The manifestation of the ten sefirot (tree of life) in your daily life

Shalom and welcome to Practical Spirituality here in ancient turn, the old city of Jerusalem, overlooking the Temple Mount. You know, people are people are basically messed up. You know, all of us are wounded a little bit in various places, so we all got certain things messed up. Um some people are messed up in just in broad strokes. Like some people are messed up in their ability to uh create structure and and order in their lives. And there's some people are messed up in that they they don't know how to they don't know how to move to the flow of life. Meaning they're too structured. And their ability to flow in life got messed up. Some people their ability to solve intellectual intellectually complex problems is messed up. And so they find themselves constantly relegated to simpler equations in life. And there's other people are um who are messed up in their way and how they interact. They they they they get uncomfortable around people. They have social anxiety. They're they're um trying to figure out what they're going to say next in a conversation rather than just to be in the experience of of interaction with another person. And And some people are messed up in their uh their their instincts are off. You know, they just they can't trust themselves. And you know, they don't they can't even trust their own intuition. And so there's various ways that people are messed up. And what I'd like to do is go through um I don't know if we'll we'll have time for all of it, but I'd like to go through uh nine ways that people get messed up. And talk about how we can heal those various ways. So um so the the way those nine ways are going to be um based on the on the 10 spheres that God created the world with. And we're made up of all of those. We're created literally in in them. Uh God created the world in 10 ways. In Hebrew they're called Midot. It's top three, and then there's the seven or Tiferet and Netzach Hod Yesod Malchut. Um the the world's made in those ways. Now, it also says in the Torah in last in Genesis that God created us in his image. In fact, he mentioned it three times and then a fourth mention in last week's parsha uh by Noah when they left the the ark after the flood, God kind of you'll notice it's a whole new creation story. Talks about being fruitful and multiply, and talks about the the uh the man's uh prowess over the creation, like he's in charge of it. And and it even mentions it once again that we're created in the image of God uh when they brought up the the the uh punishment or the the hate heinous crime called murder. It says and it brings up why? Because why is murder so bad? Because God created human beings in his image. But when you learn the 13 uh articles of faith in the Rambam, it mentions that God has no image. So we have a Torah we have a Torah with Okay. We have a Torah with with that says we're made in God's image, yet we learn that God doesn't have an image. So you ever thought about that? Is that ever Did ever Raise your hand if that ever bothered you? That the Torah says we're made in the image of a thing that has no image. Did that ever bother you? Have you ever think about that before? Does it bother you now? So the there's an answer to it obviously. I mean, you can't have a contradiction that strong without an obvious answer. And and the answer is is that human beings were created in the image of the ways that God creates the world. We're not created in his image. He doesn't have his an image. We're created in the ways of how God created the world. Got that? Created in the image of the ways that God created the world. I realize people are going to keep coming in here late, so let's make it less of an interruption next time. Uh you love your seat or you'd be willing to sit You're leaving early? Okay. Uh hey Chaim. Yeah, grab that seat. That's a good seat. Uh can you come sit here and give these ladies a table for two, please? If you come and sit here and Ladies, table for two. And um what else we got? We're out of seats officially. We've got one last seat. So whatever. We'll figure it out when the time comes. Anyway, but I'm really happy you people are here. Um especially the last ones who the last five, six people who came because these classes come out of me for you. They're not if if it's something I know already, I I would be bored teaching it. Cuz I'm here to learn. And the way I learn best is by teaching what people need, cuz then stuff comes out of me that I never really knew. And that's why I'm always going into uncharted territory. Like yesterday's class was a lot of it was uncharted. I'd never I'd never been there before. And so I now I'm venturing into a realm I've never been before as well. By taking a new angle on something. And what is that something? The image of God. And again, there for those who are fresh in the class, we were talking about the contradiction of it saying that man's created in God's image, yet God doesn't have an image. So what is that supposed to mean? And the answer is I gave the answer to everyone else. What was the answer? You guys remember? Let's see how good you are. What's What does it mean then? What does it mean that we're created in the image? Good student. One. One good student. Yes, say it again. You almost got it right, but it was pretty close. Excellent. We're created in the image of the way God created the world. In other words, the way God This is a world. It was made somehow. The This world was made somehow. And the way it was made, we're made of that. It's everything this world's made of. We're We're We're made of that. Which makes a lot of sense, too, because we are made out of whatever God made the world out of. I mean, what else could we be made of except for what God made the world out of? Now, so now we have a new question, which is kind of a bigger question, is why is that called the image of God? So maybe we have to add a word. We're made in the in the chosen image of God. God's chosen image. What is an image? Think about it. Like if you click on Google Images, what do you get? You get pictures. Well, what's a picture? A picture is when you take light and filter it out in such a way that on the other side you get an image. Like in the old days they had slide shows. Well, what was the slide? The slide or in movies used to be shot film, you know, it used to actually be film, you know, before digitation digitization. And And the And that what would happen is the film would block the light, and that would create an image just like the image on the board here. When I block the light, you know, you see an image of the shadow there. And so when it says the image of God, it doesn't mean that God has an image, cuz obviously God doesn't have an image. Rather, it's it's it's the the how God filtered himself out, so to speak. How God filtered himself out of creation is how there's a creation. Just like the shadow on the board was only based on the filter. As I filtered out light. And so we're the We are the last of that whole thing between minerals and then fish and fowl and animals, then there was humans. We're made of that whole thing. We're made of the image of the of this slide projection. God's obviously the projector of the light, but but he's also but he's everything, too, cuz there's nothing but God in this digital simulation. There's really only God. And so we're made in the image of this whole entire creation. Which is pretty cool. Because that means that you're like you're made up of all of the whole creation. And what's interesting about it is those different ways that God created the world, you you literally are made of them. Meaning Chochmah is for when God creates the world, he creates it with Chochmah. And what's Chochmah? Chochmah is the sum total of all possibility. That's the word Chochmah. Well, think about it. You have a right brain. That's called your associative mind. Well, what's an associative mind? It's your brainstorm mind. Well, what's a brainstorm mind? It's all possibilities. I'm allowing all possibilities. There's no rules in the brainstorm mind. It's just total possibility in the brainstorm mind. And then there's Bina, the the second of the 10, it's called Bina. And what is Bina? Bina is when you actually break down those possibilities into their, you know, potentialities. Cuz when you have all possibility, well, that's not going to be very helpful. You know, like like there are people who have this kind of associative thinking who work for Google. But that's not going to be very helpful. They have to send it to the R&D department, research and development, and marketing. Can they market this thing? Can they make it in a way that people buy it without sending the company into bankruptcy for the price of manufacturing it? Cuz all the possibilities is not going to be helpful. You must have Bina, which now breaks it down into its parts to see if it's something marketable. And when it comes to God, God has to break down all possibility into this world, which is not all possibility. This world is is highly limited into a a a an inhabitable globe and solar system and galaxy, which is very limited. It's not all possibility. It is certainly not all possibility. If it were all possibility, it would never been created. It would nothing would have happened. It would have just remained in all possibility. But we also got a third brain, which is called Das, which is the third part of our brain, and that's one that's very rare, no offense, is called the decisive brain. You know, cuz even in the You know, you have all possibility, that's the associative brain, and then you have the breaking up all ideas into their parts. Like Now you got all the parts, how are you going to make a choice? And that's where that's and that's why it's a very rare brain because there's only How many CEOs are there of Google? Of Microsoft, of Apple, of uh all of of uh You know, how many how many CEOs are there in each big corporation? How many? One, cuz it's very rare type of person. And you'll see when they lose their CEO, and who wouldn't want to be a CEO? When they lose a CEO, it stays empty for a really long time because it's very hard to find someone who's got that level of decisiveness with that details of parts in thought. It's hard to be decisive. And and and then and there's still no there's we still haven't left thought. But we're made in this image, aren't we? Aren't we all made in this? Aren't we all made in the image of all this? Oh, you got it right in your brain. And then there's the next one, which is Hesed. Hesed means to flow. Well, I think all of you sitting in this classroom or those who are watching this on video, I think all of you had to move your body to get to this moment, right? You had to eventually take yourself out of where you live and you know, somehow pry yourself out of there and get moving to be able to get to here. Well, there was a flow to that, wasn't there? You got yourself going. I myself before I did yoga today, my yoga starts with like heavy abdo- I mean, it's kind of it's kind of ADHD yoga. It's it's filled with all kinds of different things including sit-ups and push-ups and a lot of rough muscle building stuff, and I just found myself procrastinating. And like, maybe there was one more WhatsApp I missed, you know, from last night where I got it like a I woke up to a lot of WhatsApp messages, and maybe there was one I missed, and I found myself about 40 minutes later still pushing off getting into doing my my abs, and I finally realized, oh my gosh, I got to like stop, and I I I realized, what am I missing? I'm missing a Jordan Peterson podcast. And so and I was right. I put on Jordan Peterson on a podcast. Next thing I know, yoga mat's out, and there I am doing my sit-ups and stuff, and and I I nailed it. Thank God. But the but I had to get moving. That's flow. You got to get moving in life. That's flow. And then there's but you can get moving in life, but you wind up in a lot of trouble if you just start moving. You know, that's why, for example, in mountain biking, that's my my sport, so when I'm doing mountain biking, you could get moving, you wind up covered in blood and medevac'd out by a helicopter. Cuz you can't just move. You have these brakes, and you're doing these little micro-adjustments on those brakes, not to mention your steering and leaning such that you miss trees. It's important to miss trees when you're flowing. When you're doing Hesed, it's flow. And so I'm flowing down the trail, otherwise you're not riding. But boy, am I limiting it with Gevurah. Gevurah is the brakes, and Gevurah is my steering. And that's the limitation that keep me out of harm's way, which is the whole thrill of mountain biking is you got the flow, but you got the structure, which is the trail and all the obstacles around it. But isn't that wasn't your day? You You didn't just cross streets, did you? Did you guys cross some streets to get here? No. You didn't You did, but you didn't just cross. You looked both ways. Took a look. Listened for maybe the the whiz of an electric bike, which is seems to be the latest worst hazard, you know, that could possibly be, not to mention electric skateboards and Segways and every other silent thing whizzing by these days with people who have no riding skills. Anyway, but you looked both ways. You limited it a little bit. Maybe the train's coming by. You know, like like you got limitations. You want to make sure you avoided the obstacles as you flowed your way here. Now, let's go to associative brain. You were like, what could I do today? Well, I could go to the beach. I could go to Asia. I could go to go to hang out with friends. I had a lot of things I could do. Sorry. What could I do today? That was the left brain. I could go to Asia. I could go to the beach. It's all the details. But nothing's been done. And then you all of you people said, I'm coming to Asia. Coming to class in Asia. That's which brain? Hochma, Bina, or Das, which is the decisive brain. You said, I'm going to Asia. And then you began the flow in the real world, which is Hesed. You started going. Hey, Asia, how did you get here? And if maybe someone else was driving, and they were in charge of missing the the branches and the potholes and the and the rocks and stuff. But the but that's that's Hesed as you started flowing your way to here. Gevurah is you you were careful how you came here, watching out for danger. And and then Tiferet is the third one of those, Hesed, Gevurah, Tiferet. Tiferet is that you you kept in mind the whole time you kept in your mind the whole time sitting here listening to this, being in this room. You kept that in mind. Now, raise your hand if you had a couple potential distractions on your way here, whether it be a store, restaurant, couple distractions, maybe some phone stuff. Anyone Raise your hand if you got a distraction. Anyone got a distraction? Okay. And did you let it stop you? Partially, maybe. And then what happened? You you stayed on task, and you got here. Now, getting here is the 10th of all of these. I'm skipping to the 10th. Okay, so I went I went Hochma, Bina, Das. I'm coming to study here. Hesed, I started moving my way to the building. Gevurah, I avoided all the pitfalls. Tiferet, Tiferet, the third one, is I kept in mind the point. The point is that I should be sitting in the room. I kept in mind the goal. What was the goal? To come to this class. I kept it in mind. I didn't let myself get get distracted or anything else again, or get injured, or get anything or anything get in the way of this, which is all which attributes? Sorry, it's tough quiz. What what was keep- What part of you was keeping keeping you on track? Gevurah, excellent. Make sure you didn't get hurt or walk into a street in full flow without looking both ways first. Okay. Good job. Now, the um so that's staying in Tiferet. Now, I'm going to give you the definition for those who are taking notes. Tiferet looks at Malchut to inform how much Gevurah to employ. Tiferet, which we can call beauty, looks at Malchut, which we'll call the recipient or goal, how much Gevurah to employ. So, let's say, for example, um uh I'll meet somebody. Watch this. Hi, what's your name? Moshe. Hi, Moshe. Nice to meet you. Where are you from, Holy Bella? Monsey, New York. Monsey, New York, right on. I'll be there in 2 weeks. What? I won't. Okay, good for you. Very nice. And uh uh now we'll try uh this lady cuz she already spoke up. Hi, what's your name? Miriam. Shalom, Miriam. Nice to meet you. Now, what did he get? Got a handshake. What did she get? What? A bow. She got a bow. I moved my whole body. Nice to meet you, Miriam. He got a handshake. He got a bow. They both got something. Now, who was the recipient? The first time was Moshe. The second time was Miriam. That's Malchut. That's number 10. They were the recipient of some kind of flow. And what happened was I examined this guy and said this is handshake time. Now, had he been wearing beads and a tie-dye and everything, I probably would have given him a hug. Cuz he's letting me know something. He's signaling that that that that love, you know, love is, you know, is all you need. Love is all you need, you know, and so appropriate could even be a hug on first meeting. Give Moshiach a hug on first meeting. Hmm. I'm good at I might Tiferes is very strong. Well, it's actually my Metzius is very strong. So, I might have even hugged this guy cuz I see he's got some muscles. Which means he's a bit physical and physical people's language of love is more touch. They like more touch. Handshakes are cool. They don't mind hugging either. And I would have sized all that up in microseconds. And which is another attribute we'll be talking about in a minute. And anyway, but staying in Tiferes and not risking anything, I shook his hand. With Miriam, she's a female. In the Jewish world, thank God, we protect Tiferes. We keep beauty always around. Tiferes is beauty and long-lasting beauty and and to keep that long-lasting, to be in Tiferes when it's a female, Now, I didn't have to bow either. I could have said nice to meet you, but I went a little further and bowed. Why did I do that? Why did I bow? Well, maybe because it's Essentials and this is supposed to be a nice portal of Judaism as opposed to the more mean version that is the regular black hat attitude in relationships between people. This is a Shiur in Essentials. It's supposed to be a friendly place to learn. And so I was that's part of the whole equation cuz equations are usually complicated. And so, that's part of the equation. She gets a bow. And that keeps me in Tiferes. She felt there was some kind of flow towards her besides asking her name. And whereas Moshiach got got touched. With Moshiach, there was touch. And now we've got just three more attributes to discuss. And one is Netzach is Notice you all kept going until you got here. Did anyone get tired on their way here? No, it was pretty easy to get here. Okay, but imagine it was a hot summer day and you walked from like Har Nof or something. So, you if you just kept going and going and going for an hour walk from Har Nof. Let's say it was Shavuot. Anyone walk here on Shavuot? Anyone No, no one walked here on Shavuot. Okay, but Shavuot, people walk long distances to get to the Western Wall for sunrise on Shavuot. They'll walk from way the opposite side of the city, over an hour walk for many of them. Just to make it here for sunrise for the sunrise prayers at the Western Wall, which is right behind us. And that attribute is called Netzach. And that's now we're in the leg Now we're down below the belt. So, that's the right leg is Netzach. And that's to be able to keep going. So, um Anyone here started something that takes many years to finish? Did you finish? So, those who finished have a good strong meat of Netzach. Those who didn't, not so strong. Then there's the left leg, which is called Hod. And Hod Oh, by the way, I'm going to go back to creation. God's constantly keeping it things in check and we're the recipient, the physical world is the recipient. God's flowing creation into existence via an eternal light. He's limiting it. That's Gevurah. With these parallel worlds that filter the light. Those are the called the Olamot. And the exact ratio of light to worlds that filter is always kept perfectly in Tiferes for us, Malchus, the recipient, to not get blown out by the light or frozen by too much filter. Certain places are highly filtered. Los Angeles is highly filtered. Yeah, people go to LA like they go to LA with all the best intentions and you find them a couple weeks later they they don't even smell Jewish anymore. Las Vegas has that same type of thing. And I've actually noticed, I mean, maybe I'm crazy, but I've noticed that when I when I fly from LA to New York, I sense less filters. When I fly from New York to to Europe, I sense even less filters. And then I get to Israel and it's like the filters are gone. And it and it's I feel this natural progression towards God when I'm here. Seems just natural to me. Which kind of explains why a lot of my secular friends are so unnatural. You know, I I had a these great people in class yesterday. There was a couple sitting right behind these cameras and and uh and that the the guy was like the There was a couple and the the guy was you know, had really developed his mind quite a bit because of the his contentions with God. While his partner, this woman there, was just kind of nodding away. She was so receptive the entire time. She's a smart girl and we were talking on pretty high level yesterday and she was smart. And she was getting it and she was receptive. And I said to them afterwards I said to them I see, you know, that you're not Jewish. She said, "How did you know?" And I said, "Because you're so receptive." You don't have anything to lose by by this by God being real. You had nothing to lose. You had only to gain. Whereas your boyfriend, you know, for for for me to be right about that discussion had major implications for him. And so, what happens if you live in a country where God is the default mode, you know, Israel, where God's the default mode, but you're hell-bent on staying secular. So, then your your whole your whole life's going to be a little weird cuz you're going to you're going to be this reaction to the very environment you're in. It's a little different than See, when I meet a secular New Yorker, he doesn't spend time here. Yeah, he's some kid grew up in Manhattan, yeah. He's different. He's developed way more of an ontology. You know, ontology mean like the study of God. Like he's it's way developed. Why is it way developed? Cuz he's got to deal with his guilt. He's got to deal with his feelings regarding God and Jew being a Jew. So, you have to have a very developed perspective, quite philosophical if you're Ashkenazi, on how you somehow philosophize God a little bit out of the picture. Whereas if you live in the land of Israel, you're just going to be altogether different because it's God land. You know, this is God land. You've heard of Disneyland? Yeah, this is God land. And and if you want to live in God land without God, you're going to be a funky dude or dudette if you're female. Now, um That's Netzach. Netzach is your ability to keep going. So, I have a very strong meat of Netzach. That that attribute for me is is undamaged at all. It's it's super strong. So, so like for example, um I'm in contact with students of mine from 20 years ago and more regularly because I never ever because I'm careful with Tiferes. I'm I'm very careful with my relationships that I I stay in relationships for If I'm in a relationship, it never ever goes away. Ever. The same relationships I've had all my life are still there. I can I can WhatsApp people from 40 years ago plus. I sent a Facebook message to my skateboard partner. We used to skate together when we were uh 13. And so, he got a Facebook message this week. I was just thinking about him. I was watching some of the more radical surf maneuvers in the pro tour today. And he when I transitioned from skating to surfing, he he said it wasn't radical enough for him cuz he was really radical. You know, he he had a half pipe in his backyard that didn't even have a transition. Half pipes are, you know, it's a the steep wall and then it's a transition and then the other steep wall. His had no transition. It was just it was just a circle or a semicircle. Which means you have no time to set up your maneuver maneuvers, but he would he somehow had them set up. He was amazing. But he said surfing wasn't radical enough. So, so I I have not sent a message to I haven't had one communication with this guy in uh in 38 years. But I remembered his name and I sent him a what's a Facebook message saying that whenever I see someone now doing aerials on surfboards, you know, really getting radical maneuvers, I said I think of you each time. I should check my messages. Maybe he messaged me back. I don't use Facebook messaging much. So, I'll I'll take a look. Remind me to see if Brendan Murdock's in my Facebook messages. Anyway, um Sorry if I'm getting a little off. Well, that's the thing is is that I'm really good at Netzach. But what's its partner? Anyone know Netzach's partner or or counterpart? It's called Hod. And Hod is focus, laser beam focus. And I've got very little of that. I'm damaged on Hod. That's where I'm where I'm damaged goods. I got a lifetime of work of staying focused. That's Hod. And what do I mean by focus? So, Netzach just keeps going. If you shine a flashlight into the night air, like a regular flashlight into the night air, does it keep going? Of course it keeps going, but it also what? Scatters. So, you can see the beam for a little while, but it's gone pretty quick soon. What's another kind of flashlight where you see the beam is the limit's only your eyes, not the beam. What is laser beams. Laser beams are this thing that's just kind of focusing in on itself as it goes. And the limitation of its be is not you, it's not it, it's you being able to still see it as it continues into space. And so, there's certain people who have laser beam focus. And they really stay on task. And what's interesting about those people is they don't necessarily have Netzach. So, they'll stay on task, but the task may change. They They may go from task to task. They could go from job to job. Someone who who um Someone who goes job to job, or they're observant today and they're not observant tomorrow, and then they're observant the next day, and then they're not observant the next day after that, their midos of Netzach is pretty lousy. They don't stick with things. You know, they I get people's commenting to me, why am I still surfing and mountain biking? You know, as a rabbi I'm a Chassidic and I'm also decades later, and why am I still totally invested in these things? And the answer is this is I'm not. I I just have a very strong midos of Netzach. So, I loved it then, I still love it, and I still do it. I When I take something, I start it, and I don't stop. My wife and I just had our Last week we had our 25th wedding anniversary. But it's really 28 years because I noticed her when I was a yeshiva bachur. And I noticed her as someone who really I would share my life with that person. And And so, of course I was a good yeshiva boy and didn't have a lot of contact with her. But But I But you know, when I studied in yeshiva, when the rabbi said it's time to date, I said, "Okay, I'm ready to date. If you say I'm ready, I'm ready. So, I'll date. But I'd like to start with this particular person." And And I never dated anyone. I was like, dated her and married her. And And so, so that's cuz my midos of Netzach is super strong. But the fact that I could come home late perpetually is a lack of which attribute? Hod. Just staying focused. Cuz I'll get some SOS, the phone rings. I'm like literally walking up the street to my door. And I'm I'm there, you know, I'm going to be on time and everything. And phone rings, and it's someone in some serious situation, and it's time sensitive, and it's got to get dealt with now. I'll deal with it. And And you know, I'll and I'll deal with the consequences later for walking in the house at 7:00 or 7:15 or 8:00 instead of 6:30 when dinner is. So. Cuz my midos of my midos of Hod is not great. But my midos of Netzach is very strong. But someone who's in and out of relationships, in and out of their Judaism, in and out of jobs, in and out of this, in and out of that, could have laser beam focus, but their Netzach's not strong. And the last one that we've got to deal with is called Yesod. And Yesod is by no coincidence the the genital part of the body and as far as cuz all of these are right brain, left brain, decisive the center brain. Right arm's flow, left arm's gevurah, limit. Chest is tiferes, staying in connect staying in um meaning looking at the recipient and making sure gevurah is putting the right amount. With Moshe, less gevurah is necessary. With Miriam, more gevurah is necessary. You understand? That's tiferes. But Netzach is Once you're going, keep going. God didn't just create the world, cuz then the world would create and then disappear. He created the world in such a way it perpetuates. What attribute is that perpetuating? Netzach, very good. And but at the same time, he's got this place in the same exact focus at all times, which is Hod. And then And that's by the way the the kohein. He Each of our shepherds, right? The Who are the shepherds? Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Moses, Aaron. Aaron's Hod because he had to do the the work in the Holy of Holies. He had to go in to do a major, you know, seriously sensitive military operation. Not military, he's not there to kill anybody. In fact, he's the one who could get killed mostly, but the details of a Hodnik who could handle a military operation is the attribute of Aaron the kohein. Who can go into the Holy of Holies and keep his head together in highly stressful situations. Cuz I mean, imagine going into the Holy of Holies, you're having Your mind is being blown over and over again by the experience there. Yet you have this extremely detailed task while your mind's being blown. And you have to let go of all sense of self. You know, the part of you that just wants to say, "Whoa." Cuz the second you say, "Whoa." You you have a cardiac arrest. Like literally, you cannot be in there with a sense of self. Which is interesting, cuz the word Hod also means to give thanks. And what's giving thanks? It's letting go of the self to recognize someone else was the benefactor. It's a letting go of self, Hod, giving thanks. Having gratitude is you're not the source of everything. Someone else gave this to you. And so, you say toda. Hod. Anyways, the last one we got to deal with is called Yesod. And Yesod is the actual USB cable interface between you and the world. Which is very similar to tiferes, but notice it's in the middle. Tiferes is the heart, and Yesod's in the middle, too. And so, and so is decisiveness. And so, and Yesod is how do you interact in the end? So, let's say for example, I was going to play y'all a song. Yeah, with a guitar. And so, uh maybe uh you mind grabbing a guitar for me in the behind the front desk over there is There's a closet, I think, with a guitar. And yeah. Right behind the front desk is a closet. There should be a guitar right in there. So, if I Well, I'll show you that example in a second, but let's just stay on the USB cable interface. So, I interfaced with you, right? That was an interface. And I interfaced with Miriam. That was an interface. These are interfaces going on at all times. And as I teach this class, I'm interfacing with all of you, and I'm not doing a great job. I'll tell you the truth. Because you notice that once in a while I'll ask you guys a question, and no one knows the answer except for like one or two people. And it And why am I asking? Cuz I just said it, like probably within the last 2 minutes. And meanwhile, you you ain't got nothing to say. Cuz you don't even know what the hell I'm talking about. And meanwhile, I've been explaining everything what I think it You've been I've been explaining thing what I feels perfectly. Yet you don't know what in the world's going on in here. And so, And so, you're all looking at me right now like, are you calling me a dummy? The answer is no, I'm calling myself a dummy. Cuz I did not manage to USB interface in this information in such a way that it made the long trip from the wall, which is me, you know, the plug, which was me, the power source, to your smartphone, meaning your brain. It didn't make the trip. For those of you who didn't know how to answer me. Didn't make the trip. Well, that makes sense it didn't make the trip because some people are more intellectual, and this is information, and information comes intellectually. And so, certain people are chesed gevurah tiferes people, and so they do know the answer in a class. Well, there's certain people who are interpersonal people. And they keep They like when I keep bringing up how I interacted with Miriam and Moshe. They like that part of the class. Cuz they're interpersonal people. They're not so intellectual, and they don't know the answer when I ask for the answer, even though I said it 2 minutes ago. They don't know the answer, but they like this discussion about They liked when I talked about my wife and I not just being married 25 years, but that I had already with my attribute of Netzach, I really am with her 28 years, cuz in my heart I'm with her 28 years. Even though we're only married 25 of them, and I never dated her during those 3 years. But my midos of Netzach is so strong that that I was I was quite faithful to her, even though I only knew who she was, nothing more. So, during those 3 years. Now, You understand what's going on here? And And that's why you didn't know the answers, cuz you're you're a chesed gevurah tiferes person, which is called chagas. Okay? Chochma binah Daas intellectuals are called Chabad. Chesed Gevurah Tiferet are called Chagas. And I'm not expecting you to know the answer. And the last people forget knowing any answers from, you know, unless it's super technical or physical or, you know, it has something to do with aerobics or other kinds of like military science or something, is is that they're the Nehi people. Nehi is Netzach Hod Yesod. Netzach the right leg, Hod the left leg, Yesod is the genital region, and those are people who are instinctual people. They live by their instincts. And no one's expecting any answers out of them, you know, regarding intellectual property. It's just not their thing. But let me show you this on a guitar cuz this will hit the intellectuals and the interpersonals and the instinctuals. Cuz it's going to hit your eardrum, which is your, you know, your physical body. Does this guitar have none of a pickup? It does. Anyway, if I just play the guitar with open strings. Now, don't forget everything I was just doing was being run by here. Flow totally. Like I had no idea where I was going to go with that. But enough structure that I decided to do some kind of funky rhythm and blues type thing, which was you know, my there was a decision made. But I but my right brain is very strong, just like my flow is very strong, which like my Chesed is strong. You're generally strong on one side or the other. Everyone's stronger on one side or the other. So so I'm stronger on the on the right side. Associative. Flow. Uh Netzach meaning perseverance. I I I like something, I'll do it forever. Okay? Which is part of the reason why I'm playing guitar. Cuz I picked up the guitar as a kid. Mostly out of a fear of rejection. And uh everyone likes a guitar player. Who's going to reject a guitarist? So, um anyway, but watch what happens now. I make the strings flow. Tell me, how does this sound? Nice or not nice? It doesn't sound nice. That sound like it's beautiful? It's not beautiful. It's out of what? Tiferet. Remember we said beauty is Everyone's Let's make start You guys get look alive, okay? Everyone say Tiferet. Is this in or out of Tiferet? In or out? Say Yeah, say your Rabbi, you're out of Tiferet. Try that. Rabbi, you're out of Tiferet. Now, what it What did I do by letting all the strings flow? You can even see them moving. That is flowing, man. That That's 440 oscillations per second there. Full flow. That's I don't even know what that one is. It's 300 or something. Oscillations per second. Now, what are they flowing between? This bridge, you see that white piece thing? That bridge and that bridge. Full flow. And it sounds horrible, and that's why flow, the attribute of Chesed, is is generally destructive. Like a tsunami, for example. By the way, when you're when you're studying Kabbalah, get rid of your regular definitions. Chesed doesn't mean you're delivering cookies to the neighbor, okay? In Kabbalah, Chesed means full flow, and it sounds terrible. And a tsunami is full flow. See, the seashore is normally what attribute? The seashore. That's the relationship between the sea and the city is the seashore is, you know, that's Tiferet. But the seashore is usually Chesed or what is it? No, it's Gevurah. Seashore keeps the water back so people don't die. That's the job of the seashore. It stops the sea from coming in. But when there's a tsunami, what attribute is that? That's Chesed. Full flow, just like the strings. That's Chesed. Now, this is one bridge, that's the other bridge. But what if I use my fingers and make an artificial human a human artificial bridge, skip the E string, hit the A string, and do this? How's that sound? And notice the power that I hit it with was very gentle cuz it's a soft chord. It's it's a kind chord. Artificial bridge based on Let's say I was leading a meditation. You know, if I'm playing a rock song, that's one thing. But if I'm leading a meditation, might as well burn some incense since we're if we really want to be in Tiferet, we could burn a little incense. Not how much I have left of this stuff. I have some more. Okay, you're in charge of incense. Just press that button once in a while. What? That's my little uh my little livona burner. I carry around a uh an incense burner. Jews are very into incense. I mean, we had 11 spices, you know. So, this is one of the more popular spices from the Temple Mount, the Temple. You can press the blue button till they'll smell it in the back after a while. Just once. Just enough. Yeah, just let it go on. You can see it's burning. Smell it yet? It'll move its way back. You're in charge of the livona, okay? All of Jerusalem smell like this, but plus many other smells. So, by me What am I doing though? This my fingers here are Gevurah cuz they're limiting flow. But they're limiting flow based on the recipient, which is you. That's Malchut. That's the 10th. And I'm choosing what to play by making sure what I play is relevant to you, which is the USB cable. That's Yesod. So, what I would play would be based on you. The one of the greatest Yesod bands in history was called the Grateful Dead. And the Grateful Dead was was a band that's their their USB cable was so strong that people in the audience, which could be 30,000 people strong, would actually write down a song and then pass it around to get to get enough people conscious of that song so that the band would start to play it. And when they played it, the crowd would go bananas that the band got it. They got the message. That's how That's how in Yesod. Today bands, they have their own set list. They're they're connected to some light system all on a computer. It's like they can't even they can't even play the guitar solo can't double his guitar solo cuz it would mess up the whole lighting for the your your little digital show. But, you know, back when music concerts were actually just a band playing music with a a light guy, you know, just doing his best over there, the um you know, the the band would actually play the song that the crowd wanted when enough of the crowd started thinking about the song. And that was Yesod. And that in a way for many of us is love. Like, wouldn't you wish that your spouse could guess what you need before you ask for it? Wouldn't that be cool? A lot of females want that. And you should know what I want before I request it. And which is cruel and unusual to husbands cuz we don't know what you want before you want it. You must ask. And and just ask and you will get. But uh sitting there just shooting yourself in the foot all day trying to hope that he knows what you want, you know, when poor guys, you know, he's just a guy, you know, like give him a break. You know, like that doesn't make it more romantic. It would be sweet if it happens sometimes. It's a bonus. But that's not where romance is. It's extremely romantic to have someone guess what you need. But it's a great way to ruin your life. Because you'll just sit there going, he doesn't get me. And you'll it'll be a perfect way to never have love and to always want it. See, most people prefer to want love than have it. I'm not going to go there now for a while, but most people prefer to want it than have it. And when they have it, they have to shoot themselves in the foot. So, one of the common ways women shoot themselves in the foot is, why didn't he know? Why couldn't he have figured that out? And whereas a a woman who truly has good marriage would say, the advice is, always tell your husband what you need. Straight out. Not in hints, not in poems, not in you know, not in passive-aggressive text messages. But just be really straight with what you want and especially with what you need. Just tell him straight. And then you'll have a beautiful life. You'll have an amazing marriage. And you'll stop shooting yourself in the foot and playing dramatic games to make yourself miserable so that you can want love instead of have it. Now, um So, now to go through it all is I have to make decisions before I strum this thing. That's the head. And I can be in a kind of flow with that or I can be very structured with a setlist. Or sorry, just that's uh I can be I can play anything. That's Hochma. But there's a list of things I know and there's stuff I don't know and that's Bina. I have to know that list. And then I can make my decisions. That's that's Daas. Okay, everyone say Hochma. Together, everybody. Hochma. It's the associative mind. Okay? Everyone say Bina. And that's the analytical mind. And I've got details. I got to analyze which one to play here. Okay, everyone say Daas. Daas, that's the decisive mind, okay? Chesed is I'm going to play. I'm going to I'm going to strum that baby. Okay, everyone say Chesed. Gevurah, I'm going to limit the I'm going to limit the I'm limiting the oscillation of the strings. That's Gevurah. Everyone say Gevurah. Everyone say Tiferes. Say Tiferes. Why? Cuz I'm going to look at the recipient, get a sense of them, and know what song to play based on who's going to be listening. That's the recipient is Malchus. Everyone say Malchus. And Tiferes is going to inform Gevurah where to put the fingers, how hard to strum, meaning limiting this hand, too. So that it sounds beautiful to the recipient, to the listener. Netzach is the strings don't just go on and off. They can ring and keep going. Netzach. It's called sustain. To have something sustainable is Netzach. God created a sustainable earth, but we don't sustain it well with all our pollution and disposables and fossil fuels and sustenance. Sustain. And and then there's Hod, which is focus. Cuz I could play a solo. There I'm like I'm soloing. I'm very pinpointed. I'm laser-beamed onto specific strings. You know, that's that's a very Hod move to make is to play a solo. And Yesod is is that is that I really get you guys. Now, that'd be very hard cuz I got like the seminary girls and then I got like this dude back there, Bryce. Like Bryce probably just wants to hear like Lynyrd Skynyrd. Sweet home Jerusalem where the skies are so blue. Sweet home Jerusalem Lord, I'm coming home to you. So, I it's really hard to be in Tiferes with a group like this cuz we got there's a lot of recipients. And to be in Yesod properly would be you know, it'd be difficult to to play the right concert for a group as diverse as you sitting here would be next to impossible. Now, what's interesting is that there's a Hasidic world that that used to have its leaders being the masters of Yesod. The master called Yesod. In fact, to this day we still give leaders of of Jewish groups, like Hasidic groups, we give the leaders of those groups the sixth aliyah at the Torah. Like they come up to the Torah at the sixth aliyah. Cuz that's Yesod. And you know, they they have the best interface and with the people. It's Yesod. And um and you see that that it's the sixth. It's right? Chesed, Gevurah, Netzach, Hod, Yesod. Netzach, Gevurah, Tiferes. Chesed, Gevurah, Tiferes, Netzach, Hod, Yesod. It's the sixth attribute. And what's what letter in the Hebrew alphabet is is the sixth? It's the Vav, right? Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Hey. Vav. What's a Vav? Well, Vav is really just a Yud, which is Hochma's, that original brainstorm, which is the Yud, it just connects an idea to earth. It draws it It's just It's just a an extended Yud. A Yud A Vav is an extended Yud. It takes things from above and draws them into the world. It's It's a um executor. It executes the mission. It's an implementer. Vav's implement. And think of what the What is the definition? Cuz Vav is actually a word. It's a one-letter root word. We don't have a lot of one-letter root words. What's Vav mean in Hebrew? And, right? What's Well, what is an and What is and doing in a sentence? Connects. It's a USB cable. Ze ve ze. It connects things. And it's by no coincidence that the shape of that part of a man's body, which is which is the connector that creates life, and and true true physical expression of interconnection. That's all the Vav. That's all the attribute of Yesod. So, traditionally Hasidic leaders were always the masters of that that particular attribute. I met a Rebbe like that recently. There was a Rebbe in Ashdod, which is a beach community in Israel. He's still there. He's Should be well. His name is the Pittsburgher Rebbe. Here in Israel. The Pittsburgher Rebbe. You guys ever met the Pittsburgher Rebbe? So, you met him? At our wedding, right? Yeah. Did you meet him? You saw him. So, I went to the Shabbat cuz of my daughter married a Pittsburgher chassan. So, I went to the Shabbat before. And we're sitting at the tish. Tish is the the Friday night event where the Rebbe sits with all the Hasidim. And I literally watched this one Rebbe love every person in that room. There was no one in that room. And there were a lot of people in that room. There were hundreds of people lining bleachers at this event, Shabbat night. It's called the tish. Every single person left and went to bed that night knowing that they have a relationship with this man. They have a relation with this great man. Every person went to bed knowing that. And and and this goes on every week. No matter how many people they develop, you know, cuz there's a lot of babies being had and they're growing up. I mean, even little kids got their time with him. Everybody No one left the room. Not even the little little you know, perenter rats down there, you know, like in between the bleachers, you know, playing you know, playing games with their friends under there. They all had their moment with him. He was the ultimate example of Yesod. But today there's many many Rebbes today are have no relationship whatsoever with the sin. Now, you sometimes that's just a function of how many people there are. There's 80,000 of them. You know, and they can throw an event on Friday night that could have as many as How many people could be at one of those things? How many How many people could you see at such a thing? Usually a thousand. But like a yom tov person? Few thousand people. And if it's bells in that giant place, could be 10,000 maybe. So, good luck with that. Yeah. But anyway, that that is the job of of the Rebbe is is that level of connection with the people. To be a person who can look someone in the eyes and and know know what to say, know what to what what advice to give and and how to carry that person's load for them or with them for a moment. Give them a sense that they're they're not alone with this and that it's part of a plan and it's not it's not all bad. It's part of a bigger and better picture that they just got to get through to see it. To be able to see it, you know, sometimes we're standing so close to you know, sometimes we're standing so close to the wallpaper that you know, we're just kind of staring at it like like this. You know, and we're just like why does my life suck? And then you go you go speak to someone who's standing like more like here. And sometimes it takes you to speak to that person so they grab you by the back of your collar and they're just like pull you away from it a bit. So you're just like you're just like Oh. Yeah. There's some there's some there's some bigger picture. And that's that's a Yesod kind of thing to do for somebody. Is to connect to them like that. Help them see that. Okay, shall I play you guys a little song? Before we do the song, which I have no idea what song I'm going to do, but before we do for y'all song cuz we do have a guitar here. Can't have a guitar without a song. Is um I promise that we talked about where we're broken. So everything we just did I promise you you're broken in one of them if not many of them. For example, if you're stronger on the right, you're probably broken in in Bina, Gevurah and Hod. If you're stronger on the left side, if you're more of a structured type person, you're probably a little broken on your going with the flow you know, meaning being able to think out of the box and being able to deal with God throwing curveballs cuz God does throw curveballs all the time. You Meaning what you We have a saying, we make plans and God laughs. And then the and also perseverance, to be able to stick with one thing for a long period of time. That's probably where you're broken. And um and some people are are not too many people are broken in the middle. Most people aren't anywhere near the middle. I told you it's very rare individuals who are going to be either Das, Tiferet Yesod. You know, there's only one rebbe for thousands of Hasidim and he's really got that attribute. And then Malchus is not really an attribute. It's the goal. It's the recipient. Now um what your goal in life is as you grow is to celebrate who you are, meaning celebrate the attributes you're good at. For example, how you make a living should be in the attribute that you're good at. Cuz you don't want to be stretching all day. You want to be doing the attribute you're good at. And then you want to stretch to the other side. So for me to make sure I get home for dinner, I have to stretch over to Hod and keep myself focused. Cuz I can distract my way all the way past dinner, way past dinner. And so I've got to stretch. So you celebrate who you are and you stretch to the opposite stuff and especially stuff where you're broken. Things are broken and some people are really broken. Some people, you know, they their flow got messed up cuz they were trusting people who weren't trustworthy. Sometimes they were in their own house, it was their parents. An uncle, a grandparent uh could be there untrustworthy people. And they broke our attribute of Hesed, which is flow. And now whenever it's time to flow, we just can't. So that requires more intensive work. And then there's uh people who are um people who are the opposite, they were given too strict a situation and and they they just they only know things when it's overly structured, but they don't know how to deal with free time, for example. They just they can have anxiety attacks just by having an empty period of time with to figure out what to do with and you know, they're just they're overly structured and and things got broken there or their boundaries were broken by people who didn't honor their boundaries. Messed them up there. So there there's a lot of different places where things can go wrong with any of these attributes and there and there's certain very specific therapies to heal those things and that's really our life's work is to is to heal those things. And it's an interesting discussion whether you were born with it or whether it's some of us I mean it's clearly I was born It's clear to me that I was born with a lot of my stuff, but there's also, you know, I grew up in a ruleless house. And that didn't do so much for my ability to be structured. You know, cuz I wasn't trained as a structured person. Any structure I have I had to learn on my own. Not wasn't It certainly didn't come from my household. So and those of you listening to this in uh the USA, I'll be in the USA, feel free to fly in to uh the East Coast. I'll be running a men's seminar for the Possible You, my personal growth program. I'm running it for now uh I keep saying 18 years, but I think I've been saying that for a few years already. I've been running that for 18 years and I've over 8,000 graduates, which I've also been saying for a while. Um over 8,000 graduates and that's going to be going on in Brooklyn uh November 10th this this Sunday. Um that's for men in Brooklyn. So you can go on the possibleyou.org and I have men's and women's in Monsey starting the week of the 17th of Um so anyone in the tri-state area can get over there and if you're not from the tri-state area, you can fly into New York. Get yourself a hotel room and have the ride of your life cuz it is just one of the most amazing experiences ever. So that's going on next week. Um okay, here we go. What are we going to do? Um let's do I'm going to do one of my brother's songs. Okay. Spreading the feeling all over the earth waiting for the day when brothers can walk hand in hand no one feels afraid. We're holding the future in our hands. We can be the light. If only we'd stand as one, it would be so right. Oseh shalom bimromav hu yaaseh shalom aleinu ve'al kol Yisrael Yisrael ve'imru amen. Tell all the people that share your life let your love shine through make sure to mention from time to time how much they mean to you. With all of our hearts we call to you knowing you're here somehow. Like never before we need you here right now. Oseh shalom bimromav hu yaaseh shalom aleinu ve'al kol Yisrael Yisrael ve'imru amen. You guys want to sing? Yeah. It's enough of that, I think. Uh another song? Anyone like that? It's my brother Sam. He did another nice one called Kol Ha'Olam Kulo. It's also short and to the point. Uh How's it go? It's a bridge. It's a bridge that is long and narrow that we cross each day and every year. It's a bridge that is long and narrow. When we cross there is no need to fear. It's a dream that we are fulfilling every time we take another step. Though our feet sometimes are unwilling we press on knowing you are near. Just remember not to be afraid at all. Not afraid at all. Want to sing? It's a bridge that is long and narrow. Try it. It's a bridge. Come on, everybody. That is long and narrow that we cross each day and every year. That we cross, come on, breathe. Each day and every year. It's a bridge that is long and narrow. Come on, sing out. It's a bridge. Cross that bridge. That is long and narrow. When we cross there is no need to fear. When we cross there is no need to fear. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Try it. Come on, try it. Shalom, everyone. Shalom, if you enjoyed watching this, well, watch some more. Send it, click it, forward it, join it, subscribe to it. You know, keep coming on and joining me in this amazing movement to make a big difference in the world. And the biggest thing you can do of all is to join the Yom Tov mediaclub.com. Please go online. Yom Tov mediaclub.com.