The Happiest Man on Earth: The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor

The Yeshiva.net Good morning. Um usually I try to get up I think I have the annual party that we had or when we get together and I try to do a small speech like about it and I try to motivate motivate include some type of motivation in my speech. Um but no one ever gives me a motivation speech. So I decided I want one and I'm inviting everybody else to hear it as well. Um So yes, uh Rabbi Jacobson is coming to speak to us. He's one of the most sought-after sought-after speakers in the Jewish world today and he lectured many cabinets across the world. He has traveled hundreds to hundreds of communities in six continents educating and inspiring people of all backgrounds in depth of Torah and Judaism. Rabbi Jacobson is the first rabbi ever to be invited by the Pentagon to deliver a religious keynote to the US military chief of chaplains and the national security minister. Um Rabbi Jacobson Beautiful. You're talking about me? Yeah. Okay. The makam shelanu is makam shelanu mashable yeshish yesh koach. Thank you so much for your kind words. There was a dinner they introduced uh Senator Joseph Lieberman and the master of ceremonies gave a really beautiful introduction so when they got up he said "It's a pity that my parents are not here this evening. My father would have appreciated these words and my mother would have believed them." So uh So thank you for the invitation and the privilege to be able to address such a group and I know we're joined by a very large virtual community in Lakewood and Scranton. And Monsey. My neck of the woods. It's fine, you can listen. I'm just here for the delivery though. That's great. You can still listen. No problem. It's not a bother at all. Reminds me of a great joke. So there was this huge company. The name wasn't Future Care but it was some other company. Very big, successful, affluent company in Atlanta and the company got a new CEO. Mamesh a new boss. Young guy. Vibrant. Very ambitious, abrasive, aggressive. A little bit too much of a big ego. He comes in and the first day he wants to flex his muscles and show yesh baal habayis libi razu. There is a baal habayis. There is a There's a boss. And then he's walking through and he sees one guy standing near the wall. And he says, "What are you doing here standing by the wall? There's so much work to do. There's so much to accomplish. THERE'S SO MUCH to achieve." The whole office is quiet. 100 people are hearing HIM SCREAM. "YOU ARE FIRED. I CAN'T deal with laziness, with people who do nothing, with people who just stand at walls and daydream all day. This is a big successful company. We need to quadruple the revenue for next year." He gives his very motivational and intense and aggressive speech. "You are fired." The man looks at him. "How much do you usually make a week?" I said, "I make $1,000 a week." He takes out from his pocket $7,000. He gives it to him. He says, "Here you have your salary for 7 weeks. Now leave." The man says, "Thank you." And he leaves. He turns to uh the manager. He says, "Who is that guy that I just fired?" He said, "And he was waiting for his tip." So he did pretty well for himself for that day's tip. $7,000 nish gefelach to deliver uh 10 or 20 pies of pizza for the office. So that's my motivational speech to you. The guy Tucker could quit from Domino's. He had a nice salary for a while and he could probably be a little more recreational. Yes, send her my regards. So I asked uh I asked Mushky Lewis to ask uh all of you send out an email or whatever the method of communication to address questions that are on people's hearts, on people's minds relative to work, home, serenity, tranquility, stress, anxiety and all the good keywords of 2021 in a post-Corona era. So if quite a few people sent in some very interesting questions and I'm going to read them before I begin my lecture because I want to address them during my presentation or at least address some of them be'ezrat Hashem. We can address them We can address the rest of them afterwards. We can do a question and answer session and whoever wants to add questions feel free. You can speak up. You can put it on a on a piece of paper if you want and send it here. If you don't want to identify yourself, that's fine. When one come Question number one. When one comes home after a long and difficult day at work, what's the best way for that not to affect one's family? It was a hard and long day and the family gets affected by my stress. How to get along with employees and colleagues who have so such different personalities and temperaments than I? Good question. Nice question. How could we mothers feel more connected to Hashem when we are so busy? I don't really have time to daven, to learn, to think. Life is so overwhelming. I could put a few questions together. How to not keep looking at where and what others are getting? Somebody in the company got a change in position. Somebody got a change in salary. Should I be looking at other offices where friends work? Friends tell me about their opportunities, their experiences. Is that really what I should always be doing, looking at other people? Can I feel content with where I am in life? Is there a way to do that? Does that compromise ambition? Am I being foolish or am I being smart? Good question. How can I work on being bendable and adaptable to stress and other constant changes? How do you roll with the punches without feeling defeated and coming from a relaxed place? It's not my nature to be outgoing and talk to other people. I'm not a people's person. I understand the value of building camaraderie, validating co-workers validating their feelings, showing appreciation but I'm just not good at it. It's a good question. Can you share any tips for people who are introverted at heart? Okay, you just met one of them. I'm one of those people. You want to know why I'm by a mic? That's another story. But I understand you. You just like being in your cell yourself, right? In that room with your book. The door closed, you could be there for like 9 months. I get it. How should one deal with work-related stress, deadlines? I am naturally stressed. On a good day I'm stressed. I am a stressed person. Okay, welcome to the club. You're not the only one. But I understand. But now when I have responsibilities and I have to complete tasks it's stress on steroids. Mm. How do I balance religion, work and family? Three very different worlds. I do not know how to balance them. Those are some of the questions. Really good questions, intelligent questions. I have to say you could see that this company is run primarily by women uh from all these questions. Man, you would have to sit for like 9 years with a lot of therapy to be able to even get them to be aware that this is a problem. You probably know when you ask your husband, "Are you stressed?" "Me? Stressed?" So uh it's so important to be aware of your emotions and thank you for sharing these questions. And let me begin and I'm going to address a lot of these be'ezrat Hashem bli neder. And welcome again to everybody who's physically here and who's virtually here, present virtually here through uh virtual communication and thank you all for gracing us with your presence. And thank you of course to all the leaders and the organizers for bringing us together and giving me this opportunity. Thank you, Mr. Eisenberg. Thank you, Mr. Stern. Thank you, Mushky for arranging it in your own inimitable skill and thank you for this opportunity. So let me begin with a very interesting reflection on how the day and the nights are divided in different cultures. If I were to ask you if you had to decide when should the day begin? What should be the beginning of a day? Like a new day. What would you think instinctively? Huh? Yeah, what hour does We have 24 hours, right? Based on the solar orbit, the daily orbit of 24 hours, the sun completes its orbit 24 hours after the Earth revolves on its axis. So, we have a 24 hours that we divide into day and night. I got it. But instinctively, if I were to ask you, when should you say this is the beginning of a new day? What point? What would you say? Anybody? Huh? When you wake up, but some people wake up at 4:00, some people wake up at 6:00. What do you think would be a universal principle? Huh? 5:00 a.m.? When you get to work? But that's everybody different. What do you think scientifically, if you look at objectively, what should be the beginning of a day? Sunrise, very good. Sunrise, right? Sunrise is a new day. Maybe an hour before, dawn break, dawn break, sunrise. And there are cultures when days begin at sunrise. Makes a lot of sense. People wake up. It's a new day, right? You say it's a new day, I'm fresh, I'm rested, the sun has just come up. It's been dark for hours, and now it's light. The world begins again. People can go to work, people can create things, people can do whatever they do during the day. That would be That would make sense. How does it work in American culture? In America, when does the day begin? No, no. What's called a new day? October 22nd begins when? 12:00 a.m. Midnight. What's the logic in that? Why 12:00 a.m.? Anybody knows the logic? Right, but why not 6:00 a.m.? So, the answer is 12:00 a.m. is midnight. So, the way they do it is the first half of the night is connected to the day before. And the second half of the night is connected to the new day. After 12:00 a.m., especially in the olden days, people would go to sleep after sunset, after nightfall. There was no night life. You woke up already before dawn break or at dawn break, sometimes even earlier. So, already from the middle of the night begins the preparations for a new day. So, half of the night belongs to the previous day, half of the night belongs to the subsequent day. That's the way it works in the United States of America. So, 12:00 a.m. midnight, we begin a new day. It's already deep in middle of your sleep or after sleep, etc. Those who wake up for that size midnight. But how does it work in Judaism? When does a day begin? A day begins not with sunrise, right? Not with midnight. When does Shabbos begin? Friday night after nightfall. Isn't that a little weird? When the day ends by us, the day begins. When does a day usually end for people? You're not used to answering questions. Okay, so get used to it cuz I can't deal with crowds that are detached. When does a day end? Anybody? When does a day end in your life? At night, right? You come home, you're tired, you're stressed, you're more stressed, you're exhausted. Come home, you go to sleep hopefully if you can get to sleep at some hour. But that's what night is, down time. In Yiddishkeit, in Judaism, when does the day begin? At night. At night, when everybody is ending the day, that's when the day begins. Why? And what's the source for this? Why do we do it that way? Back to base Yakov, huh? Excellent. A plus. $7,000 tip, maybe. The answer is cuz in the story of creation, what's this? Get close. Uh-oh. In the story of creation, in the book of Genesis, Bereshit, the opening of the Hebrew Bible, the Torah, it says there was evening and there was morning, day one. Right? Erev Vayivoker Yom Echad. So, clearly, the way creation is defined by the Torah and therefore by Judaism, first comes night, then comes day, and the day begins not with day, it begins with night. Sometimes people who are not familiar with this tradition, right? You'll invite them to their your house, you'll invite them to your house for Shabbos, for Saturday, and they'll show up in the morning. People who are involved in outreach will sometimes invite somebody Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur to the synagogue, and they'll come Rosh Hashanah in the morning. That's when the holiday begins, in the morning. They don't know that it begins at night. Night is supposed to be night, it's the end of the previous day. No, it's a new day. But why would it be that way? What's the logic? What's the symbol behind this? There's two answers for this, and they address the rhythm of life. The first answer is because the Torah was trying to teach us that when you get home from work, which means at the end of your day, what everybody calls the end of the day, we call the beginning of the day. So, when is the beginning of your day? Not 7:00 in the morning. At night, when you're getting home, tired, exhausted. All you want to do is plop down on the couch and tell your children, "Just for tonight, find another mother. I'll be available tomorrow." That was just a joke, I know you don't do that. But sometimes you want to do it, I'm sure. And those of you who don't do that yet because you don't have children, God willing in the right time, you'll understand exactly what I'm talking about. May be with hatzlacha. And it's strange, but that's what Judaism teaches us, that's when the day begins. Why? Cuz that's exactly the point. Your real day begins when you get home. Your real day begins when you come home, even though you go to work, and you work hard, and you work well, and you work productively. But one always has to have their mind anchored in what is my most important priority and value in life. And therefore, when I'm coming home to my family, or when I'm coming home at night, Judaism says this is the beginning of the day. Usually the beginning of a day, people are fresh, they're excited, they're optimistic. At night, they turn into pumpkins, they get into bad moods. Already 3:00, 4:00 in the afternoon, you know, depression sets in. It's the time of Mincha, it's the time of dusk, it's Yitzchak, it's Gevurah, it's complicated energy afternoon. Not many people know how to navigate afternoons. You know, morning is Vayashkem Avraham Baboker, it's vibrant, it's new, it's fresh. Evening has the romance of the kingdom of night. Afternoon is a very interesting time. You have to really be connected to be connected in the afternoon, for not you lose the plot. So, when I come home after all of that, Judaism says, "Now the day begins. Now I want to be on my best behavior. Now I want to be on my freshest behavior. Now I want to be the most vibrant, the most alive, the most connected." But how do we do that? So, now comes the second explanation, which is more thematic and a little deeper. And that is it really is the question of how we look at the world. Some people look at the world with very rosy eyes, and they see very rosy colors. They're just naturally optimistic and upbeat, and they just see the world as a beautiful, amazing, incredible, perfect place. And other people see the world as a place of darkness and bleakness and pessimism. Right? As somebody once said, "It's not dark yet, but it's getting there." They once asked a pessimist, "What's the difference between an optimist and a pessimist?" And he said, "The pessimist says it can't get worse, and the optimist says it could get worse." That's how the pessimist described the optimist. That joke is over. So, in any case, some people just see the world from a very bright from a very bright vantage point. And other people see the world from a very dark vantage point. Which one is more true, do you think? Is the world a perfect place, or is the world a hopeless place? The first group says, "This is the way to live." They just always see the beauty. And others are like, "I'm not going to be naive. I don't live in La La Land. I live in a real world, I'm a Shug en Welt." Even BCE, which is before Corona existed, certainly CE, certainly 2021 CE, after Corona emerged, place of madness. No And that's even in the outer world, in the internal world with so much mental stress and anxiety that has really erupted in recent years in people's lives. The keyword today, I've been traveling and lecturing for many, many years, and um the keyword today, what people want to hear, is about anxiety. If not everybody, but so many people are suffering from anxiety. And there's people who are suffering from terrible mental challenges and stress. There's mental illness, but even if it's not diagnosed as mental illness, there's so much stress in people's lives. And I'm not just talking about stress because of something crazy and insane that's happening. That of course induces stress, but just from the daily grind and the upheavals and the responsibilities and travel and work and family and marriages and relationships and being single and being not in a relationship or being in a relationship, whatever way you look at it, people have so much internal anxiety, a lack of serenity and tranquility. So, I'm not going to look at the world and say it's perfect. It's a very confusing place. What's the approach of Judaism to this question? You don't have to all answer at once. I was hired, so I'll answer this question. Okay? You could be quiet. It was rhetorical. Judaism's answer is the day begins with night. It always begins with night. Day never begins with sunrise. Day begins with sunset, with nightfall. That's when day begins. That's always how it begins. By erev. And then you reach by voker. Then you reach morning. But that's already later in the day. It's already after 12 hours of the day you reach sunrise and then you reach midday. And the day ends with the sun setting, but still the sun in the sky. What is the message here? The message here is that life does have darkness. And every life in its beginning and in various stages of life has confusion, has uncertainty, has stress, has anxiety. There's no life that's perfect. The only people who I know that are perfect are the people I don't know. The only marriages I know that are perfect are the marriages I don't know. The only companies I know that are perfect, maybe besides this one, are the companies I don't know. Life is filled with upheavals. Life is a roller coaster. Every person's life has their own challenges. There's financial, emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual, familial. Internal, external, things inside, things on the outside. Things that I experienced in my past, wounds, trauma, unresolved pain. And then just daily encounters of life. We all deal with responsibilities that can often become challenging, difficult, and overwhelming. And even if not overwhelming, they're still often difficult and challenging. So, what is this world about? Is this a world of light or is this a world of darkness? And Jewish answer of Judaism, which is probably one of the most elegant ways of looking at life and also inspiring ways of looking at life is our world is essentially a factory. In Hebrew it's called a bit haroshet, a factory, a manufacturing factory. What is it a factory of? If you ever go into factories, I went the other day to a I gave a a speech in a plastic factory and it was fascinating. I was just watching what they do. They put in raw materials, raw plastic material, and on the other side, you know, it goes through that long process, on the other side comes out ready-made utensils formed and fashioned in different ways, whether it's a bag, whether it's a different type of utensil. And it was just fascinating to see that transformation. Our world is a factory. What is it a factory for? It's a factory that transforms darkness into light. That's our world. We take darkness and we transform it into light. In one sentence, by erev, by voker, yom echad. It begins with darkness, but how does it end? It ends with light and that makes one day a day of echad, of oneness that integrates the darkness and the light. Is this a world where there's always light and clarity? Absolutely not. Confusion and darkness, there is, but there's also so much light. How does it work? Our mission, our job is to take darkness, take confusion, take the challenge, and instead of becoming paralyzed by it, instead of becoming crushed, instead of becoming weakened, using it as a catalyst, as a springboard of awareness to be able to transform every single element of darkness, of confusion, of challenge, of temptation, of trauma, of pain into a deeper source of positivity, into a deeper source of energy. I was very inspired last week, last Tuesday, a man passed away. He was 101 years old. 101. His name was Avraham Jakubowicz. He called himself Eddie Jaku. A little easier than Abraham Jakubowicz was Eddie Jaku. He published his first book, and last book, at the age of 100, 1 year ago, after his 100th birthday. That's not bad. The only one who did better than him was Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses, who wrote his book at the age of 120. But Eddie Jaku wrote his book at the age of 100. You know what the title is? The happiest man on Earth. So, when you see the title and you see the picture of him on the front page, on the jacket of the book, an elderly, handsome, kind man, wonderful face, a glow, you think he lived in Sydney, he passed away in Sydney, in Australia, and you think, you know, he was living in Sydney all his life in the Goobuy, of those of you who know Sydney, in the Goobuy, beautiful Goobuy neighborhood and region near the water, relaxed, serene, tranquil, and he could walk around at the age of 100 and say, "I am the happiest man on Earth." When you open up the book, you see that he was born in 1920 in Leipzig, Germany. As a teenager, his parents sent him away to boarding school and he learned engineering. November 9th, 1938, he came home to Leipzig to surprise his parents for their wedding anniversary on November 9th. Does anybody know what happened November 9th, 1938? What? What exactly? The Holocaust went on for many years. Kristallnacht, the night of broken glass. He came home, his parents weren't in there, they went into hiding. 5:00 a.m., 10 Nazis came into his house. There was only the dog, Lulu, was there. They beat him mercilessly. Lulu tried to protect him, they killed Lulu, and they beat this boy, Avraham Jakubowicz, Abraham Jakubowicz, to the point that one of them with his with his dagger started to engrave a swastika on his chest in blood, of course. They sent him to Buchenwald. He got out of there. He escaped to Belgium. He was arrested in Belgium and he was sent to Auschwitz. From the platform of the train, he stole a hammer and screwdriver. And the 9-hour journey back east to France, Germany, and Auschwitz, he was busy with his hammer and screwdriver. And after 9 hours, he managed to create a crevice and he crept under the train. And he ran. He never made it to Auschwitz. He made it back to Belgium, France, he was arrested again. And this time sent with his whole family to Auschwitz in 1943. His parents were killed, sent to the gas chambers. He was sent to work because he was an engineer, so they can use his skill for one of their German factories. He ran away from the death camp of Auschwitz. Very few people did it successfully. But in the woods, a Polish farmer shot him in his leg. And he realized there's no way he's going to be able to survive, so he went back to Auschwitz and the Nazis never detected that he ran away. So, now he went back to Auschwitz and then he was put on the death march. At the end of the war, when the Soviets were coming closer, they took the Jewish prisoners on a death march. Excuse me. Most of them did not survive. He survived the death march. They put him into another factory. He was in charge of 200 machines and they had a sign that they put on his head hanging from his neck, "If any of the machines break, hang me." for the Jewish employees that if something is wrong with the machine, they should whistle, so they're able to run in and deal with it before he gets hung. That's where he met his sister, Hennie, who was also alive in that factory, but then he was sent on another death march. Most people couldn't survive these death marches. You marched for days, days, days and nights without food, without water. And if you stopped, you were shot. These are people who were emaciated, they haven't eaten. They were sick, they were diseased, they were like skeletons, if you've seen pictures or documentaries. He ran away from the death march. He's a resourceful fellow. He ran away from the death march into a ditch in the forest, so the bullets missed him and he stayed in the ditch for 6 months surviving on snails. 6 months. He was so emaciated, he couldn't walk. He crawled from the ditch to a highway and an American an American soldier spotted him and rescued him. They took him to a hospital. This was June 1945. The war was now over. They took him to a hospital. They told him that most likely he's going to die. He was so malnourished. He was so sick. He was so diseased. He hasn't eaten and he had typhus. So, the nurse told him most likely he won't be able to make it. But the man survived. He survived. And what did he do? A few weeks later he got himself a ticket and he went back to Belgium because that's where his family fled to from Germany and he thought maybe he'll find somebody. He found nobody. But he found a Jewish girl by the name of Flora and a few weeks later they were married. In the summer of 1945 they were married. He said, "But I was a miserable man. I was angry. I was anxious. I was sad. I was broken. I lost everything." He lost his both of his parents and most members of his family besides a sister Henny who survived. He and his wife moved to Australia to Sydney where many survivors moved to. And then he says in 1950 his first son was born, Michael. And he said, "As my son was born and I looked my son in his eyes, I looked into the eyes of my little new angel." In his words, I he gave a speech. I heard him say. He said, "My joy has returned to me in abundance." "And at that moment I made a decision. The decision is I'm going to live a happy life. I'm going to smile. I'm going to be kind. I'm going to be considerate and I'm going to enjoy every day of my life." He says, "Today I'm 100 years old." This is last year, 2020. "I'm 100 years old. I am the happiest man on Earth. I have family. I have children. I have grandchildren. I have great-grandchildren. I have the gift of friendship. I have the gift of community and I have the gift of life." You read this person's book. He gave a TED Talk 2 years ago. 6,000 people gave him a standing ovation. And you understand the power of the human spirit. You're in awe. Like what is this guy on that I'm not on? And the answer is he was just drunk on the gift of life. And he turns to the 6,000 people in the room at his TED Talk. And he says, "You know, young people today don't know how to stop and breathe. They don't know how to enjoy friendship. They don't know how to celebrate life. We are so stressed." He says, "For me, one flower in a garden is a whole garden and one friend is a whole world." Then he says, "I'll never forgive or forget the Germans. I will never return to German soil. And every day I miss my mother and I would give up all my money to be able to hug my mother once more. She was gassed in 1943." And then he says, "My father told me as a teenager, Avraham, Eddie, life is hard. But if you put the work in, you will be grateful one day. And remember to be a giver is much more enjoyable than to be a taker at the end of the day." And he looks up to heaven at the age of 99 and he says, "Today I turn to my father in heaven and I say, 'Daddy, I am grateful.'" There was there were very few dry eyes in the audience. He looked at everybody and he said, "Tomorrow will come, but learn how to enjoy today." And at that moment I understood what it means that our life is a factory. It's not a place where you come in and everything is beautiful and perfect. I have my skeletons and probably some of you have yours. I have my stress and probably some of you have yours. I have my internal challenges and some of you have yours. This is not a world we come into for perfection. But it's also not a world that's made to break people. This is a world in which the human soul, the human spirit has that power to be a partner with God who created the world and allowed there to be darkness and created the light and we are the partners who take every moment of confusion and use it as a springboard for awareness. We take our anxiety and we see it as an alarm clock waking us up to who we are. Next time you're feeling anxiety, don't get upset at your anxiety. Do you get upset at your alarm clock in the morning? I do. But it's not very logical, right? Your alarm clock is just trying to wake you up to reality. The sun has risen. The sun has risen. Yes, you get to go to FutureCare in 45 minutes. Don't all laugh at the same time. But your alarm clock is not a bad guy. Your alarm clock is just trying to wake you up to reality, you know? It's time to wake up. Your anxiety is an alarm clock. It's an alarm clock. Don't get upset at it. And don't just press snooze. It's so it's a Jewish thing to do. Snooze. We numb our anxiety. Some of us through binging. That's why I'm as skinny as I look. Some of us through other interesting things. But everybody has distractions through which I press snooze. So, I silenced the alarm clock. But snooze does not silence the alarm clock. So, some people break the alarm clock. I don't know if you ever had a brother who did that in Yeshiva, but probably. Ask him. We break it. You don't break your anxiety. You don't snooze it. You listen to it. It's telling you something. It's teaching you about yourself. It's telling me what I have to work on. It's telling you what you have to work on. It's not your enemy. It's your friend. It's a friend that's telling you the truth. You know, there are friends who just say, Present company excluded. But then there are friends who say, "Hi." But then they say, "I want to share with you the truth." Those are real friends. Your anxiety is your friend. You and you're telling me with such friends who needs enemies, right? But that's the truth. My anxiety is here to help me become the person I'm supposed to become. It's here to wake me up to my insecurities, my fears, my pains, my traumas, my unresolved stuff. It's an opportunity to transform it into light. So, what is our world? Our world is not a place of initial light or darkness. Our world is night followed by day where we take every experience of darkness, whatever it may look like, and we say, "How am I going to become more empowered through this?" Many of you sitting in this room belong to a nation known as the Jewish people, right? I happen also to be Jewish. My mother is Jewish. My father is Jewish. What's the name? But this really applies to everybody, all humanity. It's one of the great stories in the Hebrew Bible. What was the name of the father of the Jewish people, Abraham, Isaac, and then Jacob. But Jacob didn't stick his name didn't stick. He has a change of name and it becomes Israel, Yisrael. Interesting. His name doesn't stick. There's a transformation from Jacob to Israel. That's why Israel is called Israel. Jewish people are called Israel. Eretz Yisrael, Torat Yisrael, Am Yisrael. Yisrael in English is Israel. When did he get that name change? So, if you remember the story, it was one night and he was battling a strange adversary. And the strange adversary wanted to kill him, but he couldn't. So, he maimed him and he dislocated his sciatic nerve and now Jacob is limping. And now Jacob turns to him and is holding on to him and the man says, "Send me away. It's dawn. It's morning. I got to go." And what does Jacob tell him? Lo ashalechacha ki verachtani. I will not send you away until you don't bless me. What a strange response. Imagine somebody attacks you in a dark alley and they're trying to kill you all night and finally in the morning they're leaving. You say, "Wait, wait, wait, wait. I NEED A BRACHA. I NEED a blessing." Really? Call 911. Punch them in the nose. Run away. If you're a black belt, even better. You can ask them for blessings? What what's the meaning of this? And you know what the man says? Instead of blessing you, I'll change your name. Your name shouldn't be Jacob. Your name should be Israel. Yisrael. With this response, Jacob was teaching his children and all of humanity forever one of the profoundest lessons in life. And that is when we're facing adversity of any kind, it's not just enough for me to say, "Get me out of this place." If that's the purpose, get me out of this place, why did God put me in that position initially? There's something much deeper. I have to be able to look at my adversary, whatever he or she looks like, and say, "I will not let you go until I do not come out from this encounter more blessed." The secret of Jews, the Jewish people, the secret of Eddie Jaku, the secret of all of us from time immemorial until this very day is that when we face adversity, whatever it looks like, my response is not, "OMG." Oh my Google. I mean, oh my God. Get me out of this." Then who needed it in the first place? Why would a good God put me here? My error, my evil, my response is I was put into this difficult relationship in order to come out more blessed, more wise, more deep, more vulnerable, more real, more authentic, more kind, more refined, more divine, more empathetic, more honest. Yes. Yes. If my personal trainer is asking me to bench press 295, why is that so funny? It happened. It happened and I got hurt, so I quit. But, uh, that's a separate subject. It's also an alarm clock. You're lifting weights, and what happens? You're tearing the tissue of the muscle. It hurts. But, that's how the muscle rebuilds itself and becomes more powerful. The seed is planted in the earth, it decomposes, but only after it decomposes can it morph into a tree. So, Jacob says, "I met you not just to get out of you, but to come out of you more blessed, to transform the darkness into light, to transform my anxiety into a blessing, to realize that every trauma you're dealing with in the past and in the present was not here to break you, even though it feels that way. It was not here to paralyze you. It was not here to put you into a depression. It was not here to make you freak out and make you miserable, even though it feels that way. You know what it was really made for? It was made to ultimately allow you to become the person you're supposed to become, to be able to give the world the light that only you can give the world through your unique personality, unique contribution, unique energy. It doesn't always feel that way. But, think about anybody who really changed you in a real way. Anybody who ever looked you in the eyes and told you something that touched you in the deepest way, and it will usually be somebody who went and through crisis. Cuz it's only those people, all of you who ever had a conversation with such a person know exactly what I'm talking about. It's those person who change people's lives because they can empathize, cuz they were there, cuz they know what the darkness looks like. They have smelled it, they have tasted it, they have touched it. They know what it means to allow night to become day. That's the secret of the cycle of Judaism, why our days don't begin with sunrise. They begin after sunset and then they develop into sunrise. Sunset and sunrise merge. The sun sets, but the sun setting is just a preparation. It's not the end. By us, sunset is not the end of the day, it's the beginning. My sun sets, and that becomes the catalyst for a new sunrise, for a new awareness, for new suns, for new shine, for new daylight. Now, what does this mean practically in our lives? How do we bring this down? These are romantic, spiritual, beautiful ideas. What does this mean in in in the daily grind of life? Huh? Okay. Okay, thank you. Mushki, can I trouble you for a cup of water? Please. Thank you. With a cup. Thank you. Okay, it gets better, but we're saying something a little deeper. Right? Shalom Aleichem was a Jewish comedian. He said, "The Aibershter is a helper and find them with their help." You know, they say God is going to help. He said, "I need God to help before he helps." So, even before it gets better, we want it to get better. This is really about perspective. And I want to go through here in a very practical way some of the questions that have been raised and apply what we just said in in in a practical way, at least somewhat of a practical way, to people's lives. So, somebody says, "You come home after a long and difficult day. How do I not allow it to affect my family?" And similar questions, "How do you bring together religion, family, at work? How do you have a relationship with God when you're so busy and overwhelmed?" These are all beautiful questions. Thank you so much. How many of you start your day with a cup of coffee? Only one person? Okay, so the four people who start your day with a cup of coffee, thank everybody for your honesty. The Lubavitcher Rebbe asked, "Why did it become such a Jewish thing? It's not only a Jewish thing, but Jews are somehow also into it, to start the day with a cup of coffee." In Yiddish, the name for coffee is, anybody? Kava. But, let's call it coffee, right? Made from our dear coffee beans, God's beloved coffee beans. So, he said, "You make a coffee." Now, I know everyone has different flavors, especially if you go to Starbucks, especially if you have a new coffee machine in your house, so you make a latte with froth, etc. So, but I'm going to go back to the basics, like we did it in your shiva and we do it in shul, right? So, we have hot water. We put in some coffee, or if you're a fine schmecker, coffee beans. And of course, some people will put in sugar, some people will put in milk, and you'll have your coffee. Enjoy. It's wonderful. So, the Lubavitcher Rebbe said as follows, you know, you have a day, a day is about to begin. So, a Jew or a non-Jew, any one of God's children, fills up a cup of coffee. So, what do you have in a cup of coffee? You have hot water and you have cold milk. You have bitter coffee beans and you have sweet sugar. The day usually has moments when we feel like we're in hot water or in a space of coldness, cold milk. Some bitter moments like coffee beans and some sweet moments like sugar. My parents were Russian, so they had this custom. Now, the Russians would drink coffee, they put a sugar cube in their teeth. You ever saw that? And they sip through the sugar cubes. It's an interesting ritual. However you do it, life has its hot burning moments, hot scorching water, cold moments, sweet moments, and bitter moments, and together we make a coffee and we make a blessing. What do those words mean? In Judaism, before we eat or drink, we make a blessing, which is a meditation. A blessing is not just a blessing, it's a meditation. It's a state of mind. Blessed are you, Hashem, the king of the world. Shakol, everything nia bidvaro comes into existence through his energy. The hot water and the cold milk, the coffee beans and the sugar, from sugar cane, from coffee beans, from a cow that was milked or a sheep that was a goat that was milked, from water that we get from rain or from the oceans or from the wellsprings or wherever you get your water, Shakol, all of it comes into existence and we make from it one coffee, which in Yiddish is kava, which means hope. Like we say in the pasuk, kaveh el Hashem, chazak viametz libecha vikaveh el Hashem. That's how you start off your morning. Now, whether you drink coffee or you don't drink coffee is irrelevant for this message. His point was he was teaching people how you have to start your morning. You must start your morning anchored. Anchored in a place that is unshakeable. This is why we open up our morning as Jews, and the first thing you say when you open your eyes, but it's good for everybody, modeh ani lifanecha melech chai vikayam shehechezarta binishmati I thank you, eternal master of the world, for giving me back my soul with compassion. Your faith in me is great. Wow. What a beautiful message. Your faith in me is great. Everybody believes in God, even if they say they don't believe, they really most people really believe. But, people have a much bigger problem believing that God believes in you. God is great. I KNOW HE'S GREAT. NO, that's not a big deal. God thinks you're great. That's why he returned my soul this morning. Every day when he returns my soul, he's basically giving me a state message, and that is somehow the world is imperfect without your contribution. Birth is God saying, "You matter. I need you for the world." And every day is saying that. The mission says in Sanhedrin, "Person is supposed to say, 'The world was created for me.'" What is this? Extreme narcissism? I come home, I tell my wife the world was created for me, I tell my kids the world was created for me. It's called narcissistic personality disorder. Yet, the mission says everybody should say this. What it means is that there's something at stake in your life that nobody else can can fulfill, not in the future, not in the past, not in the present. There's a light that you have to bring to the world that nobody can do. So, God has faith in you. Rabba Emunah Sekha, your faith in me is great. Now, you wake up in the morning, there's a perspective. The perspective is this, I'm not a victim of circumstances. I'm an ambassador of Hashem in this world. I'm an ambassador of love, light, hope, authenticity, wisdom, healing, redemption. Most importantly, I'm an ambassador that was sent into the world this day to take to take a world that may seem dark and reveal its light. To talk to people who may sometimes feel they're in the dark and help them see their own light. To talk to me who sometimes feel I'm in the dark and allow me to see my own light. THAT WHATEVER I TOUCH DURING the day, I have one job. I want to bring more light into this place, into this person, into this reality, into this life. Every person does it in a different way. Every person has a different mission. Person has different challenges and virtues and blessings, but that's the common denominator. When you wake up in the morning, you have to become spend a few moments to anchor yourself through meditation, through prayer, through study, or whatever does it for you. A walk, a journal, a dance, a massage, exercise, mindfulness, breathing, somatic body work experiences. If you know what that is, you could look it up. But people you you really need to come from a place of empowerment before you go to any office. Now you say, you know what happens in my house with my Jacobson in the morning? Serenity. You know what happens at my house? So I say, so wake up 15 go to sleep 15 minutes earlier, wake up 15 minutes earlier and anchor yourself. Because those are game changers. When when you can have that coffee in the morning, I'm talking here now about the spiritual coffee. Where you realize the hot water and the cold milk and the sweet moments and the bitter moments, it's all of Hashem. Your soul was sent down here and your soul is indestructible. Because it's a piece of Hashem, it's a piece of God. Judaism teaches every person is in the image of God and every soul is a piece of God. God is indestructible, your soul is indestructible. God is invincible, you're invincible. God cannot be abused, molested, traumatized, you cannot be. I may experience these stuff, but it can't affect your core. Your core is filled with light, filled with possibility, filled with joy, filled with creativity, filled with goodness, innocence, sacredness, holiness. This is the foundation of all foundations. If you can't see yourself in that light, then every little thing, every curveball that comes my way can completely derail me cuz I'm looking for validation from people. I'm looking for validation of experience from experience. Now it's good to get validation. It's nice when somebody says you're doing a good job, but that can make you and that can't break you. Criticism shouldn't break you and a compliment shouldn't create you. Yes, we all like compliments. I also like compliments. It's much nicer after a speech for people to say, "Wow, that was so wonderful." than to say, "That was horrible." But if the compliment is what creates me, then the criticism is going to destroy me. And you can't live that way. You need to live from a place of inner inner oneness. And that comes from a deep relationship that you have with your soul, with your own, if I can use the word, with your own karma, with your own spirit, with your own zeitgeist. You got to know yourself. You have to respect yourself. You have to respect your individuality. You understand what I'm saying, girls, women, men? Men also understand what I'm saying? This is important stuff. This is not This is not just for work. This is for life. It's for work and for life. Because when you're in touch with that inner space, you become a you you you meet these people and you see they're inspiring people. They got it together. They're not here to impress. They don't They're not here to get validation. They're like on a mission. They inspire people. They have a halo around them. You want to be that person. You're looking for love, be a source of love. But in order to be a source of love, you have to be able to love yourself, respect yourself, and realize also that everyone is different. I don't have to be you. You don't have to be me. What do they say? God creates us all as originals, but so many of us die as copies. Somebody else once said, "Don't copy somebody else because his or her life is taken already." And besides, if I'm going to be busy copying them, who's going to be me? This is so important to understand. Your weaknesses are not weaknesses. They are your journey. It's exactly how you're supposed to be. Some of us are introverted. Some of us are extroverted. Some of us love people. And some of us get anxious at a bar mitzvah. Hi, how are you? So what are you doing now? Oh, you have a new job? Another new job? And you're supposed to smile. You just want to crawl back into your bed with your phone, watch my clips. It's dry. Netflix, Y Y Helix, whatever it is. I don't know your standards of religiosity, but uh But extroverts have a unique contribution. Introverts have a unique contribution. The most important person who has to make peace with you is you. If you cannot make peace with you, nobody will make peace with you. You have to make peace with you. You really have to respect your shortcomings. Respect your limitations. Respect what works for you and what doesn't work for you. Respect your body more than anything else. I once heard from the Lubavitcher Rebbe something amazing. Hashem told Avraham God tells Abraham, "Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her." Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her. Which is a verse you should put on your refrigerator, give it to your husband every morning. That was a joke. Hopefully he learned it. Whatever Sarah tells you, you listen. Whatever. Whatever. Eat this, don't eat this. That's why we all Jewish men listen to our wives so well. It already began in the beginning. Eve told Adam what to eat, what not to eat, and since then we just ask our wives what to eat and what not to eat. Hopefully she'll give us more than apples from the tree of knowledge or a whatever the tree was. So anyway, God tells Abraham, "Whatever Sarah tells you, listen to her. Whatever." Okay. But he said it goes one step deeper. It says in the Zohar, the basic work of Jewish mysticism, Avraham represents the soul and Sarah represents the body. So God tells Abraham, "Whatever Sarah tells you, you have to listen to her." When your body speaks, you have to listen to your body. We sometimes grow up in a way that we ignore our body. We ignore our bodies. Your body is holy. Your body is sacred. It says in the Zohar, "The body is holy." That's why we'll violate every mitzvah in Torah to save a body. Body as in b o d y, a person's physical organism. Whatever Sarah tells you, what your body says, listen to it. You need to listen to your body. You have to be in tune. It has a voice. It has a song. It has an energy. It has a vibe. And actually Hashem blessed women. Sarah represents the body, not Avraham. Hashem had to train men to also listen to their bodies. Cuz it's a little more complicated for men, but that's not for this lecture. But Sarah has this in tune naturally. It's just the way God created the universe and human biology. So Hashem tells Abraham, "Now you listen to Sarah." Which means that's a message to all of us. Listen to your body. It says that the Gamara says that the Talmud says that the patriarchs and the matriarchs lived already now. They lived like a Messianic life. In the time of redemption, it says the soul is going to get nourished from the body. Because the holiness of the body will be revealed to be even superior to the soul. This is also so important. It's so important to come from a place of being anchored in your soul, in your psyche, and in your body. Which now brings us to the next step. And that is work. In the beginning of this week's portion, Abraham meets God. God reveals himself to Abraham. And then three Bedouin Arabs show up. And Abraham tells God very daring words. He says, "God, please don't leave as I tend to my guests." And he makes God wait. He says, "You know, here's the Wi-Fi code, God. You could check your emails, but I'm busy with guests." Now imagine you had you had just the prime minister, president of a great country coming to your house. And then you see three strangers outside and you tell the president, "Could you wait a few hours? I have to feed them." That's chutzpah. This is what Abraham does. It's what he does. He tells God, "Wait. Don't leave. I have three guests to take care of." And it takes a few hours. And God waits. But I want to ask you another question. What does it mean to tell God, "Don't leave"? Isn't God everywhere? If God would leave, what would happen? He'd say, "Okay, I'm going to heaven. I'm going to work." As Uncle Moishe taught us, Hashem is here and there and really everywhere. Up, up, down, down, right? You don't have to sing along, it's fine. So therefore So he says he says to God, "DON'T LEAVE MY HOME. STICK AROUND." What is that supposed to look like? And if he if he does leave his home, where's he going to go to? I thought God is everywhere. He can't leave. What's the meaning of this? So the Nachman of Breslov says something amazing. He says Abraham was asking God. He says, "You know, I know how to connect to you through prayer. I know how to connect to you through learning. I know how I want to you through spiritual meditation and oneness. I'm asking you a favor that when I go deal with three Bedouins making them a meal, preparing tongue with mustard, giving them water, giving them butter and cream, giving them yogurt and milk, feeding them, nurturing them, hosting them. These are all very physical mundane activities that require work in the kitchen. Al masover may Allah of decha, I should still feel the same connection with you. I should realize that I am as connected with you during these moments as I am during my spiritual moments. That was his request. God is not leaving, but al masover allow me to know that the same dvekut, this the hest of art more and I am, the same dvekut, the same intimacy, the same oneness that I can experience with you when you reveal yourself to me in a moment of transcendence, of spiritual transcendence. I should be able to experience and realize the same oneness pervades me during my entire day and my entire night when I'm involved in my kitchen, when I'm cleaning, when I'm working, when I'm sitting on a computer, when I'm trying to figure out the accounting of a particular nursing home and I'm frustrated because the previous employee got her numbers, I should say his numbers, wrong. So, Abraham asks God. He says, "Allow me to see you in the numbers of life. Allow me to see you in the physicality of life. Allow me to see you in my relationships with people on a daily basis. I'm looking at the same faces. What do we have? Cubicles? Okay, I'm looking at the same faces. Allow me to see you in the face of another person just as I can see you when I lift myself up from this world. Allow me to see your face, God, in the face of a stranger. ALLOW ME TO SEE YOUR presence in the heart of another person, in the nice gesture and kind words I give to another person. Allow me to feel you and experience your oneness in my daily relationships, encounters, activities, work ethics, and the daily grind of life in my office, in my home, with my family, with myself. That's the request. That was the request of the first Jew. Allow me to realize that oneness is everywhere. You know, they tell the story about uh this uh opera singer who gets up and gives an amazing rendition of Psalm 23. You remember Psalm 23? Mizmor l'David Hashem roi lo yechsar. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. It's beautiful. It's a Pavarotti rendition. Everybody gives him a standing ovation. An old Jewish woman gets up and she says, "Mr. Pavarotti, can I do my rendition of Psalm 23, The Lord Is My Shepherd?" He says, "Of course." There was one problem. She didn't know the words well. She couldn't really carry a tune. Her voice was not the greatest, but she began doing her rendition a broken English, off-tune, off-beat, but her soul was there. So, as she said, "The Lord is my shepherd," everybody started to cry. And when she finished, there was no dry air in the audience. Pavarotti looks at her and says, "Rebbetzin, I don't get this. I did the most exquisite rendition of Psalm 23. Nobody shed a tear. They gave me an applause, but nobody shed a tear. You got up. You failed on every count. You violated every rule of music. You couldn't read the words. You couldn't sing the words to save your life. That Psalm coming from you, forgive me, was really flawed. And yet everybody was crying. Why?" She looks at him and says, "Mr. Pavarotti, you may know the Psalm, but I know the shepherd. And that makes all the difference. There's knowing the Psalm and there's knowing the shepherd. So, Abraham asks God. He says, "I don't want to know the Psalms when I'm saying Psalms. I want to know the shepherd. And when you know the shepherd, then even when you're not saying Psalms, even when you're feeding the mustard to these three people, even when I'm dealing with something very mundane, I could still feel your presence and feel your oneness and experience that intimacy with you if my perspective could be one that is focused and that is anchored." And here I come to my last point with which I want to leave you. And then if anybody has any more questions, feel free to ask. Now, when Joseph was thrown into prison for no reason, he was an innocent boy, he was accused of doing the wrong thing. The Hebrew Bible, the Torah, says in Genesis, "Vayeishev," that there were two servants of Pharaoh in prison. They were also in the pit in the cave. The butler of Pharaoh and the baker of Pharaoh. And one morning Joseph came in to the cell and he sees them both zoafim. They look depressed. In our English, we would say they look stressed, anxious, traumatized. In Hebrew, it's zoafim. Zoyeh, bitter, melancholy, melancholy, dejected, morashchoyda, depressia. And what does Joseph do? He says to them four words. Madua p'neichem ra'im hayom? Why are your faces downcast? Why are you guys so sad? What do they say? We had a dream. And we're bewildered by the dream. We don't know how to decipher it. He says, "Tell me your dream." And they tell him their dreams. And he explains to them the meaning behind the dreams. And the meaning is fulfilled. And the butler goes free after 3 days and Joseph says, "Please remember me and do something for me." He forgets him. But a few years later, Pharaoh has a dream and the butler remembers there's a young prisoner who knows how to explain dreams. They take out Joseph. He explains Pharaoh's dream. And Pharaoh appoints him to become the prime minister of Egypt through which he saves the world from a devastating 7-year famine. The story I assume most people in this room know. But I want to focus on a detail that people don't realize. Imagine you're in a prison cell and it's not a democracy. You're going probably going to be there for life. No lawyers, no father, no mother, no brothers to fight for you. You're alone in the world and you're there because you tried to do the right thing and not violate your master's wife. You remember the story, right? And then you see two people. They're not from his faith or religion. These were two gentiles, Egyptians, a butler and a baker. They weren't from his culture. And they look depressed. What's the natural question to ask in prison? Why are you here? Or let's play cards, right? You got a cigarette, right? Or can I borrow a quarter quarter for the vending machines so I can get some sardines or potato chips? Not that they have a vending Not that they had a vending machine in Joseph's prison. What does Joseph ask them? He says, "Guys, why you why do you look depressed?" What a weird question. What are they eating sushi at a bar mitzvah? What are they dancing kazatskas at a Purim gala? I mean, WHAT ARE THEY SUPPOSED TO DO? THEY'RE ON DEATH ROW, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE. WHAT'S LIFE SUPPOSED to look like when you're waiting when you're on death row? Joseph says, "Guys, why are you depressed?" He can't understand. And what about he himself? He lost his mother when he was nine. His brothers kidnapped him and sold him into slavery. He had no relationship with his father. He was put into prison because of a mitzvah. What about he? What did he feel like? And yet this is his question. Wow, what does that tell us about attitude? It tells us that Joseph was not a prisoner even when he was a prisoner. You know why? As he told his brothers years later, "You did not sell me. God sent me." And when he was in that cell and he saw two people depressed, he knew I have a mission. I have a calling. And my calling is cheer them up. Ask them, "Why you guys sad?" And because of that, we are all here today because of one good morning of one Jew to two depressed people. Because of one good morning, looking them in their eyes and saying, "Guys, why are you down?" History was changed. We are all here today 3 and 1/2 thousand years later because of that question. And I say this to you because this teaches us so much about an attitude in life. And it teaches us also about relationships between employees. People don't realize. You say, "How do I find meaning in my work?" Remember what Abraham tells God, "Allow me to experience you not only in prayer. Allow me to experience you when I'm giving mustard to three Bedouin Arabs. Allow me to experience you when I could turn to the person near my cubicle and say good morning. How are you today? Don't ask how are you? That nobody answers. How are you? Baruch Hashem. They say a nudnik is somebody that when you ask them how they are, they answer you, right? Somebody once asked me in the street, "How you doing?" So, I said, "Actually, I'm having an issue with my mortgage this month." He said, "No, no, I wasn't expecting a real answer. You're just supposed to say good, fine." But that's not Joseph. You look into the person's eyes and say, "What's bothering you? How can I be here for you?" Every person is in the image of God. And when you're in touch with the image of God in you, you could see the image of God in another person. This means every person is inspiring. If you find a person uninspiring, it's because you're not in touch with your own divinity. When I'm in touch with my own godliness, I could see it in everybody, and every person has an interesting story to tell. Every person has a dream. Every person has a dream. It may I may need more patience and more serenity to get to that dream, but every single person has that dream. When a person is anchored in their own true identity, it's good to be ambitious. And it's always good to plan for the best life of yours. But one cannot live a life that's based on other people. So, you ask a question. I look to my friends. This one got a change in this, change position, change salary. This one loves their company. Every human being, every human being is ambitious by nature. Some people more, some people less. Every human being should try to live the best life they can physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually. But here are two important clues. Number one, when you're doing something, be present. Be fully present. Who is the most What is the most important moment in your life? People say, "Under the chuppah, you have your baby, this, that." I'll tell you the truth. The most important moment you will ever experience in your life is the moment you are in presently. Question number two, who is the most important person you will ever meet in your life? And the answer is the person you're speaking to right now. And what is the greatest experience you'll ever have in your life? And the answer is the experience you're having right now. Now, you're looking at me and you're like, "Rabbi, why why? My life is boring. The person I'm speaking to is not the greatest experience of my life in this moment, but I'm telling you, go deeper. Go deeper into yourself and you'll find out because if you're one with God and the world is recreated every moment, so this is where it's at. This moment is reality. This person is reality. This experience Tomorrow, maybe I want to explore my horizons, but when you're present, be present. Be present. I'm with somebody, be there fully. You come home to your child, whatever time it is, be there fully, be there present. It's the beginning of your day. You're with your wife, you're with your husband, be there be present. Present. It's hard to be present. But that's what we ask for. Al na saver may I love that allow me to be fully present. And in life, I can't be busy comparing myself to others all day. It's a crazy way of living. I have to compare myself to myself. If things are not working for me, yes, I have to figure out how things can work for me. If somebody can give me a good idea, I could learn from somebody, awesome. But to sit and define my happiness and my success with a barometer, look at her, look at him, look at her, look at him. It's a very stressful way of living. You want to tune into yourself and say, "What are my real needs? Are they being fulfilled? Can I do better?" And maybe I want to plan, and I want to do better for myself. Every person in their own way should live the greatest life possible. But don't do it based on another person triggering you. Don't do it based on jealousy. Don't do it based on competitiveness. Don't do it based on imitation. Do it based on you, on your soul, on your body, on your priorities, on your values, and your real needs. And when you are present somewhere, you want to be present. You want to be present because that way you can suck the marrow out of life right here at this moment. So, I bless all of you that Hashem God should grant you tremendous success and blessing in all aspects of your lives, your personal lives, your spiritual lives, your familiar lives, and most importantly, to be able to see yourselves for who you really are as ambassadors of the divine, ambassadors of love, light, and hope, to be able to have the clarity and the serenity to accept the things you cannot change, to change the things you can change, and the wisdom to know the difference. Thank you. This class is brought to you by the Yeshiva.net. 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