Part 16

sorry no coffee today I'm trying to read the name this our learning this morning is for a for mayaan who is a young girl in our community unfortunately under go and get another surgery this morning please God this one will be successful she should have a complete and Speedy rafu schma amen amen among all okay tonight is obviously pum today is tester so we're going to talk a little bit more about P we've been talking about the last few weeks in terms of Pam in many ways really is the Y of Amun it's the holiday of whereas All the Other Stories of the Miracles that we Mark and celebrate and memorialized throughout the Jewish calendar are reflective of explicit Miracles God revealed his hand in a most magnificent way whether it's the way we left Egypt 10 plagues the splitting of the sea the greatest Revelation in history the of sh in which God spoke to us directly from the mountain we heard his explicit Voice or even the holiday of sukus in which they an covered we felt divine presence protecting us in our travels throughout the desert but all the other holidays on the Jewish calendar including the holiday of khaka in which the laws of nature were transcended and reversed for a cask of oil to last for eight days rather than one is a explicit revealed miracle for the few to defeat the many is something which is shouldn't happen in the natural order so if you look at every other day on the Jewish calendar holiday on the Jewish calendar it reflects God revealing his hand in the world and we recognize and appreciate and express our appreciation we affirm our belief our confidence our faith in him and our appreciation of him these other days are characterized by these other days are characterized by a sense of of praise and of gratitude but purm is categorically different as we've talked about pum the miracle is totally hidden you want to read the story of purm as if you're reading a novel as if if you want to read it as an atheist or an agnostic who erases God from the equation simply sees it as an unfolding of of uh chance events then you're more than invited to read it that way the Milla reads a story of Esther reads perfectly well that way the challenge with this holiday is up to us the other holidays God is written so to say we read his name literally and figuratively and this holiday we read God's name into the Milla where it fails to appear God's name is not in the Milla and as I shared in the past it's called millas Esther the idea is being migala the nister Our obligation is to reveal that which is hidden God hides himself in nature hides himself in the world we have the option the choice the alternative of saying that these things are just random their chance their nature or we can say that it's all Divine that God is the master Puppeteer that God is behind the scenes pulling all the strings and that's the challenge of the holiday of pum Okay so so what I want to learn together today to get us ready for tonight and tomorrow on this as puts it the has not in his usual safer he has a separate pamphlet called essays on the holiday of purum and this is his essay called the holiday of faith in God and he writes the following in the bottom of the first page the essence of the holiday of P anyone wants sheets you good the essence of the holiday of PM is the idea that there never was anything like it this enactment this decree of H to destroy and exterminate and wipe out all the Jews on one day Medina in 127 provinces from The Young to the old men and women this decree this edict this threat of annihilation the Jewish people faced was categorically different than any that had come [Applause] before and that which had received the consent it received the stamp of approval of the king it wasn't only the decree of ham you know when we read the story of P we read it that ham is the nefarious Wicked villain is kind of this like goofy neutral character right you read the Milla on its face and it just seems like he's this like goofy guy right fires vashi and he has a uh he runs a um competition a beauty competition in order to find his next Queen and then he's kind of goofy you know ham says destroy the Jews okay destroy the Jews and Esther says hey that's my people he says never mind don't destroy the Jews and he comes across kind of this goofball but he's really himself a very Wicked person who celebrates the destruction of the temple and who uses the Caleb who uses the utensils in the B mikdash to form this uh this magnificent party so his placing his stamp you know to have the the the presidential approval to have the uh the stamp of the king is something which is it never happened and just as the threat was unparalleled so to the Salvation that came was unparalleled and what happens as a result of the story of p is fascinating because it's not just that we survived right the old Jewish joke goes they tried to kill us we survived let's eat right that's the traditional Jewish holiday they tried to kill us we survived let's see but it's not just that they tried to H and the people of shush tried to eliminate us and we Triumph is that there was a complete role reversal the world was turned upside down and we went from the position of being threatened for elimination and annihilation and we were put in the position of of power and we were put in the position of success over our enemies previously the Jewish people had been saved we were spared from being wiped out just picture after World War II Jews are liberated from the concentration camps and immediately not only have they survived and now Skin and Bones they must find a way to rebuild their lives but imagine that they then take over Germany the Jews are in control that they own the military and they own the government and they own that's what happened in shushan the Jews didn't only survive but they thrived they ruled over their enemies and this was something also this to was something that had not previously happened and we know the story of pm has such great significance story of PM is really the story of our recommitment to Torah it says that after the Jews were successful the Jews Triumph so they were given Esther gave this holiday and they were told to observe to keep this holiday and the garaz rabis interpret it says they fulfilled and they accepted so it means that they accept they fulfilled what they had previously accepted what is this a reference to goes all the way back to Har our rabbis tell us that at Hari God held the mountain overhead and he said if you accept the Torah good and if not I'm going to drop it on your head right here this is your burial place that's it it's over does that mean God literally held the mountain over our head I don't know but at least figuratively we can understand the metaphor what it means is when God reveals himself with such divine revelation when God reveals himself so explicitly he performs such open miracles for you do you really have free will to reject him Free Will is the option to choose of Alternatives but when God suspends The Rules of Nature and creates 10 plagues one after another then God when you're stuck between the Sea and the Egyptians splits the sea and you're able to walk right between it to your salvation and watch the sea crash down on your enemies your oppressors your persecutors and then you come stand at the mountain and God speaks to you directly explicitly God the creator of the universe the almighty the everything the infinite omnipotent being do you really have free will to say you know what not sure I believe I'm an agnostic you know what I'm an atheist there is no God at that moment of revelation God essentially suspended the Free Will there was no free will there was no choice to accept the Tora it's not really such a big deal didn't really have a choice didn't really have a choice but what happens Generations later comes the story of pum and now they are living an event where it is the exact inverse it's the exact opposite there's no open revealed miracle there's no rule of nature which is suspended or transcended God doesn't speak to them directly they're just watching history unfold and if they want they have every right they have every option I should say to say there's no God this is just uh natural order it's just history unfolding it's the way the world works it just happens to be it's just coincidence couldn't sleep at night and he was reminded about morai it's just coincidence Mori was in the right place when he heard the the plans of of big son VES it's just coincidence that Esther was chosen to be the queen who was in the right place at the right time it's just coincidence that if you want you could just keep saying it's coincidence but the Jews of shushan didn't say that what did they say wow what a miracle this is God God loves us God is involved in our lives these aren't coincidence it's not a string of coincidences and chance this is God in our life so with that affirmation with that statement they had essentially I don't want to say repaired but completed the process that began at harini at AR they accepted God and His Torah pretty much out of coercion because God took away the free will but in perm when they had the right to walk away when there was the alternative of saying God's not part of the story and they nevertheless subscribe to God they accepted that which they had they they affirmed that which they had previously accepted they they now took that extra step of devotion and dedication and expressed that amazing faith in Hashem so the real fulfillment of cabal the completion of the process of receiving the Torah happened it began at har with an act of coercion by God but it ends with the story of pum with the voluntary elective statement of faith of the Jewish people RAB cron when he was here mentioned quoting r k the great gitz Post in Brooklyn who's been to our community as well that if you look in the Mig itself it says the word it says we read it as Kimu but if you look at the way it appears in the Milla it's without the V it's in the singular which is reminiscent of the P at har it says the Jewish people encamped at the mountain andash quotes understand is the motto of our that they were like one person with one heart why does it say that at the mountain it says that they they stood there they encamped in the singular they were many many many what do you mean in the singular they encamped and the answer should have said in the plural they encamped why rash that say because they were in that moment the unity was palpable the unity was so strong they were like one organic ho they were one being they were one entity in the singular and the Milla too this word Kimu is written it's written without the v in as if in the singular that again they stood as one with a great sense of of unity so on perum with this affirmation of faith when there was the option to walk away you know it reminds me I wasn't alive but it reminds me from everything I've read the reaction to the Six Day War you know you could have experienced The Six Day War and said yeah great military well trained well funded yeah Confluence of events that the Jordanian thought that the Syrian thought that the whatever and therefore we were able to bomb the Egyptian Army the Air Force before even they got off the ground and look at the string of coincidences and chance events that just allowed the Jewish people the Jewish state to not only survive but to expand and Thrive and broaden its territory or you could look at the Six Day War and say wow there is no explanation for this there is no way to understand this in the natural order there is no reason to believe that surrounded by Nations and millions of enemies and greater strength and Military that the Jewish people should have an option of even surviving let alone to have such a sweeping Victory but that was purm and the Jews after the sixth day war had that had that right you know there are people who are alive that who tell me that you know after The Six Day War for weeks or months Jews walked around with their held head held Pride like the whole world looked at every Jew like they were the strongest person in the world it could be a Jew walking in New York that had nothing to do with the IDF and didn't fight in the sixth day war and had never been to Israel but a person saw you and you represented Israel that had just done this miracle and people recoiled and said wow look at that look at that people in that miracle was the hand of of Hashem so again this is another example of something that had not happened like it beforehand that we went from this amazingly lowly State we were terribly assimilated we spoke yesterday in the Pasha class about how the Jews at the time of the story of PM had become extraordinarily assimilated into the Persian Empire how they had become exactly like their neighbors even if outwardly they were practicing observant Jews in their attitudes and their philosophies and their value system they had become assimilated to the point that they were attending A's Feast A's Feast was celebrating the destruction of the they ate they served the serving pieces at the Feast of was the the holy utensils that we've been reading about in our paros all of the of the Mish of the bikash and yet the Jews attended this Feast celebrating their own demise that's how oblivious they were to their own assimilation and yet they went from that unbelievably lowly state of losing their Jewish identity and M the is morai the proud Jew the staunch obstinate stubborn Jew who refused to assimilate his values who refused to assimilate his life was able toos was able to revive within them a swell of Jewish and to bring them to a high level we have a tradition from the AR the great cabalist that P has within it this energy this light which is unparalleled in any other day and they say that P had a miracle which was even greater provided an even greater light illuminated the world even more than at the receiving of the Torah and the quotes from the we know that we have a tradition it's not a coincidence just to play on words we have and then we have what is the holiest day of the year is called we call it Yer tah calls it y y sounds like means it's similar it's like is like is like two sides of the same coin So when you say that is like which is the greater of the two days when you compare something to something else which is the greater of the two days P what does it mean to say pum is a greater day than yum we wear white we stand in sh the entire day we fast and we Elevate above our our human animal Instinct and we become Angel we we do CH we're forgiven what does it mean that uh what does it mean that that puram is even higher or greater than Yumer rautner writes in his elaborates in many of the essays on this two sides of the same coin of yum Kipper and pum he says both of them are days of of uh chuva both of them are days of repentance of of returning of rediscovering who we are and who we're meant to be you know but there are two paths to be able to return there two paths to Greatness the shortcut to Greatness is to try to practice an aesthetic life you know it's easy to be holy on Kipper in fact it's hard to be bad on keer right I mean if you're living an observant life I don't mean that if you're you know if you're violating him Kipper but I'm saying if you're fasting and you're going to sh and you're following along in the m and you're pretty much occupied and preoccupied by the davening there's not really a good chance for Lara you don't eat and fail to make a br with kavana there's not a lot of chances to most people don't sleep that in onum Kipper they get to Shool fairly on time right if you're a half decent person it's hard to be a bad onum Kipper so yipper is a platform that elevates us right right away Yumer is and need that refresh once a year right you know your computer or your phone gets stuck you got sometimes just turn it off and restart it and wipe it out and Purge everything was there and give it a fresh give it a fresh start yum Kipper is that Purge opportunity for the way that we spend that 25 hours but to a certain degree sayner Yumer is a shortcut it's a copout it's easy to become holy when you're wearing white standing and shw fasting from morning to night how about when you're indulging in food and Delicacies and surrounded by friends and family and EM being a little bit how do you behave then do you use all of that to elevate you do you transform the mundane the physical to propel you to Greater Holiness or does it bring you down to Greater um to uh to being silly and foolish andar and and so on so which is the whole year of the two days says rautner Yumer is only like yes oner you can reset and restart and refresh and realize who you are are meant to be and achieve a certain level of Holiness but it pales in comparison to the Holiness you can achieve on purum which is the day that you use you don't escape the physical and the mundane to become holy you Embrace and dive into the physical and mundane and dressing up in costumes and making a beautiful perm suda and sharing the one with the other and if you use all that you know to uh you use all of that to create competitiveness and who did you eliminate from your and whose theme is not as impressive as yours and you know did you drink and therefore you spoke lashara you embarrassed someone you acted like a fool did you you know only invite people for the perm do you use it to bring you down or do you Embrace and engage the physical and use it to lift you up by having guests and by sharing D Torah and by singing songs and by feeling an authentic genuine high of of perum so if Yumer represents um right Yumer is only M Yumer footner says that yum Kipper only receives atonement when you ask forgiveness from your friend if you hurt somebody somebody hurt you the day of yipper itself doesn't help without there being a Reconciliation there has to be a conversation there has to be a Reconciliation otherwise yum Kipper can create the backdrop it can create the atmosphere towards reconciliation but there has to actually be a real reconciliation in order for yum Kipper to be fully effective so sayra footner yum Kipper which is a spiritual day so the reconciliation happens in a spiritual way namely you have to ask m one from the other we verbally in a spiritual way we receive forgiveness or reconciliation one from the other but purum which is a day all about the physical P which is a day about the physical how do you receive reconciliation we deliver mos in order to be able to build Bridges and create connection and get back to the unity that felt that the original perm if perm was the continuation and completion of was in the singular not we were single-minded we had one sense of great unity and Mission and purpose so P was the completion of that so on P we seek to get back to that level that state of unity and the way we get back to that state of unity is theer is spiritual because Yer is spiritual so we ask each other for forgiveness and the of is physical because is physical and so we deliver one to the other you know it's a beautiful thing that everyone gives their friends M you know what would be even more beautiful if people gave their enemies M if you try to identify the same way before you think about who have I not spoken to who hasn't spoken to me who might I have hurt who hurt me what gesture can I make to say you know what let's bury the hatchet life is too short it's not worth it let's figure it out that same attitude that we bring towards aravim Kipper so it comes out from theut that that's the attitude we should bring towards ER you know who can I surprise by ringing the doorbell and handing them MOS you hand MOS to your dearest friends big deal it's expected I hope everyone signed up for The Sisterhood MOS it's wonderful it gets delivered all over the community it ensures that every person gets at least one mishos on the holiday per it's a beautiful thing but the ideal of MOS is to say who have I not spoken to in a while who have I did who have I Grown Apart from who might I have hurt or who might have hurt me that I could ring their doorbell and say you know what I want to wish you the happiest and the holiest per I want to build Bridges by giving you this wonderful mishos so mishos is the mechanism or the means to achieve on P what asking for forgiveness achieves on and again in the in the comparison of these two days that we have from the Z we had Theon quotes this tradition as well and fo elaborates much more on the two of the coin of Y and yum and the two days but yur PS in comparison to the Holiness that we're capable of achieving on pum itself and the reason is now we're back in only works if you make the effort to want to impair to to repair to improve but p as a sweeping transformational ability even on those who' have not made an effort we have a tradition it's actually quoted whoever puts out their hand we give them normally we might be more more uh withdrawn and who we give to per whoever sticks out their hand we give them and according to this you know the Jewish calendar is a great thing and the in particular love to manipulate it but you know how when you come into the rabbi gives that pep talk about that's it the doors are closing DAV from the bottom of your heart theard what your y will be like will you tell your Achilles will you not what will happen will it cost pay everything about your ah head it's all about to be enacted the doors are closing Hur DAV well it's not exactly right cuz the truth is you still have till H Raba right and has Raba it's really the end of the high holiday season H Raba has some some hints of the high holiday season right the last day of sukus before the men were led by someone wearing a k and daving is done in the Yun and we have a minute to eat sh Raba has an element of still you know is not over yet tell hos Raba and even hos Raba you didn't sneak in yet there's still a crack in the door it's not closed until Z khah The Eighth Day of khah is known inic literature by the beginning of its laning that day which is z khaka the eth day of kanaka when the lights burn the brightest when you have all eight candles burning you're not done yet until the last day of Kaneka you still can sneak in the door and don't worry cuz he still not done yet because this is the tradition from the that if is if Y is only y then Pur really is the completion of Yumer there two sides of the same coin then you're gardin you're not there's not really any time left for whatever the gardin was so practically again but but really you have until until it's a very holy time [Music] no I don't think that's what it is yeah yeah right soord you go you say I what people say what are you talking about say it's so you had and now really is the end so you have the opportunity to say I think that's really I think that's really it I think P represents it new season through the so that you're it gives you hope continues to give you hope that you don't have to feel that what's the point of becoming better whatever is going to happen to me was already pre-ordained why work harder on my health or work harder on my perosa work harder on my Shalom Bas whatever was meant to be was already enacted so this gives us hope to say no it's not true the door is still open I can still squeak through with my with my genuine Okay so until now all we've established all the has established until now is that PM is categorically different than the other holidays right that the threat was than ever the Salvation came more than ever not only did we survive but we became um Sovereign over our enemies we had gone from this horrifically low level of assimilation to this amazingly high level of of completing the process of har that this day is even greater than yur pales in comparison to this day that you have to make an effort to do cha but you're you're accept accepted your Chua whether you make the effort or not all of these things show that P is categorically different but now we're left begging the question why so says the following what is the greatness of this day that there was never a day like it that it's so different than all others you know when when Esther warns Mor this evil ham has made this decree he's going to wipe out all people what are we going to do says you got to go in there and Esther hesitates and mor says to her those faithful words he says Esther don't worry about it God's Got A Plan God's perfect God doesn't make mistakes God's got a plan and God's going to carry out his plan and Jewish people are going to survive because that's his promise to us whatever is about to happen and whatever we go through Jewish people will survive because that's his promised to us and God is going to God is going to bring us salvation and don't worry about it it's going to come from somewhere else if it doesn't come from here from you it's going to come if it doesn't come from you it'll come from somewhere else but you will have missed your purpose in this world you will have missed your mission he spoke last shabash about our personal mission statement the idea that every one of us has something unique to contribute to this world something that no one who came before us and no one who will come after us can do we are uniquely positioned to contribute something to this world that's one of the lessons of the story of P Mor looks Esther in the eye and he says to her Esther dear I'm not asking you to do this because it can't happen without you I'm not begging you because you need to show this act of Courage because otherwise we're doomed we're not doomed at all God's going to bring Salvation I have faith and trust in Hashem it's all going to work out and it's all going to be good I'm worried about you I'm worried that you're missing your point in life this is why God this is why you're in this position in this place at this time to say this thing this is why you're here don't blow it you're going to blow your whole mission in in life so tells her listen I'm not worried about us because God bring Salvation from somewhere else this was an answer Esther said look I can't go to I can't go to if I'm not summoned if it's not my day if I'm not invited I'll be killed and that's a very legitimate argument right says it's Lobby day I want you to go you got to reverse this decree and says it's not like Congress it's not like apack policy conference we don't have access to our elected officials that we can just show up and L if I go Uninvited they're going to kill me Esther's perspective was there is no path forward there is no path for salvation your answer is that I should go speak to that's a dead end if I show up at un invited they will kill me Will and Esther says if you think that there's going to be some miracle that he's not going to kill me and we're going to achieve salvation it's not going to happen Miracles are reserved for people on high levels and we are on a low level the Jews of are assimilated Jews of have abandoned God in his values they participated in the very meal celebrating their demise so Esther was not looking for an out Esther was not making an excuse Esther was using very religious Faith principles to say that in our faith you only Merit a miracle when you're deserving we are not in a stat a state of deserving if I go and I'm not deserving and I rely on a miracle I'm going to be killed this is not the path this is not the solution a very legitimate argument she's making compelling argument she's making [Music] to and answers says Esther you think that this is a dead end you you think there's no way forward you think we're unworthy and therefore this is the end God is going to bring Salvation and success from somewhere else and you and your family's home you will be erased you will be forgotten you will have missed out on your moment so it's a very funny conclusion never bother you in the Milla why could have just said to her salvation will come from elsewhere period end of sentence why would Esther not be spared with that salvation if salvation indeed would come from elsewhere so Esther and her family would be beneficiaries of that salvation why is the end of the sentence that salvation will come from elsewhere and you and your family's home will be destroyed see M understood at that moment Mor thought Esther was making a fundamental mistake about about faith Mor looks at eser and he says what's with all the calculations what's with all the denying God you think God can't do things well this is the way God works and we're not worthy and Merit and Rule and I can't and therefore there's no path and it won't happen looks us he says where's your is not when there's clearly a way forward and you know what to do that you have it doesn't require when the path is clear when the solution is visible doesn't require a leap of when it's obvious what to do and what will happen is when it all seems like hope is lost that's exactly when kicks in the Jew always sees salvation as coming even when the Mak the place that you're in you don't see salvation and you say I don't know how I'm going to get through this I don't know how this can end I don't know how I'll survive I don't know why this is happening I don't know what will be even when you feel in your Mak there's no path there's no way forward the Jew always lives knowing with faith and confidence what do I care about the natural order what do I care about what appears here what do I care about what I only see before my very eyes it's not about nature right that's taking a little bit from the holiday of Kaneka we spoke about on khaka khaka is the number eight eight days because khaka is one above nature the natural order seven days of the week days of creation is seven one more than nature is eight is Supernatural is above nature and the idea is that God put a natural order and we operate within the natural order and we make the mistake of thinking that we are controlled by our subservient to our destiny is relegated to the Natural order and we fail to remember who is behind the natural order who press play on nature and who controls nature and part of the miracle the B asks the famous question I'm the only person saying asks the famous question why do we light the manur the for 8 days we should light it for seven days because the flask of oil was supposed to have lasted that first first day is not a miracle only the next seven days are Miracles so we really should have a holiday of seven days not of 8 days this is the famous question of the B others asked it before him AA 100 answers to that question 100 answers to that question there many answers thousand answers that have been given to that question but I'd like to suggest an answer that why do we assume the fact that the oil lit the first night is less miraculous than that it lasted seven more nights that's myv oh because in nature and oil supposed to light cuz when you light oil it's supposed to light the only difference between the natural and the Supernatural is our expectation of it nature we expect to work because it's the rules of nature Supernatural we have no expectation of it takes us by surprise but that which is natural is no less miraculous than that which is Supernatural and that's the message of May these are days brought to you by the number eight is eight days of remembering don't be fooled by Nature even that which is natural is Supernatural even that which looks mundane is really miraculous and that's that theme carries over into the holiday of pum Esther stands there and says to her beloved morai there's no way out there's no path forward it's over it's over and she and mor turns to Esther and says if you think it's over you're over you never give up Faith there's always somewhere else to look there's always the possibility ran writes put your trust in and do good first it says put your trust inem and then do good even though you don't have good deeds and you know yourself that you are unworthy in C when you feel unworthy when you feel pathetic when you feel insignificant when you feel so far away from Hashem that why in the world should he listen to you that's when you have to put your trust in hasem nevertheless Jew has to always put their faith and trust inem even if they're not doing good says to Esther and make no mistake Esther is the heroin of the story in the end of the day Mor gives the pep talk but es is the one who has to find the courage to actually go and approach she by far is the hero of the story who has to you know take the take the action but when mortify says the pep talk he gives her as he says hope isn't for a Jew for a faithful Jew a Jew of faith we never give up hope there's always a how many people have in life gone through something where they gave up hope and the it came from somewhere else where they never ever expected it someone approached them with the job or just when they finished the fertility treatments they got pregnant or they met someone when they had given up all hope of finding their sh or whatever the examples are where did the it came out of nowhere they'll describe I came out of left field I never even met that person and through an introduction I all of a sudden I had a job the dream job I met that I was introduced to the right person they gave me the right advice the thing happened just when you've given up hope just when you think that there's you're at a dead end a Jew believes that never give up Faith in the that there's the other place that there's the left field where you never thought it would come from this attribute this quality this level of this level of of faith and trust inem is called God gave us two paths to him that are included in those words at the beginning of the Lord your God number [Music] one means I am the Lord I am the Lord means I created the universe and everything in it I am behind nature but I'm not only the Lord I'm also I'm your God who took you out of Egypt so in those opening words of the says God introduces himself to us there's two components or aspects to his relationship with us there's an I am the Lord I'm the Almighty I created everything make no mistake I am infinite I'm Lipp I created all I all powerful but at the same time I'm also your God in other words if you think of God as the omnipotent infinite all powerful almighty God you think of him as very far away very inaccessible very disconnected from your life he just created everything and set it in motion so God continues but I'm also El I'm not just the God who created the whole universe I'm also intimately involved in your life commod just like in Egypt when the Jews were saturated in the 49th level of T and even in that lowly state in Egypt when they were defiled nevertheless God called them my beloved children and by tapping into this knowledge by tapping into this knowledge that um not only did God create the World by tapping into the knowledge that God runs Our Lives he's involved intimately in our lives he's aware of everything that happens in our lives and whatever happens in our life it's what's meant to be and therefore it can't be bad it could be painful you know trust me not being able to walk for 8 weeks and it's the most humbling uh you know the amount of time it takes to get dressed to move to it's unbelievably humbling to slow you down and is it annoying it's beyond Annoying It's it painful it can be very painful but is it bad no it's good whatever reason it's what's meant to be whatever happens in life it's what Hashem sent us it's therefore what's meant to be it's what's right and it's what's good for us and as Marco Rubio said god is perfect he doesn't make mistakes whatever whatever he sent our way is what he meant for us and that's the El you see if all I believed was Anem if all we believed was that I'm the Lord I said Okay God created a world of Randomness and chance there's things called to kill these tendons and they snap and if you're a certain age and you know what there's statistics and there's data and I fall right in the age and the lifestyle of the statistics and the data and so it's a fluke of nature that I just became one of the pieces of data that I tore my achilles and need surgery and woe is me but we don't just believe that there's a natural order in a world of statistics and data there's El that whatever happens to us is not chance it's not coincidence whatever happened was meant to be is by Design and hasem is intimately involved in our [Music] lives what we have to remember is even when we are unworthy in other words we think that at the moment of our unworthy how can I reach out to Hashem because who am I to reach out to hem when I Feel So Unworthy when I've so neglected him who am I to reach out to Hashem but it says it's exactly the opposite If You Are So Unworthy and feel so low and so insignificant and yet still at that moment you rely on the Mak you place your faith in hem you all you incredibly automatically become unbelievably worth worthy in a moment someone is somewhat worthy and they reach out to hasem so that's what they're supposed to do but when you feel unworthy and distant and far away and you still reach out to hasem in that moment you Propel yourself you launch to a place of incredible worthiness right away just do two more minutes and when Esther hears this Esther changes her whole perspective in other words the is explaining what's really going on in this dialogue Esther says Hey Mori uncle or husband or whoever the relationship is it's a complicated separate topic but hey Mor bad news been a bad decree stamped given a stamp to it we're doomed there's no way out says I don't recognize you Esther there's no way out that's not the way a Jew thinks what happened to believing that it could come out of nowhere putting our faith in in you can't fail in now don't just look at the rules of nature in the natural order don't just look at what's right in front of you and give up hope what if in the sixth day war the Israeli Air Force looked at what was right in front of them and given up hope what if when we fought the yanam we looked at their numbers and gave up hope what if throughout our history we looked at those who were against us and gave up hope in the natural order we would never be here today so Esther hears this and it changes her opinion and she says she says you're right and with this I will come to the king even without permission and if I am lost I am lost you know we have a tradition that every time it says the word in the M it's a reference to hasem it's not a reference to the king but you read into the Milla that every time the word h is used the king it's a reference to Hashem so Esther hears from and she says with your mus with your little pep talk about I'm ready to come to the king now even if I'm unworthy even if I don't feel I'm worthy but now that I understand what you've said that with the we can always come to the king I'm ready to come to the king RAB cron also quoted I forgot who he quoted it from you know we have this phrase throughout our throughout our we have that refrain what's so he says it comes from here the same way Esther was willing to approach the king even when she felt unworthy so too we can approach the king even when we feel at a distance and even when we feel unworthy she had heard this pep talk she was strengthened by Mor's encouraging words and when she says if I'm lost I'm lost she wasn't saying this with hopelessness and helplessness I'm willing to risk myself she went with great joy willing to sacrifice her life me she said if I'm killed as a result that's a price I'm willing to pay because I such faith in hasm at this very moment you've transformed my opinion and my Approach so much so that I'm ready to approach the king and even if it means giving my life I'm placing that much trust in Hashem that the Yeshua will come from somewhere else we're going to stop here but he goes on to say that amuna happens in a number of different Realms there's in the brain in the heart and above all this is auna in the auna in the limbs you know he says it's one thing to say in your heart all the time I love and then push comes to shove and you're anxious you're nervous you're stressed you have no trust in hem you're worried out of your mind you know big deal to have amuna in your head and big deal even to have amuna in your heart the highest place to have amuna says the Reb is in your AV in your limbs in that moment Esther didn't just have auna in her heart or in her head you know it would have been easy for Esther to say gather all the Jews let's fast let's DAV let's put our trust in hasem that's not amuna in your limbs to say let's say to there's a great value to H not minimizing to we have to say to it's critically important to say to but when we say to it's expressing the amuna of our heart of of our head the amuna of our limbs is when you're willing to put do take that leap do what you have to do because you have that faith in hem when Esther says you know what whatever will be will I'm ready to approach the king because you know what I believe that this Yeshua this salvation can come from out of nowhere I do put that faith in Hashem and so that's our challenge is to live with that level of am not just in our hearts on our lips not just in our heads but with our with our limbs that in the actions of Our Lives to take those leaps of Faith to say Hashem you know what I'm not going to be stressed out I'm not going to be anxious I'm going to do the best I can I'm going to take that leap put one foot in front of my the other and do what I need to do with the trust that that as a Jew all hope is never lost I never just look at the natur natural order or what sits in front of me but I always have faith that you God can come even from out of nowhere wishing everyone a meaningful fast and a very happy perm