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Revealing the Light of Shavuot - Rabbi Joey Haber
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Transcript
Auto-generated transcript. Not time-synced to the video.
Thank you very much for that very warm
introduction and you know we've done a
lot of things together and one of the
beautiful things is
audac is a tremendous amount of the work
that you do just think about that 1,800
kids did you hear that number 1,800 kids
that were in public school and that went
to yeshiva because of kazak
That's That's not a kid. That's 1,800
families. That's 1,800 kids who on
average could have 20, 30 grandchildren.
It's an unbelievable number. It's an
unbelievable number. So, Hashem should
continue give you guys the kak to be
able to spread Torah in these speeches
and these lectures that you do so often
um by so many different beautiful,
wonderful rabbis. And at the same time
also there's a that you're doing for
these children and and these families
should also never stop. So it's an honor
to be here tonight. And you know when we
say the light of shabawat there's always
so many different it's very broad topic.
So I can sit do whatever I want. No,
don't you agree? So I don't know how he
turned it into me being the light. I'm
not sure. That's not my topic but this
is and I thank you very much for for
being here. What time was the speech
called for?
Why are you laughing? I'm known for a
lot of good things. Being on time is not
one of them. So, well, it's okay. It's
Jewish time. He said it's called Syrian
time. It's a whole another level.
Okay. We have I don't know if you know
how it works with Syrians. We send out
an invitation. It says on it four
o'clock. We tell everyone that we really
mean six o'clock and we start at 7
o'clock. So, that's how it goes.
So here's what I'd like to talk about
today
and it's going to lead us into a message
about shabot. Although initially it's
not going to start there. What I'd like
to talk about today is the noise of
life. I don't know if you've ever been
in these
conversations where they're just talking
about a lot of noise. It'll start with,
oh, someone will say at the table, maybe
you'll be at a table and there's a few
people and someone say, oh, did you hear
so and so is sorry she's getting I heard
she's getting engaged. And someone else
will say, no, I'm not sure she's getting
engaged. I know she's dating. Seriously,
I don't think she's ready to get engaged
yet. And then someone else will say, but
you know, her sister's married for like
four years and doesn't have any kids. I
feel so bad for this sister. Someone
will say, no, no, it's really five
years. I don't know if you realize this.
Okay. And someone will say, "It must be
so hard for her cuz she comes from a
family of so many kids. You know, some
people having so many kids today. It's
ridiculous." You know, you know, Ra, she
has she's married seven years. She has
six kids already. Is that ridiculous? It
must be so hard for her neb. I can't
even believe it. And and you know, and
by the way, did you hear you're talking
about Ra sister Freddy? She's you heard
she her marriage is difficult. She's
getting divorced. And someone else is
saying, "No, no, she's not getting
divorced. She's trying to work on it.
They're still
trying. Have these conversations? Anyone
ever been in these
conversations? And and it just it just
doesn't stop. And then let's say, "Oh,
by the way, this divorce is an epidemic.
You know, this one's also getting
divorced and this one's also getting
divorced. By the way, the other one's
getting divorced. Her mother's not so
well. Did you hear her mother? She's not
doing
well." And that we have these
conversations and they're just going on
and on about so many different things.
Here's my goal
tonight. My goal tonight is I want to
get to a point where I don't
care. I don't know. And I don't need to
know. I don't care. I don't know. And I
don't need to know. That's where I want
to stand in these conversations.
But in order to understand this, explain
this clearly, I want to talk about one
of the most important parts of Judaism.
The way I know it's one of the most
important parts is that we we say Amida
every day. And in the Amida, we have 13
of
request, three of praise, three of
thanks, and in the middle 13 of
requests. This what we're going to talk
about today is the first one.
says dot
knowledge is so important that it's the
first thing we ask for when we ask
Hashem for things because with dot you
could do anything without dot you can't
do anything what is dot so let's look at
the that is this first where we answer
item you graciously Give person dot and
then you give
him and please give us wisdom and is
deep understanding and so you started
with
that and you ended with you ended with
that. What is that? So there are two
opinions. One opinion is that dot is
basic knowledge. That means knowing that
this is a podium is dot. Is this podium?
This is a podium. There's dot. This is a
mic. There's dot. That there are people
in this room. That's dot. And then
others say the grass says that is
like the highest level of
understanding. So which one is it? I
think the answer is it's both.
What do is is that it starts with that
you see basic physical things and then
as you develop with and what happens is
that even deeper things become as clear
to you as basic things. That means as
you start to grow in your wisdom you
start to have a clarity in life that's
things that other people might say are
complicated other people might see are
deep. You're advanced. You're
experienced. You're knowledgeable enough
to see it clearly. That something that's
complicated for you could be as clear as
this being a
mic. That deep things are clear to you
like simple things.
So you give us basic knowledge.
basic
knowledge and then it
builds and through that building it gets
to the point where even deeper things
complicated things complex things are
also as clear to me as
that that's the
clarity that we want to
achieve when we're looking towards
matanra and we're looking towards to be
able to be that nation that receives the
Torah. The purpose of the Torah is it
gives us such great
clarity. You know, I just was on the
phone and whenever I drive to places, I
always have it booked with phone calls
and people with their stories and their
problems. And at this
point, you learn enough Torah and you
have enough Torah behind you and enough
wisdom from great rabbis.
things that to the person the other side
of the phone might be complicated to you
is
clear. That's what that the higher level
of dot is trying to achieve. The
says that is so
great is put between the two names of
Hashem. What's the
keel? It says then it says Hashem and it
says in between the two because the
point of is it doesn't mean it's in
between the two names of Hashem says the
mahash and you'll get our point. Kel is
Hashem's name of judgment. Hashem is
Hashem's name of mercy. That means being
able to balance those two. Hashem's
judgment and his mercy. Being able to
have a clarity of how things are
supposed to come together and a clarity
of the
mind. If you can achieve this level of
dot, if you can achieve this level of
clarity, then you get to step number
one. I don't care. I don't know if this
has ever happened to you, but I know
it's happened to me that s
conversational start and maybe my wife
was somewhere talking about my niece and
she's dating, but she should probably
get engaged and then I don't know, she
might have did go on enough dates. She
did go on enough dates and we're going
back and forth and all of a sudden I'll
stop and I say, "One second, I don't
want to care about something I don't
care about. I don't care. She get
engaged whenever she wants next week,
next year, 10 years from now. I don't
care. Why am I discussing this? How am I
spending actual time on this
conversation? I don't
care. I don't care. It's not my
business. I don't care. It doesn't
matter to me. But I think because I
think I'm close to them, because I think
I love them, then that means I have to
care. It's not true. Just because I'm
close to them, just because I love them,
doesn't mean I have to have any opinion
about them. And I told the fact this
happened recently. one of my nieces,
whatever. I told my wife, I said, "Send
me the memo when she gets engaged. I
don't want to know anything before that.
Which date and how date the boy? I don't
care. Send me the memo. Tell me tonight
I need to bring a tie. I mean, I pretty
much live in a tie, but bring a tie cuz
tonight there's an engagement party.
Tonight there's a bar and I'll show up.
I'll find the time. I'll show up. I
don't care." What are we talking about?
Have you ever been in these
conversations that you don't care?
and you step back and you say, "Did I
really just talk about this? Did I
really just debate
this?" When there's a
clarity and when you have dot, you start
to realize these are not things that I
care about. These are not things that I
want to spend my time about. These are
not things that I'm going to get all
worked up
about. I don't care. This one, by the
way, this one's expecting. I don't
care. No, no disrespect. Invite me to
the bris. I'll see if I can make it. I
probably can't make it to the bris, but
I don't
care. I don't care. This one's going out
of business. I don't
care. This one has lost his job. I feel
bad for him. If he needs a dollar, I'll
give him one. Otherwise, I don't care.
Why are we talking about this? Why are
we getting busy with this? Why are we
dissecting this? Here's what I
realized. When it's a clear blue sky and
my life is doing good, do you ever have
days that your life is good? Yes. A lot
of them. A lot of them. Oh, I guess I
asked the right person. Other people
might not say so, but I'm glad you're
good. See, you have days that life is
good. We're just You feel like I'm doing
okay. My family, I'm good. The weather's
nice outside. Weather helps, by the way,
more than we admit. Yes. The weather is
nice outside. It's a clear day. I'm
doing good. So when I'm doing good, I
don't care about these things and these
things don't faze
me.
So when I'm that means if I am caring
about these things, so that means I'm so
neb that I really want to discuss this
like my life is so weak that I need to
get involved into your life and into
your junk and into your stuff and to
your
things. Did my life get so bad that now
all of a sudden I care about this
nonsense? When my life was good, I for
sure didn't care. I I I don't want to
worry about your dating. I really don't
want to worry about your your
engagement. I really don't want to worry
about your marriage. I don't care. So,
did my life get so bad that I really I'm
talking about
this. I want
clarity. I want that. I want the ability
to see through things and be involved in
the things that matter to me and not be
involved in the things that don't.
There's a talks about different
ages and it
says, you
know, with the Mishna and so on and it
says when you're 50, you're ready for
it. I'm looking around the room. There's
not so many people here over 50, I don't
think.
Right. Oh, you're you're you're pretty
confident. I like it. You're 50 and
you're proud of it. Thank God. Thank
God. Phenomenal. It's true. You should
be. So, what does it mean when you
become 50, you're ready
for so like this. Now, don't take this
the wrong way. He says the average
person especially back in day is
supposed to live 70 years. Now, some
people here are going to take that as a
curse. Now, you're going to live much
more than that. If you're like 65,
you're going to go much more than 70.
But that's
mention years. Our life is 70 years. So
therefore, if life is seven years, it
says each day, each decade is like one
day of the
week. Which means when you're 50, that's
Thursday. Now you're over 50. Now you're
getting into Friday. You got it. That
shouldn't scare you. That's a beautiful
thing because what's Friday? Friday is
the day that you start to let go of haz
and you start get ready for this life,
this Shabbat which is with Hashem. He
says a person who's over 50 should be
getting to the point that they don't
care about some of the nonsense of and
because of that they have a clarity that
they're not consumed with the gossip and
the talk and if they have that clarity
they could give they could give advice
they have a wisdom and that's what we're
trying to achieve. If you're hearing the
noise and you have to realize something
about our life that we're in right now,
our life that we're in right now, we
have so much more noise than people ever
had before. Do you understand this? Do
you agree with this? You've been my
helper today. Do you agree with this or
not? And let me explain to you why.
Because back in the day, a hundred years
ago, you lived on a farm.
Yes, maybe. But let's let's go with it.
Just Okay. Okay, let's say you lived in
a village. You lived in a little
village. There were like 200 families in
the village and you knew the 200
families in the village and you knew
every single one of them well. You had a
wedding, you invited the whole village,
right? There was a brisk the whole
village came. So if something was going
on with one of those 200 people in the
village, then you knew about what was
going with every one of the 200 people
in the village. Today our village is
thousands of people because our
neighborhoods are tremendous. Our
contacts are tremendous. How many
contacts you have on your phone? Every
person who's a contact on your phone is
part of your village. And now we have
the media is dramatic. So now every
single day there's something going on
with someone else in my village. So I
can be consumed with noise because
there's so many more people in my
village. So in the old days, my village
was 200 people. Today, the average
village might be 2,000 people. It might
even be more. It might be 5,000 people.
So when you all sudden realize that, so
now I'm going to talk about every one of
these
people that is such a clouded
life. The dot knowledge, wisdom that's
attained through our Torah is the
clarity to be able to say, "I'm old
enough. I'm smart enough. I don't
care. But let me get to the next step is
I don't
know. Again, you ever been in any of
these conversations that I'm referring
to? Am I the only guy who talks these
conversations? You've been in them? You
have you've been in them? Yes.
No. Yes. Yes. Yes. You've been in these
conversations ever? Have you been? Good.
Not really good, but good. So, you've
been in these conversations. I want to
tell you something about all these
conversations. Something I noticed about
all of them. We have no clue what we're
talking
about. We have no clue what we're
talking about. You have people sitting
there and they're talking. You You don't
at all know what you're saying.
Recently, I was involved with a couple
that was getting divorced. So, both
sides are trying to convince me that
they're the right one. The boy, the
girl, they're the right one. They're the
right one. Whatever. And then I sat back
and I said, I realized something. I
don't know anything about anybody's
marriage. I talk about marriages. Of the
people in my village, I've spoken about
plenty of their marriages. I spoke about
his marriage, her marriage, their
marriage. I have no clue. If you ask me
whose marriage I know about, I think I
know about my parents' marriage. I think
I know about my marriage. I think.
And I think I know about my kids'
marriages. I don't know any of my
siblings marriages and I'm very close to
my siblings. I don't really know what
goes on. So you think I'm going to have
a clue of what I'm talking about? You
know, I heard she was right. I heard she
I heard really he's
impossible. You know what you're talking
about? Maybe he's impossible cuz she
made her
nuts. I have no idea. You don't know
what you're talking about. So literally
when you're talking it's not just you
shouldn't be caring. You're a
fool. You're talking about what's right
and what's wrong and who's right and
who's wrong. You have no
clue. There's no way to know. It's
impossible to know. You'd have to
literally park yourself in their living
room for 10 years in order to know. You
have no way for you to know. So, what
are you
saying? And so often people are trying
to guess what people are feeling. Oh,
she's miserable. Oh, he's desperate. Oh,
he's upset. You don't know what you're
talking about. Oh, he's taking it hard.
Oh, no, he's not taking it so hard. You
don't know what he's saying. So, not
only don't you care, you don't even know
what you're talking about. And again, I
mean this with the most respect, but you
don't know what you're talking about.
That same Mishnah, that same
says 18, you get
married. Say amen.
Okay. and
Benim
Lero when you're
l I say
ask got it whichever one you need what
does it mean to run to race so the ask
what do you mean you say if you want to
say to run say what does it
mean usually means like to run after
something is someone who's running after
someone to kill him what does it
So salant says this. He says means this.
When a person's 18, they want to be
married. If they get married at 18, it
feels relatively easy. He says, and this
might be then, not necessarily 18 is the
time now because we've been talking
about boys. Most boys not getting
married 18 now. He says, "But once it's
two years after that, there's already a
desperation." And now, I don't mean 20,
but I mean two years after whatever
time, anytime someone of these are
getting married at 20, at 22 they're
desperate. Some of these are getting
married at 22, at 24, they're desperate.
Some of these are getting married at 18,
at 20 they're desperate. That's just how
it works. Some of these get married at
24, 26, they're desperate. So, what
happens is that they're saying that
after a couple years, the person is
they're getting crazy.
And it happens to be true. A lot of boys
or girls that are not married that want
to be married and they're in the para
for a few years, they get nuts. It gets
them crazy. So now you you think you
know, oh no, they're fine. They're not
fine. What are you talking about? You
don't know what you're talking about.
You don't know what they're feeling. You
don't know. You can't tell. You can't
tell from their face. Some people are
good actors. Some are not good actors.
You have no idea what you're talking
about. So why are we having this whole
conversation?
So my point here so far is this that if
we want to be people with
dot, if we want to be people with
clarity, if we want to be people with
vision, want to be people with wisdom,
if we want to be people that give that
has everything the Torah has to
offer, if you want to literally see the
light, you have to know how to shut out
the
noise and not care and realize that you
don't
know. You have to be able to shut out
the noise. I'll tell you where I learned
how little you
know. I once saw an exhibit on the
media. I was a little kid. I learned to
stand on yeshiv as a bakar. So it was
maybe I was in ninth grade and we had
all of Shabas Shabas Khaneka and my
parents took us to a children's museum
in Staten
Island. There was a children museum. I
don't think it was a Wasn't a Jewish
museum. A children's museum in Staten
Island. I doubt it is there anymore.
Remember this old building? Oh, it is
there. You don't know. So again, you're
the helper here. So if you don't know,
right? And and and you're listening to
my class like you don't care either,
right? Okay, good. So anyhow, so now
this building, old building, I remember
it had like a it had like all these
paper plates clipped together made into
a big dinosaur that was like two stories
high. I don't know why I remember it,
but that's what I remember. And then
they had an exhibit that was one of the
best lessons I ever learned in my life.
You want to understand the whole media?
This one exhibit will help you
understand everything that goes on in
the media. Right? The media today has
got a lot of different stories and
versions. This one little exhibit showed
the whole thing. They had a little
screen, little TV back in the day, the
fat ones, and they showed you a scene.
It was a twominut scene. Here was the
scene. There was a white man,
well-groomed, nice Armani
suit, designer shoes, walking without
ate
sh. And he's walking on the sidewalk.
There's houses on one side and there's
parked cars on the other. And he's
walking on the sidewalk, minding his own
business, just walking right along.
Clear day, everything's fine. And all of
a sudden, from between two parked cars
comes an African-American man who shoves
him against the wall. And you're like,
"Oh, wow. This is so clear. You You see
what you're seeing? This is obviously
this man is being mugged. He's a man.
He's a wealthy looking man. He has at
the shake case and he has
African-American man who's mugging him,
right? Is that the scene? Yes, that's
the scene.
Just
Yes. You guess. Okay, good. Just Okay.
You didn't know you came here tonight to
work? Like, okay.
Thank you. And then they show you the
scene
again. White man at the shase. He's
wearing a designer Ammani suit, designer
shoes. He's wellgroomed hair. He's
walking with his his briefcase again.
He's walking on the sidewalk. Same exact
scene. And it's the same. You're
literally seeing the scene for the
second time. It's got parked cars on the
left. He's got a house on the right. And
he's walking minding his own business.
And all of a sudden, from behind the two
from behind between the parked cars
comes an African-American man who shoves
him against the wall. But this time, you
see the scene from
afar. And you see that on top of the
house there was a bundle of bricks that
were rolling off the roof right to where
the white man was walking. The
African-American man wasn't mugging him.
He was saving his
life. And the point is he saw the same
scene the first time he saw it one way,
the second time he saw it another way.
That's why sometimes Fox News has one
story, CNN has
another. And you know it's the same
scene. They're just showing to you
different ways. That's how it works. And
it's the same thing are true with the
girl side of the story and the boy side
of the story. One of them showing you
this way. One is showing you that way.
It's impossible for you to know. It is
impossible for you to know. There's no
way for me to know what's going on in
someone else's house. There's no way for
me to know what's going on in someone
else's mind. So if someone tells you,
"Oh, this girl, you know, she's not
married. She's desperate." Though she's
not desperate. Or she's upset. She's not
upset. I don't
know. This person in their marriage is
bad. It's not bad. They're getting
divorced. It's his fault. The guy's
crazy. And you know, I know the guy's
crazy because his father was crazy.
There's no way to know. There's no way
to know. So what are we talking about
here? Oh, this person, they're not
handling it. They are handling Oh,
they're doing great. There's no way to
know. There's no way to know. So when
we're having these conversations, they
really come from
foolishness. They really come from
having no understanding of how life
actually works. Because if you have any
understanding how life actually works,
sometimes the innocent person is
actually the villain and sometimes the
aggressive person is actually the good
guy. Many
times, many times in any story you're
talking about. So if you want dot, if
you want the balance that comes with
having dot, you have to be able to not
care about things and you have to be
able to step back and realize most
things you're talking about you don't
know
about. So stop talking about
it. Mishnah
says when you're 40 you have bina. What
is bina? Bina means an
understanding. And I would say the
greatest display is under of
understanding is to show that you don't
understand. Let's realize there are
certain things that are my domain and a
lot of things are not my domain. I don't
understand. I don't know. So what am I
talking about? Why am I debating this?
Why am I discussing this? I can't tell
if I'm if the scene is this scene or
that scene. Oh, so and so told me that
person showed me the CNN view. They
don't have the Fox view.
Which brings me to one
more is I don't need to
know. What I don't need to know means
is for some reason people love
information and they believe that their
status is
determined by how much information they
have. Have you ever been in a
conversation like this? Someone will
say, lady will say, "Did you hear so and
so is expecting?" And someone else will
say, "Yeah, she told me two weeks
ago." And the fact that I was told two
weeks ago means now I am now a person of
status because I found out two weeks
ago, right? And someone else has said,
"Oh, you know, so and so is dating. Oh,
I knew they called me for a for a
reference. Now I'm a person of
status." And some people have this need
to know
things, things that they completely
don't care about. Cuz when that woman is
expecting has a baby, they don't even
want to go to the bris. But for some
reason, they need to
know. You don't need to know. If you
have any dot, if you have any wisdom, if
you have any clarity, you don't need to
know. If you if you understand what life
is supposed to be about, you don't need
to know. So like as if if you know if
you you heard. No, I didn't hear. It's
okay. I didn't hear. I wasn't the first
person to be told and I'm confident
enough to know it doesn't change my
status as a person. I didn't become a
lesser person because I wasn't told. So
when we're talking about information and
we act like it's so important, like it
matters so much, so much of this has
become noise in our life that we're
having conversations and we're spending
our time and we're spending our energy
on things we don't care about, we don't
know about, and we don't need to know
about. And if we had enough doubt to
realize this, we'd realize that these
are conversations that are completely
irrelevant. And you know, we were given
we were live, we were born in an age
that life is supposed to be so much
easier because we have the car and the
car that pretty much drives itself and
the microwave that cooks itself and the
phone that buys things by itself. At
least that's what my wife says. She
says, "Not her fault. It bought it by
itself." All these things that pretty
much happen by itself. our life. We
should have so much more
time. We should have so much more
time. Why don't we have so much more
time? Why don't we have the time that we
so obviously should have? If you would
have gone to that person from her
village at 200 people and you would have
told them what the world is going to
have in 2025, that person would have
said,
"Wow, you must be doing great things.
You must be spending so much of your
life on such important
things. Imagine if you told that person
from 100 years ago living in that 200
person village, you told that person,
"No, no, no. You're right. We should be.
But we don't because we care about
stuff. We're talking about things we
don't know nothing about and we need to
know things. And because of that, we're
on phones, we're on chats, we're in
conversations. We're of things that
completely don't matter. But somehow in
our head we got ourselves to act like
they
do. The same Mishna that I keep
referencing told us 40 has bina which is
an understanding which means what you
don't understand. 50 is which is a
clarity of the things you don't care
about. It says
benishima when 60y old. Now I don't mean
it insulting. It's just what the Mishna
says. What does it mean 60 year
old? 60 year old I think means that
there gets a certain point in your life
where you have to be an
adult. You have to step back and let go
of all of these things. Because if we're
going to live life the way it was
intended to be lived, so much of this
stuff is the dumbest, biggest waste of
time that's not even hard to let go of.
If you tell me it's hard to let go of an
addiction, I understand. It's hard to
let go of of of you know obsession, I
understand. What's this? This is
nothing. In two years from now, you
think you're about to go to someone and
say, "By the way, you know that baby
that was born, I was the first to
know. No one talking about no one cares.
So, if you could have once you get a
certain stage in your life, you start to
realize these are irrelevant things.
There's a completely unimportant things.
How do I become that kind of
adult? The beauty of the Torah, the
light of the Torah is the clarity of the
Torah. The beauty of the Torah is the
ability to navigate through things. The
beauty of the Torah is to realize that a
lot of why the world cares about these
conversations is it's a world that has
no Torah. So a world that has no Torah
has to fill it up with all this stuff.
But that world is nothing to do with
you. That world is not the same as
you. Just because they doing is not
excuse for you. For them they're
excused. They're going to come before
Shay. Hashem's going to say, "Why'd you
waste your time?" They're going to say,
"I have nothing else to
do." But then Hashem's going to ask you,
"Why'd you waste your
time?" And that answer is not going to
come fly. Hashem's going to say, "I gave
you the light. I gave you the clarity. I
gave you wisdom. I gave you richness. I
gave you
importance and you spent it on that. You
really had You're an important person.
You're a good person. When you were
confident, you know, you didn't need it.
So all a sudden your life got so bad
that you have to talk about everybody
else. Is that really where we got? And
you're not 10 anymore. You're not 15.
You're smart. You're an adult.
I want to tell you some a
description an
image from the
Gimra that to me it was very powerful
and it describes the image of what the
ultimate Jew looks like and I believe
that this if you're reading it quickly
you would have just read the line it's
one line it's not a whole story if you
read this one line in the gimar if you
read it if you realize see the image in
your head of what it is and what it
means, you'd start to see, wow, that's
what a Jew looks like. The Gar is
talking about these three great
men. These three great men were thrown
into the
fire, made a fire. They didn't want to
bow down. They didn't want to commit a
sin. And they were thrown into the fire.
And of course, we know that they
lived. Says the gim, it says in Aramaic,
so I won't say the word. It says
to show us the greatness of Torah. The
greatness of Torah is a person a real
bad Torah. Even when he's thrown into
the fire, he's wearing his rabbitical
clothing. You got that word? Even when
he's thrown into the fire, he's wearing
his rabbitical clothing. It explains
shows in
the whatever rabbis or great men wore in
that time, if it was a robe, if it was a
suit and a tie, a hat, they wore it as
they were going to the fire. What is the
lesson of this? The lesson of this is
that if a person's a true Ben Torah,
they carry themselves a certain way.
They view themselves a certain way every
single day. easy days and difficult
days, successful days and not successful
days. They carry themselves with a
certain aristocracy, a certain dignity,
a certain class, a certain
clarity. And here these men were going
into the fire knowing they would be
thrown into the fire. They were pretty
much believing they're going to
die, but they were going to go in the
right way, not
flustered, not nervous.
So many of us can be in a dumb
conversation and we're nervous and we're
flustered and we're gossiping and we're
sharing stories and we're annoyed. How'd
they not tell me? I thought we were
close. I spoke that yesterday. How'd you
not tell
me? Think of they being thrown into the
fire and they carry themselves with the
dignity of a great person. The Torah is
not just something you learn. The Torah
is something that gives a clarity of the
mind and an energy to life. The light of
the Torah is one that lights up
everything that's in your life.
So if we're going to be the nation that
accepts the Torah, if we're going to be
the nation that's ready for matan Torah,
we're going to be the nation that has
the right approach to Torah, we're going
to be a nation that's able to shut out
the noise and realizes that most of what
I'm talking about, I don't care about.
So much of what I'm talking about, I
have no clue about. And so much of what
I think I need to know, I couldn't care
less if I
know. Instead, I want to focus on my
life. I want to focus what I could
produce. I want to focus on what I can
accomplish. I want to focus on what I
can learn. I want to focus on what I can
give. I want to focus on what I can be.
That's what a Torah life is centered on.
That's what it means to be in the light.
Living in the light means living in a
way where your life is clear, your life
is focused, your life is purposeful,
your life has
meaning. The world doesn't know that.
said the world's on every chat known to
men. 80% of which don't
matter. You ever go on a chat and then
you don't go on any chats? Your village
doesn't have any. No
chats. Not even texting chats or not
WhatsApp chat. You have texting chats.
No, just a text. Just one text back and
forth. Good. I told you you're the
person with the wisdom who should be
giving the speech.
Um, you ever see these texting chats?
So, I have a flip phone. So, the way it
works in a flip phone is if you run a
texting chat, it's not like
convenient cuz what happens is you just
see the last text. So, now there could
be 25 texts up and I was busy. So, I
didn't see the 25 text up. So, someone's
saying no way. So, I'm like, "Oh, no way
to what." So, I start scrolling to
figure out what the no way is. And I go
all the way up to the top and I'm like,
"That's what we were talking about. That
was the
story." Like I I just scrolled and was
trying to I was trying to figure out
Rashi and Tyus what they meant. It was
that 80% of the time you get to mark my
words. 80% of the time you see the
conversation on the chat, it was
completely stuffed. either you don't
care about or don't know about or don't
need to know about. But we somehow got
convinced to live in a world where all
the stuff matters. The dot the wisdom of
the Torah the says one last line and
I'll end with a story. Gimar says dot is
so great. What time is our beat supposed
to be? Is it like 10 minutes ago? Yes.
Whenever I'm done. Okay. One last one
last quote and one last little story
says Sadat is so great that it's as if
you built the beta mikdash because the
beta mikdash is also put between two
names of
hashem. So why is that like building the
b mikdash? The answer is the b mikdash
is how the sheh now rests on this earth.
If you have do that, if you have
clarity, if you're living with this kind
of light, if you're able to cut away all
of this fat, then literally the rest
with you. You're learning, you're
producing, you're giving, you're
changing, you're smart. You're a whole
different
person. Let me give you one last little
story of an example of that. And with
this, I'll conclude. There was a
woman who came to the rabbi. I don't
know how long ago this was. She says,
"You know, Rabbi, I'm getting more and
more
religious. My husband is getting less
and less religious. I don't know what to
do." She rabbi says, "What does he do?"
She says, "On Friday night, he makes
kush and he right away goes to watch
TV." Rabbi, I don't know if I should
even stay married. Do you think maybe
Rabbi, maybe I should maybe I should get
divorced. The rabbi says, "What do you
say he does?" He makes kadush. She says,
"Yeah." He says, "You realize he makes
kush?" She says, "What's the rabbi say?
He makes kush. He picks up a cup and he,
it says vulu, and he sanctifies Hashem's
name." Do you realize how beautiful that
is? Do you realize how beautiful that
is? She said, he says to her, "Sometimes
you need to see the flame and ignore the
smoke." So she's confused. She goes
home. Her husband says, "So what did the
rabbi say?" Like, "Did he say we should
get divorced? Maybe he was hoping. I'm
not
sure." She says, "The rabbi said you're
at
sadik." He says, "What?" He says, "The
rabbi said you're at
sadik." And so that Friday night, the
hus made kush just a little longer and
then went to the TV. The next Friday
night, he said kouch and he stayed by
the meal and then he went to the TV. The
next Friday night he stayed at the
table. He never went to the TV. Maybe
the Knicks were out of it at that point.
I don't
know. And before you know it, he became
a full
benra. And he went to the rabbi. He
said, "Rabbi, how'd you know?" He said,
"I
saw what you didn't realize you already
had."
And I said to myself, that rabbi, the
beauty and the clarity of that rabbi,
there's some people who would say, "Oh,
your husband right after kadouch. Did
they really?" There are some people who
would judge. Other people would gossip
like, "What's he watching?" And they'd
be and it'd be so
foolish. And then there's wisdom and
there's
clarity. And ladies and gentlemen, as we
countd down to Matan Torah with a little
over 10 days left, as we countdown, we
don't just we have the Torah already.
What are we yearning for? We're yearning
for a life that's lived the way the
Torah wants us to live. Live with
realizing that so much of the noise I
either don't care about or I don't know
about or I don't need to know about. And
I want to have the wisdom of a
60-year-old or the intelligence of a
50-year-old or even the understanding of
a 60-year-old. And I don't want to sit,
talk, and debate and discuss. Instead, I
want to live a life with dot. I want to
live a life with clarity. I want to live
a life with focus and productivity. And
if I'm living that kind of life, then
I'm living with the light. Thank you.