When you don't feel like it.

[Music] Shawn welcome practical spirituality here in the old city of jerusalem overlooking the Temple Mount just one announcement is there's gonna be a possible use seminar in Jerusalem probably the last one in the winter even though it's the beginning of the winter and that's gonna be going on this coming week December something and and then the other thing is the executives anyone who's hearing this was a graduate of the seminar where it looks like we're going next month to Sedona Arizona for an executive trip that'll be men only and obviously people are interested in extreme adventure now today we're going to be discussing the you know a continued discussions on Jacob's Ladder Jacob's Ladder is is you know this week's partion that's the ladder to spirituality okay that's how you get to so we see the ladder is standing on its it's going towards the ground that was yesterday's class and and it's the head of the ladders going to heaven it goes to the sky let's discuss ladders it's an interesting analogy a ladder that the the path of spirituality is a ladder so what does that mean exactly well I heard one cool thing from rabbit wallerstein today is that a ladders the only thing you go down while looking up it's pretty cool thought now I know that pry doesn't mean anything to but he's saying that when your life's difficult look up like if you feel yourself going down look up to heaven meaning look up to God like God's teaching you something this is part of a plan this is not random this is not you're not hated okay you're still loved you just need to go through something right now okay so that's a that's one nice thing about a ladder another nice thing about a ladder is that it's got its got spiritual rungs because the steps in a ladder are called rungs it's got spiritual rungs that are necessary meaning lower rungs runs you're not even on anymore you're higher than those rungs let's hope on your climb yeah you've gone beyond the lower rungs but they're necessary why are they necessary because ladder is what would happen if every time you stepped up a rung of a ladder the rung under your feet would disappear meteor to fall out what would happen to the ladder if as you climb this big ladder every rung your foot let's go of to get to the next rung it drops out what would happen to the ladder very unsaid what would happen ultimately that ladder will split and so that's another really amazing part of this analogy of the ladder is that is that you need the lower rungs you need those those are not because you never know what's gonna happen to you in your life and there may be times in your life where those lower rungs you're gonna have to be able to fall back on them so and you another thing about them is you can't really skip them people who skip rungs usually have to backtrack you know there's a path everyone knows in spirituality you know you're on some level of a path of you know respect of the path and and it's a hole it's you know you don't just jump on it's not it's not an iPhone spirituality you know it's it's step by step but you got to use it you got to go on each step properly you can't skip them or else it's also not stable you're gonna wind up go having a painful experience of going back and dealing with that stuff so there's no skipping no on each rung of the ladder you got to deal with parts of yourself because think about the ladder you're climbing to God but as you're climbing to God you're climbing away from from ego you know to climb to God's a climb away from ego which means every rung is gonna come with a go each rung in the ladder is gonna have its own ego that you'll have to deal with and this is why you can't skip rungs because if you skip a rung that means there's a there's echo following up their ladder that didn't get dealt with on lower rungs and now you're on rungs that don't necessarily talk to that part of the ego and this is why you can meet someone who's like a more spiritual type person but still involved in mystic behavior and maybe you'll find someone selfish like spiritual and selfish like this don't go together spiritual and selfish but but there there's lower rungs that you're gonna have to deal with your selfless you know like you're gonna have to become selfless to deal with that rung in the ladder so let's talk about different runs on the letter I think I have pins over here let's make a ladder and climb the ladder together so let's see let's check out we'll start with let's do a lower rung a middle rung and then a couple high rungs okay hey so I'd like to start with the bottom rung of the ladder I don't know how to make a ladder come be doing that look ladder ish okay the bottom is going towards the earth not on the earth because the earth goes lower every generations further from Sinai so that you always have to have installed you always have to install new rungs as the generations go away meaning as the generations go further and further down like if this is the earth here it's getting lower and lower so the ladder has to be pointing towards the earth not on there that's why the Torah says that the shulam was moots of arts uh what's arts I mean when you add a hey at the end of a word are its means land it should have said assumed was Musab al Haaretz on the earth but what does it mean arts ax towards the earth which is a strange thing for a ladder to be going towards it's either on the earth or it's floating the answer is is that it's going towards the earth so that new rungs can be put in overtime so people can step up the ladder up at the top of the ladder this is the heavens okay up there the heavens that's the goal the goal is transcendence okay we're all here stuck in these bodies and there's for sure are gonna be some levels of suffering in this world you're gonna have to make it somehow and have a over your head and deal with all those you know responsibilities that come and you're gonna you're gonna have to slay a lot of dragons in your life and it's gonna be difficult and you have a side of a dark side that wants to quit and just drift away and die and you've gotta you've also gotta yeah you've got a dark side that that's that's bad like just wants to do bad like you got a lot of battles in this world and and our job is ultimately to transcend and that's Jacob's Ladder the base of the ladder it's right outside this window it's the Holy of Holies so you're actually hearing this class right across from the stories going on because the this holy of Holy's right outside this window here is the wormhole meaning the space and time interface to those upper realms and so it's pretty cool to hear this class right and have this week's partial right across from where the ladder stood and the and of course Jacob you know the famous line is that Jacob put rocks around his head but in the morning it turned to the word rock and they in the there's a Madras that says that all the rocks were fighting over who gets to be you know the pillow and they all wanted it bad enough that God United them all and they became one rock by the morning so that they could all be under under Jacobs head throughout the night but that's not that important for us you might know sorry about the ambient noise but if you could open that window just to get put some air in this room we always have a problem in the winter because then the heat out there becomes the heat in here and there's no way to put AC on well that's loud just to have just do it for like one minute all right so so let's start with this first rung this first rung here which my blue pens become an eraser this first rung my red pens no good this first run is called servant the first rung in the ladder is called serpent and what's cool about that rung in the ladder and there's probably some of you who have reached that rung and some of them not which is pretty scary because if you imagine like not even being on Jacob's Ladder like what a disappointing Shabbat this is gonna be you know like going into the Shabbat about Jacob's Ladder and you're not even on it so so but maybe take this class everyone listen to this class give it one more minute everyone listen to this class in such a way that from this class going forward you're on the ladder okay so what is the nature of a sermon can someone give you some want to try what's the nature of a servant meaning even for a human master of flesh and blood yeah okay takes orders very good what else okay takes them fulfills them subordinate of obedient any others so there's one where I want to share is that is that a servant serves whether he likes it or not you know like I mean if you like caught a cold and your master now wants you to take water and like bring buckets of water to his roof so he can take a shower and he says he says you know I'd like you to bring up about a hundred buckets and heat him up so I can shower so which means he's gonna be sharing in like five hours because 100 buckets probably take about five hours to get it up to the fourth floor so what if you have a fever so you've been five hours with a fever when the buckets of water up top I mean if you're gonna die so then the master wouldn't even let you do it because he doesn't want to lose his servant meaning if it's just totally irresponsible but okay that's one thing let's say you're perfectly healthy and you happen to be passing the master in the stairwell after you've already done 50 buckets of water and he's on his way down and you're on your way up two buckets in either hand and you say to the master you know master I don't feel it I don't feel it I'm just not feeling it what would the master say what were the master say if you said I don't feel it what keep going what else laughs that's nice but how many of us have had lackluster Judaism meaning our Judaism's not been very inspired and when someone asked us gee that didn't look very inspired you'd say well you know I'm not really feeling it you understand that's it then you didn't get on the ladder you're not on allowed yet now in deference in or in defense of people who aren't even on the ladder it could be that they're they're missing certain things like for example like how do we know there's a God to begin with and how do we know the Taurus the path of truth as opposed to just some random narrative because there's a million narratives out there and Judaism looks like just one narrative you understand like there may be a reason why people aren't on the ladder and if you're if there's reasons why you're not a ladder Sojin then deal with those reasons and once you've dealt with those reasons get on the ladder it's like let's take a poll of everyone in this room anyone here still working out whether this is a ladder you even want to be on no everyone here has just already worked out all those toughies and everything like they figured they like I could sit next to it on an L all plane and you would explain to me exactly that there's a god and that Torah is true everyone here is like that no ok so raise your hand if if you still haven't dealt with everything you're not like totally clear thank you that's almost everyone in here ok and then raise your hand if you're you know you're basically clear you know what the goal is you know what you know what the game is ok basically clear you know the point you know where you're going ok great so it has turned out to be like half the room and half the room now of course those second half on the room the second half of the room raise your hand again the group that said that they more or less got the gold down like they understand where what we're doing here so that second half of the room please raise your hand if your raise your hand if you're if you're not it if you're know what I want to say if you're still not on the first rung solid okay so I was about little more than half about seven people raise your hand about four said they're not on it solid okay so now we have to go deeper into our psychology how could you know the name of the game and still not be on the first rung of Jacob's Ladder and is then so obviously there's something else going on here you know why would someone know the name of the game would still not be on the first rung that they're still doing it if it feels if they feel it and they don't do it when they don't feel it what you go could be ego what else what resentment like towards God what do you mean why would we have to do so like what Shabbat mm-hmm anyone noticed that some things in Judaism are extra hard to do what's an example of something extra lots of things what that's hard loving God always that's not a mitzvah no who's asking about like servant I like the servant now has to go do things and so one of the answers why someone might know the name of the game but still not do it they know the name of the game they still may not do it it's because it's hard I don't know but I'd like to offer some advice makes things easier if you're in first of all if you understand that Hashem is this infinite being who's beyond all of your you know like if you were the biggest genius in the world you'd get just about as much as you got at this point I mean it's on you can't get it yet we're all a figment of its imagination it's creating us here gifting you life and put its put you in a personal growth seminar to help you develop mostly through difficulties which is what happens when you go to personal grow seminars they they kind of stress you out to get you to grow it's put in difficult places so that you can go grow pimples don't pop to press them and so popcorn doesn't pop till you heat it up and make it a little uncomfortable then it pops eventually so you've been given a gift of life by a being that seems a little II a little over concerned with you like you would think that God just has better things to do than you and yet there there he is orchestrating everything for you even even orchestrates your most difficult stuff the stuff you suffer with so it's just a little strange that God so interested in you all the time it's also a little strange that everyone else has free will because if you look at your life the weights orchestrate it seems like no one should have freewill cuz everyone's being perfectly orchestrated around you so like they have free will how could they have free will and being Orchestrator around me and then you think for a segue to saying but I have free will and I'm getting organized orchestrate around everyone else and so you start to realize that God's this being that you'll never ever ever understand but he's super crazy about you and once you realized that you've got a being that's beyond belief great but has this laser beam focused on you with a total 100% at all times interest you know what would happen if God took his focus off you for one second you know what would happen if God took his focus off you and once for one singing what what would happen well you wouldn't be here you're only here because he's focusing on you now you'd actually dematerialize that's the way you do it but if God were actually gonna switch off you you'd be you it's not that you die you'd be gone like that God all that be left is pair of blue jeans undershirt you're wearing an undershirt by the way a pair of blue jeans I'm known to make fun of people's clothing so all that would be left would be a pair of blue jeans and undershirt Nick a white kiba and we'd used to be like huh what's your name what's your name and it would be like what happened to Ellie and then I'd be like oh god stop thinking about him and then we'd all say a little prayer oh please bring any pain we like girly and then what happens like boom and all of a sudden his shirt and his pants just like it filled up again and like blue myse back so loving God even asking the question of loving God is like it's like the biggest joke in the world you understand meaning it's natural we would be loving God if we just understood what I just said it's natural that we'd be loving God at all times you know that that we wouldn't if we understood that we're being created in God's gods basically stalking you he's basically stalking you at all times you know it's a little creepy the way he's just a little overly interested in you and and it's so anyway but when you when you get that it's much easier to love God in regarding the things that God asks of the asks of us that are difficult well there's an easy way out of that - tell me did your parents ever do anything difficult to take care of used your brains ever do anything difficult like how about pregnancy and birth diapers and feedings and in car pools and and you know just endless endless hours of investment in you now if you ask a parent do you like being a parent I really doubt any of them would say it's too difficult meaning no it's too difficult I don't like it I'm out I'm now a parent to do that there are parents who abandon their children but it's usually not moms and it's usually not even dads meaning they usually don't offend their kids and so why are they doing such difficult things over and over again over large periods of time like really really difficult things why do the parents want to do all these difficult things answer when you really love someone you'll do really difficult things and it's your pleasure it's not difficult they it may be a daunting task and I know I've met a lot of secular Jews who watch the way I do something and they'll say wow you know like put a lot into that and I'm like yeah no I aren't you exhausted and I'm like no I'm hyper focused on the being that loves me creates me and this being is loving me at all times has given me an opportunity to serve Him and if he gave me an easy way to serve Him so okay that's nice but if it gives me a difficulty to serve Him what a beautiful way of showing it it's like let's say you're buying flowers for your wife for Shabbos and the local flower source close now is where you get to start flexing your your love you know flexing it like okay go further until you find a store that's open and now you buy the bouquet you would have bought her and it turned out the next door was closed too but you finally find a store that's open that's a little ways away and you handed the flowers what's the feeling in your heart here's the flowers that I have --sold across town for all right here's here's like a greater expression of love than the flowers from down the block and the answer is the second one here's a greater expression of love with the flowers that I had to go through a lot to get but when you stay focused on the love so then it's not difficult now there are people whose hearts have been hurt and they don't feel love from anything or anyone so that you know obviously requires maybe some therapy or something to but like actual therapy that works to heal the heart so that they can love again that might be necessary as well I said I'd tell you about other levels ladder but I'll just do them quickly the top level ladder is to is to become one with God next level is prophecy next level you could call divine inspiration around the middle of our ladder is as a area called enlightenment enlightenment swear you've already you finally got rid of the ego altogether and what the only thing I want to show you guys before we finish is that is that people go to India to get to here this is the top people go to India there's the top of the ladder that's the word Buddha Buddha means enlightenment so Buddhism is the the religion of enlightenment and the idea is to get to the point where there's no self where the egos gone that's the goal it's the goal and Judaism as well just left the table because there's a lot of levels above enlightenment that are that are available to a Jewish person and of the highest would be prophecy that would be a super high level on jacob's ladder please please feel free to feel free to help this rabbi feed a family for Shabbat he feeds a family every Shabbat whatever we gives what they so you'll feel good on Shabbat this week knowing that you helped out a family rabbi thank you so much for doing that for us if you didn't do it we'd have to go shopping but thanks for bringing home the goods to that family that's very sweet if it folds the buys like chicken and fish if it jingles of bicep Pringles let's just say that 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 in 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 media club calm please go online yom tov media club calm