Tafkid Seminar Intro

[Music] Shalom everyone and welcome to tkid finding your personal mission in the world and how to live it it's an amazing thing to me that I meet people all the time who have no idea what they're actually doing on planet Earth other than you know their Jewish Mission you know to say Yaba at the right times and and uh you know the basic Jewish lifestyle like that they've got and so many people and especially if you're raised very observant so many people were raised in a world where there was no such thing as a personal mission a personal tkid unless of course it fit the big three which was Alim on the three things the world stands on which is T so you could be a that's a mission that was option option one option two you could be a shamish in a sh you could be you know getting a kids a kid's uh you know group prayer group together you know whatever anything you did about a voida was considered good tkit and the third is is to you know run some kind of a organization of somewhere something around another and and you were in you know if you if you can get those three so it wasn't ble there you know and and the way the way the system really was was that was that the focus was on Survival you know the the last nail in the coffin the last nail in the coffin of Jewish Europe was the Holocaust and so the survivors if you want to call them that that's generous to call them survivors because you all know your grandparents like they're barely surviving but the the survivors their job was to show those Nazi bastards and rebuild communities rebuild the communities but when you're rebuilding Community you're focusing more on the infrastructure of the community the system of the community the the the educational system the the buildings the the just you it's all structural but human beings aren't structure we're not we're not institutions you're human you know you're human being and so there's a whole there's a a vision of of of purpose within every individual and that's his tough kid in the world every person has a tough kid in this world and the arizal says that that everyone's tkid comes easy and everyone's tikun comes hard tkid comes easy tikun comes hard so what's a tapi the tki is what you're meant to do in this lifetime tikun is your your you know your difficult stuff that you got your Midas and your your uh you know Mitzvah that are particularly hard for you are could be part of your Tik who you marry and all that stuff could be part of your tiken kids you have are definitely tiin oriented but tkin is supposed to come easy but no one knows what their tkin [Music] is a lot of people came to me over the years and they said they said uh RAB yov you know I don't understand it I got this cousin he's going off the D and he's like you know like really gone like gone going the wrong way you know and and but I see hashem's just letting him go letting him go he's even getting a and everything and he's like he's just he's going doing everything the wrong way and yet nothing seems to happen to him you know what I don't understand so I heard that many times and there are two answers one is that how can a guy do the wrong things and get braa and the answer is the answer is very simple is that wherever the Torah says there's BR it's talking about it's about clus of it's CL you know it's not so of all the stuff that will go wrong that's going to happen to clausa if we go wrong if enough of us go wrong they T sikim anymore so all hell breaks loose you know and whereas if an individual goes wrong he's got his own tikun it's a whole different story having to do you'd have to be a master of the arizal shulim to understand why everything's going good for a guy who's doing everything wrong it's about clest such a thing but then I had another thought and the other thought comes in a mush that every Jew is born with a hook in his mouth he's born with a hook in his mouth and HS up on the boat you know and uh and every Jew the hooks already in their mouth so if you see a guy go in the wrong direction Hashem is Hashem is totally patient you could say to shm shim how can you be so patient over this guy and shim would say what do you mean he's got a hook in his mouth no matter how far away he runs when he dies you know once the line goes limp you know he's coming up on board and when the and when when you will be brought up on board hashem's going to have two questions I know he has other questions but he has two questions for us one question would be were you Jewish and the other question will be were you youwish when he asks were you Jewish so you'll be like are you kidding me you know I was God's gift to Judaism and you recite all your famous words like and and maybe give him a little nishmas of course I was Jewish and then he says were you ysh at which point you're like oh come on Boss nobody said anything about ysh what does yoush even mean and hasm says I created you with a purpose every person has a purpose and you were supposed to be living that purpose like there there were things that were supposed to happen in this world and we all know that famous story of the the kid who was overhearing his parents saying he was taking him out of cuz he just can't seem to get it and I forget what happened but in the end the kid realized that he's going to get upstairs and there were going to be certain books asked from him that had he just right I think what happened was he begged them to keep him iner and that he would really try now and who is that and it's a the oh that's funny because I live on so I live on so anyway beg them to he want to take him into his business right they wanted to take him into business so he said he's going to stay iner and and he uh in the end he said that that these books would he would have been asked about these books because these were were part of his T was to put out those those SPM that he put out and anyway so we all have a TK we're going to be going through the workbook together so let's begin opening on page one you'll see your table of contents I suggest putting your name somewhere and uh and turning already to page number two finding your god-given personal life mission in this world the goal of life is not happiness go of life is not happiness and how many people are running around out there never happy you know occasionally happy but searching for happiness and and it's just happiness is elusive you know based on the weather is that going to be your happiness because it's a nice day or it's not too hot or because you're getting under a lot of parosa now you're happy I could show you a lot of people getting a lot of parosa not very happy and and so you know what's going to bring me happiness in life and the answer is that happiness is not the goal rather the true goal of life is having a meaningful life if you have a meaningful life you're going to have a happy life because your life was meaningful you know all the people out there those Generation X people the Millennials the that that got rid of God basically I have serious issues with unhappiness serious issues with it why because if there's no God then what's meaningful what what would be meaningful the answer is well whatever you say is Meaningful but you're so Random you know if every person gets to make up what's meaningful so then yeah maybe if you're a gentile you could fool yourself for most of your life but if you're a Jew a Jew thinking he's he's going to be able to make up enough meaning to keep him happy did it's not never will work and the reason that is is because a Jew is part of the collective subconscious Sinai experience meaning when it says um in in par that it says that those who are standing here today and those who are not standing here today that God makes the Covenant with why because everyone's miles was there everyone's theuma were at har which means every Jew throughout all of history has inside him a tremendous need for toyra for harini it's in their hard drive so so it's creative as you may be to make up what's meaningful in your life you'll never get anywhere close to what's inside your heart what's hiding inside your heart which is this great desire for true meaning for for meaning that's actually true not arbitrarily true because you think it's true but actually true absolutely true and so and so for that reason a Jew can't go for anything other than real truth now since we know that meaning is what will lead to you having a happy life well you need to prioritize what is the most meaningful what's the next most meaningful what's the next meaningful next meaningful and just move your way up the up the pyramid because the top of the pyramid which is why why do we talk about pyramids because pyramids point they point and when you were a little tiny kid and you couldn't speak it yet you know what you started with pointing that you wanted that that cookie or you wanted something human beings point we point at stuff and when I point at something if I look at something and I point at that what it's at the sacrifice of everything else I could look at and if I point at something it's sacrificing whatever else I could point it there are other options to point it but once I point at something I'm saying I'm sacrificing everything else for that that's my priority that's what I want and so it's important to have a pyramid of meaning in your life now I'm not here to tell everyone what their pyramid should look like but I'm going to anyway and please look at at the book here on page two there you'll see a pyramid and you'll see the five five levels of importance that will bring the most meaning so at the top of that pyramid is Hashem which in Tradition is an eye at the top of a pyramid there's a seeing eye the eye that sees and is not seen the seeing all eye the omniscient it's called in fancy English omnicient means all knowing the all knowing eye and and that's Hashem at the top of the pyramid well think about it if you look at it you're T kids based for sure on the fact that Hashem put you here for that tough kid why would you have such a family like you think about my life had I I was such a progressive liberal environmentalist that I wouldn't have even gotten married because of you know it's irresponsible and certainly having kids you know okay okay maybe I would have had like 1.2 kid maybe you know two would be like more than the US average so so so meanwhile with my eight kids two of those are mine and six are hashem's because two of those kids I might have had statistically the other six are for sure from the words be fruitful and multiply puru which is straight from the Terah so those so so you see that that families also what are all those kids doing there answer Hashem said so so the family's all and and where's all our money go where's all our money go it goes to shabas for these you know you know going take loans like the weeks coming up to Thanksgiving to make such a meal we we're set up we make it every single week two meals two big Sumptuous Feasts every single week bring on yont now we're going to we're going to take it the next step anyway but that's the family and we're investing in the family the whole time we're doing that and then life's Pleasures life's Pleasures are for sure hasem wants you to see the Alps you know he wants you to enjoy he lined your entire body with with nerve endings to sense pleasure to the ears with to hear the the beauty to see the beauty to taste the beauty to feel it to smell it like you're clearly lined with pleasure sensors and Hashem wants you to to do it he does not want you to do it instead of a Mitzvah he doesn't want you to do it instead of your tkit he doesn't want you to do it on the of your family but he wants you to do it sometimes I go to schitz and I'm with guys at schitz and I could tell those guys are avoiding stuff they're they're avoiding work they're avoiding family they don't have any idea what their tkit is and then the last one is your work your penosa and you need that to pay for it all first of all the top of the pyramid is very expensive having a tkid many people have to pay for their own tkit we'll speak at the end of the seminar tomorrow night we'll speak about how to monetize your mission like how to how to actually monetize your T kit so you can actually make money off your T kit I do that like I I and by the way if you monetize your tough kid you'll never work a day in your life I've never worked a day in my life this is as close as I can get to working you know but I'm I'm sharing like my inner like desire to fulfill my tkit which is by the way to my tkit is the bridge I Bridge people to to themselves to one another and to Hashem that's what I do so if you think about how you know me and you think about anytime we've been together anytime you'll see I'm always getting you in touch bridging you you in touch with yourself with your family and friends and Community or with AEM always those three that's what I do that's my TK and people seem to pay me for this which is uh great I monetized it now I never have to work so I'm always in tough kid anyway but work is meant to pay for all these things but how many of us know plenty of people who have their pyramid flipped where where they you understand their their work has taken over everything they flip the pyramid and so they got work at the top their doing stinks you know you see those guys in ch with their ding you know and they're to them you know they got their smartphones away at least till shots and and they're they're doing pretty good yeah I I actually I think it's a good thing that they have the signs up not to take out the smartphone and daving CU if there wasn't that sign you know but there're they're anyway they're doings next to not doing and many of them actually sto doing so their avoiders the Shem is is completely brushed aside they don't know where their tkit is as most people don't which is why we have this seminar and their families are completely ignored buying off their wife and kids with credit cards and and they they don't even remember their life's Pleasures you know I've asked guys you know in their Cadillac Escalade and I'm like I'm like come to schitz and he's like schitz yeah schitz it's like what do you want me to sit in a hot box for you know but when he's really saying is he has no connection to Life's Pleasures you know he doesn't it doesn't even compute to him to go to schitz with with the money he's making