Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Growing through Adversity

[Music] hi everybody and yeah it's really so fascinating because I'm actually I actually give a course on Wednesday the rabbi wanted to show one of one of the very early disputations with Christians and that's the dissertation of the Rambam which is a very well-known dissertation and that became the prototype for many of the discussions that are still going on today but you'll hear a professional rabbi debate and he's really quite quite fun so I would if I could fit it into my schedule that would go myself but unfortunately I'm not able to go but it's certainly gonna be worthwhile anyway I'm going to talk today a little bit about the haftorah and then a little bit about the parsha as well and connect the two you know there's an old saying about real estate that when you're looking for an apartment or a house what are the three most important things to look for and the standard answer is location location location and the truth of the matter is that's also true when we gave the significance of a prayer or the significance of a Torah reading let me give you an example the olena prayer is a very humble prayer because we say it three times a day we often mumble it we often say it on the way out that people make a joke Elena should be renamed to be lots of directives the prayer that you today when you're traveling we don't pay it the attention that it deserves although it's a very very beautiful prayer expressing our whole vision for the world and yet on Rosh Hashanah it is the central prayer in the Musa the Amidah of Musa that same Elena that we rush and we mumble all of a sudden because of its location in the Rosh Hashanah liturgy acquires a new significance right so something to think about sometimes the same words when they appear in a certain context we recognize their significance and when they appear in a different context we don't well it's interesting that's a haftorah for purchase for Yeats a Israeli Hosea and we already had occasion to talk about how Shaya before let me just remind you he was one of the prophets the so-called twelve minor prophets but they're not just smaller books and oshio was the one who was commanded to marry the prostitutes which he did there's an argument among the commentators whether he really did that or this was a dream sequence but the ultimate message that God wanted to communicate is that the Jewish people are like an unfaithful wife and continually practice prostitution by idolatry and yet God cannot let go of us because God's love is so strong that even when we sin and even when we wander and we get him angry in all sorts of ways the love remains and he wanted Hosea to understand it because a Shia argued with God and I said basically said drop the Jewish people make a covenant with a new nation and God wanted Hosea to know what it was like to have an unfaithful life that you are deeply in love with and therefore Hosea in his own person experienced the divine pain of a love that is sometimes not reciprocated in the proper way right that's kind of the understanding quickly well the truth is the text tells us nothing and wonderful is speculating guests we know from our own intuitions are known life experiences that sometimes the way love is there's something about a person that just grabs you and I'm not talking about the lost I'm referring to some spiritual quality even in a person that seems to behave atrociously because in all sorts of ways and Hosea was an average Oh Shia was love structure so to speak and in a very very daring metaphor God is essentially saying I am lovestruck with the Jewish people as unfaithful as they are yeah that's a very excellent question and in fact because my locker is if a woman commits adultery voluntarily me not through rape or something like that so the halacha is the husband is not allowed to forgive that the husband must divorce her that is called a SOTA an adulterous wife and her logically therefore Hosea would not be allowed to stay married to this woman had she committed adultery that was actually one of the indicators the Bourbon Elle suggests why it must have been a dream rather than a reality if on the other hand we take it as a literal experience than it could be we do find occasionally in tanana the concept of garage that God actually permits something that would normally be an offence luckily Oh Anna be brought sacrifices on Mount Carmel in which the bar modes are forbidden and yet that was called the Raja it's a little difficult to call this a Raja though because Allah chose normally a one time violation here he's able to deliver through the rest of their lives but perhaps it might fall under a ratshot - Mary - yeah possible that she had other mido maybe she had the competitor tested of maybe for example as a prostitute she would well she would give up her money to two beggars in the street right we actually have we actually have been in literature we have the the the model of the the kind prostitute that's actually a character and a lot of stories you know again I have to assume she had something special we just were just not told what it is but we assumed that that it is who's there now that's how shame so it's a very interesting story but that's not what that story itself is about now shale was a prophet to the ten tribes of Israel this is more than 150 years before the destruction of the temple and he's giving who's sorry is giving chastisement and the reason why this particular section is chosen as our God simply because it begins with the words but you've wrought Yaakov when Yaakov ran away because his life was in danger Hashem protecting him and therefore you should be grateful now why am i referring to location because as you go through the verses in the middle of the haftorah all of a sudden you're hearing verses that seem to be hopefully familiar to you Shuba israel hashem elokenu return israel to assume your god shall Tobiah Vanessa you have stumbled in your sin Kakui muffin devar him take words of Prayer the shoe vuela shall return to a Shem now if those words sounds familiar they are actually the Haftarah for Shabbat Shuba the Shabbos pair Shabbos Schubert's well some people pronounce it Shabbat tissue but but the technical name is Shabbat chuva because it is the Shabbat where we read chuva Israel Hashem of Ocala so it's pretty fascinating that you know when we hear it between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and we're in the true vermouth so to speak so those words have a powerful resonance when we here at this Shabbos we may not even be so conscious about that it just kind of goes by but it's the same words and it's the same message it's almost as if in the long winter stretch between let's say Sukkot and Hanukkah we kind of need a booster shot to remind us of the idea of repentance and coming back to God you know people think the chuva work is over after him Kippur and I could just live my life the way I want to live my life you know true but is something we think about the entire year and therefore we need this booster shot of chuva Israel odds national ok ha return to a Shem he's waiting for us he's earning for us the gates of repentance are open the whole year and we have to take advantage of the opportunities that what we were yesterday does not define what we are today and what we are today does not limit what we can become tomorrow there is this eternal hope and message and Rothko who wrote extensively on Shuba or wrote a true God's a very very difficult it's very poetic very mystical very abstract so many people have difficulty with rough cooked style but your f cook makes some beautiful points about Shula and one of the beautiful points he makes is that chuva is ultimately not something that enslaves you and limits you but it's something that liberates cleanses purifies and gives a person a lot of inner joy he says when you find the Trueba is too focused on guilt and too focused on negativity and too focused on looking at myself as a failure that is not true true true true bah there's a very rejuvenate liberating empowering I heard in which I can let go of my mistakes because I can embrace a higher reality so sometimes we're trying to reluctant to embark on the Troopa process when in fact there is so much positive that is in it now at the very end and this is the end of the book of Hosea generally to say the last chapter is no Shia there is an interesting verse and the verse says he is shown rim dar say hashem the ways of God are uprights they are strengths tsadikim yell kuba righteous people walk in those ways who push him and sinners the costume above they stumble in that path so there's a visual image here that the Prophet is giving you there is a road a road of life that road of life is called darkish m the way of God the path of time the righteous person walks on that road and the sinner trips and stumbles on that road but there's a problem with that visual metaphor because that implies that both the subject and the pushchair are walking on the same road the Sadiq keeps on going and the foe Shia trips but that's not really what it is in reality the problem is the sinner is not walking on the path of God the senator is taking an alternative route just as the Torah described Adam says behold I had given you two ways the path of life in the path of death so the metaphor here is a little problematical because the metaphor suggests there is one road both the Sadiq and the Russia are walking on the road of God and it's a dick perseverance on the Russia falls down so here the suggestion is the following that's the worst poche does not have to mean a sinner although it often does mean a sinner a posh area can also mean a careless village is person who doesn't pay attention to the nature of things for example they show me and if a person is a guardian or to still need of property so as you know there are different hella hote regarding the responsibility of a show mayor depending on whether he's compensated called a show more support or whether he is uncompensated called a show Martina right so we show machinimas less responsibility for losses than a shown their support and then if you're a borrower's actually using that the object you have the highest level of responsibility but the one common denominator that all show them have even if they are not compensated is they are high up they are obligated for what is called pasilla negligence carelessness so if I agreed to watch your computer let's say for example you're in a coffee shop with me and you have to you have some appointment that you have to make you're gonna be going for a half an hour so you ask me to watch your computer for a half an hour and after you leave I simply decide to take a walk I let the computer you leave the computer on the table I take a walk assuming that it'll be there when I get back when I get back it is not there how luck is I must pay you for the computer because I am called a poche agent I was careless in leaving the property out in the open where anybody could take it right that's called pasilla and every shop now I don't have to accept responsibility if I say if I tell you I am NOT assuming responsibility then I don't have to accept it but if I say I will watch it there's a certain responsibility so I'm just showing you that the word Oh Shia does not always mean sinful or evil behavior it can sometimes mean negligent or careless behavior so based on that the metaphor can be a much deeper metaphor we're dealing not with the righteous person and Annie person the evil person is not on the same road he's got a different eye way we're talking about two people who wanna serve God and they're both walking on the path of Hashem but when you walk on the path of a Shem you encounter obstacles you encounter challenges you encounter people that try to take you away from serving a sham you encounter difficulties may be in part NASA and the negligence person when he encounters a difficulty just stumbles and doesn't get up again and the sadiq persevered so the meaning of the metaphor is that the ways of God will get you to the right place but there are going to be a lot of difficulties along the way there'll be a lot of roadblocks the Sadiq keeps on going notwithstanding the roadblocks and the negligent person who has good intentions but he doesn't really think about the long term goal when he is dissipated with obstacles he gives up so the contrast to Shia is drawing is not between the righteous and the evil but it's between the person who keeps on going notwithstanding failures and adversities and the person who gives up when he encounters obstacles now she'll Omaha melis himself said in the book of Mitchell a very famous verse Sheva leap Oh Sadiq become the Sadiq falls seven times and he gets up again that the great quality of a righteous person is you don't give up you don't get defeated you understand that number one a certain amount of obstacle and difficulty in life is inevitable but number two you also look at those obstacles as a vehicle of transformation they make you stronger they give you insight they give you strength but if what you're used to say the meaning of the puzzle that the sadiq fall seven times is not simply even though he falls he gets up again but rather his achievements in life are a consequence of the adversities and the setbacks and the failures that he had it brought out qualities of character that would otherwise not not be there and this is a very very significant lesson in life because in every life there are going to be adversities and challenges we hope for most of us they will be relatively minor although everything can be major on some level you didn't get into the school you wanted you didn't make the basketball team in eighth grade you didn't you know you didn't get the job right those are disappointments in life then we have much greater adversities whether it's serious illness and dealing with with those types of tragic challenges and yet again growing on Viktor Frankl Viktor Frankl mentions and is a beautiful book man's search for meaning and this came out of his own autobiographical experiences in the concentration camps that we don't have control over what we what happens to us that's outside of our free well but the ultimate control we have is how we choose to respond you can choose the path of dignity and greatness and compassion and love and self-sacrifice or you can choose bitterness and hate and anger and the ultimate definition of what a person is is how they respond to the circumstances of their life of which they have no control but there is always that ultimate control how I choose to respond right in Venice with O'Shea is saying the poche a-- the negligence person just gets discouraged and doesn't go on the psychic also stumbles but the saga keeps on going the Sabich gets up doesn't get discouraged knows that life is sometimes hard and life is always challenging but you stay the course and eventually you come to a place of good resolution and inner strength which can sustain you in the most difficult moments this of course is Jewish history this is Jewish history it's the Jewish history of people after the Holocaust to rebuild their families the people who build the Jewish state with unite Israel the people who even lost children to terrorism and lost family to terrorism and goes on and demonstrate with tremendous courage their commitment to the ideas of Bou dr. shamon medina Israel of all of these different ideals that are so important to us so this is what Jewish history is Jewish history is one of recognizing that sometimes we are caught fire or 'its we are like the dust of the earth that everybody tramples on but ultimately we are kick away hashamayim we are the stars of the heaven that's why those two Michelin are always used because there are times that we are a final RS and there are times that we are good cochlea monuments so in this connection I want to connect it a little bit to the parsha first as a preliminary note which is not totally connected although it has a some basis to what I'm saying and then you know this is the parsha this is a very very a lot of things happen in this question the 12 basically the 12 tribes of zombies are born in this parsha or at least 11 of them and you'll recall that initially laya is blessed with an unusual fertility she has four in a row before the maidservants come in she eventually has to warm she eventually has six but she has four in a row and each son is given a symbolic name son number one is called Reuben God has seen my suffering and he has given me a son Shem own God has heard my affliction and has given me a son maybe now my husband will accompany me because I have given him three sons what's going on here so really what's going on here is very difficult to fully understand the tour it describes yonkos relationship to Leia in an extraordinarily negative way that's almost impossible to understand literally and that is Leia is described as a hated wife that is that is the that is the word the Tori uses said new I consider a good translation well it is a literal translation the word some knew it now all the before ships a cusper Shalom it's not possible he hated her number one you're not allowed to have relations with her with the wife that that you hate and number two how could the Shaitan come from that type of relationship so they explained that Sania is perhaps a comparative term meaning his love for Rafael was so extreme that these are the Rafael it was as if he hated Leah but certainly he loved Leia in the normal way the husband would love life but Leia does feel rejected and Leia has a psychological hope that if she gives Yaakov a son he will come to love and cherish her equally Toronto so for the first three sons she's expressing that wish Oh God has seen how I am so rejected he has given me a son Shimon god has heard lady now he will accompany me but after three sons that didn't happen Yaakov great love is still rocked out so some number for you who done she no longer talks about having a son leading to something else she says how power Oh tell you who does from thanks Thanksgiving haha Odessa Shem now I am grateful to God so one way of understanding it is that she's reached a certain mature level of gratitude in which you don't simply look at a drachma as a means of accomplishing something else but you cherish the life that I Shem has given you yes listen I am what I am I'm always going to be the second wife so to speak meaning I'm not going to be Rocco's favorite wife yeah I know this is difficult to understand but just in terms of the simple meaning of the verses but my life is good my life is rich my life is meaningful at this point God has given me four children I don't have to look at them as mechanisms to put myself in a more favorite position I am grateful for the life that I have you know that's a certain sobering reflection on gratitude that I think we all go through you know when we're young and we think we will accomplish anything so you know we're on a certain track to be this to be that whether it's American president of the United States or whatever it is but at some point in a person's life we realize that we're not going to be certain things we're not gonna win a gold medal in the Olympics we will probably not get a Nobel Prize we will not be President of the United States we might be mayor of Jerusalem because apparently that's you know everybody can do that but but the point basically is and sometimes this is part of what midlife crisis is the phenomena midlife crisis is pretty much all of these goals that they think they will be achieving and that keeps them going for a long time but then they realize you know this is as good as it gets this is as far as I'm going like you know what do I do with the next 30 40 50 you know here's whatever it would be what do I do and there's kind of an ocean of gratitude for the life the Machine gives you instead of looking at things as ways of going to the next step or the next run but this is what people complain about today with with social media that nobody ever experiences the moments because they're busy recording it for the future meaning you're always recording everything without really experiencing and as you know mindfulness is a big deal now there are a lot of courses in mindful and part of and they're trying to integrate it with Judaism and of course it does have a lot of connection to Judaism but part of this idea of mindfulness is to look at the moment that a shame has given you and cherish that moment instead of saying what what else is gonna happen what is next so for the first three sons Leia was focused on what is next what will I get out of this with son number four it was I live in the moment I appreciate the gift Hashem has given me now so that's one one perspective now Russia gives another shot Rashi from a mentor actually means another shot why layer called the fourth son Yehuda it's a very interesting shot Rashi says Leah do with Ruis ha'qodesh that there would be twelve sons twelve tribes she knows there are four women from whom these twelve tribes will come Rochelle they are villains over so she figures that each each wife is entitled to three tribes so for the first three truck is 12 divided by 4 is 3 so for the first three tribes she's not grateful because she figures it's coming to her but when she has number four she actually winds up having six but when she had number four she realized she got more than she was entitled to that is gratitude when you simply get what you think your your oh that are entitled to you're not grateful the person is not normally grateful if it's employer-paid am on time but when I get more than I think I deserved where I'm entitled to that creates gratitude right and that is why Leia had toda Jota ah only with son number four this is the memories that Rashi brings so based on this this fuss ms well says a beautiful thought he raises the question why are Jews called you dim after all in the Torah of course we are referred to as B'nai Israel the sons of Israel the sons of the apples it was Israel why are we called you to mute it was only once right now the truth of the matter is the first appearance of the term yahoodi as a designation for the Jewish people as a whole appears in the book of Esther okay the book of Esther which is post coloreds Bubba post destroy the temple we are referred to as you who do with two years you who dig in as if it would be and what could give a historical reason for that and that is the day after Stalin mother died right the Jewish nation was split into three kingdoms the northern kingdom of the ten tribes was called Mullis Israel and the southern kingdom which argued oblivion and many Kohanim and Libya was called malice yahudim now the ten tribes were exiled more than hundred years before the destruction of the temple so consequently at the time of the Babylonian excellent it was you who did not not meaning from the tribe of Judah but rather you did means refugees from mouth what you da and that's what we became that's why we became today that would be the historical reason but this fuss ms offers a homiletically see if you who D means be grateful you done because Hashem gave me more than I deserve we are called you dim because we must go through life with the attitude that a Shem has given us more goodness than we're entitled so the very translation of UD June is a grateful person who appreciates the blessings of God that's an amazing thing you know to Jew somebody is a verb and in southern slang in southern slang it actually was used to mean to cheat somebody to hurt somebody by driving a very hard business to bring the price down bring the price down or you know but maybe a sharp businessman so in Alabama somebody might say to you even if you're not Jewish don't do with me don't Jew me down so I remember the American Heritage Dictionary the authoritative dictionaries of the English language around 25 years ago they had a section on slang slang you know not taught the right usage but slang and they actually had Jew so the first regular dictionary Julia a member of the Jewish religion that's in the regular dictionary in the slang dictionary Jew verb used in the south to connote driving down a price etc so I think the ADL the anti-defamation league protested a dictionary supposed to report these things so I'm not sure if they have to remove it necessarily but here is the point Jew can be a verbal but it shouldn't mean a verb to drive the price down it should be naver 'b to feel gratitude for the blessings that a chef is giving you um I'm a little uncomfortable with your definition of gratitude so maybe you can help me out with it yeah I provide in life goods and services for people yes and I get paid yes for that yeah I'm entitled to that yeah but it's a standard matter of practice when they hand me the money I say thank you very much I appreciate the payment yeah it's not more than I'm entitled to but why can't that be gratitude that could be gratitude as well but you know it all depends on you on your terms maybe need to say it's a level of gratitude you could for example be grateful that the person did pay you one time since people often do it late and etc but certainly your gratitude is deeper and stronger so let's look at it as a matter of degree okay the gratitude is deeper and stronger when it's something that you're not entitled to then when it is something you're entitled to so we could instead of saying you're not grateful when you're entitled we see your feelings of gratitude are less powerful okay look at it as a matter of degree two buoys services yeah but I am a consumer of goods and services yes and whenever I buy anything even a you know pack of chewing gum I say thank you yeah I'm the person which is very good good media and my philosophy for doing that is extension prevention there's so little gratitude in the world in comparison there should be especially when I go that extra mile and say thank you even okay so that's a separate okay I understand okay that's good wrong yeah that certainly and I I'm certainly in favor of expressing gratitude everyone you can actually make a person stay this is just a general idea someone's a garbage man or someone's analyse man or a soldier street sweeper they're doing their work they're doing their job and I the word of appreciation that can really really really make their day and that's a kiddush Hashem besides yes if you're noticeably an Orthodox you who say when I saw that this is only the first word we say wake up is mode there and we bow we have a hundred Bravo everything's granted Brooklyn so I got the umbrellas I knew a rabbi when he taught his even Americans so English was there was their first language when he wanted to teach his four-year-old how to make a brothel he didn't want to start with the Hebrew he didn't he even though his son couldn't memorize some Hebrew words he wanted his son to eternalize that the idea of Abraha is gratitude and thank you so we had the Sun when the Sun would take a cup of water or an apple say Thank You Hashem for giving me this delicious fruit or thank you my Shannon for giving me this refreshing water when it's so hot you know what would be because somehow you know our native language often has a more powerful understanding to us and only after the Sun internalized the idea of gratitude he doesn't so the father then said well in Hebrew we say it this way and this is what it means and it's very very true we really should look at Braavos not as rituals that we perform or that that's ways of expressing thank you but ingratitude and we sometimes make it into a separate ritual without connecting it to that idea yep well the truth is my sadness is that it actually says we don't deserve anything meaning today with me from from God's perspective you know God didn't have to give us life at all God didn't have to create the world God didn't have to give us anything so therefore his idea was you have to be grateful for everything now let me point out one of the classic works of Jewish ethics very very great work is the safer of us hung above us duties of the heart this is a very old work this is before the Robert this goes back in fact the Rob Bob says it was his father's favorite Sabre was written in Arabic and translated in Hebrew and the clevis Allah bubbles has a whole chapter about looking at the world and inculcating the idea of gratitude and one of the points that covers all of us makes is that God has given us a world of beauty which is not necessary for basic survival you know the fact that that foods have different tastes and there are different smells and different colors and music he says a person could biologically live without a lot of these things these are like frostings on the cake that give a person pleasure and enjoy and they are part of what gratitude is when you think about you have to make you know I could have like you know I can live on lush right I don't have to have different tastes of food different colors different textures different flowers of me in the garden you know different music all of that is kind of a beauty that a Shem put into the world for which one needs to be very very sensitive that's why people make a mistake sometimes people sometimes think and they act this way as well that a religious sensibility is kind of indifferent to the to the aesthetics of life so you might find a person that says the only thing you should do is learn Torah and diamond or whatever it is you don't pay attention to flowers or you know whatever it is aren't paintings music fashion but that's not really true that's not really true because part of a religious consciousness is a sense of gratitude for the beauty of the world then a cottage broker created and therefore one should pay attention to beauty and aesthetics not as an end in and of itself but as a way of fostering an ethic of appreciation and our carpets ourselves which as the specimen says is the very definition of being a yahoodi being a German being a grateful person and as a right post and said modani the very first point I am grateful to you for giving me my soul giving me my life in fact you know in the Asaro said Deborah second that's why didn't you well well obviously her ruler college was not complete obviously her Ruach Hakodesh was only there would be 12 she then on her own made the assumption that it would be equal that was no subject well I mean that seems to be a logical starting point no I did you have fun but there are four there are 14 months there are 14 months right so if there are four emos why would you automatically assume that they would not be equal in fact they're not equal of course that that's true but but but she made an assumption huh well that's a good catcher there that is a good catcher apparently since Billa and Zilpah were technically collection collection area you know maidservants so we treat the Billa as kind of a component of Raquel and Zilpah as a component of Leon why they're not called the most that is difficult you know that's a good contra we say there are four emos Sora rifki Raquel and Leia but really there are six emails and but but i but I want to go back to something earlier and that is Yaakov at the beginning of the parsha he's running away Yaakov is not a youngster whether the octave is 63 years old so uh she goes to a whole catchment of how old jaqobis and not go he's running away and because I'll teach us an important thing that as Yaakov was running away and it becomes dark Yaakov turns to God in prayer and this was the enactment notion of doubling my roof and the Gemara tells us each of the of us was misuk n8 feelin a frown was miss Akane praying to a sham in the chakras in the morning yet Scott was Misaki min ha and Yakov was Misaki mutters now it's very very clear we don't mean to say of course the doubt for a musical can Yaakov gave us the Nusa of the Amidah that clearly is not the case the amigas from the ante Canessa Sukkot hola but the concept of praying to a sham at these set times at least according to one of you of the Gomora my focus in the camera this is because of the of us are immune of chakras let's cook added a minister Yaakov editor - now reps Alok as focaccia which really earlier commentaries asked as well that is we pass can feel us Arvest reshoots what does that mean Dominic chakras is mandatory it's a feel Dava Newman car is mandatory Dominic Mario now saying the schmoes night that of course is mandatory that's a P of the eraser but the femur of arvid's weep askin is initially optional initially every should however because Chloe's have accepted it it has become a binding MINIX and now you have to double by if don't go out and say I tell people they didn't have to Devon Myra but it is recessed so Rupp 7 Ponder's that these two things seem to be in contradiction because if operands prayer is over and yet struck sprayer is cava why would the ACOs prayer be was just why would young especially since Yaakov Aveeno is considered to be the greatest of the of us right now ever I'm at an impurity which came out in your smile and counted impurity that came out in a server that's only yaakov standing on the shoulders of a broom and yet struck that was able to have a Jewish nation all of his children are part of the Jewish nation so the Pannell sure one of the great doc groaning gives an interesting answer he says there's actually a my focus in the Gemara are the three fellows because of the avos Arbor Michigan Yaakov or did the three two fellows represents the sacrificial cycle in the basin mikdash in which there was a Corbin tumin of the morning and there was a Corbin Tommen of the afternoon and there was no Corbin at night the only burnt leftover organs and fats that were not consumed and if there weren't any they didn't have to do it so the player wants to say the following the opinion that says our vit is Richards is not following the view that the two fellows are because of the of us Enoch Kaname if the fellows are because of the all vows Arvid would be on OVA and the statement in our Vedas Rashad is only following the view that the to FEMA is because of corbino's because at night there was no mandatory carbon that's why it was optional so glad you there sure it's not an inconsistency at all because Fela Sarvis will be a kava if the Fela is because of the others no they're not the co burners are a separate midstream the Torah itself they are not because of the O's Corp internment of mourning Corp internment of the afternoon and hectares are woven they are him that were left over at night but the problem is the pay of shoe his answer may fit the Gemara but it does not fit the Rambam the Rambam in the roms formulation the Rambam does mention both statements which are apparently inconsistent the Rambam does say the two fellows have their origin in the of us not the - opera was Misaka chakras and yet Scott was Miss arcane Myntra and Yaakov was miss Akane Arvind and at the same time the Ramadan rules that the Arvest prayer is optional except because of minute so the Rambam does take both ideas and put them together and that's an inconsistency because why should Yaakov Prayer be optional if I'm from and it's Lux prayer is mandatory okay so let's so let's explain what that difference might might be why would the night be different so here is what rhapsodic of lublin central-southern he was a graceful scenic master who often derives very powerful emotional and spiritual lessons even from technical a logic analysis and he says if you think about it the prayers although we have the same mama dada the same of me that four chakras meant from iris but the time of day is supposed to influence the dominant tone or mood of this feelin chakra the chakra ideally ideally you should dive in chakras with the rising of the Sun that's called the second right but thinking is that I should hit shmona s ray with the rising of the Sun unfortunately by the way I think we're seeking manana lose the real point of this because the real point is to be inspired by the renewal of the world and to connect to everything that's going on in a new day so really you're focusing on the gloriousness of a new beginning and I am part of them the way of us seeking manana work today is people are staring at atomic clocks to be sure that you get the exact second which is not memory listen obviously cuz I'll did not have atomic clocks of a Sikh and was never was never intended to be to the tenth of a set or whatever it is it's supposed to be you're supposed to be inspired by nature as opposed to ignoring nature and focusing on a clock but that's a separate death that's a separate thing but what is the dominant mood of chakras so here's order of success chakras is a prayer of optimism hope and joy as a new day is beginning and therefore the dominant mood of chakras is both gratitude for the past and joy and hope that there will be promise in this new day it is the nature of most human beings that even if the day before was difficult with the new day there was kind of a sense of hope there sometimes we remember we may lose that within five minutes but the moment you open your eyes there's this at least a second maybe what your personal feels well a new day something good odka they come well that the halacha actually said it's a very interesting I love it when you visit a sick person speaker : you're not supposed to visit him too early in the day because he'll be looking so good that you won't bother to pray for him to halt and don't visit him towards the end of the day because he'll be looking so bad that you'll figure out there's no hope for him he's a goner this is only in the middle but he's not so good not so bad and then it'll pray for him because you think there's hope so chakras is the prayer of hope and gratitude and that belongs to apparatus because after I'm in his lifetime at least if you look at the whole life of a ground he saw all of the blessings of God realizing he was given a son at the advanced age of a hundred he was respected he was admired he was called by the canaanites even nnessee elokim you are a prince of God he was given Carbaugh he was very successful in all that he did he was successful economically but more importantly he was successful in his spiritual mission of spreading godliness and holiness in the world so a promise can the notion of mourning the notion of hope the notion of gratitude this hunt is connected to Manhattan now there is an ideal time for mentally as well we can doubt and mince up you know half an hour after the middle of the day but the ideal time to dive in Midtown is right before sunset not after sunset right before sunset when you have the lengthening shadows of the evening and mint fun inspires a sense of panic panic because the day is leaving now again with electricity we no longer have that sense of panic anymore like somebody wrote a whole book about how the whole nature of night has changed since we have electricity but night used to really be the end of things you know you shut yourself up in the house and have candles etc that's why for Heineken for example the Kumari makes an assumption that nobody's out in the streets the half an hour after dark the reason why you have to like Hanukkah candles within a half an hour after dark is because if you like it later there'll be no pedestrians that are gonna see now we know that's not true in modern society in certainly in big cities people around you know midnight one o'clock in the morning two o'clock in the morning but as I lie referring to a time when when it was night that was it so so when you see the the shadows of the evening it was a time of panic you have to finish up whatever work you were doing now get stuck in fact by the way even today Minsk has a certain panic because Mincy has the smallest window of any prayer and it's in the middle of the day shock rates I could dive in before I go to work usually my rabbi can dive in and when I come home Mincy I'm often stuck in my office now I'm getting Israel's kind of problems in shoryuken davin in the middle of the street that's fine but thinking about fritz Lawrence you know Minster is a difficult time to navigate I remember before there were cell phones in widespread use if you went to Penn State or a bus station or any chair in airports when people had payphones around Memphis time before Shakya all of the payphones were occupied by Orthodox Jews who were making believe they were making a call so they could dab them without being embarrassed people used to be embarrassed at the davin so they were Dobbin in the pretense of making a phone call of course since they were making the call from Chris Lawrence to Hashem that is a long-distance call for him here we could do it local it's much much cheaper but mitzvahs panic panic is connected to his rook because although it's Huck lived in the Land of Israel the significant error just Ralph but the four hundred years of Exile began with you time he was arrest his wells were filled up he was not given the honor of opera it always reminds me somewhat of how a Jew might have felt in Germany even though this was their richest realm how a Jew might have felt in Germany in 1933 right after Hitler that power you still had your rights you still had your property but you could see the night coming on so the dominant route of chakras the goals began with you talk the goals began with kids under question the goal was began and he's called pockets like the fear of music trepidation so it wasn't even something to do with that I loathe Rima silence me much but this book represents the notion of pocket and mower and the beginning of godless and anyway we're not necessarily describing what Yeats Cooke had in his mind we're describing the nature of why this feeling is connected to what was happening in Hitchcock's life so chakras is gratitude and joy Mincy is desperation when a person turns to God Hashem I still have your blessings but they're slipping away please let me hold onto them I tested the emotional mood of a manhunt now Myra was very different Myron is when he's totally dark Sasa coke oven let's look at Yaakov's life when he enacted my roof he is 63 years old he is leaving his original because his life is threatened his brother a sub says he's going to kill him Yakov has no life Yakov has no children he's leaving the holy mr. Burrage Israel he thinks he will never see his father again although he does see his father again but he thinks he will not he never sees his mother again and not only that but he's going from the frying pan to the fire because he is going to India for its number one and number two he is going to an environment that he knows is spiritually corrosive and destructive if the danger of Asaph is a danger to the Gulf the danger of the connection to loved one is the danger to the neshamah and Yaakov is afraid but here Yaakov cannot have the prayer of a brown which is joyous appreciation nor can it even be the panic of think slipping away Yaakov is in total darkness Yaakov represents the person that has hit rock bottom and the Derrick's attempt there's no way out of this now remember the glorious vision of the ladder comes after lack of spirit that's the response to Yonkers prayer when he prayed and what we had was darkness so says rhapsodic if chakras is the prayer of gratitude and Myntra is the prayer of asking a sham - let me hold on to the brothels our vit is the prayer of M Munna it's what a person has when everything else has been taken away and Munna is what that you could have even in Auschwitz and Munna is I don't see the hostage M I don't see go I don't see a shoe but I trust I believe that God loves me I believe he will take care of me one way or the other I believe that if not for me as an individual that will at least be the issuer for I'm Israel so here's what your subject says that's what by the way that's why we say in beer class creation money in the morning I shall okay some MS well we say Ms Fiats if God's truth is firm and established at night and that's the Emunah I have a memory of faith because night symbolically represents the absence of that hope the light of God is not visible and that that in fact there's a famous thought I think of Sonic himself says it but I think it's all goes back to the Baal Shem Tov mm l-look says AHA gig by beau care Hostetler the ever who knows God while they loose life has mornings and life has evening maja keep by Boca when life is like a warning bright good hopeful I declare the loving kindness of God but what happens when my life is darkness I cannot see the session of Hashem always and will not stop my faith in you is even in the darkness well I get by boca hasta huh then we no scruple Amos so here's what our subject says going back to the corner and we started off with the question the question is why is our vids optional the answer is this Arvest is optional not because it's less important but because it represents a spiritual level which is so elevated that it's something that you can aspire to but it can't be mandated or concretize as an obligation gratitude for the good that I Shem has given you is very basic the wao says even animals are grateful to the hand that feeds them Yogesh are Canadian the Ox knows its master but come or a bus a bus but love and the donkey appreciates the feeding ground now whether that's gratitude about this interesting question people who want doggies debate this issue a lots are dogs grateful or is this simply a social trick that they devised to get food an interesting thing technology ever a dog showing affection I be my focus among animal behaviorist our dog simply smart enough that they trick us into thinking that they're they're expressing emotion ok but be it as it may at least externally an animal expresses gratitude so the a ground prayer is mandatory everybody has to do that the instruct prayer well that's the old sin no atheists in foxholes when you think things are slipping away you turn together but to have hope against hope when all seems lost is such a high end sub line not by God that it's not concretize - over but rather it's aspiration which means the optionality of a prayer if there's such a word as optionality i'm not sure there is the option ality of a prayer may not be a reflection of lesser importance but it might be a reflection of a greater importance in the sense that it represents a level to which you try to reach but it cannot be mandated because not everybody can reach that particular level listen don't go against the idea that whenever you have an obligation it's a higher yeah that's partly that was because nature hora is stronger once you have to do something you want to repel against it but this does fit the idea that anything that's a cobra is expecting about every bar mitzvah boy and bus Mitzvah girl so something that's a very very high level of righteousness is not automatically going to be yes so first if you go from anticipation because you're going into yeah it's like it's a positive instead of a pelican it's more strong and I said [Music] yeah the idea of the toward a beginning at night is actually very very fascinating idea but part of it comes out themselves say it represents the idea that these struggles and the disappointments and the failures of life are not the permanent condition and they leave ultimately to light meaning it's kind of its kind of a an optimistic hopeful art meaning night does remain with this idea of Hester Planum the concealment of God but by the fact that you begin with night and end with day is telling you what the transition is going to be rather than vice-versa meaning the ending will be good in spite of all of these struggles we're not negating the concept of the struggle the night does represent divine concealment so the show well the less we have but there I think the lesson that the lesson is very important because okay we should have we should elaborate on this maybe we'll even do this next week if this is a very big topic and the basic idea is going back to big Viktor Frankl then even in the struggle itself there is a hidden light the Zohar has a phenomenally interesting expression called boots Cena to Cardin Issa but Cena to car denisa is Aramaic for what is called a black light that in the adversities in the challenges of life again going back to for Frankel's points there is actually a tremendous hidden potential to bring out within you qualities of goodness that's would otherwise be dormant and therefore it actually makes sense that the light of the Shabbos comes into the world in the context of darkness because that is how all divine light comes so it's not just a before and after it's not simply there's darkness and then they'll be light but there is light even within even within the darkness so for me to that's correct but the only thing is remember the Seder is a different read ritual because although the carbon Pesa was slaughtered in the afternoon the carbon Pesa was eaten that night and therefore the Seder is at night in other words the fact that the say there is at night is fully consistent with the way it was done in the base of McNish because the Corbin peasant was eaten at night they said how long is night to wood they ate the perfect peasant right so all of those things were done so there you can mimic the mixture successfully but mine would be different so anyway so many will be mounted a little a little further because this idea of growing from challenge and growing from adversity is is really a major lesson in life and even secular psychologists say that if we could communicate to our children and to ourselves really the idea of resilience of growing from failure disappointment Challenge that would be the single most valuable lesson we could give to our children but of course to give the lesson successfully we have to fail its operated ourselves so be institution we should be something thank you [Music]