4 Jews: Marx, Spinoza, & Freud -- and Abraham

the yeshiva dotnet the opening pisaq verse of parsha / laka is really one of those verses that has left and created one of the greatest impacts and influences in all of history as it begins a journey of one lone person to an unknown destination the partial f lakota Ginn's with the words viremia Schemmel Avraham Hashem says Avram Abraham Leclerc oh my art Sakuma milada the colony base of Viva L ha or 'it's a share our echo literally translated go to you from your land from your birthplace from the home of your father to the land which I will show you of Rama V new who is 75 years old at the time he's not called Avraham yet or avi know our Father or Abraham he's not a father nor is he Abraham of Romney's Avram Allah vase regime M without the hay of ROM not Avraham I'm using that name simply because of what would happen later on in the story he hears the call and he obeys he together with his spouse ara and together with their nephew and their entire enter aaj they leave a place called Karan and off he goes on this journey this journey would be the beginning not only of a new life and not only of a new chapter in history but of an entire that's the beginning of the birth of an entire new nation that would be charged to create a paradigm shift in human consciousness in human civilizations in human civilization and ultimately changed the world but when we focus on this particular verse which is what I want to do today one immediately notices a few very enigmatic details that challenge us and stimulate us to take it one step deeper on the most basic level this is a divine commandment to the first man and woman who would become the first Jews the father and mother of Jewish history the founding fathers the founding father and mother of the Jewish faith if you will it's a geographical instruction Hashem tells Avram I want you to leave he was living in a place called Karen region called today Mesopotamia in Iraq northern Iraq northern Iraq and he says let go journey left from the word viola the goal aid is halika movement journeying transitions I want you left I want you to move on leave your land leave your birthplace and leave the home of your father and go to the land which I will show you which of course is the land called the land of Canaan Canaan the land of Canaan later would be known as Eretz he throw the land of Israel but then it was called Eretz canal and the land of canal but if that's what this commandment was all about a few questions come to mind first of all what's the left laho go to you you don't go to you in in Hebrew even till today you say let's go may arts are from your land from your birthplace from your home left me bade Carla my art so far left Meir ha what's left look ru you go with you you're the one who's going you're not going to you let go this is obviously a very striking expression that all of the commentators beginning with Rashi and everybody else struggle with the next question is something which seems very superfluous the moment you're telling of Rama to leave his country his land that includes automatically leaving his birthplace and leaving the home of his parents the home of the parents is in the birthplace and the birthplace is in the land so once you say let's look America at Lauritzen Shaka the message is clear leave your land then go to another land imagine you would tell somebody leave the United States of America leave New York State and leave Rockland County or leave Muncie the moment you're leaving the United States of America automatically you have left New York you have left Muncie and you have left for Shay so once you say let's look America all other expressions that come afterwards already included in leaving the land they're superfluous but the question really becomes stronger if for whatever reason you want to specify you want to get into details you want to specify leave your birthplace leave your parents home leave your country the order should have been oppas should have been reversed Leffler comma bass visa leave the home of your parents now let's take it a step further you could move out of your home or your parents into the home of your uncle or into the home of your neighbor get a house next door or next walk as happens all the time that's what parents wish for get married but stay close so say let's look up a base of vehicle from their parents their home but these could still be in the birthplace in the region where you were born so the next stage is leave your birthplace and then not only leave your birth ways leave your entire land leave your entire country which is a more expansive and encompassing term so if you're anyone to specify the three the order is wrong you don't leave your country and then leave your parents on once you left your country or they left your parents all likely call me base of it then my lad that the car and then may arts occur even if you want to specify the three which is also not understood why you need all three but even if you want to say all three the order doesn't make sense because if you left your land you already left the other two the order had to be the other way around start with the smaller and then expand it apart it's not only enough to leave your parents almost not only I love to leave let's say not only I love enough to leave your parents I'm not only enough to leave the neighbourhood your birth place the region the community the neighborhood the city the state but even the entire land the entire country as we would call it today finally this is the first instruction given by God to the first Jew Avram this is the first communication there will be others there would be seven communications of God - from that we will study but this is the first one this is the opening statement the opening message one would therefore assume that this would contain something fundamental to the legacy to the perspective to the veldt on shank to the view of Judaism yet at first glance it seems no more than a geographical instruction why is this chosen as the first time he communicates them the first message I have to tell you is it's time to pack your suitcases and bags and leave that's the first and opening statement of the creator of the world - the first Jew one would assume that the opening statement would be something that would define the relationship the message the theme the mission the purpose the perspective - cough etcetera so throughout the ages as you can imagine many of the commentators many of them a forum of different generations different Malia's different countries themselves different backgrounds and different levels of interpretation have offered various perspectives on trying to glimpse some of the depths of this opening statement of Hashem - the first Jew Avram and today basil Shem I want to explore one interpretation there are quite a few I'm saying but let's try to explore at least one cuz I'll famously say Shivam ponte military there are 70 faces to the Torah meaning everything has 70 faces 70 ways to look at it and the reason in sharra Gill ghulam that every verse and mitzvot and law and story of the Taira has six hundred thousand interpretations in chat and six hundred thousand interpretations in reamers and six hundred thousand interpretations in Jewish and six hundred thousand interpretations inside because every soul generally there are six hundred thousand souls those souls are branched off into many more but there are six hundred thousand let's call them like root trees and every root has its branches so there are six hundred thousand - Amba sister all and each soul has its own interpretation the same quelques nubes Arisaka give me my part in terror we have our our interpretation our unique relationship with it so each soul has its own interpretation on a literal level shot remiz homolytic eleven drache which is more Talmudic and interconnected level and side which is mystical and esoteric a level each one six hundred thousand so that means 2.4 million right 2.4 million two million and four hundred thousand interpretations just to begin with so you could sit at XI room for your whole life and you could sit with teachers throughout all of history and I don't know what people get 2 3 4 5 6 7 the faces is already pretty loaded 2.4 million is quite a dramatic number but in all it demonstrates how many how much how many layers of significance exist literally need for each verse and it's really not strange that there are so many interpretations because since Torah is infinite it's divine and therefore it's infinite so infinity actually includes much more than two point four million two point four million is already a compromise the number relative to infinity so we're going to explore out of 2.4 million interpretations 1 the journey 2.4 million miles always begins with one class oh and here we'll discover how each question is really an answer every question that we raised we asked why it says let's go to you there's no need for that word that's an extra word and it's a confusing word you go with you you're the one who's going you don't say go to you I need to go to the airport go could the airport not go to you to the airport or wherever you're going the second question of why the need of all three geographical statements when they're superfluous one is included the next question about the order which seems reversed and the next question which is why this was the first message of God to the first Jew all these questions are really answers meaning when we understand the deeper perspective of this verse at least one of the deeper perspectives we see that it's precisely written this way in order to convey the message it's trying to convey in additional of course to the literal geographical instruction I want you to go away from this place and go to another place the Gemara says in Shaba 63 a myriad sim and a prosciutto generally every pasta cosa has a very straightforward literal interpretation but within it is contained not only a geographical commandment but also what you might call an existential commandment this is not just an instruction to have Rama we know about geography I want you to move away and relocate from this place to a new place which is in itself significant but much more than that it's an exact existential directive about moving away from a certain type of existence to a different type of existence and based on this the Torah has to say look how the Torah has to include three things your land your birthplace and your parents home and particularly in this order because when I'm asking you to move away not just physically geographically then I just say leave the country leave the United States and that means excuse me leaving New York and leaving your community and leaving your neighborhood and of course leaving your home wherever you live if you left the United States you left your home if you grew up here or whatever other country you're leaving in that case it happened to be Iraq but if I'm talking not only about a geographical relocation I'm talking about an existential paradigm shift I'm talking about a movement in terms of a person's self image self perception a person's internal character and identity here I precisely have to communicate it not only in this not here I precisely have to enumerate all of these three components and precisely and particularly in this order your land your birthplace and then your parents home and in order to appreciate the message here contrast is always helpful generally as you know and teaching and understanding contrasts are always useful because contrasts allows us to appreciate something in contrast to something else Floy Mahama Locke said this clearly in K helis when he says Ricci I saw she as she saw in Lusaka Mamina syphilis kissed her in her arm in a Haitian there is an advantage to wisdom versus folly sickles's folly nourish chitin what's in other words for it foolishness stupidity rubbish Ness I have seen there's an advantage to wisdom against Valley Kirsten Armand equation as the advantage of light versus darkness what is slow marmella telling us here so one of the interpretations is obviously wisdom is greater than folly and light to superior to darkness that's why we crave light that's what we thank for the for this we thanks we thank for the Sun every day there's a special brothel you'd say I'm iris yes sir a very harsh lysosomal various occur we thank for the luminaries our mayor laureates well adore I'm a la Barraca we don't take it for granted well Mr MELAS is saying is that sometimes you need contrasts in order to appreciate it sometimes you can't appreciate wisdom if you don't see the other and sometimes you can't appreciate light I guess you could never appreciate light if one doesn't know darkness sometimes it takes people to experience the exact opposite then not to take for granted a blessing a gift it's very easy to take things for granted but it's the contrasts that allow us to compare things both emotionally and also intellectually when you really want to appreciate something maybe an idea a certain way of thinking and you contrast it to another one my mom Alex says that's very important and what he's trying to do is say what he's really trying to say is even deeper that when you see the opposite don't get discouraged because it's simply God trying to help you create a contrast so you'll be able to know what the contrasted against meaning in a person's life sometimes a person will experience folly a person will experience syphilis a person will experience darkness and they can become submerged in it and stuck in it but really it's only there to create a contrast a great artist knows that a beautiful piece of art uses contrasts in order to be able to convey the art life is a beautiful piece of art so we're also summoned to use contrasts so when I encounter something that is dark or really folly it's only there to create the contrast so I should be able to know now what's the opposite idea or directive that I have to introduce here so in order to really appreciate this message we got to go to the contrasts and the nucleus of this idea I read once in an essay by the former chief rabbi of Britain rabbi unasyn Sachs or by Jonathan Sacks in Jewish in history there were three Jews who really impacted history in a very profound way whether positive or negative I'll leave to you to decide dear audience and I won't make up I won't make her I won't state a verdict about that today I am NOT in the position anyway the state of conclusive vertical this is a complex complex three people but like in everything in the world ain't toys balarama ain't ah Beloit I have no good without evil and ovule without good but one thing is certain they have had a tremendous impact on history and on the thought of history all three of them were Jewish and it is it is quite fascinating and dramatic to note that when one studies history the disproportionate influence and impact that Jewish minds and Jewish personalities have had on history is beyond mine staggering for a nation that still today does not make up even one percent of human civilization and listen to what I'm saying we don't constitute even one percent of human civilization I should correct myself we don't constitute even a half a percent of human civilization I should correct myself further we don't constitute even one quarter of one percent of human civilization or as somebody once said the number of Jews is less than a statistical error on a Chinese census think about that okay there are 1.2 billion Chinese as I'm talking another million were born and we're still fighting for every Jew 1450 million Jews two and a half billion Catholics 1.6 billion Muslims but when I was once in Shia I was once in China and the prefer is taking that professor and he asked me how many Jews live in the world he said yo tight-end you know what yo tight end means and mandarina means you Jewish yo tight end so yeah he want to know how many Jews there are in the world so instead of answering I said what do you think he said three billion four billion how many I said why why this nobody says from the noise that you make that you know the garagas poor human soul the grog is the noise that you make can't be less I mean can't be in Indonesia live 300 million people how often do you read about Indonesia anybody 300 million people it's a nice amount of people 300 million people how often do you read about it once in 10 years sadly when there's a tsunami or some other crisis people remember this Indonesia Indonesia lives Israel has six point six million Jews not 300 million six and a half million Jews and I don't know if a day goes by that some story of Israel does not occupy the front pages of almost every newspaper and every major news outlet in the world and it's been this way not only since 1948 but since 1948 do you understand what I just said I've Rama vina was born in 1948 1948 since creation Israel was established in 1948 after the Common Era so it's not only this way since 1948 but it's this way since the first 1948 since creation and its really really mine staggering and it all begins with that second verse where God tells of run when you leave something is gonna happen I'm going to turn you into a great nation I will bless you your name will become great you will become a source of blessing and then he gives this Universal Declaration which even many Jews till today have a hard time wrapping their brain around whenever Ahuva coil mishpocha Sodom all the nations of the earth of the entire planet will be blessed through you in other words your role is to become a source of blessing not only for yourself not only for your family not only for your community not only for your larger community not only for your people but all families of the entire planet coal mishpocha Adama will be blessed through you and as an introduction to that he says by avaricum of our heck I will bless those who bless you and those who curse you I will curse which is also not only a promise it's also as most of the tire a prediction of history those who bless you are blessed those who curse you are cursed it's not just if they bless you they'll get a blessing he's actually defining this it's a promise which is actually a way of looking at history and you can go through history and you'll see this almost without exception if you ever want to know if a nation if a country is a good place or a horrible place for its own people for its own people how human rights are respected how minorities are respected if there is oppression or freedom tyranny or self-actualization abuse atrocities suffering caused to people who are dissidents or disagreement misery agony or prosperity happiness there's one litmus test that never fails look at their attitude towards Jews you'll see it look how they treat Jews you want to understand Stalinist Russia in the 1920s 30s 40s 50s 60s you want to know if it's a paradise or a living hell like many million of Western intellectuals thought that it was a paradise just look what they how they treated the Jews when Hitler came into power he started off as usually with the Jews you never end with the day never end with the Jews suicide bombing started in Israel they didn't start in the twin towers then it started Madrid didn't start in London didn't start in Paris started on egged buses basketball fields and pizza shops and shoals and the Shiva's in the Holy Land then came September 11th because where there is a nation that despises Jews that sees Jews as the embodiment of evil you could real you could immediately know there is rotten ritas rottenness here there is decadence here when the Jews become the scapegoat for the ills of their own society you can understand this as a culture that needs a lot of healing a lot of repairing throughout history he says those who bless you you look at those countries and you'll see there's blessing there and those who curse you you'll look at those countries and you'll see their own people will be targets their own people will suffer horribly the Muslim countries where there's horrible abuses of human rights they all have one common denominator their hatred to Israel their hatred to the Jewish people a vile hatred beyond rationality Israel relative to all the Muslim countries is like a match on a football field and yet that match somehow is responsible for all the ills of the entire football field so part of this is seeing the impact of Abraham's people of rama's people on the world sometimes in very powerful were always in very powerful ways but in different ways and three of the Jews who have left a great impact and as I told you you'll be the judge of the nature of that impact our three names Karl Marx Baruch Spinoza or Spinoza as they call him and Sigmund Freud or his real name Slim Allah Freud which he did not like to hear each of them posed a major argument that you could say if you wish was a protest or I should say an alternative to the opening verse of la flaca there are basically two types of atheists there are atheists who just don't believe in God or say they don't believe in God but there are atheists for whom atheism becomes a religion that's a very different type of atheism there's an atheism I don't know I don't believe I'm an agnostic it don't bother me either I have my pain or I have my questions or I'm not interested but then there's an atheism which I take as serious as my religion in other words the atheism itself becomes religious which means it's very dangerous because you can't dispute it atheism that is based on pure rationality you can argue with it you can debate it but when your atheism becomes a religion so now one will believe in it with the same fervor that religious people believe in religion so the no question in the world could challenge it because my atheism is rooted in religious fervor in religious zealousness it has this fundamentalism to it I'm angry about it I was once giving a lecture it was a different type of community than this community a very different type of community and I mentioned the word God the G word which in some places you gotta be careful with and somebody freaked out in very passionate and sophisticated but in Phatak terms God does not exist science has proven that God does not exist eloquent but very very emotional so I looked at him and I said relax why are you getting so emotional about something that doesn't exist I never saw anybody getting so emotional about something that doesn't exist what is in your kishkes what is in your gut that you're getting so emotional about that's a very different type of atheism I once heard from rabbi yard in Stein's outs rabbi add in ebenezer all should have a referral a man from yerushalayim quite a powerful experience that he had he lives in the moshav AAHA Germany in the German colony in Jerusalem Shabbos morning he walks 4050 minutes probably 40 minutes to the old city of your shall I am there OVA where he daven's and it's a Masonic show in the old city it's a show that survived yet from the 19th century and the Jordans did not destroy it even though they destroyed all of the shows and it was rededicated after the liberation of the old city after drue 1967 the Six Day War and he goes there every shot mr. Dahlin on the way he's walking one shot this morning whatever it's 8 or 9 whatever the time was and he meets a very left-wing liberal Israeli artist no left wingers like Israelis Israelis know how to be left winger as much better than American Americans have caught up especially recently but but Israelis have a unique genre of left wingers let's put it this way I was a sophisticated person an intellectual a liberal artist and he meets rabbi add-in stains out who's very respected in Israel by all segments of society he himself grew up in a secular homeys of all truven and he's known as quite a great scholar extraordinary scholar and author translated the whole Gomorrah into a modern Hebrew I think one of the first one to do that and many other works that he wrote and this man meets Simone is a shabbat shalom shabbat shalom we're heading and rabbi add-in says I'm going to show show us I'm going to show to the old city in your shall I am he says where are you heading and he says you know there's one place you could still buy bacon and eggs here so an honor of Shabbos for breakfast I'm going to buy you a bacon and eggs says Wow and what do you do for the second meal of Shabbos Shabbos we have three meals he says there's one place you could still buy real tray for wine the eye Anessa so that's what that's what I'm gonna do and and what about for shallow sugars he says you could still get shrimp and lobster in one of the places one of the restaurants or cafes that's what I'm gonna go for for the third meal of Shabbos and rough stains outs looks at him and says what else do you do in honor of Shabbos he says I'm of course gonna go to the beach make sure to carry my books there and enjoy the beach and read them and so forth so revered Intel's this person he says anemic on Ibaka I'm jealous of you jealous he says of course you're jealous you're going to shul and I'm a free person he says nay that's not why I'm jealous so so why are you jealous of me I'm jealous he says of how deeply Shabbos impacts you I have to say about myself that sometimes Shabbos doesn't affect me it comes in a goes I go through the routines I have a meal I'm a kid ish I go to show I learned I read but it doesn't really get into my bones but for you Shabbos Wow and then he tells him these words in Hebrew I mean Horsch say gamma Tosh from Arabic come on II I'm afraid to say you also observe the Shabbat you do it very differently than I do it but you observe it and you observe it with more passion if Shabbos wasn't a meaningful day just sit home on your couch or read a book stay in bed sit in the garden no you have to go find a place where they serve bacon and a place where they serve Lobster and a place where they serve eaja Nessa and you have to make sure to violate Shabbos why you also need to observe Shabbos it means a lot to you so that's why I'm jealous and the fact is this person became our Shimer Shabbos he started to observe Shabbos he realized the truth that sometimes we have a deep relationship with something but we can't have a relationship of love we're not ready for it so how do we substitute it we create a relationship of hate but a relationship of hate is also sometimes a very very deep relationship but it's the only way I could justify the relationship I'm not ready for an open emotional loving relationship but the emotions are there the connection is there so I substituted with a relationship of hate and fortunate is the person who could see the depth of that relationship it's very easy to look at the external element of it and say act there's no connection here there's actually a deeper connection and sometimes the depth of hate is commensurate with the depth of love as deep as the love is so is the hate which is only the opposite side of it I once heard from the late Elie Wiesel all of our Shalom who said this was a Holocaust survivor and some of you have read his works he was a close friend of my father all of our Shalom and he once said Jews some Jews love God some Jews are angry at God some Jews are in love with God some Jews are furious at God but he says no drew knows how to ignore God they don't know how to ignore God and that's us uniquely form of Jewish atheism it's not just I don't care who do I care which of course is representative of a very deep connection a very deep relationship my father was the editor for many years of a Yiddish newspaper the Algar manager now which he founded an edited and as a result our home was a place where many he'd assistant would come and I knew many of the old leader system somewhere you still remember the name you'd assistant was a very significant group of Jews who believed in Yiddish culture and despised Jewish religion Yiddish was everything they had schools in Yiddish but they were atheists and the Far verts you know what the far verses today there's the weekly forward but the Favre it was a daily yudish socialist left-wing anti-jewish newspaper but very Yiddish in terms of culture and history and this originates in Russia with a group of the Buddhists on but distant were left wingers you distant who were socialists and they called themselves up Ackerson so I remember I was once speaking to the head of what's called the arbiter ring the Workmen's circle they called themselves the Workmen's circle arbitary and at one point they had 600 leaders speaking schools in America and Canada and South America 600 Jewish day school Yiddish speaking nose they hit the Yiddish kite as a faith but the Yiddish was the language the culture of the future and he told me that the Favre it's the forward and the whole forward Association they would make an annual ball an annual banquet for furet for all its members I said when was interesting was there a date chosen for this ball he said yeah Yom Kippur Yom Kippur so I said think about this ym Kippur why not Zion Cashman why not Zion kiss live why not Zion shmatte he says no it had to be on Yom Kippur because they needed to observe him Kippur they couldn't ignore him Kippur they could love it or eat on it but they couldn't ignore it so if you want to understand a lot of Jewish history that's how you have to understand it and different Jews worked very hard in this way not always consciously more than often its subconscious but when you notice the depth of attachment to a particular philosophy one realizes it's not coming from an objective scrutiny and analysis but sometimes there's very deep psychology and emotions in it like really most decisions that people make but sometimes you see it in a very vivid fashion Carole marks Benedict Baruch Spinoza and Sigmund lamella Freud posed different arguments about what is the decisive influence on history what is the most important factor that creates destiny for Youmans as individuals and for human society as a collective group societies communities countries states nations cultures religions faiths etc marks as you know in his manifesto argued that the key issue of what this finds all of human history is what he would call class warfare those who have more versus those who have less it's basically ownership economics your economic status that is what defines who you are how you feel about yourself how you feel about the people around you and therefore he is the father of the socialist movement and what was the main contribution idea of the Socialist Movement complete economic and financial equality in its ultimate incarnation in the communist regime in the Soviet Union after the Bolshevik Revolution hundred years ago 1917 which came to implement the vision of Karl Marx in actual society the ultimate vision was no ownership despite your talents your creativity your inheritance your genius all of the companies or businesses you created the state owns everything and we distribute to everybody equally according to their needs the kibbutz movement in the Land of Israel for many years was trying actually to take socialist ideas and implemented in the modern State of Israel and many of the early founders of Israel secular Jews were deeply influenced by the socialist ethic and idealism of Karl Marx which attracted millions of young Jews because in many ways it's very idealistic especially when you're young a world that is free of war of violence of strife because all war violence and strife Marx argued had to do with land economics ownership those who have versus don't those who don't have the serfs and the workmen and women who were being manipulated and abused for him all religions all developments of society was simply the brilliant strategy of people who have to be able to manipulate those who don't have and keep them in order that they should not revolt that was it that's what systems of government did that's what monarchs did that's what priests did that's what the church did that's what all religions did that's all it was and it came the time mark said where the workmen have to rise in revolt and say the world is Oliver the world belongs to all of us equally and for him this was it you deal with this problem you create financial equality and you healed the world this was a messianic utopia introduced by Marx and first implemented in Stalinist first implemented by the revolution of Vladimir Lenin followed by Trotsky and and Stalin and all of the leaders of the Soviet Union which created one of the greatest living hell's on earth Stalin himself killed close to 50 million people in the name of the socialist idea which of course doesn't tell us anything about the idea themselves it tells us more about Stalin but nonetheless the two are connected but that's not the topic of our of our lecture today the relationship between original ideas of Marx and what happened in the Soviet Union you could I'm sure some of you have read Animal Farm everybody is equal but some are more equal than others so George Orwell got it pretty right when it came to this issue and some other issues and the fact there is Marx was a Jew he was baptized as a child his father was baptized Marx had a special hate to the Jewish people because that has to do with Jewish self-hate that's the atheism I spoke about you see it in his writings but this was his argument you are controlled by your financial state that's how it is and he said he said look at what people worry all day about they're stressed the bills tuition today mortgages are husana by mitzvah whenever you hear people complain at least a disproportionate amount of complains are about money in one way or another the stress that comes with it anxiety and he says all war came from this all violence came from this all bloodshed came from this and if the world can deal with this we're good this is ultimately what controls the human identity that was Marcus Spinoza argued that our nature our inborn nature is what determines our entire destiny today we would call it genetic determinism that term didn't exist yet in the 17th century in Amsterdam where Spinoza lived was actually a good yeshiva baka smart kid until he was put into a room he was excommunicated if you go visit Amsterdam the big shoal of Amsterdam makes sure you'll see the original harem the original ban hanging at which they excommunicated Spinoza in the 1600s now one thing is sure when you put somebody in a room he becomes famous that's why it's not always the most effective you know when they ban a book it becomes a best-seller you ignore it nobody knows about it they talk about it for a week and a half you ban it you say the worst thing that ever descended on the face of humanity and suddenly there's a black market that's created around the book so Spinoza in his own way became a hero also in the Jewish world and he became a very celebrated philosopher and he was the founder of a philosophy known as pantheism which basically argues that God equals nature and nature equals God but in terms of human psychology and development the argument is I am Who I am I am Who I am and there's nothing I can do about it each of us is born what we call today genetic our genetic composition and makeup and I'm simply playing out a script if I would know my DNA you would know your DNA you're simply playing out a script like a robot choices on illusion that was Spinoza and then came our dear friend slim Allah Freud and he argued that were basically all living out the traumas caused by our mothers and our fathers that's basically what it's all about it's basically the trauma already in the womb not even your choice it's already in the womb we are driven by the complexes of the ideaplex of libido of our deep complex relationships with our fathers and with our mothers that is basically they've landscape the backdrop that defines human life you are responding to mom and you're responding to dad that's who you are responding to in one way or in another way all three philosophies had compelling evidence continue to have compelling evidence the impact of finances of money of ownership on people psychology and behavior is obvious poverty-stricken societies are driven to certain notions prosperities prosperous societies live in different ways people's sense of self sense of peace is a completely different sense the argument of genetic determinism is obviously very deep can I really change can I really become what I can't become can you teach a dog new tricks you could teach a dog tricks but the tricks have to be confined to the world of the dog to the orbit of the dog especially with Charles Darwin who came after Spinoza lived in the 19th century in 1800s who then gave true scientific basis from his perspective I should say to Spinoza saying that essentially we have evolved Homo sapiens through natural selection have evolved from primates and have evolved from animals so does anybody think that animals wake up in the morning and say what type of animal do I want to be today the lioness wakes up in the morning and says maybe it's time to do Trouville and feel a little bad for the deer and antelope and baby elephants and cubs maybe I could train myself with a personal trainer to start eating hay and be satisfied with hey and wheatgrass maybe I could start juicing the lionesses and give my Cubs juice and we'll supplement our diets with vitamin A and vitamin B and vitamin C and everything else we need instead of the fat protein diet somehow nobody expects that from a cheetah or a tiger or ie nor a lioness the lion is supposed to be a lion as the Frog is supposed to be a frog said Darwin and he writes this in the Origin of Species that one of the most important consequences of the theory of evolution is that fundamentally we are no different than animals we're more sophisticated our brains have developed fifteen point three billion years since the prebiotic soup and showand but fundamentally you are a beast one of my top ten jokes under one of my top ten but one of the better ones is about a bar mitzvah boy who wants to talk about his youth this at the bar mitzvah you know thank his ancestors we comes from so he comes to his mother and says where do we come from you know I want to know about the family so she talks about the family the bobbum a delta burma Delta altar Bobby now it is the Alice stuck varsha chief rabbi hitch you know people want to start with their interests etc no no in the beginning she says the beginning in the beginning God created heaven and earth six days he was done on Friday he created Adam and Eve for some reason they decided to have children I'm not sure why and the rest is history or actually not history but her story not history which is his story and then you had Abraham and Sarah and Isaac Rebecca Rachel Leia and here we are doing your mahmud services well that's so beautiful and he comes to his father's father was a proud graduate of MIT and he tells totty totty told me the history the family of course he doesn't know whole history none other beginning the beginning I said in the beginning there was a big bang it took billions and billions and billions of years and here we are today we have evolved we have evolved over tens of millions of years from apes and whether the Apes come from they became from other primates it whether they come from other animals how did it all begin it began with an explosion of gas and bacteria and he comes back to his mother and says ma I'm very confused about the Bar Mitzvah speech I want to talk about our origin you tell me we come from God Adam Eve Abraham and Sarah daddy tells me we come from apes monkeys gas and bacteria what should I say where do we come from and he says she says to him my dear son there's no contradiction your father is talking about his side of the family and I'm talking about my side of the family so both work in many ways if you will the first opening statement of God - of Rama V No - the first Jew was a protest against these three ideas not because these ideas have no merit precisely because they have merit precisely because they are compelling precisely because they are persuasive and because they carry weight ideas that don't carry weight one need not protest ideas that carry weight one needs to show the alternative so in the opening declaration of the statement of God - the first drew he says let go I want you to go away and I want you to go away from three ideas art Safa my lad Ithaca only base of eco art circa the land idea the earth Eretz to earth the land the idea that ultimately all that controls you and us and humanity is land physical property how much I have how much I don't have although it's important number two and this is harder my lad Ithaca I want you to be able to step away from the notion that you are the same person who you were born my lad Ithaca from the word my ledís means that which is inborn innate intrinsic you are simply playing out a script like a robot your freedom is an illusion everything is predetermined based on your physiological come position based on your chemistry there are 40 trillion cells in your body let them decide and you just play it out there are even those who argue today serious people David Hare Sam Harris and others atheists who argue that the complete free choice is an illusion when somebody murders somebody they say there's absolutely no choice and therefore they don't deserve a punishment he says I don't mean you shouldn't put them in prison maybe put them in prison for practical purposes because it's like you know you lock up on a wild elephant or a wild gorilla wild lion but he says never call it a punishment never call it a penalty there's no such a thing as a penalty penalties could come for choice but this person pulling the trigger was absolutely no choice he or she was completely predetermined to such extremes the human being actually all your choices nothing you think you're going on a diet tomorrow it's not your choice you think it's your choice you decided to come me and decided to go there you're doing it there's no choice whatsoever wake up and smell the brilliant coffee and even whether to take a coffee is not a choice why did I decide this morning to take a coffee because you brought it to me I think I had a choice and why you said not to have a coffee so you read an article II get inspired I'm vaccinating I'm not vaccinating measles no measles vitamin A you think you have a choice some people read the same article and say nonsense another person reads the article and calls up every sister and every aunt and every niece starts doing research drives this school crazy whose choices are these all genetic my lettuce you were born a certain way and that's all you have enjoy it as much as you can some people love this philosophy because it absolves everybody from every responsibility every responsibility the purpose of medication is simply to make you sometimes feel better if it feels better great sometimes you got to lock up the wild animal because it's dangerous but don't blame it ever the concept of chuva doesn't exist there's no such a thing I'm not accountable I can't be accountable and then of course you had Freud and Freud said just blame your mother just blame your mother that's always the right thing to do and if your mother doesn't have enough guilt blame your shrink your mother-in-law that works cuz you're part of your husband's life and you suffer the consequences of your mother-in-law and if not blame your father blame your father-in-law and that includes not just father and mother it means community and parents and teachers and educators and those who are responsible to shelter us and educators and mentors it takes a village to raise a child even though today's times have changed already unfortunately we don't have villages raising children we're lucky if we have one mother and one father raising a child is shine Mazel but it was an interesting thing it takes a village to raise a child you know I had to kiss my my I have a brother-in-law and sister who live in Miami so they came for suckers to us so it's an extended holiday and they stayed a few days later they came a few days before and I watched my nephew doing something and I gave him a comment I told them a comment with humor but I told them something and his mother says to me ladies as you know it's so nice that a person has an uncle to tell them things that Patti or mommy can't say and then I realized that for many generations children were not only raised by parents they were predominantly or at least equally made by uncles and aunts and grandparents and you know an uncle could tell you things that nobody can tell you you know what I mean an uncle could tell you things if your father says that it's abusive if your mother says it she's neurotic but an uncle has this closeness and this distance and it's a valuable resource and so many of us in today's generation don't have that whole idea is gone by many not by everybody but by many it's absent it's a valuable resource so when we speak about father and mothers of course father and mother the greatest impact on people and Freud said that's what it basically is I am responding to the deep complexes that are born out of my own relationship with my mother and my father and we know how compelling that is any one of you who was in therapy isn't therapy we'll be in therapy knows that at first second or third session at most hours and hours will be dedicated to your mother not to you and to your father and to your brothers and to your sisters until your mother's mother and to your father's father and the Holocaust and before in Europe and after Europe and the trauma and this home and a dump I thought I came for therapy not my mother no who are you who are you who you just a little you're just a little piece of the puzzle you're just playing out traumas of three and a half thousand years don't think yourself so seriously for that itself you got to go back into therapy that's what this child heard their whole life and now they're hearing it again from the therapist you're just a manifestation of totty and mommy so these words of God have Ramar not such small they're not just geographical instructions I want you to move from here to there of course that too but this is really I need you the first thing I'm telling the first drew is an eager to make up to be able to make a paradigm shift in order to become the carriers they're ambassadors that are going to change history that are going to transform the landscape of planet Earth in order to father the nation that will become the ambassadors of God ambassador's of light of infinity of holiness of hope and of love and for this you have to be able to move away and remember there is no such a thing that you're stuck of course my finances are important and of course my nature is critically important and of course the influence of my parents both positive and I should say even more positive or sometimes challenges each one according to their own story is very very powerful we are in so many ways products of our education you know what your mother did for you and I'm talking here in positive ways people love talking negative we should also talk sometimes about the positive what your mother put into you what your father put into you I know not in every case but in so many cases the blessings the courage to resolve the law of the shelter again not in every situation but in so many situations and those are so powerful and it's what we cherish what we give our children is so much of what's going to constitute the framework in which they will live but that's the key it will constitute the framework in which they will live it will constitute the landscape it will constitute the context but it will not define you exclusively for this you have to remember there's one more item and that is left look ah and that's why before he tells them what to go away from he first tells them where you're going I can tell people to go away from something if I don't give them an alternative doesn't work that way you take an addict and you try to create a detox if there's no alternative if there's no alternative of hope of success of promise it's often not gonna work a person has to be able to see Redemption in order to extricate themselves out of exile a person has to be able to see light in order to be able to extricate them from darkness this is very important sir Mira vas a toy F laughs look how he tells of Rama V no I want you to understand that I want you to go not away from yourself I want you to go look up I want you to this go to you I want you to discover your deepest deepest you and your deepest deepest you look up as the alex says Lesure ich mich Musk are the true root the core the quintessence of your mind the quintessence of your psyche the quintessence of your soul but the only way you'll be able to discover that lajas if you will have the courage to be able to step out may article of the notion that you are completely defined by your economic status or as the Gemara says ain't our Sorella birthday in vain on ele badeah wealth is uniquely a product of consciousness and poverty is uniquely a product of consciousness this doesn't mean that people shouldn't have money and shouldn't be successful you and all of us should be blessed with lots of wealth and lots of land and we should remember what Winston Churchill said when he wanted to define the system of socialism and he said yes socialism is about equal distribution capitalism is about unequal distribution but capitalism democracy is about unequal distribution of success and socialism is about equal distribution of misery and those of you who know anything about savetti ruslan Soviet Russia where my parents grow up know that in Soviet Union you had nothing one thing everybody had every home a television in the 1950s Americans could dream about a television dream in the brush you had you know why the government sponsored it you know why propaganda the best tool for propaganda was the television you didn't that bread but you had a television Ronald Reagan who defined the term the axis of evil about the Soviet empire and was not forgiven by many of the left-wing or ideal ideologues who loved socialism but he was right there was an axis of evil once once quipped I don't remember exactly but it was quite a few years ago but Reagan said something of this nature he said you know the Soviet Union somebody calls up and says I need a telephone I need a telephone and they say oh you have to wait 12 years okay we're gonna come Tuesday January 12 and 12 years from now what time what time and they say we're coming 10 o'clock 10 o'clock in the morning and reading it you can't come there and why not because they're coming to fix the washing machine at that point so what happens what happens here is wealth and poverty are important but the greatest wealth and poverty is the wealth and poverty of consciousness the wealth of poverty of knowing you have choices or you're a victim the wealth and poverty our people who are wealthy and have nothing there are people who are poor and have everything lip simcha Benham of chisca said Ozma faller dealt Fallot man garnish gelt Kimpton gelt guides if you lose money a loss nothing money comes money goes I'm a fella dig isn't feller teaming Halbe if somebody god forbid forfeits their health they lose half of themselves their bodies not their souls but their bodies and then he said oh but I've never lit the mood for Littman outs you know what mood is courage if you lose money you lost nothing health you lost half if you lose your courage you lost everything what is courage courage is the knowledge that there's an eye and that eye is formed in the image of God and God definition is I don't know who God is but one thing I know about God he is free uninhibited not boxed in we don't have a definition for God in the Bible Moisture says don't make images why not what does he care if I do a coloring book with my kids and I make a picture of God and hang it up on the refrigerator isn't that cute your three-year-old comes or makes an image of God we put it on the refrigerator no likes a silica pestle who cares so you made a picture of God and when your daughter makes a picture of you it looks like you car washes you want to come out to the class but it's cute because it's a three-year-old making a picture of Mommy and makes the whole family and you put it on the refrigerator and you steer on it until she leaves the room and it's so beautiful and cute and because it's a baby's picture so I make a picture of God I'm different in it two-year-old baby God should smile and say that's so cute why why that's so cute I mama so adorable Hashem says to me I'm so adorable know our voices are it's the worst penalty why why I saw so little pencil and the Ten Commandments let me tell you one of the deepest reasons for this open your hearts because the human being was created in God's image I create an image for God God is fine but ultimately it means that I create an image for myself it means that I'm fixed that I'm stuck and the idea of humanity from a Jewish perspective is God has no image and that means you have no image I have no image I put myself in a particular image and if I put myself in one image I can extract myself and put myself in another image in other words I choose to be the person that I want to become I choose to be that person I choose my image I am NOT defined by an image left-click on molecular cup that liquor is free that liqueur could use everything in life as a study of contrasts yes there are landscapes that are the background of my life I can't change this thing from the video it's gonna be the backdrop of course there's economic realities that you're born into you can change them but you're born into certain economic realities you all know that about your own lives you're born with certain nature's that I'm not going to change I can't change my chemical composition always there are still things I can do with brain Alice this city and some other interesting pretty crazy stuff they're coming up with today that too but relatively speaking I'm still subjected to certain patterns or and even but I'm subjected it's my landscape but I'm not stuck I can define it as a landscape as a portrait as a backdrop or I can define it as destiny if I define it as destiny this is who I am if I define it as a backdrop this is the place in which this is the arena in which I have to grow this is the arena in which I become a weir this is the arena in which I metamorphosize myself and the same is true with parents influence of course parental influence is decisive that's why finook is critical that's why what you do with your children every single night and every single morning is not just impactful it's life-changing life old in the positive and cosma shalom the opposite the messages the gestures the way we interact the way we communicate and most importantly the emotional bonding the emotional presence which is what children need more than any lecture in the world the emotional presence the emotional connection the discipline the guidance the direction the nurture these are not just important these are life altering as we say and to say therefore the damages that have been done or are done through parents consciously or unconsciously or through systems of education or in schools or in communities again consciously unconsciously willingly or unwillingly buddy especially those of you sitting here who have been through very difficult difficult circumstances that I will naturally graphically not elaborate upon but those sitting here or watching who know know exactly what I'm talking about they represent the landscape and the arena the boxing arena in which I have to box and which I have to live my life but they don't define me they don't tell me the person I have to be the person that I have to be and I want to be I choose and I could choose it based on my values what is my true value what is truly valuable to me this is laughs ah when I leave go of all of this I sometimes say what's gonna beat I don't even know myself if I'm not the angry person Who am I gonna be if I'm not the guy who's angry at the world Who am I gonna be if I'm not the person who's dealing with jealousy Who am I gonna be if I'm not the person who just doesn't know how to have a relationship Who am I gonna be and the answer is left look ah you'll be you you'll be you and the definition of you is you have no image just like God has no image you choose your image you choose the person you want to become but that choice can't ignore the first three because if the choice ignores the first three you're probably repressing God doesn't tell I've rum you don't have a land you don't have a birthplace you don't have parents um you do have a land you do have a birthplace you do have parents um it's part of the story and within that context I am Telling You you have them don't ignore them don't judge them don't make believe they don't exist but understand that there's a little car that transcends all of these powerful influences and impacts there is a you a you that is essentially divine sacred wholesome impeccable flawless wholly powerful confident optimistic and happy and most important free free under all circumstances and that's why the first opening the first statement of the first Jew is with this notion you can go ahead and become the blessing to all the families of the earth that every single human ultimately can be taught that nobody has ever ever stuck inevitability is not part of the Jewish dictionary it's inevitable my marriage has to be miserable it's just the way it is my relationship with my children has to be flawed my relationship with my parents has to be horrible my relation with my siblings gonna be a fight forever my relationships with myself has to be filled with endless tension anxiety and depression it's inevitable my relationship with money my relationship with worrying my relationship with God my relationship with friends it has to be defined by a never ending struggle and worry and feeling of the abyss yes there is a backdrop that I have to deal with but it's not I have to deal with it I was chosen to deal with this contrast this contrasts this is the land this is the birthplace I don't know what I have against this poor nice pink curtain so that's a garnish for syndicate but I'm just using it everyone has their purple backdrop and actually this is not a bad color sometimes the back Trump is a little of a different color but that's the color in which I can become the artist there's the contrast that's given to me on the canvas I can't always create that but within that I can become the artist and paint a beautiful picture and set myself free from these powerful influences lor it's a Shia Rekha to the land that I will show you to the land that will allow you become become the divine human being you were destined to become I share echo I will show you says the outstrip it should have said lor it's a sheriff excuse me LP dich doch now it says an orator shy recommends the land not only the land that I will show you the land a Shire akarsha era hobbits maja the land where I will show you you I share a car I'll bring you to the land where I will show you who you really are have a wonderful week this class is brought to you by the achieve Annette please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot they ueshiba net / donate