I was distracted depressed and devoted until I met Judaism

Shalom, shalom. So, happy to be with everyone. Um I'm sorry it has to be, you know, two-dimensional, but I will try to be as three-dimensional a speaker as possible. You know, I'm uh I'm I'm kind of an action figure. Spend a lot of my time in uh heavy action situations. And I'm actually pretty pretty excited even tomorrow, Friday, in Jerusalem, we have two things going on. The waves are big. Olas grandes. Yeah, we got big waves coming in then uh uh and we've also got um you know, on on the way to surfing in in Israel, you have uh mountain bike parks. You know, multiple mountain bike parks. So, uh you could see uh if you saw my mountain bike, you just wouldn't believe the uh this amazing bike, you know, that I ride down these super steep terraces terraces in Jerusalem. Yeah. Say hello to my little friend. And that's my that's my big mountain bike. And um and I got my guitar over there. I'll play for you a little later. And um and uh it it'd be cool if any of the any of the I've I've three people who are possibly on my screen, uh whether it's uh Rabbi Touitou or I have Shimon Edri or Isaac Siton. If any of you put on your cameras, it'd make life wonderful cuz you happen to be at the top of my screen besides the um besides the translator. Oh, Isaac, yes. Yes. So, So, yeah, cuz I I need all I mean, speaking into a camera, oh my gosh. I can't believe this has happened to us. Anyway, I'm blessing all of Wow, look who is here. Um all of my friends came up on the top, all the rabbis. Um thank you. The rabbinos, los rabbinos, hahamim. So, anyway, so I was born a poor black child in uh America, the US. I don't mean literally black. I was not black. And I wasn't poor either. But what I mean by a poor black child is that growing up in the mansion I grew up in with a father who's I think my father probably has the most in common with Donald Trump. You know, he he was a real capitalist numbers guy, you know, and it was all about, you know, you know, making money. And And so we grew up in a mansion in a place called West LA, a place called Brentwood. And that's where uh uh you might have heard of certain people from there, O.J. Simpson. Um he he's in jail now, but I don't know, maybe he's out of jail. I don't know where he is. But O.J. Simpson was a famous football player. He lived around the corner from us. I went to school with his kids. Um Dustin Hoffman actually lives in my house. He bought the house from my father. And Anyway, but we were we were living in that kind of situation. And why was I a poor black child? I was a poor black child because because I was I don't mean black child like black life matter child like like in America, like the US. I'm talking about Ethiopian. Meaning African. You know, like like swollen distended belly, swollen skull, toothpick arms with like flies everywhere. And what I mean by that is is because I'm a Jewish I was a Jewish boy growing up in a world that was uh you know, I had I had a massive hard drive for Judaism, you know, massive hard drive, like multiple terabytes of hard drive, but the only program I was given growing up was calculator. How to make money, you know. And my And you know, the computer was constantly blowing up because like you know, you don't need a terabyte of hard drive for a calculator on a computer. Um what does play well with the with the hard drive, and I call it the Sinai hard drive cuz I had a hard drive from Mount Sinai from Har Sinai and uh what plays what what runs well there is Torah software. And and I didn't was erased with Torah software. I only learned the olive bet when I was 23 years old in Jerusalem when I came to Aish HaTorah where I met Rabbi Toussia actually. And I know I always tell this story but Rabbi Toussia was coming to my classes every day and and I know he looks like he's 18 but I didn't know he was actually married with a bunch of kids. So so he after each class this kid came up to me saying, "You come to my people. You teach Torah." And you know, I've heard that before. I paid no attention to him but after about a couple weeks of once he got back to Mexico I they already sent me a ticket. Next thing I know I'm in Mexico City teaching. He's a real get get it done guy with a team of get it done people and I really appreciate that. And I and for me growing up a surfer in California where like I didn't have to take responsibility for anything. I mean literally I with if you if you finished wearing something you take it off you throw it on the floor and the housekeepers come and pick it up for you. You know, and they my people had to explain to the housekeepers that they have to start putting my t-shirts like in different levels cuz otherwise I'll keep taking the clean one off and I'll wear the same shirt every single day. This is why I love this outfit that I can wear the same thing every day and no one ever knows the difference. You know, I I grew up not wanting to think about these things and I and I still don't have to think about these things. You can wear the same outfit. It's wonderful. I love it. You know, most people think people ask me, "Doesn't it cramp your lifestyle to be Haredi, you know, with the black and the white and everything?" And I'm like, "If you knew me growing up, I was like I was like Donald Trump's disaster son." Yeah, who like he only wanted he wanted real things, relationships and connectivity and spirituality and and like, you know, I was a disaster of a son for my father. And uh um but our uh you should know though our love for each other was amazing. We were very very very connected and still are. He's 90 years old now. And he after he sold his house to Dustin Hoffman, he now lives on the cliffs of uh of the of Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean and a beautiful home there. So if you ever want to make Shabbat on the overlooking the ocean in LA, you know, look up look me up. I'll see if they can have you. If you don't mind waiting till the pandemic ends, that'd be much better. Okay. So um anyway, so I grew up there. And uh and my father kind of lived vicariously through me. He was a workaholic businessman manufacturing clothing and he lived through my adventures and he sent me on all all these amazing adventures throughout my life and um and but but what I discovered, I mean, I know this now but at the time that there's a that Jews are like 3D Jews. 3D. You know what the 3Ds are? Distracted, depressed and devoted. So I lived all three. I lived the years of distraction, you know, I was out there surfing and and I've also surfed in Mexico many times by the way and I'm I'm I'm still waiting for When are you guys inviting me for a shabbat to Puerto Escondido? Yeah, I've surfed Puerto Escondido, you know, what do you you do meters there or or feet? I surf meters? Yeah, I've done like uh I've surfed Puerto Escondido. I was at a Puerto Escondido in uh about 10 m waves. There. Insane insane wave. I mean, just one of the scariest days of my life. And uh and in fact uh everyone on the shore was screaming the whole time. We could hear them screaming with Why are they screaming? Maybe we're supposed to go deeper out. There's is wave coming. So we're going deeper out. You know what? They were screaming. They were screaming that there was a 25-ft shark between us and the shore. Which maybe it's good that we're going deeper. They were saying, "Come in." And we were thinking they're screaming there's a bigger wave. So, we're going out more. So, anyway, the so, I I I grew up with this just extreme distraction. So, so, when you have this Torah hard drive, when you have this Sinai in your heart, so, you got to distract yourself with something. And so, I I distracted myself mostly with surfing and mountain biking and and and lots of big parties. And I really love that the Jewish community of Mexico knows how to party, by the way. Because that's how I grew up. I grew up we like we partied all the time. I mean, we were we knew how to party. And I remember once I was crossing the Mexico border in Baja. I surfed in Mexico in Baja a lot. And like every month I'd be down there. And and coming back we wanted to bring back Corona. And the Sorry to mention the pandemic, but we wanted to bring back Coronas to to LA. And and um and we uh we Oh, so, I I had a four-wheel drive truck called a Toyota 4Runner. And we figured out how to get into the panels of the truck. Now, we didn't want to smuggle drugs. We just want to smuggle beer. And it was the old Coronas, thinner bottles. You Can you still get like the old Coronas in Mexico? Yeah, they're kind of like you can like chew gum. They're like you can blow bubbles with it. You know, you kind of wonder if they even clean the bottles. And uh And so, it was a it was cases of 20. Can you still get a case of 20 Coronas in Mexico? I doubt it. So, anyway, but those were the Coronas. It was totally different animal today. I mean, Corona today is like Budweiser compared to that stuff. That stuff was unique beer. You know how much how much beer can you like blow bubbles with? So, so, we um anyway, we lined the my truck with uh my whole truck the panels of the truck were all beer bottles. And so, every when we're driving up to the border it was like ching ching ching ching ching ching ching with all the bottles. So, we had to drive around Tijuana for a while just to get the bottles to settle in place. And uh one time they actually had me open up my truck. I'm like, "Oh, no." We open up the back of the truck and you could see like the panels of the truck was kind of folding in towards the inside the car cuz the bottles were pushing in. And you could see even a little of the glass bottles, but and we're just like And then thank god they're like, "Okay, go ahead." And we took off with another you know, five, six cases of Corona in my in my truck. Anyway, but that was all distraction as well. The parties and the surfing and we're just trying to distract ourselves as best as we could because if you don't distract yourself, so then then you get stuck with dealing with meaning in life. And and for some people having no meaning in life is fine, but but for the Jewish people it's it's not fine. And in fact, there's a great book, very simple book to read called Victor Frankl's um Man's Search for Meaning where he he's a great therapist and he discusses the meaninglessness being the source of depression. And that leads us to our next D. First D is distracted. Second D is is depressed. And and that is that if you weren't good at distracting yourself, I was very good at distracting myself, but after enough years of it it like I couldn't be distracted anymore. So, what happened was I got to the point where I was where I I was depressed because I had I had this like incredble desire for there to be meaning meaning I deep down believe there was something more meaningful than what meets the eye than the material physical world. Like I believe that there was something more meaningful out there. There was something There had to be. And now that kind of kept me going for years. Except when I got to university. And in university, you know, they were teaching us a very what they call materialist philosophy. Materialist philosophy doesn't mean um it doesn't mean that you're into shopping. That's also materialist philosophy. But there's a but the intellectual college university materialist philosophy means that the material world is all you get. What you see is what you get. There's nothing beyond the physical. And here I was studying in university and we had like you know, it was like you know, it it was it was it was basically a education in atheism. And and I took a lot of these philosophy professors to task and they knew what they knew more than I did I did and I I basically lost and came up with the fact that it's meaningless. And that the world is meaningless. And that was cool for about a day, you know, well, the world is meaningless. Like make your own meaning, you know, existentialism, you know. That they you know, make your own meaning out of life. And that was cute and sweet for a few minutes, maybe a few days, maybe a week, but after a while I was like, wait a second. I had a dream that there was something meaningful. Like way beyond way beyond my own the you know, the couple inches between here and here. You know, I I believe there was something more meaningful than that. And now that I've been to university and met all the professors who believe there's not, you know, and and we're pretty good at arguing it. So I was like I was defeated in my dream. My dream was gone and then I got I got depressed. I was despondent. I was like uh you couldn't reach me. I was so I was gone. And so here I was in Santa Barbara in university and and uh and then the Gulf War broke out where uh uh George Bush invades um Kuwait. And uh you know, there was a whole war going on and and I'm thinking the only real thing I know is love. I mean, there there I know what it feels like to be hurt, you know, I know what love is. I don't know if anything else is real, but love is real. And meanwhile, the US were like, you know, they had you know, today we have masks, they had they had red, white, and blue blindfolds like, you know, "Free Kuwait! Free Kuwait!" You know, they "Hey, honey, go get an atlas. Let's see where Kuwait is." They didn't know where it was. Who'd ever heard of Kuwait? You you'd have to be like in the oil business to know where Kuwait was cuz that was about the only reason the US went there. And the and so and so they here they are freeing Kuwait. America's got its army, you know, the whole like war machine is like turned on. And here I am, this like existential hippie in Santa Barbara wondering why we're get why we got to fly thousands of miles away to go kill people who invaded a country that has somehow you know, gotten in the way of a gas pipeline for the US. You know, with with some like "Oh, free Kuwait!" You know, "How about freeing all the African nations that got invaded in the last year?" Nah, we're not going to free them. You know, we're going to free Kuwait, you know, our new favorite place. So so the uh anyway, so I was protesting the Gulf War at university that year. And I I was going into classes with like 500 people and screaming, you know, against the war and covering myself with ketchup and dying in the middle of the campus, you know. And but in deep down in my heart, I was pain and pain, deep pain, you know, I wanted I wanted something real. I wanted something meaningful. I wanted I wanted something something true. You know, give me something true. Give me something real. And and real was not available, so that's how that went. Now, here's the amazing part. This is the best part of the story. My father's business goes bankrupt. He loses everything. All his competitors went overseas, and my father actually was was faithful to his factory in Yuma, Arizona, which is right over the border from El Centro, Mexico, and he he was faithful. He He actually saved the town during a time of depression 20 years earlier by building his factory there. And he didn't want to drop all the people there. In the end, they got dropped, and we got dropped, too, which is how I got to Israel, which is incredible. You know, it was all meant to be. But the best thing that ever happened to me and my family, including my father, who, you know, again, who lost his business, the greatest thing that ever happened was this bankruptcy. Why? Because my father promised me that when I get my university degree, that he's sending me on a world tour surfing. And I can go I've already toured all over, but I can go for like years at a time. I can just tour, go surfing around the world, and like never come back. And and here I was, though. It was my last year of university. I'm I'm I've realized I don't even I don't even know if I want to tour, you know? I'm like it's like more distraction that's not even working anymore because you know, if you ever felt depressed, that people try to distract you. It doesn't work. And and what happened was my my oldest brother, Sam, who if you've ever checked out Sam, go online to check out Rabbi Sam Glazer. He's a He's a character. Go on YouTube and check him out. So, you you should see all my brothers. I have another brother, Aaron. He's He's vice president of Chase Bank in Beverly Hills. He's a Breslover Chassid. Okay, he's Breslov. And anyway, our family had this like incredible transformation because of this bankruptcy. But the uh anyway, the So, my brother, Sam, he was at He was not a He was not a religious Jew at the time. He He was He but he was at Aish HaTorah, the same program that I met Mosha, Rabbi Tusia, Tusiak. He was at that same program 7 years earlier. And he never told me about it. You know why? He told me later. He said he was afraid if he ever told me I would never come back. If I if he ever told me what was there, I would go, check it out, and I would never come back. He was right. I never came back. In fact, I'm speaking to you all right here in Jerusalem 2020 Oh my gosh, June 24th. Are we near June 24th? June 20 4th is the day I made I made aliyah, that I came to Israel with my 100 payot coming down my back. I Is it Is it Does anyone know what date it is? Is it Is it near What's today's date? Is it the It's 25th. 26th is I flew out the 24th. So, oh my gosh, I can't believe I'm teaching this class on my 29th. That was 1991. It's 2000 It was 29 years ago. Right? Does that make sense? 29? So, it's Today is my 29th anniversary of making aliyah to Israel. Wow, that's cool that I'm teaching this. We'll make a l'chaim with my lemonade. L'chaim, everybody. And also in honor of the the yahrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, today is Rabbi Schneerson's yahrzeit. And actually I have a son who's at an event right now here in Jerusalem in that in the honor of that. And l'chaim, everybody. I don't have any booze. I'm sorry, guys. I have my lemonade. I could put some tequila in it later if you want. If you really want. I hope through this video you realize that I got my joy back. Is that clear? Yeah, I got my joy back. And and and I did not have to I did not have to suspend logic. What I had to do was meet rabbis who knew a hell of a lot more than those professors. That's what I had to do. You understand like it was not it's not leap of faith, you know, it's not Christianity. This is this is Judaism and Judaism the more you use your brain the better. I remember when we were when we were first in Jerusalem we were with these rabbis like some of these kids they didn't understand the rabbis arguments, you know, they were like they're like they're not used to these kind of argument I was used to this kind of stuff but a lot of the students who came were not. So one of them felt like wow he's starting to keep Shabbat, he's starting to keep kosher, he's starting to do everything. So but he got scared in one of the classes and one of the big rabbis there he raises his hand and he says to the rabbi he says how do I know you're not brainwashing us? You know what the rabbi said back? He said first let's see if you have a brain then we'll talk about washing it. So so in other words like we needed to use our brains, yeah. And another student in the class was coming from LA as well. He was like I need a lot of washing. A lot of washing. Yeah, my brain very dirty. My dirty brain this this kid was saying. So so the anyway the the um uh I got to keep an eye on the time cuz we're going to do several things as well not just the story. But the So I so my father's bankruptcy turned out that my brother Sam called Jerusalem. He called the the rabbis at Aish HaTorah who were now rabbis for they were his fellow students at the time but he called them and he said you know, remember me Sam Glazer and they're like yeah, we remember you. You know, and he's like well listen I've been saving this for seven years but I want you to bring my brother Yomtov to Jerusalem. My English name was Johnny. Yeah. I want you to bring my brother to Jerusalem. And he needs a scholarship. My father's business went bankrupt. Now my father promised me a round the world tour but because of the bankruptcy he couldn't pay for it. And I'm telling you the last place I would have gone was Israel. I mean, think about it. I'm I'm protesting the Gulf War, the US involvement in the Gulf War, which is protecting Israel from the Scud missiles. Like, I don't even I'm not even thinking Jewishly. I would have been like a BDS guy, you know, those millennial left-wingers who want to like divest from Jerusalem, you know. So, so that's the kind that's where I was at with atheist philosophy. And and so you know, that's that's where I was going, and I would never have gone to Israel, but because of I didn't know my brother called them even. I didn't know my brother called Jerusalem. He but they agreed, they gave me the scholarship. And and I get a phone call from my brother. I'm in Santa Barbara, he's in LA. Calls me up, he says, "How would you like a free trip to Israel?" I said, "That's Sorry." "How would you like a free trip to Europe?" I said, "Yeah, of course, you know. I'll go to France, Spain." I just surfed with the professional tour of France, Spain, Portugal the previous year. So, I'll go I'll go back, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, South Africa, and then I was going to renounce my citizenship to the US and move to move to Australia. Once I got to, you know, the southern hemisphere, I was going to move to Australia. Anyway, so so I said, "Yeah, I'll take that ticket for sure." And anyway, I I um I got the ticket. The only catch was going to Israel for 6 weeks. I packed all my surfboards, flew off to Jerusalem. And uh and within days, I was, you know, I was I was up every night, you know, almost all night. Many of the nights I saw sunrise talking to the students at Aish HaTorah and and discovering the the Oh my gosh, my brother my brother Aaron's on Facebook. Hey, bro. I don't know if I'll tell part of my brother's amazing story here, but I think we we won't have time, but they Anyway, all night long speaking to these rabbis and and sorry, speaking of the students all day long with the rabbis. And I was just like, yes. Yes. And there was a whole other thing that that was amazing for me. That's a deep insight. And that is that the limitations See, a lot of us think of Judaism as restrictive. And my upbringing was the opposite of restrictive. But the problem with not having no restrictions is that there's no context to things. There's no mean like meaning. See, restrictions bring context to things. For example, in marriage, restrictions You know, if I'm out if if you're out to dinner with your wife but you stare at the waitress on her way back to the kitchen. So, that's breaking a restriction that ruins the ruins the atmosphere. Your wife's going to turn cold when you do that. So, when you go to a movie theater and people keep their phones on, so there's a restriction, turn your phone off. You know, and that's that helps. That makes things possible. Shabbat, you restrict yourselves from from the from the 39 creative acts of malacha. So, so that when you restrict yourself from that, that creates the conditions for families to connect for families to truly bond and for connection to God, which is the point of Shabbat. So, restrictions are really our best friend. You know, we like I'm sure Mexico has some highways with no lines on it, but it's good to have lines on the highway. It restricts the cars, so now you can you can go even faster. I mean, without those lines, I would be slower. With the lines, hey, pedal to the metal, you know? Thanks for the restrictions. Now I can move. Now I'm comfortable. Now I'm Now I know I'm safe in this lane and now I can go 85 mph knowing that I'm you know, that I'm in my lane. So, so restrictions are are actually an amazing thing and I I up without them. Okay, there were very few restrictions in my life growing up. I think my father's only What was my father's only rule? Uh maybe my brother. Hey bro. Uh Aaron, can you He's sending a message. He said, "Hey bro, so maybe can you send me one of the rules we had growing up?" Do you remember a rule? Okay, right. I don't think we had any, but um I think one of the rules was was not to smoke uh not to smoke uh weed. I think that was one of our rules, not smoke weed. And I I don't I don't know. I don't think we kept that one. So So the So the you know, once in a while my father would ask us why why don't you quit smoking weed? We'd say, "You taught us never to quit." So anyway, listen, the uh the point is is that that without those restrictions, I'll tell you something interesting. That if you too much restriction, you feel unsafe when you're on the other side of the fictional walls. You know, because if you make if you make for your children fictional walls, and that means it's safe on the other side of that wall, they're going to feel unsafe there. But if you give them no restrictions at all, they're also going to feel unsafe. And I think sometimes I think about this. My brother sent a restriction on Facebook. He He wrote, "Don't hit Johnny." You don't hit me. That was our That was his restriction, not to hit me. And um anyway, but I do believe that my desire for bigger and bigger and bigger waves was was and all the crazy partying and like pushing the envelope, pushing the envelope, I was looking for the edge cuz my parents never showed it to me. There was no edge. There were no restrictions. And so I always felt the boogeyman was like right on the other side of the world, and I had to like push through limits to see where the edge of life was. And I And I just pushed in every way I could. I pushed. I think it was good for me, but then again, you know, I had the kind of father who could bail me out of anything, you know, I told you, he has a lot in common with Donald Trump. And so, he was very good at bailouts, you know, and he he bailed me out of every kind of situation. I think he bailed out my brothers as well quite a few times. But uh but no restrictions at all is is dangerous. So, when Now, I wouldn't have ever accepted restrictions unless they were true. And once I realized there was a God, like there's God, so okay, there's God, and once I realized Torah is divine, like Torah is not a man-made document, it's actually God-given. Oh, limits that are true, that I'm in. You want to tell me there's true limits? That I'm in. And once I got those limits, well, first of all, once I found out that God that there's God, that means there is meaning in life. There's a purpose. There's a purpose to life. There's purpose to history. It's called It's not called history for nothing. His story. It's his story. Yeah, capital H. Yeah, that there's a purpose to life. Everything like we don't always know what's going on, you know, sometimes sometimes our nose is pressed against the you know, the the screen, so we can't get any perspective like Corona, why did that happen, you know? But then you back out. You back out a bit, and you suddenly see everything, and you understand God's plan for creation. But it's not just that, there's a plan for your life. Like there's a plan for your life. There's a plan, there's a reason why you're the way you are. You know, there's a reason why I couldn't, you know, survive school, you know, like I was terrible in school. Um it was because my brain, it wasn't that I didn't have a good one, it just doesn't work that way. My brain's for different applications. And and thank God I've been able to touch so many people around the world, including now, with you all, is because my brain works specifically, not in a way not in a generic way that the education system believed it should. And and there's a place for every Jew in Torah. Like I found my place in Torah. My place in Torah was more cabalistics, Hasidut and and the the secrets of Torah. Like that that was much more my speed. I was a I'm a searcher, you know, like you too, yeah. And I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do. Yeah. I have climbed highest mountains. Yeah, so so I've been searching and I'm still searching. The search never ends. But finding out there was a God meant there's meaning. And all of a sudden my search for meaning was was answered with me with joy. And my joy came. And then the And then the Torah, I have restrictions? You mean You mean like I can create stuff inside the boundaries of of divine heavenly law? Like, wow, that's that is amazing. And I've been using it ever since. You know, I'm very careful with the restrictions. I love them. I think I'm more into the restrictions than most people. But there's something I want to tell you since we just spoke about restrictions. There's something I want to share with you. And that is that a lot of people believe Torah is Torah will like take away the things you love. And I'll tell you the who we have to blame for that a lot is the the people with the black hat attitude. Yeah, no no offense to people in black hats and black coats and all that. What do they call the Haredim? Yeah. They're react They were reacting to the you know, the enlightenment movement and you know, about 200 years ago Jews just left Judaism like like it was like some old old thing that you don't nobody needs anymore. 200 years ago, right after the Industrial Revolution was the enlightenment movement. And Jews left Judaism like boom, gone gone gone gone gone. They assimilated very very quickly. And so what they what the the Jews who wanted to hold on to the Torah and the beauty of Torah and the and the relationship with God, they created this like black hat style called the Haredim, which is like a very strong station identification where with dress and with code and with with uh being even more strict in such a way that it's very clear to our children growing up that which team they're on. Because you see, throughout history, there was Jews and Gentiles. You don't need team colors for that. Like, you know, if you're a Jew, you're literate, you can read, you're you know, there were kings who couldn't read throughout history. Gentiles were like toothless, illiterate buffoons. So, you didn't need the Haredi movement to delineate who you are. It was quite obvious who you are. But for the first time ever, Jews had left Judaism in major numbers. Not so much in the Syrian community, but the Ashkenazi community, forget about it. They took off like they just dropped Judaism like a hot potato. And they And so, what they did was the Haredi movement was to create station identification for their children. And but the thing is is for you for us, we look at that and we're like, "Wow, you know, that's like that's like it's un-American. It's not very, you know, it doesn't look like fun. It doesn't look loving. It doesn't look caring. In fact, it looks if anything judgmental." And you know what? I feel judged by these people. And I don't want to be anywhere near somebody who judges me. But the truth is is if all you have to do is have one Shabbat dinner. Go to Shabbat one time to any of those families, even the one you thought was the most judgmental, you know, they walk around the street like And you go to them for Shabbat, you'll see. They don't have a They don't have a a a a tiny millimeter of judgment inside of them. There is no judgment. They've made some moves to give their kids a sense of safety and belonging, but judgment? They don't have any judgment. There's no judgement for anybody. I mean every once in a while, you know, one in a hundred is some kind of nutcase, but but but he's a nutcase that one in 100 people everyone in the world are nutcases. So, I mean once in a while you get a nutcase. We actually in my community here in Jerusalem, we have a rule that no one's allowed to sell or rent to a nutcase. Meaning one of these super judgemental like crazy guys who wants to make uh you know, he wants to make uh what do they call Hafkano protests, you know, keep Shabbat, you know, or don't drive, you know. They they you're not allowed to rent or sell to any of anyone like that in my community. And if you saw the people in my community, you'd be thinking like like wow, these people are like, you know, they probably all want to like throw rocks at cars. Nobody wants that. So, here's what I here's what I wanted to share with you is that is that Judaism's not here to take away the things you love. Okay, repeat with me. Judaism is not here to take away the things you love. Let's do that one more time. Judaism is not here to take away the things you love. I sometimes I think that's just the yetzer hara. Like people like that the yetzer hara says, oh wow, let's see how can I keep her away from Judaism? Oh, I know. Let's make her think that Judaism's there to take away the things that she loves. Yeah, that that that'll be a good way to get her not to study Torah or something. So, so it's not like that at all. Judaism does forbid certain things, but but one of them is not joy. Another one is not guitar, you know, and music. Another one is not beer, services, yeah. Another one is not um not uh sports and music and everything. Like you might People with someone once asked me like, you know, I had someone raise their hand in my class here in Jerusalem overlooking the you know the Kotel and they said uh so Rabbi Glazer what was the hardest thing to give up? What was the hardest thing to give up in your change of lifestyle? And so I thought for a second no one ever asked me that before so I was thinking hmm What was the hardest thing to give up? By the way I couldn't figure it out. I figured out later late like a week later I figured out what was the hardest thing. Um but there I was in class I couldn't figure out what it was. And then I finally said to them I didn't give up anything I only added. I've only added the whole time. I've added. And and you know I made a whole list on the board of everything I loved you know growing up in my secular life in LA. I made a list of every single thing. And and I said to like I do all this stuff. There's nothing I don't do here. And all I've done is add wisdom and Shabbat and kaddish and and and singing and tefillin and I've added a lot. I have not subtracted anything. Now again I wasn't crazy about lobster. And I didn't you know I mean I I don't know what else. So so someone raised their hand and they said what about girls? What about girls? And I said well I mean you could take a little walk with me to the other side of Jerusalem and I'll introduce you to my girl. Yeah my woman. You know so so like I don't think I gave that up either and you know those eight kids didn't come from nowhere. Yeah so so I didn't give up I didn't give up girls either. I maybe gave up girls but I didn't give up girl. And and that restriction has given my heart the chance to be held fully by somebody. Which is all we really want is someone to hold our heart. And so wow what a what a difference to have your heart held. You know where it's not about being popular or looking good in the eyes of others, but it's How about someone just holds your heart, someone you could be transparent with, share your whole life with, and uh and be one with somebody. So, like, what did I give up? So, Judaism really just wants us to enjoy. And when we enjoy it, there there's an added level and this is like why I'm saying I love Kabbalah. The added level is is that well, how are you enjoying it? You're enjoying it with um with God. You're with God enjoying it. You know, I'll tell you a little secret. I hope I won't get in trouble for this, but uh but the Kabbalists teach us, including Rav Yosef Karo in the Shulchan Aruch, the Kabbalists teach us that that um you know, I'm not going to get graphic about this, but let's say at the cli- the climax moment in intimacy is to be in the pitch black for that moment. Why? Because when it's pitch black, it's like Shema, you can't see anything. And when you know that Hashem Echad, Hashem is one and there's nothing else, Ein Od Milvado, there's nothing but Hashem. Ein Od Milvado, Ein Od, there is nothing Milvado, but Hashem. And you're in the pitch black, and you're talking about the the Brit Milah here, the covenant between you and God. So, so, who are you making love with? You you understand that that And if And if it goes for the Brit, right, the Brit, then it goes for everything. Like New York, New York, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere. If you can bring God into that, you can bring God into music, you can bring God into food, you can bring God into into touring, go see the Swiss Alps and enjoy Elohim, like the the the godliness inside the Swiss Alps. And God wants you to see that. Great rabbis went to see some of the beauties of the world, the wonders of the world like the Swiss Alps. And they asked him, "Rabbi, why are you going there?" He says, "I'm afraid I'll get to shamayim to heaven and God's going to ask me, "Did you see my Alps? Did you see them?" Judaism's not here to take away our pleasure. It's here to maximize our pleasure. How do you maximize pleasure? You need to limit it a little bit and then you can maximize it. Every pleasure you get is always through a limitation. It's got to be some kind of limitation. You know, I'm my studio here, I got these these incredible JBL studio monitor speakers here. Yeah, they're limiting things all over the place to get the sound perfect. And that it it's just the frequencies. It's that frequency, not more. That frequency. The tweeters are that frequency, the mid mids are that frequencies and the subs are that frequency. And and it's got to be limited to get the pleasure of the of the speaker system. Everything is this way. And that is the beauty of of God's world, but but when you try to live limitless, a millennial, you know, like everything's meaningless and it doesn't even matter if you're boy or girl, it's all the same. Everything's everything's meaningless, you know. So, that's going to that's going to take everybody down. That's going to destroy our world that we live in. And nobody needs that. Nobody needs that. Now, I understand, you know, that there What's their alternative, you know, the Catholic Church or something, you know, like, "Okay, maybe meaninglessness is better than that." But it's not better than Torah. It's not better than God and Torah and the life of Torah. The meaninglessness, no, not better than that. Not at all. And um So, I'd like to lead you all in a little meditation. Uh we have a few minutes for a meditation. I'll grab my guitar and then we'll finish with a little song. So everyone relax. Close your eyes. Breathe. Close your eyes and breathe in and out. Release all your breath through your mouth. Releasing all the breath as your stomach contracts. Tightening the stomach muscles. And inhale through the nose as you expand the stomach muscles like you're filling a balloon. And now hold your breath. And with your eyes closed, let your eyes wander upward between your eyebrows. Exhale through the mouth now slowly as the stomach tightens. Slowly releasing your breath. Tightening the stomach muscles as you push out the air. And now inhaling through the nose as the stomach expands. Holding your breath now. And even though your eyes are closed, you're focusing your eyes upward between your eyebrows. Exhale now through the mouth slowly. Make your lips small like a straw as you slowly release the air. Stomach contracting. Inhaling through the nose as the stomach expands. Holding the breath, eyes up. Exhale. Slowly releasing the air. Inhale through the nose. Holding the breath. Eyes up. Exhale slowly as you release all of your air. As the stomach contracts, releasing any tension. And when you have no more air in your body, hold your breath for a moment. And when you need to breathe, inhale. You know our deepest desire, breathing normally now, our deepest desire is love. We want to love and we want to be loved and we want to have that love. And what is love? Love is connection. It's to be one. You know you spent the first 9 months of your life in the undifferentiated oneness of your mother's womb. Total oneness. And ever since you were born, all you have ever wanted is to get back to that oneness. Hopefully you had a good and beautiful, warm, loving, safe family to be one with. But nevertheless, your deepest desire is to be to be one, to be loved, to be cherished, respected, recognized, significant, to be one with others. But unfortunately, something stands in the way of love. Love is often blocked. The path to love is is blocked. And what blocks our path to love is our own lack of love for ourselves. You see, you believe that you're loved only conditionally. Even though when you were a little 2-year-old toddler, a beautiful little child, loved unconditionally, when you got older, you began to become loved conditionally, that love only comes conditionally. So, it has many categories, those conditions. There's how smart you are. There's your body weight. There's your looks. There's your abilities. There's your financial standing. And you'll notice when you meet somebody, it's very hard to feel that love. Rather, you feel anxiety. It's an anxious experience. Because you don't know this person yet, you're just meeting them. And there's all these categories that you don't know about. Wealth, smarts, wisdom, abilities. And so, it's really hard to love that person because if they were to outdo you in those categories, you would feel very unsafe. You wouldn't feel good about yourself. This is why our Torah says, the haft love like you more than you. Love your neighbor like you more as yourself. Because only in as much as you love yourself can you love another person. Meaning if you find out that in the categories of life that they are your equal or below you, you will love them. But if they are above you, you will not like them very much. You would prefer to talk to somebody else. Because they remind you of the holes inside your system, inside your heart. But the Torah gives us a great key to how to love all people. V'ahavta l'reacha kamocha Ani Hashem. Love your neighbor as yourself that only in as much as you love yourself can you love your neighbor. But then there's Ani Hashem, which means I am God. Now, wherever the Torah says Ani Hashem, I am God, it's usually referring to I am God to pay the reward for this mitzvah. But the Kabbalists teach us Ani Hashem there means I, meaning you, are Hashem, because you were created with the neshama. And the neshama is part of Hashem. And when I generate from the neshama, when my generator is neshama, so this person and me are the same. We are equal. There are no categories. We are the same. And so when you realize that you, who you really are, is this neshama, your soul, you start realizing certain things about yourself. One of them is that you're wanted. God wants you here because if if he didn't want you here, you wouldn't be here. And that you also have a purpose. And you're loved. As God creates you with eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Blessings everywhere all around you. A body that perfectly interfaces with the environment around you. And he watches every step. You're a safe. He loves you and he's securing you. And he also gives purpose for your life. There's a reason you're here. Which also means that you're capable. Cuz he would not create you with a purpose if you were not capable of fulfilling it. So love begins with you. So many people look for love outside of themselves. When love begins with you. Only as much as you love yourself can you love another person. And how do you love yourself? By knowing that God creates you with a neshama. A chelek elokah mima'al, a portion of God from above. That's who you are. And when God creates you as a portion of God from above, that means this beautiful child inside of you can shine his or her light. I am love. I'm a sea of love. Whisper the words. I'm a sea of love. And you'll notice as you relate to yourself, your identity as the neshama, straight from God. You're beautiful. You're good. You're uniquely brilliant and capable. You will find a deep wellspring of love for yourself. And you will feel safe to love others. And you will become a sea of love. Whisper the words, I'm a sea of love. And everyone can come swim in my sea of love. I am. Open your palms. You can lay your palms on your arms, sorry, on your legs or on your table, desk. Open them towards the shamayim. And sing, I am. A sea of love. I am. A sea of love. I And now see that beautiful child that you were 2 years old standing in front of you. Put out your arms to that beautiful child and let the beautiful child jump up in your arms. And hold your child, that beautiful child, wrap your arms around that child. Whisper the words I love you. Hold the beautiful child. Realize everything you ever thought or believed negative about yourself is not true. That beautiful child is you. Hold the child. Get in touch with the child's heartbeat. It's beating strong. Whisper to the child, "I'm sorry I let you go. I should never have let you go." Get in touch with the child's heartbeat. Beautiful child. Whisper, "I'll never let you go." It's okay to cry. Tell the child it's okay to cry. Whisper. Take a smaller step. Take a deeper breath. Let your motor cool. Slow down to a crawl. It's your defenses fall. Feel your soul refuel. Everything you thought about yourself, all that you believed negative, hold it in your hands and let it go. Nothing left to fear. Open to receive. Setting free the child, the beautiful child in you. Do a little dancing. Sing a simple song. Laugh so hard you're crying. Chase a butterfly. Climb a mountainside. Once again, you're flying. The person of your dreams is coming into view. Nobody can take that dream away. Somebody who trusts, somebody who shares, someone like the child, the beautiful child in you. Everything you thought, all that you believed, hold it in your head and let it go. Everyone you love wants you to achieve. They want to meet the child, the beautiful child in you. The beautiful child is you. You. And as you hear the numbers one through five, the number five opening up your eyes. Coming up one, two, three, four, and five opening up your eyes. So, we're actually um it's amazing that we just did this together because um starting uh just a few things you can know about things I'm doing and I'd love to be there for you with you. Um uh Sunday um I've moved my seminars, one of which I ran in Mexico City. It's all about how to find your beautiful child again and generate from that power source of the neshama. It's very deep work, but that's that's going on every other week, men's and women's. This Sunday is a women's one. And um you can just go on my website and get a free um free uh you know, a free trial of the first day. It's Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Tomorrow it's going to be uh Mexico time 2:00 to 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. It'll be going on a sorry, Sunday 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. will be the women's one. And you can just go on to rabbiyomtov.com and sign up for that. Um I don't think you even need to sign up for that, but you can sign up for the week if you want. If you sign up by tomorrow, there's a coupon with a discount. And um and then there's um And every night for free, I run a uh ask the rabbi at this time every day to uh uh Mexico time 1:00 p.m. I have ask Rabbi Yom Tov and it's uh that's on Zoom every day. And that's also on my website rabbiyomtov.com. And and there'll be men in two weeks if the men would like to come. It's also men who are into making money, you know, it's very very good for breaking out of your the things holding you back. And there's one more thing. Oh, yeah. You know, I developed this program with Latin Americans actually from Chile. That's called desire. So, I'm running a a four-part series called desire. That's also on my website. It's going to be every Sunday 2 hours a day on Sundays called desire and it's how to get cuz everything comes from desire. Like like you're only on this webinar right now cuz you want it. You desired to be here. So, everything comes from desire. So, so it's how to really master desire and make sure you're harnessing it appropriately. Okay, so questions and answers. We have some time for some questions, please. And please from the Yeah, please. Um well, amazing and I know you for like 3 years. And you have changed my life. But I have I have somebody a friend, a good friend of mine that he wants to ask he wanted to ask you something live. So, he's in screen already. Oh, great. That's Avram. Okay. Hello. Hello, Rabbi. How are you? Fine, Avram. Shalom. Follow meditation. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Uh Rabbi, this morning I was studying next week's parashah Balak. Yeah. And uh I I read this blessing from from Bilam. Uh who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of of the seed of Israel? Okay? My question is this. What sort of compliment and blessing is comparing Jacob to dust? And what virtue is joining the fact that no one can count them. What is the deep meaning of of this blessing? Excellent. So, um so there's uh two there's two ways that we are um referred to, either the stars of the sky or the dust. And he he did he went for the dust. So, so the the dust of of there's couple understandings. So, one of them is that when the Jews aren't doing that we're still going to be multiplied plied throughout history. There's going to be meaning we'll be we are always going to be few in number that you can count on Earth. Jews will always be few in number, but we're going to be um what we're going to be massive when you look through all of history cuz we'll never go away. Other nations will come and go. The Jews will be here forever till the end of days. It's cuz we are an eternal nation. And so so that you can never count because it's it never ends. And we keep in every generation we're more. But when we do God's will, we're like the stars. And when we don't do God's will, we're like the dust. So that Yeah. Yeah, it's not a not great to be counted like the dust. So, and then you obviously notice that. Like, why the dust? So, so when we yes. Yeah, so when we do Why why this is referring is is is like they said that this is one of the blessings that Balaam gave to to to our Jewish people. Yeah. Yeah, but he sneaks in the dust cuz remember Balaam doesn't like us very much. So, he's he's sneaking in the word dust instead of stars. And he's also bringing up the fact that we will make mistakes throughout history and that we will we will be like more like the dust than we are the stars. Instead of being light, we are opaque like the dust. And um and the the other thing about it is that you cannot count. You mentioned not being able to count. So, did you know that it's forbidden to count Jews? And And the reason is because they There's many reasons, but one of the main things is that we're not countable because what you see is not what you get. There There's a There's a universe inside of each one and we're You can't count us. Yeah, because you can't You can't There's no number. Okay. Nice Nice to meet you. Look me up when you're in Jerusalem. Okay. Sure, I will. Thank you very much. Welcome. Any other questions? Yeah. One question only. Your Your favorite book and one book that you can recommend us. Oh, wow. Um my favorite book, so um I imagine you're talking about Jewish books, yeah? So Anything. Anything. Yeah, so So, my favorite book is a book called Shaar Yichud VeEmunah. Shaar Yichud VeEmunah. Uh means the gate of uh of oneness and faith. Shaar Yichud VeEmunah. And it's easily found because in every um in every Every Tanya is is three parts. And the first The second part is called Shaar Yichud VeEmunah. And Shaar Yichud VeEmunah is uh is all about how how God is immanent in creation. Meaning he's not just outside, but he's inside. And it explains detail after detail of how God actually fills the world, not just is outside, but he's also in. It's like a burrito, yeah? He's not just the tortilla. Yeah, he's the rice and the beans inside. So, that's one of my favorite books and it's a good one to read. Um people who like Kabbalah, though, they can always get Aryeh Kaplan books. Which are uh explain the Kabbalah quite well. Okay? Any other questions? Yes, Rabbi. There is Orly Salamish, who wants to ask somebody she wants to ask live. So, we're putting her on camera. That's great that you can you can choose different people. That's wonderful. I'm going to put to everybody the just my website. I'll also put my WhatsApp in case anyone needs me. I'm going to put my WhatsApp on the chat. Um if anyone ever has a private issue or question, they need something from me, um I'm here for the world, you know, I I live and breathe the Jewish people. So, if you ever have a question, you can um just go plus 972 and send me a WhatsApp. Yes. live. She's coming live. Okay. Bom bom bom bom bom. There she is. Orly, namaste to camera. Uh there she is. Yeah, she has to turn on her camera. Hi Orly. Hi. And your her microphone also. Oh, hi Orly. Yes. Yeah, hi. Thank you so much all of this speech. I really enjoy it. Thank you. Any any type of book secular but kosher that you recommend? Um sure. The So, I found a book that's There's two books that are very powerful. Um and in this order is what What? They can be in English, so Yeah. So, one I think they're both in Spanish. I think they're both in Spanish, too, but they the the one the the teacher is named Eckhart Tolle. You might have heard of Eckhart Tolle. And the book is called A New Earth. Um but you have to know if you read his books, two things. One is that he's a Buddhist. And so, everything he says is going to come from Buddhism. And two is that um is that he's going to quote other religions trying to, you know, be like, you know, like so they would listen, but he's not a he doesn't believe in any of those religions. And oh, he was Oprah Winfrey's rebbe, by the way. Oprah Winfrey, the famous Oprah. So, he's her rebbe. And she actually when she became his student, she renounced Christianity publicly in front of the whole world. Which I don't think he wanted her to do. I think he She didn't know you have to ask your rebbe if you want to do something crazy. So, she did that. Anyway, but he's But you have to know he's Buddhist. The reason I bring up his book is because it is a it's a super super special way to become healthy inside so that you're no longer so that your ego is no longer getting in the way of your joy. And that's really important. Because even if you know all of the Torah, but your your ego's making you unhappy. So, then it's This is one of the best written books. Anyway, it's called A New Earth. But you have to read it carefully, and you have to be careful of his Eastern uh, type of stuff. Got it? When you finish that book, you can read The Power of Now. He wrote a book called The Power of Now. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Uh, any other questions? Um, no, there is something in the chat. I don't know if you can read it. Uh, yeah. How is punishment of some edge to eat dust uh, related to the comparison to Balaam's blessing. Oh my gosh. Um, I don't know what some edge means. Does that mean the snake? The curse of the the punishment of Uh, maybe yes. Some edge means Oh, oh, okay. So, I got it. Um, so the snake the snake's commanded to eat dust now. Now, dust is cabalistically represents the past. That's the past. And and what what it means that the snake eats the dust is that it's constantly it's letting the past constantly run his life. He's He's, uh, he's eating the he's eating the memories, nostalgia. He's He's He eats the past. And and whenever you get held back by the past the dust so so that's that's basically meaning don't be a snake. Move on. Move on with your life. Don't let the Don't let the past run your life. Don't let it rule your life. And you you move on. And so what the connection of Balaam's Balaam's blessing um, of the Jews if you want to make it connected to the to the past is, uh, Yeah, you got me on that. I wasn't expecting that. You know, I don't know how to relate it to to that. I mean I we could sit down over a beer and I could probably figure it out after a while. I don't see it so practically connecting those two. Okay, um any others? I'm teaching in a in at 4:30 in the morning at 5:00 in the morning to New York. So, the men's possible use seminars on Zoom are regular hours, you know. They're uh you know, it's 9:00 to 11:00 Mexico time next follow not this coming week, next week. So, I have to wake up at 4:30 to do it. Thank you so much, Rabbi Yitzchak. Sure. It was amazing and we have so many commentaries that they were so connected to. Mhm. We thank you so much and hopefully you can do an experience in Puerto Escondido. Yeah, we got to do a we got to do like a whole program there with a big house for the boys, a big house for the girls and and uh I'll spend a few hours with each during the day. They'll travel the other times. Have a gorgeous Shabbat and then go back to Mexico City. Yeah. That's it. Thank you. We got to do that. you so much, Rabbi Yitzchak. It was amazing. You inspire us so much and we thank you. Thank you. For your time and effort. Thank you. miss you so much. Okay, I miss you guys, too. I love you. Okay, bye. Bye-bye. Thank you so much, Rabbi Yitzchak. Thank you. Thank you. Bye-bye. And please everybody join next week's seminar. Let's do it. Okay. Shalom.