Rabbi Shais Taub on "The Failed Tzadik"—Kedushas Levi on Parshas Noach

All right. So, as we said, this Thursday night cholant, so there's actual real cholin here if you're online. They haven't yet worked out the technology how you can eat chol over the internet, but uh we have finished my bowl. Okay. Um and uh it's also challen like we said that every week we're going to learn something different sample different uh spiritual delicacies different uh to so what we have this week do we hand out the papers everyone has okay we have the kaducious ley kaducious ley is verd the one of the talia mag one of the disciples of the the great magged who in turn was the disciple and successor of the bam and kaducious levy is a allah para it's structured as a commentary on kish and uh being a uh it'sic book so it has a lot of pimia has a lot of cababalistic and mystical uh concepts but also in the style of very much applicable to uh personal development personal growth so we're going to take a look at the first not the whole parasyak not everything that has on parasyak I figured it's too long for us to finish together in one sitting but we're going to look at the first uh discourse on parasak and in this short little discourse a page and a half it's not uh not that long it's a column and a half it's uh going to talk about personal responsibility for society around us. You know, what does it mean [clears throat] to be part of uh a community, part of a world? It's going to talk about um the necessity of channeling uh lustful impulses and finding a a healthy outlet for that. Um, and it's also going to talk about self-confidence and about the negative or more more than negative, the disastrous ramifications of a lack of uh believing in yourself. So, this is just just a heads up a few of the concepts that we're going to [clears throat] learn about in this short section here. Okay. And we're gonna we're going to learn from the text. Okay. So the the para starts off it says these are the descendants of it seems says the there are two types of who serve hashem what are these two types of there is one type of he serves gole with great passion, fiery passion, but he does it for himself. He's he's on his own. He is not. He doesn't bring close the wicked people that they should also be servants of Hashem. So, he's a servant of Hashem. That's good. That's nice. But he's not interested to make other people servants of Hashem. He's uh he is not interested in other people having what he has. The doesn't say this here but the being the Talmud of the Talm of the Balsham I'll tell you there's a there's a from the bal and the from so the said what is bringing out in this will will blossom like a date palm he'll grow tall like a Lebanese cedar so it's talking about two types of sadik. There's a date palm sadic and there's a Lebanese cedar uh sadic. What's the difference between the two? They're both trees and they're both tall trees, but the difference is the date palm has fruits. That's what it means. It blossoms has has fruits. Dates are very sweet, nourishing fruits. Have a lot of calories, a lot of energy. The ed is the cedar doesn't have it doesn't give fruits. There's no such thing as a cedar fruit. Uh but it's very very tall. When Malik built the base of Mdash, she used Lebanese cedar. Lebanese cedar that's like that. That's the best stuff. Um and precisely why are the Lebanese cedars so tall? Because they don't make fruits because the energy they would have spent on the fruits they keep for themselves and they grow taller. So the says there's two types of there's a tadic who's like a date palm. He takes some of the energy that he would have used for his own spiritual growth and he gives it to others so others can benefit. There are fruits. There's nourishment that others can benefit. Then there's a cedar. He keeps it all for himself. He's tall. He's glorious. He's he's a marvel to look at, but it's not really benefiting anyone else. There's another expression that we have for this which is called it's a Yiddish expression in pelts. Impelt means in infers. Why does it call it sadic infers? Because the world is a cold world spiritually cold world. Okay. So what do you do when the world's a cold world? So one thing you do put on a coat. Oh, put on a coat. Now I'm warm. Okay. Thank you. Congratulations. Who does that benefit? Only the guy who's wearing the coat. Okay. So what else? What other response do you want from me? I don't know. Make a fire. [laughter] If you make a fire, then you're warm. The guy sitting across from you is warm. Soadic and pelt specifically means this type of aadic. He keeps himself warm. He does. He doesn't freeze because of the spiritual coldness. He he he stays like like the says he's he's passionate. He's fiery for Hashem. But in a way, it's not benefiting anyone. Okay, let's let's look inside again. Um there's another type of he serves Hashem and he gets other people to serve Hashem. Kay for instance who's the archetypical example of somebody who was mikat others of Ramavinoim of Ramav's whole thing was to convert people from paganism to monotheism the it's brought in the doesn't say where but uh we have our research department so we found it in Lutyra It's from the which is a misnomer by the way because are not it's called the writings of the Arizal but he didn't write it. You know who wrote it was the scribe. In fact when they used to go from to the to you know where the rashi used to sit with his talmid. So the used to sit where the rashb would sit and he would have vital sit where abba abana who was the cifer of the zer he was the scribe for rashb. So Vital would sit in that spot. That's like the scribe that's stenographer in the court, you know. Okay. So yeah wrote the but over here in Pareso says something very interesting and you'll see why it's pariso the s of the golden calf and the doesn't bring this. He just says that the Arizal mentions that there's a there's a a connection between no and but does he doesn't spell out it's very [clears throat] um the Arizal says that when Mishenu argued to defend the Jewish people who had just sinned they just did the worst in these they worshiped idols so Misha says to Hashem if they go I go you're not you're not going to get rid of them and keep me erase me from your book. I don't want to be part of a religion that would get rid of these guys. So, the says is [laughter] erase me. That was Misha's bold statement of championing those people who were you know spiritually bankrupt at the moment erased me. the same letters as Mayo. May no means the waters of Noah. The waters of that means that the flood m is called because he was ultimately responsible for the M. [clears throat] Anyway, so let's let's look what the says here like it says in was punished for not rebuking. By rebuking, by the way, we don't mean like the sh scream at people. Rebuking, real Toyota rebuke means educating. It means working with somebody, getting them to trust you so that they'll actually, you know, take direction from you. That's so don't don't think rebuking is the mitzvah. All the people who volunteered to do it first are usually the last people who should be doing it. Anyways, so rebuking is with love. But he didn't do it. He didn't rebuke. So, what was his punishment? He had to come back. He was reincarnated as Misha fixed it. Doesn't say how did he fix it. But if you look in the he says over there that bold statement that was the for uh complacency not doing the same thing for his generation. Okay. So says in a general way that Misha used to educate people on the right path. Okay. He brings a from very interesting. He says I give you a little background about this because the is actually discussing a piece of that we say every day. It is the piece of when we make and we're and we say we say and then we say come on you get and uh when we say so then we say a little bit of a little bit we say from these are the things that there's no limit and then we say the I think from it's in Shabasan it's in kusha But the gum about these are the things that a person eats the fruits of it in this world and he still has left over the main thing the principle he gets interest up front but then he has the principle left over in the world to come and why is because there's a concept of that mitzvah it's not in order to have a good life not not in order now who says who says it's in order to have a good It's all spiritual reward. Okay. But there are certain things that will benefit you here and now that will make your life better. And it says what are these things? And he gives a list, right? And there's different versions. Is it just to bring peace between a person and his friend or also is a husband and his wife? uh and and the study of is against corresponds to all of is equal is tantamount to all of them. Anyway, so the background of this kadushf is the gum is asking what's with this list why are these the mitzvah on the list. So at first it goes through and it brings they give proofs that each of these mitzvah is related to some type of reward in this world like long life for instance. Now the gum doesn't like this. Hold on a second. I know another mitzvah where it specifically says the reward is long life and it's not on this list. You know it says chewing away the mother bird. So there clearly it says long life and it's not on this this list. Why didn't it make the list? So first the gum tries to answer and says it's not an it's not an exhaustive list. Who says it's a complete list? Says it says these are the things. Sounds like it's trying to make an exhaustive list of something. Maybe not what you're saying it's a list of, but it's an exhaustive list of something. So then Raa says, "You know what? Let me explain it to you." Really? You know what this is talking about? It's talking about mitzvah that are not just ritual, that are not just [clears throat] religious, but they have some social justice aspect to them. Some that they you're they benefit you in this world because they're tangible. You're benefiting others in this world. You're honoring your parents. doing kindness, charity to to to help somebody who who needs tangible help, bringing peace between a friend and two friends, being pre marital harmony, peace between a husband and wife. These are tangible things. So of course there's a tangible benefit for the one who does it because the person who's doing is bringing tangible benefit by doing that mitzvah. By the way, you can ask why why so explain because if you're learning properly, you have to teach. So if you're teaching, you're benefiting others. Okay. At any rate, so shoeing away the mother bird, it's not that's not social justice. It's not interpersonal relationship. Maybe, you know, it's animal rights, but it's you're not doing anything for a person. All of these mitzvah, you're benefiting people. So, it says that that's the point. The point is mitzvah that benefit people. It's not just that you're doing something for Hashem because Hashem said so, which is a good enough reason, but it's it's it's a double whammy. Hashem said so and you're benefiting people. And so then the gum says this is what it means. Actually I have the madf where it brings a p. Yeah. So it brings up an interesting pik that refers to this is an interesting lion a sadic a sadic who is good and the go asks what other sadic is there than a sadic who is good that's a redundancy it's like wet water good sadic you know so it says no no no not true there's a sadic who's good and a sadic who's bad relatively speaking obviously still But what does it mean relatively speaking is good and is bad. So it says means he's good to heaven and he's good to people. And then it actually brings the next which talks about ash and it asks the question is also redundant but what other a wicked wicked person you're repeating yourself. He says, "No, there's something called a rash." There's something called a rush to a rash is a person. He's not good to God. He's not good to people. A rash. Okay. So, he's not But you know what? He's a mench. So, he's still a Russ. Now, we can't help we can't help right now with the with that category. We'll try to educate him, bring him out of it. But the point is even now he could be a Russia, but he's a Russia. He's a good person. Okay. So this is the the brings over here. So it says like this like I told you So this is one who serves Hashem. So he's and he helps out people that they should also come close to. So he's called okay. So that's the best possible way to be He did not bring the people in of his generation close to brings another base. Anyone who teaches his friend's child, it's as if he, the teacher, gave birth to him, the student. Your student is like your child. Okay. Fine. Why is that important here? So we find it says the souls that they made in is the place where they live before they came there. It'san. So what does it mean the souls that they made? The souls that they made. That sounds like giving somebody life. It sounds like a mother and a father bringing somebody into into the world. But it's not referring to their children. In fact, they didn't have children yet. It's referring to the the people they were mad. So what do we see here? Somebody who has students who has people who are his spiritual uh disciples are his children. Tada considers them his children. So this is what it means wasn't just uh you know these these were of no this was their family. These were their spiritual children. Okay. It's interesting thing. It doesn't say but it says you know why it's an exclusionary statement. It says these are the the disciple these are the children of no the offspring of no and then names his three biological children to make a statement these were the only children he had not like who had many many spiritual children didn't have You have to read the whole thing as one description. When it says he was a tadic, he was per perfect in his generation and these are his offspring. It's basically describing it's all one. It's one concept. It's saying you want to know what type of a tadic he was? He was insular and he lacked influence to the extent that the only children he had were the three biological children his wife gave birth to for him. These are his only descendants. Now another thing it says about in these in these verses and we're going to parse these words to also be related to the same concept. So the reason for all this Noyak walked with God. What does that mean? Walked with God. It means to say walked only with God. He was very from he walked with God. But he only he he walked only with God. He wasn't a man of the people. He didn't relate to people. He didn't care about people. that wasn't his that wasn't his interest. They say back in the you know they had animals around Jews had you know a goat or a sheep or whatever you had. So one of the problems that used to come up is when you have a bur a bur is uh it's the first born of the flock. So it's automatically holy. It has to be a carbon has to be a sacrifice. We don't we can't bring it as a we don't have a basis. can't bring it as a sacrifice. So what do you do? You do nothing. You just leave it. And not only do you do nothing with it, you're not allowed to touch it because you're not supposed to get any use from it. So you can't comb it because that's like shearing it. So basically they would have these goats like once once a season. I guess you have a who you can't touch it. So its fur would just grow and grow and get Yeah. Exactly. And get all like matted and it would it would stink. It would be, you know, and it would and nobody could touch it because you could put in a moom. you could disfigure it, which which is a which is an invader. It's a prohibition. So they'd have these big stinky goats who' be running around the wreaking havoc and nobody could touch it. You couldn't, you know, couldn't shoot it away. They just had to let it run riot. So they say that the kids used to say to the you're holy, but you stink. You're holy, but you stink. Right. Okay. Fine. So walked with God. walked only with God. He was the only one walking with God. He only walked with God and he was the only one walking with God. He didn't associate with other people to make them servants of. Why? It says again had three children. Here they are, three biological children and that's it. In other words, think about a guy. He never had any influence on anyone except for the fact that he had three kids. Now it makes a lot of sense. It says these are the offspring of this is it only these this is the explanation. No actually the next part. Okay. And this is the explanation of another thing another thing. So another thing we read about found favor in Hashem's eyes simple. Hashem liked. There's something he liked about it. I like that guy. something I like about it should have said why does it say found favor in Hashem's eyes it should have said was favorable in Hashem's eyes goes very well according to what we just learned is known mo the people of that generation of the flawed were perverse. Now I know there were a lot of different sins. In fact, Rashi tells us at the end of Paracious that the thing that sealed the deal was that they were stealing from each other. But uh in addition to being uh crooks, they were also uh immoral. And uh we know that they didn't hold themselves back uh as far as uh sanctifying relations. that was like completely um everything was absolute want and abandon at that time. They did whatever they wanted to do with uh you know no standards, no nothing, no restrictions. So they were they were steeped in in lwdness in in perversity. Okay. So that was the generation of that time was a pure saddic. What does it mean was a pure saddic? It means he wasn't steeped in lwdness. He was chased. He was chased. He wasn't involved in those types of in other words, what did he do? He elevated also mean attraction. So he took the attraction that a person feels that leads to if it's not checked properly that leads to immorality. He took that attraction he was mil he elevated he sanctified I guess it means he was a good husband I guess I mean his intimate life was was good. Okay. The point is that elevated the that attraction and now conversely the took that and they turned it into clip. It's important to note they turned it into not that that attraction is inherently an evil thing. I know a lot of you know religious people they they say that that that desire is inherently evil. It's not inherently evil. It's just a desire. In fact, it's called it is the desire which is mixed with good and bad. It's from the from the s of the tree of of knowledge. Before that, there was no such thing as as attraction. It was just a mitzvah. Be fruitful and multiply. Just do it like like you're putting on fillin. Okay. So, you you be fruitful and multiply. So, uh Woody Allen has a joke in his standup routine. He used to he used to do stand up back in the in the 60s. is a recording of it. He says, "I used to have a God complex driving around a guy ran into me. I got out of the car and I told him, "Be fruitful and multiply." Not in those exact words. So, anyways, [clears throat] Adam and Eve, they used to do it because it's a mitzvah, right? And then they ate from the tree of knowledge and then all of a sudden they realized, "Oh, oh, life hack. You know, you can turn this into a hobby. But the point is the itself, the attraction itself is not inherently kippa. It's also not inherently kadusha. By the way, we have a teripa in kabala. We call it the intermediate uh the glowing husk because even though there's a husk on it, but you can it's sort of translucent. You can see through it. You can see the the the spiritual spark. So figuratively, I'm saying metaphorically speaking. So Neyak took this human desire and he elevated it. He sanctified it. The rest of his generation, they dragged it down into the dirt and they used it, you know, in the in the most perverse way. Okay? Didn't teach them. He should have taught them. He should have given us classes. He didn't give mishba classes. So instead of there being mess and the mikvah, there was 40 days of That's my own kesh, by the making that up. was 40 days of uh rain. You know that that 40 saw in a mikvah corresponds the or rather for the contrary the 40 days of rain corresponds the the 40 measures of water in a mikvah because the mikvah the mabble the the flood was supposed to be matah it was supposed to uh cleanse the earth. So anyways he would have given them he would have taken the them to a mikvah tour. So then they went to had to be a marble to to wipe everyone out. So this is what it means. No found this attraction. He He found it and he lifted it up in Hashem's eyes. Meaning he made it sanctified. He saw that there's this desire that exists in the world. It's a very powerful desire. And he figured out how to make it desirable to Hashem. How to do it in a in a holy way. HE ELEVATED but he only did it in Hashem's eyes. So his private personal intimate life was clean. That's ital. But he didn't teach other people how to sanctify themselves in their intimate lives and they became rampantly perverse. So let's let's look more meticulously into a commentary that Rashi says. Now we're going to another another uh thought here was of little faith. He was one of those of little faith. How's that possible? He told me he's a told me he's very he told me he's very into spirituality. You told me he's very connected to Hashem. You tell me he has little faith. I I would think having faith is like one of the most basic uh qualities of a spiritual person. You tell me he's so spiritual. In fact, he didn't have anything to do with people. He was all into God. He wasn't into people. Oh, but he had little faith. It's like in congruous paradox. Doesn't make sense. So, listen to what the says. What does it mean he had little faith? It's a total curveball here. Totally unexpected. It means he has little faith. Okay? But you got to you got to follow the buildup. The buildup is galvic. Okay. How is this possible? Tells us he was at a little faith. Another question. And you see this other question is actually the answer which any good question actually is has the seeds of the answer. Another question. Okay, we already were told that he didn't educate. He didn't open a kabad house. Fine, he didn't. But why didn't he dive in? Okay. He was a spiritual guy. He only liked to talk to God. He didn't talk to people. I don't want to go on Mim. I don't want to ask people, "Excuse Jewish. Do you put on film? I only want to dab all day." Okay, fine. SO, AT LEAST DAVIN THAT THE GUY SHOULD put on film. You don't want to talk to people. At least when you're talking to Hashem, put in a good word for the rest of us. So, why didn't he data to nullify the decree? Let's come and explain like this. There's two types of you say, "Hold on a sec. This is where we start. two types of sadik. There's another two types of sadik. There's another two types of sadik. There's two types of sadik who serve. He serves. He only wants to serve and he believes hashem runs the world however he wants. like this say it's an interesting over there is looking at this that's speaking about the qualities of a Jewish leader talking about Malik and it says he's you could say he rules in a god-fearing way or you could say he rules over god-fearingness actually says the might says The Aisha says, "Who rules over me?" Hashem is speaking in the first person in this me. He says, "I rule over humanity. Who who rules over me?" The answers, I make a decree. And the tadic comes and he nullifies the decree. Say it's not the you know some uh you know story. This is made who rules over me? Hashem asks makes a decree and the comes and he gets rid of it. Says no not going to let it. So that's one type of type type of then there's another type of he serves Hashem but he has low self-esteem who doesn't think well of himself thinks in his heart who am I to dav to nullify one of God's decrees So he doesn't have says there's no point. So he doesn't do it. There's a sanic that says that the evil king Babylonian king who destroyed the first basos. He tried to sing praises of God that would have put to shame the praises of King David. Un. and and you know the only thing that stopped him the says an angel came and hit him on the mouth. There's different uh explain what does that mean? So one one one which is nice is uh you're singing praises of Hashem now because you're going around you know conquering the whole world but if you get slapped on the mouth you experience a little pain you still praise Hashem when you get a paper cut are you going to you still praise but the the point is that he was stopped from praising Hashem because the praises he was saying were getting close dangerously close to putting to shame the praises is of David wrote a whole book of praises called means praises and the praises that nebat was saying were getting dangerously close to surpassing David's praises of hem so the angel stopped him was he trying to do that purposely was he trying to outdo trying to outdo it yeah he know the cost behind he thought I'm going to reach this level mostly the fact it like this whole story tapped into perhaps the secrets of of connection connectivity ity or creativity of that he trying or was it just by chance we wanted to stop him asking if it was by chance he was there or was it that he was he knew what he was doing. It's always the question with these like wicked people when you learn pine it tells you like what they were trying to accomplish is so spiritual evily spiritual but like and always the question is did they know like did Hman really understand the mechanics of what he was evily trying to accomplish? did love and understand. So I don't know. I don't know. Bum understood. I mean, we know that. Okay. Okay. Talk. Maybe bum. Bum. Yeah. Yeah. But did Nebata understand exactly what he was doing? I don't know. I don't know. But what was he doing? So the says, what was he doing? It wasn't just that he was going to win the Grammy and David Malika, you know, was going to be the runner up. That's that's not just what it means. He's going to have the hit song, the number one song on the Billboard. That listen to what he says. He was about to sing songs that would have put to shame the the songs of David. What does it mean to put to shame? [clears throat] So it goes very well according to what we just learned. was a big Russia to put it mildly and he destroyed the first temple and he understood. Okay, so there it says he understood something. What did he understand that can get up and even when Hashem is angry and Hashem destroys the Bikdash but can get up and reverse it. can change the can change Hashem's severity into compassion. So was afraid maybe going to get upd and he says a praise of Hashem. Oh, Hashem, you're so great. That means like according to his will. He does his will in the heavens and on the earth. I'm praising Hashem. HASHEM'S SO GREAT. NOTHING CAN STOP HIM IN THE HEAVENS. NOTHING CAN stop him on the earth. Yeah, it's a nice praise. You know what the the subtext, the the meta text was? The implication was no one could stop Hashem can't be mat zeta. And he was going to so eloquently express this as some type of a praise of Hashem that it was dangerously close to being like, oh, yeah, that's right. You're actually right. Yeah. Nobody can stop Hashem. Yeah. Heashem does his will in the world and can't do anything to nullify. This was the thought of and this is what it says. Came dangerously close or he sought to sing songs that would surpass or put to shame the songs of David. That means to say wanted to sing songs to Hashem that made the opposite point as David's songs. David said Hashem does the will of those who fear him. So David is saying that sadic does have power that Hashem does the will is compelled to do the will of those who fear him. that hem runs the world according to the will of the he wanted the exact opposite. So he said, "You know what I better do?" David so eloquently composed these songs that say that can be I'm going to make even more eloquent songs from an evil place that say no sadikim cannot be. Let's go back to here. Yes, he was a great big he was he was pure, sincere. However, he was very small in his own eyes. he didn't believe that he had this power as a [snorts] to make Hashem do differently to the contrary he says you know what I'm just like the rest of them I'm no better than them used to think hey I'm going to get saved Hashem told me build an ark so I know I'm surviving this thing. I'm no better than them. I'm getting saved. I'm no better than them. Hey, can you They'll also get saved somehow. I don't know, an arc or something. They'll they'll learn how to fly. I don't know. Somehow they'll they'll be okay. If I'm okay, they'll be okay. So, he didn't die in first generation. That's what Asha says. Was of little faith. What does it mean? He was a little faith. Not religious faith. Not that he had little faith in Hashem, in himself. He had little faith in himself. He didn't think he was a he. He didn't think that he could nullify God's decree. He did not think of himself as anything. So for all of his selflessness and his supposed humility, he got the world destroyed. Could that be just because he saw God more at that time? Like they say, there was just a different level of Yeah. But Abrau also saw God and the angels used to appear to appear to him and he didn't fall for that. And when God said, "I'm going to wipe out Sodom and Gomorrah," he didn't say, "Oh, who am I to disagree? Who am I?" It was different personality types. No had this deficiency and that's why he had to come back as Misha. Misha didn't have that problem. Misha is the only one who saw Hashem face to face. So you would think maybe he'd be blown away, be overwhelmed by God. No. QUITE TO THE CONTRARY. YOU GOING TO PUNISH THEM. GET RID OF ME. RIGHT. So Misha didn't have that problem. Misha was the tickling. He was the rectification of the soul of Na. Why was the world safe for Noah? But it wasn't. The point is the world wasn't the world the planet. But the people weren't saved. The people weren't saved. Everything though that still exists comes from him. Okay, that's so plan B, we restarted it. But the point is that if no would have been like Ara or like Misha. So it wouldn't have had them in a flood. They wouldn't have to wipe out all those people and he would have taught them to stop being perverse and he would have taught them to to be mentioned. But he didn't think he could. First of all, we're saying two things. First of all, he wasn't interested in that. I'm a religious guy. I like to din. I'm not I don't talk to people. I'm not I'm not social. That was one issue. Okay, fine. So, at least David for them. Who am I? I We all know God wants to wipe out the world. He already said he's going to do it. So, that's it. We got to let it go. All right. Let's finish up here. This is what it means. The verse. Interesting. Hashem says, I hereby I hereby says right. Okay. I hereby I'm going to destroy the world. What what's this like proclamation? I hereby will destroy the world. I'm going to do my will right now. It's like almost like Hashem is begging and saying, "Listen guys, THIS IS WHAT I'M DOING UNILATERALLY. NOBODY'S OBJECTED TO IT." HINT HINT. NOBODY'S OBJECTED. NO ONE TRIED TO STOP ME. Because no got up to try to nullify the decree. So, Hashem is saying, "I'm doing this completely unilaterally." You know, that's why I'm destroying the world. And then afterwards Omar he said make him I hereby I hereby uphold my covenant with you not to destroy the world again unilaterally. This wasn't the product of a negotiation. Nobody came to me and said what can we work out? Can we make a can we make a peace treaty? No. Hashem is saying I unilaterally destroyed and I unilaterally made a covenant not to destroy anymore. I was totally on my own. I didn't have anyone to talk to. Nobody was arguing with me. Because the Jews didn't exist yet. So there was nobody. [laughter] That's what it means. Abra was the first Jew. He was the first one to argue with God. He was a religious guy. He didn't go forbid. You know, don't yell at God. Okay. Hashem is saying, "I am making a covenant not to destroy the world." Even though there wasn't a saddic who came and nullified it. I just unilaterally I had to work with myself. I had no one else to work with. I'm going to make a covenant not to destroy the world anymore, but not as a result that anybody appealed to me and asked me to to make this agreement. Anyways, that's the end of that section. And uh we got a lot of uh food for thought there. A lot of uh things you could apply be uh be involved with others. You know, religious duty is not an excuse to be only shim. You got to be the bri. We have here an idea of we got to elevate that part of our lives. And we have an idea about the importance of spiritual self-esteem. Not to underestimate yourself. Okay. All right. Fine. All right.