Part 32: Mi Lashem Elai, If You are For Hashem Join Me

okay as always we dedicate our learning in this class we're on page been going through these pram that deal with amuna the definition and the inspiration to lead our lives with a greater sense of the presence of the almighty of his guiding hand in our lives so we're in the bottom paragraph of the right hand on page says further in the foundation of Amun is to know is to believe that God chose us from among all the nations that he loves us and that he wants us he exalted us above all the other languages just as God told us when we were still in Egypt when we were immersed in the 49 levels of impurity God called us his firstborn now it's interesting God did not call us his only children God has many children all of humanity are God's children we don't see ourselves as Superior to other nations of the world we are not intrinsically or inherently superior to the Gentiles we simply are a Bor we're God's firstborn what does it mean to be a firstborn in the Jewish tradition the firstborn gets a double portion they not PN they get a double portion within the inheritance within the estate a firstborn has greater responsibility greater obligation the firstborn is assumed to take over the leadership of their siblings if the parent were to experience their demise so the firstborn is not inherently greater than the other children nor do we believe the firstborn is more loved than the other children the firstborn is uh your first driver is your first babysitter is your first you know to a certain degree they feel it for themselves and you feel it whether you articulated or not that they're a third parent and then you get a fourth parent and a fifth parent and a sixth parent and as time goes on everybody's a parent there's no children left but they are the first born is the first to have that kind of sense of responsibility and helping so God calls us not his only children though there is a contradiction because elsewhere it says where God's children implying we're his only children here it says we're his firstborn children but let's stick with this P we are the B we are God's firstborn children so again we're not intrinsically better we're not more loved or beloved but we have a greater responsibility what it means to be chosen is to be chosen for a mission to be chosen for a responsibility and not to be chosen to be able to have more rights and entitlements not to be chosen to be able to see ourselves as Superior to be chosen towards a mission and that mission was assigned that Identity or status was attained when we were yet we were in Egypt we were assimilated and integrated into a culture that was saturated with decadence and moral depravity and lenti justness and it was an unethical World MIT was the epitome of corruption the 49th level whatever the levels look like I don't know which level we're on today 50th level but whatever the levels look like they were on the 49th level of this lifestyle and yet within that moral confusion and Corruption Hashem says look you're going to be my Bor you're my firstborn I've got a mission for you I've got a life task for you I want you to go out and I want you to change the world I want you to be Role Models I want you to be um a light onto the Nations I want you to have an impact on the world around you it's a beautiful Insight of the S to bring it back to the holiday of khaka that the gamar says that that n khaka theah of is to leave it on the entrance of the home you put the the outside the home we put it thear tells us we put it on the on the left side the m is on the right side we are surrounded by mitas we'll come back to that in one second put it outside the home the says when there's a danger to be identified as a Jewish Home there's a danger that someone will see the manura and they'll start a p grum and they'll ransack your house and they'll beat you you then you can bring the manora inside then you put it on the dining room table so Sam so for wonders already in his time in pressur couple hundred years ago certainly all the more so today in bone Florida all the more so in Israel where the threat doesn't exist people might disagree with that but you know we have mzas outside 50% of the homes in bokeh are Jewish so you don't need a manur outside your home to identify it as being Jewish if there's a minivan in the driveway and a mza on the door post there's an excellent chance Honda Odyssey in the driveway you know there's a yeah there's an excellent uh there's an excellent chance to Jewish home so once it's it's not a sh where's the danger today why do we light our manora inside the home why aren't we following this original design of putting it outside the home and he says a very powerful lesson he says you know the light of the manura is to dispel the darkness of the corruption of this world we live in a very dark world as of 11:00 a.m. this morning able to get even darker when unfortunately secretary of state is giving a major speech to further throw Israel into the bus but it's a very it's a very Maybe please God I'll get laryngitis before then it's a very very dark world that we live in it's a dark World morally it's a dark World in the isolation of the Jewish State the Jewish people it's a dark world but it's also a dark World in terms of many of the the values and the and the morals and the Moray that are being spread around the world the manur is to dispel the darkness the manura is to illuminate the world so says theur once upon a time a Jewish Home was a Yiddish home once you got through the threshold of that home there was a certain sanctity to that environment the reading material the watching material the conversation substance the attitude the dress the mentality there was a certain a yisha flavor it was a Jewish Home steeped in Jewish values anchored in a Jewish way once you got through the doorpost then you knew it was somewhat safe the outside world that's where you were subject to influence but says theam s already in pressur a long time ago all the more so today says today these influences have penetrated the home the more internet television magazines newspapers or or smartphones and I'm not saying you shouldn't have any of those things I am saying you should have them in a moderated filtered way but the whole world and all of its influence and all of its images and all of its opportunities and all of its Temptations are no longer outside the force field of the Jewish home today they're in the Jewish home so he says you know where you need the manora today is not at the entrance blocking the darkness from entering the light you need it within the home where so much of the darkness has already penetrated in order to maintain and preserve the light in order to keep the light in in the Jewish home I told you I'd come back to it so just repeat it because it's one of my favorite D Torah it's in the khaka digest that I published this year that both of these Torah why is the manora on the left the muza on the right so say so you're surrounded by Mitzvah but what about the fact that we give precedence to the right you put your right shoe on First and filling on well not my case I'm left might SP around my right arm but all the you always give precedence and preference to the right so just put them M and the one on top of the other on the right side of the door post so saw beautiful Insight the truth is both of them on the right it's all a question of which direction you're going when you come into the house you first encounter the mza the mza screams the values of the unity of's existence the values of Love of loyalty of commitment of mitos even the way that we position the mza the Mish records whether mza should be vertical or horizontal so how do we place it theama says not put it straight straight up but how do we place it how do ashaz put it put it on a diagonal quotes and the commentaries wonder what do you mean you put it on a diagonal it's what you call n n you're not y to either opinion you're neither you're neither straight you're neither straight you're neither horizontal nor are you vertical so what did you accomplish with the way that we put the muuza in trying to fulfill both opinions you have fulfilled neither so why do we do that so again I want so magnificent explanation that the m is the compromise between the two opinions and it is perfectly placed on the entrance to the home to remind us as you walk into the home there has to be a spirit of compromise you can't walk into your house and it's my way or the highway you can't walk into the house and I'm the boss I say JUMP everyone says how high but the mza is on a diagonal it's a compromise to remind us when you're walking on the way into the house you kiss that mza and you remember that marriage that family life that parenting that to have a of a functional family is is the spirit of compromise that's on the right side on the way in and what's on the right side on the way out the manura the manura is on the right side and the way out because you carry the light of the manura with you from the home you're about to encounter the world you're about to engage you're going to the gym you're going to the supermarket you're going to work you're going to wherever you're going you're going to encounter the influences and values of the world and it's hard to remember that while we accept and participate in and contribute towards so much of the world right as as modern Torah Jews we don't believe in isolating ourselves we don't believe in withdrawing from the world we don't and that is one solution and frankly I should say this on tape but frankly the more I encounter the world and I see and counsel people suffering from the influence of the greater world and the more the world is lopsided and upside down and backwards and has lost its way the more it's tempting to say yeah you know what those who seclude themselves and isolate and withdraw have it right and then you realize that they're also part of the whole world that they also have technology and they're engaged and they're exposed and they have many of the same challenges and it's not the solution to give up so we believe in engaging in the world and we participate in the world and we contribute to the world around us but you can't do it unfettered you can't do it unfiltered you can't do it as if it's all so wonderful and Noble and glorious and that when you leave the house you leave your Judaism behind it's in the Sho it's in the house and when I go to work when I go to the supermarket when I go to the gym I just want to fit in I just want to be like everyone else I watch and I listen and I say and I do and I admire everyone else you know whatever every week another famous singer dies and you'd think like the the greatest uh you know and I'm not knocking them maybe they're wonderful but they die from an overdose of this an addiction to that and and it's terrible they struggle with it my heart goes out to them it's neb we should care about all people and we should feel sympathy for their struggle but they're portrayed as if as if they're Saint we should give them sainthood they they they what they contributed to the world and so on and it's sad what we should learn from it is the sadness of how having celebrity and having money and having notoriety doesn't bring happiness it leaves many people feeling empty so we should be learning from the sadness of their loss rather than portraying them as if so this's my little uh mon over here so when when we encounter when we go out to the world the manura the light of the manura should guide us the light of the manura should illuminate the way for us it should dispel the darkness it should remind us that we're yiden that we're Jews and that while we engag in and encounter and participate and draw the best of what the world has to offer we're not shy and we don't retreat we don't isolate we take the best of what the world has to offer but if we don't do it with our eyes open judiciously and carefully then it will be our it will be our ends so that's this notion that we were yet right when we were in Egypt when we were saturated in the 49th level of t with the worst values and the worst corruption and the worst influences Hashem said just then you're my you're my oldest child I need you to help me execute my mission in the world I need to rely on you to drive your siblings to model for your siblings to teach your siblings it's fair or unfair but how often do we not take the oldest child and say the siblings are watching you the model the precedent that you set I need your help we need your guidance we need you to help be a third quasi parent and that's what does he says I love all my children Jew and non-jew alike I love everyone in the world they're allim all the human species are all my children and I love them all equally says Hashem but I need you to be my Bor I need you to help me fulfill my mission in the world to model for the world to Teach the World to remind the world you know our mission with was very set back the last couple of weeks unfortunately numerous observant so-called observant Jews have been arrested in very prominent scandals in newspapers most recently an Israeli with a very recognizable Jewish name just arrested yesterday Facebook and what he did there's been three or four notable arrests it sets back our mission you're not acting like the Bor you're acting like the baby in the family not the Bor of the family it makes our work even harder we have to overcome even more to fulfill to fulfill our mission even though Norm now the amazing thing is what if we're the oldest but we're acting like the baby what if we're not living up to our mission to Teach the World to model for the world to transform the world to illuminate the world so we we are children of either way your child's always your child even if your child has not adopted your exact vision for the world your child is not on the path they're on their own path the path that you chose but you know what children are children we love our children unconditionally Amar as long as they not root for the red there you have to draw a line somewhere beautiful part of am he says theb that the is quoting part of Amun is not only to believe in Hashem but if you believe in Hashem who only loves you when you meet his expectations then you don't really believe in Hashem you believe in him as a scary figure you believe in him as this distant disciplinarian if you really believe in Hashem the way you're supposed to believe in Hashem which is to see Hashem as a father then you know that even when you're disappointing him he still loves you right what parent doesn't want their children to know I might have just yelled at you and scolded you and taken away your iPhone and put you in and give you a uh time out time out PCH no what am I thinking of what do you give old the kids they're take away they can't go out they have they're grounded and you ground them I may have done all these things but you know what if a crisis were to occur to you in the middle of my yelling at you being disappointed in you punishing you I would jump to do anything in the world for you if someone came and aimed a gun at you while I was the greatest disappointed I could ever possibly be in you I'd still jump in front and take the bullet that's what it means to be a parent and that's what says of course I have expectations you're my first born I need you to help execute my mission in the world of course I created you I've chosen you to be the role models to help repair the world but says I want you to know that even when you're disappointing me when you're I want you to know that that wherever we are whatever level we are Hashem is dwelling with us he's living with us in our most lonly State you could find him wherever we possibly are you know we say in in in that um it's a description of what was taking place during the time of the during the time of the destruction that all who pursued her hea they caught up between the Straits is the name that we have for between Shas The 17as and T but we are encouraged to read it not as a historical description that our enemies who pursued us caugh up with us but rather as a mandate for us anyone who looks for God you know where you could find him when you're sitting on the floor when you're crying when you're mourning when you feel so lowly and you feel so desperate and you feel so pathetic and you feel so inadequate and you feel such a failure that's where you could find Hashem sometimes too he's down there on the floor sitting next to you too you know sometimes you're disappointed in your child for certain things and it's when they hit rock bottom even below that that you're not yelling that you're not screaming that you're not lecturing that you're not punishing that you're sitting with your arm around them that you're comforting you're saying I'm here with you in this place come let's get out of it together I love you I believe in you I have faith in you K doesn't when he sees us in a low Place walk away withdraw abandon us he's got an arm around us and he says I'm I'm with you here I love you and I believe in you and I I want to help you and I want to raise you up this is what he had said last week we say it right now the holiday of Kaneka we're saying it every morning in the that we're reciting that the nations of the world inaccurately in error they believe that is so great philosophers believe that God is so omnicient omnipotent so great that he's far away he's distant it would be beneath him to be involved in the world and what do we believe what do we sing in is who is as great as God he lowers himself to see in the heavens but also that that he is with us on the ground arm around us comforting us telling us he believes in us that a child a child and even if we're not meeting our expectations nevertheless gracious so there's two parts of our there's a part of oura about the God of creation is the creator of the universe that's the all powerful God who ex Neo which is Latin and fancy way of saying he created something from nothing something from nothing is a joke I say about you know God challenges somebody who thinks that they're God an arrogant person who thinks he's God so God says tell you what let me see you think you're God you think you're as great as I am me give you a challenge I want you I created the world I created the human being create the human being so the guy goes to Home Depot and he goes up and down the aisles and he buys all the materials and he buys all the goods and he comes back and he tells God no problem I could do what you did he starts to assemble the materials in order to Fashion a man and God looks at him and he says uh-uh those are my materials start again let's see you start from scratch in other words when we create everything we create we get the Head Start of Lowe's or Home Depot we get the ingredients we get the materials so that when we M when we're able to craft a magnificent building or literature or art or sculpture or painting it's our creativity and we should be proud of our unique impression we've made but the materials the fundamentals of it we weren't able to create something from nothing we had a head start we had materials to work with K's greatness and we can't even relate to this CU we don't even know what nothing looks like to be impressed by something from nothing you have to know what nothing looks like we live in a world with something we don't know what nothing looks like but if you can imagine what nothing looks like the impressive thing about God is that he created something from nothing and that's the level of am the part of am that that who is the creator of the world that he interacts with the world that's in fact the most impressive thing my Tamar spoke about her MIT speech this week that that is the more impressive thing and yet doesn't intr himself to with the most impressive thing in his resume he doesn't open what the open up with the most impressive thing that I am the Bor I created something from nothing none of you ever have none of you ever will none of you ever can so know that I'm the only one who ever has created something from nothing he doesn't start with that how does he introduce himself to us nice to meet you I'm the Lord your God I took you out of Egypt took you out of Egypt it's nice but you know what other peoples have been liberated from other places other people have been freed from other bondage Abraham Lincoln nice to meet you I'm Abe I freed the slaves I liberated you you know God and Abraham Lincoln the same sentence the same category so why did skip over the I am God who created the whole world most impressive thing ever to I'm God who like Abraham Lincoln I freed the slaves I took you out of Egypt so the kar says you know why God created the world that's nice I was wasn't there for it it's nice I didn't see it it's nice I can't really relate to it but God you took my great great grandparents out of Egypt when they were suffering I I can relate to that because I've got struggles or challenges in my life I've read and watched Holocaust movies I I see in the world today continued genocide and suffering so I understand what that means that you were there and took them out and that's personal you know why because once a year I sit down around a table with a comfortable pillow and some uncomfortable bread and and I hear my parents tell me the story from within the family that they heard from their parents who heard from their parents who heard from their parents who heard from their parents who heard from their parents how you God took them out of MIM and the same way that I can hear from grandparents the day that they were liberated from aitz and that is a personal family narrative and what that means to know that story and do we sit there and say I don't know if aits really existed and maybe they're exaggerating the story about the way they were liberated no say I heard it from my grandparents and therefore I told my children and when our children or grandchildren who never met our grandparents will hear the story of how they were liberated they're not going to say I'm not sure I really believe it it's exaggerated how do I know it's true they're going to say you know what I heard it from my parents heard it from them my parents who heard it from their parents who heard it from their parents at the Seder every year and it's part of I know it's true and that's the level of relationship we have with the story of leaving MIM heard it from my parents who heard it from their parents who heard it from their parents and so on so it's not that I read it in a book it's not that it's a leap of faith to believe it happened I know God took us out of Egypt because I've heard it person to person ish is from those who experienced it themselves and so God says if I have the choice between impressing You by telling you that I created the world X Neo something from nothing or reminding you that when your great great grandparents were in the most difficult constrained moment of their life I came when they at least anticipated it and they didn't even believe it could happen and we transformed things and got them out and I want you to know I love you and I'm there for you and I will always be have your back and you can count on me that's much more personal that's what God wants us to know so says there are these two components to amuna there's the component of amuna of believing in The God Who created the world but there's also the component of amuna of the god of and both of these components of amuna the God who created the world also God who created the world might have moved on to something else who says he continues to interact with the world who says he knows anything about my life who says he cares about me so God therefore says both I am the Lord your God but I also took you out of Egypt I am the Lord who created the world but I'm also you God we say this every time we make a br every single time we make a br blessed are you Hashem Creator you created everything everything in the whole universe it's all you it's because you continue to recreated every moment you refresh you press refresh every moment on the screen that's why we're still here you're the king you're the world and right away what do we say new you're not just this abstract you're not just this theoretical you're not just a philosophical God who created the world but you're ELO new you're my God you're involved in my life you know what's going on you know everything I do everything I think you're proud of me I can give you nas you get disappointed in me we have a relationship I love you you love me you have my back We Begin you're our God you're the god of our forefathers which also means you're not just the god of you're El what there many gods God forbid it sounds like you start as if there's many gods there's no it's one five gods five gods that we're beginning with we could consolidate here and save a little bit of time three times a day just talk about one God why the repetition and why not just say why is it why separately each one I think the answer is that each one had a different unique relationship with hem they all worshiped we all worshiped the same hm but we all have unique life circumstances we come from different backgrounds we have different parents we have different talents we have different skills we have different challenges Life deals us all different cards no two people look the same no two people have an identical relationship with Hashem each of our relationship themselves function in cycles of closeness and of distance of intimacy and of alienation we ourselves fluctuate in our relationship with Hashem no two people have the exact same relationship with Hashem so it's a you're our God I Believe In You partly because you're the god of my forefathers my parents my grandparents my great grandparents my great great grandparents they experienced Your Love They Know Your Existence they've passed on to me and part of why I embrace your here is cuz I heard it from them but if that's the totality of my relationship with you and I don't see it or feel it for myself eventually I'm going to be out of there eventually I'm not going to feel it so I have to also nurture and develop my own relationship with you so partly I connect with hasem because he he's and partially he's El partially because he's my God and I am given strength to know that he was El a el andov that are of us our forefathers each had they each fashioned their own unique special inimitable relationship with Hashem and we too can have our own style our own Comm communication our own love affair with Theon that last sentence is the most important so the two components of the god is the creator of the whole universe the omnipotent omnicient God and the God who took us out of MIM who still involved who still knows who still loves to only believe in one of the two is a deficient amuna it's a it's a corrupt amuna for us as Jews I can't just well yeah I believe in a Creator but what does that have to do with my life or I believe he involved and everything I do but somehow he's not all powerful didn't create the whole world it's the combination of the two which is the most authentic proper path and experience of of amuna it's the two in combination that we believe in that's what Kaneka is all about it's the lights that we talked about on the way out of the house it's the light that illuminate the house to dispel the darkness of those influences but the the the ra the the many who fell in the hands of the few all that we sing in alhan is the result of the who screamed stop looking at the numbers stop looking about how we're outnumbered stop looking about how the UN treats us unfairly if you're going to rely on and depend on the United Nations John kery and Barack Obama then they going to get stabbed in the back in the 11th hour it's not what it's about M said the said the makim who's who's who believes in Hashem come with me that even though we're the few we're going to defeat the many that even though we're the weak we're going to defeat defeat the mighty that's exactly what this entire holiday is all about and it's equally the miracle you know we light the candles and we give the presents and we fry the lotas but we forget the other part of the miracle in fact there's a bigus which is the the gamar says myah according to some what the gamar is debating is which is theace which is the core Miracle the military Victory you know the Six Day War which was the miracle or the fact that the oil lasted so we all focus on the oil lasting because we have the Mana the but we forget the Alan doesn't mention the manur Alan doesn't talk about the oil lasting eight days you saw the great thing going around if you can't relate to the miracle of Kaneka it's like your cell phone battery being at 10% and Lasting eight more days that's Kaneka so yeah I said that we all the Alim doesn't talk about the oil lasting Alim talks about the military Victory cuz that too is a component that on this painful kanah this joyous happy Kaneka of light but also at the same time very painful because of what's happening what may happen this morning in an hour and a half on this painful Kaneka we have to remember that we the can defeat the ra we the can defeat the GI that we can we can defeat in in Supernatural ways if we answer the call of the if we put our in our faith to remember how we got here and where we're going and upon whom we need to rely so I want to wish everyone a a happy wonderful kanuka and uh that we answer the call of mil