PART 2 Thank You Hashem with Rabbi Kalman Flaks

Heat. [music] Heat. [singing] [music] [singing] [music and singing] Okay. So, we're going to dedicate our Torah study tonight for the sake of the whole Jewish people. May our Torah form a Torah protection cloud to protect all of our nothing bad should happen to them to protect all of Israel to bring Yeshua to bring salvations down to the whole Jewish people always says that before you learn you should davin and in our generation sometimes the easiest way to open us up up to Davening is through a niggan through a song. So, I didn't bring my guitar, so you guys are going to have to be my backup. Even if you've never heard this song before, it's a beautiful song. You'll learn a new song. It's Brazil's version of Moda Ani. So, let's dive in together. Fore! Foreign! Foreign! I am as I might [singing] as I [singing] might N [singing] I N I N I I N Beautiful. [singing] First of all, thank you so much to the holy rabbi for organizing everything and h having us here. Thank you to every single person here for coming. Honestly, it wouldn't be here without you, you know, because uh you know, it wouldn't be the same without you. and seriously every single person and your energy brings me energy and brings all of Israel energy. So thank you for being here and uh thank thank for this to be learning to together and thank my wife for lending me to you guys. It's our I'm going back to the army tomorrow morning. So she but she's sad and she says go teach your shir and we'll we'll hang out. We hung out on chabas and uh so thank you to my holy wife for that. um okay so this is modani part two today we're going to go deep deep into the words just a quick quick summary of what we learned last week some of the guys weren't here anyways is important in in 3 minutes we learned that the student of the Arizal he was the one who wrote the words of the modi brought it down to ami is these 12 beautiful words that begin our Okay. And that it basically spiritually is taking the place of the elk shamat which in tamudic times was our way of thanking Hashem for bringing us back our soul every morning. And so modani without hashem's name replaced it in uh modern times and it spread like wildfire all throughout the world to remind us to start our way with our day with gratitude. And then we spoke about the concept the midrash which teaches that the first person who inaugurated who innovated hod thankfulness was leia and we gave two shots as to what exactly the midress is trying to teach us either that true gratitude is being surprised being wowed when she had her extra child that she didn't expect or that Leia teaches us to be thankful even when things are challenging when things are hard and that's why she's the first one who brings down gratitude to us. That was last week's sheer in 3 minutes. And you ask, so why did why would we spend a whole hour? Because we went on diggression because we went much deeper because not just about the punchline, it's about the process and getting there. So that was last week. Now we're going to go into every single word in the modi. Um but just before we do that uh a few words of introduction writes in his beautiful that if a person takes upon us himself at the first moment of their day which for us is when we say the mi that they are going to serve hashem they're going to take the mamim upon themselves that that is a great school it there's a great power that will give you the strength to overcome the obstacles all the spiritual obstacles trying to take us away from our avote from our dabing from our learning. If you take right at that moment when you wake up right snooze and you mish when you're saying even maybe a minute a moment before you say the modani and or as you're saying the modani you take upon oneself the message of modani as we're going to learn about the yoke of is our king that we're giving it it up to that he runs the world that's a tremendous uh help in our vote so there we go already in the first minute of the sheer is giving us an amazing tip of how to how to practically overcome the challenges of life. Okay, pretty good. Pinis in his beautiful safair writes that the modi is the foundation of our entire day. All the sitter it all begins with because the beginning what do we say every all begins in our first thought and our first the beginning of it all is so we really got to understand the the message of modi because that's supposed to that's supposed to escort us throughout our day. Okay. He says, he gives a great mushel. He says, imagine, this actually happened to me today. I was uh scooting and I went down Pier Kenn and I was going to this special store where they spell they sell like special army uniforms. I was going to buy one. I got a donor cuz you don't have to tuck in the shirt here and that way my commanders wouldn't bother me as much. And I was I was enjoying myself on my little ride down the bike path. True story. And apparently the bike path got longer and I found myself I saw this big mosque and I'm like what's going on here? And like where's the turn to Ramy Levy and I I'm lost and I'm in this like Arab area that apparently the bike path goes to. Yeah. So I imagine if at that moment a policeman would have come over and said, "What are you doing here? This is not a good place for a soldierw wearing guy to be going without his gun." And I say I saw I took the wrong turn. I got lost on one to 10. How forgivable am I? Pretty forgivable, right? You make a wrong turn. It happens in life, right? But let's say I end up in the middle of Ramallah, right? And I end up in the middle of Janine, but not the part of Janine where the soldiers are protecting the other side and and some police guy comes up to me and is like, "What are you doing here? How did you get here?" And I'll be like, "Actually, I have no idea. Where are you going? like no clue. Just woke up and and just drove to Janine and drove to Amala. Like that's pretty that's pretty dumb. That's pretty unforgivable, right? It's an unusual choice to say the very least. Yes, it would be a silly thing to do and and an unusual choice to I would say. So Pink is if a person gets up wakes up in his morning and does not know where he's driving to that's at like that guy who just drives into the middle of Ramla. You have no destination. You don't know where you're going. That's unforgivable. Okay. If you get lost on the way, it happens to everybody sometimes. But to not even know where you're driving to, that's a problem. Yeah. So he says, "Where are we driving to?" Rafina says the modi the first thing that we do in in our morning that's a foundation of that's reminding us according to the makubalim where we're driving to. The mission of a Jew is the Modi. Yeah. So far so good. So, so why what is it? What is it about those first two words that is the mission statement of a Jew? What do you guys think? Gratitude. Oh, answer number one says what's your name again? David. Says David. Oh, not a coincidence. David, right? Who's the greatest thinker of Hashem of our generation of of ever. So says David that the mission of a Jew is gratitude right what's the proof that's why I said a Jew the essence of a Jew is thankfulness the essence of a Jew is gratitude the essence of a Jew is not taking anything for granted not anything and not anything that's the whole mission of our lives that's what we're going and dabing that's why we're learning that's all everything can be encapsulated in the in the sentence. Thank you. Not but my essence is gratitude. My essence is thankfulness. That's who a Jew is. Sometimes Jews don't act like that. Uh it's not natural. It's not always natural. The har is pretty strong for us to not be thankful, right? Give me a proof from the Torah that even Jews sometimes can be not so grateful. Give me some proofs. I mean, look at the whole book of Bibbar. Like the entire book, like all 40 years of the desert is one big ketchfest, you know? It's like the whole thing. our last week's para partak from the beginning to the end to be honest it's it's a lot of fetching it's a lot of complaining the not enough meat there's not the bread's not the water the this that granted it was hot you know I get it but still there's a lot of complaining going back to when they had everything they had they had all the fruits of the world but they didn't that one fruit was missing and so that ingratitude is the basic yeahara it's very natural to be not grateful. But the essence of our nama of our of our good side is to overcome that and not take things for granted and be thankful. That's our mission. It's our mission. In other words, of that's the whole point that it's not natural for us. And that's why our whole tikun in life, our whole mission in life is to overcome that natural inclination to not be gratitude. grateful and to learn to train our brain to look for the good. Yeah. So that's answer number one by the Reb of David that the essence of a Jew is to be grateful and remind me before the end of our shir I would love we're going to do a a beautiful meditation to make that practical to actually bring that gratitude into our lives. Okay? Okay. So, make sure we don't leave before we do that cuz I would like this year not just to be good lus gooding of every word but actually practical ways to make our better. That's at least at least mine and if you guys want to jump along that would that would be great. So, we'll make sure to bring that concept into us. There's a second answer of what is the modi trying to say that is the essence the mission of a Jew. Modi. So there's another meaning behind the word mod. What's the other meaning behind the word mod? Confession. Oh, confession. Exactly. Right. Like in Mishna, we find very often the concept of modas, which means I admit an admission. An admission of guilt. Does this carry over into modern Hebrew? This uh double Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Abs. Absolutely. It's the same thing in modern Hebrew. And and it's not a coincidence. It's not random in happen stance that the word means two things. But we'll connect it in a moment. Before we connect it just so what does that mean? Okay. I admit if we want to take the second interpretation not say I am thankful but rather I admit okay as of Cook and many other mafarim explain this first phrase of the day. So then so then so what do we mean? What does that mean? I admit what are we admitting? There are many answers to this question. What do you guys think? What exactly are we admitting in the beginning of our day? Our incapacity to under understand in advance how the day will unfold. Okay, good. So one answer is I admit I have no idea what's going to happen today. I'm totally like I admit it like you know. I like that. Okay, good. Like like in other words, I I don't know what's really going to happen. I'm going to try my best, but I admit that I don't know. Okay, what else? What else? Submission kind of like I'm submitting myself. I admit I submit that I am not in charge of the world, but I am that I am before God. I'm giving over the the reigns, so to speak, of my life. who really runs the world. I admit it's Hashem because naturally we don't want to do that. We can say it. We could all give a good sheer, give a good speech, everything's for the best. Thank you. But at the moment of when something goes wrong, when we're frustrated, right, when the you miss the bus and you really had to miss the bus or when the doctor is taking way too long and you're going to miss and I whatever you spill your coffee, whatever, you know, everybody's own thing. Then you don't really feel like modi. You feel like it's not right. that guy and it messed me up and and this and I and and it's it's very natural to feel like I am in charge and not Hashem is in charge. Oh, sorry. Right. Why is why why did I mess up? Why did they mess me up? But is saying you're not first not naturally. What's the first person that thing that we think of? At least most people. I think of I have to go to the bathroom. Or I think I'm really tired. I wish I gain another hour of sleep. Or I think why the heck is my kid waking me up at 5 in the morning? Could he just stop crying already? Whatever it is, I'm thinking about me and my need. That's why I got the grocery phone to think about whether or not to check. Good. Exactly. Stupid WhatsApp. Whatever. Everybody Everybody in their own. But this is saying no don't think first think thank think thank thank you and then give it up to I am not in control of the world I'm going to do my I'm going to try my best there is an don't get me wrong looking at me like there's no you no there is a you but first it's mod first I'm giving up the fact that that it's all me I'm saying it's Hashem once we made that space and recognize that it's all God. Then I I come back into the picture. Then there's an I have to be connected to this that I have. But it it it starts this with giving it up giving giving the the rulership of the world over to a it wasn't exactly the look on my face. of his thinking. Um, it's also submitting to Hashem that you're in control of everything including the return of my soul to me and when I am waking up and goes on to thank Hashem for that. Exactly. Beautiful. As we'll get to in a moment, but before we do that, I just want to tell one quick story which I think explains the connection between these two words. So, Schlommo Carbach in his safeair. He has he I wrote a safer which translates for Schlommo's different interpretations of the sitter. I was going to bring it tonight but I left it in the gruel. In any case, so in his safer he he brings the following story about Modani. There's a little kid and the are on their way to visit the Reb of Alikinsk and they're so happy. They're going to visit the Reb Rashana and they see this little kid who's dancing and they say, "This must be a high soul." As they get closer and closer to this boy, they realize that this boy is dressed in tatters. His mom is looks poor as heck and he's dancing like crazy. Thank you. His mom is going nuts. So they go over to this boy and say, "What are you so happy about? Like what did what did you eat for breakfast? We want to get some of that." So the boy says, "I haven't eaten for 3 days." So they're like, "Yeah, okay. So, so what are you so happy about?" So he says, "No, you don't understand. Just a few moments ago, a few minutes ago, I was crying. I was screaming to Hashem, I'm so hungry, Hashem, you run the entire world. You could do anything. You know, why can't you just give me abyssal food?" And I was fetching and I was screaming. Then at a certain point it hit me. You know what? Hashem runs the world. I don't run the world. And you know what? I'm missing a little bit of bread. But I still have a mommy. I still have a tati. I still have my arms. I still have my legs. I can still breathe. And he goes through everything in his life that he's thankful for. In the end, he said, "The only little thing I'm missing is a little piece of bread. And surely Hashem, he runs the world. He's going to give me that too soon." And he was dancing and singing. And the were impressed. And of course they took him to the courtyard and he became a great Rebendo of Rimmanov. But the point of the story for me is that in every situation in life when you're at a when it's easy okay it's easy it's easy to be happy but when it's challenging that's exactly the moment when you have to decide are you going to just keep fetching are you going to hand over the reigns of the world to Hashem recognize that he runs the world and I think that act of recognition leads to gratitude cuz I no longer think that I'm in control. I now recognize that he runs the world. And being able to kind of let go allows space for true genuine gratitude, surprise, and all the things that we've been talking about for the last couple of years. You with me? I think there's a connection. The hudah of admitting leads to this gratitude of of giving up and recognizing that Hashem runs the world. also leads to that an act of that I'm taking upon myself today that I'm going to try to dive in. I'm going try to learn and uh that will uh that will get us to where we need to go. Okay. So, so far we've done our best to go deep into those words. There's one more thing I want to about say about the words Modani before we go onward. As I mentioned before, these are this these words were written by a cabalist student of the Arizal and every single not just word but letter has deep significance. Okay, we're doing I can't stand modi forever you know eventually we have to move on. So we're not going to do all the cabalistic secrets of modani but you should know there's a lot more. is according to theic and cabalistic masters specific ways in which you're supposed to hold your hands if you want to get the sheffa to come down when you say modi and even every letter of modi has significance according to the cabalistic masters by the way said ideally when you davin you should imagine every letter imagine the letters leaving your mouth and going to the heavens and if you ever want to try a cool estray and like just you have a lot of time you're at the hotel and you're not in a rush, I I really recommend it. Just like breathe and imagine the letters flowing from your mouth and going up to the heavens. Sometimes I I I do it and it's it's really cool and it really makes the words powerful because every word has significance. And so they ask why is the first letter in which we say in the morning me? Why is the first letter me? What is the meaning behind me? So what's the gamatria of me? 40. Exactly. So, why does it make sense that we should start our week specifically with 40? What does 40 have to do with the way we we we begin our day? 40. What What associations come with 40? Noah. 40 is Noah. Good. 40 years in the desert. 40 years in the desert. What else was 40? 40 days. Mosha was on har was 40 years a 40 when he started life 40 sayya in a mikvah 40 is when uh the soul is said to come into the nama of a baby one one level of the soul so the idea behind 40 putting all these things together is birth a new start a rebirth mikvah is restarting our day Noah, we're restarting the world. Mosha is getting the Torah. It's a re beginning of the world. The the nishama comes into the world at at 40 at 40 days. So 40 is always associated with rebirth. And so it's not a coincidence that when we start our day, we're supposed to take a big breath and say h rebirth, restart. Everything that happened yesterday, that's yesterday. We're starting with a me. I'm sorry. What was the 40 with the mikvah? Mikvah. When you go into the mikvah, you're restarting your day. You're restarting your energy. And the sey is a measurement which the garra gives is how we measure how big a mikvah is. Yes. So me is composed of which is so me. We're bringing hashem. Beautiful, beautiful. So, we're [clears throat] not going to go into the cabalistic secrets of every letter of Modi, but at least we began with a little bit of showing that each letter is significant, not just every word. Beautiful. Okay. So, so the story goes that one time he came late. Is the brother of Melik. You know, you have to mention both of them. If I mention one, I cannot mention the other one in cheer. So one one day woke up late for morning sader. So his brother said what happened you know where where you at? So he says no you don't understand. I said the word ma I was okay. I said the word ani I was okay. Modi grateful. I said the word. I'm standing before Hashem. I fainted. I can't I'm before Hashem an imamish. Imagine like Hashem is right there in front of you staring you in the face as you wake up in the morning and said every word he meant it. So he fainted. Okay. So if you ever wake up late, you know, you can use that use that story say I just I got up to it was too much for me. You know, I was too much of revelation. Come on. But um anyways, this is the highest the highest word of the day. What's the the first if you look in the it's also I believe the mentions it also what's the first even before the first the first thing a Jew is supposed to contemplate and think about exactly and then I place God before me always. So when do we practically bring that into our lives? When we say the words standing before you and like we said, I recognize I admit I am standing before you and he's right there in front of us. And it's not natural. It's easy to say that. It's not natural to feel that to really feel like Hashem is in front of me all the time. It's not easy. It's not natural. But that's our mission. Yeah. This is It really bugs me when I'm dominating somebody that turns around like dominion. It's just a sidetrack. What do you mean they turn around? Well, like like if someone is is standing in the front of the dominant, they'll turn around so they're like facing me while I'm People do this at the end of the Cuz you're saying we're supposed to be standing in front of you. Like I don't I hear you. Yeah. No, it's true. It's not an easy thing to really feel like you're in the presence of Hashem in in the dayto-day. I give you a proof. Okay. I give you a beautiful I heard a beautiful sh I'll summarize it. Beautiful idea. Part of Bashal is very strange. The Jewish people are fetching the water. They didn't have enough water and you guys remember all sorts of things. They were complaining and Mosha's like, "I can't take these people. Just kill me now." Like literally, that's what he says. They're confing and confing. And then the weirdest thing happens. They have this war about Amalch that we're going to talk about at the end end of this year. And then in this war against Amalikch, everything's cool. Moshe just draws up battle plans. He like ris lifts up his hands. They go to war. They knock down the Amalcchites. No, no complaints. Life life's good. We We destroy our enemies. And then we go back and then we start complaining again. So the question is, what's going on? Why are they so good about fighting wars but so bad about the day-to-day things in life? they're fetching about everything else. It's one interpretation I heard from uh Rifki, one of the women who who teaches this year in uh in Alfa and I heard this here last night just randomly popped in is is the following postage which explains everything say or something like that. Normally, we explain that to mean the Jewish people are asking, "Is there a God or not?" But maybe what they're really asking is, "We know that Hashem can fight the big wars. We saw Yamsu. We saw the 10 plagues. That stuff, a God who can beat the enemy in great wars. We believe in that God." But who's the God who they struggle with? The God of the dayto day. The God who's going to take care of them when things are the little things are annoying. They saw the big God. They could understand. They could contemplate a God who does the big things. But the God who's involved in the tiny little things in my life, right? That is very hard. And that's why Aman says it's very important to dab in for the little things to do. I did it today. It was 67. I had to get into the doctor's office. I was waiting there for an hour and a half preparing this year. Happens. I had to get to the doctor and like I needed to get in there um because I had to make ma and get to get get here on time and I was waiting there all day and I said, "Hashem, please let this doctor open up his door and he opened up the door and here I am and everything worked out." But Rubin Aman says it's so important to dab him for the stupid little things. Not because Hashem's always going to say yes. Sometimes they'll say no. But because dabbing for those stupid little things, it's bringing Hashem into the little things in your life. I have a Rebi whenever he needs a cab, he doesn't do get what does he do? He does the Moshe. He just lifts his hands up to the heavens and Hashem that he should send the cab or parking space or parking space, you know. So try it at home. See if it works. That's that's the trick to bring Hashem into the little little things in life. Okay, good. So, let's start word by word. What is it? What are we bringing into ourselves? Cuz doning is not about out. It's bringing into our and into our consciousness certain concepts, especially at the beginning of the day. I know we're all groggy, but still. So what are we bringing into ourselves when we say the word mela? Can I back up a word? [snorts] Sure. No problem. Okay. From our discussion so far, do I understand that we could read on TV? Uh I I admit that I am for you. Yes. Okay. Great. Thanks. Exactly. We gave two interpretations. We said either we're saying mod essence is gratitude or I'm recognizing and then we gave really two interpretations about what recognition is and one of those is I'm recognizing that I am actually in in front of you and not in some philosophical way but in some real actual life way that Hashem is mamish here. Okay. What's the second uh recognition? And the second recognition, we said, "I recognize that I'm not in control of the world, that Hashem runs the world." It's it's related. It's just a different nuance. Okay, good. Melik, what do we what do we think of when we thinking of Melik? What do you guys think of when you say the word Melik? Sorry. The sovereign sovereign of the world, the king of the world. So there's a actually in the in the mornings we learn a a every day and we learned last week a special that you say on a king the special that God gave his glory to Buster supposed to go out of your way to see a king and there's a big discussion amongst the po does that apply if you were to see BB today does that apply if you were to see uh Mr. Trump, President Trump, would you say the braha today? So, some say yes, right? We know why said the braha when Trump was inaugurated. And some boys can say no. Why not? I mean, they're powerful people. Some can say it's only a king means someone who randomly can right now say Raphael dead doesn't need a reason, right? Only someone who mamish can do whatever he wants because he's completely in control is what we mean when we say Melikin. So I was going to say Putin probably is probably the closest uh closest that we can think of. Maybe some other dictatorships we can think of. So him you probably could say a braha. It's a different discussion. If someone's a Russia do you still say the braha on him say well when we have our politics here we can discuss who's a Russia who's not a Russia who's a Russia in Russia. But the point is that a mel means someone who has complete control. Okay. So mel means someone who's all powerful and like David said not just over this world but over all the galaxies. You know of Arya Kaplan's beautiful book Jewish meditation he he he suggests you mamish meditate some going out into all out of this world into all the universes and mamish god rules over everything. So mel like the gimatria mel someone who's controlling someone who controls everything. You're supposed to shiver a little bit when we get up to the word melik. Okay. You're supposed to feel the same way you know when uh when you're driving and you suddenly see the policeman, you know, right next to you, you feel a little bit, oh shoot, I should probably right. So mel means God is powerful and we're supposed to be a little bit in awe. And at the same time, we'll get to the nice parts of Hashem too, don't worry. What do we mean? This is a little bit more tricky, right? Last week we discussed the first usage of this phraseiology on a pusset level. What does it mean that God is God is alive? It's a strange thing to say, strange way to describe Hashem. He's alive. So, remember that there was a famous newspaper, God is dead, that they wrote in the 60s. So, what does it mean when we say God is he's alive? Yeah. Sorry. N said that too, right? Exactly. So what does it mean to stay alive? We're taught in biology class that one of the qualities of of living things are reproduced. So it's like it's a counterintuitive. I would wouldn't even necessarily translate living these days, you know. So that's in a scientific way, but I don't know if I would think of it in terms of in terms of what we're trying to convey now in terms of Hashem. Yeah. It's a matter of translation. So let like all whenever we're doing this, we're always going to have to go back to what where else do we see this word in Torah? What where else do we see what is the definition of where do we see sorry light but where in the Torah [clears throat] the tree of the somehow the Torah which is encapsulated by the words is alive plurality sorry plurality human us and it's active and also grows changes. It grows. It changes. Exactly. I saw that in some of them far and they say it's not it it moves. It evolves. It's alive. It's not just something that here that's static because we actually define our relationship with Hashem and therefore we change Hashem. Oh, so you're going very Rabbi Aaron, Rabbi philosophical here, right? That because we change in a way changes beautiful. What comes to my mind is the those who were attached to hem through Torah, through you are alive. Because this is the way I understand it. God is the source of life. And so when you're connecting to Torah like we're doing right now, you're connecting to the generator of life. So life being something that energy electric at least that's what I sure imagine in connection with what you and I think just said in light of the fact we're reading everything in all its ambiguity can we understand uh can we understand to refer to the ani of the uh of the poem uh in connection with the uh source of of life that uh therapy is connection. So you're saying the ani gains its vitality by virtue of being connected to a we gain our vitality says where do you get your vitality in the morning from ding from your from your so the comes from the okay definitely a lot more to unearth in terms of what is why why we begin All right, we'll leave it for now. Another day we'll get back to it. What is what is what is it? What do we mean exactly by that? He's alive. Maybe I would say relevant. That's another way that it that that seems correct to me. [snorts and clears throat] means it's not something that's dead is exists philosophically but it's not relevant in my life is something that's that matters that's that's that's relevant to me and at the same time this is even tougher what do we mean when we say God is cayam endures exists that's what the art scroll will say but like what is it what are we what are we feeling what are we thinking Vitality vi vitality you're saying okay so he is the source of thy vitality why why va yes okay [clears throat] maybe what what I was thinking is a little bit close to what was saying that on the one hand goddess he's evolving he's bubbling he's energetic but at the same time he's kay he endures he exists he's the anchor he and and it's never going to change. There's one element of God which is which is vibrant, but there's also an element of God which is rock solid and endures and doesn't change. Unlike us, we wake up in the morning and every day we're different. If you look at the sun, the sun seems like one thing that's the same, but if you look at it up close, there's a million things going on, right? So, I could have two elements at the same time. Good. Let's keep going. Okay, so we finally made the crux of what we're thankful for. So what are we actually thank actually thankful for? That you brought me back my soul. Okay, as we mentioned last time, does that mean that when we're sleeping, we're dead? No, we're alive. But the garra says 160th of our soul goes to the heavens. And the cabalist explained that there are different levels of the soul different five different levels and one aspect of our soul goes to the heavens and goes through the wash and god cleans us out and he could just take it back to himself and in fact the soul doesn't want to come back explains the coalist soul's like no don't make me go back to this year full of world and all these tas and all these challenges but hashem shakes the soul back and throws it back into the world and gives us back our soul and then and he doesn't get we don't get somebody else's soul. There's a movie about when the soul that gets mixed up with another soul. No. When I was a kid, my my mom says my grandma watched over to make sure that the babies didn't get switched, you know, cuz they they all look the same. So, she's very nervous that, you know, Hashem doesn't get confused. He sends each of us our soul. Everyone has their mission. God gives everyone back their soul. By the way, when exactly does our soul come back to us? So, in other words, let's say I wake up in uh 3:00 in the morning. So, did I get my soul back or is it only in the morning that I get my soul done? So, back. Yeah. 3:00 in the morning. 3:00 is the morning. Okay. Let's say it's uh I'm saying but is it daybreak or is it when I wake up and so if I wake up three times does that mean my soul comes back three times? So probably intuitively I think most of us would have said no every time you wake up like your soul comes back that's what I would have said. Um, interestingly enough, when I was researching this is okay so says the gur in the morning at daybreak at nates that's when your nama comes back to you could be when you wake up at 3 in the morning you have other elements of the soul but the soul actually only comes back to you in the morning the kafim right amazing wrote 84 spartan great cabalist so the kafim It's and he says, "No, no, no. It's when you wake up. When you wake up at any time that you wake up, it comes back." So I was I was and I was reading there's some who try to explain that they're both true. In other words, there's different levels of the soul because there's different parts of the soul, different parts of the soul. And there's also those who say that when you say shak when you when you dab in when you're saying, you d your chakras and different elements of the soul are coming through. chakra at a certain time because then you have certainly certainly this this aligns with that the ideal time that you should dab in is is uh is at Nates right and if you guys have I'm sure you've all experienced that there's something special when you dive in at Nates especially for me when I go to the hotel and you're outside you just feel something special it's something's coming into you so I ain't no soul doctor says that's why I'm just bringing you with the soul doctors The the great rabbis tell us the soul's literally coming back to us every morning. Is it the same part of the soul every day? I don't know. I I don't know exactly. Do you say we get a different part of our soul to do different tikunim? Fascinating. There is a concept in in Kabala called where you can get a special degree of extra soul that comes back to you from a different reincarnation to help you with a specific mission. But we're not doing a Shiran Gilgal right now. I don't know. I am I'm very far from a from a a soul expert. We have a concept that the summit level of the soul comes back to be nishi and this and this is a a great kindness, right? is a great kindness not you know we don't necessarily deserve to get our soul back but nonetheless Hashem as the midrash teaches us gives us back our soul every single morning he gives us another chance okay and because our time is short that gets us into our final phrase of and that is which in some ways is the most challenging phrase great is your amuna. So whose amuna is great? His who's he? Hashem. Great is Hashem's faith. Okay. And we said last time what is this a quote from? Where do we get this phrase? Where did Mosha ban Mak get this phraseiology from? from a from the third chapter of that's why the mission stresses it's not it's it is its own phrase I skipped a word I'm sorry I just realized means with kindness okay ask the what's the difference between and the explains that is actually when you were angry at someone like there was reason to be angry and God lets it go lets you off the hook because the suggests that there's actually a den in Shamayim every night where our soul is goes to the heavenly chambers and even though there would be an a because we're not doing our mission perfectly but Hashem gets us off the hook with great kindness and mercy andlah pardons us and lets us do gives us another chance. Okay, so that's the GR's interpretation of there are other interpretations. I thought that was a beautiful one. Great is your faithfulness. So in what way is great is God full of amuna? How is God faithful to us? Sorry. Still here. We're still here. What do you mean? What? Where's the faith? His faith. His faith. He he believe as much as we trust him trusted much. Yeah. Fair. Okay. So, let's give the the two basic shots. Let's break it down. Yeah. I want to read this uh in light of the submission that we've established as kind of like a baseline for understanding the volume the total submission of the speaker. I want to understand this as saying that even even my faith belongs to you and I'm telling you how great it is. I like that you guys here beautiful. What's your name again? What? Remind me your name. Ellie. Ellie has a beautiful kadesh. He's saying even my amuna I'm giving to Hashem. I'm saying even I'm giving up to you Hashem. Please help me have amuna. Gorgeous. Even my amuna is really gift from Hashem. I love it. But on let's say the simplest level number one is God is faithful like mafan faithful. In what way is he faithful? because he took our soul and he [clears throat] so to speak made a promise he's that he's going to give it back to us and even though we don't really deserve it because of all the junk we did yesterday but he keeps his promise he cleans us out and he gives us another chance. Okay, so that's the basic interpretation of the midash. What does it mean? And again, you could connect it to a even though the Jewish people sin so much and we're experiencing this golus and the whole is about all the tragedies that are happening, he still is faithful to us. He still loves us and he still gives us a second chance. And a second related but a little bit of a different nuance like Raja teaches, great is your faith in us. You believe in us. Sometimes Hashem believes in us even more than we believe in ourselves. He and what's the biggest proof that he believes in us? We're here. Cuz if he didn't believe in us, he wouldn't give us a second chance. He wouldn't put us in back into the world. The fact that he put us back into the world means that even if I messed up yesterday, today's a new day. I can overcome my challenges and succeed in my whatever it is. And uh and Hashem believes in me so I can do it. Beautiful. I want to give one more we have Ellie's chat. I want to give one more little little nuance on what is what is what does it muna mean based on last week's para and also based on the story we've been alluding to of Moshe and the the war against Amalikch. So in this last week's parsha has a little mess up and he hits the rock right you guys heard about this it was a crazy story was wild and crazy there's lots of interpretations of what exactly why he made that mistake we don't have time to go into all the different beautiful interpretations but the which Hashem says to describe that mistake he says you did not believe in me to sanctify me it was a lack of belief Somehow Moshe, the greatest man in world history, but there was a tiny little bit on his madrega a lack of his sister. Amuna lost Miriam. He just lost Miriam who was the great exact and he's in in in in she gave life. Oh, beautiful. Beautiful. She gave him life. She gave us faith. She was the one who believed in Moshe, who never gave up on Moshe. And she was the one who sang the song of faith at the sea. Beautiful. And when you lost Miriam, maybe that was Mashia on him on Mosha a little bit. Sister more than a sister. She's much more than a sister. She was a pillar of what is amuna. And in in other I want to define the word amuna like this. Amuna to me is not just do you believe do you believe in God? Amuna is the following. Mosher Abenu is told, "Lift up your hands. And when you lift up your hands, we're gonna defeat our enemies." And he's very tired. He's very tired. And he's been lifting all day. And it's impossible at a certain point to keep them holding. But a certain point, his and his brother lift up his hands. And what does the Torah describe that moment as? Yadav amuna. His hands are amuna. So what's a muna? I think it means at that moment when it's challenging, when it's hard, when you want to give up and then you keep pushing and you're faithful to your mission, that is amuna, right? Yesterday I was at the hotel. I had one chabas off. I said, I'm going to do my I'm going to try to make a carmin at the at the hotel, but it was hot and my wife wanted me to take the kid. So, I got this crazy 2 and a half year old kid that I got to somehow entertain and you know figure out schleing him to the and uh and I got there a little late so none of my people were still there. None of my and uh you know it's 8:45 and like sh and like I get a guy and like I put him over there and I go out to get some more guys and like he's already gone and then like I do it again and I get another three guys, you'll stay, you'll stay, don't run away and I get another guy and like they're gone. They go to the other minion right over there. I'm like going crazy. And this goes on for literally a half hour. And at a certain point I'm just like I'm like Hashem like it's too much. I'm just going to cop the 9:00 hour and a half train, you know, get back to home and forget it. Forget it. But something inside of me said, "All right, just keep pushing. Keep pushing." You know, and and shakers somehow somehow we got a minion and it was beautiful. We sang. It was it was amazing. But maybe it's like exactly at that moment when you want to give up when everything's amazing and you life is flying high. That's one level of amuna. But the real amuna is exactly at that moment of challenge when you want to give up when you want to complain. You want want to just give in and not go be be true to your that's that's a lack of amuna. I'm not we're not blaming Mosherenu obviously we don't understand but there was a little bit of a lack of faithfulness towards his at that moment and and that's the believes in us every single day he believes that we can fulfill our mission despite everything uh that happened yesterday he gives us one more shot I told you we wouldn't leave if there's one more p one practical way of bringing mod ani into our lives besides all the fancymany lumbus that we did Today I just want to do one quick meditation. So everybody just, you know, close your eyes, take a deep breath and imagine you jump, it's really hot and you decide to jump into the canerit for a beautiful swim and it's so cool and you're feeling delicious and you're so happy and there's just one little problem. You don't know how to swim. you never learned how to swim and you start going down and everybody can hold your breath and you're going down and down and down and down and you're begging and flailing and you're life is flashing before your eyes and you're begging Hashem save me please save me and you're going down and down and down and you're begging you want to live and you're about to blank out and then somebody sweeps you out takes you out of the water and you can breathe and you're alive. So I think that's an amazing way of starting off our morning just to creatively remind ourselves that life is a gift that life is not something to be taken for granted and that every moment of life is a gift from and with that little thought I can we can jump into our modi with new life with new zest with new zealat should bless us all the week full of sim full of hakarov and uh can't wait till next time we have an opportunity to learn learn together everybody for coming once again. [music and singing] [music] You [singing] see your [music] body [singing] [music]