation with Hashem and yeah so all these bids for connection throughout the day the Mitzvah coming back to RBA the idea of the Mitzvah is he says hey don't forget about me the little checkins marriages I think today more than ever need the little check-ins throughout the day and we have the abil a text message hey what are you up to how's your your day going not everyone in work and so on can interrupt and have long conversations but that little check-in you know what that little check-in says you're going to work and you know there people walking around in all kinds of states of dress and undress and flirting environment and inviting you out and there's Temptation greeting you at every turn hey how's your day going just want to remind you you're married I think it's more important than ever there was a therapist who was telling me this that they recommend this to all their married clients that more than ever once upon a time you gave a kiss in the morning goodbye have a great day at work honey you came home how was your day and in between you were at work and I was at work or we were each doing our thing that's fine but in today's day and age in a world of Temptation and opportunity and what exists the more check-ins the more bids for connection the more reminders just want to let you remember I'm here just a little reminder you're in a relationship just a little reminder you're never really alone and that's the same withes throughout our day I know you're tempted to forget I'm here you really want to eat that thing or say that thing or go to that place or do that thing Hashem says hey just a little reminder I'm here I'm watching we're in a relationship be faithful to me be faithful to it just a little reminder that's what Mitzvah are just little reminders okay short introduction brings us up to what we're up to third paragraph on page in addition to the Merit and the purpose of a Mitzvah on its own one should approach them in the path of am thean brings an example that's a quote from the ran it's a math F let me tell you what he just said the ran just said the most brilliant amazing thing we become so used to things that we forget who here has a muza on their door I hope every hand goes up we're observant Jews non-observant Jews some non-jews have misas they think it's a good schoola why do we have a mza on the door we barely notice our mza it's just sitting there maybe we bought that new house and we put up the house redid the house and we got the Kindel and the family everyone come around we're gonna take a picture we're gonna hang the mza we'll ask the rabbi or the visiting and everyone come stand we're gonna take a picture we're gonna hang theza and the and theza and what case should it be for the front door and this case and now the old Iron Dome and the thing and the silver no and Florida got to withand the which is the and we're so excited about the mza and then what happens we never think about the mza again we walk right through that front door and even if we touch the mza and even if we kiss the mizza we're doing it out of habit and wrote and we don't ever think about The Miz again says the ran do you know why that m is there because every time you walk into your house and every time you leave your house you remember the messages that are contained therein as there Aman says when you purchase a muza you've purchased eternity when you purchased the Maza you purchased a daily reminder you've purchased a mission statement you've purchased a billboard you are admitting created the world you are acknowledging Providence that he's involves in your life that everything that happens in that home is not coincidence or chance or random but it's by Design and it's from above you believe in all the corners all the foundations of Torah that you're not only admitting God's kindness is great that he took us out of Slavery to Freedom that he's taken care of all of our things but we're dedicating all of our things inside the house are dedicated to him so when you walk past that Maza with your 9,000 in flat screen plasma HDTV the mza is reminding you hey be careful what channels you get or what you watch when you walk past that muuza with your alcohol remember its responsibility and how much and how accessible it is to the younger people in your home when you walk by that mza with your guests what are you going to talk about are you going to gossip about others are you going to build them up are you going to are you going to be constructive and creative when you walk past that mza is everything that's walking past at kosher food kosher images kosher magazines and books that are coming in kosher is everything kosher and when you walk out and P that Maza and you're going to work you say are you taking everything from your home all of its values and ideals are you bring it with you to work to the gym to the supermarket to life that m is incredible it's incredible and we forgot about it we bought it we hung it we moved on says the ran and R is emphasizing this that the Mitzvah are incredible reminders every time we walk in our house out of our house every time we walk into any home or office that has a mza just pause a millisecond of time not even measurable a negligible amount of time pause for a millisecond and look at that mza and say ah I remember you're in my life I trust you I lean on you I feel your presence I feel responsible and accountable to you you're here and I'm here to advance your cause we see from thisan that the whole purpose of is to promote every Mitzvah I'm doing I'm really reinforcing and working on my knowledge he's here and he's involved in my life who is the one who's commanding me and where is he leading us with this commandment and to recognize the good and the elevation within every Mitzvah that he's giving me so to summarize says we learned we learned an important principle in the concept of that year if you live with a sense of awe and you see there are incredible things all around us then it brings you to a higher higher higher level of amuna and the more amuna you have the more you cling to him the more you feel him the more you see him the more you lean on him the more you rely on him the more you're strengthened by him the more you appreciate him to extract ourselves from a world of gmas now I want to say that when we talk about extracting ourselves from a life of gash a physical it doesn't mean an aesthetic life it doesn't mean that we take a vow of abstinence and celibacy and we fast and we don't talk it doesn't mean that we don't enjoy this world but it means we're not defined by this world this world does doesn't Define us you can have the finest things in life once you've proven that you could live without them and that they don't Define you we do this for one week a year one one week a year do we leave all of our things behind and say the other 51 weeks I can enjoy them because I prove one week a year I don't need them suus we build a little Hut and we go outside and we say hey house and home and air conditioning and comfort and Mattress and convenient table and China and silverware I don't need you I can en now that I don't need you I can enjoy you but first I have to prove I don't need you and every sukus we renew that evidence to Hashem but more importantly to ourselves that for one week a year I go outside and I say I don't need you and now that I've proven I don't need you now I can have you now I can enjoy you so the gash doesn't mean that we live without it it means that we can live without it it doesn't Define us it's not who we are it's not our self-worth it's not our self-esteem it's not on our calling card it's not our reputation it's not our name it's an absolute tangent or to Who We Are Who am I I'm an who am I I do who am I I learn Torah who am I I live with amuna who am I I help people in my career in my life oh my things oh I happen to have nice things Hashem blessed me that I'm able to have nice things but you want them you can have them I don't need them I don't need them so when you fulfill mitzvos with the mindfulness mitv with mindfulness got a new campaign mindful mitzvos when we do Mitzvah with mindfulness that means that we're not just flying through it we're not just discharging it we're not just putting a check next to it St a checked Shakur is checked heard the chauffeur checked what's the next holiday Tu ate the dry fruit check check but every Mitzvah I do I'm doing with mindfulness oh I'm doing a Mitzvah there's a the one commanding me there's the Mitzvah which is the way I can connect with him I want to feel him in this Mitzvah I Clos my eyes that's what felt that we were losing this we weren't connecting through the Mitzvah so they created an introductory formula to be able to focus our minds before we do a Mitzvah and so on and so forth they say um no what did they say before uh no what's the formula you see am what's the what do they say before they dovah thank you so before doing that it's for the name of his in the whole world this whole lofty level cabalistic was very against it whole so the beginning of the movement and ironically love theud but theud has several tras where he saw some of these Innovative practices and he rejected them and one of them was because he said why do I need new formula our rabbis already established a formula to be able to focus your mind before you do a Mitzvah it's called a before every Mitzvah we do we have a you say a before you light candles before you blow the chauffeur before you hear the Milla you say a before you do the Mitzvah so I don't need a new formula said yeah but even the has become rot we got the mitzah was rote the BR is wrot we got this new thing to focus our minds so what a beautiful debate about how much but the what both agree is that we have to formulate we have to focus on our minds so that when we do the Mitzvah our mind's not elsewhere and we're not just putting a check mark but we're actually present we're actually doing it that is the goal of Mitzvah in our generation we're on the last page in our generation has weakened and it needs strengthening it needs reinforcement one of the ways to strengthen amuna is to contemplate the chain of the generations of our right people is there any other nation that can go back and has a continuity and a chain of people of righteousness and of faith we are only here because of the power of Torah the whole Jewish Story Only continues the Jewish impact on the world continues the Jewish nation has a continuity because of those who live with amuna you talk about the segments of our community whose faith has been compromised and shaken diluted and distorted the intermarriage rates are astronomical and the assimilation rates and The Disappearance of the Jewish people we are only holding on and hanging on because of those who live with auna because of those who feel his presence every day because those who respond to the bid for connection and the check-ins because of those doing the mitzvas that's why we're here and as long as we agree that as long as we believe that the story is worth telling that the story is worth living that the Jewish people have a reason to exist then if we care about its future this is the only way to do it you know Holocaust memory is important and fighting anti-Semitism is important and bagel and locks and cream cheese and Gil to fish they're all lovely and they're all important but if we want to rise to that level of that continuity and to achieve that future the only way to is is by the he saysa says I recently found a book in German that's called it was a German book that says basically study nature that disproves religion right in previous generations they used science to try to disprove religion and we're living in a time with a more sophisticated understanding where the more we understand science the more in fact it does the opposite if you read any of Dr schroer books right the the great physicist MIT professor teaches he's been here a couple of times his brilliant brilliant books Genesis and the big bang and he talks about Evolution and he talks about and how it is reconciled with Torah and you see that science not only doesn't contradict Torah but science actually reinforces you don't have to work hard to find let's open our let's open eyes in order to see the amuna and that is exactly what he says and how we conclude is that to live a life of amuna to live a life of amuna you don't have to go to some philosophy course at Harvard to live a life of amuna you don't have to read a complicated textbook on philosophy to live a life of amuna you just have to open your eyes and if you open your eyes you'll see Hashem everywhere and when you see Hashem everywhere then you'll have amuna you'll feel him everywhere you'll want to feel him everywhere and you'll live your life accordingly with the notion and with the with the awareness that he is everywhere you just have to open your eyes the seeming coincidences and random things that happen the way things that work out in the end the Miracles and the blessings that we have in our life on a regular basis if we simply open our eyes and we see and feel him everywhere leads to a sense a sense of amuna everyone stay warm and we'll see you next week