Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: Waking Up From A Dream and Keeping the Faith

[Music] shom everyone um again once again because of the situation here in Israel we're not yet giving the Borum in front of a live audience uh so I'm speaking from the conference room of Y and I want to thank RAB poon for coming and recording the Shor which God willing will be posted on YouTube uh first the share today is dedicated for a sha for all of those recently affected by the war and of course we're offering a special special prayer for success in release of the hostages who we are thinking about really every single moment of every day uh at the same time although there are so many hostages who still need's we want to thank for the and the Miracles of the release of the four hostages the first four and most recently Ori mades again we don't know all the details of the story but that she who is now home uh with her family and our are that shame that these five people have been reunited with their family in good health may all the remaining uh more than 200 be United with their families B Vio and may all of is be to Good Tidings yes all of the good things that we yearn for in a world of peace and blessing uh in addition uh we're dedicating the she for for all of those who murdered either were murdered as victims or died fighting defending the Jewish nation and certainly their namos go straight to Ganan they are considered to be kosim holy people who died only because they were Jewish and finally we have a special dedication uh by RI gazala in memory of her father yakel Miko van mayor Whose y site is the 20th of kesan uh we hope that the de Torah that we're going to say should be and as always we're very grateful to all of the people who support both this year and really all of the very good work that he Bon uh does again um people have been asking me about the different and volunteer opportunities that I talked about last week to help the and help the war efforts and once again I will just refer you to Rabbi Poston who can give you all the information on the contacts and um his email is uh all lowercase Aaron in Jerusalem uh one long word at gmail.com and he will be able to make the the connection um there are really two uh thoughts that I wanted to share with you today um thought number one is really a continuation because this part of last week this para begins with Abraham Sitting In the Heat of the day and this is the third day after his circumcision number one Abraham was 99 years old number two he did the Bristo himself number three uh he's sitting in a very hot part of the day waiting for guests and the like so it is a continuation of the Brit Mila ceremony that he was commanded to perform himself at the age of 99 now it is interesting so I'm going to go back a little bit then connect it to uh the present Torah reading that when God gave Abraham the Commandment to do Brit Mila God also told Aram that his name and sarai's name was henceforth to be changed their original names were aam and S and what happened was at the time of the Brit La God conveys to Abraham that your name shall no longer be abam but it she'll have an extra hay added aam and Sarai will no longer be Sarai but her name will be S interestingly enough the maam explained that essentially what happened in a spiritual way was that the yud of Sarai was split into two Hayes so Abraham got a and Sarai who lost her yud got a what says I want to flesh that out a little bit what does it mean to split the yud into a hey what is the significance of that and also why is the sh hasem why is the change of name so intimately connected to Brit Mila remember AB a was already in ER for many many years uh he came at the age of 75 now he's 99 and indeed based on other konos this was not even his first trip in why is the sh hasem only at this particular point so let me start with an interesting gor in there's a that we say every day in DAV is the name of God that's y he created Worlds the gar in has a very interesting drasa that there are two worlds there is this world the world of physicality and there is which is the world of the Nish so God created Both Worlds both dimensions of reality with the name k the yud and the hay so the gamar explains was created through the spiritual power of the letter y is created with the spiritual power of the letter he through through the letter he again we understand that the underlying idea here is that the letters of the alipas are conduits of unique configurations of divine energy they're like pipelines or channels conduits of aes's energy that then manifests itself in a particular form the letter Y channels letter he channels I don't want to be mirish in this but the truth of the matter is the notion of the conduit of spiritual energy is true not only on the level of letters but is also true on the level of words uh so for example I remember reading many as a child uh an essay by Mark Twain Mark Twain was um an agnostic and he didn't think very highly of religion so he sometimes he wrote parodies of religion so he has a certain dialogue he made up between Adam and Eve that after Adam named all the animals so Eve asked him why did you name that animal lion using Eng English in life why' you call him a lion So Adam was a little annoyed with his wife and he said what do you want from me he looks exactly like a a lion so I called him a lion what do you want and Mark TW is making fun of the idea that well hey he wasn't a lion till Adam named him a lion and the like but the truth of the matter is if you would ask him aobo why Adam called The Lion an arier he would actually give Mark Twain's answer meaning how did Adam name animals what does it mean to name an animal the answer is every single part of creation comes from a unique unque combination of the spiritual energies of certain letters so for example AR which is a lion comes from almost a chemical combination of the spiritual energy of olive re yud he in a particular order in fact ramban writes this is why Hebrew is called lashes why is it called the holy tongue what is Holy about the Hebrew language and by the way I'm I'm not going to address the interesting controversy if modern Hebrew is also lashes I'm putting that aside I'm aware that there's a debate but let's talk about Biblical Hebrew Biblical Hebrew for sure ises now Ramba myman says because he gives a negative reason he says because in the Hebrew language there are no words which are pornographic or obscene that's actually true uh all swear words in modern Hebrew are really Arab so Hebrew itself does not contain anything that's obscene or pornographic and that is why Hebrew is called lodish but ran gives a different reason he gives a positive reason he says Hebrew is lodes because through the letters of the olive bays and the channeling of their spiritual power God created heaven and earth meaning just as water is a combination of H2O two two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen when they are combined they create water so too when God combined the separate energies of the different letters of the olive base different forms of life came out so how did Adam know to call a lion an AR reverse engineering Adam had you know like an x-ray spiritual vision and he saw that the lion comes from the K of the ALF the re the yud and the he and when those energies are combined you get a lion if you would combine them in a different order or use different letters you would get different types of animals so when Adam named a lion a lion again in the Hebrew word when Adam named the AR and AR it was not just a conventional nomenclature but he was doing reverse engineering and he was defining the spirit spiritual energy there so the notion that the letters are conduits for particular configurations of divine energy is true both on the level of the letter and on the level of the words like an H2O chemical combination but be it as it may the gar tells us was created with the letter Y and is created with the letter he why is that so so the Mahal explains that a yud is the least physical of any letter a yud is a point and since is a world of spirituality of r that there is no physicality in and as need as the ran reminds us even though K talk about feasting and eating and drinking these are metaphors for Spiritual pleasure in there is no eating there is no drinking in a physical sense all there is is we derive pleasure from hashem's presence and that's called soul food quite literally so it doesn't have to be collared greens or a fried chicken the soul food is the soul getting connection to God so that's why is connected to the letter yud because yud is the letter of pure spirit rituality we now come to hey so Mahar writes that hay is actually a composite of two letters try to visualize a he you have a do and then you have the left leg of the ha which resembles a yud it's very small I would have thought of says it's a y and actually the way you write it in they say for Torah a he is a combination of D and yud so let's analyze that if yud represents pure spirituality doid for represents pure materialism why well number one we generally have four directions matter has four directions north south east west and indeed there are four dimensions there is length there is width there is thickness and there is time Einstein was not the one first one who invented the notion of time space we actually believe that time is also a function of matter it's hard to know what that means exactly but time was not created time did not exist until there is matter that is why is a realm that is beyond time because there is no materialism so if yud represents pure spirituality what is y joined to D so let's think about that D is materialism yud is spirituality what is our goal in the world to infuse the material with Holiness spirituality and elevation this is a fundamental yod in Judaism there are religions that teach that there is such a dichotomy between body and spirit that the only way you can achieve Holiness is by disengagement from the body so they preach asceticism they preach celibacy they treat preach poverty whether they keep it or not as another matter because they believe involvement in the world is by definition sinful and pulls you away to God and there's an unres vable contradiction between body and spirit in which they are waging Perpetual Warfare against each other this is not the philosophy of the Torah the Torah believes that the physical is neither inherently good nor inherently evil the physical remains neutral depending on the actions of God of course when God made it said it's good but good means in the sense that potentially it can be raised so yes we can eat and drink like animals but we do so with a Braha we do so with gratitude to God we do so with the intention of being healthy so we can serve him so the eating and the drinking themselves get elevated into serving God the very first MIT of the Torah is to be fruitful and multiply to establish a family so rather than enshrine self cacy is some type of Ideal in our tradition it's considered to be sinful a person is supposed to get married and try to have children and the MSS that even a childless marriage is considered to be a Mitzvah children is obviously an extra dimension of sanctity but marriage itself is considered to be a holy state that is why the word for marriage is kushin which is sanctification so it's very important that our job in this world is not to escape physicality and materialism but to sanctify it and elevate it and that is why is created with the letter he because he is the ability to integrate the Y which is spirituality into the doid which is materialism the integration now it is interesting that in terms of of gatria numerical equivalent a y is 10 and a he is only five which actually means that in some ways there's kind of a tragic compromise here if I could disengage from the physical my spiritual State might be very very intense would be a y would be a 10 I could be so high I could meditate I could contemplate I wouldn't have this problem of having having to eat and having to sleep and having to go to the bathroom that would beah where all I do is meditate on the greatness of God so yes when you're involved in physicality you have to eat sleep go to the bathroom run carpool take your clothes to the cleaner Whatever It Is by definition you're distracted by definition you're kind of dragged down but that's the goal the goal is not to serve God by separating from the world but to serve God by being engaged in the and yes that may lower the intensity but as the alter rebi says in Tanya which is really quoting a medish K's greatest desire is that he should have a Dwelling Place in this low world that we should uncover godliness in the darkest places in the most materialistic places to expose Hashem in every single aspect of life so yes the hey is less intense than the doid but it's all I'm sorry than the Y but it's ultimately more meaningful now the morale explains too that this idea that the yud represents pure spirituality and the hay represents the composites of the Y and the D can explain another well-known gar that is often said at a so anyone that's married or been to a has probably heard this gar the gamar makes the point that the word for man and woman share two letters there's is for man and Isa for woman so the two common letters are Alin but the man gets the Y is and the woman gets the so UD and he spells God's name so thear yamas makes a beautiful observation when there is God in their relationship then men are doing what men are supposed to do and women are doing what women are supposed to do there's a beautiful Union but if you take God out of the relationship take out the Y and take out the ha you're left with fire the fire of jealousy the fire of mlus the fire of rivalry of egotism each one will destroy the other and Destroy themselves by their selfishness so bring God into your marriage and it will be blessed take God out of your marriage it will be a destructive force so that's a beautiful thought but the gamar does not explain why of the two letters of God's name why does the man get the yud and the woman get the hay thear just says you and hey or God's name but according to everything we've said you can now understand this uh in a in a deeper level that is yud represents pure spirituality maral says just as a patient with empyema might need 100 % pure oxygen because they're not able to breathe with less than 100% oxygen a man often needs an infusion of pure spirituality because a man gets corrupted by the world uh when a man is engaged in the world there's testosterone there's competition there's male ego and that will drag him down so he needs to go to sh he needs to go to Yeshiva a little bit he needs to go to k he needs to embrace the Y to give him that pure oxygen not because he's better than a the other way around because he can't handle a mixed world he needs a certain amount of disengagement a woman is blessed says the moral with a certain sensitivity that she is able to embrace the physical and sanctify it the woman is the letter he the woman is able to show how raising a child is aod sashem how setting a table making a home now again I'm generalizing because there are men who embody a lot of feminine characteristics there are women that embody a lot of male characteristics so I don't mean to suggest uh this applies to every man every woman I'm really identifying Tendencies and general attributes so the man tends to get corrupted by physicality and therefore needs periodic disengagement the woman can Embrace physicality and elevate it and sanctify it and the morale actually says that part of the idea that a woman a wife is described as AER kdo a helpmate to be opposite the husband is she teaches her husband how even the physical can be elevated and Sanctified that is exactly her own so now we can understand go going all the way back to our original question why did aam and Sarah get the hay right the yud of Sarai was cut into two hay only when there was the Commandment of Brisa the answer is the following I mentioned last week an idea that bris Mila itself is performed on the organ of the human being that you might almost Define as the most materialistic and least spiritual the least susceptible to voluntary control the sexual organ and the notion that God's covenant is on the breath teaches us that even the material world can be elevated and Sanctified that Holiness is not by escaping the physical but it's by embracing the physical so it turns out out that at least one of the messages of Brisa is exactly what the hey represents the ability to sanctify the physical by infusing it with the Y and therefore precisely when AR aino is given the Commandment of Mila that is when he is informed of his capacity to elevate even the physical and that is signified by the hay that is put into both his name and the name of Sarai who is now Sarah the ability of bringing the yud into the dades to sanctify the physical and material world that's a very very important idea in Judaism one that we have to practice ourselves and one that we have to convey to our children you don't only serve God when you're in sh you don't only serve God when you're doing you don't only serve God when you're learning Torah as vitally important as this is you serve God in your business you serve God in your intimate relations you serve God in your picnicking and going to a restaurant at least potentially every single thing that you do can be characterized as aod the ability of sanctify now I do want to point out that the gumar itself gives another reason why hay is and this really is a cautionary note you will notice that a hay is open at the bottom and that represents the idea that is full of challenges and it's so easy to lose your footing and fall through the bottom uh meaning you gotta kind of dance Between The Raindrops or walk between the cracks and therefore in a sense although hay does represent the spiritual sanctifying the physical there's also a cautionary note that we shouldn't get caught up in all of the futilities and vanities of whether it's obsession with money or power or grudges all of the things that ultimately do not matter so there's both the optimistic idea of the yud uniting with the doid and there is the cautionary idea that it's very very easy to lose your footing and I'll just say that I think that this last cautionary note has a bit of relevance for the difficult situation that the Jewish people are facing now in time of war against Hamas and that is those of you that can remember before this war broke out we were in a state in which we were fighting o over all sorts of issues there was such divisiveness among the Jewish people uh both on the religious side the secular side there were issues of fighting over judicial reform and people were making this very serious they were saying this is the end of the state of Israel people don't even remember what that was about anymore but the end of the of Israel and uh religious people were demonstrating over issues pertaining to the draft and there was so much mlus so many demonstrations so much and even if people felt that their cause was justified but it degenerated into invective it degenerated into hatred into animosity and even occasionally not so frequently but occasionally even into violence I think that's a graphic reminder that in the world ofam there are so many pitfalls that we we can get wrong we got to be careful we have to be careful that even when we have causes and even we have justification we try not to destroy the is and the that bring us together and give us divine mercy anday and if there's any Silver Lining to the great and difficult struggles that we're facing if there's any light at all in the darkness that's engulfing us it is that this has been the occasion for a coming together for a sense that we're all in this together that religious non-religious I mentioned last week tens of thousands of non-religious want to put on C want to put on uh we have uh YouTube videos of of mothers of of of of captives separating kala with tremendous enthusiasm and the like and all of a sudden for this all of the things that divided us so strongly a few weeks ago they've kind of vanished they're kind of no longer here we don't even remember them they're like a bad dream okay of course we're in a nightmare now but we've left the bad dream at least that bad dream my big fear is that when beat hasem we come back to peace and we come back to normaly things will just go back the way they were that would be a tragedy because right now there's been so much growth and so much Unity why can't we try to hold on to it as we progress towards hasem regular life normal life now people thought after Co the same thing they thought with Co the shows were shut down the isas were shut down people weren't seeing each other families were separated so people were saying at the time when this is over we will have a new world a different world a world of unity a world of aus a world of togetherness a world of love that was the hope then as far as I could see the changes were very shortlived you know life went back to normal maybe that's a strength sometimes you know even with trauma you kind of just go back to things well the same thing could happen now and that itself would be a tragedy so I hope and I pray that the unity and the that CL is is experiencing right now and it's not just it's not just within erra it's really all over the world and how much we and Israel appreciate the help of the Americans in the United States and we're grateful to President Biden that's a separate thing but I'm talking about within call Israel the Jews that are supporting us the Jews that visit Eric Isel to give moral support who volunteer uh in in so many Endeavors to help the Army help the and help the displaced families who also need a lot of assistance I just hope that that momentum can keep going that a foundation was built upon which there can be perhaps a paradigm shift in amra that would be the precursor for the GAA Shala so that was the first as I said there are two different pieces I wanted to share with you uh the first piece is explaining the idea of the Sho hasem the change of name the yud and the the second theme I want to address is the theme of laughter you know Abraham is sitting outside of his tent hot day he's 99 years old he circumcised himself uh at the Commandment of God uh he is so eager to have guests because Abram is always known for his great Hospitality but God wanted Abram to relax so God made it so hot that nobody would be traveling to give Abraham a day off but Abraham is waiting for someone he's looking for someone so God has to send him people so God sends him Three Angels who look like people and that gives abam the opportunity to give them Hospitality food and lodging and and and washing their feet Etc and they give Abraham the news that his wife Sarah is going to have a child a year from now exactly one year from the visit of the angels and Sora overhears this conversation from behind her tent and Sora starts laughing at least to herself and Sora says after I have become withered shall I have Rejuvenation of the flesh she this is she's talking to herself I mean she's thinking the words and in addition my husband is so old he could have a kid so immediately The Three Angels and abam doesn't really know their Angels but The Three Angels say to AB why did SAR laugh saying can I have a child when I'm so old in other words s is criticized for her laughter so Point number one is the gamar remarks that the angel subtly changed what she said she did talk about the fact that she's withered but when she said the idea of being too old she said her husband is too old don't okay they changed the words I'm too old so on that thear remarks very interesting that we see that you are allowed to deviate from the truth in order to preserve the Shalom biet between a man and his wife apparently even a man as great as Abraham if he would have heard the words of his wife that he's too old to have a child it would have hurt his feelings to some degree so in order to cushion the hurt feelings they changed her words from my husband is to old to she being to old but be it as it may SAR is criticized for her laughter because the implication is you don't believe that God could give you a child Sora laugh faith that God could give her a child is anything beyond the power of God right so SAR is criticized for a seeming lack of faith that God can give her a child now the question is in terms of Abraham this is not the first time that Abraham has heard that he's going to have a child from s if you look at the end of last week's partion at the time he was command ishma is already born ishma is 13 years old but Abraham is told at the time of his breath SAR your wife will have a child and you should call the child y he will laugh and the PK says abam fell on his face and he laughed he laughed so the question is very obvious Abraham laughs and he's not criticized SAR laughs and she is criticized Why does Abraham get a free pass for his laughter when s it does not Sor is criticized so the EMS is I'll give you a few answers to this the tarum unus now unus lived in the time of RAB Akiva he was actually a person who was born a non-jew he was the nephew of an emperor and he became Jewish and he gave us a very authoritative translation of the Torah into Aramaic which was the spoken language of the Jews even in AR during a lot of the second temple period and one thing about unus is unus normally number one is pretty literal he does not add too many things unlike taramona son and the like but the other thing about unus which is very good for a translator is unus is normally consistent in his translations meaning if a word appears several places in the Torah UNC will usually use the identical translation whenever unus deviates whenever he translates the same word in a different way that is always worthy of note and Analysis so interestingly enough this is an example where unus deviates with respect to the Aramaic of he left translates he rejoiced with respect to sora's laughter the same word except one is masculine and one is feminine the tarum says she scuffed so Uncle this is suggesting a very simple answer to the difference between Abraham's laughter and Sarah's laughter and that is laughter can come from different sources you you can laugh because you're Overjoyed or you could laugh cynically because you don't believe it's possible so UNCA says ab's laughter was the joy at the unexpected news that's not critical the other way around he's accepting God's NAA with joy sora's laughter was more of a cynical laughter it ain't going to happen now it's very very clear that the reason why the tarum deviated in its translation is precisely because of this question the tarum had a question why is Abraham's laughter not criticized and sora's laughter is criticized answer Abram is the laughter of joy and Sora is the laughter of cynicism and doubt but well this is what unclea says so obviously ly it's it's a legitimate interpretation but I have to say that there's a real problem here because there is no textual indication that the laughter was any different The Identical word is used except for masculine versus feminine in the case of SAR I'm sorry in the case of a it says in the case of SAR it says so it is difficult to say that the same word in thees has a different connotation with abam than it has by by S right so that would actually be a bit of a problem so because of this the well actually so there is a medish that actually says the following the medish actually says that when the Angels criticize s for lack of faith they're actually criticizing a too that for the cover of Abraham Hashem didn't want to criticize Abraham so he let his wife bear the brunt of it but it's going on abah too which means both Abram and Sarah had their doubts but Hashem put the brunt on Sarah interesting issue about the wife bearing the brunt of what the husband did wrong as well but we see that in life quite often uh but there is a third approach of thees but before I say that I I want to backtrack a little bit the ramban makes an interesting observation and he says like this okay let's say SAR is skeptical let's say SAR doubts let's assume that but she has the right to doubt because who is she hearing the news from Abraham got the news from God she's hearing the news from three Ang Angels but she doesn't know that they're Angels she thinks they're BNS who are simply traveling so the ramban asked theha how can you fault SAR for not believing this news there is no particular source that she should regard as reliable so the ramban says a very beautiful idea the ramban says that you never know whom Hashem has designated to be the conduit of divine blessing so when you hear a braa you hear a blessing you should never dismiss it and say can never happen you say a even to the blessing of the betterin this isal statement Al to he even the blessing of a Simple Man Simple person should not be treated lightly in your eyes because you never know so the ran actually says that SAR was at fault because she should have acknowledged the possibility of blessing even when it comes from an unlikely Source this is the ran Sor in this connection there's a famous story that they tell and you know you never know if these stories are true but they might be true uh of rakov Israel kvki this is the stier he was the father of the great rev kvki it's interesting when I was growing up the stier was a very very famous God uh he was NRA a long time ago so rim keski became more welln but his father was a great great great gut and uh The Story Goes that a man once came to him in benra and said you know my daughter is getting older 25 26 we have not been able to find a Rashid that's already very old in B uh can you give me a br or can you give me an ET to find you a marriage partner so the stier asked the person a very odd question when your daughter was born 26 years ago did you make a kidish in show in honor of her birth and the person said no because in some circles you know it was not that customary to make a Kish for a daughter it was more of a private thing so the styler said that's your problem because when you make a kidish everybody goes over to you and they say say may you be Z to take your daughter down the and in fact so many people gave you this that it almost gets boring you almost don't want to keep on answering to it but one of them may be the conduit of hashem's and you missed out because you didn't get the person that was the conduit for God's BR so the person said to the Stifler so what should I do now he said make a kidish now make a kidish this shabis what in honor of the birth of my daughter 26 years ago so he made the Kish in honor of his daughter and people went over to him a 100 people went over to him and said may you take her to the may take you to the and The Story Goes a few weeks later she got engaged and then married again I have no idea if these stories are true you know you never know but this idea of the ramban that any person can be the conduit of abraa is why Saro uh was criticized for not accepting the bras from wherever they could come but that doesn't answer the question of why does AB get a pass and S not AB laughs no problem s laughs there's a problem so here thees gives a beautiful answer he points out that the whole idea that Sur doesn't believe what's going on doesn't really make sense in light of another teaching of K kazal actually say although it's not directly in the that sar's body actually physically changed she menstruated she became Young her flesh returned to the freshness of Youth so what is she doubting when she sees it meaning this is stomach she's saying how could it be and she's skeptical when she sees this miracle so the AR says the following this is a total 180 degree different explanation don't understand the narrative that sor laughter is because she's skeptical Abraham laughed out of joy and sorrow laughs out of joy joy joy joy so what's the difference why is Abram not criticized because look at what precipitated the laughter Aram Hears A Promise from God not only does Abram believe it but but that promise is so vivid and real to him that it induces laughter meaning the word of God does not require physical substantiation or confirmation now the assumes and this is really Aus among commentators that after Abraham was told by God that he will have a child from Sarah he told SAR that so she was all so before the Angels she was already in possession of knowledge that she would have a child again that's a missing link but because remember in ABR is told before the circumcision that he will have a child it does not say that he told SAR but the makes the not unreasonable assumption that he did tell Sor so she already knew but she didn't laugh until she saw physical signs in other words her and Muna was not as real as what she experienced in her body so it's very subtle abam laughed out of joy and SAR laughed out of Joy but Sara laughed out of Joy only when she saw a physical reality abam laughed out of joy as soon as he hears the Divine word so both aam and SAR had auna but for abam amuna was even more real than reality so to speak for SAR reality physical reality was a tiny bit more real than faith and therefore when the Angels say this is what the or says it doesn't mean why is Sor laughing it means why is she laughing now and didn't laugh before an amazing thing and Muna is Ultimate Reality and Muna is Ultimate Reality it's here it's real I don't need proof I don't need to see physical signs in my body it's real to me and that was the greatness of Aram AO this I think is a Mak that once again we need to take with us in difficult times you know we learn throughout tanak all of the wonderful Prophecies of redemption of comfort of Yeshua of GAA and sometimes we don't yet see their fulfillment but if one is a m one feels the Redemption even when the Redemption didn't happen yet because it is such a certainty to a person this is the famous gamar the beautiful gamorra at the end of M makus after the destruction of the Bas MDES after the bar Revol the temple was destroyed hundreds of thousands if not millions of Jews were massacred by K later and RAB AKA and the are walking near the Temple Mount and they see a fox emerge from the kashim the holy of holies and theim began to Sab and RAB AA began to laugh and the asked RAB AKA why are you laughing and RAB AKA said to them why are you crying and they said back to him why are we crying of course we're crying this is the holiest place in the world and now foxes rodents are just running through it himself says on the Mount of Zion meaning the Temple mount that is desolate we have the foxes crowna said that's why I'm laughing because there are Prophecies of Destruction and humiliation and there are prophecies of great Redemption but I never knew if these prophecies are going to be literal or figurative but when I see that the Prophecies of Destruction were 100% literal now I know that the Prophecies of redemption will be 100% literal God is not exaggerating he hasn't exaggerated the sorot and therefore he will not exaggerate the ISU and the and we have to feel that way now as well we are going through a difficult a s and really as I said they're really two different components one is the pain that we feel for the people that have already suffered whether it's the families of the more than a thousand people who are murdered or whether it's the families of the hostages and the hostages themselves that's a pain for the suffering of people but then we have a different pain which is fear of the unknown fear of what might happen God forbid that's not suffering for what has happened there's fear and paralyzing anxiety over what will happen but throughout we have to have the picture of hashem's G in our hearts and our minds at all time and as Raba taught precisely when we see the Fulfillment of theban prophecies that is a proof that there will be the Fulfillment of the Gula prophecies and the greatness of Abraham in his laughter was the promise of God induced the laughter even before he saw the physical evidence so hasem we hope that we should actually see the Fulfillment of hashem's promises very very soon and once again our are with all of the families who have suffered with the that they should be successful with the hostages that they should be returned to their homes and that all of Israel all over the world and by the way the things I'm hearing going on in the United States are truly truly frightening so I'm offering a prayer for our brethren in America and other countries as well and may all of us be Z to see the [Music] yes [Music] it