Ten Minutes of Meaning (Part 155): Faith in Prosperity - Mesillas Yesharim

good morning boca do welcome back to 10 minutes of meaning please help yourselves to some coffee and some donuts jump start your day a day filled with meaning and purpose a day filled with trying to be better and better versions of ourselves 10 minutes of meeting sponsored by jeffrey galba memory michelle mcdovid all of our learning is a report for a foreign we've been making our way through the chapter and has what it means to be a hosta to be a khasid to be a righteous ah in the person in the flesh to be a righteous cross it is to not be satisfied with good to strive for great in life we're facing inertia in life we are struggling to be able to raise ourselves up gravity is pulling us down how do we overcome how do we transcend how do we break out how do we ensure that we're not being weighed down but we're growing and breaking out so we strive to be hosted good is good but good is not good enough we all have the potential for greatness within ourselves so every aspect of our day from our punctuality to our medos our kindness and our courtesy towards others towards our kavanagh in davaning towards challenging ourselves and learning towards volunteering and crested in every aspect of our lives in each relationship personally and professionally we have the capacity to not be satisfied with good but to push ourselves to aim for to strive and to set goals to be great we've talked about this in the area of yira and ava with awe of god and with love with ava so says the notion of a love and an affection for god the idea of romance for god i spoke last week that i often counsel young people that if you want to know about a particular date you want to know whether the courtship is going well when you see the other party's name come up on your caller id does your heart skip a beat or does your stomach turn the bonus shalom is waiting for our ah now help yourself to a cup of coffee and some donuts sorry about that does your heart skip a beat or does your stomach turn in nuts so when a kurdish bar who's reaching out and calling out to us do we respond the test of love is not when everything's hunky-dory not when everything's going well it's easy to be in love when there's joy and there's fun there's success this triumph it's easy to experience love when all smooth and all is well but what happens bismana dojo what happens when you run into that proverbial wall what happens when the other party whom you claim to love is not falling in line with what you want whether it's a human being in a human relationship loved of the ribonus of the almighty himself sometimes what happens in our lives what's prescribed for our lives is not what we want in our lives we struggle we're challenged we have to overcome someone something is taken from us trying to break through in an area where there's a difficulty there's a menia there's a there's something preventing us or blocking us times of distress in times of challenge in times of suffering so we have love in those moments as well okay this is what the shema challenges us we just haven't are those who are coming in for the next minion will darwin in a moment we say in shema that we dedicate ourselves we love ourselves in that manifest we love hashem and that manifests itself in two ways are we willing to give our lives that to give one's life in the ultimate sense is to be willing to die we want to give one's life to be a jew we didn't imagine in our time that we might face that challenge again but whether it's harassment or bullying anti-semitism or hostage holding but yet again we're seeing it rear it's ugly head that a jew could be challenged but really you love me says god how much do you love me are you willing to sacrifice and give everything for your love for me our generation the challenge may be greater than our challenge may be become because we are asked to be afrid to be an observant jew today it's not inexpensive cost of tuition cost of kosher food the cost of living an observant lifestyle is not inexpensive we are being challenged which a beautiful challenge that we have in our generation those who came before us would have given greatly for this to be their challenge but our generation has challenged how to live with prosperity and stay an heirlook a jew not everybody has that prosperity there are those who still struggle to pay their bills or to put food on the table but even those you know i've said that our families and the people in our community who need the most and deserve our greatest help and they do deserve it but often always they their children still have iphones their cars don't have windows that roll down likely in many cases haven't hit 150 000 miles still of dishwashers and washing machines and certain luxuries and comforts and privileges that the person struggling the most in our generation would have been the wealthiest of the last generation the lifestyle of the person struggling the most in this generation is living the most comfortable convenient luxurious lifestyle of the last that's not to minimize their challenge that's not to dismiss our obligation to help but it means to say we're living in a time of prosperity do we have a messora for how to live with prosperity we have thousands of years of practice thousands of years of training we have thousands of years of transmission from those who become before us how to live with nothing running from a pogrom and an inquisition and a crusades in a holocaust how to live struggling with putting food on our table our generation for the most part is challenged with living with prosperity how do you stay in heirlood how do you maintain your faith and your focus how do you maintain your humility and your medos how does one strive for greatness spiritually and they live in a lap of luxury physically so this challenge was the challenge for many generations but one can say uber odeca is a challenge for ours are we willing to give what it takes financially to show our love for god to show our love for hashem do we give the requisite stucco if every jew would give the micer of every jew of every income bracket actually gave 10 of their income we can solve almost every financial problem in the jewish people from the day school crisis to poverty to so many of the challenges so are we willing to part with our money do we need would we prefer a root canal or donating a kidney over donating cash are we willing to part with our money we're willing to invest in what matters are we willing to live with what without just because we can't afford to be matsam same ourselves to be able to hold back just like god does that even if something is within our capability in our reach but if it's max of ostentatiousness if it looks showy but hashem i love you so much i direct even my spending and my budget my allocation is inspired and is informed by my love of you but my love for you how much i give and how much invest and how much i spend we've shared several times through merciless asharam there are people walking around with cars that you could buy a house and yet for their house they have mezuzah's that cost less than a starbucks cappuccino whatever luxury we have around our wrist on our watch or the logo on the hood of our car are we equally invested in having the best the finest of phil and mezuzah have we donated a safer torah if that's within our capability our shul could use some torahs by the way in order suffering in distress will not be an obstacle to love there are two answers we give ourselves one everyone has access to everyone is equal in and the other is reserved for the sages who have profound wisdom the first kamaida of demons everything hashem does is for the good everything hashem does is for the good that is a very high level to live now if you win the lottery if not from your children if you're experiencing blissful shalom bias it's not hard to say to sing and to dance and to skip to preach and to lecture to your friend everything hashem does is for the good but what about when it doesn't feel like it what about when something is missing or he takes something away what about when you're struggling and trying to break through and it's just not there it's not coming what about them the truth is what we perceive what we see what we experience is bad is really in fact the greatest good inshallah sometimes hashem cuts away or amputates in order for us to survive so all we experience all we focus on all we're aware of is what he cut away what he took away but we don't have the perspective we don't have the divine vision to realize that that amputation that surgery being cut open which was painful actually ensured our survival ensured our survival close with this several of us just came back yesterday we had a two-day fly-in extraordinary meetings with extraordinary people look forward to sharing some of those conversations we met with ravi saul reisman rashford as he was sharing with us this within the context of the hashem again in the beginning of estrella again protect us it means sometimes protect us from ourselves protect us from what we want and he talked about one of the people of davidson as shul one of his congregants his members was dominating so hard for a job a lawyer was driving for a job at an accounting firm and davin sohard and got that job three months later it was one of the big accounting firms that went under you never know got another job after because when that was his last job and it was the top of his resume was enron was enron he was never able to get another job magen means hashem sometimes we dive in for something so hard i want this girl i want this job i want this house i want this moment i want to catch this flight i want to be able to get on that train hashem please please please please please but we also ask hashem again by the way with all my ask and all my pleas my gain sometimes protect me from myself if what i'm asking for and pushing for is really not in my best interest then don't grant it to me then don't give it to me sometimes protect me from even what i think i want because sometimes we get what we thought we wanted but it turns out it was for our worst not our best because really come on everything hashem does is really for the good and so while we have to take our initiative we dive in from our perspective for what we think is right and what we want ultimately we concede we yield ultimately surrender hashem again protect us we are in your hands so it's in those moments that we show our ava hashem i missed that fighter train rashem i didn't get the diagnosis the response i wanted i'm going to still storm your gates and i'm asking you to intervene in interscene but i realize i submit and surrender and realize you're in charge you're in control and the end of the day everything you do is for the best continue with living with amenity moon 9 o'clock we're going behind the beam there by david bashevkin stay happy stay holy stay healthy have a fantastic day