Part 143: Smooth Sailing

good morning Boker to welcome back to our living with amuna series our Wednesday morning support group where we come together to work out our amuna muscles and to reinforce that knowledge that we all have intuitively and instinctively and unfortunately sometimes we need to be reminded of that there is a God above that he created the world he continues to interact with us and loves us he's with us he accompanies us he is orchestrating and curating our entire lives we turn to him and we turn him with a sense of gratitude particularly today which we'll talk about momentarily I want to thank our amuna sponsors for the series for the year drors Avi and Bella Morgan in memory of our dear friend Rabbi Dr Brian gabu n who was a model of amuna both in the way he lived and even in the way he left this world also want to thank our dear friends generous amazing Community leaders Mike and EST Lupin who are sponsoring this particular morning in memory of ROV thank you so much for your generosity today and always today is y and whatever your and whether you said with a without a but all of us are extraordinarily grateful for the gift of the modern Miracle of the state of Israel rakov writes in his sitter a couple hundred years ago already that the Miracles he saw in his life the Miracles that the Jewish people have experienced post after the 10 plagues the splitting of the sea are no less great than the Miracles of when we left Egypt and if that was true for of Yakov emden writing in Germany a couple hundred years ago it's certainly true for us today and in our time and if you don't think having Jewish control over the width and breath of Israel having control over a United Eternal capital of the Jewish people yodes if you don't think it's a miracle I would challenge you to just consider for a moment if the United Nations had to declare a state of Israel today would they if the nations of the world had to support a founding of a Jewish State and Jewish sovereignty and a Jewish Army today would they so that little blip in time and the circum es that came together that enabled us to be able to have that wonderful country promoting more Torah learning than any time in our history the state of Israel and its dollars are the biggest supporter of Torah study uh than anyone in any time in our history so today's a day that we pause in whatever way you want and whatever hashkafa dictates to pause and just say thank you with thank you that I'm living in a time please God soon I will be able to get on a plane whenever I want to visit my homeland that even if I'm not ready to move there yet I'm thinking about it and challenged by it each and every day not if but when my destiny will be intertwined with my brothers and sisters in our homeland so our living with amuna sheer today begins with the amuna and with the recognition of hashem's guiding hand and the circumstances behind and the circumstances that continue to guide and support the miracle of our modern country of Israel that is with all pandemic aside thriving in ways that are a model for the entire world transforming the world in extraordinary ways and for thaton we are incredibly grateful to you today and every day thank you we're continuing our study of Schwarz Schwarz his essay know your where we have been developing this notion of what is just like shim entered the city bet a sense of confidence a sense of shorty a sense of absolute knowledge you see where does lack of B come from anxiety worry fear doubt uncertainty what will be what will happen with my health what will happen with my finances what will happen with this virus what will happen with the world when we have such a sense of doubt and uncertainty and that vacuum that space that's not filled with the knowledge or confidence gets filled instead with negative things and negative thoughts and negative emotions pessimism depression despondency anxiety Envy arrogance how do we clear out that space of all that negativity and all that negative thinking by filling it instead with b and how do you fill it with B because it's a wish list it's wishful thinking no filling it with B is saying I know that there's this An Almighty he created the world he created me I know he maintains a personal intimate relationship with me not only with the whole world globally not only with the Jewish people nationally collectively but me little E from Goldberg into individually he knows everything from the quality of my sleep to what I eat to whether things work out to whether I'll have the right words and the right ideas to speak smoothly to whether the technology will come together to every detail of my life of your life of Our Lives he knows and when a person lives life with the confidence that not only does God know about my life but he has my back he is guiding my life he's orchestrating my life yes I have free will yes I take initiative yes I am responsible and accountable for the choice I make but after I put forth my best effort and even part of how much my effort comes from Hashem itself but after I put forth my best effort I let go and I let God the rest is up to the Reon and the mentality of bet is a mentality that says it is what it is I'm going through life I got a text message this morning from uh someone um about an investment that I'm involved in in a modest way and the challenge it's undergoing because of the pandemic and he feeling terrible about it and I said to him it's not you it's the Reon not happy not grateful not in a position that that these things don't matter but when this is something where somebody didn't do something dishonest it's not that they could have predicted this was going to come but they didn't take the proper precautions this is something that caught the World by surprise it's the hand of Hashem he gives he takes away and hopefully he gives again and so you have to look at and say this is what was meant to be on rashash it was already determined whether this would be in my pocket or not and so if somebody steals from you someone violates your trust if somebody acts with negligence if somebody doesn't take the proper precautions then they should be accountable but if they did all those things and it's not on them it's simply the circumstance of the world that we live in then you live with a sense of bet I'm confident that's the way it's meant to be this is what is supposed to happen and therefore there's no resentment and there's no anger and there's no worry and there's no fear because like shim and Ley entered the C City we too can enter our lives to a place of bet and then he developed the of the internal self the external self the external self battles from the moment we wake up in the morning and the internal self which is connected to Hashem Hashem is the only person place thing entity who has no his nagdas who has nothing opposing him there is no Force against he doesn't have to battle there is no tension there's nothing that needs to be overcome for hasem everything just is he is the epitome of discipline of control he is in charge everything simply responds and reacts the way he wants the way he determines so when we look at the world wearing our external sense of self glasses all we see is oh that food I want to eat it but it's bad for me oh the exercise I'm supposed to do it but I don't feel like it oh the gossip I so badly want to share it but I'm not supposed to oh the images I want to look at but I'm not supposed to oh how am I going to make money and pay my bills or how am I going to overcome the challenge with my spouse with my children all we see all around us is conflict battle tension confrontation but if we put on our Salim glasses if we put on our glasses if we attach ourselves to our inner self to Hashem and we connect to the one who has nothing opposing him then the whole world we see as this is the way it's meant to be I have no Envy no arrogance no worry no fear no anxiety no anger I simply see a world operating the way it's meant to be does that not mean I have things I have to overcome I have to overcome them I have things I have to get done I have challenges I have to confront but I do so not from a position of fear or worry or uncertainty I do from a position of I'm going into this and it's fixed you step into the boxing ring and the match is fixed then you still have to you still have to fight I don't know if this is a good metaphor when I was a kid what was they called WWE the wrestling so the wrestling I hate to burst anyone's bubble if you're watching or listening spoiler alert but wrestling is fake they're actors they're acting in the ring it's all predetermined so they still have to get in the ring and they're still wrestling and they're still jumping off the ropes and they're still driving the other person into the ground but it's all predetermined it's all acting and going in they already know the outcome so we have to go through the motions and we have to do the act in our lives but we know that the outcome has been predetermined and it's always in our favor whether we see it whether we feel it whether it's pleasurable whether it's painful it's always in our favor surgery is also painful but it's in your favor that's why you're undergoing it it's why the surgeon's doing it it's because it's what you need so even the painful experiences we have they are in our favor because it's what we need in that moment and therefore we should be grateful for it so let's continue Lima we're up to the word Lima I sent out the sheets last week I forgot to do it this week but you're all a bunch of good listeners so you'll listen and I'll try to read slowly and uh and translate so Schwarz somebody needs a a young man a young woman not so young man not so young woman who's seeking companionship and camaraderie who's looking to find their other half maybe a better half they're looking for a sh this is a particularly difficult time this pandemic and social distancing is very hard for people who are trying to pursue their dream of finding another Zoom technology is fun for these classes and you can have meetings there's only so many games you could play over technology people who are desperate to be together there are when Schwarz wrote this he wasn't thinking about the challenge of social distancing the inability to go on a proper date to be face to face to be able to have an energy of being in the same room together he was talking about the Other M from the other challenges of it's very hard how are you on people's radar are they remembering to set you up the small talk you have to go through you got to get dressed up you got to go out there's hope and then it fails there's rejection there are so many challenges to the world of a she has no idea exactly well the boy on paper again I don't know if there were resumes when he wrote this it was fairly recently that he wrote this but on paper looks like a b good boy on paper looks like a perfect match of a girl but who knows the reality because on paper you could write anything and the references only see the best of who a person is who knows what it's like to live with them who knows what's beneath the surface who knows what they'll be like as a spouse or a parent and even when you find somebody who seems like they are a proper match how do you know that they're going to agree to go out how do you know that the relatives who are going to undergo a uh CIA investigation who are going to interrogate the rabbi your Rabbi about you how do you know that they're not going to blow it say the wrong thing undermine the possibility of it working out or maybe the financial matters won't won't work and there's always outside variable and all outside influences and there are people with alternative motivations and agendas who might insert themselves and sabotage the success for some reason so because there are so many things to worry about there are so many things outside of person's control the young woman the young man says I'm working on perfecting myself I'm trying to be the best best person I can be positioning myself to be able to be worthy of the best that I can get but there are so many factors and variables outside that person's control so all they have left is to submit themselves to the hands of Hashem and to say Almighty I'm in your hands find me the proper match Matchmaker Matchmaker make me a match K is the great Matchmaker in the sky and to say however you guide me in this process even the dates that don't work out are part of the Journey of learning about myself and about life and however you guard me and then she finds a match and she gets married Ma so she thinks you know why I earned the Merit of getting married because I had I put my trust on you'll find me someone you'll help it work out it's not that she got married in the Merit of B it's that the B itself the marriage is the peros it is the result of it's the fruit of the labor of her life of meaning you can't deny K's presence in your life his role in your life and then you need something a a job a house Shalom bias your children and oh on my checklist of things I need to do in order to get what I want is to display I'm trying to avoid an epidemic a pandemic so how do I avoid Contracting this virus I need to socially distance I need to wear a mask and gloves I need to I need to I need to oh and also I need to have B so let me put that on my list of things I need to do if you wait to have B in that way it's inauthentic it's counterfeit it's better than not having but that's not real long predes when you'll need it sayra Schwarz it is training ourselves to look at life it is a perspective it's an attitude it's a philosophy it's an approach it's a lifestyle Bon is not a character trait in the moment Bon is not a choice in the moment though it is those things too B is a lifestyle I'm living my life as if God is with me in the room he is watching he's supporting he's guiding or I'm living my life as if he's not and then when I invite him in the room he makes an appearance or I make an appearance in his room when I have to appeal to him for something true of Schwarz is not God makes an appearance or I make an appearance near him true is a lifestyle it's a choice he is always there he's always there it's the choice that he's been developing it's the choice between do I live life where I have conflict confrontation battling so when I battle I stop and I need to check on God off my list excuse me or or do I live a lifestyle in which I've attached myself to God so that I'm living a life with no his nagdas there's no opposition there is no opposition red light delayed flight waiting in the doctor's office job challenges relationship challenges health challenges there's no such thing as opposition because this is all the way it's meant to be it's all from him and he suffers with me when I suffer and he gets pride and joy in me when I have pride and joy but beyond my choices and behavior and ini it's all up to him so it's not that you wait for the sh and oh I didn't really make room for God I didn't feel him in the room but now it's time for sh I'm going to need his help help I see some opposition I see some challenge let me just check him off the list God check called the sh check wrote the resume check hired the photographer to photoshop my picture check oh and also I forgot I'm supposed to say these to hill or bake these CS or visit the cat all these many days in a row check it doesn't work that way that's fake it's counterfeit you're using God means that long before you began your sh dating you said you know I attach myself to the one who has no opposition and therefore I'm about to undergo a process I'm not worried about it I'm not afraid of it I'll do what I need to do within it but he's guiding it like he's guiding everything else in my life already let me give you another example Schwarz everybody knows that you have bills to pay doesn't mean I sit on the couch oh I trust God that there's going to be money left at my front door the M's going to fall from Heaven I don't care how many you bake this year the M doesn't just fall from Heaven the curse of Adam the punishment foram was you got to get up off the couch and you got to go to work we all have to go to work again not rinking on the person who made it for me was delicious and it's a reminder that just like the falls from heaven our parasa falls from heaven but we got to go get up off the couch and open the door and collect it so parasa I can't sit back passively and wait for it to happen I have to do my part but there are two paths that stand before a person you have a choice one is to go out with effort to earn your par the other is to trust says of Schwarz the following you could either work hard to earn a living or you could work to earn your living but instead redirect that working hard and working hard on your that the living you earn is what Hashem has for you let me tell you my cousin H Fel who passed away a few weeks ago from this Corona virus an extraordinary an amazing person modest and humble really really an exceptional person and at his levia at his funeral um at his funeral it was said about him he was an accountant he really learned all the time but to earn a parnasa for him and his 12 children his six married children many of whom are still in learning he was a brilliant brilliant self-taught accountant um but here's what he did and the story I'm about tell you if I didn't know it myself firsthand I wouldn't believe it because they don't make people like this but he was a throwback to previous generations he was a throwback to to the stories they tell about great people he would work every day until he had enough money for that day and he stopped working to go start learning and I know this because one of his sons told at the levah that a client of his C called the son and said I can't believe it I missed your father today I missed that opportunity where he had enough money for the day so he's not taking my call he pushed me off until tomorrow because he went to go learn for today there are people who say you know what I don't need to get rich and richer I don't wor live with fear and worry I work for today until I have enough for today because Hashem will provide the M he'll provide the parnasa for tomorrow unless you think these are apocryphal stories or fake stories or stories gone by of of people in the past there are people like that like my cousin's husband of Z Hill fandel still today who know they have to earn a parasa and who put in their initiative and who do their ASAS their work but when they have enough money to live when they have what they need for that day they stop and then they pursue other righteous meaningful religious spiritual however you define that to volunteer for for learn for ding whatever that means for him of course it meant learning in which he excelled and succeeded and published for and was really uh so greatly admired so when it comes to our parnasa says Schwarz you're going to work hard one way or another you could either be working extraordinarily hard at work stay at work till 10 11 12:00 at night you could be working and pouring yourself overworking into work or you could be putting in what you need for work and taking that same energy and putting that work into your that your other work is enough to yield what is going to provide you see if hasm wants you to make a million dollars a year you're probably not going to do that working 15 minutes a day that's not reasonable that's not a reasonable expectation of him and we're not allowed to rely on a miracle so if you think you're going to work 15 minutes a day and become a millionaire unlikely Tim Ferris and all it's not going to happen even he was the 4-Hour Work week it's not going to happen you got to work what is a reasonable normative amount of time and then you can hope and ask Hashem for what you want on the other hand if God wants you to be a millionaire don't you think You' Be A Millionaire by working eight hours a day do you really need to work 18 hours a day so when you overwork when you put in too much initiative it's a lack of faith in Hashem when you put in too little initiative it's also a lack of faith in Hashem because it's a counterfeit fake version of fake of faith in Hashem we have to strike that balance we have to find that happy medium between the his the initiative and the am the the trust that hm will provide but again his point point is I could be overworking so I put in my 8 hours my 10 hours whatever the job demands of me whatever is reasonable and normal in my industry to be able to do and provide for what I need I put in that reasonable amount of time I can either continue to work that overtime which is exhausting and deprives me of my my health and my space and my exercise and my family or I can call it quits in that time and put the extra effort in the B into working on myself to know that Hashem will provide can provide give me what I need and can give me what I need if I work within that reasonable time he told us again the same idea with the it's not that I want a call the build the resume check check check have I need parasa go to work put in my effort check check Che oh check check check check check the is the prerequisite the is what comes before the the parasa that comes is the P it's the fruit of the initiative of the effort of the faith that I've expressed so again to summarize what is it means that we have confidence when we have shorty when we know that is in charge it means that the core of who I am and the daily living of my lifestyle is connected to the one it's really a choice that we have we wake up every day do you want your day to be defined by battling by tension by conflict do you want your day to be defined by having to confront inertia or do you want your day to be smooth sailing from wake up in the morning it's all the perspective do you put a smile on your face do you have an attitude of gratitude do you begin with positivity do you see hashem's hand it's all up to us do we want to at the end of the day look back at the day and say I'm exhausted I battled from when I woke up in the morning to just get out of bed was a battle what I'm going to wear to get dressed to have to homeschool my kids to deal with this to deal with that or do you wake up and say my day by definition will be smooth smooth sailing you could get a horrible diagnosis smooth sailing you could have horrible news about your parnasa smooth sailing you got kids swinging from the ceiling fans homeschooling everyone on their own device smooth what's smooth sailing there's nothing in my life right now that's smooth sailing what are you talking about the answer is it's up to you if you live your external self if all you is conflict then you are riddled with battling you'll be exhausted not by the end of the day you'll be exhausted 20 minutes into the day but if you wake up connected to your internal self to your Salim to your Accord to the best part of who you are and you attach yourself to the almighty to the King of Kings the master of the universe for whom it's all clearly choreographed curated organized and whatever is going to happen that day you'll roll with those punches you got a text about your investment it's the way it's meant to be he gives he takes he'll give again and you know what it all comes from him it's the way it's meant to be you're dealing with whatever challenge or conflict doesn't mean that sometimes people won't test your patients you won't have to go for a walk you want have to take a deep breath of course all those things will happen but you come back to that core you come back to that Source you come back to the shes to our to our inside route that we are connected to the one to the one who has nothing opposing him know this not that there's one who has nothing opposing him doesn't exist in the natural order in the natural world everything in the natural order and everything in the natural world every Force has an equal and opposite Force against it when God consulted with the angels we talked about that in the para class this week AA Andel the angels that said we unworthy and shouldn't be created and then told God told you so when we made a mistake so God threw them down here and says the put them in our minds so here he invokes this medish that when God proposed creating the world these angels opposed and they said create the world fallible finite pathetic man some said good idea but most stood opposed they said shom you're going to create man so that it'll divide into Democrats and Republicans in into into Orthodox and conser you're going to create man so all they're going to do is fight Yankees and Red Sox you're going to create man just so that's a noble fight just so that they start fighting with one another that's what you're going to create man for just to have a world filled with man's going to wake up there there's there's life is all about battling and challenging fighting for your ideals fighting for your rights fighting to repair the world fighting against your Alter Ego it's a world filled with fighting so the ones who advocated for creating man said yes but we're going to insert and instill within man a piece of God Salim man is going to be fashioned from God himself so true man's Instinct true man will have this Alter Ego he'll have to battle and fight true man will have to fight for his ideals and ideas but you know within man man I'm talking generic man within man is you God and you are a force and a being for which there is no opposition so as long as they attach themselves to you they can enter A Place With No opposition with peace and with Harmony and with love you know there are people who fight for their for their uh ideas and ideals and their values they fight with passion and yet they live with peace and harmony with those with those around them in extraordinary uh in extraordinary ways in extraordinary ways we all know people people like that so the fact that you stand up for what you believe in doesn't mean that your life will be riddled with with you can you can have both and so simply attaching ourselves to hem attaches ourselves to a world to a perspective to a vision without battling and this say of Schwarz is exactly and this is the time that we're living in between and we just left we left we left Egypt and Egypt now needs to leave us and what does it mean to leave Egypt also in our we're not supposed to emulate or imitate the way of MIT what was the way of MIT so par thought I'm a deity I'm in control it's really all up to me would go down to the Nile every morning to relieve himself because he didn't want his people to know that in fact he was human he put his pants on they wear pants in MIM he put his pants on one leg at a time that he also had to relieve himself like everybody else he thought he was better he thought he was greater Superior he took credit he wanted to worship himself he wanted others to worship him and that was the mentality and that was the philosophy of Egypt each person in their home each person leading their Little Empire that they are the deity they are the god they are the ones who are singularly and exclusively responsible they get all the credit they're in charge that was a philosophy of MIT the whole notion contrasting Egypt was irrigated how by the Nile Israel is irrigated how by the rain Egypt is a place where you say God I don't need a God I don't need his reign in order to be able to to sustain myself I have a Nile and the Nile irrigates my field and that's why they they worshiped the Nile they worshiped at the Nile by the Nile and they worship the Nile itself the Nile was their source of irrigation Israel is a place we don't have a natural source of irrigation it relies on the rain the rain plays such a prominent role within the well-being and the sustenance of the land of Israel why because when you rely on the rain who are you going to turn to who will you rely on the rebon of Shalom you know the Torah tells us in three places that once we left Egypt we are forbidden for going back and it's codified in ALA it's an interesting question then how throughout Jewish history were there those who did live in Egypt the rambam lived in Egypt lived in Egypt R lived in Egypt how are you allowed to live in Egypt we once gave a whole sh about that topic but we are all shared of the the the philosophy section what we shared was that perhaps the prohibition of going back to Egypt is not just geographically going back to Egypt the prohibition of going back to Egypt is going back to the mentality and the philosophy and the attitude of Egypt and what is that that I don't need God I've got the Nile I've got the NASDAQ I've got the da I've got the stock market I've got my real estate portfolio none of which are doing very well these days so you don't have any of those things so um but you might say to yourself I've got my brain my Ingenuity my Innovation my entrepreneurship I have a Nile I worship myself and I worship these other tools and I don't need God so God says don't go back to I took you out of Egypt I took you out of that mentality so what happened when we got out of the mentality he took us out of Egypt and we need to take Egypt out of ourselves now and he took us to the desert and how were we provided for what did we eat in that desert what did we eat so we know the M fell and here's the amazing thing when you open the front door what was there was meant for you there was the amount that was there for you how did God know what if you lived in a home with 12 children what if you lived with one children what if you had an empty nest what if you in Newly Weds what if you were single the month that came what was right for you and when something falls from heaven miraculously you don't doubt it and you don't challenge it you don't wonder about it it's obvious and clear to you that this is what's meant for you and that's the mentality that we're meant to have that we put in our initiative and we take our effort and then whatever we have and whatever descends from Heaven is there it's what meant for us it's what's right for us why is it what's right for me but my neighbor has so much more why is this what's right for me but this isn't enough I need more that's our effort that's our challenge each one in their own way and I don't mean to minimize those who have real challenges in this area it's not easy if it feels like it's not enough and you don't know when you're next when your next portion is going to fall and yet that is our that is our challenge that when a person attaches themselves to the one with whom there is no opposition there's no Force against then you realize whether it's Thea or the Shalom bias or a pandemic I need to take my initiative and I need to do what I need to do and then whatever else results whatever else happens it is by design it is what's meant my dearest friends who wouldn't want this lifestyle why wouldn't you want the results that it creates I literally don't get it I don't understand the atheist the agnostic I'm not saying that there aren't challenges and Theological questions and we just came off Y yikon and even right now this pandemic bad things happening to good people my dear cousin who I told you about of course I'm bothered by these questions but at the end of the day we can become paralyzed and stifled uh debilitated by the questions or we can look at God's guiding hand and the BR in our life we can choose to see him everywhere choose to see him everywhere I'll give you one example maybe we'll start with this next week I was going to get into it but we're out of time you want to talk about seeing God everywhere how about the fact that God designed a human body that is a chemical Factory that right now bio bio um biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are struggling to invent a drug to fight covid-19 and the best option we have right now is being produced where what's the chemical Factory what's the manufacturing plant what's the biotechnology company that so far is producing the best medicine it's called the human body it's called the plasma of the people who had it the very same people who when they lay in a hospital bed or when they were at home or struggling to catch the their breath said why me where is God how could this happen I'm fighting this opposing Force are now saying thank God I went through that because it has put my body in a position that it's producing medicine that is Saving Lives the plasma donations being given by the people themselves previously went through this horrible illness that's the of again maybe we'll start with this next time God you designed a chemical Factory that could compete and surpass almost any other that we know it's called the human body it has a uh manufacturing part it has a waste disposal part it has all kinds of Parts it also now we've learned has a medicine producing part of the human body if you're looking for God he's everywhere let's choose to look and to find him let's choose to be filled on this yat mot with the gratitude for his role and presence in our life for the difference that he makes and for everything that we have and please God we can shut down that part of our chemical plant called the body not need that medicine see only good health for those all around us wishing you a wonderful wonderful day everyone is invited to stay tuned on BRS um we have a full day of Torah learning of uh people who used to live in bokeh and teach in our institutions who are going to be bringing Tora is to us over technology beginning in 10 minutes I'm having a conversation with Rabbi brander and Rabbi fast the three of us are reuniting for a conversation about Israel that will be starting in about 10 minutes look forward to seeing you there have a fantastic day