Rabbi Yitzchak Feldheim - The Anatomy of the Miraculous

hello everybody in the project inspire universe I just want to thank the project inspire for allowing me the opportunity to present this year on miracles mysteries and the wonders of the Torah this is the first segment that's going to be a sheer on sort of a an overview of what miracles are the role they play in Judaism the purpose of them or deal with many different angles an exhaustive hopefully on this forty minutes whatever you can do in that time understanding of miracles okay and then the follow up classes will be able to look at some miracles and the mysterious things matura actually stories in detail once we understand exactly the role they play in Judaism all right so um I just want to start off I think it's important to talk about it in the context of magic and miracles miracles and magic the Torah speaks about magic väri there are many laws forbidding different types of magic oh you'd only if you go through it there are many there's some positive mitzvot Tom and Tia to be pure with Hashem and that's also interpreted to be the opposite of looking for magical workarounds so we do need a contrast magic a little bit with miracles too but the goal is more to focus on what miracles are than what magic isn't but I'll spend one minute in the beginning putting that in into its context the Torah speaks about net miracles twice in the portions of Accra most and kadosh in those total portions they're back to back Torah portions we just read them a few weeks ago and the both times magic is spoken about in the context of the forbidden relationships those would be with you all the people you can't marry or the the relatives were forbidden to you and what's interesting there is when the Torah lists all the forbidden relationships it does it twice once and after emos and once a good ocean and it almost totally reverses the order meaning you can list all the forbidden relationships from those who are closest to you you know sisters daughters to those who are furthest from you you know people who you know you go to cousins and then you work your way to people who aren't even related you know adultery and then you can get into things like crazy you know bestiality but you can work your way all forbidden relationships from similarity to difference or you can list start with the most farthest relatives and then work your way back to to those that are closest and the Torah does it both ways so I'm not gonna give a class on that now but it's important to understand magic in the same way it's that you can approach a sin from two opposite through opposite places people can do something like that something wrong marry someone that be with someone they can't be with because out of cowardice fear they want to stay with what's closest to you or and and and then you would start with numerating the sins of its closest and say that relationships are to expand to get out and then to slowly work your way into other relationships that are more less close or you can do it you can somebody can be involved with with illicit relationships for the opposite reason not because he's afraid he wants to stay in his comfort zone but because he wants to do something crazy and now that he wants to break all the rules and all the taboos he's not comfortable with everyday life so people can approach the same sin from two opposite angles you could be trying to be you could be smaller than yourself or larger than years old just you don't want to be yourself you don't want to live in your place that's my introduction to magic magic has the same it's spoken about also two times over there because some people are looking for magic because they're too small it's an escape from life life is too daunting it's too much responsibility I want a shortcut I want I want to be I want to be carried I don't want to have to do through myself is there a short is there a magical workaround the other approach to magic is just the opposite if some people want to be involved in magic because they're so on they need a dominate and control it's control it's manipulation all right not only am I do I want with my life I want to be able to control all of life so you can come I wish I could spend more time on this but but we wanna talk about what miracles are but that's magic I mean there's to give these two different reasons people come to magic magic has to be different about in different ways because they're opposite people there are people looking for shortcuts and just magical workarounds and they're people who are looking to control the world and to dominate things and looking looking they want magic as a means to manipulate things and not I'm not speaking anything anyway to the existence of magic I'm just talking over here to the desire for magic why somebody would be intrigued by it wanted it can can make life easier for you and one is it can it cannot give you more power and they're two different people okay that's it so what are miracles so I have three different things that I want to share with your miracles and they're all they really they're all it's good at the class of the miracles but their miracles is a niche topic what what the talk of miracles allows you to get involved in are three talks that are far larger in Judaism than just somebody who was curious about mysterious and magical things and so we're gonna go through three huge hugely important it's a new word in the lexicon hugely important [Music] parts of Judaism so let's start okay enough with the introductions so stage one is as follows okay after talking about miracles in the context of magic now we're going to talk about miracles in the concept of in the context of what we call justice this is how the total really does talk about miracles it starts off saying that originally God created the world with din-din is we'll see it's called judgment or justice but it's not exactly that we'll explain it and he saw that it wasn't going to work the world wouldn't work if it was just justice and therefore he partnered with justice something called mercy or Rahman Rock'em aim is mercy but it really refers will see to miracles justice demon Rock'em injustice and mercy will translate really for our purposes is the introduction to understanding the regular life and the miraculous life because here's how it works we look at the world this world we look at the world differently than other people look at it all the religious people look at it we look at it much more like scientists look at it for the most part religions tend to look at the world and the physical world our body is physical the pleasures of the world as temptations there's something called the world to come and our goal is to get there and the way you get to the world to come is not to get stuck here in this world basically you look at the world and you seal everything in the world was a temptation everything is risky could this at best it can distract you at worst it can destroy you and therefore you have to remain wholly impure and guard your eyes and your ears and avoid this and avoid that and if you return your soul perfectly to God untainted by the materialistic world that you can go up to heaven in Judaism we actually see that this world is a way to experience usha God is experienced here we look at this world not as an obstacle course to dock and to run through but as really pieces of a puzzle the world is God hidden God is the infinite one is the world of the pieces of that puzzle and it's our job not to avoid them but to protect them this world can become holy in fact a better metaphor than the puzzle or different than the puzzle is that this world's a symphony every element of the world is an instrument or a note if it's a note then it's our job to combine the notes into a beautiful song if it's an instrument our job is to combine all the instruments into some beautiful symphony but what's unique about this approach as opposed to way people normally conceive of religion is like normally in religion people think the opposite of spiritual is physical the opposite of the body is the soul and we're saying no there's no opposites the physical world becomes spiritual when you make all the pieces dance together the body and the soul are teammates they're not opposites the soul is what makes the body into a functional beautiful device a tool for for creating music the body is the what synthesizes the world it's the soul that is the sense of unity and and the desire for it that the body is the part of you that that has the the skills and the senses that the to see a nuance the world and to figure out how to synthesize the parts so what happens is if you look at the world in the other way that the world's an obstacle course so then reward and Punishment becomes like this their own religious laws if you keep the law that you get points checks you break the law you get X's and the world to come you cash in your points for goods in the prizes that's how it works that's if you see the world in that way if you see the world as a symphony so then the symphony is the prize you it's not artificial or arbitrary I mean that will act the first way is called arbitrary I do X and I my reward is why I hate I you made up this reckless random laws don't do this do this do that and I do those I cash them in in a different world in a different experience for whole a new life but it's not related to the life I ate it was I call it arbitrary but if I'm making music then my reward is I'm eating what we call the fruits of my labor I'm creating my my experience I live in the world that I made and that's how we look at the world's a symphony this in Judaism is called justice why is it justice now it maybe would give enough information it should be understandable because your experience is what you did you're experiencing the the music that you made meaning if you worked really hard and you perfected your skills with your instrument and you played well with all the other instruments then you will experience music and that's really like life is two things perfecting your instrument and playing well with the other instruments you know we call between man and God between man and other people and that's life you your relationship to man and God is you is my job horrifying Who am I supposed to be well what was the intent behind the creation of me and then once I become the great Amalthea violin in the picture so I'm the greatest violinist or I'm a tuba but I perfect my mic mast I mastered my individual instrument now to have a symphony I have to be able to learn how to relate to others and that's the rest other part of life and together that's the Torah affect yourself learn how to play nice and then you'll experiences magnificent music there's a beauty to this and that lot everything now life everything in life now becomes powerful and meaningful and inspiring because you everything matters and you can understand how it matters you know what beauty is you know what music is you can you know what your actions are doing and when you experience the beauty you have the satisfaction of knowing that you created the beauty and it's yours it's not just some random joy washing over you but it's something that you made yourself and that's that's uh that's justice but there's a very very scary side to justice and this is what it means that God created the world with justice and he saw that it was enormous Khayyam it wouldn't be able to endure the scary thing of Justices is that so what does that mean that means if I don't play music and that won't be any Symphony and then I'll have nothing justice means there's no free rides it means that you know what does it mean in the real world you don't work you're not neat if you work well you'll eat you know there's no magic and it's the perfect way to say there's no magic in justice how do you have joy if we call in Judaism called madness how do you have masses for new kids in a world of justice without prayer do we have masks from your kids is as you talk to them and you you put them first and you you build them up and you set into the right schools and you make them be a priority and you work with them and you create a happy safe home these are the ways you make stable healthy kids you teach them to desire knowledge and to value more important things or not not chase after cheap thrills there's ways to have an office from your kids but if you check out and you're never home and you're an angry person or whatever it is then when you whatever you are missing will show up in the product whatever whatever you bring to beer will show up and whatever you laughs will show up just this is daunting and when you realize that to turn everything how do you have shown bias do it takes how do you make paranoia you have to do what it takes how do you be healthy you have to do what it takes so what what I like the way I like to sort of encapsulate justice what we called in is that it's beautiful it's fear it's you feel cozy it's just a cool world everything's fear it's not arbitrary but on the other hand it's really really scary that's the problem the beauty and the problem with justice and therefore it says that our shame a shot off a maraca may be partnered with justice mercy and what does that mean that means that we can save the hashem as follows Hashem you created this symphony you created all the instruments it's your creation you wrote the score you wrote this music you know me I had a hard life as a hard week I can't do it but I can't work I can't I can't go to my business I can't it's things are getting bad I but my kids Erica's coming they can't go to school without gifts I don't have any money what if God you wrote the script just because the violin is not gonna play today doesn't mean you can't make music change the song you're bigger than the music yes you made a crazy-cool world a world it's a symphony and all we have to do is play it but I'm broken and I can't play it can you can you rewrite it and make it happen that I can get some money without the work or everything will work without the work and my kids I'll still be happy can you make my kids happy even without their comedy yes just rewrite the script I know you wrote a good script but you can do it cuz you hashem you're higher than justice that's how we understand it and that's what miracles are miracles are that I can say to Hashem can you change can you change things can you let me add some words those who have a little bit of a background will appreciate if you don't I'll give you the background in 15 seconds then we have two names of God Hashem that's the one that spell do you - hey above an a hey the four-letter name of God and hello Kim Kim those that we say Hashem I'm okay no when we make a blessing Baruch Hashem and locate now those are two names of God these two names refer to different aspects of God Hashem is God before the symphony this God before he before he created the music and the instruments it's Kabbalah they they use a metaphor I know I'm bringing in a lot of extraneous stuff but there was all cool and come on leaves a metaphor not a symphony or a puzzle like I just did but they use white they'll say Hashem is white light and that's you Hashem and then there's another then there's colors some creates colors and the colors can make up King like paintings there's two types of beauty there's two versions of oneness white light is oneness white light but there's no colors then you divide the white light into colors that's our symphony but the symphony has to play together so L Oh Kim and I Shem are both experiences of oneness Hashem is Elkanah shams one but there's two experiences of oneness one experience of oneness is white light white light God Hashem it's and it's just this stillness is just white God and but there's no colours in that and then there's another version of oneness which is where there's a lot of colors or a lot of sounds but they've come together in a symphony and you experience the oneness of the music it's also oneness but the difference is that this one is made out of all the pieces all the parts that's called L Oh Kim I call it unity and harmony that they sound the same but they're very different then the word for unity is wash M is white white god it's unity it's white harmony is allocated okay if you speak if you familiar with Hebrew when you add you didn't men to the end of a word it becomes plural right l-look each and I'm not ship right bias and Barton Gooden and makes a word multiple so therefore when you when when we talk about a little Kim what we're saying is what is how is there a name of God that's multiple everybody asked this question right Hashem Zeppelin our Shem is one you say how said my shot that's Shama alright everyone says that's the most important statement in Judaism but yet we we have a plural name of God and the answer is it is a there's a version of oneness that's plural and that's called harmony music is many many sounds combined paintings are many colors combined but it's still oneness so we see this idea of justice as mutinous elokim Hashem the white like God create then created colors this is a couple of but I said divided he he in his unity and he created colors because the colors allow us to make music so once we've been given a palette of colors so now we have the possibility to create magnificent music or you cannot make music and just have this cacophony of a lot of noise and that's justice the joy of your life the beauty you live with will be commensurate with how much you work to put them how much you have you created harmony if you fought and you divide it and you meet you a Petty and you jealous and you were a full person so you're gonna live with a crazy amount of vision in your life and that's painful loneliness and pain but if you were loving giving selfless person you did what you had to do and intellectually search for unity and knowledge and understanding you can have a magnificent symphony of life to experience so that's that's again that's the justice but if you don't do it if you can't face hello Kim so then if you can't face our Kim you can still say Hashem you came before a low camera Hashem you are your the white light before the noise can you change the song you are the conductor you're the you're the composer who wrote this music as the composers so redo the song that's what miracles are a miracle is we have a right to ask Hashem we see we dive into both we say three top everything's hasha minal ok no we really want to do it properly but we always say but our Shem but you can save me Hashem you can make it happen without my work this exists and I started off saying that Judaism is more in line with science yes we work with science we understand that the world is real and the way is something we understand the scientists are also looking to sense synthesize the world and understand how it works and they but they understand the limitation of the world it's a limitation of that it that's all there is but we understand that this perfect music doesn't happen on its own then the existence of this magnificent music means that there is a person there's a score writer there's a composer and the composer then could have written anything they want and you can appeal to the composer to say mean to something larger then then the composition a composition he says is a composer and the composer means I can appeal to the composer to change and we dive in every day that our scheme' should bring miracles as a secondary means if we fail in the first way ok that's part one if they'll become more clear as we go with the part two now because part two will enlighten part one and it'll become a little more useful ok so part two begins with part one left leaves off if if miracles are that we can say Hashem I know you made a harmony I can have beautiful music but I'm broken bail me out you know give me if you take care of it now I'll get my act together next you will do it myself you know so it sounds like this from this that miracles are a back-up plan a safety net right and that's how I would like for metafile use for the perfect metaphor for miracles based on everything I said is that really create the symphony make beautiful music if you can't Hashem can you rewrite the score and carry me I want to be carried all I wanna free pass rule not to see the back-up plan the problem with that is is that if anyone who looks at Judaism realizes that the the presence of miracles throughout Judaism is far larger than a safety net it doesn't make sense that it's just a safety net everything is about miracles the biggest proof that this is not the cases that look where we talk about miracles if I was writing a book about about miracles as a safety net I would put it the last chapter would be when all else fails chapter 12 safety nets don't worry not all over if you fall off the tightrope doing your flips will catch you into that and you'll be all right you don't have to be perfect we'll catch you that's that's a very important thing to know but but Judaism's miracles and Judas have a far outsized presence than this the safety net if it was a safety net I would say every month has its own trade the last month of the year the month of Adar should be the month we talk about miracles and safety nets and what the truth is we do do that and that would fit with my idea that other the month of Purim world out in miracles the problem is is that the first month in the Jewish year is the month of miracles Nisan and it's not just that it's the first month of the Jewish year it's the first Mitzvah Indian that was given to the Jews was to count this as your first month of all the laws that that God gave the Jews the first one how kodesh has their love him this month of miracles should be for you you're you beginning of all counting we started with splitting seas magnificent everything we do we fee is familiar with the Jewish texts of the kiddush and we're always saying every Mitzvah in memory of leaving Egypt and all the plagues miracles weren't to safety-net miracles were the first attempt we didn't try 15 things and we started with miracles we marinated in miracles thing at Julian's miracles how do you justify the presence of miracles as the beginning of Judaism if it's only a safety net so obviously we're missing something and is something more important of that miracles that needs to be understood maybe it may be maybe more than more important maybe an entire paradigm shift so here's part 2 of what miracles are so part one we'll call Merritt a part one will sum up in a phrase we'll say part one is that yes we're supposed to make the symphony you're supposed to be justice but what I'm if I'm incapable of justice I can appeal to God that they only out and and that's called mercy rock I mean Rock mercy is the opposite of earning and if immerseus miracles earning it is justice here's how it works now if I can do it so let's use my I started a miracle I started a metaphor of a tightrope before let's stick with my type my type type of metaphor what we'll call life the tightrope just this is a tightrope if you can walk the tightrope it takes a lot of skill but you get the big bucks you get all the attention you get all the fame you feets a thrilling job you have a good view it's a it's a great career you can see a new city every day with it with the circus whatever it is I know it's my metaphor okay but the tightrope is the metaphor in my case of doing the job yourself the safety that is if you fail will catch you so till now that timer that's that's Judaism is the tightrope miracles is the safety net let's say you know okay now I want to show you the secret this is just a small little thing but it changes everything it's really really beautiful is the secret of the type of miracles of the safety net they're real the reason for the safety that is not the catch you when you fall it does catch you when you fall but there's much more important reason for a safety net there's a reason like this that when you why don't people walk tie ropes bottom line is on the ground I can walk a straight line one hundred out of a hundred times I have no problem putting one foot in for mother I can jump I could put out stand on one leg I can't flip that over there but if I could flip over like if I was able to flip I'd be able to flip on my line you know what why can't I do it on top why do people fail at tightropes why is it different than on the ground and there's two reasons why PU sing the tightrope as the metaphor for succeeding at life so there's two reasons why people fail at Kairos reason number one is the lesser reason actually is that we're nervous it's your thousand feet up and you're scared and therefore your trepidation causes you to not to shake or to not you know to not be as steady and you fall because you're nervous it's like a self-fulfilling problem you're nervous and therefore you fail if you go through life if you if you're in business and you're afraid to make the sale and you not timidly on the door you talk timidly on the phone you won't make the sale if you were confident it would go the reason why we fail is because we think we're gonna fail that's that's the first reason people fail entire ropes the bigger reason is is much more simple and much more widespread is because we're afraid to fall we don't even try we don't even try tie ropes who goes who's never even been on top of the scaffold nobody even goes up there when they call air knows the Crowsnest may be that Sun that's on boats I don't know whatever it is I I never tried I'm Kate case in point number one we don't try tight ropes because they're scary there's two reasons if tight ropes are life there's two reasons they don't do tight ropes because we fall off timers because were scared and we fail times because we don't try so either we don't draw you we try we fail this were scared that's life most people give up on all their dreams everything they wanted to do or we change our games because it's so scary it's not gonna happen for me you know when I was young I believed everything was gonna be great now I whatever whatever reason I don't believe it's gonna happen or I'm still trying I didn't stop trying I still trying but I do it was so so tentative and so reluctantly that of course it's gonna blow up my face so that's the case we can understand the real reason for the title our question was if miracles of the saving that our whole question was of saying if the whole miracles are a safety net so then may that's the last thing we should study we should first talk all about doing the job and then we should have a supplementary thing and don't worry we'll catch you in evil but in Julia's and everything starts in miracles and the answer is you know the secret of a safety net is the secret of a Satan is not to catch you when you fall the secret of the safety net is is that when there's a safety net you won't be afraid to go on and try knowing is a safe it allows you to tack on the tightrope and do all the tricks and all the jumps without being tentative without sitting huddled in the in the rafters you can go jump in that's the secret of a tightrope the purpose of the tightrope is to allow you to walk on into life and that said what is the reason for miracles now if transit widened why are there miracles not to catch you what they were yes it will catch you when you fall but that's not their primary goal the reason there's something called a common it's because God saw that people were afraid of justice so he created ragam that you shouldn't be afraid you can jump you can go because I'm gonna catch you when you fall you can be all in you can try and love and you can try and learn you can try and work because don't worry you will survive I will catch you that's what changes life our job I'll keep the best thing our job by the Seder is to sit there with our children when they're young and talking about all the miracles how we were in trouble and God got us out and God could do this and that if you raise your children to know that Hashem can do anything then you will have children who will dance through life all the reluctance and the fear and the excuses and the alibis that a whole world is built on won't exist in your home because there won't be there isn't reason to be afraid the secret of miracles and this is why miracles come first the first thing we have to establish the first Mitzvah is Hashem can do anything it can save you from anywhere now can we go now can we start now can you get a job how can you start dating now can you start learning you're not gonna put that gonna blow up in your face and if it does look clean it off and you'll you know you'll start again but you'll be fine you will survive this is this is the lesson of the placement of miracles and this is for those who know a little bit of terminology you'll appreciate this this is before the blessing of small Nasari of the ancient blessings Amida in the afternoon we Davin it we say key shame Hashem ikura of a God ll okay know when I cry out to the name of Hashem it gives strength to L Oh Kim what does that mean that means that when I could the ability to cry to Hashem the ability to ask for miracles a laugh get that's not the goal it gives strength and allows me to face a look at me I can face the Justice of the universe the fairness of the world and I can be all in only because I know recession and this is the last thing we say I know Kippur you know if you make it to the end yom kippur right before the blow for what do we say seven times hashem who hello Kim right you know those words Hashem Hashem that he's hello Kim all that justice it's him he's behind it all don't be so scared of it he wrote the score if it's not working I'll change it there will be music here don't worry everything's going to be beautiful this is part two and that you have part 1 and part 2 okay now part three you with me we're gonna go next okay you know what I always get this from Addison now this is very very important before we do parts later let's call this to be okay to be is like this is that the rabbi's after the total we have two holidays that came after the construction of a temple Hanukkah and Purim these are two additional holidays made by the rabbi's and the reason is literally dealing with what we're talking about here and I have to mention it because I do need to add one thing I just spoke about the safety net there's there's another aspect to this and there are two things that sort of had to be added in you know we need a holiday to add it after destruction meaning that regular Jewish calendar is about living life and being all in the fear only comes after things go wrong so the that means after the destruction of the temple after we were exiled into the throughout the world in Babylonia Persia in Greece at that point then fears that's when they start living with trepidation because we've been knocked around so in everyone's life if you wanted to know which parts of Judaism would be really important for me to know how to get back on the horse it would be Hanukkah Hanukkah and porom are the holidays after destruction and they're both about miracles the mitzvah of Hanukkah to light your candles it's pursue may Mesa and the middle of Purim is to read the Megillah pursue Manisa they both mean publicizing the miracle the holiday have passed it with that freedom and schmooze is about tolerance so this is about God guiding us Hanukkah and Purim are about miracles I mean everything has miracles the Holly confirma holidays of publicizing miracles because once you're broken you to get back into the groove after destruction after we've been hurt we're now tentative and reluctant now many miracles but there are two of them because I only told you half of it the safety net meaning this I said this justice do it yourself and then this God can make things happen so the first holiday is the safety net the first holiday I know in the calendar Hanukkah comes before poem but that's just the calendar historically poem was way before Hanukkah program was during the purge it was in between the Babylonian a Persian exile and Hanukkah was already during the Greek enso the Greeks conquered Persia so it's we're not talking about the same time period but the historically permit came for us Purim is the holiday of the safety net is we were about to be exterminated and no one even knows what happened well who so behind the scenes Esther becomes Queen we get saved so the first thing you have to know is that don't worry about the safety net the tight rope because there's a safety net so that one get it ready so what is Cara GAD Kollek is very deep there's two types of miracles miracles save you but there's two types of miracles one miracles are safety net the classes we need for but that's a negative miracle it gets you out of trouble but once I knew the tightrope will catch me many people can know that and still not take part in life knowing that I'm not gonna fail this is alright but is it worth all the work just because I won't get hurt in many people's minds the cause were broken and because we're scared a reality takes too long it's too slow it's gonna take me 50 years to have knock us and my kids about you're gonna see grandchildren one day but it's 50 years of work behind your tongue working hard waking up knowing I maybe not fifty years ago all that but it it actually gets harder as they get older the Vipers are the easiest stage right so what's the what's the way what's we got explain the other problem isn't what the cure is I don't want to spend time in so let me say it fast Holika is you light one candle and the last eight days it's the positive miracle not only will a sham catch you when you fall but when you do something the results will be exponential he'll do two miracles he won't let bad things happen and the good things you do will be multiplied the leverage you will have it's you're not gonna have a small benefits you'll do a little bit and in the last eight days it'll be a multiple benefits to the work you put in that's huge in a way colic is more important than for them if you want to stick with the metaphors so I'm gonna call Purim the safety net with a tight rope with a safety net hanukkah's the trampoline the trampoline means that I and normally I jump now I can do flips because it multiplies the power of my jump and this knowledge is what allows people to face the world after we've been broken if we're in a state where we need miracles is to not know that there's two miracles you can live your life don't be afraid I don't care what happened before Hashem is gonna catch you Hashem will save you and not only will he save you but whatever little bit you think you might think it's you started off measly and little promise whatever little crumb as you give will become loaves of bread this these and this is why we have to wipe those kind of candles in the windows and while we have to read the Megillah the world needs to know this there's a sterility in just thinking of most people don't even think of justice they're just escaping responsibility but let's say you're a big boy you're a big person and you're gonna think about justice it's a sterility in justice and a fear of daunting this injustice it's too daunting what allows people to live their life is not just to know the beauty of how fear in the world is but to know that I shall catch you when you fall and will multiply your achievements Hanukkah and Purim the prototypes of both types of miracle a miracle is either a poor Americal getting rid of trouble or a Hanukkah miracle leveraging your achievements and giving you rewards that you never knew like the rabbi say you have to open up the door the size of a pin needle and God will open it the size of a bank would like the doorway of a banquet hall and that's the ratio this is it's an infinite ratio you have no idea how large the rewards could be okay now we're ready for part three part three starts with the following question with everything we said it still sounds like miracles are far apart or a little bit small miracles are just there to to get people out of trouble when they when they get stuck when we get hurt when something goes wrong or to multiply your actions when you do think is good but either way the way we've described everything till now was that the real goal of life is justice is to do things on your own and if you're if you're not you know capable of just doing it being creator of your own things and then Hashem can catch you and he can help you but everything we said till now ELISA I'm not arguing with this this is a very basic Jewish idea we in Kabbalah it's called the bread of shame na Medici sofa is that is that things that you didn't earn you don't enjoy as much the joy is only things that you accomplished but either way so the summation of everything we've said until now is that the highest level of existence is to be deserving is to earn things on your own to be the creator of your to make your puzzle create your symphony enjoy the music that you made with your own hands and miracles are a back-up plan the problem with this is that is a whole separate dimension in Judaism where miracles have a whole different role and I'll give you I'll give you a good way to to understand this we know ok people like to do things themselves you know you tell me a riddle and you biggest mistake tell me a riddle because you can have to sit with me all day I'm not gonna let you tell me any ins and I'm gonna figure it out takes me a long time but I'm gonna get it right we don't ask directions we don't want to read maps it's all part of this idea of did I want to earn it myself I don't want any rock of it I don't want you you're my miracle are you giving me hints I'm gonna do it on my own right and in this microcosm you're trying to intervene and help me I want to know my own that's all good and it's important to be ezel but let's say you're in the mall and your kid is lost ok and you can't find your son are you looking around you're panicking you're sweating you're terrified it's a scary world and someone comes open it goes you missing your son I think I saw a boy looks like you you know what is anyone gonna say oh don't tell me don't tell me I'm gonna find myself nobody would never do that why I thought I thought the whole everything in life is supposed to earn I understand this is your son so what is the knocking what's the what's the point that is unique with the that that makes you want to fight you know do it yourself that did not do yourself that you want to hear what he's saying it's a very important question because it seems like there's something else in life we are something higher than yourself and the answer is is you know and this is this is really why I can Torah we study Torah right so we'll add a read book so he or she refer ABI don't you want to figure it out for yourself why do we read all the commentaries shouldn't you figure it out for yourself right so so what's the answer the answer is I mean the move my son's missing this is my son it's not about me if it's about me I want to be all that I could be but it is him my son it's not about me it's me so smoothly be wrapped up in me this is me and my violin this is the symphony this is the others this is my kid it's much bigger the ability to forego self to be part of something bigger it's lightyears ahead of yourself so this turns everything we said until now on its head so now we have to do it yourself and now we're reducing all self there's some kind of ego trip and it's your son or comes to Torah like why you I'm working hard let me just ask the question forget the answer you know I don't know God I want to know God I use the metaphor when you come to Masada right so the guy who takes the cable car and the rest of the group goes up on their own so they get to go up on their own dislike a million dollars they gotta take the cable car he's a feels embarrassed to get to the top yes the poor his canteen on his head the fake that he's wedded up so no one will know his secret and that's true everyone else will feel good he'll feel like a fraud but is there a difference in the view from the top of masada see there is two distinct experiences the climbing is about me I climbed the view though is identical I can see Jerusalem from the sod on magical Wow you know I don't know if you can I remember I was I was too busy trying to catch my breath but let's say you can see Jerusalem you know is there a difference between the view between the cable car no there's a difference between the feeling of the climb but it's about me I have to climb but it's about Jerusalem then let me get there as fast as possible if I climb I'll be eight hours climbing I'll have ten minutes left half the view I hate the cable car I can sit there on top and steal Jerusalem for all the hours while everyone's climbing what's your goal is it about you it's about Jerusalem do you want to know Torah do you want to you want to find your son so now it seems like all the miracles waiting more holy than just it turns our whole class on its head I just really stopped here I should stop here and let you figure it out yourselves because this is that's Torah Torah is not I know I want but I don't know if should this be a miracle talk or just this talk it was the Joseph thought I'll let you finish out yourself it was a miracle talk then I'll tell you the answer now which one do you want you can decide right now you can stop it now if you want to do it yourself if not okay you know what I'll do those for those who are still here and you didn't even hang up do you want me to do it I'm just something better I'm gonna give you the answer but in the way that you're gonna finish it yourself okay I'm gonna go halfway by the way in Torah we have both of these aspects right we make two different blessings in the morning on the Torah the first blessing on Torah its last soak the dear vidura to toil in Torah to do the work to figure out Torah on your own that's why you Shiva were busy figuring it all out and we creating the whole process our own but the second blessing is I'm allowed meet our alumni you so that God teaches Torah to his Jewish people to the Jewish people is that I shall gives it to us because tourists both there's an aspect of tone of becoming Who I am through Torah and it's an aspect of Torah of of connecting - mmm and therefore I want to get there as good I shall teach to me I shall teach to me or let me do myself we do both it's a it's a whole elaborate talking different talk about so here's who I believe you with the image this is already spending a lot of time but the we have two more classes and following days to do more of that miracles but this is the philosophy miracles then we'll go through actual interesting mysterious and miraculous things maternal but the the the last step is that you know let me give one metaphor because important metaphor I wanted to use this is imagine Prince Charming he's crazy dreams in the princess forever the princess the princess and he's gonna get the brat earn the hand of the princess lucky him he finds a dragon a fire-breathing dragon and he gets to fight the dragon the dragon many times his size and he's fighting the dragon the princess is watching him from the balcony and he the Prince after hours of struggling and ducking fire and he's barely surviving I mean the princess says to him hero okay you proven yourself calm being you know you can have my hand in marriage so what happens if Prince Charming says oh wait one moment I'm almost done oh god I didn't come yet I'm gonna kill him I'll be wouldn't just be right with you what's gonna happen is there anything more insulting to the princess the entire reason he was supposed to be killing the dragon was to prove himself to earn the hand of the princess he was risking his life for the princess but if he wants to finish it then who's it about now that the princess is I want to feel like a hero it's about me this is totally debunking his whole world right to be married to her it's not his love for her and his honor for her it's about his great his own his own prowess she's just so basically what he's telling her is that you will be one more trophy one more token one more notch and my proof of of how great I am this is this this this is the idea so that's how I want to turn the whole beginning of this year upside down you're proving earning it yourself din which is so one so wondrous is so beautiful and so we spoiled it beautiful but don't think it's worse than don't think it's selfish and mystical and just give yourself a shot right yeah we don't mean to be like I'm not the lazy guy is the cop that I'm not justifying that that I'm just saying that maybe there's a higher level of getting yourself up without a laziness I so much love Hashem I can't wait to be with you take me now do it to me get me to where I need to go to let's not waste my whole life with petty little endeavors so that's the question these are two sides of Judaism the miraculous side this is the relationship to Hashem and relationship Tello Kimmy and lo Kim is about work and earning and Hashem is about just being giving up yourself and being so I'm gonna tell you the words then you'll spend the you'll have a little Torah to think about on your own the words are that both of them are simultaneously true because you don't need to become great we believe that we were already born godly everybody has all of the powers there it's just that the traumas of life and and even things didn't happen to us things happen to our parents and if it were raised a certain way in and the history but we all start off all demonic are Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden do a sin they go hide in the bushes and that's where we start we all started in the bushes and the goal of life is to slowly come out of the bushes the goal of life is to is to overcome the shame and the guilt and and to retrieve that initial purity because the purity is when your strongest like little children are the first people up in their house they're wide I'm excited they're all in the natural state is to be all in there's no self the self is this fake guilt and fear that's the only artificial stuff so yes life is a full-time job but the full-time job isn't to become great the full-time job is to peel off all the fake levels layers of ego to find the real you it was our job to achieve something to become something to do something or our job just to be and let go and the answer is we have to work for years to let go then you have the joy of the accomplishment with the joy of just being one with God and it's all one thing that's the greatest of all miracles the miracle is to experience the you that are shem made which took years of work these are the levels of miracles we'll continue next time thank you very much