Rabbi Shalom Yona Weis: Night of Gratitude 2020

it's been an unbelievable unbelievable year it's a night of gratitude let me tell you a little bit about where this came from but you can't start a night of gratitude without starting with things so let me first say thank you all for not coming out tonight we appreciate everybody not coming out to this event that's the way that we now come out events we don't come out to them to think hazak or any time thank you hashem all the different organizations that are involved in spreading the light of torah and spreading the light of specifically of akarsatov of hoda a few years ago for those of you that haven't been to the first two of our events so my wife after some particularly difficult times uh in claudia straw the the the seaboard we were the kilo we were experiencing some things particularly in our kilo but uh all around and kali so there were things happening a few years ago and my wife uh commented that you know we're getting together we're having this uh gatherings and and to helen gatherings and and main parties and and all these programs in order to combat the difficulties to to get hashem to change the gazerus and she commented she said you know why don't we just get together like all khali shall a whole bunch of people get together and and just say thank you hashem just thank you hashem stop just in the middle of the week on a as my rebbe says a tuesday in tavis and and say thank you hashem for no other reason not to get together to to to say we're sorry not to go together to to beg for forgiveness not to get together for for anything like that just simply to say thank you hashem thank you and the it was a great idea and like many great ideas when given over to a man they don't get done just away we go and after a long time i was talking about it i think i was giving it in my weekly women's year i was telling it over what a great idea this would be and how i feel this would bring me and one of the girls said so why didn't you do it i'm like yeah no we men we talk about it and we hypothesize and philosophize and and conceptualize but we don't do right that's why we put on till and men to connect between the mind and the and the arm and the heart and the world of action we don't naturally do that we need women behind us to push us and so the idea was born that maybe we should get together and say thank you hashem and the first time we got together this is the third year first time we did it with ineshkodish myself my rebbe ramosh weinberger the amazing charlie irari my brother and we got together and we spoke about simply saying thank you hashem for being yidden and what i spoke about that night was learning how to be thankful to be a yidd and for those of you that hopefully this is your third time your annual um you're making a kazakh on this so hopefully you still have your your notebook of gratitude your gratitude notebook where you're writing down things that you're thankful for and and we talked about that night was simply learning how to be thankful for the binary show in your life for being a yet to be thankful to be yet how important that is and how to give that over to our children then last year was in the white shoal myself and rabbits and silva young young rice wolf who was tonight i guess i think joining us again so last year we took it a step further last year we spoke about particularly being particularly and specifically the indian of hanukkah being connected to being happy that you're not just a yidd but you the yid that you are in the time that you are with the spouse that you have or without the spouse and with the children and with the parents and with your particular situation and the and the each issue based on that every person the mahajan is every person lights their own light not just says hanukkah we get together and we pursue my nieces that's of course but the next step level after that is to be thankful for your particular situation and hanukkah is an is the yanta of hoda [Music] so it's the medes of hode on the swarm of those who talk about the meat of hode that is so prevalent and shining during this moment it came through through yohodes la hodos to think so tonight i want to talk about i want to take it a step further and for a few minutes talk about what's the next level and what do we need to be putting in our in our gratitude journals and i hope really everybody's keeping it if you don't have one and you haven't been here before really take to take a a journal it's better on pen and paper not just in your phone have one more thing that you don't do in your phone and to write down the things that you're thankful for and to prioritize that list and to think about the list and to take the list out during difficult times and to read it and say look how much i have and and get particular with the list and and get into the details and and the nitty-gritty so to speak of of what you're thankful for not just the big things so tonight we're going to take approach an approach that really it's really icker found in and it's it's big or what it means to be a yid it's everything what it means to be yet it's everything that hanukkah is really about on a deeper level and it's found it's found in the foundation slavery it's found in lots of places but the icker is to use the darkness to shape the light see the light the r is the are the ar hanaka is the are of of of hoda by shamar ki tov to see things that they're good that's the first time you have or the first time you have to vayarama they're connected the light is always there about recognizing good that's that's to enlighten what's going on and to see things for what they really are it's a famous mice was el rebellio destler my rebbe said it over tonight he reminded me of it that um destler took out the a like a big piece of paper with a little black dot in the middle and he showed his tummy and he says what do you see here and everybody raised that i said we see a black dot and he said 99 of this paper if not more is all white and clean and clear and all you notice is that one little black dot there's so much that we don't notice simply what we focus in is on the the little black dots of our lives now there's there's a saying that the khida has and he says and and is safer than in other places that light is only recognized through darkness the whole indian of darkness by yerba boker to have a night first to have a yav and to have a hoshe is only to get to a place of light and to make that light shine a lot brighter the gemara and shabbos tells us the magilla on hanukkah it says that timo kalashman in behind that the ivana came in and they were matama all the oils of the every single one and the mattress tells us that it really was every single one that it was all tummy they defiled every single drop that there was i bet the hashmane came in after their battle and they found one shaman sealed with the seal the coin god all they found so what's that about that was because they decided to search in other words if there was a if there was not fully darkness and fully filled the tama and and hopelessness they went to search they would have found one and you wouldn't have had the miracle of that light of finding the light the miracle was that because it was totally dark they felt that they had to search and there must be there must be light somewhere there must be purity there must be tahara there must be shemen somewhere it can't be all darkness so what the darkness does is it forces us to recognize the light aina our nikhil there are two ways to really do this there's in our own lives and then there's looking outside the caduceus slave he says we do we say with the lady doesn't say that's the pastor that's what we do and feel about it's a perspective it's a way to look at things when it comes to bashamayim things of rochnias things of spirituality look at people above you always look at people ahead of you and say ah i gotta try more i got to do my got to get it up early for minion i got to learn more i got to make another save there i got to work on my sneakers i got to work on my lush and hard because look at that person look at that person look how great they are i gotta have more amuna i've gotta be friendlier to people i've gotta be more sensitive to people because look at this person look at this rabbits and look at this you always look at people ahead of you when it comes to gosh miss when it comes to things of this world mitakas look at people below you look at people and say you know what i'm looking for i'm looking for parnasso i'm looking for for this for that look at how many people don't have maybe stop and be thankful for what you do have because the the key and this is brought down in so many places in the brussels farm the key to to getting more black in our lives and i've been told this directly by a tremendous tremendous sadhaka makeover for maritime that i'm close with where he told me to learn to thank hashem for the difficulties you have for the test you have really look at them and think hashem for them and i think the the depth of chanukah is to thank hashem not necessarily for the r but for the khosha for the khoshak that brings us to the because what you really do then if you realize that the khosh is part of bringing the r out so then what's really what's the difficulties what's the traumas what's the trials and tribulations and the challenges of our lives there are they themselves are brachas they themselves are tough because it brings us to a greater state of connection to hashem of recognition of hashem of sahala of island so by looking at the difficulties outside of us that's going around in the world and how daft in this last year how how many tragedies and sufferings we've seen outside of our homes loss of parnassa and loss of life and sickness and and all the things that have come from it the mental illnesses and the people struggling and if you didn't have all that or only had some of that for you to say hashem like this is and when you have another different problem say this is my problem and it's not that it's not it's not much worse then there's looking at your own darkness and taking stock for all the brothers you have and when things go bad inside to realize how good you had it until then and to realize that everything is a gift the holy name of hanukkah is that everything is a gift everything everything is a gift and sometimes in order for you to realize you have gifts it's got to be taken away you have to have a little hosha to realize how much art you have it's the way that it works when it's truly dark and you light a little bit of a light if you're walking around with a candle until you go into the darkness you don't really hop that you have a candle you go into the dark and it's like oh wow candles burns bright it's the indian of all of our challenges this is only to bring us closer to buenos aires but to bring the mamish into our not just conceptually are but to bring it and make it into our we've got to learn to be thankful for all that to be thankful for the difficulties and the challenges and the evolution in our lives so there's a there's a beautiful i don't know if it's a poem it's it's uh something i saw a while ago we have it uh on our fridge in my house it's called the attitude of gratitude the author is it's told over to be in front of from different people i saw it brought down as from this woman kristen lamb guy i don't know who that is but it's a beautiful poem i'm thankful for all the laundry i have to do because it means i have clothes to wear i'm thankful for the dishes that need washing because it means i didn't go hungry i'm thankful for the big electric bill because it means my home has lights and heat in other words to look at the hosha say ah such a tough day at the at work ah work oh that update was so horrible hashem the traffic was so horrible oh so you have a car my feet are hurting i'll see your feet that walk i'm not feeling well i i'm throwing up i'm sick so you have a working intestinal system i'm thankful for the big electric bill because it means my home has lights and heat i'm thankful for the sheets that need to be changed because it means i own a bed i'm thankful for all the reading i have to do because it means i am literate i'm thankful for the car that needs an oil change because it means i don't have to walk miles and miles to get what i need i'm thankful for that parking space way out in the back because it means i don't have to park in a handicapped space i can walk i'm single for the garage that needs to be cleaned out because it means i'm blessed with plenty i'm thankful for the chores to be done because it means i have family who love me enough to travel to see me i'm thankful for the litter box that needs cleaning and the dog blankets i need washing because it means i have two pets who love me unconditionally okay that's not such a jewish thing but i'm thinking for the split ends i have because it means i have i haven't lost all my hair to chemo oh okay this uh well i'm gonna skip that one i'm thankful for the uh she says cards i need to send she's talking about the the other jumped up happening today because they could easily they could as easily be funeral announcements i'm thankful for the traffic snarls that catch me because the body the fireman pulled out of the fatality accent could have been me you imagine we get to a thing and say oh an accident up ahead i have to sit in traffic would you say that if the person that was a family member the person in the accident was sitting next to you who do you think everybody shall miss of that person accident the brethren's colonial relation with claimed missouri the gemara says that when he has to do things like that how it hurts him we need to do things to us how it hurts him so we complain about how it hurts us we have to be we have to think about these things this is what the indian of hanukkah is to bring this light into our lives i'm thankful for the gutters i need to clean because it means that i have a home i'm thankful for the sochita hanukkah shopping i have to do because it means i'm not alone i'm thankful for my less than perfect uh this is really uh whatever uh thighs it means i didn't lose my legs in a car accident or to an ied think about that i sometimes have doubts and confusion about my future my purpose when i think of the lives cut short before they ever had a future people are worried what am i going to do next year or the seminary i didn't get into seminary you're you're in the parish of going out to try out for seminaries and barack hussein you're going to get into one thankful for the government i like to gripe about because i don't fear going to prison or being shot if i disagree with my country's leadership big thing to be thankful in america i'm thankful for my freedom and amazing men and women who put their lives on the line to protect it i'm definitely thankful for all of you who bless me three times a week by giving me your time i guess i don't know what she's talking about here but we have to be thankful we have to look at everything that happens to us and say what is this telling me about being thankful what have i not been thankful enough before that hashem has to give me this wake-up call i'll share with you a mice that i heard many years ago to end with it's an unbelievable story a story set from ravnakam of chernobyl rahmatul chernobyl's father was coming to town he was visiting a town the story started in a few different ways i'll tell you the version that i heard was coming to town and i see them all excited i wanted to come to see him and of course when the rebels came to town so they went to the to a home that was become a dick that could host them most of the rabbis mostly seek him did and uh the rubble went to one of the wealthy man in the community's home more hosted of his and he knew he knew this castle was very particular about his house everything they had a big beautiful white carpet and and drapes and then back then that was a big thing and uh the rabbit came in and it was a cold and wet night outside and there was muddy streets they didn't have paved streets and uh and the rebels saw as he was coming in and were coming in to visit him and to be macabre to get brachas this guy was like every time somebody took a step and and there was mud on the carpet and sarabhas said he called him over he said maishallah whatever his name was yonko say uncle what's the matter you're you're happy to see me or not seems like you're upset by it by me being here he says no rebel i'm it's fine i just uh i paid a lot of money for this the carpet and the river said i want to tell you a story listen to the story that the rabbit told the uncle it's a story we have to really think about today more applicable to yonko though rabbit said you know uncle there was a there was a yid a russian marusha a few generations ago russia morusha the guy didn't just do evil that came to him he went to find every iberia that he could find taiwas everything you can imagine this guy did rashford yet it happened one time that he saw he saw a he was riding in his carriage he was a wealthy guy and he heard crying coming from off the off the road into the forest a little bit and he went to go check it out because he's about rachman and he he goes into the forest and lo and behold there is a there's a family a poor family and they're in they're in their carriage with a old beat up horse and it's getting sucked into the mud they can't get out and it's vomiting like their life's in danger it's cold it's damp and the mud's getting into the carriage they can't even open the doors the they're gonna drown in mud so the guy gets out of his carriage quickly runs to see what he can do when he's pulling and he's trying and he's trying to get the whipping the horse and it it's like they're saying this is getting she's not going it's budging he's he gets like his neck into the mud himself to try to push out and get that he get going and the they're gonna die he hooks up his carriage to the horses and he whips his horses and and after hours of trying finally he was able to stabilize he gave he was able to save them and the horse and he brings them into his home and he cleans them up and and he is filthy his carriage is filthy filled with mud his horses are filled with mud and filthy and uh sure enough it it it had took its toll on him and never he passed away passed away from an act of mysteriousness for for another year for a whole family of vietnam so he went up to shamayim and they carried out his his din and uh the scale of the side of a versus the side of ra was heavily heavily weighed down heavily weighed down and it wasn't even close wasn't even close so the malachim said okay listen this guy's got no um redeeming qualities so what are you talking about he saved the jewish family so they put they said you gotta put the jewish family that's how he died you have to save the jewish and put them on the scale on the top so they put the jewish family up they were a skinny family didn't have much money didn't have much food they didn't weigh it down so much you you saved me one fish you saved ola mali an entire world the mission says so dori doris have to put all the generations on not just them but all the generations are going to come out till mashiach from this family so they did they moved it moved it tremendously but still the beerus was so heavy with so much it just didn't do it this is all ravnakam telling us over to the yonko he says you know what happened then uncle the malachan the good malachan they want to save this guy they don't want to see you'd go to a bad place and they said what about the horses come on you're getting crazy ready stop it say listen a horse is a horse they saved the life sha bella put the horses on the scale and then finally to make a long story they put the dory doors all the horse's children on the scale at this point it was it was getting to be uh you know a false court and and the accuser was saying enough of this let's go this guy is it's still not there it's way off they said what about the mud so what do you mean what about the mud so what about the mud put the mud on the scale this guy was a fancy guy he went to to schlep into the mud the mud ultimately is what killed him it weighed him down and what made this whole thing difficult you have to appreciate the mud and the the the said this is ridiculous and the best and said this is ridiculous and you send them to ghana but their banishment stepped in and the vaishan said wait a second there's a tiny here they have a good claim but we don't know if this guy really appreciates the mud let's send them back down to earth we're going to send them the shama back down and let's see what he thinks about mud in this world if he appreciates the mud the difficulties the struggles if he appreciates it then we know that the mud is kashif means something we can put it on the scale and we could save his life so the rabbit goes new yonkle what do you think about mud now it was the uncle himself the rebel was this whole thing was a setup he was the gilgal and he was there to decide and the siakka says bring him in bring him in man let's let's muddy this place up i appreciate the mud it's now at the end of the time at end of time where the footsteps can be hurt and what's going to save us is all the mud that we have to go through the challenges the trials the tribulations the difficulties the traumas the darkness that each one of us experiences in our lives it's tough it's very tough out there if you appreciate the mud you look at it you think about it think about where it's trying to bring you to we appreciate that mud this story happened by the way on hanukkah the story happened on hanukkah where he went to go visit chanukah is about appreciating the darkness and turning it into light the mushrooms should give us all kokos to have a karsatov for everything that happens to us every everything and everything mama should be an arge a a revealed light a tov gully a revealed tove we should be done already with the mud done with the darkness step into the light but to realize that sometimes in fact not sometimes but all the time you need to step through the darkness to find the greatest light rain stream should bring taka the greatest light the arch everybody thank you for not coming