Part 58: Do We Believe in Da’as Torah?

good morning everyone help yourself to a cup of coffee want to thank Hena for sponsoring this morning's Amun memory of her beloved husband Moshe do on the occasion of his 11th year 23 Maran this is him his book here very special individuals sh should have an Aliyah certainly a person who personified the Mida that we're learning about okay we are on page the top right everyone have a copy welcome new faces new people it's great to see you and we've been going through the Section called T where he's been describing the Mitzvah of the obligation of clinging to Hashem what does it mean to cleave to cling to Hashem how does that Express itself in real life how do we achieve that how do we do that so we talked about the idea that when we rely on when we lean on when we live life with a mindfulness that whatever is happening is not random it's not chance it's by Design it's for a reason then we realize that we cling to Hashem we stick with him the root ofus is De glue that when we use glue to stick with Hashem that ASM has our back and we stick with him no matter what's going on through thick and thin Hashem is this what we're up to no the bottom right we're up to sorry he everyone see where we are the bottom two lines in the right hand column on page says we have it expressed in a number of different ways the obligation to cling to hem stick to hem which is different than let's just reiterate for a moment what is the difference between and Sh don't worry about it the difference between Amun and amuna is in the abstract amuna is the philosophical theological knowledge that there is a creator of the universe we didn't come into being randomly we're not the result of a we may be the result of a big bang but the big bang the Catalyst of the Big Bang is Theon we're here because there is a Creator there's a b there's a first cause as philosophers would describe that's auna to know in the abstract that there is a that there is a God be us to realize that because there is a God he didn't just create a world and move on he didn't just create a world and now we operate on our own but he has an intimate relationship awareness knowledge and direction in our lives this is such a thing as Providence he is involved in our lives the things that happen in our lives are not by chance they're by Design they happen because he will it and if we rely or need something in the future with a great sense of dependence they will happen because is going to will it as well and uh and that's is therefore in the we studi definition is to realize that whatever happens in my life is whatever happens is for the best so when I win the lottery it's not hard to realize that that's for the best when I have a healthy marriage it's not hard to realize that that's for the best when I have knas for my children it's easy the test of is not when everything is going the way you want the test of is when things are not working out the way you would have written them up do you still Embrace Hashem and realize that this is for him from him that we don't know you want to say about the stor of person who missed the flight right exactly the family who lost the person who missed the flight who the one ex when things work out incredibly and to realize like wow y I have such a that's that's it's a level it's an important level certainly a higher level than living without any awareness at all that there's a but the higher level than that is when things don't work out and you say this is a will the other night we madei finished a couple days ago it's a very big accomplishment the beginning ofed a member of our community who's very beloved was diagnosed with a terrible illness and we've all been daving and many were learning that in his Merit in his so he made the and he said something outrageous at the beginning of the he said you know I've been learning the Dai for 15 years and I've hardly made any because in any invariably as a as a very busy physician there were days that I missed I just I just couldn't keep up so even though I've been learning the for 15 years there's very few misas that I actually finished he said so it's with great pride that I'm making the C on Sanhedrin he says because I finished it from beginning to end and how did I finish it he's not working right now because he's in treatment he says Hashem blessed me with a sabatical from work so I could sit and learn so that's blessed you to see it in that perspective I was given a sabatical that was his word I was gifted a sabatical that I can sit and learn so I was able to finish all ofan and learn the da several times each day it's just mindboggling it's mindboggling samuna is to know that there's AEM but you know how many people there are who know that there's a God and in their daily lives they're miserable and where is God and there is no God and why is this happening and and so on and so forth is not only there's AEM that whatever is happening it's for a reason and even though it may be painful and difficult and I wish it were different but if it's happening it's happening for a reason and therefore with I lean on hasem so what's where does fit in because even B is the intellectual knowledge to know that whatever is happening is happening for a reason is living my daily life that in every moment I'm living a mindfulness it's wearing glad is wearing glasses that I see the world through the prism of knowing that Hashem is with me in every momentus he's sitting next to me on the couch he's on the phone conferenced in with whomever I'm talking to he's walking into that difficult business meeting he's with me at the parent teacher conference when I'm about to hear whatever I'm about to hear about my child he's K is in the room he's sitting next to me he's with me in every moment and at every opportunity so it's not just auna intellectually philosophically it's not just even that I know that there's a reason for this it's it's that I'm living my life clinging to him we're walking into the room I say Hashem come on make this work out we walk out of the room yes Hashem thank you that was amazing it's a Deus it's de it's glue it's sticking with Hashem so that's this and that's what this means and on this and ask how could you cling to Hashem Hashem the source of all is a fire who consumes you if you try to get too close to Hashem you're going to get burnt on the one hand hasem is our father your father you snuggle with you get a hug from father puts his hand on your shoulder father holds you when you're need support so on the one hand we have this casual relationship with Hashem he's our father but he's also the king can't get too close to the king and be too casual K is the creator of the universe and he's describing d by the as an he a fire that consumes so how can you cling to fire you cling to fire you're going to get burnt concludes the gamar he actually only quotes part of it the gar concludes you need to do two things number one you should make sure your daughter marries a and number two I mean I guess the assumption is you should make sure your sons are and your daughter's married I guess in 2017 you would say make sure your daughters are um as well but um and the closest we can come to clinging to Hashem is clinging to those who are the closest to Hashem is clinging to those who are the closest to Hashem which makes sense by the way in the following way whatever we admire in life whatever we're excited about in life what whatever we're excited about in life right I mean think about for a moment right in our day we can appreciate this more than in any other right cuz let's say you love I don't I'm just you love tennis so if you love tennis and you're on social media what do you do you follow on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter the best tennis players you don't follow some kid you saw in the park playing tennis you're not following their career or their statistics you find the best in any area whether it's Finance art archaeology whatever area of life that you're into you find that person and you follow them you cling to them you connect with them as if somehow through osmosis it'll be contagious and it'll improve you but whatever you value whatever you like you like sports you've memorized the RB you know the box score of every team you like theater you like ballet you like recipes you like I don't know what you like braids you know in today's day and age whatever you like whatever you like you can go online and find the best of that area that you like and you literally you cling to them you you literally the language we use is you follow them you like them you follow them and so on I don't know what's it called on Instagram follow a follow so so the gamar saying if you value Torah if you value and if you value living a life with the mindfulness of faith of connecting to then then your Instagram and your social media should be filled with following then your life should be filled with listening to the of then you should try to connect and be in the presence of writes in the sixth chapter now you say like it doesn't really make sense right one with think intellect my job is to be a myself how does it help me to connect to my job is to be a learn Torah be righteous have virtue be knowledgeable succeed excel in Torah that's my job I can somehow cling to hasem I can fulfill the Mitzvah just by hanging out with by following by listening by reading by watching how does that work and yet the r says yeah this is a Mitzvah this is how you fulfill that Mitzvah is very difficult to cling to Hashem to be mindful 24/7 to wear those glasses all the time that's really hard so what propels me what helps me find and hang out and listen to them I mean is that not all safe for braus that's what the gar tell us about safe abous like what what do we on this week's parka elar RKA the story the story lines the narratives say for K say learning the Casual conversations of the righteous is the greatest tomor is the greatest mus yes we learn strict law we learn yes we learn the gar the we learn the intellectual back and forth analysis of how we derive the law but ya you know what a is is a casual conversation I've had the privilege really one of the greatest privileges of of being a rabbi is having access to Great rabbis and whether it's the conversations you have directly or the privilege to be in the room and ease drop with permission to the conversations happening between or or and others their wives with their family members and you learn as much arguably more from the Behavior now not all not all having knowledge this is just as an aside the says that say that any who lacks a um a decomposing carus is better than them it's a pretty graphic image oh oh how could you be a and so what is Das what is Das so so rautner explains D so what is to be a you have knowledge you can have an incredible memory you could have amazing diligence and you know sh by heart you know by heart you know call by heart that doesn't give you emotional intelligence that doesn't give you common sense that doesn't give you a feeling heart aad as the Torah describes so you could be aay about this he tells a story that when he went to pay sh to his rebi rautner and right before him there was a very prominent world famous rashash Shiva who had just walked out rautner turned to raron enraged by what this had said to him trying to comfort him which was the most ridiculous thing in the world and said to and he said to he said Do You Hear What said not an ignor you could be but have no you could be a but be callous but have no emotional intelligence but have no feeling heart but have no common sense but have no way how to take all of that wisdom and employ in the world so article is about what do we believe about D Torah there's a concept of D Torah that it's liveed to a different intensity in different communities among the so-called modern Orthodox there's a cynicism about D Tor the more you get into the world there's a great emphasis on D Torah D Torah is that the more Torah someone has the more General wisdom and better their intuition so before you invest in that deal before you buy that house before you to allow your child to go through with that you get the approval of D Tor you consult with what is Das Tor have to say on this so to ask D Torah what do I do when my fles Fork got mixed in my milk dishwasher that's not D Torah that's asking a shil d Torah is when it's not strictly a thing but I want to know the intuition of D Torah now we all believe in D Torah I think part of basic uh a basic structure of of total Judaism is to believe that the more you have the more it shapes and molds your intuition the greater your judgment and the greater your wisdom that's why we're we seek ASAS we seek wisdom all the time the people we think who have more Torah the more you seek wisdom the more insight that you're going to have so we all believe in it to some extent but in R's article I think it's so brilliant he says based on everything I've just told you that someone can only have D Torah if they have then if you're with no a carcass is better than you then it means being a does not equate to having D you could be a great with no Das but being a does give you the Head Start it does give you the the greater likelihood of having a sense of D what's going on buddy this is my nephew so oh so how do we get into all of this so that's heic the r is codifying the r is writing the r doesn't write this in his the ra is not writing this in his the r is writing this in his the r is writing this in his code of Jewish law it is how do you fulfill clinging to hem by clinging to by finding people whose lives are shaped and molded by the Torah knowledge that they have by the will Hashem by the blueprint what is Torah Torah is a blueprint for The World God looked at the Torah he created the world the Torah is the blueprint it's the manual for how to live so you have a problem last night our thermostate went out at midnight and the air conditioner stopped and I'm scrambling online and reading I'm going to call only you got to look in the manual so if you knew that you knew somebody who knew the manual by heart you're going to fool around with it yourself or you're going to call the person who knows the manual by heart you're going to go with your intuition I think I should try this to fix it or you going to go to talk to the person who know who wrote the manual who knows the manual by heart so the to is the manual of life it's the blueprint of creation those who know the manual by heart those who've written so to say the continuation of the manual T the Bal those who are in charge of the transmission of the oral Torah of the tradition of the m we have those are now you can know the manual by heart but have no common sense you can know the manual by heart and have no emotional intelligence so that's not who I'm going to for help maybe on the thermostat but not on life so here too you need to find the person who has the combination of both knowing the manual by heart Who's the who has that's T So how do you achieve one of the ways that we are exposed to and cling to Hashem is by finding his Representatives his best Representatives here on Earth now what does it mean to be his best representative here on Earth so a that says something like that I don't know or anything by heart but something like that so the so the says on this only when is when your re is so you have a re who's a but they speak and they have no they're not kind and they come late to D and they have noav and they're unimpressive in their character so T that's not who you seek Torah from you need to find somebody who's do now is that a fair barometer is that a fair threshold is that a fair expectation of a rebi but as close as we can get to to to being similar to an angel to Angelic when you see somebody who's Angelic that's who we seek to get Torah from so you need a you need to who's who's Angelic in their in their demeanor in their character in their sensitivity and their kindness and how they conduct themselves that the Torah has filtered down from their head to their heart into their hands and feet if it's just in their head and it doesn't Express itself in their heart their hands and feet read their say f fascinating intellectually great but in terms of who we cling to who we seek guidance from whose intuition that we trust so this is what kazal are saying kazal are saying you want to know what it's like to cling to hasem cling to hashem's greatest embassadors here on Earth those who are his greatest representatives and ambassadors who are the embodiment of all that he stands for and if you cling to them you'll be clinging to and I have to tell you when I've been exposed to some of the greatest rabbis I was at a wedding a couple weeks ago and RAV K theit great in Brooklyn was there we had the privilege of Hosting him for shabas several years ago and I just I I spent the whole wedding like I was like the paparazzi I was like the what do you call it the the groupy I was like a groupy I was waiting for him to be like no nudnick like get away from me but I I just spent every second I could I sat next to him at the and I walked him to the through the bedin and I I just why I was asking him Shas I was talking to him and learning but more than any of that his smile his kindness held the way he held my hand the way his character so he knows everything by heart okay Hashem blessed him with an unbelievable memory but his diligence to be able to you know I asked him a question a very interesting sh it's a K kill I am sh doesn't come up a lot right they sell in Home Depot apparently a tree that is grafted of different citrus fruit so you plant the tree in your backyard and one tree grows grapefruits oranges lemons all kinds of citrus fruit so it's a k sha the Shila is not you know it doesn't come up often so he told me what he thought but then he he had the humility he said but it's a good Shila I don't want to give you the answer so he wrote it down and he said I'm going to call you let me look into it a little bit there's just you spend time with someone I walk away with goosebumps is one of my re I used to sit in and used to listen to him so the way you listen to ofar he he he literally is like an encyclopedia it's just mindboggling the way his mind works that was amazing those weren't the moments in sheer where I got goosebumps it was when he was telling you a story and he start to cry he would talk about erit and he would he would be emotionally moved so when you see the character you get goosebumps you feel like you know I'm connecting to something greater than myself I want you to know that's what drives sometimes when I'm struggling with sometimes when you're saying you know what maybe this whole thing is not really true maybe there's doubt or uncertainty that Creeps in and everybody has that doubt and uncertainty what do I lean on I I say you know what these ream of mine they're like the smartest people that ever lived and they think it's true they're super Geniuses they're incredibly brilliant they're living it in their character they've come to the conclusion it's worthwhile to pursue it's true it's worth it to shape your whole life around then you know what I'm sticking with it I'm sticking with it so this is another angle we've talked all the time about as our relationship with hem here are expressing itself also with who we hang out with who we admire who are the celebrities and heroes on our wall I was just meeting with someone this morning who said to me that his family is in a crisis because there's no Heroes anymore right now we live in a world we're literally taking down the monuments and we're taking down the heroes one by one that anyone we thought was a hero we're finding a reason that they're not a hero we're taking Heroes down one by one and you know what many of these don't deserve to be heroes we're learning things about their lives that they're Unworthy of being Heroes but who are our heroes and what do our children and grandchild understand from us who our heroes are who do we admire who are we excited to to see and get a picture with to have their autograph to have access to whose poster literally or figuratively hangs on our wall is to be you have to cling to our children we ourselves have to walk into the house and realize you know in my office if you've ever been in my office I have Yakov Lions a member of our community very generously has lent me he has a collection of hundreds of letters from different great sikim and he them with their picture and I have in my office and I always describe they keep me company and I cannot tell you how many meetings I have which afterwards which afterwards I have a sense of Yos it's very easy people in incredible pain going through an unbelievable hardship and you sit there saying like come on God and then you look and you say you know what they're keeping me company I have the r and laabi and R yose and ginski these are letters from them I could look at their the ink of their signature and their picture and you say you know what if they okay this this was worthwhile for them I'm sticking with it it's worthwhile for me I'm believing in it I'm sticking with it so this is another component of and strategy to and sometimes when you're feeling depleted when you're feeling low when you're not feeling it attach yourself to someone who is feeling it you know who do you hang out with in the gym if you really want to Be Inspired in the gym to do well and kill it so do you hang out with like the person who's sitting there shooing eating the dut not really working the machines doesn't exactly have the look of the most successful person in the gym or do you find the person in the gym who's like killing it they're the embodiment of the gym they're in great shape they're they're diligently working out all the machines they're like who do you hang out with you want to be inspired you're not in the zone to want to work out you don't go find the person chugging Donuts sitting in a chair shmooing avoiding all the equipment you go find the person who's who's killing it on the equipment and that's another of the methodology ofus you want to feel to hasem go find the people who are killing it read biographies of G is good biographies not geographies geography is the biography that just tells you how they were born perfect the H geography which tells you how someone is born perfect it's inspiring but you can't you can't really you can't your you can't aspire to it because you're like come on so they had no temptation my entire life is filled with temptation how can I connect to this so but you you read biographies that are are real and that tell you their struggles I remember there was a certain great Rabbi who passed away and uh stories came out about him soon after he died and his daughter wrote a hesped and his daughter in the hpid wrote I want you to know my father was a real person and his greatness was that he grew and I want to tell you some of the areas where he grew where at first he needed to grow and then he grew I was blown away by reading that this daughter of a great Adam who's like you know he wasn't always the greatest father and then he became the greatest father he wasn't this any of that and he's like these articles I don't really recognize the man that are being described in some of these eulogies that are depicting him as if he was always perfect and infallible and everything was great but if you want to this is the he you know tusk's book on the Reb is a great book I loved it I was inspired but I also had because T says the re never took a day of vacation in his life he said needs us we're on a mission I can't take so now if I need like more than a day of vacation I feel like an utter pathetic nothing like I'm such a nothing that I actually needed a day a minute to myself K Miller's book on the re I thought was incredible it's much more scholarly historical footnotes and it doesn't kala say anything negative about the rebba but it tells about the Reb's time in University and living in Paris and it's relatable to whatever degree but we have we have a whole genre of books on G is reading a book now on the it's a f time book on the B you you're able to You Want To Be Inspired look at what they went through draw strength from their lives from how they endured whatever you think you're going through that's hard in your life and I don't say this to make you feel guilty the likelihood is it doesn't come to one iota of what the Clen bger rebid went through in his life whatever he went through he went through times 10 then that's not to minimize whatever someone's going through whatever you're going through I'm not minimizing it I'm just saying if you want to draw strength how can I continue to nevertheless have auna read the biography of the it's unbelievable powerful when tal shakar the author of the most popular books on happiness who gave the most popular class in the history of Harvard spoke here anyone there you remember several years ago someone asked him what book should we read happiness I want to be happy what book should we read read and it was fascinating he said don't read self-help books he's like I'm hurting myself because I make a living off people buying my self-help books he goes but those are not what you should read said the research shows that if you want to be happy you want to grow read biographies biographies you see their struggles you see how they overcame them you see how they grew it inspires you you're on fire rebbit and Maas I've quoted it several times that rebbit and Maas books the reiton kvki book there are books G is women the greatest women of the Jewish people by the way that's what we're doing right now we're reading we're reading about a and Sarah Y and Rifka what do you think we're doing in sh every shabas right now okay understand sa for V gets a little more complicated but right now what are we doing we're reading the biography of ab and is of s and Rifka it's unbelievable we're reading this story and let me ask you was it smooth sailing for any of them no we're reading their biography how they overcame hardship so this is one of the methodologies yes I saw a great thing this morning one more second bman bman writes when someone gets engaged you know why it's called a vort why so I always thought because you say it's a vort vort is yish word for word he said no he says it's called a v you'll never forget this mm you'll make a vort for your children and grandchildren he says it's called a because we know that in all the areas of life where Hashem shows his hand the most it's in the area of making a you come to celebrate this Union of this couple the Bas om how did these couple come together because the Heavenly voice went out and said they belong together the V the word that everything happens with hashem's word that the BOS hashem's Heavenly voice went out and said B the plony the reason this couple came together is cuz hashem's Heavenly word went out to say they belong together so the V is not my I'm saying there the V is we're celebrating that said this and belong together what a miracle that they're here sh okay yes I wanted to ask a question and then say something sure when we went to uh do and all the examples that you gave yeah half an hour ago yeah right I was just I'm sorry I was that such a role I couldn't stop I know that's good um I was just wondering whether we can simply summarize it as knowledge of Torah and the genuine kindness that permeates your comportment in your how you relate to people I think they go together Torah is designed to mold and shape what you're saying when you say emotional intelligence I'm trying to corre make it simple just kindness and warmth and well it's but it's a little more than that I'll tell you why you could be a you could be kind and warm but you have no common sense so you could pay a sha call where you're a where you're kind and warm said the stupidest thing because you have no common sense common sense is Street smarts D is common sense do is common sense you can know shot PE lack Common Sense Common Sense natural it's complicated yes okay so the other thing want hold on hold on one second I'm sorry I want you to mention a book that you you talked about inspiring books of inspiring biographies yeah har Pinas hbr sure wrote a book he kept a diary of the first few years of Holocaust and then he escaped Shanghai his book is called a veil of tears just came out recently didn't it yes it's on Amazon and with every incident that took place in the early years he's reminded of something in thees and the dear and the tan and brings in a quote to make an exact compar parallel comparison beautiful after reading literally many hundreds of books on the Holocaust this one was the most insir that's good amazing amazing veil of Tears we'll have to check it out thank you thank you yeah veale of Tears by HS c r herong was such a great he was maybe the last one or the most recent one who could do what was called the pin test I think describes you so I'm do it the pin test is you take any of gamar you take a pin and you put it through the book and he can tell you on every page what word it went through my W that's that level of memory photographic memory but he wasn't just a he had he had he was such I knew him because he was close to my parents yeah and I went to him with charless and personal issues big yeah his warmth and his humility he made you feel that you were important right he knocked on his stor and he was sitting surrounded by millions for and he'd say Bri come in come in and like I would sit there and he would say no no we can't talk like that right and the point of what we're learning is that that experience didn't just leave you feeling close to him it left you feeling close to Hashem because he's hashem's agent he's his ambassador he's his representative so you felt not only connected to him but to his cause which is hash and that's the idea of right basic yeah absolutely absolutely let's just finish this paragraph since we didn't get through much today so the also so the makes his comment on the the ra counts that that when you take an oath you do it in hm's name the raan says everything we do is in hm's name and me to CL means to cl to you take an oath to fulfill the MIT and to and to inject enthusiasm into your life I just lost the place everything we do should generate enthusiasm in our service of hem should be excited there should be enthusiasm you have a few minutes in the car you have a few minutes while you're big in the don't listen listen to put on a she cling to listen you could you know tune into if you could even listen to their casual conversation you'd grow from that so among the list of things that we can do to grow in is the mindfulness of is to think about hem is to wear the glasses where we see AEM but on that list of things we can do and that's the essence of what we spoke about today is also to cling to the greatest agents and ambassadors to the Mal to those who are Angelic not only in their knowledge but also in their C character and when we connect with them we walk away feeling connected to their cause to something greater to Hashem himself thank you H for sponsoring if you'd like to sponsor if you want to sponsor a week or sponsor the entire year of the here please reach out to Linda