Letters of the Rebbe: DOUBLE CLASS (Letters 12-13)

Good evening. All right. Shalom. Welcome back to a double dose leishna. A uh two for one as they say, I'm from Chicago. So like Ernie Banks said, gentlemen, it's such a great day. Let's play two. Kaoska used to tell Dr. Weiss or she used to ask him, "How did your Cubs do today?" Okay, at any rate, so let's play two. Um, we've got two letters tonight and uh let's just jump right in without any delay. This is the 12th letter in our series. This is letter uh gimmel pedal which means 384 in the igress and it is as all of our letters in kaik yud volume 10 of the igress and it was written in 19 54 or 55. Now we're in the month of Kislv. All of our letters have been either. Now we're up to Brooklyn, the group of girls. Interesting. This letter is to a group of young ladies. I am not 100% sure. I did try to look into it. I believe they were from Kabad, but uh as you'll see from the letter, they were definitely from Kabad families. And it's pretty clear also from context it seems that they are Israeli. Um, but I I believe they're from Kabad. Also, I should tell you there's another letter to this same kvut sners to the same uh girls club or girls uh group in the previous in volume 9 of there's also a letter to the same group of girls and sometimes you know it's interesting to see the same story from another character's vantage point you know to change the the protagonist. So in a few letters from now, letter 15, which will be in a in a few nights, letter 15 of our series is written to the teacher of these girls. So get to know the story from this side of it, from the girls side. And in a few more letters, you're going to hear the same story, but from the side of the teacher. Exciting, suspenseful. Okay. Blessings and greetings. And as we said, when the Reb is writing to a woman or to women, the proper salutation is we've explained that in previous classes. All right. I've just now received your letter from Yudas. So, this is um two and a half weeks later. Not surprising if it's coming from Israel. And it was pleasant to me to read at the end of the letter, meaning that was a good thing that you wrote at the end of the letter that you're continuing the Fabangans. They they wrote to the Reb that they have Fabangans. They're getting together for Fabangans. And what do they do with these Fabangans? You have people lecturing and explaining things to them, things that are not yet clear to them. So the Reb is happy that they're having these educational gatherings, these fabangans. This is not the first time we have read about a woman's faban. In our very first letter of the series, we read about a woman's Fabbrangan. And this will not be the last time in our series of 30 letters that we'll hear about the Reba encouraging women's fabangans. And since we're talking about women's fabans, I want to know I want to let you know I do know I want to let you know that where where the whole world is going to be or Yud Alf Nissen Monday night, April 11th, the night going into Yud Alfissen, there's going to be the the 30th class of this series combined with a special Yodal Nissen Faban for women. There are many men's events byem all over the world, but this is a special event for women that is going to take place at the we're going to actually go into the oil and bring a list of the names of all the participants in the class. Even if you learned one class, please sign the duk the uh the report that we're bringing to the reb which you can find at 30lets30day.com. And also RSVP, I have to mention this. It's very limited. There's not a lot of space at the butem. There's a nice venue one block from the oil where we're going to have our gathering and our fabangan and it's going to be very nice as fitting for but uh and it's going to be private and it's going to you're going to have your own area. It's going to be very nice but it's limited and I don't have I don't have space there for a thousand people. I think maybe a hundred people there's space. Okay. So you have to RSVP. It is by RSVP only at 30lets30days.com. Okay, so that's the plug for our Fabangan. But the Reba liked that these girls had a woman's faban. Okay, now the tone of the letter is going to turn a little bit and going to become a little bit harsh. They said something that didn't like. This is your uh how many letters are we into? This is your 12th letter. What do you think that Eba doesn't like? I think you know. self-deprecating comments, defeist attitudes, people who say, "I'm not good enough. I can't do this." You know this already. Okay. So, you guessed it. That's what's about to happen here. All right. Wow. Harsh terms. It is understood and obvious that I hereby object. You know what it means to make a I I protest with all strength of viferous objection. The expression that you used at the end of your letter. They used an expression in their letter. The Reb does not like it and the Reb is making a protest against that expression. What is that expression? quoteims, the sea of coldness which is found within us already. The sea of coldness, the cold sea, the chilly sea, however you want to read that, that is found within us. They were saying we're cold. We're not warm to Yiddish kite. We have a sea of coldness inside of us. Okay? says the Reb, first of all, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt that even according to your own intention in using that language, you were basically being poetic. You didn't mean that literally. Okay? So, first of all, I'm I'm I'm sort of mitigating how egregious that expression is by by saying, I think you were just trying to write pretty words and so you took some poetic license. I don't think you really think that that's an accurate description of your situation. However, says the I don't even like you speaking that way for poetic effect. Let's continue. Nevertheless, I am issuing my objection against even using words like that as poetry. You don't speak that way. You're not allowed to speak that way. You're calling yourselves cold. You're calling yourselves cold. No, I object. [Music] Don't you know that the evil inclination this is his most common tool? This is the way that he approaches people most commonly. What does he do with this very claim that you're using against yourself? This is what the likes to tell people to explain to the personal he's got very little chance that he'll ever change. Look at you. That's how you're always going to be. You think you can improve. You think you can become different. No, people can't change. So now you're speaking about yourself in that way. says, "Since your situation is such and such, so don't even bother fighting when your chances of victory are so remote and it's going to be so hard to to wage war. Don't even bother." The says, "So the likes to discourage people like that. I don't like that. I don't like that. Don't speak that way." Now, the Reb could have left it like that and said, "You're not allowed to speak about yourself the way the likes to, you know, play with your mind." Thea does the psychological warfare of undermining you. You know, the negative script, the recording, right? That's the You ever You ever wondered what that was? The negative script that's playing in your head? That's the It's exactly the So, the Reb could have just said, "That's the cut it out." But now the EB is going to add upon the objection. The Eb is going to actually argue his case almost like like a lawyer. Now again, the Rebbit could have just told them, "You're not allowed to speak that way about yourself, but the Ebott is further explaining to them why it's not even true. You know, it could be, look, it's a little bit true, but don't say it because you're going to psych yourself out. So just, you know, don't do that." But now that I was going to explain to them with a really good argument why he knows that this is not true, this thing that they're saying about themselves that they have this yamhakus, this this chilly cold sea with inside of themselves. And before I jump into the Reb's logical argument, very compelling argument why it cannot be true what they're saying about themselves. I want to just mention something. Um you know when the deba had his heart attack um I mentioned Dr. Weiss earlier about because the cubs anyways um the cardiologist Dr. Weiss Ira Weiss from Chicago he he came in to uh to tend to the Reb and one of the things that Reba discussed with him was uh why can't they use stem cells to rejuvenate the damaged scar tissue in the heart and Dr. My wife says this was the 70s. Nobody talked about stem cells. Nobody knew about stem cells. He said it was crazy in the 1970s that Eb is speaking to me about more than cutting edge like almost science fiction type stuff which only became known and common practice decades later. So I kind of feel like the same way here. Um you ever heard of epigenetics? Now, epigenetics is a term that I think's been around for a while, meaning as far as what I could tell, it's been around since like the 30s or the 40s, but specifically epigenetics related to the Jewish community. There have been a lot of studies about Holocaust trauma, about second generation and even third generation Holocaust trauma. And uh there are studies that show that people who are descendants or even second or third generation descendants of Holocaust survivors have a heightened sense of vigilance because of that trauma. So something that you yourself went through, that's one type of trauma. Then there's epigenetic trauma. This is trauma that you're getting from intergenerational trauma. Okay. The Deb is going to speak about epigenetics, but in a totally different way than we normally think about it. And I I want to give credit, by the way, where credit is due. I've had about 10 chances since we started this class to thank my dear friend uh Ley Shamto from West Bloomfield, Michigan. And because at every turn, he's been an assistant or an assistance to to this class. More than an assistance, he's uh really to to be honest, he's the one who pushed the whole thing to happen. Uh, but I want to give credit where credit is due regarding the epigenetics thing. He showed me this letter a few months ago before we even decided to do this project. He sent me a picture of the the egress and of this letter in Igus and he just wrote one word epigenetics question mark. And I looked at the letter. I'm like, "Yeah, yeah." Except what is the rabbi doing? the whole concept of of epigenetics that we think of as this this wound, this intergenerational wound, the deba's going to speak about it and saying say it's a real thing, but it's not a wound. It's an asset. It's a strength. Everything that ever touches becomes positive. and and not not from like a polyiana rosecolored glasses type of perspective but with such clear logical compelling arguments and that's exactly what's going to happen right here. So the deba is writing in 1955 or maybe it's even 1954 I'm not sure because it was kissive it might not have been 1955 yet and the deb is speaking about epigenetics but so that's like way decades ahead of epigenetic studies regarding Jewish intergenerational trauma but More than that, not only is it cutting edge and way ahead, decades ahead of its time, the way that Ebid then uses the concept is all positive. All positive. Yeah. What happened to your parents affected them deeply for the good and you've got that within you and you're carrying that and you've also got that and it's and it's all good. Let's let's let's read. Okay. So, the Reba said, "You're not allowed to speak that way about yourself. Stop." Even if you mean it as poetry, do not speak that way. Now, the Reb is going to give Sorry, I have a little bit of a cough. It's from giving this class every night. Now, that is going to give a logical argument. How he knows it's not true. He knows they don't have a sea of coldness inside of them. Here's the logical crux of my argument which is the basis for my my protest. Anyone who comes from a Jewish home in aidic Jewish home or any Jewish home really where in that family they were forced to be in a situation of something life-threatening where they had to they had to risk the ultimate sacrifice and they were under those conditions for several months. The Reb says, "And how much more so if they were under those conditions for many years?" So, they were under these what we'll call I'll use the word traumatizing for right now, but we're going to see it's actually that is going to flip the whole thing and turn it into the very opposite of trauma. if their family was under such conditions for months or for even years and remember these are these are kabad girls who are they I mean this is this is 1955 it wasn't like today where where kabad families come from all lineages and all places and these were these were girls from kabad families they were all from Russia so as the is going to say either they were born in Russia or their parents were in Russia and then came out of Russia and then they were they were born so we're talking uh girls who either were born under Stalinist oppression or their parents were were born and lived and and uh started their families under Stalinist oppression. So anyone's family who endured months or even years of this type of trauma, it's impossible that it doesn't take root in that person's soul. If you lived through that kind of midnafish, it has a permanent effect on your nafish on your soul. Epigenetics and it's impossible that that will not then carry over to that person's sons and daughters. Hear what the Reb is saying? Something happened in Russia when your parents were living under such brutally oppressive circumstances. They had to be miserish. And that aroused something deep within them, a deep strength. And that was implanted within them permanently forever. And it was implanted not only within them, but within their well, let's call quote unquote genetics, their DNA, which they passed on to you. And now you inherited their spiritual strength. Crazy. Wild. Mind-b blown. Okay. the character traits of the parents, especially character traits that were expressed for a considerable amount of time, meaning it wasn't just latent potential within your parents, but they had to express it. They had to cash it in. They actually had to use their capacity for self-sacrifice on a day-to-day basis in order to survive. It becomes a fixed theim in the souls of the children and it becomes a part of those children. So you have that spirit of self-sacrifice. You have that courage. It was implanted in you. Don't tell me about a yam of kirus that you have a cold chili sea within you that you have you're the opposite. You're the opposite of that. You have this this warrior spirit within you that was able to defy Stalin. It's within you. Even if you don't remember it, even if you were born after it, this is your inheritance. Epigenetics. Let's continue. And even if they are transplanted to other types of circum circumstances and now they no longer need every single step they take. Back in Russia, every step you took, KGB could be looking. There was literally life and death hanging in the balance every single moment. And now you've moved to a place where you're not fearful for your life. There's no persecution. To the contrary, now the temptation is assimilation. Secular Israeli society. So not persecution. So now you've moved into a place where that self-sacrifice that was implanted in you is no longer being required. It's not being activated or triggered anymore. So, you don't feel it on a revealed level anymore. But deep down, you've got it. You've got it intact. Listen to what the Reb is saying. What happened, what Stalin did to your family is he made them strong forever. He made your family for all generations extremely strong Jews, including you. Now you're not under Stalin anymore. So now those strengths that were implanted in you are not being triggered. So they're not being activated. So you don't know they're there, but they are there. Any listen, this is just so mind-blowing. any character trait that is is acquired through some type of life-threatening situation. Again, you could call this in the negative way, you could call it trauma, but this is like anti-trauma to coin a term. any character trait that is implanted through a life-threatening situation and through difficult circumstances. You cannot uproot it and get rid of it even if you wanted to. How much more so it's not going to just disappear on its own. So girls, even if you wanted to uproot this quality that was bequeathed to you, you couldn't get rid of it. How much more so it's not going to just disappear because you haven't been using it. You see, you are the same warriors that your parents were. It's just not being triggered in you because thank God you live in a safe place, but it's still there and you're going to learn how to tap into it and use it now and call upon it. You know, the Reb doesn't say this at all, but to me it's very similar to Tanya through you have the Tanya map in back of me every class. This is my baby, the Tanya map. Uh, but you see the green here yudas through. So that's sometimes they call it the the the short way the aisuteris he explains over there that every Jew deep down has this yusha from the from of yank and I I would add by the way that this epigenetics that is speaking to these girls whose parents lived under Stalin but I want to say every Jew has this because if you go back long enough all of our parents or grandparents or great-grandparents were were were brutalized and that doesn't make us weak people that makes us tremendously strong people. At any rate, so in he explains over there that every Jew has this capacity for from that we inherited from the from I guess there there's epigenetics and I never thought of it. There's the epigenetics. Uh at any rate um but we don't normally call upon it. We don't normally use that that what we call avaetis because that's what it means. A mutetus means hidden. and it's latent but in those of he teaches you how to activate it under whatchamacall under normal circumstances regular conditions okay so at any rate so the reb is about to tell them you have this tremendous capacity and it hasn't been triggered because thank god the KGB is not watching you but you can call upon it and it's there and and and it never went anywhere and it can't go anywhere Okay. Okay. So, all of this as it relates to them. Your parents all had to fight, a hard fight, and they all came out intact. It came out as religious Jews. Don't forget where you come from. Those are your parents. Some of you are old enough or your parents left the Soviet Union recently enough that you were part of it. You remember you remember what it was like to live under communism. And what was this battle that you parttook in not to assimilate? [Music] So either you had to do it actively or maybe you were very young and you only did it passively. You just went along with your parents. Doesn't matter. Those qualities became engraved on your hearts and within your innermost souls. Ella, except what happened when you moved to an easier situation. feels like you don't have to fight for survival because there's no KGB, there's no Stalin. So now it feels like you can relax since nobody's chasing you and persecuting you and trying to get you to god forbid transgress against Yiddishite. as is the nature of people. By the way, this reminds me very much of the Reb's tit which was the last mime the Reba gave out and it speaks about this explicitly this idea about people who under communist oppression were so courageous and then they came to a free land and uh you know ever wonder why if you have a paper that takes two days to write and it's assigned 30 days before it's due, you only start two days before it's due. If it weren't for adrenaline, nothing would get done, right? Okay. I know a couple people who aren't like that, but yeah, definitely procrastination I can relate to. At any rate, so if it weren't for adrenaline, what you know, nothing would get done. So, it's similar concept here. Um, you are not under the gun. You're not, thank God, you're not in a situation where you're being forced to fight for your Yiddish kite. So, the Reb calls it. It's just human nature. Such poetry. The alert system that normally keeps people on their toes for survival issues. It goes into slumber mode. Think about that. There's there's a I mean I I this is not what the deb is saying explicitly so I don't want to insert my own words here but think about it in terms of of of trauma but in the positive sense how the deb is saying it that you attained these heightened senses this this I mean they call it in a negative way hypervigilance but here it's it's all positive the is saying you attained this this acute sense of Jewish pride and conviction but what happens is when the threat goes down then the that that let's say the triggers but these are good triggers. I mean they're not good triggers. Stalin is not a good thing but I'm saying the result is all good. The result is a hyper awareness of of my relationship with Hashem and my my devotion to t mitzvah. So what happens though is when the triggers are gone, the cues for threat are gone. So, it's it's just human nature that those those senses go into slumber mode. Okay? But the Reb is saying we could wake them up and it's a good thing to wake them up. We do want to wake them up. Um, listen to this. An enemy who appears like a friend is much more dangerous. And that's what you're dealing with. You're not dealing with Stalin in the Soviet Union. You're dealing with the lure of secular Israeli culture where they're inviting you to assimilate. So that's actually much more dangerous because it lulls you into a false sense of security where you're uh latent epigenetic superjewish adrenaline is in slumber mode. This is your situation. [Music] If someone, God forbid, would try to get you to violate the basics of Judaism, [Music] you wouldn't even get into a discussion with them. You wouldn't even dignify it with a response. Hey, you would say no with simplicity and with strength. However, cave since the threat to you is much more innocuous and therefore much more insidious. It's just little erosions of your observance. says because that means in your eyes because really in fact again it says there's really nothing small. It's all connection or not connection but something that subjectively feels like a minor thing. Uh so it doesn't feel like a threat. So you're not triggered to have that superjue response and you just let it slide. So what happens? The Reb explains or describes the the uh the spiral the downward spiral that god forbid could happen where there are these tiny little uh erosions of your commitment. Uh so okay, right. So you take one little uh turn off of the king's way. Who's the king? the king of the world, the holy one. Blessed be he. So a person can fool himself. And he could say, [Music] "For me, I won't get lost. It's okay. I can deviate from the from the king's path a little, but just a little bit. Just a little bit. It's just a small diversion. And even if I go off the path a little bit as soon as I want, I could quit anytime I want as soon as I want. I could go back to the path of my fathers, back to the path of so much more dangerous than if Stalin is oppressing you. And it's already known the statement of my father-in-law. When a person who comes from the capital city, the capital city means like the the the fancy metropolis, the king's metropolis. So he he lives in the fancy dancy cosmopolitan metropolis. And then one day he wakes up and he's in the middle of a scary forest full of predatory animals and full of bandits. So the said that didn't happen instantly. That didn't happen instantly. It's impossible that somebody one second is in the middle of the king's city and then the and then the next second all of a sudden he's in the middle of a of a scary forest. That's not how it happened. It didn't happen in a second. But really what was the progression or the regression? First he just left the city. He just went to the outskirts, you know, the suburbs and then he went off of the highway, the paved path, just a hair's breath. He already started going in that direction. He didn't even feel it. So, he started drifting more and more. He went off of the main road and he went to a little side road and then he went to a little path. What do they call it? Off the beaten path. Safe. Now all of a sudden he's far away from the settled area. He's even far away from the highway. You know, you have settled areas and then you have highways connecting them or roads at least connecting them. Now he's not even near the road. Not even near the road. Can't even see other people. who and he sees that around him are these scary animals of prey and he is endangered at every moveim and the analogy here is well understood it's obvious the point the mushel here from the so the is telling these girls if the threat to your yiddish kite were black and white I know what you would do. You would do the same thing your parents did and you would pass with flying colors and you have that in you. The problem is the tests to your Yiddish kite are subtle and therefore you think that you don't have what it takes to overcome them. But the truth is you have what it takes to overcome this kind of threat and much much much more of a threat. It's there. It's your inheritance. Okay. So remember this letter is from the month of so in these days this which is right before this is the anniversary of when the alterba came out of prison and came to freedom. Why was the imprisoned? He was imprisoned because not because of the ms, not because uh the people said he was giving money to the enemy of Russia and he was sending money to the Ottoman Turks. That that that's what was the claim in the in the terrestrial court. But the real reason as we know is because there was a kit Mila there was an accusation in the heavenly court against his unprecedented dissemination of the teachings of and when he came out into freedom it wasn't just a personal redemption it was also the triumph of his whole uh ideology meaning so my to you. Hashem should bless you. And I'm I'm I had a hard time h how to read and translate this word. There was even a discussion if maybe this was a typo and it wasn't yino was yino. You should prepare yourselves. Atman, what does it mean? Yino esman. Um and in the translation even it says you should understand yourselves. Meaning you should understand on your own. You should understand by yourself. But I'm reading it here that they should understand themselves. They should know who you are. You should know who you are. You should understand who you are. We don't have a lot of time here. And we have a second letter. So I'm I'm I'm not going to talk about uh one of my favorite letters from the egress from Tin Ladal. Maybe another time. But the Reb's letter tok from New Haven, Connecticut. And wanted to quit his he was completely overwhelmed. And the Reb wrote him back and said, "You know what your problem is? You got to meet this guy. And if you meet him, you're going to see everything's going to be smooth sailing." So the Reb says to these girls, you know what you got to do for? You got to meet yourselves. You got to understand yourselves. Not just your outer garments. You got to know your inner self. You got to know the essence of your soul. [Music] That essence of your soul is awake, is alive to all that is holy. That inner spark within you is alive and awake to everything that isra and mitzvah and all of its ways. You will find sufficient strength within yourselves not to be embarrassed in front of scoffers because really that's this the the test these girls are going through. Their test isn't persecution. Their test is scoffers. People who not no one's going to arrest you. They're just going to crinkle their nose at you. So the Reb says, "Look into your soul, see your power, and you're going to realize how proud you are. You're going to conduct yourselves in such a way where everyone sees that you are proud in everything you do. It's going to reflect the fact you are proud that you were brought up in homes. You're going to behave accordingly in your day-to-day lives. The whole thing comes down to your desire. You've got what? You've got what it takes. That's it. Balls in your court. With blessings for success in this work soon and quick and the success in all the stuff we're talking about, the spiritual stuff that's going to bring success in everything in your life, material stuff, too. We've had that in letters from the Reb before that the spiritual is the key to the material. They're not two separate worlds. So, you're going to do what's good for your soul. That's going to be good for your body and for everything. Okay, that was a long letter. It took us a little bit of a long time, but like I said, it's a double header. So, we're going to go into the second letter now, which is a uh a short letter. Very short letter. Okay, that's the intermission. All right, welcome back from our break. Letter number 13. Here we go. Short little letter Vavis Tintasv Brooklyn. Now we're in Tavis. So we went from Kisliff to Tavis. We're moving through the year. Okay. And it starts with an ellipses. So or an ellipsis. So um maybe it's plural ellipses. Someone will let me know. It starts with the dot dot dot. That's the fancy name for it. It starts with a dot dot dot, which means there's something redacted. Obviously, as we mentioned before, um Rabbi Simpson from the secretariat, we explained the process where he would remove uh private or sensitive information. So, there's some things missing from the letter, but here's where the publicized or public published part of the letter begins. [Music] this what you write that you have no luck for anything at all. Now, this is only letter 13, but knowing what you know from the Reb's answers, you think that's going to fly? The Reb is going to let somebody say this that they have no luck for anything at all? You tell me. No. No. The Debb is not going to stand for this. So, that we know. And and in fact, we could have written that answer because you just read what are we on? Letter 13. Read 13 letters from the Reba. Any 13 you want randomly chosen by a computer and you would know that if you had to answer the way that Eba answers, the answer has to be you're not allowed to say that. What are you talking about? You have no you have no luck. If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. You're not allowed to say that. Okay, that we know already. We I I think we all got to that point in our training. The egress are training us. But you know the deba is not going to just leave it at that. The deba is going to actually prove it. The is going to prove it. How's the deba going to prove it? So I told you before in an earlier class that I wrote this column for eight years in amy magazine. Eventually I stopped but uh for eight years I wrote it and and people were very impressed with certain things that I did. And one one of the things that they they they were so blown away by they said you take the person's letter and you use the letter in the answer. You turn their question into the answer. You turn the problem into a solution. And I would tell everyone, don't be impressed with me. Yeah, be impressed, but not with me. I stole this from this is what the Reb does. So, you're going to see here a prime example of this. Now, the Reb doesn't just tell somebody, "Oh, that's not true. Don't say you don't have bad luck." I mean, don't say that you only have bad luck. It's not true. The Reb says, "Um, don't say you don't have any luck." And in fact, I'm going to prove it to you from the information that you wrote to me in your letter. You yourself gave me the argument to defeat the statement that you're making. Let's let's take a look. Okay. So, you wrote you have no luck. I'm perplexed. Zen, how can you say that as in that in the beginning of your very own letter, you begin by saying that Hashem has given to you and your husband. This is written to a woman. In the beginning of your letter, you mentioned to me that Hashem gave you and your your husband four children. He blessed you with four children in a land and that you're now found in a calm land. They must have been immigrants on. And even though that making a living is difficult, you are managing to raise your children. So look, I didn't see the woman's letter, but I could imagine the letter. The letter probably said, "Oba, what are we going to do? We just came to this new land and we're immigrants and we don't know how to make a living and we have four children to raise and it's overwhelming and I've never had good luck my whole life." and this is just a continuation of my bad luck. And the Reba takes her very claim and says, "Okay, let me just say back to you what you told me. I'm just going to say back to you what you told me. You safely arrived in a new land in a free calm place with your four children that Hashem benched you with and you're even though Parnos is difficult, you're able to raise them." You know there's a there's a story of the balsham. I actually heard this story from uh Rabbi Dr. Torski whose yortsite whose first yight was just uh last month. So it's a story of the BMP that uh a young once came to the BMP and asked a question. He said the in the says that a person is judged every year onash or the days between there's a yearly judgment. Also in the Gumar it says a person is judged every day. So which one is it? Is he judged on a yearly basis or is he judged on a daily basis? So the BMP says to this young, "Come outside with me." So they go outside and there's the water carrier named Kaim or Kha. I think Kaikl is the water carrier and uh he's an old man. He's slapping big buckets of water from the river. That's you know they didn't have plumbing in those days. That's how the water got there. So uh the Balmp says to says how you doing? He says, "Ob, I'm an old man and I'm still working. Still shleing this water. I can't quit working. Even though I'm an old man, I'll never be able to retire. And I barely make enough money to to put bread on the table." And uh what do you want me to tell you? Life is difficult. He says, "Thank you." And he turns around, goes back inside, and the young tot says to the BMP, "How does that answer my question?" The Balshmp says to the young man, "Come back tomorrow at exactly the same time. We'll continue this discussion." Okay. 24 hours later. Young man comes back to Balmpt. He says, "I'm I'm here for the rest of the answer." BMP says, "Come outside." They walk outside and sure enough, like clockwork, who's there? Kiko. He's making his rounds. He's coming back from the river, slapping his buckets of water, and he says, "How are you doing?" So he, "Oh, Rebe, I got to I got to tell you, I got to thank Hashem because even though I'm an old man, I'm still able to carry this water. I'm still able to work. I don't make a lot of money, but I make enough to put bread on the table." Says, "Thank you." They turn around. They go back inside the base medish says to the young man a person is judged for a year. This Roshana it was judged that Kha's going to be a water carrier again for the for the year that was decided for the year. But how takes it, how he feels about that fact, that's that changes on a daily basis according to his attitude. So yesterday he said, "I'm I'm such an old man. I'm still having to carry this water and I'm barely making enough money to put bread on the table." The next day, the same exact information was used. Oh, barashem, I got to be grateful. Even though I'm so old, I'm able to carry this water. I don't make a lot but I'm able to put bread on the table. So I mentioned in an earlier share that what's a pessimist? It means your data is correct but your interpretation is false. You missed the mark when you interpreted it. So this woman wrote the information. I've got four kids. We're immigrants. We just came to a new country. We can barely make a living. What are we going to do? I have no luck. I've never had luck. that ever flips the whole thing and says, "You have no luck. You're the luckiest person in the world. You and your husband with your four beautiful children made it to a free land where even though you're not able to make such a great living, but you're getting by and you're able to raise your children. I call that great luck. You gave me the information. You're the one who told me how lucky you are. I don't understand how you're calling yourself unlucky. So this isn't magic. I want you to understand something. This is not this is not uh slight of hand. This is not cute. This is what isra is to teach you how to organize information and make sense of it. There's a lot of smart people in the world. There's a lot of smart people in the world. It's not what you know, it's what you do with the information that you know. The deb is teaching us how to put together information and come to conclusions that are true. You're coming and you're writing to me with with your argument, with your evidence that you have bad luck. Well, I heard your evidence and my conclusion is the truth is you're the luckiest person in the world. And I think all of us can apply this to ourselves that even if nothing changes right now in your present circumstances, merely changing the eyes that you're using to look at your situation can completely transform your experience. Let's finish the letter. It's a short letter as I said. Okay. Um, yeah. Where are we up to? If you'll remind yourself, if you'll think about years gone by Zet as often, you're going to see that your life has been a miracle. telling me you have no luck. Look back through your life. You're going to see your life has been a miracle. Yes, it is understood that when something's lacking, you have to den you have to ask Hashem to grant what you're lacking. See, that's not a contradiction either. The Ebas, it's so amazing the paradoxes that are running through this short simple letter seemingly simple. So, the EBA is first of all saying you don't have bad luck. You have wonderful luck. You have an incredible life full of blessings. And at the same time though that Eb is not saying and therefore don't ask Hashem for anything. See we don't have to be so so extreme. They can both be true. You can have gratitude and you can ask Hashem to help you. You could say you can say to Hashem, I'm loving life. It's great what you're giving me and keep on giving more. Give me more. You can say that. You don't have to say I'm miserable. I hate my life. Hashem, save me. You can say, I'm a living miracle. My life is great. And I would appreciate even more. So the says, go dive into Hashem. And you should dive into Hashem and ask whatever it is that you're lacking, Hashem should give to you for sure. One's not a contradiction to the other. If you will conduct yourself according to the requirements, the demands of the living, Hashem will begin to fill in whatever is lacking. In other words, again, we've had this many times, but Torah observance is the conduit to blessings. So as you'll continue serving Hashem and doing what to requires a Jewish person to do, Hashem is going to give you more and more and fill in that which you are lacking. The Reb is not denying it and saying, "No, no, you're not lacking anything. She is lacking." You know, the Reb said many times that uh a Jew shouldn't just have parnosa, they should have parnosa, should have ample parnosa, she should be wealthy. in fact that everyone said it's a cra it's a it's a preparation for Mashiah when Mashiah comes so the uh the delights will be bountiful and plenty because there'll be absolute uh affluence everywhere in the entire world. So it's uh get ready for Msiah by uh being wealthy now. So even if you if if you still don't have a private jet, you know, you still there's still things that Hashem can give you. So the is not telling her you shouldn't dive in for more and and that Hashem's not going to give you more. The is saying Hashem is going to give you more and the best way is conduct yourself according to and Hashem's going to give you more and more and more of what you lack. Okay. Especially in your circumstances in now the is giving her some can we call it that's a buzz word we had in a previous letter. The is giving her some specific mitzvah to put some extra attention into. So one is kashas the kosher status of your food hidden shabas shabas observance and general observance meaning basics basics of yiddish kiteem should give you the merit to report some good news in those else in everything that we spoke about. You should be able to write back and say life is good. It's always been good miraculously so and it's been getting even better and this was signed by one of the secretariat but it's a letter that went out from the rabbi. Okay. So that is our double share for tonight and uh I wish you all a good restful shabas and part of your shabas rest I hope will entail discussing these letters with your family and friends at 30lets30days.com you will be able to find a downloadable PDF of a discussion guide that will jog your memory of the letters we learned this week you can print it out before shab and use it as a discussion guide for your Shabas table discussion so you can further internalize the beautiful lessons from the letters that we've learned this week. Okay, good chabas.