Always Show Up To Your Life with Your Core-Self - By Rabbi YY Jacobson

the yeshiva dotnet one of the well-known Kellum stories tells about a Jew from Kellum who had a problem each morning he would wake up and it took him a very long time to collect his items he always misplaced two shoes his hat his jacket his shirt his keys his pants his suitcases attache case until he got out of the house it took him two hours every morning what you would call in Yiddish a professional Kratzer a real procrastinator who could just never get it together present company of course excluded but I'm sure some of you know about the concept at least in theory so he went to the rabbi of Calem and he said I need your help two hours it takes me every morning to get out of the house it's ridiculous the rabbi says I'll give you the best advice every night when you're in bed before you go to sleep take out a pen and paper and write down where everything is the night before and then in the morning all you need to do is follow your notes follow your list and you will find everything instantaneously brilliant advice the next night he gets in tibet takes out a piece of paper takes a pen and he writes down where everything is my right shoe is here and my left shoe is here my right sock is here my left sock is here my jacket is here my shirt is in my pants there my skis are here etc and then of course he comes to item number 10 and he says and I I am in bed he wakes up early in the morning he's very excited he jumps out of bed washes his hands and he takes the list out I macaé instead of two hours within three minutes he had all of the items right there in front of him and at last excitingly comes to item number 10 and I I am in bed and he looks in the bed and the poor man can't find himself in bed he looks under the pillow he looks on top of the pillow he looks under the mattress on top of the mattress under the bed on top of the bed under the blankets on top of the blankets searches everywhere and he can't find himself and the search goes on for three hours in absolute desperation he comes running to the rabbi again and he says I don't understand you I was trying to get your help today it took three hours instead of two hours and I'm not even close to finding myself you could end this story any way you wish perhaps after this class you will choose to end this story maybe in a different way than you have ended it previously in your life there's a mitzvah a commandment and parshas condition that's known as the Mitzvah of our law the Mitzvah Varela is an interesting Mitzvah the Torah says that when you plant a tree the first three years of produce are off-limits to the Jew this applies only to fruit trees it doesn't apply to grain doesn't apply to legumes doesn't apply to vegetables it applies only to fruit trees that which has the definition of an eighth in a locker for example in terms of the blessing Boyer a prea AIT's rather than very hard amar Chaka and these types of trees from when they're planted you count three years and those first three years even if there are fruits that grow which is unusual for a tree to produce fruit so swiftly but even fruits that grow are forbidden for consumption even forbidden to be sold to anybody to a Jew or non-jew the fruits are to be disposed of to Bieber this is called arla which literally means plugged the fourth year the system was that the Jew would take the fruits and bring them to Jerusalem to Yerushalayim where he or she would eat them in the holy city the fifth fear but shunned AHA commish's the fifth year there were no limits on the fruits everybody would enjoy their fruits the way they would like to wherever they want in whatever form they want the fourth year they can also enjoy it as they want but they had to bring it to Jerusalem that is the hollow kiss of our law the laws of our law apply in the times of the basem if there's none of the times of the masonic - they actually apply in the Holy Land and they apply anywhere in the world there is a difference however in Eretz Israel by local emotion Messina is that Suffolk our law sir meaning if you come into a store and there's a question whether these fruits are our law or not so if there's a doubt you're not letting eat them unless you're certain that the tree already matured above three years outside of air to stir all however all Suffolk our law is motor any doubt of our lives permissible and that's why there's never an issue outside of a register all going into a fruit store or going into a yard and taking the fruit if you have permission of course or buying the food even though who knows maybe it's within the three years why don't you make an investigation and the answer is Suffolk are low and Koontz Lawrence is moot or if it's a doubt if it's Arliss permissible but if it's vada ARLA if you're growing your own screen your own apple tree in your backyard or any tree and the saplings produce something within the three years even if it's edible which again is unusual and even if it produces a fruit which you could eat and you want to eat even though may not be that healthy the first three years you would not allow to eat it because it is our law even though it's outside of the holy land but as I said in the Holy Land you have to be careful even with Suffolk our law even with that which is questionable our law not only if it's certain are Lafitte certain are 'lets forbidden everywhere what is the reason for this Mitzvah on a literal level the safer he knows says gives a few reasons one of the reasons is that usually the first three years the fruits are not healthy they're not good for the body that's one explanation he gives another explanation he gives us that the firstfruits that at reproduce should go to Yerushalayim they should be dedicated to hashem to the creator of the world and since the first three years the fruits are usually mediocre and of inferior quality and even if they grow there very few it would be disrespectful to give that to the river inertia like them so to speak so therefore you wait for the fourth year and anything before that is off-limits because the first gift should be given to God and the first gift should be an honourable gift which only begins four years and up and then the fifth year it's free for everybody to use as they wish those are oh thank you give me one copy also give me one copy also if you could take one and distribute it was bringing it and eleven Sephardic migration that take one and distributed please the fifth year as we said it's free everybody could use it as they wish that is that those are some of the basic explanations in say for Athena thus if Sequoia and the shock a lot IRA his commentary aunt Ida adds another interpretation based on the world of Jewish homiletics and he says as follows if you could take one and distribute it please he says as follows other man hava Adam and Eve were commanded when they were created to eat from all the fruits in the Garden of Eden and GaN Eden but one tree was off-limits that was known as the eighth's had asked the tree of knowledge what type of tree was it there are different opinions whether it was a grapevine whether it was an S truck tree whether it was a fig tree one opinion is that it was heater was stalk of wheat what's interesting though is the commandment not to eat the tree was for three hours other man hava were created Friday afternoon at the ninth hour and the commandment was to abstain from eating this tree for three hours in fact as its brought in mad Russian the eighth's had asked the tree of knowledge according to many opinions was a Geffen it was a vine it was a grapevine and if other would have waited for three hours Shabbos would have arrived and then he should have taken a tree squeezed out the grapes to turn them into wine and make kiddush on that why and then not only would have it not been forbidden on the contrary it would have been sanctified the challenge of other men hava was they ate the tree prematurely in other words three hours early hava took the vine the grapes squeezed wine and gave it to Adam to drink just like she drank herself so thus if Sequoia in the Chocolat iris said that our law is based on that Adam did not wait three hours we wait three years he did not hold back three hours we hold back from eating the fruit three years in fact the matter says on the mitzvah of our law mia gosh them says mia gala affirm a neck other Mauritian who will reveal and expose the earth from your eyes other Mauritian look at your children they wait for three years to eat the fruits you couldn't wait for three hours that's another interpretation when it comes to our law there is an isolated halakha a law at first glance it seems very technical and it is technical its pragmatic practical and technical we're going to study that law and then explore its psychological spiritual and historic dimensions for starters it's a fascinating idea besides it gives us a glimpse into how to study halakhah how to understand halakhah how to see a law within judaism the first part of this class is going to be boring it's going to be monotonous if you shut down I understand okay the second half those who shut down will hopefully wake up at least by Ezra shammies Baraka what we're going to explore today is if you see in the title of this class maintaining your inner identity during stressful times if none of you ever have stressful moments you could leave the class now what an agricultural law teaches us about psychological serenity and historical endurance let's read together the first source you have the sukham about ARLA but that I went through already verbally so we'll go to source number two it's a Mishnah Amos FDR Lapera calif emission of off-track they are lor chapter one mission of six i'm going to read it in hebrew and then translated you have an english translation on the left Mattia shall are low vishal Chloe Hikari mission is our vu if a sapling of our law is planted with other saplings and it gets mixed up high Raisa loyal a Kate one cannot harvest any of his or her saplings unfortunately being leaked 8 Bennett T eyes yeah Luba ekkada Messiaen if they were harvested as long as it got here miss formatted a little bit you see the words in Hebrew got a little miss formatted I'm gonna do this again Mattia shall our love shall Chloe hoc Adam Shanna's I Reuben Atias I raised a loyal a Kate if saplings of ARLA got mixed with other saplings you can't harvest any of them the in locket if you did harvest yeah Luba epidermis ayam they can be nullified by the ratio of one to a hundred Obul vara is Kevon the locket as long as the person didn't intentionally try to harvest herb you see I am Raffi scavenger locket we all go back of the Maasai Mara boa she says no you can harvest intentionally and it's gonna be nullified in a ratio of 1 to 200 you understand what this is saying no good so let me explain ok I'm glad I can be useful for something this morning to explain the mission that we'll learn a little tire I have a sapling I have a little treat let's call it an apple tree in my backyard it's within three years and it produces a little cute tiny apple this Apple is forbidden to eat so I take the Apple and guess what somebody's trying to clean the house my mate is trying to clean the house and there is a whole box of apples that I bought from the store or that I harvested from other trees and she throws this Apple into the box of apples what happens one Apple is forbidden its ARLA it grew within the first three years of the tree all the other apples are absolutely permissible if I can recognize the earlier Apple from the other apples of course it's not a problem I take out the Apple I throw it out I burn it and I can eat the rest of the apples what happens if I cannot recognize one Apple from any other Apple what do we do do we say all the apples are forbidden they all go to the garbage or we can do something else the answer to this is biblically there is a concept called bittle belief you get nullified the minority gets nullified in the majority so if it's one to two you're good if there's two kosher apples and one non kosher apple you're good the rabbi's learnt and said no you need a ratio of 1 to 200 if there are 200 apples in the box the r-la Apple is considered nullified it loses its identity within the overwhelming majority and you can eat the apples if there's only 199 apples in the box fire Faolain there's nothing you can do all the apples have to go why because the ARLA Apple is not nullified there's no 200 apples sometimes we say nullification happens with a ratio from 1 to 60 that's but that's not by ARLA that's not viola that's for example meat milk non-kosher meat non kosher milk etc sometimes we say this bitl one in a hundred that's true mur by our law it's one ohm asylum after the Messiah 1 to 200 granted ok that's that walk same is true with why I have grapes and these grapes grew within the first three years I crush the grapes and turn them into why this one is are like and drink them but somebody sees a little cup of wine that's ARLA and then you have a big barrel of wine and He pours this wine into the big barrel of wine what do I do the answer is if there were 200 ounces of kosher wine the one ounce of ARLA wine gets nullified you're good to go what if there were only 199 ounces of kosher wine the one ounce of ARLA wine invalidates disqualifies all the wine clear this is an intro to understand the mission here is the problem now I have a garden and I have a bunch of trees that I planted one was planted later than the other ones and I forget which one was planted last so I have let's say 300 trees in my orchard 300 all of them are already past a three-year mark so all of them are good one of them and I don't know which one if I would know which one is no issue is still younger than three years maybe a month younger maybe a few months younger can be too many years younger because then you would easily recognize one from the other what do I do there's a problem now what's the problem I don't know which tree is arla there's 300 trees or 200 trees or 50 trees or a thousand trees I don't know which one is Arlo that's the case Natasha lar Allah you have a sapling of our land it got mixed in with all the other saplings and the other saplings are kosher so what does the mission is say lo you are Kate you can't harvest your fruits why can't your harvest you harvest your fruits we have a halakha aim of Atlin Easter like a pillar you can't go ahead and nullify something that's forbidden I can't take milk and pour it into the cholent and say oh it's a ratio from 1 to 60 you don't do this initially if milk fell in ok but you don't go and pour milk into a flash circuit Rowland just for it to get nullified I don't take an apple of Arland throw it into a box of 200 apples and say it's gonna become kosher if it fell in it's kosher but you don't do this look uphill it's not the way to go you're now allowed to nullify an issue like a Killa what's gonna happen if I harvest all the saplings what's gonna happen all the fruits are gonna be harvested what am I actually doing I'm mixing up our the fruits with other fruits even if there are 200 trees fine but I'm now loud all the Casilla initially go and mix arlov fruits into other fruits so that's why the Mishna says lawyer locket you can't harvest there's nothing you can do with these fruits if there are less than 200 trees then it won't even help because I don't have enough to nullify the arla but even if I have 300 kosher trees and 10 ARLA trees and I don't know what's what the Mishna says don't harvest any of them because if you harvest the fruits and then you start making piles what are you doing the ARLA is being mixed in through your conscious beads into the other non kosher fruits you're not going to do this but the Mishna says what if you did it what if you went you didn't know and you harvested it and then you come running to the rabbi and you say oh there's a bunch to our love fruits and I don't know which one they are he says take a look if it's a ratio of 200 to one if it's 200 saplings to one sapling you're good to go that's that look of the mission is it clear okay here there's an obvious question what's the question now what's the question right so that's why you don't harvest it cuz look uphill oh you're not supposed to nullify a forbidden food if it fell in okay but it's not something you go do initial you can't even if there are 200 saplings you can't if you did they get mixed up and then you can eat all of them if you did you understand if you did not you do it hazel oh you lock it take a look in the English you have it I'm gonna read the English to you again if a sapling of RLS planted with other saplings and it gets mixed up none can be harvested but if they were harvested as long as they were not picked deliberately the ARLA can be nullified by the ratio of 1 to 200 right if the person doesn't intentionally then we penalize them but if they did it by mistake you know they're used to harvesting and then they say oh there was an ARLA tree we say listen it got mixed up you're good they were talking about honest people if somebody doesn't care about it then we don't know a person could say I did it by mistake there's no way to prove them we will not we will not put them on one of those the hawai detectors tests it's about you and yourself Judaism believes in a concept that honesty is a value you know that right ok you know what in theory ok ah fine here is the problem here's the question ok what's the question the question is as follows I usually don't like asking a question if people don't have it because then it's not a question but I have no choice so I'm going to ask the question what does bittle mean if one apple of our LaFell into 200 apples it's nullified so I don't understand you have here a sapling tree around it or another 200 kosher trees it's already nullified on the tree even before you harvest it it's a ready bottle it's already nullified so it should already be kosher on the tree what's the difference if you have one ice related Apple it falls into a box of 200 apples it's mixed up between all the apples so you say bottle nullified here - you have a sapling of ARLA it's escorted it's a company that's surrounded by another 199 or more 200 200 and 100 and then 300 maybe a thousand trees this sapling is mixed up somewhere among all of them I don't know which one is what isn't it already mixed up on the tree and therefore it's a ready bottle it's already nullified and therefore you should just be able to harvest everything you're telling me one second well we're wait wait wait a second you're telling me you're now at a harvest the trees why because you are intentionally and deliberately nullifying traif and non kosher food but if you did it if you did it it's fine why because the fruits got mixed up the sapling fruits got mixed up with the other fruits and ones they're mixed up and you can't differentiate its bottle my question to you is that's already on the tree on the tree already it's mixed up with all the other tree's and you can't differentiate one from the other why don't we say it's bottled based on nature without you doing anything they're already mixed together it's nullified it's already kosher without you doing anything and therefore you can go harvest it why not okay you're saying you could wait since you could wait that's an interesting answer since you could wait so why do you have to do it wait but the question is the problem is with all the other trees you may not be able to wait you're gonna lose all those fruit I got it you're saying one is the fruit is over the tree and I'm asking why why is it not bottle when it's on the tree on the country if it's all part of the earth so then it's one entity on the contrary you're making the question stronger dr. Rashi you see Rashi I'm gonna read him inside I raised a lawyer locket do not harvest it says Rashi the calls man Sheba McCoy Emma kima who burka Shiva Ville I bought law with he locket Lapidus from of Apple ubermass I am having a vitoli silica pillar English on the left as long as the sapling is planted it's considered connected and it cannot be nullified therefore only when you harvest the fruits are you deliberately abolishing the prohibition what is rashly teaching us when a fruit is connected to the ground to the earth even if you don't know the nature of the sapling you don't know how old it is you don't know how old the fruits are and it's mixed up with all other tree's it can't be considered nullified it will never be nullified it can be considered lost quoting quotes in the other fruits what does what has to happen in order to nullify the fruits you have to harvest them the moment they become detached from their organic source in the earth they're not considered micawber they're not connected because they're not connected Rashi says now it's already a numbers game now it's a numbers game now it's statistics if it's 200 to 1 boom you're done you're not counted you're insignificant you're lost in them and not majority 200 is a big big number to compete with try one person wrestling 200 people it's a little tough even if this one person is strong but it's 200 people one fruit and 200 it's tough imagine a child comes from another school and comes into a grade with 200 girls and he is or she is the only one the only new one it's very hard to maintain your identity imagine a refugee comes from another country comes into a community and everybody there is native hundreds of people you naturally lose something of your identity becomes a numbers game that's all if the tree if the fruit is disconnected as long as the fruit is connected I don't care if there are a hundred thousand treats theoretically you can have 1 million trees 1 million to one shouldn't that be called bitl it's not bottle and that's why you can't harvest you know why you can't harvest because I don't care if there's a million fruits that are kosher but this one tree maintains its identity in its full strength and therefore it's not considered how logically nullified once you harvest the fruits they become disconnected now if you have two hundred to one is good that explains the Mishnah don't harvest the trees why can't you harvest because you have ARLA even though it's only one but it's one it's something I can't eat any of them unfortunately next time as you say I got to be careful what if I harvest it already now if there's 200 to one they're all culture this is what Rashi is explaining to us you're saying the tree on the fruit is in a state of potential did Sri when harvested fruit when harvested is in a state of actualization that's a lovely insight but here we're talking about even a fruit that's perfectly ripe it's perfectly ripe on the tree you're talking about Kamisha a service rods the fifteenth of Shiva called restaurant of trees you go out to you tree and it's covered with snow and ice and you say this is a Richard Sean of trees its moments of hibernation these are moments the trees look depressed they're orphaned this is where we say potential Russia Shawna's based on potential but here we're talking about that's a class for commercial establishment you'll put it for them but but it's an important idea here we're talking about the fruit is ripe it's ready so it's already actualization but you're right it's still on the tree but it's already only it's more than a state of potential Macomb bar Michael bar means that the tree is connected to its roots because it's still connected to its tree once you harvest it the tree the fruit is plucked that's disconnected from its roots from its own source of vitality and energy put it simply it can't continue to grow its lifeless but that's how you eat it there's no choice you know when you pluck when you were harvest a tree when you detach a fruit from its source it's a very significant activity people take these things for granted they tear off leaves they tear of branches they tear off a tomato they tear off an orange a tear off a fig it's really a very very profound experience and that's why mindfulness is so important because it's really traumatic on some level think about if you were the fruit kiha Adam aids a sudden a person is compared to the tree of the field so it's a very very significant idea you see from here that the halacha completely changes it's a different fruit when it's on the tree and it's a different fruit when it's detached from the tree in fact our justification to pluck fruits our justification to harvest vegetables to kill tomatoes and cucumbers is only if as a result of that detachment we're going to attach it to its ultimate source if we don't attach it to its ultimate source then we have to ask ourselves the moral question who gave me a right to end the life of this orange it becomes of course more dramatic when you're dealing with living creatures that are visibly alive whether it's fish chickens animals etc etc okay now let's go to the next step what we have here on a holic level is really reflective of not just a law in technical reality of cassius of our law but also a law of the soul this is a terrier a Harlequin and nefesh in the soul and the reason this is a law and practicality is because it mirrors and reflects on emotional law a spiritual law a psychological law and the law goes exactly the same way Micawber LOI bottle meaning in life every person is often bombarded by many forces without and many voices within the fact is a human life especially as we grow we develop and we assume various responsibilities personal responsibilities familial responsibilities communal responsibilities social responsibilities smaller or larger very often a life is bombarded and overwhelmed by so many responsibilities by so many relationship there's so many interactions by so many pressures by so many stressful experiences you look at people's calendars what they have to do in a day and you could get a headache and a migraine just from looking what they're trying to accomplish in one day of course the calendar usually goes over for the next day and the next day and the next day because usually takes 7-8 years to finish everything you wanted to do as a good Jew within the next two and a half hours till the kids come home today even though it's usually avoided for seven years now some people get things done quite amazingly but it's very easy in life to become overwhelmed we become overwhelmed by ourselves we become overwhelmed by others you become overwhelmed in a practical sense there's so many things on the schedule so many duties so many responsibilities so many things to attend do you don't know what to do first and you often simply melt from the pressure people end up in disarray in anarchy they disintegrate they lose their temper a mental equilibrium was that good okay try try it again or find good the second time may not come out so well and they lose a sense of balance of inner emotional stability especially times when there's a little extra pressure for good reasons for example you're making a simcha people sometimes you would think it's one of it should be one of the happiest days of their life sometimes it's painful somebody once told me a big therapist once told me he says that you know you come to a wedding and you would think that the parents of the groom and the bride should be the happiest people there but sometimes the pressures are so intense and nothing ever goes perfect the caterer said he's going to do and of course he did this and the Flores brought the wrong flowers and never after sushi bar was missing what was important and this didn't come out right and that didn't come out right and this one came late and that one came late and then there is the financial pressure and then there sometimes his arguments who's getting the last Brock under the Copa who's getting the last rock under the chuppah who who's the ADA who's gonna be the Kruger sometimes the simplest are so filled with pressure and she said I'm a - ever process for her and now she's not making my share of rockets for me and then comes Shabbos ever brockless and this is not ready and this one wasn't invited and this one is upset because he was put on table three not on table two rock monoliths lon the a bursters alloy sit and he was put on table three can you imagine the identity crisis the disrespect for this human being table three not Table two can you imagine and that's enough not to be on speaking terms for twenty two years can negate able to and so and so then there's other things that happen in life and what if there's a crisis cause for Shalom if there's a challenge and a person is running from here to here even mothers and women who are general experts in multitasking and having one phone in the right ear and another phone in the left ear plus an iPhone to whatever type of phone to communicate to a third person plus finishing the kugel for Shabbos even multitaskers often disintegrate emotionally from the pressures without and then what is even deeper the many voices from within voices of guilt voices of fear voices of insecurity voices of paying voices of stress voices of anxiety nevermind if there was trauma in one's life so the mission is telling us a law and the law is this if you are disconnected from your own source from your own roots from your own core identity then it becomes a numbers game the moment you will be one in two hundred you will cease to exists and the pain of that will be very very powerful conversely if you are connected to your roots if you're connected to your source of vitality there may be one million trees that are trying to overwhelm you there may be ten million trees that are different than you and essentially they are telling you come on why don't you just chill out and melt into the majority this field is a melting pot why don't you just assimilate and forfeit yourself if you're disconnected that is bound to happen psychologically and emotionally if you're connected it doesn't matter how many trees are different you will never ever become Buttle meaning you will never be lost never be nullified never be overwhelmed by all these major forces because you do not define yourself by that which is outside of you you define yourself by that which is inside of you and that's the key secret of bittle and halakha what does bittle mean bittle means when a refugee falls into a melting pot where everybody is different it's impossible for him or her to resist the influence it doesn't happen this is the law of all of history it's also psychologically and emotionally we are social creatures we are creatures who conform we're creatures who are affected by social norms were affected by the opinions of the people around us by the opinions of our neighbors of our community members and also by our own opinions that are influenced by all of these influences and then we call them our own opinions they're our voices in ourselves that contradict each other because many of those voices are alien voices and you look and you say everybody does it this way how can I not do it this way Erev Pesach it's a mitzvah to be miserable how can I be the only one who's happy Arif suckers it's a mitzvah to be anxious how can I be the only one who's happy Erev Shabbos it's a mitzvah be in a bad mood I can I be the only one I'm not gonna be the only up Aquarius the only heretic who's actually gonna go exercise Erev Shabbos ever face the sheriff's Lucas I'm gonna walk around the lake or I'm gonna go swimming or I'm gonna do what I have to do so I should be able to be a better human being a better mother a better wife this is heresy this is not Jewish you're supposed to be miserable mitzvah the lowliest miserable Thomas if not miserable at least anxious if not anxious at least semi anxious if not semi anxious at the verge of an explosion but at least at the verge you want a person to actually look at life and say that the purpose of life is to be in a state of wholesome Vegas with a safe wholesome oneness with infinity who speaks like this especially if you're Jew you're a chronic complainer by definition I was lecturing the other day so somebody gets up and says that they are disturbed by the races image - rrah and I heard a lot of questions and I never heard about racism each mine Astra I say sure I do shouldn't asked her a few times a day and I know the translation of the words that leak I think at least I knew the translator I thought I know I say where's the racism he says every day referre a new Hashem been a rough a God heal us help us how they reform I'll call Marcus a new key Cale Malik - them and you're the heal or help us heal Baraka Taschen Roy faithfully am i you soil God heals the ill among his nation Israel what do you mean what about what people's doesn't the heal the sick of all peoples this was a middle of a lecture so I said let me ask you a question you think they're and Sheikh Nasser Cigala the great sages who wrote the text they didn't know or believe that God is the healer of all humanity the Tanakh is filled with this message is the creator of all humanity and not just humanity the entire cosmos including humanity and is the healer of all humanity I said why is the question bothering you the question is bothering in him because he is a convert who used to be not Jewish he still has family members who are not Jewish and it's bothering him I said tell your family members that this is a compliment they're lucky they're not included in this blessing he says why I said portion ROI faith holy are you sure all doesn't necessarily mean a Jew who specially sick with the diagnosis it's an innate chronic condition did you ever meet a Jew doesn't complain about his or her health I'm still looking for that drew my neck hurts I have back pains I almost had a stroke yesterday I'm having a heart attack tomorrow my ankle my foot I used to this every to my stomachache I'm nauseous recently I started to eat this every Jew is always changing their diets from Monday to money it's a different diet I'm depressed this carbs is sugar there's too much this I'm going on V everybody is always Harley I'm a hero I said Baruch Hashem you're a girl you're lucky you're a lucky person you just walk around you don't complain life it's good it's perfect I'm healthy you ever asked a Jew how his life and he said perfect it ever happened to you in your life how is life perfect the best you'll get is not too bad and it means he made ten million dollars that day trust me not too bad means the guy made ten million dollars that day they okay Baraka sham Baruch Hashem so we say a special blessing God there only if we call the army so help the Jewish people they think somehow if there's a little dysfunction it's holy if there's a little misery it's religious but it's not the way it's exactly the other way around it's not supposed to be that way it's exactly the other way around if you're connected to your own shirah sh you're never bottle it doesn't mean I don't have a hundred responsibilities it doesn't mean there's no stressful conditions but it means you live life from within not from without you show up to life with your inner core with your inner presence and when you show up to life with you inner core with your inner presence even if there are 2000 even if we are to million things coming at you blowing in your face and you should fall apart you'll never fall apart why because you're Micawber because you're connected to yourself so that's why I sham tells Aram the first commandment of the first drew is laughs look ha what's left look are you don't go to you you go with you you go from your black left my hearts with like look ah so the outlook says that many men far some say left laka Lamech Erica vishakha go back to your own roots go back to yourself laughs look ah always look and ask yourself are you connected to your tree to your source of life and your source of life is not my source of life yes we all have one source of life but every tree has its own unique roots your neshama has its surely shamash m- Shama has its roots in God all the trees are connected the earth connects us all sadhna da ricado what is the concept of la flaca before Haram is about to uproot himself Hashem says laughs look ah go to you cuz if your it by you you'll never be uprooted you will always be you will always be rooted now I'll share with you something very unique and special where this played itself out in the life of an individual maybe also an interesting day to share this story as well the third President of Israel was a man named Zalman shazar Zalman shazar okay I wasn't planning to share the story but it came in to me and it's very it's very apropos this message okay Zalman shazar name Salman shows ours name his full name was schnell Zalman rubbish of rubato was too much of a Russian Jewish shtetl name so like many of the early salutes him he had to he Bray his size his name and it became shaza which is an acronym for nazar marui Basha like all of the early callosum and Zionists he came from a very religious family got a Jewish education but like most of them he abandoned you described at some young stage in his life and dedicated his life to go build what he dreamt to become a new state for the Jews but this is the early nineteen hundred's in fact his name was after the ballot Anya Sneha Zalman is a named after the altar Eber the founder of chabad dibala tania cuz that's where his family came from in fact his elders ADA was name was if Saul was accosted directly of the ballot Anya and they named him that name Sneha Zalman shazar grew up he left the path of Judaism he ultimately made Ali as one of the early hallowed sim to sit in the trenches and to build the country and make the Desert Bloom they were attacked by malaria and malaria and all of the horrible illnesses that claimed many lives but this was their dedication the Jewish faith and heritage was replaced with a strong sense of nationalism and hence it stirred up such a debate and controversy in the Jewish world the debate around the Zionist movement which was beyond the realm of this sheer and lecture the last Shabbos before he was to leave to what was then called Palestine this is the early 1900s it was then called Palestine it was under the Adam an empire under the Turks before the First World War he decides he's gonna go one Shabbos to spend the Shabbos with his ADA a Hasidic Jew a Hasidic Jew in the city of Damir you were a horror you all heard of the mirror yeshiva it's not the name is not mere the name is de mere the mirror is a little city in Lithuania that's where the mirror yeshiva came from it escaped to Japan and Shanghai and then went there to slough with rebuilt itself after the war some day and the Holy Land some to America some to other places of course most of the Jews of the mirror like most of the Jews of Luther wainy and Belarus were exterminated by the Germans in maximum and his ada lived in the mirror and Zalman shazar writes in his diary how he went for that Shabbos to his ADA but there was two worlds apart he was this young secular socialist left-wing map Enoch who had become the first Education Minister of Israel who would serve as the president of Israel who was a very deeply secular Jew a poet a philosopher a great orator but somebody who saw the future of Jewish destiny not in yiddish sky not on a blob Gilmar and not in a sim initial Canara and his ada who is the old jew of the shtetl who has a long beard with pious and follows the observance and you have to understand fifty maybe sixty some say more percent of the jewish people have left Judaism during those decades when you speak about the old world before the war fifty sixty percent of the Jewish people have left Judaism the youth did not see the future in Judaism there were many other isms going on he had socialism he had of course many other isms Judaism was not a popular ism at the time besides for a minority and so shazar out of respect to his grandparents is going to go there for one shoppers he describes the Shabbos in dramatic prose and very romantic phraseology going to the mikveh with his a this Friday afternoon sitting down in shul and singing she assured him together learning before Dominic a beautiful the hidayah D singing and dancing the meal of Shabbos that had no trace of anything going on in the outer world it was filled with doTERRA with words of Tiran Nagoya and waking up Shabbos early in the morning going to the mikveh he goes with his a that to Sheol two hours before chakras and he's learning with him Lakota terror of the bow Latanya his great magnum opus is Hasidic work diverting chakras back to lunch there's no trace of anything outside the world of Shabbos in this little shtetl where these jews lived in a continuous orbit of oneness with God than with their Judaism Mitsuru Shabbos mo lova Malka Sunday morning chakras breakfast it's time to go there was no train station in the mirror how would you travel there was a region a section where the bow Legolas would stand the Wagoneers you would pay one of the Wagoneers he would take you to a nearby city where there was a train he would get on a train the train would ultimately take him out of Eastern Europe of the regions of Russia and Luth away near take him to Turkey from Turkey he would ultimately travel to area to show which was called Palestine and he would settle his grandfather escorts in mythos Ramadan with his Jim Adam with his a suitcase to the Wagoneer his grandfather is an old man he's in his eighties shazar is approximately 16 years old a young fiery idealistic passionate Zionist elutes as they called them khalood sim they were the UH the pioneers the pioneers yet and he says my Seder looked at me and he said Zalman I know you're going on a journey I know you're going on a journey and I know the journey is going to take you to interesting places where I never went I want to tell you what tradition that I have from generations there are three types of Nigam there are three types of songs that will make it into your mind that will enter into your life there is a song you hear it you love it it's beautiful and then a week later a month later you want to remind yourself the song and you can't you can't it's just not coming back to you that song is not your song your soul is not rooted in that melody it's a beautiful melody but it's not yours he says there's another song you hear it it's awesome it's great and it doesn't stop playing in your brains like a mosquito Shabbos afternoon when you're trying to nap outside you want to get rid of it and you can't he says that song is not your song your soul is not ruining there one left you and one drives you crazy there's a third song you hear it you're in or you're in love and then you move on but whenever you need this song is available for you that song is the in which yearning Shama originates and every soul has a melody that it comes from that n-- is your new Shamas and he said Zalman why am I telling this to you so he said these words your name is snares almond you were named after the ballot Anya the ballot Anya doubter ever composed a song in Habad that's known as their most sacred song it's called the know of the doll at Bubba's - four stanzas they usually sing it only at Hoppus and at weddings at grison and at uniques unique unique situations you just kiss liver Shoshanna and others such times it's known as the know of the dollar the four stanzas that he composed parallel to the four worlds known as that sinless breed sericea you probably heard the yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah known as the alter rebbe is he said today is ailment we have a tradition he tells to his grandson that kabak Hassidim their soul is rooted in that so since you're a part of this family and it's your name it means your soul is rooted in this so I tell you my dear grandson you're going on a journey this journey will take you to interesting places at every important moment in life sing this if the comes to you you're good if the doesn't come to you it means you have become detached from the roots of your soul reevaluate your life and he said and now the Gemara says a lollipop their other make a very elementary viral halakha you don't leave you don't say goodbye only with the halacha says my grandfather quoted our Rambam and hillcrist rumors about the halacha stuffed rumor since I'm going to HS row he asked a question on it he gave an answer he gave me a kiss on my forehead and he said goodbye and our waste pardons so I went on the coach I went off to the Holy Land I arrived there a month or two later and he said a few weeks later I got a telegram for my mother that my grandfather passed away he writes in the early 70s as the president of Israel a secular state he says those words of my grandfather never left me whenever I stand at a fork in my life and I have two ways to go all the people around me know I tell them I need a few minutes before I make a decision I close the door and I sing the of the altar ABBA from beginning to end if it doesn't come to me I start from scratch as we would say I press control alt delete' say I have to re-evaluate everything if it comes to me I feel like that the alter rebbe is holding me in his bosom he is caressing me and he's giving me the confidence and empowerment to move on with my decision this he wrote in his diary I heard this years ago from my late father's a colonel of Raqqa who heard it from President shazar years and years ago this I heard for my father the story though has an epilogue which is my own addition Zalman shazar over the years the lubavitcher rebbe living in New York developed a correspondence with them and they became extremely close friends to the point that as president of Israel he came to visit the Rebbe a few times despite the tremendous protest of many personalities who said the Rebbe you should go to the president the president shouldn't go to the rebel but he came anyway the last time he came was 1973 he came for you'd base Thomas he sat he sat throughout the rebus for Brennan it's the Haga Ghul of his father-in-law the riots in Russia he sadly maybe spoke for I don't overstuff abbring and again went for seven eight or nine hours and shazar was an old man he sat there he sat till two or three in the morning and then he had a private audience with the rebel for the rest of the nights at the end of the fabric in the Rebbe asked that they should sing the alter rebbe is Maegan they started to sing it the alter rebbe is neguin has a point where you could repeat it the highest stands that reaches a crescendo you could do it again if you wish so there Abner went like this they should do it ten times ten times yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah you know yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah ten times who ever notice almond shazar they saw that he was transported to a different place the conversation he had with his grandfather was approximately the year 1915 1916 this is almost a century later two world wars a world wiped out including his world a Jewish nation transformed almost 70 years later in 73 sitting in the place that resembled his old roots where he ran away from and they were singing this in ten times and he sat and you could see the man was in a trance unless you knew the story you couldn't understand why shah's are was so affected by the nigut it was almost like literally a homecoming and many ways he changed his life and the amount of things that they're ever accomplished in Israel because of him secretly were incredible in terms of Education in terms of terror in terms of mitzvos in tremendous influence because because of that very very deep and intimate connection what was his grandfather telling him in other words everybody has a and in life you have to be able to be connected to your to your roots to your soul to your relationship with our chef that's why a person wakes up in the morning you weary off what do people do today in the morning the first thing they check their emails it's one of the worst things you could do for yourself you know why the first thing that defines you in the morning is what somebody else wrote that means immediately you gave up your soul to foreign influence the whole day could be affected by that the moment you wake up in the morning you have to align yourself with your shirah SH you have to make sure your micawber that's what my Donnie that's what prayer is that's what study is or whatever the methods that and other methods that you can do in order to completely remain loyal to your spiritual psychological emotional and physical core all of them then you step into the world from a place of inner empowerment and confidence there may be some tough stuff to deal with there may be some stuff because you know bowls that you got a jar dodged but because you're in your own core you won't falter you won't melt if you wish this is an explanation may be the only explanation for the Enigma of Jewish history it's really senseless whenever you have a group of refugees who are sent away from their native country they come into a new country where they are the minority what happens after 10 20 50 100 years they melt they assimilate you can't expect anything to be otherwise what happened to the greatest empires of history where is the Egyptian Empire what happened to that Syrian Empire what happened to the Babylonian Empire the Persian Empire the Greeks the Romans the answer is another Empire came overwhelmed and defeated them and after decades they just melt away that's what happens in 1989 the Dalai Lama summoned a group of Jews and he asked the following question the Dalai Lama is the head of the Buddhist tribe they had a native country it was called I bet they were exiled by the Chinese and he said it's one generation later and he doesn't see how he can have the great the descendants maintained that identity on foreign soil so he's calling the Jews who managed to do it for 2,000 years on foreign soil now this would be unique even if the minority wasn't persecuted if the minority was persecuted they should certainly be overwhelmed they should certainly be nullified they should sue we experienced Bittle according to halakha this little machine one 261 200 wanted 200 what about one to a thousand one to ten thousand one to a million you know the percent of the Jewish people and contrast to the rest of humanity anybody the answer is less than a quarter of one percent you talking about bit low less than a quarter it's not even a half a percent it's not even a quarter of a percent by all the laws of Bittle they should have been lost forfeited melted subsumed submerged nullified obliterated in the majority how not the answer is the answer is ah ah mokuba LOI bottle when you're connected to the source of vitality you don't get obliterated even if it's one to a million you can only be obliterated and nullified if you're in a state of weakness will you allow yourself to be overwhelmed but when you're connected to that core which endures and exists you can't be nullified that's what the passage says in my lofty the last prophet of the Jewish people was Malathi the last book of tanaka and he says in chapter 3 Kiani arduino lorisha me see the Otten binoculars you listen I God have not changed and you have not perished what's the connection it's the same thing because I have not changed meaning I don't change with the weather I don't change with the change of presidents with the change of empires with the change of climate and the our simulation II see there's eternity at the me a cliff you're connected the atom at the vacant Basham allocation sky and kolka Miyoung so like he lists them you don't perish ah the majority is overwhelming that law can only exist when you're vulnerable as a result of disconnection when you're connected with Hashem when you're connected with the ain't safe when you're connected with the source of eternity you live in a world of eternity you don't only live in history you also live in meta history Jews live on two levels of history in history and what they call meta history above history in a state of eternity on one level we're living in 2017 tops Mayan Zion on another level Friday afternoon comes Shabbos comes and you light the Shabbos candles and sorry Maine who is alive in her tent lighting Shabbos candles three and a half four and a half thousand years of history are happening right now on one level we're living in the 21st century on another level a Jewish child opens up a Mishnah and starts quoting the opinion of Rabbi Akiva or rabbi yehuda or a mayor or a prim man or a bi syrup shown by a tryi and suddenly he's having a conversation with them they're right there in the room you go into a yeshiva somebody is quoting a buyer and ruther who lived in the fourth century after the Common Era sixteen seventeen hundred years ago and you start talking to them I don't understand what you're saying I do understand what you're saying and now I get what you're saying it's a conversation that started with the first drew and it still continues which is why we talk a lot it's a long conversation that's going on and on it doesn't look like it's gonna end very soon you going to abase matter who you're talking to you're talking to the Rambam you talking to Rashi we just spoke to Rashi today Rashi lived 800 years ago nine hundred years ago we have conversations with Raschi on a daily basis or Rashi Russians are guests in my home every day how does that happen we live in two states of history one is flux and one is a foundational core that is not subject to change it's not subject to the whims to the to the Vista toots to the fluctuations of history of change so this is true psychologically internally internally and it's true historically collectively our position as a nation and our position as individuals within yourself if you approach life if you approach even pain if you approach even your trauma if you approach your difficulties your stressful places from your own deepest core which is one with Hashem first of all there's always confidence there there's always optimism there there's always empowerment they're always with hedva bim como in his space there is confidence and there is joy so whenever you look at yourself and you feel weak and sluggish and depressed and melancholy you're not in his space you're detached from his space and if you're not in his space then I become extremely vulnerable to what this one says to what that one says to this person's opinion to this person's perspective and yet they're yakin adverse and Yenta has an opinion about everybody much before Google much before Google we had our own Jewish Google on everyone there's an opinion for especially if you know the family and you know what they did before the war Hank this is a given I've answered Sudeikis I remember her I remember her in the early 50s he became today the chief rabbi I remember who he was as a kid we have a file and everybody and people sometimes live their entire life based on this one's perspective on this one's opinion why don't you do this what are they gonna think why are you doing this what are they gonna think if I don't do it and sometimes people sacrifice themselves their children their loved ones their God their truth on the sake of idols and what's the idol the idol is social conformity and then you wake up in the morning and you look in the mirror and you see nothing there's nothing left all I became is I'm a shell I'm a mouthpiece all I do is I'm the mouthpiece for other people that's what happens if you don't have a source now you may not know your source that's challenging you have to find that you have to discover it at last we can understand why ARLA why this is taught in the laws of our law could have been thought than many other helices ARLA is not the only trade for food the answer is briefly because our law was instituted because of the eight sadhus because of eating of the Tree of Knowledge what happened as a result of the eight sadhus I'm going to do this very very brief before the tree of knowledge after the tree of knowledge everything changed what's the first question a sham asks Adam after he ate from the tree I echo where are you why is that the first question before he ate from the tree there was no question where are you he knew exactly where he was after the tree he's not sure where he was where he is till today we all ask ourselves the question constantly I echo where are you and if you could listen silently and subtly you can hear God asking everybody the same question Ayaka we're a mine before the eight sadhus there was no such a thing as being disconnected from your source there was no dissonance between the inner and outter which is why Ottoman hava could walk around without clothes and not be ashamed how could you not be ashamed on the contrary they were so holy they should have been more pleased than anybody the answer is they weren't ashamed you know why the whole reason for shame is only when the outer and the inner are not one with each other when the goof is a vehicle for the soul so then there's no shame on the contrary the body is seeing as a full expression of the beauty and the holiness of the soul body and soul merge into a seamless whole after they ate from they'd say das there is now a Goethe a separation between your inner core and your outer self and I could live my whole life detached from Who I am that's the result of the a cha das detached because I'm detached my body also becomes detached and I have to protect it that it should not conceal the fact that it is much more than physical it's really spiritual so in many ways the eighth's had the Tikhonov the eight sawdust is what realigning the outer with the inner it's like the light bulb with the lights when you look at the light bulb you just see lights why the light bulb the glass is a reflection it's a channel for the lights the body is a channel for the soul the physical is a channel for the spiritual there's no separation between the inner and outer after they told us there is now work to realign since the laws of our law are meant as a tickin for the HR das so they're twice in the laws of our law will we discover this truth what's the truth that will you remain connected when you're mokuba whenever you're connected organically to your own body to your own soul to your own identity and to God Loy bottle nothing and nobody can nullify you in the world have a wonderful week this class is brought to you by the yeshiva dotnet please help us continue the classes 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