The relationship between psychedelics and prophecy

Shalom and welcome to Practical Spirituality here in ancient town the old city of Jerusalem overlooking the Western Wall. And today we're discussing a little bit about the relationship between prophecy and and psychedelic medicines, plant medicines or chemical compounds that cause psychedelic experience in one's brain. And the and they're they're related in how we what we have to gain from this is that is that those are things are psychedelic medicines are very dangerous for someone who's not ready for them. They don't have a vessel for that amount of exposure to to a reality that's the reality way beyond the reality that we are privy to. See the reality you see around you, everything you see around you, the room you're in or the car you're driving if you're listening to this in a car or wherever you are, the reality around you is not being fully experienced, quite the opposite. It's your filters that are your it's being filtered out as much as possible. Not only that, but you're even helping it get filtered out. Kabbalistically, God's light's getting filtered out of things and there's much more light that's all around you, but it's being filtered right now. And that's good cuz otherwise you you know you'd I don't know what you'd probably brush your teeth on your forehead. And the and the so things are getting filtered out, but not only that, you're filtering a tremendous amount. You know how much stimulation's coming your way right now and you're filtering it so you can pay attention to me. So you're in constant filtering and that's what we do. We focus. We we when we drive a car, there's a lot going on, but boy do we filter out everything so that we stay safe and keep our eye on the car in front of us and the cars in lanes next to us. We are we are focused beings that filter out as much as possible. And how much you're filtering out I run a seminar in personal transformation built off everything I'm speaking about right now. And the coming to New York this Sunday to Brooklyn and this following Sunday to Monsey, New York for men and women. Brooklyn's just men. Anyway, but all that filtering that we're doing is um is kind of something that we love. We'll watch people. We will pay money to watch people focus. You know, like I can also throw a ball through a hoop a hoop that it fits through. I mean it does fit. And I can throw a ball through it, but I can't necessarily do that from a great distance and over and over again. And but I would like to spend 50 bucks on a ticket to watch someone else do so. Which the truth is I wouldn't really want to. There's other things I would rather spend money on like for example hearing Steve Morse play guitar. And anyone who's never heard of Steve Morse, as soon as this class is over you immediately go online and check out Steve Morse. But you watch Steve Morse play a solo and you realize he's focusing extremely at high speeds. And his note choice, no matter how fast he goes, is is it even at high speed seems to be playing slow cuz how does he choose those notes with that care? And there's focus there and I'll pay money for that. And I've seen him live many times. I've been blessed a lot of lot in these kinds of concerts where people have focused their creativity in music. And and so we we'll pay for focus. And what is focus? Focus is just filtering out everything else. And and but they're they're the problem is is being overly focused. Is when you're overly focused, you can things can turn drab. Things can turn bland. You know, and you you for example you need to make a living and to make a living you're going to have to work and and working means you're not just fooling around all day. And the fact that you're not fooling around all day means that you're focused on something. But if you keep doing that over and over again, well then all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. And people go crazy. And then people start using substances that cause a diffuse focus, for example alcohol or cannabis or um sports that will cause it. There there's certain things that going camping. I mean what what's happening when we stare at that fire? Something happens. People can't not stare at a campfire. But that campfire is right in the moment. There's not a lot of filter when you're staring at a campfire. And there's theories why that is and and it's a similar thing. You know what another campfire is type thing where you can't stop staring at it, at least as you get older, is if there's a child in the room. Cuz they're so in the moment that you can kind of grab the magic back from being with them and watching them. And which leads us to why a lot of people benefit from psychedelic medicine is because they are reintroduced to the magic. They're they're able to see a they're able to move from a overly focused ordered world filtering out all distraction. But it's become wrote and mundane and no longer serves its purpose, which was either pay your bills. Maybe pays your bills, but the point was to enjoy your life. And you've now just become a cog in a wheel and and you can keep that job, but you can keep it with magic. And it also can lose its where even Jewish ritual can lose its its magic and purpose very quickly. And we repeat prayer three times a day, the same exact prayer and and we do a lot of things with regularity and and if you don't keep the magic, well then it's going to die on you. And and unfortunately many people's Judaism is DOA. It's dead on arrival. And it's not that they shouldn't keep doing it. And how do you keep doing something that's DOA, that's dead on arrival? And by the way, the only way to revive something isn't to quit. The way you revive something is by sticking with it and then doing the necessary to whatever it is, whatever process it will be to resuscitate it. But stopping it all together is not going to be helpful. And this is what's called in Judaism is being what's called an eved Hashem. Eved Hashem or for female it's called a shifchat Hashem. And what that is is on that ladder, Jacob's ladder. What is Jacob's ladder? Jacob's ladder goes toward the earth, which is a peculiar way of saying things cuz I've never seen a ladder going towards the earth. It's on the earth. If a ladder ain't on the earth, it's floating and that just doesn't happen, but but notice the language is it's towards the earth. Yeah, mutsav artza, towards the earth. Strange language, something worth discussing, maybe not now though. And its head, the head of the ladder, the top of the ladder is in heaven. It goes to the heavens and that's the ladder we climb. That's why you're here right now. That's why you're listening to this. It's because you're on Jacob's ladder. And and to really focus you or unfocus you is the is that is that part of that climb is getting to rungs that will blow your mind away. But that wouldn't be good to have your mind blown away. So therefore you can't access those rungs. Now obviously the top of the ladder is prophecy no one's going near those rungs cuz that would completely you know it would obliterate your your mind. Because you're not a vessel for that. It would totally obliterate you. But there are rungs that we could reach, but it takes courage and and part of that courage is is various steps that we have to do to get higher up the ladder. But you don't lose the lower rung. And what is that lowest rung? The lowest rung is to serve God for no reason. Serving God for no reason. Not a lot of fun, not very exciting, hardly romantic. But I'm putting on my tefillin no matter what. I don't care what mood I'm in. I don't care what just happened to me. I don't care about the getting you know, this happened, that happened, bad news. On you know, a phone call with bad news or or you know, throwing up with a fever. You know, or or the person who turned me on to wearing tefillin in the first place has decided I'm a no goodnik. I'll show him. No. I'm putting my tefillin on no matter what. That's service. That's the bottom rung. And what does it mean to be an eved Hashem? What's the word eved mean? Slave. Slave. Literally it means slave. So what does it mean to be a slave of God? Well, you learn from slaves. What's a slave? Let's say a slave, let's say you your master let's say your master asks you to bring buckets of water to the roof so he can have a shower. And it's three stories up and it's a lot of buckets of water to fill that tank so he can enjoy his nice 20 minute shower. And so imagine you're you've already done about an hour's worth of carrying buckets up to the roof and you you got about three hours left. And you run into the boss on the staircase. Can you imagine saying to your master, can you imagine saying to him, you know, I'm not feeling it. What would your master say? What? You know, like what does that have to do with anything? And you're like, yeah, I guess you're right. I'll just get back to work, you know, and lifting things. So, you're you're you know, you're feeling it, not feeling it. That's what the first rung of the Jacob's ladder is. Feeling it or not, I'm a servant, period. With or without knowledge, with or without understanding, with or without the magic, with or without feeling. With or without the romantic levels of God and I'm there. And now, what's so important about that level? Who wants it? Nobody. You want to You want that to be your life? You want to live a Judaism like that? You want that kind of Judaism? Ain't nobody going to want that, yeah? Or how do we say ain't nobody got time for that, yeah? Nobody got time for that, but you better have time for that because life's a roller coaster. Especially if you're Jewish. You're going up and down all the time, and you're going to have downs where you got to have that rung. But I'll give you another reason why the ladder is this an amazing this amazing analogy. And it's because let's say you're on a I don't know, 20-rung ladder, which is a big ladder, you know? You're 2 and 1/2 stories high. On a 21 20-rung ladder. Now, let's say you're standing up on the 18th rung. You're way up there. Your head's already at the third story beginning, you know? You're way high off the ground. Now, are you glad there's a bottom rung? Are you glad about the lower rungs? You happy about those? Yeah, why are you happy about those? Well, that'd be helpful, too, but you could probably jump the last 5 6 ft. What do you What's good about the rungs at the bottom of a ladder? They're holding the ladder up. Yeah, I've seen cartoons as a kid where the cat's being chased by the dog. And then what was it called? A Tom Tom and Jerry. Tom and Jerry. What was Tom? The cat. And Jerry was the dog? Mouse. Oh, that's not going to help. There was another one with a a dog and a cat. Oh, really? Yeah, I think you're right. So, anyway, but what happens? The cat is being chased by the dog. He's about to get eaten, and he runs up this ladder. And and the dog, you know, can't run up a ladder like a cat can, so he's kind of below. And the But what happens? For every rung the cat touches, the rung falls out. And after a while, he's it splits. And the cat falls, and the dog's like, and the cat runs, you know? And the You need the lower rungs to hold your ladder together. And this goes in all relationships, cuz ultimately we're talking about relationships. And you have to have, for example, in marriage, something that works when there's no magic. Cuz we don't believe in divorce when the magic's gone. Those I hear people always saying, yeah, we fell out of love. We fell out We don't love each other anymore, or whatever I've heard over the years, you know? Obviously, there's there's a time for divorce, and that's otherwise there wouldn't be a an entire tractate of Talmud explaining how to get it done, you know, cuz it's not a simple task in Judaism. Uh requires, you know, it's not simple to to de frag or de uh construct a union of two souls that happens in in Jewish marriage. And so, it it's a whole It has to be written out by a scribe on parchment. It's all It's all a big deal. And it has to be done. Civil marriage does nothing to that bond. So, you're married to that person forever until until that thing is created. That thing is called a get, by the way. I don't know how you spell that in English. I guess g put two t's, maybe. But you can put one t, stands for get lost. So, the But the you can have That's called a get. Um anyway, but you in marriage and in all relationships, you don't always feel it. With children, like what? You don't feel it, so you're not going to feed them? You're not going to call their teacher who who's waiting for a phone call cuz your kid's not acting right? Or you don't feel You're not feeling love right now cuz they're frustrating you? So, those bottom rungs of the ladder are very important. And it And it really separates the the child from the adult, that those bottom rungs separates them. Cuz think about it, like there's societies like Southern California where you only do what you feel like doing. And not everyone in Southern California lives like that, but I know a lot of people who do. And but here, what's the key word in there based on our subject? You only do what you feel like doing. What's the key word there? Feel. Yeah. And what if you don't feel like it? Now what? Now what happens? You're out? And the And East Coast is represented by people doing things they don't feel like doing, but it's right. They They do things they don't feel like doing, but it's the right thing to do. And they'll do it, and maybe they'll do it short, maybe they'll do it quick, maybe they'll pay someone to do it. But it gets done because it's right. Even though they didn't feel like it. And believe me, I get cases all the time. Right now, I got a case of a suicidal person, seriously suicidal person whose uh wife has left him with the children. She left with the kids. And a seriously suicidal person with an autoimmune disease that's eating his body. And I needed two grand. Now, then, what coast do you think I started sending WhatsApps to? Yeah, not not one. I got plenty of them on the West Coast. Not one WhatsApp went to the West Coast. Every WhatsApp went to the East Coast, and it went specifically to people who do what they don't feel like doing. Now, I don't know what will happen. It's two grand is what's needed right now to deal with some rehabilitation stuff, but but we'll see what happens. But But I I was hitting East Coasters. Who will do what they don't feel like doing. If you think about it, that is the difference between a child and an adult. But you meet a lot of people who, let's say, get close to Judaism who weren't raised close to Judaism. They get close to Judaism, they get this fire under them. They're They're just going for it. And they But they lack the maturity of the tenacity that it takes to continue on that path when the roller coaster's on a downswing. They lack that tenacity. They're so used to being high, and the latest high is Judaism. And And But it's not high right now because God's obviously finding them pretty worthy. I mean, think about it. If you're constantly gifted intense feeling in your Judaism, that means God's like God's betting on you. He likes you a lot cuz he's putting lights where most people don't have them. And things are things are glowing, and and you know, you're you're you're favored right now, big time. And you should use that big time. But the But you're particularly favored if he takes the lights away. Because that means now you're going to need some muscles. You need some muscles and tenacity and commitment and to be able to be consistent where you don't want to be. And that that, as I said before, separates the adult from the child because I don't feel like it right now. But it's right. And that The adult says, "But it's right." And the child says, "Well, I don't feel like it." And from there, you reach a new a new vista because when you serve or relate to a spouse or anyone or in work or anything you do, if you relate to it as a commitment without a reason and without feeling, without anything else but it's right, and you you relate to it that way, you do get new vistas that you could never Listen carefully. You get to new vistas that you could never achieved without it. You understand? That muscle that can pull you through something when you're no longer feeling it, but you do it anyway cuz it's right. Will bring you to a vista. A vista meaning a vision, a revelation in your growth that could never have been achieved had you not had the staying power to stay consistent when you don't see the light. And it's the same thing in marriage. It's I'm in, no matter what. There are no reasons that pull me out of this thing. I'm in. Nothing's Nothing Nothing will take me away from you. Says someone to their spouse. There's nothing you can do. There's nothing you can say. I'm in. And And then in the even the darkest times, you will see the light in the future because of that level of commitment. Now, of course, that's very rough when the other person doesn't have it. And who knows what the you know, you got wounded people. There are wounded people, but anyway, for us is that is that to have the experience of expanded consciousness, it takes certain things. So, I'd like to discuss some of those things that it takes to get to a expanded consciousness. So, we discussed one already. One is consistency, and that's unreasonable. When I say unreasonable, meaning unreasonable. I don't let reason stop me. I'm I'm serving, no matter what. Bottom rung of the ladder is not not disappearing. So, that's number one is is is serious, heavy-duty commitment. Uncompromising commitment, whether I feel it or not. It's the adult. And the uh another thing is to have the maturity to not have to have things your way. Not having to have things your way and perhaps this is why to make it anywhere in Kabbalistic circles and certainly on the ladder towards prophecy, that it requires being married. Because when you're married, it's not always going to be your way. And it's quite often not your way and just add kids. And it's like it's just not your way over and over again and after a while you I mean there are times where you feel like you're going crazy. You know, you sometimes you feel like you're just going to go nuts and especially if you have a lot of kids. You feel like you're just losing it. And by the way, it's hard to know how many kids to have exactly. You know, and one guy walked in with 12 kids and a secular Holocaust survivor lady just looked at this guy and I know in her old folks home and she said "How many?" And he and the Hasidic man looked at her and said, "Till 6 million." And so it's hard to know exactly how many kids to have. You obviously want to have many because if you're Jewish, you're not creating more overpopulation, meaning you're not creating more problem, you're creating solution. And we want to create as much of that solution as possible and raise your kids as solutions to the world's problems. That's what it the Jewish people are meant to be. So, raise your kids as solutions. So, you want to have a lot but other hand, you don't want to go totally crazy. So, you got to figure out what you can handle. And I'll tell you one of the things that's not of in the criteria of how many children to have is is your finances. Why? Well, there's various reasons why. One of the reasons is because one of the reasons is because each kid comes with their own mazel. We have a tradition that each kid comes with their own bank account so to speak, their own mazel. You don't feed your kids, your kids feed your kids. Meaning God feeds your kids and each kid you add to your home is a new it's a new mazel. That's one of the beauties of getting married is you whatever your mazel is, it's being joined by someone else's mazel. And so if you've kind of had lousy mazel and you marry someone with pretty good mazel, well now you have medium mazel. And that that's going to be good for you. And I and I for sure I have very powerful mazel and and I my kids and my wife have learned to rely on that. Which is great because it's caused them to have very good mazel as well. And the but the but when you have a child, that's not your job to pay for that child. That's that's their mazel. Now, obviously if you're living in with luxuries and and you're just you're just an expensive carbon footprint on this world, well then, you know, getting your kids paying for all that and maybe that's off off you know, that's not part of the deal. Like like it could be that if you're going to have a big family and and you don't want finances to be cons of concern cuz you're going to utilize this fact that each kid brings their own mazel, their own When I say the word mazel for those of my Gentile students who don't know what that means, it means that each person comes with their own um a mazel is a a the truth is it's a zodiac disposition. The word zal means flow and a mem before the word it means a cause of flow. Mem is always causative, the m sound. So, mazal means the cause of flow and every person has a certain zodiac flow that is their mazal. And and in fact, the word zal means liquid as well and like liquid soap in Hebrew is called sabon, that's soap, nozlim. Which means liquid. Nozlim zal, okay? And the Anyway, every person has a mazal and and uh it's interesting the Jewish people's mazal is every Jewish person has mazal as well and but their mazal is irrelevant regarding the day-to-day. Meaning people's mazal really shifts. There's different influences by day because think about it, what is your zodiac? It's based on a birthday. Well, what's a birthday? Birthday's a day in the calendar. Well, the calendar's shifting all year, which means that your mazal's going to have a different influence each day based on the calendar shifts. Except a Jew as we learned from Abraham and this is this week's parsha introduces Abraham and it's exactly the parsha where Abraham says he's not going to have another kid and God's like, "Yeah, oh yeah, you are." It's this week, uh Lech-Lecha. God's going to cause this 90-year-old man to uh or no later he's going to be 99, I think, when he will conceive uh Jacob with his 90-year-old wife who was barren, you know, and the and so and so he Abraham has a conversation with God and and this is a Midrashic uh tradition. By the way, the word Midrash means a a oral tradition that's there to teach us our it's our tribal oral tradition that comes down the history of our tribes, the Jewish tribes, that are there to teach you these amazing lessons about reality. So, are they are they are they literal? No. Are they there to teach you about reality? Well, I thought reality is literal. Isn't reality literal? And the answer is if you ever want to understand reality, you're going to have to understand nuance. Nuance is a very important part of reality. You know, try having a conversation with a human being without being somewhat understanding of nuance. That's that's the danger of Asperger's is they don't see human, you know, they don't see nonverbal communication. There's nuance. You know, how do you know a conversation's over for example? The person you're talking to or might be you will turn your foot in the direction you're going. Every human being does that. So, let's say I'm talking to Sam over here and I realize what time it is and I got to go. You'll just see my left if I got to go this way, you'll see my left foot go like that. And you will end it. I don't have to end any conversation, you'll end it. Cuz you get nuance. And that nuance lets you know, let's wrap this up with honor for both of us. And and it will get wrapped up. But there are people who won't see that. And one of those ones is a famous Asperger's, which is, you know, some highly skilled and amazing people have and it's hard to notice that they have it and well, you better be a very committed woman or man to be married to someone with Asperger's cuz cuz you're they're going to miss it all. All that nonverbal stuff that happens between man and wife will never be experienced by them. So, marry someone with Asperger's will you better be We spoke about it earlier, you better be committed like way more than 99% of humanity that you're willing to not have someone recognize your nonverbal cues. Now, um the Anyway, so so Midrash is for nuance and nuance is very important. You know, nuance is everything really. You know, we do have you know, hard facts but then there's nuance and nuance is super important and that's why we have the Midrash to teach us about the nuances. So, this particular Midrash talks about Abraham having a conversation with God cuz as you look in the parsha, it's God says I'm you're going to have another kid. So, what you don't see there, you have to click on the Midrash. The Midrash that takes you to the website where the Midrash explains the oral tradition explains that God says to Abraham, sorry, Abraham says back to God, "Uh I'm not going to have another kid." And and and God's like looks at him like he's telling him, "You're going to tell God what's going on with your progeny?" And and Abraham says, you know, "Excuse me, Rabbi, but I'm the master of like zodiac. I know zodiac and I know my zodiac disposition. I even know my star. My heavenly body is Jupiter. It's called in Hebrew tzedek. And my heavenly body is Jupiter and based on where Jupiter was in the sky when I was born, no kids." At which point God says to him, "Take your protein pill and put your helmet on." And he's looking down at Jupiter now. He's way above the zodiac. He's looking down at Jupiter, he's like, "Whoa." And all of a sudden Jupiter God I don't know what he does. He goes fush and Jupiter goes like fush and like he's meaning just to show out Abraham, you know, that he's the one who put Jupiter where it was and he can put Jupiter wherever he wants. Did God You think God moved Jupiter in this story? I highly doubt that God moved Jupiter at that point in the story. But God in the story says he moves Jupiter and and to show Abraham where who's in charge here and and it goes to where Abraham's going to have kids so to speak but it doesn't say that in the Midrash. And because God probably didn't move Jupiter. I mean, I don't even know what would happen to our solar system if God does that. It'd take a a body in our so our solar system that big and move it. I don't know what would happen if such a thing happened. Anyway, the and then Abraham says, "I guess I'm I guess I better go buy some a crib and a stroller, you know, because by the time he came back down, you know, things were in process and lo and behold, kids came and not just a few, like a bunch of kids. He had uh with with Hagar. He had Isaac with Sarah. And then he remarries after Sarah's death. He he uh a woman named Keturah, who our tradition tells us it was actually the original Hagar. Then he married Keturah, which means incense, had six kids, sent them eastward to the land of the East, and that's why Hinduism, like the highest caste, is Brahmin, from Abraham. It's It's their traditions come all from Abraham, those six kids. Different class, but I I've got that class online somewhere. Now, um You have to be able to let go of reality. You have to be able to loosen up your grip. Human beings are terrible at that. I mean, really horrible at that. We We are We are really We're really good at kind of ossification. We We We This is the problem with elderly people. Elderly people, they they've just done the same patterns long enough that they've lost all their neuroplasticity. Which is again why they love to stare at children. Who have all their neuroplasticity. You can think about it. Once you're in your 60s, 95% of what you're even seeing is is just predictive models. You know, it does exist out there, but you don't see it. You're You're in your predictive models. And that's why you'll notice they're less and less with a trait of openness, cuz they they just don't want to mess with their predictive models, and you don't want to take them out of their comfort zone too much. People will get older. 70s, you know, they just don't want much else than They like to watch. You know what they really like to watch is uh television. Because it's very predictable what what each actor will do on that When I say television, I mean specifically uh sitcoms and other dramas where you know the character, you can guess what they're going to do in every situation. But the situations change up every episode just enough so that they sense there's novelty, but but everyone's acting predictably. And the um And so the the But that's a a That is very detrimental to spiritual attainment. And one of the beauties of spiritual achievement, which is obviously the goal in Judaism, is that your neuroplasticity stays. Did you know that elderly Jewish spiritual seekers who like spent years and years and years seeking have the neuroplasticis- plasticity of children. Of little little ones, like real little ones. They have the neuroplasticity of children. I remember one of the elders said to said to our class once we were learning esoteric knowledge. And he said, "You know the difference between you and I?" Cuz we're all blown away by the last idea. And he says, "You know the difference between you and I?" He said, "You will take everything What you will take what you just learned and see how to fit it into everything you've ever known." He said, "I" and he's like many years our senior. "I am now readjusting everything I've known to what we've just learned." That's how that's how plastic is is brain is. I mean, he was literally going to have an amazing day of reconfiguring everything he ever knew based on this you know, really beautiful thing we had just learned. While the rest of us were like, "Okay, let's see where this fits in." And and we were we were quite young. I mean, we were all That night, I think I was in my 30s at the time, and and uh here we are with this elderly you know, Kabbalistic wizard who's now readjusting everything for this one piece of knowledge that doesn't even relate to what we wouldn't think relates to anything other than the subject. And but it does, and he knows how it does because of his his understanding the network of this divine prophet prophetic body of wisdom. It's all deeply networked. And so Now, the What Why are we discussing being able to let go? The reason we're discussing being able to let go is because you want your mind blown, but you don't want it blown to bits. You understand? You want your mind blown, but not blown to bits. And And if you are going to resist where the wisdom takes you, meaning the wisdom's taking you way beyond anywhere you were in the past, if you are going to resist that, well, it's going to blow you away. You know, you've got to practice surren- It's called surrender, and you have to practice surrender. And when I'm saying saying surrender in this case, when I I want to be specific that I'm talking about the kind of surrender that in a very mature surrender, that that you're able to put on hold everything you've ever known and allow yourself to be shown something you know, bigger and bigger and at the expense of what you've known till now. And so that's a big letting go. And not everyone's quite ready for that. And but based on how ready you are for that, is how much light you can get. That's how much light you can receive and therefore go up a rung on Jacob's ladder. So the the requirement that to get up higher on the ladder requires this level of maturity of being able to let go and and to receive that. Kobe. What you just said about the surrender like in essence like I know we're very different from the way other religions but do you have something to say about it? Is like is that an issue in surrender? Is that a big idea of surrender Sure. Yeah, yeah. Um No, even though So So it's interesting you bring that up. Um The question, if you didn't hear the question, is wouldn't that point to something in common with the other world's traditions? And not just Abrahamic traditions, but other traditions. I mean, really anything. Military, like how do you join the military without surrendering to your officers and your commanders, sergeants. So um But yeah, that I think everything requires a certain amount of surrender to get anywhere. So But But that's about where the commonality would end is is that to get anywhere, you need a certain level of surrender. You're in the military, right? But was it easy to surrender? At first, very much so. Like cuz you still have the idea of who you are, what like you do. So it's very difficult at first. At first, it's like like you you were so much pride and who you are. And they slowly They chip away at it. Uh-huh. Uh No, I was just trying to find like Like obviously I don't want to compare Islam to Christianity. But I was thinking maybe there was something that could Well, earlier when I said it was interesting that you brought up the other world's traditions is that those traditions is that is I was speaking about this the other day, but I got distracted. Is you have to think about what you're doing when you mess with someone whose beliefs in false traditions. And when I say false traditions, what I mean by that that they're not necessarily false traditions, but they're their root, meaning their foundations, their their genesis, the beginnings of them, were not based on something that was true. But But they're today, you know, they many of them make up the hearts and minds of much of the fabric of create of traditions in homes of every household in the world has some traditions. And Anyway, but here's the thing is This is what I want to share is that when someone has surrendered to anything, you you've got to think twice before you mess with those people. You got to think twice about that. Because there's another word connected to surrender, and that's devoted. Like you devote yourself. Surrender and devotion reach a place inside human human psyche and emotional circuitry that's sacred. Even if what they're into is not sacred. Like, for example, idolatry. To us Does Judaism consider idolatry sacred? Not at all. In fact, you know, punishable by death in Judaism. So, not sacred. Actually, the ultimate profane thing is idolatry. Yet, there's people all over our planet throughout history who have gone to that sacred place inside of them in dedication, devotion, surrender to something that's idolatrous. So, they now have a sacred place inside of themselves dedicated. And I think we've all maybe surrendered to someone, like we've surrendered our hearts to somebody. When maybe some of you, if you weren't raised protected like my children, uh but if you're raised more like me, thrown to the wolves, you probably gave your heart to someone who didn't really have the ability to care for it the way it should have been. And there was certainly no insurance policy, which is called marriage. And And so but you surrendered a sacred part of you. And you'll notice that that place is still there. Even if you're married. Even if you're married for years, even if you have children, the sacred place of that that surrender to the of that you know, surrendering that deep place of you has been given to somebody who may be married to someone else right now and playing with their own children and their hearts also in yours. And you're that that will just be war wounds. You know, you'll just you're just a you're someone who's been through war and's got wounds and got big scars and whatnot. They're going to have to live the rest of their lives with that. And And that's okay cuz you know, we're we're we're vulnerable and and we, you know, we all go through all kinds of stuff and and sadly part of that is war wounds of relationships. If you guys want to do your children a favor, you know, make sure you protect them till they're married. So that when they finally surrender that sacred place of the heart, it will be with someone who's placed a ring on the finger or gotten a ring on the finger and and has uh and so that it's not a war wound later, but it's uh it's something that something very beautiful came from. As opposed to something horribly painful. So so that anyway, but I just wanted to mention that because I think people are sometimes when they're getting a lot of fervor for something, you know, I either Christians feeling very fervent feverish about their Christianity and now they're talking to a Jew or or Muslims talking to a Christian or a or a Jew is really excited about their Judaism and now they're talking to one a Muslim or a Christian or a Hindu or anyone else or an idolater. They can be insensitive to that sacred place that someone's gone to, even though it was for the profane. We have to be sensitive to that place. And somebody and and you just can't be flippant about that place. That place is serious business. And um and that being the case also, just one more takeaway from that is is that you uh couple two more takeaways. One is you do want to go there. So if you haven't gone there in your Judaism, it has a a little switch on the side of it to turn off the sound. Anyway, you do want to go there and if you you do want to go there. Meaning if you haven't gone there to that level of surrender, you're missing out. Whether it's a relationship, whether it's Judaism, whether it's God, what whatever it is that you're into, if you haven't gone there, you're not going to get the benefits cuz certain things only come with surrender. With vulnerability, with fragility. And and it's very interesting that way. And how fragility is is um is where the magic is. And who's more fragile than the children toddlers? But they've got all the magic. They're the ones looking in with wonderment and we look at them with wonderment and and they're the most fragile and they've got the most vulnerability and yet they've got the most magic. So there's a connection between fragility and magic. Fragility and and great depth of experience and and uh and that fragility is for human beings is expressed through surrender. Cuz we can make a move called surrender. We can make a move that takes us into a level of devotion that that is way beyond what someone can achieve without it. You know, it's really light years ahead of that. And we need to go there. All of us need to go there. And there are certain people who that's really hard to go there. For anything. Yeah. So you speak When you speak about it, surrender, are you speaking about the ego? And when you said it was very difficult because he had a person he knew who he was and then they're chipping away. Are we talking about ego? We're surrendering that in order for information to come? Ego's ego's Yeah, his example was about ego. Um but it can be a lot of other things, too. It can be um your schedule. It could be Shabbat. Um it could be your social life. You know, that's that's going to be part of the surrender. Surrender is like pretty encompassing. That's definitely like to get the knowledge you're going to need to surrender. You can close the door. To get to Taekwondo, to get become a get anywhere in martial arts, it's going to be a lot of surrender to your your sensei, your the master of the art that you're studying. Surrender is really important. You don't really get anywhere without it. And how many people we do we know who are surrender resistant? And again, many of them are damaged. They they did surrender and they got hurt. And how many people I know have surrendered to false traditions? You know, how many people you know surrendered to false traditions? You know, a lot of people surrendered there. So it's So you can't get anywhere without surrender, but you also it's a bit of a it's a bit of a gauntlet to make sure you don't surrender to the wrong things. And and I want to mention one more thing that's interesting that it that how magical surrender is is that if you surrender to the wrong things, you'll still you can still blow through walls and live in the miraculous. Because God put in our creation that someone surrendered to something will have miracles. Even if it's the wrong thing? Yeah. Yeah, there's certain things. Like for example, what someone desire. Have you ever wanted to do the wrong thing? God let you do it? Yeah? Even orchestrated it? Couldn't have happened without him orchestrating it. So but you wanted it. That's the key phrase. That cuz you wanted it, you could even go against God. He put it in creation that anyone who wants something that the world will conspire to help you get it. But also, surrender will lead to miracles for someone in the wrong tradition. And to them, they're like, well, there's verification. There must It must be true this tradition I'm adhering to because gee, I surrendered to it and I'm getting all these miracles and stuff. So one of the other thing we're learning about surrender is that it is not verify it's not doesn't verify anything. All it verifies is you surrendered to something. You understand? Yeah, that's all it verified. Didn't verify what you surrendered to is true. It just verifies that you're surrendered to something. It doesn't verify the veracity of that which you have dedicated to. So we have a code of ethics. So we know we for most of the part we would know what's good and what's not. How does somebody somebody recognize a surrender to something good versus something not good? If God allows you to do it regardless, all you have to have is the desire alone, God lets you have it. So how does somebody learning on a personal basis, how do they How could you navigate through that? That's That's um That's an excellent question. The um So the I mean most people would never do what I'm going to say, but you actually have the courage to put it all on the table and see what's true. Which is rare. I mean, Asian Torah was built on the this institution where I'm speaking from was built on predicated on the fact that human beings, which was a very short time, but it was somewhere around 1967 till about 2000, maybe 1999 2000 to but it capped at 2006, it was over. But the that people would be willing to put on the table everything out there and see what's real. And our entire our entire like our entire body of um of intellectual property here is predicated on that people would do that. People would do that. And we had no idea people were going to stop doing that cuz it seems natural to do that. And so but the answer is is that you'd be willing to put it all on the table and and get to the truth. Truth to to the What's the word? There's a There's a good saying, truth to the Yeah, truth to that was a one more word there. I forget what it was. But like meaning you'll sacrifice it all for it. And I got to live through that cuz I got here in '91. It was the second half of it. You know, '91 to '96 as opposed to '67 to '91. And I got to be here for that and wow, I just can't begin to express to the energy and excitement that was happening here. It was just unbelievable. And you And you know what you know who it drew more than anyone else? High um high IQ successful um confident For some reason quite beautiful and handsome people. Meaning it drew people who had an inordinate amount of confidence. Well, if you grab all of world jewelry and you kind of take the cream off the top that's who came. Why affluent? Because they they were raised in a home where they they weren't they you know it's usually old money affluent that they weren't being raised thinking they were going to starve if they don't join the machine. Of you know the machine the machine of the financial world that you got to make a living and stuff. They were they were affluent people. And they and they're what I call you know what trust babies are? Trust babies are children born to very wealthy families but then there's these searchers which are kind of like hippies so I call them trustafarians. And trustafarians are are great. They're amazing. In fact you're in an institution built off of only trustafarians and everything you hear here is because of those trustafarians and and those they're amazing people. First of all they're highly educated. They've been told that they can do anything they want. You know they meaning there's just no limitation built up built in. Their search for truth doesn't have an end because think about the rest of the world you can be the biggest hippie in campus but in the end you got to pay your bills. So you're going to have to face reality. Cut your hair. Yeah. Trustafarian they don't have cut their hair. Have to anything. There's no obligations and there's never going to be something they got to face later. They get to just keep searching and keep digging and keep you know clawing their way through this this thick veil called material physical world and and they happen to be particularly brilliant people born of particularly brilliant people because that's just the nature of the beast is that affluent people not always but often are of high IQ. And there's a built-in hierarchy of brains and money they go together. Brains and money go together not always there are exceptions but major part of the bell curve brains and money are correlated. And now you got two brainy people having kids and those kids were raised with affluence and they they were being sold a bill of a bill of American dream goods which you know you know to be a genius to poke a hole in that. You know the American dream is like you know like oh that's cute. You know you you also want me to buy a big giant bucket of steel that drills through gasoline like nobody's business while perpetrating Middle Eastern wars you know just so we can have our pipeline running through Afghanistan you know like no. That that doesn't sound sustainable to me. As a somewhat smart affluent kid growing up in the American dream. I don't I don't want your dream cuz it's going to be someone else's nightmare. And in the end it'll be all of our nightmare. We'll all inherit a nightmare. It's certainly good for Israel and now we're all paying that price with this with lack of security in an in a Middle East fueled by the money of Western consumption. That's created the vulnerability that you experience as you sit here right now. So the anyway but that's who created this place and and we we can we can put it all the back to your question is we can put it all on the table and work through things and come to some true that's worth dedicating our hearts to and surrendering to and going to the sacred place that it goes to. I'm in a particularly interesting situation because because I'm totally surrendered but I'm in a position professionally where where I allow to question it all. Cuz otherwise I can't have this job. There's an I I got to speak to a materialist atheist here 2 days ago sat where you're sitting and it's going to be a great video that's going to be one of our better live feeds in a while. And I'm debating on the 24th here if you're all here I'll be doing a live debate with an audience in the Kirk Douglas Theater it'll be me and uh Dr. Gerald Schroeder who's a nuclear physicist who's witnessed uh uh he's witnessed six nuclear explosions working for the US government and is a well-read author and and created a lot of powerful scientific papers and who's a believer and and the two of us will be going head-to-head against uh uh two famous atheist personalities on the you know with their own YouTube channels and stay tuned for that. But it's very funny for me because cuz you know Dr. Schroeder is more intellectually you know he's a real talking head. I'm not a talking head. I am I I live from this this place of surrender and dedication and devotion and which has no intellect. You know it had intellect but once I saw where I'm going is you know it's pointing north and it's right. And when I saw that and I saw everything's work it all fits and it's all it makes sense this thing and and so but it is I'm in an interesting position because I can't walk in I know how to talk about surrender as you see I'm discussing it but I know how to talk about that sacred place. But at the same time I got to somehow dance the intellect dance and play around with with uh you know being able to entertain a materialist atheist position. And and be able to play with that little bit and and I do believe this whole thing began with the question that you're questioning you know by no coincidence I'm sure from Portland Oregon about the connection of psychedelics to prophecy and and uh and but I do believe that that's part of the key to the whole the whole equation. Because what happens when someone ingests certain compounds and it does whatever it does in their brain they now they we know the brain science of it but but there's things that take place there that aren't explainable. They just aren't explainable that that only the witnesser the actual observer of the of the the experience has a lot of things that just will never ever be explained in brain science and and is changed forever as a result in ways that are just very interesting. Um for one example is they they go up an entire index point in the personality trait called openness. Which is not possible. I mean as far as science was concerned wherever you sit in openness is going to be closed and not opening as we discussed earlier is neuroplasticity is going down as you get older and more of what you see is going to be predictive models less of what you're actually seeing. And yet people will go up an entire index point of openness and openness is a very good trait. It's a very good trait. I mean why do you think most businesses you know shut down in 20 30 years even the biggest ones will be gone in 20 30 years is because it's very hard to keep openness when you're at the top of a business but if you're not open you can't and allow the percolation necessary of the dynamism of people actually on the streets on the ground using your product that are going to percolate up and have you reinvent yourself as a company. And that that doesn't come easily. So the the the um the high-tech world prides itself on the index on on the character trait the personality trait called openness. They pride themselves on that and you see they're doing a great job. They're really out there and they're I always wonder how much they're not letting us see meaning how is they already you know how far could that iPhone or Samsung go but they're only letting us know so much so we keep buying you know. I don't know if there's what's called either planned obsolescence which we're all nervous about but there's also it's also very strategic release of technology. Who knows what they know but I'll tell you one thing's for sure is they have built into them they have the openness and not only that but they encourage their employees and especially the higher they get in this system to be involved in in the ingestion of psychedelic compounds. And Google in Silicon Valley is famous for for the the microdosing of LSD. That's what that's just part of working for Google. You know you can give up your Starbucks you know cuz you you got other things going on but but it's creating a greater creativity greater motivation mental acuity. And and it's driving the high-tech world to the next generation in ways that could never have happened without it. So so the uh the this um where where we at on the um Extensive list. Yeah we're on an extensive list but but specific we're being a little bit oh we're talking about openness but but then I was speaking about the sacred place of dedication. And which has no mind. So Which has no mind to it. And meaning you need mind to get there, but once you're there, you're going to a place that that's beyond the mind, beyond the intellect. And that's why you you witness miracles there if you live there. It's a great place to be. Oh, I was explaining why we need to go there for various reasons. So, you don't get anywhere without it. Um you have to be very careful of it to make sure you don't wind up dedicated and surrendered to the wrong things. Um but there's something else I want to say about it. Oh, is that it brings us full circle back to the first rung of Jacob's ladder. Which is I'm in. Which is another way of saying I'm in I'm in, you know, I'm in. Cuz when you're in, I mean no matter what, including what I'm feeling as we spoke about. But even I'm in no matter what the facts are, I'm in. And that's why it's so important you check the facts before you go in. But as long as you got the facts straight, you got to go to that place of dedication and and uh risking risking political correctness right now. Um this could be an a difference difference between the Hasidic and the Litvish communities. In in a way is that well, I don't know about the modern community, but maybe. Is um is that the the the non-Hasidic Ashkenazim and many of the Sephardic traditions that have gotten involved with the Yeshiva community of Ashkenazim, uh they pride themselves on on rationalism. They pride themselves on rationalism, but that is not the place of surrender. That is not the place of surrender, and the Hasidic movement prides itself on devotion. It prides itself on that. Now, show me any dedicated rationalist, I promise you he's surrendered. And show me any surrendered Hasidic guy, and I promise you he's got a lot of intellect going on and and uh plenty of rationalism in there, too. And it's just the nature of the Jew. You're not going to find one without the other. All I'm talking about is themes. Themes that we're going to drive home. So, the Hasidic movement's going to drive home the dedication more, that's going to be the theme. And the rationalists are going to drive home rationalism. Either way, they're both going to have a level of surrender, but I personally I personally want to be where the magic is. And the magic's in the vulnerability that comes with surrender. That's the magic. And I'm part of a magical community of Hasidic people. Really magical. I mean, they really do not you know, their their their motto is don't tell me the odds in everything they do. And it's great. I just love the way they they interact and and there's just no limitations. And it's throughout the system. It's not I know non-Hasidic people who live that way as individuals, but I'm talking about communal like they like they know somehow that it's enough that you are dedicated to something and it will come true. And and they and it comes with being in a place whose theme is irrational devotion. And it's I like that and I like the magic. I like the magic. I get I benefit a lot from that magic and I'm so happy to train my kids in it. Cuz my kids are like definitely don't tell me the odds, kids. And um and I think the wonderment of the magic keeps you young. And I and I think it it you have a more surface joy. And sometimes I go into synagogues and this can go for Hasidic ones as well, where I know these people have a deep deep joy, but on the surface, like the actual you know, cuz joy's on a continuum. There's deeper joy and then there's like just smiling and laughing and stuff like that, but there are there are sometimes I'll walk into a synagogue where you can come in. Sometimes I'll walk into a synagogue and there is no trace of joy there at all. And it's Shabbat. And everyone's in their finest and they're singing happy songs, but if it's the Hasidic community, they're doing something like really heavy, like some heavier song is, you know. It's like the ha ha ha ha Think hard, come on. And uh maybe it's a non-Hasidic shul or Yeshiva shul doing some kind of joyous, you know, la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la but there's just no one smiling. No one's clapping. No one's hand holding hands for this little dance part here and you know, it's a clearly we should be a la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la yeah la la la la la But if I started holding people's hands, they would just pull their hands away like you're embarrassing me. You know, there's a certain it's got a Yiddish word called Ernstkeit. But to me it's a I believe it's a bluff. You know, it's it's just we're not going to express joy here. And and cuz you know, we're we're this is all too important. You know, and but to me that's an that's it's not just that part of the spectrum's being hidden. It's that it does it's not there. You understand? It's it's it's being people they're rationalizing that it's there, it's just not time for that or something. And by the way, they do let it all go once in a while, like pour them with enough alcohol, those guys are hysterical. And and uh cuz it's just all coming out, you know, like like I don't do that cuz mine's coming out and I'm I'm on a general release of joy on a daily basis and Purim's going to come out more, but it's not going to be that distinguishable from the day before Purim. And whereas these guys, oh my gosh, it's like I mean, it really comes out. And and sometimes they get that way towards the end of a wedding, where it's finally like broken through. And they you know, and end of and it had to be their kids' wedding, by the way. Not the guests. But you you will see it start shining through at the end of their wedding. And and suddenly they're moved into that place. And it's so it's available, but it's not they don't have access to it. Now, if I had to choose between the two, I'll take the deeper joy any day. I mean, deeper joy is like way bigger than the external edge of the spectrum, but but um but you can't pretend you're happy if you don't have full access to the spectrum of joy, you know, you got to have the deeps in the you know, you can't you can't play off as happy. Which leads me to another thought, if you don't mind me thinking this one out real quick, is you're only going to be as well as your leader. I'm not saying we can't surpass a leader. You can surpass your leader, but in a tradition where you're especially the Jewish tradition where we're really focused on our leaders, like our kavod for what's called uh kavod haTorah, but it's also called uh kavod hakhamim, maymunas hakhamim. It's it's the the dedication to our our wise. You you can go. I'm I'm just going on and on here. You can go at any point. I thank God I've had a long format for the worst reasons is Rabbi Nachman had the flu this week. But I I will wrap it up eventually. The but anyone needs to go certainly can. So, you're welcome. So, the cuz I I mean, I'm I'm an hour and a half into I'm an hour and a half into my 50-minute class. So, or maybe an hour and 20 minutes into our 50-minute class. Long format though is the way to go. I mean, anyone know the intellectual dark web? 50 minutes, you don't get anywhere. You know, so um but here's the thing I want to think out here is that and especially in Jewish tradition where we're really really focused on our leaders showing us the way and emulating them. And in fact, the Rambam even says that the commandment to emulate God is to emulate the wise man. Meaning emulate the tzaddik, the emulate the holy person. Could be the holy woman, too. It is emulate the holy. Why? Because Rambam says now, by the way, he's very rationalist Rambam. He's not into the esoteric, although he knew a ton about the esoteric. Oh, come on in. Table for two, three? Perfect timing, ladies. Just bring that third chair up and you can sit all together there. I like people staying together. Anyway, as soon as you sit, cuz these chairs are really loud, I'll go back to what I was saying. So, um just to catch you up, ladies. What what we're talking about right now, I just switched subjects. What we're talking about is how you know, in the Jewish world, we really want to emulate our leaders. So, what if your leader What if your leader isn't a particularly happy person? What if your leader is not particularly holy? Meaning they know a ton. They just know a ton. Like they they've got all of Torah in their back pocket. But they're they're they're just kind of rationalists, you know, they're not so into the holy part. You know, there's a lot of holy part. I mean, how much you think Judaism has more of? Instructions or meaning just if you were literally just to add the the documents, add the doc written documents including all our oral tradition that's written, what do you think we have more of? Which stack goes higher? And obviously the stack's taller than the building here, but if you stack them, they would go taller than this I don't know, it'd be like the Empire State Building. Which one stacks higher? This the information about instructions of God's will, like how to do God's will, which many Jewish leaders that's their specialty and that's who we're trying to emulate, or all the material of holiness, the Kabbalistic realities and you know, the Jacob's ladder stuff, stuff that climbs towards heaven. Which you think would be a hot taller stack, which body of information? Both. The same stack. So, the Halakha, same. What do you ladies say? Halakha. I was I was So, okay. So, you're the same or maybe the Halakha. Now, why would you ever guess that? You might guess that cuz you figure for every spirit every law, there's probably a spiritual reality about it. So, it's one-to-one, it sounds. And you probably think that way because you're from the tradition where everyone just studies what to do. No one ever studies that stuff, so how much could there be? So, it turns out that I don't know the actual ratio, but it's it's somewhere over five times more information in the Kabbalistic esoteric Jacob's ladder spirituality ladder. It's something like five times more. And I can explain to you why. And you'll see how exactly, Sam. And that's like let's say there's a law for example. I mean, you can really mention any law. Anyone want to mention a law? I don't care what it is. Positive commandment, negative commandment. Someone want to mention something? Any commandment. Pick a commandment, any commandment. What? Shabbat. Yeah, so Shabbat, okay. So, Shabbat has a lot of law. She chose a massive body of law, like massive. And you know, for example, I have a five-volume thing called the 39 melachot, which are the 39 acts of manipulating matter that you cannot do on on Shabbat, yeah? So, it's five volumes like this. And it's just off one word of the Torah, melacha. Don't do melacha. And it's this big. So, for sure we know that the ratio of words in the Torah, melacha, to laws is going to be way different. There's going to be a lot more on melacha. Now, in the in Shabbat, the laws of Shabbat, which mostly are negative, thou shalt not. There's a reason why there's thou shalt nots. Why our holiest day of the week is mostly thou shalt not. You know why? Because for something special to occur, you have to have a lot of limitation involved. You have to have a lot of limitation. Like let's say someone would like to enjoy a concert. So, there's limitation. Shut your phone off. Shut your mouth off. Be quiet, especially if it's classical concert. You know, and there's rules there. Stay in your seat. You know, you go sit in someone else go poach someone's seat and then they come, you know, it's going to disturb everybody. You know. So, marriage, like there's a lot of don't do's there, man. You want to ignore the don't do's in your marriage, good luck having any intimacy. So, the holiest day of the whole week is Shabbat. And what is achievable on Shabbat by you refraining from those 39 acts? It's connection with Hashem. And that's going to be you know, again, it's just going to be a massive body of information of what is available to connect to Hashem on Shabbat compared to what you must refrain from. You understand? Give you an example of a positive. You brought up a negative commandment, but I'll bring up a positive commandment. I mean, again, I could choose anything. And even something very arbitrary. Like tefillin. Tefillin has, you know, hundreds of laws. I mean, there's more laws in just the black boxes than all the world's religions put together. But the tefillin Let's take an arbitrary law on tefillin. So, it's just a little law. Just says make sure your tefillin is above the hairline. Little law, not a big deal. Just don't let it drop below the hairline. And if you're have a receding hairline, you got to remember where it was. But make sure the tefillin's below the hairline. I'm sorry, above the hairline. And and so I always feel bad for these Chabadniks cuz some many Chabad groups, Chabad synagogues, all they got left is Persians who are willing to come. You know, like who's willing to come? So, Persians. So, the problem is in the Persian tradition, tefillin go on the forehead. Yeah, because whatever Persians went through over there in their, you know, whatever their relationship to Halakha was. I don't know that evolution, but somehow they lost that particular in piece of information. So, I So, when whenever you talk to Chabadniks with synagogues filled with Persians, they like it's their nightmare. It's their nightmare to to have this whole community of people with their tefillin like sticking off their foreheads. And then and how do you know which ones are really students of the rabbi there and not just happy this rabbi's dedicated his life to give these Persians somewhere they can go on Shabbat. Is the you'll see there will be like one in 10 of them will have his tefillin in the right spot. And I go up to the rabbi, yeah, I just happen to be there cuz I'm staying in a hotel nearby for the night or something. I'll go to the rabbi, I'll say, "Who's that one?" He's like, "He's my student." Like he's my student, you know. That one's mine. That Musad over there is my student. So, the um Can you send me that water, please? You can throw it. So, anyway, so what I wanted to share was um a principle that you're only going to grow as great as your mentor. You may grow beyond your mentor and your your mentor's job is to make you beyond him. Like the biggest joy of a mentor in Judaism is when you've become obsolete, where your students have surpassed you. That's the goal of the mentor. Is when you're no longer necessary. Meaning every rabbi has to have the goal to lose his job. I would be overjoyed if someone could take my 3:00 to 4:00 and nail it more than I nail it. And it's And if you were my student, that would be like the greatest badge of honor. And I thank God cuz I'm doing this so many years. I've been sitting through many classes of my students over the years who know light years more Torah cuz I'm so busy loving the world that I you know, I'm not the guy sitting and studying all day. So, so I So, they have been many of these guys are that guy who sits and studies all day. And I've been able to sit through their classes. I've been able to call them when I have Halakhic questions that I don't know the answer to and I just happen to know he knows that cold. And I'll call him and get the answer real quick. And that's my joy. So, the mentor has to see himself being surpassed by everyone. And every rabbi A successful rabbi should lose his job because he built his community so much that he's no longer the best suited for the position compared to the people in the community that he built. And the But us as the community, you know, you're looking at that height of your mentor, that's probably as far as you're going to go unless you thank God go beyond, which please God we all do, but right? Your mentor has to be the person that's full of joy. And when I say joy, the full spectrum. They're not missing part of it cuz if they're missing part of it, there's some dysfunction there. They can't be joyous only deep down. They have to also have at their at their fingertips the the external kind of fluffy joy. The other thing is that is that they have to be holy. Why? Because that's what you want. I mean, don't you want to be like the holiest person? Don't you want to be so holy? Well, then you better have a mentor that's holy. Well, how is you how can you have a mentor that's holy and joyous if they haven't if they don't have have never um um they've never confronted the the part of Judaism that's about holiness. You know. And that part is called That part is called uh I'll write it down since we're making a distinction here. It's called uh in Hebrew limudei Hashem. Limudei Hashem and then there's another thing called Limudei I'm running out of room there. versus Limudei ratzon Hashem. These are two separate bodies of wisdom in Judaism. Limudei Hashem and Limudei ratzon Hashem. This one is the study of God, which is the holiness. Study of God and leads to the holiness. And this is the uh this is the study I'm going to run out of room. Study of God's will. Study of God's will and that leads to knowledge. And um more specifically alignment. More specifically alignment. It leads to cuz if you don't know God's will, if you haven't studied the laws what God wants, so you will be out of alignment with God's will and wisdom. So, you have to study this stuff to be in alignment. Another way of putting it is the word spiritual. ritual Spiritual, the spirit is here and the ritual is here. That's spiritual. And so, the spirit of of what we're doing here, I mean the whole point of it all is not What's the Why is this Why is doing God's will not the point of it all? Why is that not the point of it all? Why is doing God's will not the point? It's not fair question for these three ladies that came later cuz they missed the Jacob's ladder part. What rung is doing God's will? The very first rung of Jacob's ladder. What's that called in Hebrew? Ev ship Ev ship Hashem eved Hashem. What is it and what's it engendered by? What's the definition of someone who's a servant of God on that level? What did we say? What was its definition the first rung in the ladder? Slave, good. Which means I serve God no no matter what. Whether I'm feeling it, I'm not feeling it, I'm I'm into it, I understand what I'm doing, I don't understand what I'm doing. You know, like how much do I really know about like all the massive amounts of information what you get over a studying Kabbalah. Like for example, I mentioned that one arbitrary law of having the filling over the hairline. Why? Because the filling have to be and now we go in the Kabbalah, has to be over this fontanel. The fontanel is uh I like that name cuz it sounds like the fountain of God. It's a you know, it's a medical term, but it's the part of the brain like if you feel a baby's head soft there, we have we all have an aperture right there and the filling has to go over that aperture. And the only way we know it will go over that aperture if you make sure the filling doesn't drop over your hairline. What's the big deal with that aperture? Well, that aperture sits over the cerebral cortex. That's your frontal lobe. Cerebral cortex is where all your neurons are that just fire or don't fire. They They are basically atheists. Because they they catch all the smell and the touch and the sight and they see this world and they're basically atheists and and they and we have to impress upon our these men do have to impress upon their cerebral cortex, the atheist in them the oneness of God and that that's what's really going on. So, I could keep going there by the way. I'm not going to keep going there on what the filling do over the fontanel. But I could keep going and going. In fact, I've taught an over an hour class just on why the filling goes over the fontanel. How long did it take me to say the law? 2 seconds? Filling above the hairline. Done. I've taught I probably a good hour class on just what the esoteric knowledge talks about when it comes to the why that is. Why that's important. Which is the spirit behind it or the why. And the ritual is the what. And spending your whole life working towards becoming someone who has as much knowledge as an unhappy overly you know I shouldn't say overly. Someone an unhappy uh person with a predisposition of remembering lots of facts about how to align themselves with God. This alignment is probably going to lead me to be an unhappy person and a an unhappy knowledgeable person. Whereas if I emu if my mentor is someone climbing Jacob's ladder with diligence and dedication and sacrifice and devotion and surrender. And I'm choosing to emulate that person and that person has not a lot to do with has the whole trajectory of of joy from the deeper joy to the you know, smiling and external joy. They These people are out there, I promise you. In both the Hasidic and non-Hasidic communities, they exist. And I make that person my mentor. I mean, you tell me. I What's your first name again? Jacob, sorry. Jacob, you tell me. You saw it two in a vacuum. Like there's me and then there's another one of me and one spends all his time dedicating to to dedicating to emulate a rabbi who's mastered this. And then there's another one of me who's dedicated my life to a guy who's also mastered this but he's but this is his goal and where his mastery is going. Like who's going to wind up happy and holy? He's going to wind up happy and holy. You know, I just want to say one more thing. And this is going to sound a little crazy and again, I'm risking a lot by saying any of this stuff cuz I'll probably start getting angry emails. But and maybe I'm crazy but I've met people who are nowhere on Jacob's ladder but they're looking at Jacob's ladder. This is not Jacob's ladder. This is the first rung. I've met people who are desperate to climb Jacob's ladder who don't know their knee from their elbow in Judaism. But they know enough to know that that's what they're after. And they're going to study and they're going to align themselves and they're maybe they already are or maybe maybe the guy's already been keeping Judaism for 3 4 years but he's still you know, I mean takes forever to even like look somewhat normal in the community and and uh but there's something about having him at my Shabbos table compared to a very learned guy who's wearing a business suit and a necktie. And a mafia hat. There's something that who knows 10 times more 10 times more than the guy sitting across from him at my Shabbos table. There's something about the guy dedicated to holy and happy to Jacob's ladder. That and I don't even know what it is but there's just something about it that I'm really enjoying him as his host. Whoever it is and there's plenty of people that and sometimes they look exactly the same but I know what they're both up to. One of them's totally not into Jacob's ladder. And and the other one's totally into Jacob's ladder and they're both in the same Yeshiva and they're all they're dressed wearing the same suit and the same tie and everything. And they but it's just a pleasure being with that person. While the other one's a bit of a stink bug, you know, I'm I'm thinking like let's bench when I look at him. And when the other guy is there, I'm thinking let's open up another book on you know, the parsha. Let's look at something else on the parsha. Let's go deeper on the parsha. The other guy's like why don't we just end this meal here. You know, you ate. Get going. So, I don't know what it is and I I'm telling you that's why I said I'm just going to share some thoughts cuz I I haven't I don't know where I'm going with any of this stuff, but No. Not at all because you could this people will consider the spark for growth in this enough of a spark. Whereas I'm saying this something smells differently when this is the spark for the growth. By the way, these people are very into what's called Tikune Middos. Um building good character. They they've kind of they've kind of supplanted this with good character. You understand like they really are working on selfishness and ego and all kinds of stuff. Yeah. Yeah, it could and for those who didn't hear is is what's your name? Zev's bringing up that this could very well be correlated to personality traits. It may be, but but what's interesting about that is that when you're born into a community that is about this and you're this guy you could really suffer. And if you're and if you're born for this and you're in this community, you could really suffer. So, it's it's a good question. Could be. Could be it's just a matter of diet for every soul. Different souls have And then there's question if you're a woman. I mean I can count on one hand how many women I know that have gotten anywhere in this study. You understand? Like I can literally name them. And exhaust the list on one hand. Now, of course there's tons more that I don't know. I mean, I don't know everybody in the world, but you know, women don't have so much access to that stuff and you have to know Aramaic and you have to be able to read Rashi script and you got to you got to have access to such Seforim and and you and you can't get anywhere in it even with all that, you can't get anywhere without a mentor taking you there. And I promise you none of the men I know over there are taking any women there. You know, just because there's so much separation in gender. That that's just not what's going on over there. It's not co-ed. At all. So. And there's nothing wrong with those women. But then I think about my wife. My wife has a tremendous appetite for spirituality like tremendous more than mine. And she has found one of the one of the women I can name on one hand. She found one and has made her her teacher. So, she does have that mentor. And uh and her appetites I would say is even bigger than mine for that. So, she's proving that gender isn't a barrier for that. But then again, as Zev said, maybe it's just personality traits. Like I married a woman like me who has that as a goal. But I think the biggest proof that maybe is against what you're saying, Zev, or maybe you can show me where it still sticks is that is that throughout most of Jewish history, these were one-stop shop. You know, that's Rabbi Akiva saying something in the Mishna. But that's Rabbi Akiva saying something in the Zohar. That's Rabbi Shimon saying something in the about Hilchos Shabbos, Sicha Rishon V'lo Yamos, V'nichle, you know. Like uh the we're talking about Devarim Sheb'ein Mikovin. That's Rabbi Shimon. But that's Rabbi Shimon who who ascribed the Zohar. You understand? So, it was it was one-stop shop throughout most of history. It wasn't like today where we're so far gone that like when you have a Halacha question, you call that one. When you have a Kabbalistic question, you call that one. When you have a question in you know, in your life, you know, like a life counseling question. You call that one. Today everything's specialized because we're you know, really far down the rabbit hole of Jewish exile. So, it's but it will believe me, it wasn't personality traits back then. It was one-stop shop. They were this this was called the rung first rung of the ladder of Jacob's ladder as I serve God no matter what. And then there was climbing the ladder. But but you do notice that people have different appetites. People do. I notice my appetite's just different than other people when it comes to Nigleh, revealed Torah and Nistor, hidden Torah. Like I have I have a different appetite than other people and and my diet requires different amounts than others. But again, we're in a crazy generation. So, you know, that's might have something to do with it plus there's social reasons, maybe my upbringing. I'm also you know, I can I I'm guilty as charged of coming in on a major Baal Teshuvah wave buzz like a crazy buzz. You know, remember the '90s here and you were here already in the '80s. What? Remember those buzzy times? I mean, I'm guilty as charged. I came in in like some crazy buzz and this place was like people were just walking around like like Hallelujah, you know, it was like the craziest time to be here. You just couldn't believe it both in quantity of people and quality of of what was happening. It was just the craziest renaissance that maybe historically unprecedented and never to be repeated perhaps, but well, until Mashiach. You really felt Mashiach was coming like we were all shocked that Mashiach didn't come on a daily basis. And and the um anyway, the uh but I'm guilty as charged as as being involved in a high. And so, the fact that I fact that I instantly was gravitating towards the high stuff, you know, and spending a lot of time in Sefat and like finding the teachers who had the joy and had the had the holiness. You know, like I I had to find them and and then dedicate my path to theirs and emulate them. You understand? That's how I came into this whole thing, you know. Came in when everyone was high. Okay, it was a pleasure. Those who sat through the whole thing, good going. And those watching or listening, please click on all the appropriate buttons. Okay, that's share, subscribe, comment. Uh what else do you got to share? Uh all those things. Click on all those things and obviously the join the club the Yom Tov Media Club.com. And help uh get help us get this out there as much as possible. I'm in Brooklyn next week and uh the November 10th in Brooklyn and November 17th in Monsey for possible use seminars. Please join me. Shalom. Shalom. 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