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Q&A With Rabbi Efrem Goldberg (Hosted by Moshe Schonbrun) - Part 3
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A Question and Answer (Q&A) hosted on Instagram with R. Efrem Goldberg, hosted by @Meaningful Minute ). - Introduction - Perspectives on Divorce - Rosh Hashana During COVID-19 - Teshuva (Repentance) Throughout the Year - Simanim on Rosh Hashana - Why Marriages are Falling Apart - Romance in Judaism - Civilian Casualties in Halacha - We Can Only Control What We Let in
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coming to you live from
the united states
and meaningful minute
i'm moshe sharma and this
is
contemporary questions real questions
real answers on contemporary topics with
rabbi ephraim goldberg
discussing burning questions if you have
a good question something that's been on
your mind
drop it down in the question box
right here
and we will be able to have the
opportunity to post over
who needs no introduction
and we are waiting for him to join but
in the meantime drop it in this is
important
hello robbie goldberg hello hello
getting there of shabbos to you
catherine
last hour shout outs of the year
that's it 100 it's good to be together
again
amazing so everyone put the questions in
the question box not in the comments
because
i'm talking to robert goldberg i'm
focused i'm not looking at the comments
but look put in the questions mark man
say nice things okay okay
put it in the question box put it in the
comments
keep it
send it up to you
uh
roy gilbert how was uh how was your past
week do you have do you have like um
different weeks like some weeks are good
some weeks aren't as good
every day every hour when you're in the
rabbit is different you never know what
it's going to bring especially this time
of year it's what i love about the job
the abode of this profession it's a gift
and a privilege and a pleasure so every
week is different barcelona was a great
week it's good to be back together again
how about you i saw you started school
yeah so this semester started on monday
happens to be i'm now using anytime i
meet a student from florida i'm like oh
do you know robbie gobert from south
florida fastest growing school in
america
check it out thursday night i'm having
we're meeting students it's going great
amazing um so okay so the first question
this was pre-submitted we have a whole
bunch of uh coming in on the question
box keep them coming we're gonna get to
them hopefully time permitting
um but the first question was
pre-submitted so
it's it's a it's a big one to date 10 of
my friends have gotten divorced and i'm
seeing an alarming uptick in other
communities as well i'm
concerned about this i'm wondering if
the
rav has any
any perspective on this manner
yeah there definitely is an uptick in
divorce in the world that large and
whatever exists in the world that large
makes its way into the torah community
as well we're not immune from it and
it's important to know that because i
think sometimes people
live in this cocoon and live this
illusion that we are immune if only we
embrace torah and a total way of life
then what's happening around us won't
impact us but of course it does and it
does impact us now divorce is a mitzvah
in the torah it's not a mitzvah
it's not like hearing the chauffeur that
you have to go out and do it um but it
means that our religion's perspective
and attitude is that divorce is not
categorically bad or we don't reject it
and we don't force people to stay
married who aren't meant to be married
there are circumstances where there are
reconcilable differences people have
grown in different directions halacha
talks about certain situations where a
couple is no longer allowed to even be
married together so divorce it's not
again it's not like lula vanessa or
sucker or chauffeur you're not obligated
to go out and get divorced but if the
circumstances are such that a person
should be divorced it is the mitzvah our
religion understands it recognizes that
and doesn't force people to be together
who shouldn't that said
tell us that
the altar itself christ tears every time
a marriage is dissolved a marriage is a
home a marriage is continuity and
marriage ish
the name man and woman when they have
harmony they have you in the hand of
god's name when they don't have harmony
all they have the isle from the shin is
asia's fire not the kind of fire like
everyone on instagram apparently puts on
posts that they like but the kind of
fire that consumes and destroys and the
kind of fire which is bad so um you know
on the one hand we recognize divorce
it's not a concession there are times
that divorce is in fact the ideal for
that circumstance but divorce is tragic
no matter how you cut it there's a sense
of mourning and grieving people go
through divorce go through the stages of
grief in the stages of mourning um
there's been an increase in a spike in
divorce during corona during covet and
that's i think a terrible idea we should
not make life altering decisions in a
pandemic where our lives and our worlds
have been turned upside down we're
living in lockdown and we're living in
an unusual way in circumstances it's not
a time to make enormous life altering
decisions so um
marriages need work they need
selflessness they need giving the torah
judaism has a very strong and and a very
clear philosophy that love is not the
result of receiving getting everyone
knows of desolate countries
maybe everybody does it doesn't it
things i know it's famous because i
happen to know it so i say
but of tesla wrote a great country where
he talked about really the opposite of
um of what people think people think
that you know if you give me and i
receive from you i love you i love you
because you gave me but it's the
opposite love doesn't come from getting
love comes from giving when i give i
build a bridge i invest a piece of
myself in you and i love you as an
extension of me and modern modern man
the modern world in which we live talks
about rights and entitlements what are
you getting out of marriage uh whereas
judaism says now what are you getting
what are you giving to marriage and we
need to have that philosophy that
approach that attitude when you have two
people who are looking to get something
out of marriage you'll have an unhappy
marriage when you have two people who
are looking to give and put the other
party first make the other person happy
you'll have two happy people for the
most part so there definitely is an
increase uh the last thing i'll say and
and again is not here so i'm a lot of be
long-winded
he's the only one who told me to be uh
shorter with my with my answers you can
do um but the last thing i'll say is i
think i was talking to a couple of
friends of mine prominent uh rabbi
therapists who are trying to create a
campaign and a movement for all couples
to have pre-marital counselling that
robunum should not agree to be masonic
condition a rabbi should not officiate
at a wedding unless the couple has gone
for three sessions before the wedding
and one session after the wedding but
only six weeks after the wedding meaning
three sessions before to be realistic
about marriage to understand marriage to
understand men and women to understand
what it means to to live together and
then be married but you can't go to that
fourth session when you're in the
honeymoon and i love them they're
perfect they can do no wrong you gotta
wait till you had your first fight and
then you go to that fourth session and
there'll be no stigma attached because
if we make it the standard and we ask
everyone to do it we can remove the
stigma and the best thing we can do
is to create healthier marriages before
they're in crisis to take good marriages
and make them great before they go into
crisis
wow
okay that's an incredible answer and an
incredible initiative
thank you on behalf of uh
meaningful millennium clause um okay so
a couple of questions coming in this is
this is actually related to
throughout had a very interesting point
there about don't make anything uh
life-altering any decisions
life-altering during covet and this
crazy time so one of the questions
transitioning to russia is we're in
lockdown this is lee berman 28. we're in
lockdown over rosh hashanah what can i
do to celebrate on my own
kove rosh hashanah
that is a great question that is a sad
question our heart goes out to you there
are people in parts of the world who are
still locked down and precluded from
being one another there are people all
over the world because they're
particularly vulnerable at risk who are
voluntarily locked down and can't be
with others and our hearts go out to you
and we dive in for you and we're sad for
you that that's your that's your matter
that's your situation but the best thing
i can say is an outsider is not
experiencing it so to a certain degree i
don't have a right to but i can only
tell you what i've tried to do in the
earlier parts of corona when we
experienced that lockdown was to realize
and to remember this is where hashem
wants me
it's not that i wish i were in shul and
i can't believe i'm being denied and
deprived of the opportunity to be with
others and there's no hazard and there's
no hundreds or thousands of people on
the walls are shaking and that's where i
want to be so i'll i'll in fact forfeit
my entire rosh hashanah and i won't
experience it because i'll just spend it
wishing i was somewhere else instead
embrace where you are
lean into where you are and recognize
and realize it's where you're meant to
be and how do i know it's where you're
meant to be how can i make such a bold
statement because that's where you are
and if that's where you are that's what
hashem meant for you to be and so
instead of
being envious or anxious or angry that
you're not with others lean into that
experience is a great story of of the
rebel
and uh with his brother and his whole
story in the prison in the bucket they
contawn and they were dancing because
that was their situation so the guard
took the bucket with the excrement and
each one as long as you continue to
remember that that's where you're meant
to be you can sing and dance with that
so again it's harder said than done and
i don't need to minimize the challenge
or struggle of being alone but you have
an opportunity you don't normally have
you're the cousin and you're the rabbi
and you're the gabbai and you're the
bhattochea and you're at all so you know
some of us you know like to think that
we're the cosmo in the shower when we're
all alone we want to compete and we
don't we think the show doesn't know
what it's missing out by not having us
this is our chance to shine this is our
chance not to be a spectator and rely on
others for inspiration this is your year
to create and generate the inspiration
because there is nowhere else to turn
and sometimes sometimes we dig deepest
into ourselves and sometimes we become
our best selves when we remember there's
nowhere else to turn and it's entirely
up to us like robloz or bender daya it's
a whole gamora for another time
amazing i'm definitely a shower cousin
um and also this is probably something
throughout the year not only a rosh
hashanah specific thing but to realize
whatever circumstance it
goes differently than you expected the
flight didn't work out that whatever
like this is exactly where hashem wants
you to be
and make the best of it exactly by the
way it's not just true for people in
lockdown i think we talked about it last
time two times ago there are there are
mothers of young children who wish they
could be ensure like in their seminary
days but now they're in a different role
in life there are there are
incapacitated men and women who health
doesn't allow them to to be there to be
there the entire time for davening and
so i think it's really important to as
hard as it is not to again forfeit the
moment by trying to be somewhere we
can't but to be fully present in where
we are and make the most of that moment
amazing thank you rav
another question related to russia's
shout out that coming time it's it's
about chuva it says why do we take chuba
seriously during these times elo rosh
hashanah young kipper and not the rest
of the year
that's a great question it's a great
question because true is relevant the
whole year in fact somebody texted me
earlier today they're learning uh rav
cooks uh safer oro sachuva rav
weinberger of moshe weinberger has a
magnificent commentary translated into
english it's a wonderful book i highly
recommend it and free volume yeah and in
so much of it is about how cuba is not
relegated or limited to this time of
year it's not like you can't do chuba
other than
this time of year in iowa and tishrei
the whole year the whole year you made a
mistake the whole year you came up short
the whole year you hurt another person
where you violated the relationship the
trust with hashem we can do trevor we
can do that repair trump is one of the
things that was created that tells us
before the world was created it's on the
list of things that were created before
the days of creation you know what that
tells me whenever i think about that
gemara i realize god did not create a
utopian society god did not have an
expectation that we were going to be
perfect he built into creation that were
fallible he built in he comes into the
relationship with an expectation that
there will be mistakes and he already
plants within it the way out he tells us
there's before i created the whole world
it's true some suggest that's why the
bride the the the hussein under the
khupa with his kawa that's why he breaks
the glass before you leave the chupa you
break the glass that's not so romantic
what are you doing so some suggest in
addition to all the classic reasons in
addition to the worst jewish joke it's
the last time he's putting his foot down
but some suggest the reason you're
breaking the glass is to remember that
you're about to leave this majestic
magical moment of your chupa things
break
let's break the first thing right here
before we even leave so that we can
remember when you go home things are
going to break things will break they'll
be broken moments they'll be broken
objects things will break so hashem
understands that we'll feel broken and
will live broken lives at times and he
created and built truman in before you
even created the world so we can and
must do chuva all year round however so
why then do we have it is this whole
thing like a joke we have all of this
all these things as catalyst to
stimulate are doing chuva and you know
like the clock is ticking it's going to
be on kipper it's going to be nila it's
going to be your shana yoshanaraba the
answer is that you know we are a great
group of procrastinators and if we
didn't have a deadline in the timeline
we likely wouldn't do it so even though
we can and should do cuba all year round
whenever we need it but we created a
calendar with a timeline and deadline so
that we would be moved to actually do it
so we'd be moved to take it seriously to
embrace it and to get it done to take it
from um i think it was on meaningful
minute just shared a clip it was a
meaningful minute maybe somebody else uh
rabbi sachs lloyd sachs the
chronological who talked about you know
stephen covey has their four quadrants
important and urgent and so on and so
forth so often the important gets buried
because the urgent always takes
precedence we never get to the important
is important but it was time for it you
got to pay tuition you got to shop for
kosher food you got to work you got to
survive corona who has time for chuva so
the calendar comes and it forces us to
address not only the urgent but it
forces us to also address the important
amazing so we should do it all here
don't just wait for us or something on
camera but if you just relegated it to
the
important file but not urgent now it's
both important and urgent exactly so
let's get on it
amazing okay
another question
this is about to see mud in my rosh
hashanah and it says
it seems
it seems superficial i eat the head of
the fish and i'm going to be at the head
my year is going to be at the head of
the line it's going to be successful
what's going on with the c money we
don't do this on other young until then
so
how is eating the head of the fish or
you know different people have different
acute
apples
the gemara says see money mostly yeah
specifically which is very peculiar
because on the one end where are people
who don't believe in superstition we're
not supposed to believe in superstition
some of us do but we're not supposed to
hashem took us out of egypt egypt was a
place of superstition horoscope
superstition magic and god said you
don't need any of that nourish kite you
have me drop all that all you need is me
you have me and some people continue to
follow it i won't give examples because
i don't want people to drop off i don't
want to offend anybody but they're all
silly superstitions that the septic
calls it idolatry which have seeped
their way into made their way into the
jewish people so we don't believe in
superstition and yet russia comes along
and the same people who
rail against all of these superstitions
we're not supposed to do and all of a
sudden we're dipping apple and honey and
we're eating the carrots and we're
eating the fenugreek and we're eating
the leek and we're eating the head of
the fish and we're eating that up what's
going on so the difference is that
that's not superstition that sources
itself back to the gemara itself and the
kumar says see many mil so when it comes
to simon when it comes to symbols they
have value here's the thing if you
subscribe to the symbols as superstition
they have no value that's idolatry it's
magic but if the symbols are only
symbolic and then we show them say this
the commentators and the gemara sadist
if the symbols motivate you to remember
certain themes and to turn to god and to
invest in god and to submit and
surrender to god so the symbols are
there just to jar us to jog us to
to stimulate us to connect to him
they're symbols they're meant to only be
symbols if they're superstitions if i
wear this red string around my wrist
nothing bad will happen if i eat the
head of the fish i'm going to come and
be the top of the class if i eat that
it doesn't work that way i don't believe
in a god like that i could i could
misbehave i could be cruel insensitive
unkind cheat steal and then i just have
to eat the head of the fish
gonna have a great year we don't believe
in superstitions it's not we don't
believe in that what we believe is that
we look at these symbols and the symbols
remind us of what's important the
symbols remind us that we turn to god in
order to achieve those things so it's
all a question of how we of how we use
those symbols do the symbols become a
superstition or the symbols a source of
connecting to god
amazing i forgot to give my disclaimer
that even though a question i don't have
all the answers these are just my
thoughts but i invite everybody whether
it's tonight or if we continue when we
continue
you know ask whatever questions you have
i'd love to talk about
whatever topics controversial not
controversial in the bigger jewish world
if people don't have an opportunity to
to talk to their rabbi or rabbis often
again i don't have all the answers i'm
not in authority but i'm more than happy
to try to address uh anything and
anything
amazing
thank you okay um
so there's already been a couple of
questions coming in about the first part
about the divorce
um a bunch is it
based on are we not
trying hard enough or are we not
equipped enough
um and maybe that speaks to the the
rev's initiative
um right at the beginning maybe it is or
forget about me what would raw say is it
that we're not trying enough is it or is
we're not equipped enough
of why marriages are are falling apart
they're dissolving
i think there are a lot of um factors
and variables again this is all
anecdotal i'm not a therapist not a
mental health professional and i don't
have research and studies but i do do a
fair amount of marriage counseling and
um i think there are a lot of variables
and factors i think we're living in a
crazy world an anxious world we're
living in a world which is uh hedonistic
and morally depraved in some ways which
is harder to
protect the sanctity of marriage we're
living in a world which doesn't respect
the sanctity of marriage marriage is no
longer a virtue some consider marriage a
vice and you see couples even couples
who are together don't bother with that
piece of paper called marriage and
different definitions of marriage so
there's an assault on marriage as an
institution and that has an impact um
the pressures that we live with you know
what the average person lives with when
they wake up in the morning until they
go to sleep at night the pressure to
produce the pressure to bring home the
income the pressure to
live morally in a world which is
enticing and inviting us to do immoral
things all of that places enormous
enormous pressure on us so i think that
there are a lot of variables that are
contributing to the pressure and stress
on marriage um in some cases if people
tried harder if they had a spirit of
compromise and sacrifice and
selflessness if people were willing to
give and not just take if people put in
the work of marriage probably some of
those marriages could be saved and
preserved in other cases people
legitimately have grown apart they're in
different directions is it reconcilable
there are violations of trust that took
place in which the marriages couldn't be
saved so i don't think it's an easy
answer but i do think that we should
teach much more and instruct more about
healthy marriages i think as we spoke
about earlier we should encourage
premarital counseling and and try to
address and solve some of the challenges
before they turn into the level of
crisis sometimes once it spirals to
crisis it's hard to come back and
recover but if we can catch it before it
gets there we have a better shot
okay
and
one more thing on the relationship thing
romance rob mentioned something about
things that are romantic the the
breaking of the class but is romance
uh a torah concept should there be
romance in our in our intimate
relationships yeah that's a great
question so romance it depends how
you're using or translating the word
romance um but i would say romance can
mean affection and absolutely it's not
only a jewish concept it's a jewish
contract if anyone ever bother
translating the tsuba the marriage
document you will find
that the contract between the husband
and the wife is a responsibility to
allocate time allocate resources
allocate love allocate affection there
is a responsibility to to make a
commitment of time ona is time there has
to be a physical affection physical
intimacy spiritual and emotional
intimacy and affection if you ask me
it's one of the biggest crises of our
day you want to try to get some more
viewers here and and turn this a little
bit different rating we're at 9 20 at
night so you know i don't know what
rating this is on on instagram live um
but i think one of the biggest crises
going on right now in the greater world
the jewish world including the total
world are issues of intimacy in marriage
mismatched libidos um moral boundaries
um issues of being under enormous
pressure and not having the physical or
emotional
strength to invest in meaningful time
meaningful conversations to confide in
trust physically to experience intimacy
closeness connection the way the torah
meant for that physical connection to be
for the torah sexual pleasure intimacy
is not a concession it's a value it's
it's in the contract too it's in the
tsuba there's a responsibility and an
obligation and it's not to procreate
couples who are married are
postmenopausal or pregnant or
postmenopausal
or or unable to become pregnant also
have a mitzvah of owner they have an
obligation because the act is not only
to produce uh to procreate the act is to
produce closeness connection a feeling
of intimacy to have something that one
shares with one of the person no one
else in the world when the torah talks
about
the sexual act it calls it das
though man knew his wife
why don't we have another word aside
from the fact that the torah is very
strict to preserve a sense of sanctity
but because
intimacy is the ultimate you're exposed
to someone in the most literal sense
you're exposing yourself and you're
experiencing something that you reserve
to only experience with them nobody else
knows nobody else is nobody else is
present nobody else shares that
experience it's unique and it's direct
and it's intimate so i think that there
are a lot of marriages you know
connecting these ideas there are
marriages that are floundering and in
crisis
even if they have all the ingredients to
be a healthy marriage that can continue
because there are crises of intimacy
there there are failures of husbands and
wives not communicating what their needs
are not communicating that if they
cannot get on the same page what those
consequences and what the dangers might
be in acting out and why it's so
important to solve that and to heal that
and to address that and there are a lot
of ways that that manifests itself and
needs to be done so i think that
historically out of a sense of modesty
we've shied away from talking about
these kinds of things so you don't have
public shurim you don't even have online
i don't think a lot of public shirum
about
these
themes and these topics but sexual
pleasure sexual intimacy romance
affection it's considered to be
something that should be communicated in
private and of course that's a huge
value of ours but the problem is that
there are people everywhere wondering
struggling are they alone do other
people go through this
are they normal is what's happening in
their marriage normal and they have no
one to communicate they're afraid
they're intimate or they've been shut
down from communicating with their
spouse and therefore um they may be act
out or they feel depressed or they feel
unworthy or they become addicted to
certain behaviors and there's a real
real crisis of this and i think that we
need to bring it out in the open not in
in modest or unhealthy way in
appropriate way but in a way that we
take away some stigma we have some
conversation that's part of the
premarital counseling is to talk about
that component of marriage not just the
hosting schmooze and the college
which are important for the hashgraph of
it but also to take away the stigma for
what needs to be spoken about it how we
got on this i don't even know
i don't know either but but this is real
this is real the title of this series is
real
questions real answers and oh there's a
whole lot more real where that comes
from but we'll keep it at that for now
wow
yeah anecdotally speaking i
have experienced of a similar resistance
because maybe it's because of
educational techniques or whatever it is
that there's sort of a shying away from
these type of topics and then when
somebody want feels
like they're struggling there isn't a
lot
to turn to
uh in a healthy way at least and
it's probably more widespread than than
just
you know
most people think that they're
struggling just alone
and
thank you bro for bringing it out into a
public big danger hopefully i'll tell
you one one thing we tried to do several
years ago here at brs but it's not it's
not online you can't find it is with the
recognition that it'd be inappropriate
to have a public forum where you'd have
a talk on this with husbands and wives
that would by definition be violating
our boundaries but yet on the other hand
how are you going to address it so i did
a series with a local therapist with a
confidential
conference call number husbands and
wives could call in together all of
those who call in would be confidential
and anonymous to one another nobody knew
who else was there and the therapist and
i had a very
um a very
transparent and a very direct and very
graphic discussion
what's permissible and forbidden within
the bedroom and within these practices
and also addressing some of these
questions of crisis within intimacy
within marriage within affection within
romance what's normal what's acceptable
what's healthy what's unhealthy what
should be expected how do you navigate
how do you negotiate how do you
communicate these things and it had a
wonderful wonderful response there were
a lot of people who participated and
there's a big need for it and it's it's
being unspoken and not addressed but it
is it is a real crisis
wow
what else we got what other questions we
have a whole bunch more how much more
we're running out of time um so this one
is moving on to a more philosophical
uh canteen type dilemma so when
should this is based on an event that
happened this week when should a
necessary military strike be called off
if there may be civilian casualties
i didn't see that coming following up on
the romance question yeah this is a
sharp pivot it's a big halal question um
nobody's more sensitive to that question
there's no more moral army in the world
than the holy israel defense force the
idf
and um
and they
with the chief rabbit of the idf and of
course internally have that debate all
the time and and it's a big question
because if you have a terrorist in your
target
and if you take that terrorist out you
could be saving israeli lives or in this
case american lives on the other hand
you might take out you might take out
civilians with that terrorist so what
what are the moral boundaries what's
right do you put the civilian lives
ahead of i'll give you another example
and this has been a huge huge
controversy with the idf going into gaza
if the idf
um were to strike only from the sky in
gaza we wouldn't lose one life we
wouldn't risk one soldier but we'd have
a lot more civilian casualties so should
the idea of going on the ground when
they need to
though it's a risk to our own soldiers
in order to protect civilians or do you
say our soldiers lives come first and if
there are terrorists using the civilian
of shields then that's on the terrorists
so we have total sources we have a torah
source that goes back to the story of
shimon and levi when they defend their
sister their sister is dina is taken
captive and raped and they go and they
wipe out the entire people of shrem and
there's a big discussion of um what were
the moral what are the ethics and the
morality
of civilian casualties collective
punishment what did what they do wrong
when they took out the people of
so the maharao in his commentary on
russia called
he says the whole institution of war
what right do you have when you serve in
the army to shoot someone on the other
side you're in a battle i don't
understand the torah says murder is
forbidden murder is a cardinal sin why
isn't that murder now just because
someone declared it war now when you
shoot the person in the other uniform
now murder became permissible
so when is murder for ben what is murder
permissible and the answer is judaism
recognizes
the total recognizes something called
war in the context of war
there's going to be loss of life to
defend yourself you're allowed to and in
in the context of war and this is what
the morale answers that shimon and levy
did nothing wrong by killing all the
people of shrem because when it's in the
context of a war civilian casualties
will happen civilian casualties will
happen so you can never entirely avoid
civilian casualties they're part of
every war and they're part of the morals
of war so a person has to have a strong
moral compass ask guidance be guided by
the torah and its principles but even
within the torah there are circumstances
where there may be civilian casualties
but in order to win that war and protect
our people that is a price that has to
be paid
i think we have a time maybe only for
one one more quick one one more one more
quick one there are a whole bunch of
comments coming and now that the robot
mentions the comments i'm seeing them
and
there's
a whole bunch that want to know could
they get information towards this
anonymous
hotline course about intimacy um
is there is there a way to access that
information or yeah we did it several
years ago i did two sessions with the
therapist intentionally it was not
recorded and put up online because um we
were able to speak more freely that way
it was direct for the people listening
who were anonymous and confidential one
to another
but it sounds like there's an interest
and i need to do it again you know i i
avoided continuing it and doing it again
i'll just admit here on a meaningful
minute because i didn't want to become
pigeonholed as that rabbi oh that's the
rabbi who talks about that all the time
i'd like to talk about a lot of things
maybe now that we've done three
questions and answers on other things
it's time to be able to do something i
would never do it on an instagram live
or facebook live or anything like that i
think it belongs in a much more modest
private confidential way but giving
people access to it okay so the last
question is meaningful minute has
quotes that they put up every day
different quotes from mostly
contemporary bottom and robert goldberg
is one of the premier
quoted
fellows
or godel and one of the quotes is we
cannot control
what knocks but we absolutely can't
control what we let in and when
and the question is perhaps the the
world could elaborate on this idea sure
fantastic it's it's a great to go out
um
i i read that in the safer one says
quoting
story it was quoting it was it was
actually it's relevant to the other
topic we were just talking about you're
a healthy vibrant man you're walking
down the street there's a beautiful
um
woman who's scantily clad and you are
tempted to look to gaze
and for your mind to race so what does
the torah hold us accountable for
so there are
there are kabbalistics for him that say
that hashem god the almighty holds us
accountable
if we
perseverate or marinate on the thought
if we fantasize or allow ourselves to
think but the very fact that we noticed
is a reflection of being healthy that
we're not accountable for and in that
safer it told the following story about
the the hasid there was a hustler who
was at night panicking he was having all
kinds of thoughts thoughts of fear
anxiety worry about parnassus thoughts
about other women thoughts of that his
thoughts were owning him they were
gripping him they were paralyzing him so
what does a good hustle do he goes to
the home of azerbai
he knocks on the door of his rebbe
there's no answer so he bangs louder and
there's no answer so he goes around to
the side and he looks through the window
and he sees this really sitting at the
table learning so he starts to bang on
the window frantically for the rebbe to
look up and to answer he doesn't need to
look up he doesn't answer the next
morning hustler goes to schule and he
finds his rebbe and after dom and he
says rebbe i needed you last night that
abby says i know
i know your question i already gave you
the answer you know my question what do
you mean i didn't even get to speak to
you to let me in so that says
just like last night you came to my home
and you knocked and you tried to get
into the front door and then you tried
to get in through the window you knocked
but it was up to me let whether to let
you in
those thoughts can come knocking but
it's up to you whether you they you let
them in or not and i've used that as a
tool for myself in life when you have
thoughts when you have all kinds of
thoughts on all kinds of subjects those
thoughts can knock we're not accountable
if they knock we're not in control if
they knock well we are accountable we
are the gatekeepers we are accountable
for what we let in
for what we met and that's a good
thought to have this time of year
shifting the show
we have policemen and we have judges and
we can decide we're not accountable it's
very it's very um
comforting it's very comforting and
empowering to not think i'm a terrible
person because i have those thoughts the
thoughts knock you're a healthy person
if you have those thoughts what we are
in control of what we're accountable for
is not if we have the initial thought
but whether we let them it's been a
pleasure to be with you again i've got
to run i look forward to next time and i
hope people will continue to expand the
breadth of the kinds of questions and
things we talk about i'm enjoying it i
hope you are too and people should know
that it's on uh instagram i don't even
know how instagram works it's on the
real the story it's somewhere on
meaningful minute but this is on the
feed and they're also on youtube so if
you want to share it with somebody else
who doesn't have access to instagram all
the questions and answers are on youtube
as well on my page on rabbi from
goldberg
should have good comments joe and a good
rosh hashanah thank you so much for
including me thank you so much rabbi oh
thank you everyone for joining us and
watching and
have a wonderful rest of your evening