Kiss: Keep it simple stupid

I just got out of my my Mikvah getting ready for chavas here in yush the holy city and just it's been unbelievable experience to be Ines in the what you would call maybe the hardest of times but in the other hand it's like the greatest of times cuz as I said the Jews are like grapes you know when you squeeze them you get the wine and and no matter what kind of J you're talked to these days everyone just seems to be shining and and flowing forth we're pretty weird Nation you know I don't think we'd know what to do with ourselves if things went well uh internationally for us um we're used to being pressed and used to being you know in stupid situations that make no sense to any American who was raised in the the land of the free and the home of the brave but uh nevertheless Jewish people are shining and it's basman right now I can't figure out why we're saying ton because it feels like holoid um but the it's just been just amazing this I can't remember I can't remember a vacation we it's called basman if you don't know what it's about but it's when all the yeshivas are on break so this but the thing is the whole country is hbre so there's just a lot of Joy on the streets and and we we've had so many beautiful interactions all over the country everyone just doesn't seem to care which who you are what you look like or anything just a lot of connective interactions so it's it's been great um anyway but this week's para says something amazing and you know not so famous part and then in a very famous part and that is that it says the very beginning of it says this is called aov and and aov means you know it's kind of a if you do this then you get that so and what it's saying is this will be the reward for keeping Torah keeping Torah is no small deal you know it's like it's not easy to keep Torah and it's saying if you keep the Torah then what do you get ready for this I'm I'm going to read this in English um you will um be safe mult multiply you'll get a blessed fruit of the womb yeah you've heard of Fruit of the Loom this is fruit of the womb you'll get U many your you know have kids and the fruit of your land is going to be good your grain your wine and your oil and The Offspring of your cattle and your goats yeah okay sounds great I don't think that sounds very exciting to anybody at all and later later it's there's a part where uh the very very famous one is um this week's parti of the second paragraph of shma is in this week's par um and it says like if you listen to The Commandments guess what you get so what you get is yeah you will you will be satisfied that's what you'll get you you'll eat and you'll be satisfied so I don't know why it's not promising Italian sports cars or something else you know exciting like that but basically you'll you'll you'll be all right you know the Tor is clearly setting things up as an incentive here there's like this incentive but it sounds like maybe it's an ancient incentive where like everything was basically War torn and like you never knew if you're going to live or die you didn't know if you're going to eat or starve be killed or or have Tranquility um was a maybe some uh you know maybe life was more cruel than it is today but because it's not so cruel today it's hard to see that you're not going to like starve to death as a reward um this same par though talks about um you getting fat in the land though as as it says here in the in the margin the The Lure of prosperity careful Prosperity it says uh take care lest you forget Hashem your God by not observing his Commandments his ordinance decree that I command you today let lest you eat and be satisfied and you build good houses and settle in your cattle and your sheep shall goats shall increase and you you will increase silver and gold for yourselves and everything you will have will increase and your heart will become huy and your for Hashem who took you out of the out of Egypt and led you through this awesome Wilderness and later it says the famous line um that it that it was through my strength the strength of my hands that I got all this greatness meaning meaning you're not even going to do well if you get if you got all the stuff you wish you had you it's not going to be good for you which is like you know pretty crazy hey what's with the frame of my uh YouTube live over here got got the hot water heater and the chair I'm giving my daughter U giving back to my daughter um it's not even going to be good for you so it's like the stuff that the Torah promises you get is like you're going to be satisfied like you're going to live life you know you're going to live a very simple satisfied life and and then it's telling us that you won't survive wealth you're not going to do good with wealth and so the stuff you want to get rewarded with is going to hurt you and the stuff you wouldn't even want is going to be good for you and so that's basically what I want to talk about today is is what do we what do you want and and how can but maybe more importantly how can you have what the Torah is promising which is a life of wellness and simplicity how can that be how can that be how can you make that worth the keeping of thousands of laws that Judaism requires of you because it it's saying it's going to be good for you if you keep all this all these thousands of laws it's going to be good for you and when he when it says good mean good in a very simple way and how can that be good how can we make that good for us and so the answer that comes to me and I'm willing to hear anyone else's take on how it could be good for you but the the way I think it would work is if I were at peace inside my heart I think a lot of the the um what's the right word for it um when we're trying so hard to get stuff and you know want this and want that and want that all that I don't know what the right word for that is but a striving for things we think we want or need R race what's that a rat race running around yeah is chasing after to get wealth or whatever it might be I I'm I'm it's coming from a restlessness inside you know it's coming from a it's I'm not okay I'm just not okay I need X Y and Z to be okay and of course X Y and Z comeing I'm still not okay meaning I'm not okay with no matter how much I get and how deep is that I'm not okay I wonder sometimes I I was once at a seminar where um it it's a it's it's a it was the father of all the uh like get all your stuff out seminars which is not the Poss seminar that's not our style but uh I was at the father of them all it was called the call of the chaar and uh and like your cry your voice was the call and maybe because I be into seminars in personal growth and run my own seminar I went deeper than uh probably any of the 30 participants there I mean it was so intense that the man who they invited who had 40 years in that kind of work and they invited this this Gentile man to come to Israel and see what they're doing like to watch their work just to see maybe if he approves of it or if he has any um suggestions and how they're doing it cuz they they basically took a um a gentile a non-jewish seminar called new Warriors a men's seminar and they made it Jewish and anyway so I cried so intensely I've never ever ever had a cry like that and it was so intense that the man who was coming to to um just watch he he came up to me after my I was in just in fetal position and just like gone and my screams were so intense that in the back back back of my mind I was thinking that I will not be able to speak for the next month screaming like this but it was the opposite it was actually massaging my voice and what the scream was was my birth it was me having become separated from my mother that was the scream and an action massage in my voice it was a high pitch scream and it was me leaving my mother it was funny I came home from this weekend where we didn't have phones we didn't have watches we didn't even know where we were we were broad at night and they had covered the windows of the bus so we wouldn't even have an idea where we were like they took away all bearings you know bearing all stability that we called stability so that we would melt and I remember afterwards I came home and I literally cried in my uh in my wife's arms and she was like oh my gosh what did they do to this guy like where's my man I got this crying little boy but I promised her that this would be a temporary thing anyway um what happened was for the next months I didn't surf I didn't mountain bike I didn't you know drink my craft beer I didn't um I didn't need the exhilaration of of speaking like personal like uh you know like standing in front of crowds and speaking which is you know as you know I never prepare my classes and and part of the reason why I never prepare my class it's only maybe a 5% part but there's a part of it that's the thrill of being in front of a couple hundred people and nailing it you know in that spot anyway the my audience is getting larger in my home now got my wife and daughter listening for three months I didn't need anything other than just being a simple in my heart and like just just like the door promises Inner Peace So could it be that that the Tor is really telling us like keep my Torah and get Inner Peace keep my Torah and have shaish in her Tranquility is that really what the Torah is saying because it's certainly warning against chasing after stuff chasing after wealth and stuff and and or and or and or um making them that you're making the fact that you're in the stuff your own achievement as if God didn't do it simple simple Inner Peace So What I suggest we all do is takeing a deep breath together and including my cameraman in inhale deep and let it go with your mouth taking another deep breath in through the nose out to the mouth and now close your eyes and do into the nose hold your breath out through the mouth One Last Time into the nose hold your breath out through the mouth now breathing normally and keep your eyes closed and just be aware of your perfect status of being not chasing not not inner frustration not some kind of emptiness you got to feel but just being just being that's it just to be and being with Hashem and recognizing the blessing of your simple Holdings which may be little money in the bank or not or some food on the table just being at peace and recognize that any wealth you have if you're listening to this and you're driving a nice car or something I hope you didn't close your eyes if you're driving but to notice that it's just God giving it to you it's not you just have that peace and that peace is what God's offering simple make that the good you're after make that what you're really after can open your eyes go after that go after the peace peace in your heart good chapus sh