Say Shema and Bring Out Your Essence!

[Music] hi this is rabbi chase taub and it is a great honor to be joining you tonight for this incredible initiative from azermeziain the great work of azermatine is known all over the world and i just learned of this particular initiative the nightlight program that gathers virtually all over the world through the miracles of modern technology women and girls to say shema together with kavona and as i understand this is the final event of the year and as i also understand having spoken with some of the uh organizers there are some exciting new developments that azermitsean will have for you in the coming years so definitely stay in touch with them to find out about everything that is new for 57.83 if you can believe that's the year and i want to just congratulate and give credit where credit is due to everyone who's been involved in this project all year this is an incredible thing that you've accomplished and please remember that all of this is nishmas a young woman who was taken from us at a very young age li al-dina bas efraim all of the the skusm of the shema israel should be laylee nishmas efraim regarding the power of shema there's a story told about a certain free thinker somebody who fancied himself enlightened he had thrown off the yoke of yiddish kite and he went to go provoke the first gerard israel mayor alter all otherwise known as the harim so this particular uh free thinker came over to the hidducharim and he said you know i can prove to you that torah is false in the shema in the second paragraph it says very clear if you listen to hashem's commandments then i will bend you i will give you rain in its time and everything that you need but conversely ishmael you should be careful pen if till that your heart doesn't go astray because if it does and then it says all types of terrible things that will happen so the guy says to the i am the perfect example that none of that is true because i do not keep toyota mitzvos i do whatever i want and i actually have a very good life i'm wealthy and i'm healthy and my family is happy so there you go i'm the best proof so the hidden says to this fellow how do you know that it says that in shma the guy says what do you mean i'm jewish of course what do you mean how do i know it says that no but you read that once he says yeah of course i read that when i was a kid i used to say shma so i know that it says it in there so you said and if a jew says shema even wants he deserves all of the blessings that hashem has given you in your life and even more you actually because of even having said smile once in your life you deserve even more than what you already have you should be blessed even more and more and more so we see the incredible uh the power of even one shema israel even israel that said by a child who can't even understand really what is he saying what does it mean and all of the the rewards of this world are not enough to sufficiently rewarded you for for even saying shma one time so from this we can uh extrapolate what incredible what incredible merits we must be accruing both in this world and the next when we when we say um there's a story about a talmud of the hungarian rav it was assad who was the leader of hungarian jewry after the time right after the time of drakstam seifer and he had a talmud who was walking through the forest one night and he was beset by robbers so the robbers told him that we're not giving you any choice here we're taking your money and we're killing you so the talmud of you assad told these robbers um if that's the case then i have one last request i want to say shmaistral one last time so they indulged him his request he put his hand on his eyes and he said yes and when he opened his eyes the robbers were gone they they fled they ran they whatever happened he wasn't sure exactly so he went back to his rav he went back to uh raviod assad and he said this very strange thing happened i'm walking through the forest and these robbers come and they say they're going to kill me and they gave me one last request and i decided my last request i want to say as so many jewish martyrs have done in their last moments and i opened my eyes and they were gone so he says i just have one question why did something like this happen to me so that of says can i ask you a question the the shema that you said when you thought it was your last moment in this world did you ever say a smile like that before in your life the guy says you know come to think of it now no i never said a schmack quite like that before in my life so harav assad says maybe that's why it happened to you so now you should know what isma is so for the rest of your life when you say shma you should think about that shma and you should aspire for that again so that's a wonderful idea it's a very inspiring idea in some ways perhaps though it's a little bit of a daunting idea it's a little bit intimidating how does one say shma with such intensity as if it were the last shma of one's life so that's kind of what i want to talk about with you and i think it is connected also to the theme of this month or one of the themes of this month the month of elul in the month of ello there are many different min hogging connected with this month uh we begin to sound the shafer every day another minute is that we say capital zai in chapter 27 of of psalms every day uh la david hashem aydi a psalm by david the lord is my light and i'll tell you an interesting question that elia elopian asked about this capital about la david hashem audi he says david malek makes an interesting request from his show he says i'm asking for one thing but then he doesn't ask for one thing he asks for a bunch of things he asks shifty baves i want to dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life he says i want to see i want to behold the pleasantness of hashem and i also love i want to visit his his palace meaning the basa mikdash so rebellion asks first of all he says i'm asking for one thing now he's asking for a whole list of things but also in that list there's a there's a thera there's a little contradiction i want to dwell on hashem's house all the days of my life means to visit i want to be a guest i want to be a tourist i want to come there one time take some pictures and take a selfie okay and then leave so wait which is it shifty pervasive to dwell there that this should become my residence my home i'm a local i'm a native or la vaca i'm a tourist i'm a guest i'm just visiting you can't have both so i want to tell you what rebellion answers he says that is the whole idea of teshuva what is teshuva and hello we're getting ready is when you can go back to your day day-to-day routine the regular stuff that you became used to that you took for granted and you could experience it fresh with a new sensitivity as if it was the first time and that's what david malek is asking that's why it's ah i'm only asking for one thing because it's not a list of things it's actually the paradox itself is the one thing david malik is asking for i'm asking for that paradox that at one at the same time i should be shifting i should constantly be in the presence of hashem but at the same time it should you should always be new to me as if it's a big or as if it's a visit as if i'm a tourist who saved up all all year long to make that trip and to and i was dreaming about it and i was talking about it and i was telling my friends how i'm going to go on this trip except it's my day-to-day life that's what rebellious says is tishova when you can get up and and you say maidani and you you wash negovassa and you say brachus and all the things that are familiar that you've done day in and day out but it feels like you're a guest you're doing it fresh for the first time okay so how can we have a shmayusro like a shmayasro that we've as if it's we've never said shmaiso before in our lives as if this is the first maistro that i've ever said my whole life fresh new exciting so this is what i want to tell you where to go where to look where to search for this type of inspiration is closer than you think because what is shema israel is not something you've got to go out and you got to go get shema usually something that's within you that you gotta bring out you have to expose you have to reveal israel is really the deepest most simple basic expression of the jewish soul that is equal for all jews and when you know that it's there when you understand that i have a neshama i am a neshama actually i am in the shama we are not human beings having a spiritual experience we are spiritual beings having a human experience and that my soul's most basic experience of reality is that's by the way the two big letters if you look and i say potato where she's written the i in is big and the dalid [Music] of achad is big ayan and dalit is the word aid witness because your neshama sees and testifies it gives witness to the fact that there is nothing but hashem and we have to know that this is our most basic truth it's down there it's deep within us and it's who we are it's our essence as jews i'll tell you the sixth khabad raviess of yitzchak said why does it say in the haggadah about the uh kenned speaks about four sons why does it say that he says you know why because it doesn't matter if a jew is a hachem or a russia or a tam or a every single jew has within him a sensitivity to the reality that hashem is the truth and that's what's deep in us you don't have to go out somewhere and find it you don't have to have somebody to teach it to you you don't need some guy sitting here like me inspiring you look within that is your truth whoever you are whatever level you're at whatever you feel your strengths your challenges whatever your story is whatever you're struggling with you are a jew you are an ashama your truth is i'll tell you one more story after the holocaust there were many hidden children who were given up to catholic orphanages all over europe and it was a very big problem because unfortunately as you know the reality is many of these parents who left their children perished so they they promised their children they would come back to them they had hoped to come back to them but the parents didn't make it so there were no living survivors to come find these children these children were left at these orphanages when they were very very young so the children themselves it's not like they remembered being jewish the children couldn't speak up and say to the nuns oh by the way we're jewish now uh find find uh if we have an aunt or an uncle somewhere surviving their children didn't even know they were jewish so the chief rabbi chief ashkenazi rabbi of israel at the time of [Music] yitzchak isaac herzog he undertook the mission of finding these lost jewish children scattered in orphanages all over europe and he wrote to the vatican and the vatican said for sure if you can find them if you can find the jewish children go ahead and claim them there was no paperwork there was no documentation it was very things were done in haste you have to understand people were running for their lives so he had no way of really proving who was jewish herzog came to an orphanage in europe he said he spoke to the mother superior the head none in charge he said i'm here for the jewish children she said we don't have any jewish children he said i'm looking here there's a room full of 200 children here i know that from the 200 children you got to have some jews she says i don't know of any jews here he says can i do something she said fine no problem he stood up in front of the 200 children in the orphanage he put his right hand on his eyes and he said israel and when he removed his hand from his eyes he saw among the 200 children there were five children who as if by reflex had stood up had placed their hands on their eyes and were swaying they didn't remember they were jewish if you would have asked them are you jewish they would have looked at you with a quizzical stare but when they heard shema israel something resonated in them they remembered being babies and being put to bed rocked asleep and having the words of shema israel gently sung to them in their cribs this is a jew a jew has in his or her most basic dna the call of shema israel it's within you it's within every jew you don't have to go out somewhere and find it you have to bring it out you have to reveal it may we continue to reveal our greatness to reveal our god-consciousness our sense our sensitivity to the oneness of hashem and to be able to do it like elias said in that paradoxical way of shifting to constantly be doing holy things and at the same time to have it new and fresh and exciting as if we're only visiting have both we want our cake and eat it too a good quebe a sweet healthy happy year for you and for all of yours [Applause] [Music] you