Part 69: Thanking Hashem for the Ambience

okay good morning good morning good morning good morning there are sheets passing around if anybody wants there are copies um we completed what we were studying previously and so today we're going to do something new comes from the great safer over who's become a very popular he's become very popular for good reason he has fantastic stuff and he has a saer called on p on and this is a chapter in his saer and uh it's kind of short and sweet and it's a good topic for us all year round it's great for amuna but especially as we are in the preparation phase of counting down with great anticipation and excitement for celebrating PES together so he says the following that the Miracles in Egypt taught us he's quoting these the famous words of the ran at the very end of para's B the says the and the ra have a fundamental disagreement about whether we believe in miracles do we believe in miracles and do we subscribe to Miracles and do we admire Miracles Do We crave miracles for the rambam who's a great rationalist there's no Miracles there's nature and every seeming Miracle has to be able to be explained through nature and in fact most can be including even the splitting of the SE I remember seeing a New York Times article from many decades ago where scientists said that if the moon were aligned and the Earth was on this axis and angle and it was this season it was this this and this and the wind blew in the exact right direction and velocity the water could appear like it was splitting or could pave a path of of Dryland so K every seeming Miracle has to be able to be explained through nature because what there is is nature does that mean that God doesn't control nature of course for the ram God is nature nature is synonymous with God but God designed and created a world where he doesn't stand out where he doesn't explicitly reveal himself and so when something looks like it's a miracle it's not a miracle it's unusual it's uh something that that certainly stands out but it's still God the ran disagrees and this is where the ramban expresses it most emphatically here's at the end of P's Bo when he says that the great Miracles that we experienced were so that we would know that just as God did 10 plagues and just as God split the sea and just as God spoke to us at Hari so too when you turned your car on this morning and it worked it's a miracle so too when you opened your eyes and you could see that was a miracle it's the exact polar opposite of the r for the r everything's nature we live in the natural world God created a world he pressed start and he set that world in motion and we operate live within that world and our mission in that world is to find God despite his being hidden behind the curtain of nature the ramban is the exact opposite the ran says one has no you're not a when I say observant Jew I don't mean ritually observant but I mean Faith you don't have a proper Faith as a Jew until you believe with every ounce of your being that these Miracles a there's no nature these are not part of a natural order they can't be explained through nature whether it's true for the masses The Six Day War the miracle of the Six Day War that defies all military understanding or the Miracles that we go through where somebody thinks that something's going to happen they're on a trajectory in a certain direction and miraculously it changes trajectory miraculously they get good news something works out that never should have worked out so says when you do God's will we are rewarded and we violate and neglect God's will there are consequences and everything that happens to us in life nothing is natural nothing is random it's all the guiding hand of Hashem so for the r God pressed play and he deposited us in a natural world and we are subject to the rules of nature just like if I let go of my phone gravity will make it fall fall to the ground so too we're subject to the laws of nature and if we want God to intervene and to interfere with nature if we want God to manipulate his own laws of nature that he set in motion then we need to be worthy we need to earn it the ran believes that work proportionally the more the more the more you believe in God the more God intervenes and there's nothing surprising about that philosophy because it's exactly what we employ to a certain degree with the people around us if we offer to help and people say you can't help and you're nothing and they neglect our relationship they stomp all over it and they never call us and they pretend we don't exist we're not going to intervene and come into the rescue and the people who reach out to us and have a relationship with us and Believe in Us and invest in in us we're going to do everything that we can to help them so the ra says the more faith someone has in God is the more the more Providence from God that they Merit to to receive but there ound says no there's no relationship there's no proportionality it's simply the whole world is the hand of Hashem there's no such thing as nature every time you drop your phone and gravity pulls up to the ground don't think that there's something like gravity that's the mistake of Stephen Hawking don't be a student of stepen Hawking in this sense he's a great physicist he overcame all kinds of obstacles and odds he should be a great source of admiration as a person who had enormous disability and yet used his ability instead of his disability but he came to the wrong conclusion about God that one can so to say forgive him for many people have despite his genius what I think he can't be forgiven for is coming to the wrong conclusion about Israel for which he worked for boycott divestment and sanctions he was a proponent of BDS and he was really anti-israel and being anti-israel and BDS is a form a pernicious form of anti-Semitism and that to me there's no forgiveness for but anyway so so he worshiped at the altar of physics and metaphysics and he said every time you drop something it's gravity that makes it fall the ramban says gravity gravity is just another name for God if God wants it to stay it'll stay if God wants when you let go for it to rise it'll rise he happens to let it fall and that's what we've come to expect but for the ran the only difference between the natural and the Supernatural is our expectation of it so we believe in gravity because we've just seen and tested that hypothesis so many times when you let go of something there's a gravitational pull that pulls it towards the Earth so you conclude it must be gravity but says the ran to be a God-fearing Jew to be living as an Earnest sincere faithful Jew you have to believe that in fact it's not gravity nature you know it's a windy day outside yesterday was windy so for the rambam 6,000 years ago 5,778 years ago God set in motion a world and there are I don't if exactly understand it I don't even not exactly understand it but there's an ecological system and there's a waves and there's whatever I don't know how wind is produced that' be an interesting thing to Google there's wind so the natural world anyone know how wind happens the natural world that God set in motion produced the wind today 5,778 years ago he designed a world he had a program he press start and the program that's in the world yields the wind that's blowing outside right now that's the Ram's understanding nature does that mean God doesn't of course God invented nature controls nature can choose to manipulate and interfere with nature but all else being equal he pressed play and nature goes but the ran no every gust of wind is the direct will of Hashem that's not wind that's Hashem giving you a hug blowing you a kiss that's not a gust of wind every branch that falls every leaf every everything every traffic light that that you got stopped at or that you made because you were running L it's all there's nothing natural or coincidental it's all AEM okay so explaining the comes along theah the Mah says the following the first would review this Insight of the over and over and over again just to tell us just telling us how how significant it is just like there's a natural order so too there's an order to Miracles that's the Mar's Insight just like there's a say there for There are rules and there's an order and there natural laws so too There are rules and there's order and there's laws that determine Miracles what do you mean a miracle is exactly the opposite what does the mar mean nature is about rules and formulas and predictability Supernatural is about violating those rules Supernatural is about suspending those rules Supernatural is about breaking through the boundaries that limit you to those rules so what does it mean to say that Miracles also rules the whole idea of Miracles is that you transcend the world of creation the physical universe and God is choosing to determine what he wants to do what does it mean to even have SED order to a miracle what does it mean God did an incredible um kindness to us that he created the world with 10 sayings and he conducted the world in a in a natural order and in a way which fits nicely and neatly right so the fact that God created a world with rules and predictability was a great Act of if the world were completely random you'd have no idea when is the when is the um PL if you didn't have seasons okay I understand the irony of saying that in South Florida but if you didn't have seasons and you're a farmer how would you know when to plant when to plow when to harvest when to you need the predictability of nature I'm not suggesting nature is entirely predictable just ask any hurricane forecaster or Weatherman in New York who's you know about blizzards but the rules of nature are predictable if a then B if C then D so so that's a of to know that if you let go of something and sometimes it fell and sometimes it rose up and sometimes it smacked you in the face you would never know if you could let go of something you couldn't live so the rules of nature are actually a tremendous so we know that the day is for working in the night time what if you didn't know you went to sleep but it could get light 10 minutes later you start out in the in the farm in the field you're about to go to work all of a sudden it got dark if you had no idea when it would get dark when it would get light when it would be cold when it would be hot when it's time to plant when it's time to harvest the rules of nature are an incredible gift without the rules of nature we literally couldn't survive sometimes you'd have to survive from the light of the sun sometimes the light of the Moon and with every aspect of life we need the predictability of nature so therefore as an act of it was a great act of kindness created boundaries rules and regulations for the world that give it a certain ability to predict to anticipate so that we can operate in it if you couldn't predict would you ever get up in an airplane if you knew gravity is not going to work is going to work turbulence that the notion that God created a world with a natural order with predictability and formulas was all true until until from the moment of creation until we were ready to be taken out of Egypt the world operated exclusively according to the rules of nature he created that of called nature and that was it nature itself guided the world so what was the real gift of is that God then created something new in the universe yeshu say what God changed in the world it's like a new invention a new creation that came out deep into when the world already existed what God created in the world was that if we are willing to transcend our nature then God will transcend his nature his nature meaning the nature he created if we can overcome our natural inclination Instinct impulse if we can exhibit our willingness to believe not in the Fatalis fatalism of nature but to believe in a God who can interfere with nature then God in fact will reciprocate in kind and go to extraordinary means and measures to do so just looking at these footnotes and deciding whether we're going to go do them a great so according to the with that change what does it mean to be a disciple of Moser Renu what it means to be loyal to hasem is to believe that once that change happened he took us out of MIT once that change happened he gave us the Torah that now everything that happens it it's almost as if before the r was right and after the ran is Right obviously the ram has to describe also post but for the way that R bman is describing it it's almost as if before we left Egypt we were subjects of nature period pure plain and simple if God forbid a person got a terrible diagnosis and illness it was a fluke of nature they were the Unlucky winner of that genetic Lottery that they won that disease if a person had a blessing they were highly fertile and they popped out Children which is actually what happened in Egypt they were the lucky winner of of fertility but there was nothing about God God created a natural order part of the natural world is he created human beings and the human beings are subjects and operate within nature that was all true until we left Egypt says based on this R once we left Egypt the entire structure and dynamic of our relationship changed the now nothing in our lives is because of Nature and whatever happens from the blessing to the seeming hardship to the challenge to the obstacle to the good it's all every moment of it is y Hashem the gamar says you reach into your pocket to pull out a nickel and you pked out pulled out a penny so you know you had a bunch of change in your pocket you just say it's Randomness it's just chance right do it X many times and you're going to figure out the statistics so the gamar says no whatever you pulled out you were meant to pull out if you pulled out the right thing on the first try that was a stickle reward Hashem threw something your way that you didn't even notice but it just made your life more efficient and convenient for a moment and if you struggled in your pocket to pull out the right one that also wasn't coincidence that too hasem needed you to be delayed Hashem needed you to struggle for a moment so post the major transformation the transition that happened with leaving Egypt was a absolute different relationship with Hashem and you see this in the today you're going out in the month of spring in the springtime just as an aside why do we observe pesak in the spring so most people will say did so most people will say thank you that that's when it happens so if you're going to get it right you got to do it accurately it'd be weird to observe khaka in the summer and pesak in the it just these are when it happened where're commemorating historical events so that's why we do it when we do it SU happen later so why do we do it in the fall so so clearly it's not only because of historical events so why are we doing it in the spring say that the the K of that month at that time at that moment was the only time that could have happened that's exactly right so I'll tell you something this is so critically I'm going to this is so critically important to understand you cannot understand the Jewish notion of time let alone holidays if you don't understand this concept and and it's a very very simple but but critically important concept to understand in this in in among Western thinkers time is linear time is linear means that let's say this point this edge of the table represents the first moment of creation whether it was the Big Bang or whatever precipitated the Big Bang we call God and then it's a line that goes across the table to the other end of the table and wherever we are in time is that point on the line and the future line is the future and the line that's been drawn behind this this is the past and we are the moving point on a linear timeline that's only moving forward right that's a secular notion of time the Jewish notion of time is not linear it's cyclical what is a cyclical notion of time it's not a circle if time were a circle you would meet yourself now from last year pesak right you don't run into ourselves every year time doesn't work as a circle but time works as picture not a circle but a spiral a spiral is following the exact same cycle and pattern but it's advancing so on the one hand we're moving forward on the spiral because time is progressing but on the other hand we are revisiting the exact same cycle over and over and over again it's cyclical now each cycle each circle has points on that Circle where God created a world where he embedded within points on that Circle certain energy certain opportunity certain power within those times I know would like this energy certain certain time right so when we encounter those points of time going through our cycle what we're doing why are we observing pesak a week from this Friday night why are we observing pesak so if you waken a child in the middle of the night and say why are you keeping pesak they would say to you you're keeping pesak because thousands of years ago the Jews were in Egypt and we were freed and we are remembering and reliving and recounting that event why am I observing khaka because the Jews were oppressed by the helness and we were freed why am I observing Su because we sat in the elements we sat in the Su and that's entirely wrong that is not why we observe these holidays that's not why why we observing these holidays because each holiday has a theme and the historical event that's associated with the holiday happened because that day was imbued with that theme with that energy that allowed that event to happen so when that event happened on that day it revealed to us the energy in the day but the reason that we're observing the holiday is to ourselves tap into that energy not simply to commemorate something so look at the way that America commemorates things July 4th is Independence Day so what do we do to express our independence barbecue we barbecue and make fireworks which by the way is true for every day on the secular calendar holiday how do we commemorate everything about the past really nothing to do with the past we just I don't know we don't really know how because we're you can't commemorate you can't Comm commemorate something from 20 years ago let alone 200 years ago let alone 2000 years ago let alone 3,500 years ago how do you experience that so we are and that's why it's it's devolved into where they just make a barbecue and and a sale and and shoot fireworks in the air for all these holidays so for us each of these historical events be it sukus be it sh be it be it PES be it kanica be it perum be it your Hebrew birthday be it your anniversary the Hebrew one is a point on the calendar which is Meaningful which is auspicious which carries energy and the event that happened revealed that that was in that point in the calendar so when we encounter it in our spiral in our cycle it's a new year we've advanced in the spiral but we're we're tracking the exact same pattern the same flight path we're going on the same cycle and we're encountering the same points of energy so why are we observing pesak a week from Friday night because we want to be free we want to liberate ourselves we want to tap into the energy of emancipation of freedom of Liberty of what that means that Hashem is involved in our lives why am I observing sukus because I want to leave my home I want to leave my house and take my home with me into a flimsy Hut and remind myself that the walls and the brick and the mortar are not what Define me it's the people and the experiences in it and so I go outside and I make myself vulnerable to the elements because that day is imbued with that meaning and why and Sh am I celebrating the giving of the Torah because that's a day that I reaccept the Torah sh I'm not just commemorating oh yeah way back then we accepted the Torah sh I'm re accepting the Torah P I'm reexperiencing Freedom I'm reexperiencing vulnerability I'm reexperiencing Miracles I'm reexperiencing finding Hashem even when he's hidden and on my birthday I'm reexperiencing that the god thought the world needed me to exist not in an ego way but that I have a mission I have a purpose I'm here for a reason if I live and survive another birthday then that birthday obligates me and mandates me to say why am I here and what is my mission and what is my cause and if you're blessed and fortunate to celebrate an anniversary and it should be the Hebrew one then what are you commemorating you're not just it's not an anniversary you know imagine your anniversary you say I don't really love you right now I'm not getting you anything nice I'm not experiencing anything nice but let's watch The Wedding Video because historically this was the day that we stood under the so let's you know historically walk down memory lane about out our our wedding we'll watch the wedding video from way back when no of course not wedding anniversary is is should be imbued with romance and love and connection and and and reexperiencing not only reexperiencing the fact that you've been on the spiral moving forward you're hopefully experiencing it much more intensely than you ever did under the K when you thought you were in love and you barely knew each other so whether it's your Hebrew birthday your Hebrew anniversary or all these holidays the reason that we encounter them engage them is not to commemorate a historical event of the past but rather and this also explains what does it mean when tell us that theob observe the holidays PES most notably when the Angels come and it's PES what does it mean they observe the holidays that's absurd if PES commemorates are leaving Egypt how could abah have observed a holiday that commemorates something that didn't yet happen that makes no sense makes no sense so the simple understanding is it didn't yet happen but he was sympathetic with it in anticipation of it happening so he commemorated it even before it it doesn't make sense but based on what I'm telling you this is not my own opinion this is many the maral expresses it also very clearly is it makes a lot of sense AF wasn't observing pesak the experience of leaving Egypt a was observing pesak the experience of freedom and liberty the themes of what pesak are about that's what he was tapping into we needed the historical event in order to pinpoint the day that has that value but they were so attuned their antenna was so sensitive they were able to feel that day even without the historical event uncovering it just because they knew it and that's what he means here when the says you're going out in the springtime they they looked outside they didn't know what season it was they didn't know what month it was why is Moshe Hashem through Moshe telling them you're going out today it's the springtime look outside look at the that I've done for you you're going outside there's no snow on the ground nor is it the dead of Summer and bokeh the heat beating you down it's a springtime it's the most beautiful time and that's not a coincidence Hashem is telling them it's not a coincidence it's not chance it's not random everything about your life is by Design and the fact that I chose to take you out now and it's so comfortable is by Design so so why why do we observe pesak in the spring and by the way we observe pesak in the spring that's so important to observe pesak in the spring that we manipulate the calendar to do so so because we have a lunar calendar not a solar calendar and it's shorter and therefore it ends up shifting when PES gets too close to being too late what do we do another month sorry too early what do we do we have another month why do we have a leap month the second Adar to shift PES back into the spring where it belongs because oh well it happened in the spring so we really should observe it in the spring no the spring is what allowed it to happen right and therefore the spring is what's going to allow us to happen what is where is this coming from like that is it an astrological sign or just no noon he imbued these days we believe I don't think it's measurable I don't think there's an instrument to measure the energy of those days he imbued those days with that meaning so hold on so the spring the idea of the spring is it's not a coincidence you know there's you say people don't know this it brought down we if you have a fruit tree before the fruit emerges there's a flower that comes out and when that flower comes out before the fruit there's a that you say on that flower it's called the the on a tree and it's proper to make the there's a whole discussion in literature if you forgot to and you miss Nissan and when in Nissan but find a tree far I'm always Gather in Dr zi's backyard every year but anyone's welcome we have fruit trees you know you struggle right now if you're living in Manhattan for sure but even the five towns in ten and the blizzard out right now you're going to struggle to make AOS we have the the privilege of making this what's the why you making this braa on the flower the bud of the flower that precedes the fruit anticipation you're making this braa on the springtime the ability to Blossom the ability to grow you're coming out of the dead of winter which you're we don't feel but if you felt the dead of winter you're coming out from being you know the cloak of Darkness the gray the dreary the short days the snow on the ground it's dead people feel dead inside dead outside there's all kinds of research that correlates people's feelings with the weather and and you know what's happening outside there's a lot more crime when it's really hot there's a lot more creativity when it's really this and there's a lot more depression when it's really that because the weather has a big impact so what happens when the day becomes longer and all of a sudden the sky is blower and now you're seeing the blossom it's coming forth the fruit of your effort of your work the winter is clearing and the spring is coming empowered it drove p and it empowers and it drives us so all this is just a tangent by the way but that it's not a coincidence it's based on this P so that's what he's saying Beerman is that why did Hashem throw in look outside it's the spring they didn't know it was the spring because he said to them the fact that I designed to take you out now is not a coining it's not a coincidence it's by Design every everything is on purpose that was the transformation that happened with according to what you're saying then a pesak is is the spirit and the energy of redemption so that means that every time pesak comes we could have the Final Redemption also then that's not what I'm saying the says say we were redeemed in Nissan and we'll be redeemed again in Nissan absolutely because Nissan is pregnant with that possibility it's pregnant with that meaning now here's the here's the kicker though this is the most important thing of everything I've just said in the last 10 minutes most important thing is you have to tap into it the fact that those energies are there if you're caught up in the Kaz of your M I don't mean to minimize any of these things right now but you know you're cleaning the Roma lettuce and what the cost per pound of the mat you bought was you're obsessing over the and you come to the you come to the PED as AATA energy shergy I have no energy this has no energy the day has no energy I ha y I hate P I have no bank account left then then then PES does nothing for you it's supposed to energize and invigorate it's supposed to be a time to Blossom and to grow to Spring forth in spring time and and if you come as a shata and you obsess about the wrong things you see the the thing that was going around yesterday the it shouldn't be so kosher that you have no and there shouldn't be such that it's not Kosher that was the going around yesterday so so and per PES yeah so um the point is that you got to tap into this you have to be aware of this energy you have to talk about what the theme of the day is and you got to you got to experience it so don't come to the Seder and have your kids share grias and VL and pictures and story that's all nice talk to them about what is freedom talk to them about their technology and has the technology made them enslaved or has it provided freedom and what is freedom and how can we use this spring season to redefine ourselves and turn the page and enter a new chapter of our lives in our attitude towards that which enslaves us but there's technology that enslaves us or Town Center mall enslaves us or chocolate cake enslaves us or working enslaves us or or being losing ourselves to anger and rage or jealousy and envy whatever it is that's enslaving us whether it's character traits whether it's objects whether it's substances this is the season that we are given that energy and that possibility to free ourselves to liberate ourselves but you got to be aware of the you got to be aware of the theme you have to know what the energy of that day is and you have to have the energy yourself to tap into it to grow from it to experience it otherwise you miss the boat and what the holidays all about so if you come out of pesak the other end and you had AER and it was so your home was free and everything was M Mah Mah and and it was too you didn't have four glasses of wine at every meal you had 20 glasses of wine and it was but you had no idea you didn't have one conversation about what freedom is you didn't have one connection One Moment In doing about realizing what we're enslaved to and asking for help to get to get free from it you didn't think for one moment about what spring is or blossoming forth or the trees that produce the fruit in the first Bud then you didn't really experience PES technically you went through the calendar of PES technically you went through the laws of PES but PES didn't go through you and that's what it's really here for and that's what's really transformational about it say Beerman they just came out of 210 Years of Slavery persecution it was a holocaust people were murdered children were killed were beaten you really think they were worried about the weather you know this councilman in New York who just accused Jews of controlling the weather follow stuff think I think he apologized yesterday I saw a great some non-jewish woman on Twitter wrote a tweet she says I was once walking by a synagogue on a Saturday and they asked me if I was Jewish and when I said no they asked me if I could come in and adjust the thermostat because they're not allowed to I don't think they control the weather a great so that's what here is saying you think that the weather that's what they were controlling 210 years of they they they were they were liberated they were in a concentration camp called Egypt and God came and liberated them and you think you think coming out of daa or aitz or midic someone said said huh what a beautiful day or I wish it was 10° cooler or 10° warmer it was the last thing they noticed who is thinking about some insignificant Factor when you're experiencing the greatest Miracle why the why did the Torah emphasize God says wait stop before we go further notice the weather isn't it a beautiful day because what God was saying was throughout our lives he says stop notice the weather stop notice the notice the everything around you notice the everything around you my one of my daughters at her I don't remember which one said this about so I understand MOS you sayos you're eating and you're saying relevant to Theos eating bread you say relevant to the bread that's coming from the ground and you eat fruit you say comes from the tree and you eat a vegetable B it comes from the ground and when you have a delicious cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee which you desperately need that morning you say that everything was created with his word why don't I reference the coffee the water every other BR is specific to what you're making the Shah is this you know free generic BR so I'm sure you remember what she said at her B Mitzvah I'll repeat it for you anyway said she said that you know you go to a restaurant you pay for two things in the restaurant you pay for the food and sometimes there's a premium you're paying if you eat Manhattan I think you're I'm not a big fan of this but if you go out to eat anywhere in Manhattan you're paying like double triple what you'd pay for that same steak or whatever it is that you were eating elsewhere what are you paying for amb the the atmosphere what's it called the uh amb the Ambi there's a sear charge for the no the Ambiance is not worth often what the search charge the charging is but the atmosphere you got dressed up you went to Manhattan you're the Ambiance the atmosphere the Ambiance there's a search charge you pay a premium for the Ambiance so I forgot who she quoted who says shahak you're making AA not just on the coffe sh the whole Ambiance God I'm drinking this coffee but you know why I could drink this coffee and the sweat's not pouring out of me cuz you invented something called air conditioning and it's cool in here it's Pleasant in here it's wonderful in here and you know to make the coffee there was a car that picked up the coffee and there's lights right now so I can see how many splend I added to the coffee and there's a whole Ambiance that it's not just the coffee so the most insignificant things we make a h or we thinking significant water and coffee and the basics I make a shahak because I'm not just making a on that substance I'm making a on the whole Ambiance that God created so this is a paradigm for how to live life says that right they're about to March out they're liberated and imagine the American Army liberating them out says to the prisoners who've just been liberated as they're marching out from this horrific horrific nightmare of 210 years says stop one second look around isn't it a beautiful day for 210 years you could never notice the Blue Sky you never heard the birds SHP you never saw the flowers bloom stop take it all in isn't it a magnificent day that too is not a coincidence and and the fact that you've been taken out is the hand of God and the fact that he took you out and he provided this Ambiance is the hand of God and we even when we're grateful for the details of Our Lives we forget to be grateful for the Ambiance we forget to zoom out the lens and look at the big picture yeah and sometimes the steak stinks but you know the Ambiance was still great and so you pay the check and you're still hungry or more often than not the steak didn't stink but the steak was the size of a dime so $90 for a dime you cut it in half so you got whatever and uh but you know what you still say but why did you go back to that restaurant again the Ambiance Ambiance the atmosphere sometimes the steak stinks in life sometimes we' get Delta bad hands served a bad dish but you know what the Ambiance don't forget to still take in the ambiance the Ambiance of Our Lives there's nothing that's chance if this detail was also God says oh when I'm designing it you know what let's I'm gonna take him out in the spring it'll be perfect that detail he didn't forget one detail one detail so the miracle reveals the there is a puppeteer there is a master who is directing and guiding a choreographer who is guiding absolutely everything that is everything that is happening so that's uh that's our mission that is what we are that's what we're experiencing and I I just say as a postcript to what I was telling you before tapping into the energy of the day does not work on your English birthday or your English anniversary we're Jews we have a Jewish calendar we have a Jewish identity I'll make a Shameless plug now for the shabas Russia which please God will be finished in time for shabas but the topic is recovering our identity in an age of identity theft and identity confusion and identity crisis recovering our identity because that's what was it was giving us our who are we when you peel back the layers who are we what are we all about what does it mean to be a Jew who are we I'll give you a little um it's not a spoiler alert because it's not a spoiler but there's there was an amazing New York Times article which I'm quoting that talks about the difference between saying I'm Jewish and I'm a Jew and it talks about why so many people call themselves or refer to things as Jewish and they they struggle to say Jew you understand the difference between the two a Jew is my core identity Jewish is I do Jewish things right I am Jewish but am I a Jew if I had to reduce to the jussa to that it's that question am I a Jew or am I jewi wish who am I right what what is my identi who am I so part of that identity what we're going to be speaking about are the three things possibly four but it's these midam have been combined into this one that there are three things for which we earned Redemption that we were saved in Egypt we were on the verge of assimilation of Disappearing and we were preserved because we kept our names we kept our language and we kept our clothing we kept our identity so one of the things to be included in that list is to keep our calent to know our you know I'm not going to embarrass any here and but how many how many people how many Torah observant God-fearing Jews even know their Hebrew birthday even know it let alone observe it so everyone knows thetick in my family they're not fond of it because they say we live in America and we live in this world and an English birthday and I and they all think it's a ploy for me to be able to observe multiple birthdays for myself which is not true I tell them you don't have to keep I tell them you don't have to keep either birthday but if you're going to keep one on the second night of of Kaneka that's my birthday that's when I want our anniversary is is our it's our Hebrew anniversary that's when I want to observe it so I can't emphasize this is one of my Hang-Ups and pet peeves is and instill it within your children their English birthday that's what they fill out the SATs English birthday that's when they have to fill out a forum what they put down but their ident and their birth certificate but their identity who they are when they want to revisit point on the calendar that reaffirms their very existence and their mission and why they're here and that God thinks that they're worthy of living in this world that's not done on some English date based on the death of Jesus that's done on not a Gregorian calendar that is done on our Hebrew yish calendar one should have an awareness of what what how many Jews I mean Nissan is kind of an easy one but how many Jews know what month we're in how many what know where we are in the Hebrew month they know the secular date do they know the Hebrew date how many know their own Hebrew dates it's a really really important thing to try to bring back and forging our Jewish identity literally identity the you know to to know your identity if if you if you met someone and they didn't know their own birthday what would you think of them not highly not very highly so this is so which is our real identity if you know your Gregorian birthday and you don't know your Jewish one who's the real you which identity do you really all right I'm going to give you the whole stop anyway have a great day um next week next Wednesday is Arab ar ar PES no have a good week we're taking off okay see everyone on the other side