The Lost Princess - Part 2 - The River of Wine - Rabbi Lazer Brody

[Music] with Hashem's loving grace. Welcome to our weekly lesson on teachings of Rabbi Nakman of breastliff. We're learning cipo mas. Last week, we learned the first one of Rebi Nakman's famous tales, The Lost Princess. We went through the story. You can go back and see the replay. The replay is up on laserbeams.com. Uh you're welcome to see it. And because I'm not going to go and review the entire story, that'll take up our whole time. What we're doing tonight is uh we're giving a lesson that's based on the teachings of Rabbi Natan of Breastliff. The way Rabbi Natan interpreted the tale. Now, there's two levels of interpretation. One is a deep coalistic cabalistic interpretation that we alluded to it that last week the spheres we don't want to go into that we don't get to it because most of us we don't have the the tools to appreciate the tools to understand that but there's a different level that Rabnan Rabinatan that interpreted this on a level that applies to each of us that the lost princess each one of us is looking for our own lost princess that's a metaphor for our souls it's a metaphor for amuna as we're about to So it's clear very clear that the lost princess is the secret of the shina the divine presence and we now we don't have msiach and most of the world is far from amuna so that way we say that the divine presence is exile not only that we have the old the entire world the media and governments and people that rule the world uh telling us that uh it doesn't exist that uh the there is no god heaven forbid And it's very to have to use the G-word that's very politically incorrect and then it's not not popular and uh it's not something you're on Hollywood or on Netflix. But we don't care. We're looking for truth. So last week we alluded to the end at the end of the show after we told the tale about the cabalistic metaphors. Once again we're not going to go there with Hashem's grace. We're going to talk about how the lost princess describes each of our own journeys in life. And if we look carefully, very carefully, we can see each of ourselves and the important turning points in our lives within the story. Okay. So the story rabbi says about every person every time. It's a story for prosperity and each individual can see his or her own story in the what's happening to the viceroy because we're all responsible for rescuing our own lost princesses or our lost princess. All those princes are soul and the whole world is body oriented. What kind of hair do you have and what kind of gym you work out and your 22 inch biceps and and your figure and this that and how much emphasis is put in the soul? Very small emphasis in the soul. And that's why society suffers and there is so many millions of people are in clinical depression because they don't know what they're living for. They don't know what they're doing on earth and they're searching for something they don't even know what they're searching for. That is the biggest pity on another human being that doesn't know what he or she is searching for. And it's so frustrating and it's saddening that they're they feel such a futility on this earth because they don't realize what they're doing. And so they try to look for a cheap thrill, they can't find it. And another lust, they can't they find the loss, but it doesn't satisfy them. Like King Solomon said that a person doesn't die with even satiating half of his own lust. So the lost princess, that's our soul. That's our amuna because amuna is synonymous with divine presence. The soul is defined by a divine presence. We call in Hebrew the divine presence that she is the gathering of all the souls. She is the mother of the souls. Now the divine presence has very like a a kaleidoscope. Sometimes our sages talk about the divine presence as a daughter like in song of songs and then sometimes they talk about her as a lover as a wife and sometimes they talk about her as a mother king David but this is all she's the mother of our souls and this is as the aspect of mother it's mother souls our souls are connected just our our bodies come from the our physical bodies come from our father and mother our souls come from the divine presence divine presence means that she is a soul. So therefore when we act properly, Hashem brings the divine presence close to him. They're talking about two aspects of godliness. This is one Godem. But the aspect of Hashem's revelation on this world is called theina. That's the the illumination of Hashem's light in this world where Hashem rests his in this world. That's where the the divine presence that's what we find in the holy temple. Why the holy temple? The holy temple is the dwelling an official dwelling for the divine presence. The Torah tells us that when we don't have the divine presence that we have to make our hearts a worthy place for divine presence and that's it our soul. Our soul is a part of divine presence. So when we bring our soul close to Hashem, how do we do that? By way of amuna. And that's why all the time we're learning amuna amuna and muna because there's no better way. If a person performs all the mitzvah of the Torah and if the person does every mitzvah of the Torah and good deeds all day long but a person lacks amuna lacks belief in Hashem lacks belief in the 13 principles of amun that we put so much emphasis on especially the first one that Hashem alone does did and will do every deed everything comes from Hashem if a person lacks that then Torah is lacking and he may doing good deeds for all types of alterior motive like it makes them feel good. But that that reason we did to make it feel good. We don't do things to make us feel good. We do things because these are the right things for a soul to do and that's what the Torah is the the uh the manufacturer's guide to health of the soul. We do that and get brings us close to Hashem. So the lost princess is our muna. We're all the time looking for amuna. And we'll see just as the viceroy had all types of uh obstacles on the way searching for the lost princess. He found her and then he lost her and then he found her again. Then he lost her and he had to go on a whole another journey and he went to but he never think the what we learn about the viceroy is that he never gave up. This is what Rebi Nakman tells us. Rabbi Nakman tells in lost princess that we'll have falls, we'll have successes and right at the end of a test of faith, we'll fall but maybe fall into spiritual slumber even like the visor for 70 years. This like fell into 70 years of spiritual slumber of physical slumber but still gets up and starts all over again. This rabbi teaches Rabbi teaches no matter how many times a person falls, if a person gets up and makes a new beginning, then that's fine. That could it's something to look forward to. It's something to be happy about. So the story is about each of us and searching for our own lost princess which is our share in the divine presence and the and our own amuna and which are still in exile. When we develop fulomuna and we develop our own personal relationship with the almighty that's why it's so important what we do is we correct make our own correction we make our own portion of divine presence we pull her out of exile when enough of us do that then that's the full general gula the full redemption when hashem is going to take the divine presence out of exile rebuild the holy temple in Jerusalem and bring msiach okay so this is the secret of our divine service. Of all the mitzvah we do, of all the prayers we say, of every single moment of a private prayer, of all the good deeds we do, of all the Torah we're learning. What's it all for? Everything we do every day our lives, it's all meant to strengthen our amuna and to help us refine our souls and to help us uplift our own portion of the divine presence from exile. the divine presence exile within us when we're living a material life and we're living a life where we don't see Hashem in every in every aspect of our life in every portion of our life then it's the divine presence in exile exiled it's lost and this what our job is to look for the divine presence and this is what the whole allegory of the lost princess is where the viceroy which is each one of us is the assistant the king and the viceroy is he's given a given a body and he's given a soul and he's given is with it that the king gives him an an attendant which is his soul and he gives him a horse which is his body and it he gives him money which is what he needs to fulfill his daily needs and now which would you do go and go find the lost princess so on the high coalistic plane uh this story is meant for the true sadiking people on on great level but Rabbi Nakman was a populist just like his greatgrandfather the bostov rebi spoke to the common man so therefore He surely intended the message, his story for people like you and me. Just plain people like you and me. So we have the privilege of following the upright path. Even though we're we're simple people and we do simple things in life and we have the privilege of following a lofty path. And what's the lofty path that we're privileged to follow? We get to pick and choose between good and evil. And we get to shun the evil and pick the good path. This is fantastic. For example, and we want to talk about simple people. Even a simple person knows that the Torah forbids us to look at immodest things. We're not supposed to look at things that that are immodest and opposite sex. It's unclad to look at at another person's spouse, not even another person's possessions because it's one of the ten commandments not to covet, not to be jealous. And this when a person uh doesn't look then he's not jealous. He or she's not jealous. You see a a person looks at another man's wife who he thinks is prettier than his own wife. So he's right away craves has lust for the other woman's wife. You take a a woman she goes into her her girlfriend's living room and the girlfriend has a living room furniture or nicer car or something she does and she right away covetss it. Why doesn't she have that? Now she has a complaint with her husband. How come you don't buy me nice furniture like uh Mary Clark's husband buys her? And She doesn't know what's behind that. This way we're not supposed to look we're not supposed to look at at things that don't belong to us because it brings us to coveting. So every simple person knows that. So just imagine what happens in the upper worlds when a person shuns the bad and does the good. Let's take a simple cab driver a cab and he's at a red light and stop the cab. Cab's in the red light. He's the first cab. So rather than watching the women in the crosswalk where it's now in Israel it's already very warm weather springtime the women are dressed like it's summer okay maybe not quite that that in Manchester and London but Israel already that cab driver he keeps his eyes on the on the traffic light and he just makes sure he sees general images make sure even if a a person crosses the road even after the green light so he wouldn't hit that person heaven forbid but he's not looking he knows he's not supposed to look at the the legs of that particular woman, the the the figure of that particular woman when he simple cab driver and he guards his eyes. The zora tells us the zora tells I'm this is a scenario from the zor I'm just using modern terms. The zora tells us that hundreds and thousands of angels they go up to the heavenly throne and they start praising. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hashem, look who your children on earth are. They've got these animal bodies, but their souls are higher than angels and they won't the the basic urge to look at the opposite success. He won't look at the opposite sex because the Torah says the Torah says that you should not wander after your eyes. Praise your all these because he guards his eyes one time. These hundreds of thousands of aids was praising Hashem. So person finish his 120 years on earth. The guy goes up he says okay I'm a simple cab driver. I gave my tithe to charity. I I did good things. I did reserve duty. I I I saved people. Okay. I risked myself, but it nobody's expecting. And then they bring him to this fantastic fantastic penthouse in the pearly gates where the big sadikimar. And he says, "What's that for?" And they show him how he caused hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of angels to praise Hashem. what you did. This is what happens with every small good deed each of us does. Anytime we put aside the bad to do the good, anytime we put aside lust to pick to control ourselves, no, this is not what Hashem wants. This is not what Torah wants, then it's really correcting the upper worlds. And this is uplifting the divine presence. And without us knowing it, Hashem brings us closer to the lost princess. Divine princess. Okay. So this is what so every one of us every time all these little mundane tests all day long were all involved in looking for the king's lost daughter the princess to return her to her father and that she could be back as she was in the in the castle in her youth. This is mentioned in the Torah in Leviticus chapter 22 uh as she's returned to her father's house in the youth and she eat of her father's bread. what's happened. The the the Torah talks about the wife of a uh a Cohen's daughter and she got married. Her husband died. She doesn't yet have children and her husband was not from the priestly tribe. Well, if she doesn't have children, she has the right to go back to her h her father's house and to eat that. the kohanim the priest they're allowed to eat from the special the the the priestly offerings that are given the tuma and the tumas the priestly offers that that are given that then a person a layman a Levite or an Israelite is not allowed to eat that only a coin only coin so the Torah talks about this girl she goes back just to her youth rabbi says this is an allegory also you could see the Torah you learn the Torah on 70 levels it's many more than 70 levels but 70 basic levels that this is also refers to the divine presence. She goes back to her father's chute. What's this talking about? Hashem sends the soul down to this world. And we ask ourselves, why does Hashem send the soul down to the world? The soul it came from Hashem. It came from the upper worlds. What does it need to come down here for? Well, the soul doesn't like to eat a free meal. The soul likes to earn its meal. So Hashem sends it down here to test it and to make its journey. And that's what each one of us are. Each one of us asked to be down here. If we complain about life and we complain about difficulties in life, we have to know when we finish our 120 years on earth, they're going to show us how we signed we signed a a parchment up the world begging to come down here, begging to have the opportunity and the privilege to find our own lost princess and to bring it up. So what we want to do is to bring back the soul to Hashem as it was in its youth. When was it in its youth before it got ruined? When did it get ruined? Who was the first one to ruin the divine soul? Adam and Eve when they ate from the forbidden fruit. This is exactly what Rabbi Nam is talking about in the first time when the uh viceroy was supposed to all year long. All year long he prayed. He prayed pray on the very last day when he was supposed to fast he couldn't keep the fast he temptation and then the second temptation when he again started all over again prayed every day went in he'd do it all day long for an entire year and on the very last day he comes to the river of wine he was not supposed to drink anything river wine what is this and we'll see it was a trick of the evil inclination and this is exactly what happened to Noah Noah went through Noah went through the flood he everything. And then Noah comes and what is the first thing he does? First thing he does when after the flood land, he plants a vineyard and he gets drunk. And and Noah lost he lost his spiritual love. He lost the chance to to really fully fully uh correct his own soul. It had to wait 10 generations till Abraham was born. So everyone is seeking a muna. This goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. This started with Adam and Eve. We are trying to return our divine soul, bring it back to the almighty in its pristine mode and it's pure, absolutely pure. All the time we're trying to purify yourself and there's a difficulty because down in this world there's opposition. There's the dark side. We'll talk about in a moment. But what is the power that we have? We have and Rabbi Nakman stresses this throughout the tale to all the time where the the lost princess she says to the viceroy find a place to be alone find a place to pray to yearn for me. Okay. So our prayers they are our power because our prayers override nature. You can see our prayers do tremendous miracles. When you think the whole world is against you nothing there just pray and pray. Why do people don't pray? because they don't believe in the power of their prayers. When the whole world tells you that your prayers aren't worth anything, that Hashem is not with you, just close your eyes and say, "Hashem, I'm not listening to anyone. I'm just with you. I'm just I don't care what they say. Let them all say I'm in." We see this, we're going to see this in the end of the tale when the viceroy, he's looking for the lost princess. She tells him to find the golden mountain and the pearly castle and he meets the giants and every one of the giants says, "What are you crazy?" And the giant says, "Oh, the the giant, he's in charge of all the animals." He calls all the animals. He says, "My animals, they roam the entire world. They know everything that's going on in the world. Everywhere in the Himalayas, they're in darkest Africa. They're in the the the the seals in the South Pole. They know everything." He says, "Any anybody seen a anyone seen a castle, a golden castle on the mountain?" No. a pearly no gold no gold mountain no pearly castle that's the giant says see the viceroy he doesn't care I don't care what you're saying I don't care so as soon as he is strong in his conviction and he doesn't budge from what he believes in he knows why is that where does he get the power from he gets the power because the lost princess told him what is the lost princess she's a divine presence she's amuna you what is prayer prayer is amuna prayer There is a divine presence. Every time that we say a word of prayer, that is the divine presence speaking from our mouth. And that's why it's so very important never ever to slander, never ever to curse, never ever to speak lashhara because we can't pray with the same mouth. It's not perfectly clean. It's like uh you wouldn't if you go into a finest French restaurant, you order chateau bion and the waiter brings it to you in a brand new sanitized toilet. He said, "That's disgusting. What are you doing?" I said, "But it's brand new. It's sanitized. What do you get out of that?" Well, what about if the writer brought it to you in a soiled toilet? This is exactly what a a mouth that has spoken slander and gossip and lies and all types of other uh forbidden speech speaks to Hashem. It can't be that because that prayer that is effective has to pray come from a pure heart and a pure mouth. And that's the prayer that is the power of the divine presence. So what happens as soon as you pray like that? As soon as you pray like that, you have the power to over override nature. That the doctors say one thing doesn't meant doesn't mean a thing to you. Oh, you're like this and this. The doctors say you have long time to so much time to live. They don't know what they're talking about. They don't know it. And they're so they don't even realize how they reduce people into depression. Oh, telling them that their situation is this situation is hopeless that there so much time to live. As soon as you have prayer, you don't care about that. You don't care what the law odd odds in Las Vegas are against all the odds. You don't care how much of an underdog you are because your prayer, this is Hashem. Hashem is above nature. Your prayer is an aspect of Hashem is above nature. Just as Hashem can change nature, this is the power of the true sadikim. Did you go to them for the blessing? Why go for them blessing? But but to pray alone. No, but there's the power of sadikim that when sadic gives a blessing, he can overcome nature. That uh the doctors say you're never going to have children. Sadic says, "Yes, you will. Yes, you will." You pray and and if you pray together with that sadic and all of a sudden we have things like that every single day. Every single day. And so our prayers, they override nature. Not only they override nature, but they dictate nature. And what the hem says, the the the prophet Isaiah says in the name of Shem, just as I created heaven and earth with my speech, so can you. That's it. They tell so can you. You can see you can make a decree. So each person to the extent that he or she devotes themselves to serving Hashem they merit to uplift theina the divine presence from exile and it's if the divine presence divine presence is concealed in this physical world that's why in the holy tongue in biblical Hebrew the world is called olam comes from the verb the adjective which means concealed to conceal that's because in this world. What is this in the world? Hashem's light is concealed. That doesn't mean it's there. If you look for it, yeah, you find it. That's the whole thing of the lost princess. Looking for the divine presence. And most people, they go through life lucy in the sky with diamonds. Where's the divine divine presence? Oh, no. just give them another another shot of the weed or another shot of the gin and tonic or another shot of something and and just they could be spaced out or let's see the most important thing in the world is whether uh uh City and United they're playing in the derby in Manchester this week and who's going to win and they this they think that the whole thing or the uh Argentina against England and you have the 22 guys running around and in their skiibbies chasing the ball. Oh, this is very intelligent. The whole world is running after that. Okay. The guy with the with their with the no respecting person would would go around like that with it and and here Paul this is considered the epitome of the billiondoll industry and so many billions of people watching. This is the this is the concealment of divine light. People realize instead of watching this we're talking to Hashem then you're changing the world. Then you're changing the world. What happens when we talk to Hashem? We connect to the divine presence. And what happens when we connect to the divine presence? She whispers in our ear. Even if we're sleeping, just like the lost princess, she came and the viceroy fell asleep for 70 years. And she whispered in his ear, "Here's where I have to go to find me." And she took her scarf and she wrote him a message with her tears. That is how the divine presence that that that's our spiritual motherina and this is mama our our matriarchal she is a metaphor for theina and when Jeremiah the prophet says Rachel is crying for her children because they're in exile. Why they're in exile? Because they're in exile for her. She's in exile. If her children is in exile, she's going into exile with him. And that's why she's buried along the road. Why is Roel buried in Bethlehem and not in Kevron with Sarah and Rebecca and Leia? Because Hashem knew that when the first temple would be destroyed that the Jews would be driven out to the south and they'd be exiled to the south. And on the way they were so depressed and so did and and and they were dying like flies on the way but they would have to go past Rael's grave site in Bethlehem and Ben and right now at this moment the divine presence the figurative rael that she's called she's crying about every one of her children that's far away. How do you think the divine presence feels about when her one of her children could be learning Torah and he's running around chasing a ball with the other 21 guys in their in their in their shorts? How does he feel about a woman out dancing in a disc when it's Thursday nights about to be Shabbat? She could be baking kalas for Shabbat for her own family and for four people and she'd be correcting this that this would be the thing. Maybe this is the deed to bring Mashiach. We have to think that every good deed that Hashem enables to do brings us to Mashiach. But no, but instead she going to go and and and wear unclades and and try and to enhance men and and make them sin. So terrible. And the divine pres. a person could see physically could see physically the image of the divine presence crying over every soul there'd be no bad in the world but Hashem doesn't allow us to see that because that would be taken away our free choice and this is what the viceroy we see that and in the story when the lost princess she sees the viceroy fell asleep that he drank from that river of wine and she cried and she cried and she cried died and she had so much pity on him and that's why with her tears she wrote a message on the scarf and left it with him and when he woke up he had this message and she revealed to the viceroy how he could take her out so these beings are explicitly clear when we look at their simple beating we're not looking at the coalistic interpretations but within Rabbi Nakman within his stories he's also telling us what we call Musar he's giving us ethics That's the message he's saying. Rabbi says, "What are you interested in? What are you chasing after? You chase. We need a person needs a break." Yeah. Go to the go to the shore. Take a couple days. What are you doing in the shore? Talk to Hashem. Talk to Shem. Enjoy the Sierra. Rejuvenate. But now a person has to go to a a cruise to Bermuda. What for? What for? Then keep it simple. Remember what you have to do. Remember what you're looking for in life. And this is seeking the truth. seeking the truth and seeking the divine presence the shina and that's what it's all about in our story. So that the means that each of us uh seeks Rabbi Ahmed explains and this is the explanation of the lost princess to the viceroy that have to find a place where we can be alone and where he could speak to Hashem every single day which includes self assessment repentance and constant yearning for the divine presence says hem and says okay what does it mean to yearn for hem that probably would ask me okay I'll answer the question. I anticipate people ask what does it mean to yearn for Hashem? It's two things. Yearning for Hashem means that we pray for the privilege of seeing Hashem's hand in everything. Hashem, let me see you in my life. Don't disappear from me. Don't be concealed from me. This is one thing we yearn for. And on that's on a private level, an individual level. On a general level, we pray that Hashem's kingship should be revealed in the world. And this what we say in Elena prayer that all of living flesh will call your name that all of mankind should nudge ashamed like we say in the high holiday prayers. It's in high says let every human who has been created know that it is you that created him and let every human who has been formed. We've all been created in form. Let them know that it's you that formed him. What's the difference between being created and form? Created means brought into the world. Form means that how Hashem built you. He made you male, female, tall, short, fat, skinny, rich, uh less rich. But it's all Hashem gives us everything we need for our soul correction. He gives us the tools we need to find the lost princess. And that's what the beginning of the story where he gave the king, it's Hashem. Every time mentions the king, that's Hashem. And he gives the viceroy which is us. He says it to the king. He gives us the horse which is our body and he gives us the attendant which is our soul and he gives us the wherewithal the ways and means which is the money pocket of money. So you see Hashem gives each of us what we need. uh to give an example the melb his great great father son after son seven generations from zlov who was a student of the baltovl was so very poor everything he had his his the souls on his shoes clapped every time he took a step his his were tattered and so his students asked him how can you say how can you say hashem's name uh blessed are you hashem that you give me everything I need you made all all my needs. And he says because for me that being poor is part of my soul correction. It helps me find the princess. So this is my needs. Hashem gives me my needs. If Hashem would have made me rich, I wouldn't been able to do my my soul correction. So we see that Hashem gives everyone rather than complaining about our lot in life. What is the epitome of one of the barometers of Mona is happy with our lot in life. So rather than complaining, let's stop and think about the tools that Hashem gave us. The guy who's 5 foot three and he dreams of being a player in the NBA. No young man, if Hashem created you 5 foot three, you're not meant to be a basketball player in the NBA. Or the woman who she's a size 12. Okay, she's a size 12. She still has this image in in her head about being a fashion model. Excuse me, young lady. Uh, you know, sometimes that that people say that the plump girls have the nicest personality because since maybe they're they're less attractive, would think they're less attractive. There societies where the plump women are preferred, but they uh Hashem didn't want you to be a fashion model. Didn't want you to be a size four. No, that's it. You have to look whatever Hashem gives us. Let's stop and think. Let's stop and think if Hashem gave us uh Hashem didn't give a person perfect eyesight, then you weren't meant to be an airline pilot. That's fine. You stop and think Hashem gives us uh the tools we need. Read a whole book about that. The path to your peak about finding your tools in your life and they said look at that elaborates on that. I want to go into too deep level but we said that uh yearning for Hashem is on two levels. on the individual level that we see Hashem's hand in everything and on the general level that the entire world should recognize Hashem. What does it mean the entire world recognize Hashem? That we uplift the divine presence from the dust of exile. We use that the zor uses two metaphors for exile and they're picking up the shina from the dust that uh anywhere outside of the divine presence of the holy temple in this world and then of course in the up world that's that's considered dust that that's not something unclean and it's to recognize Hashem's kingship and complete faith and truth so that the whole world knows him whole knows who Hashem is. So when a person contemplates all of this in personal prayer every day and chooses a place to be alone in meditation and conversation with Hashem it's what we call heud is that con uh personal prayer personal prayer uh and solitation personal prayer uh that a person longs for Hashem and that he or she makes major strides in revealing Hashem's kingship in the world and nullifying the concealment It's enough that you reveal Hashem in your own life. You bring Hashem in this world and you can't imagine the influence that you have in revealing Hashem's kingship in this world. For example, every one of us is an ambassador of Hashem. When you smile and person say, "Oh, that person observes Torah. That person is a a Torah observant Jew. That person is an orhide. And look how they smile. Look how look at the light they emanate. And what makes you so happy? I've got a sheem. You've got a sheem. You've got a sheem. Yeah, I got a Sheem in my life. Okay. I say, why? This person is really together so nice and so happy and goes considerate and we hear good things from him. This is ambassador for this is this is exposing the divine presence. Bring her out of concealment and this is freeing the princess from captivity and each person born to her own level. So what happens? We all have major soul corrections and this is something the yearong that the viceroy was tested. This is the period where Hashem gives us for our soul correction. Our soul correction is meant to uplift us. Now there's a secret to the soul correction. The soul correction uh we normally don't do it until our last day in life. We don't complete it till our last day in life because a person completes a soul correction doesn't have to have to be on earth anymore. So this is what Rebi Nakman left the the world at age 38 and with the apparent reason of tuberculosis but when the Rebi the day the Rebi died okay he was coughing up blood but the Reb said it's not the reason the Reb said my soul cannot go higher in this body if a day that I don't go higher and get close to Hashem there's a death so what the reb what the Rebe could complete in his physical body he did and the same thing happened at the holieriz Well, Laura Ashkenazi, the father of Kabala, he died the same age as Rabbi Nakman, Rabbi at the age 38. And it's funny, their prime students, Rabbi Nakman's prime disciple, Rebi Natan, died at 65. And the Arizal's prime disciple, Rabbi Khal, he died at 65. You see the the parallels, tremendous parallels. This is what they they accomplished in their life. So it sounds easy coming close to the divine presence, learning Hashem, yearning for Hashem, uh exposing the concealment, but the dark side's on the field. You can't have uh you can't have any uh any challenge without having the opposition. So there's the opposition. That's the other side, the dark side. So as we try and free the princess, who comes? The other team comes. What's the other team? The other team is the lust and the temptation. That's the snake. That's the snake that tempted Adam and Eve. So we see in the story on the very last day a test is summoned for the viceroy. And this test is indicative of every one of us. It's a hint for every one of us. Each one of us according to our own spiritual level. And the prosecutor, which is the angel of death, the evil inclination, is the prosecutor. What does he do? The prosecutor goes and tattletales everything a person does wrong, writes it down. Now, when is the prosecutor not allowed to speak? If a person does not say bad things about anyone and doesn't criticize anyone, then measure for measure, the prosecutor, the the bad side, the dark side prosecutor is not allowed to open his mouth. When he's allowed to open his mouth, when a person talks about another person, oh, wonderful. Now, the divine dossier in the archive, the heavenly archives opened up. let's see who's talking and then they look at the person oh he doesn't have very much a right to talk and then he brings all these stern judgments of themselves that otherwise Hashem would have left what they say let sleeping dogs lie hashem would let the sleeping dogs lie until rash and yum kipper when hashem forgives everyone together but when as soon a person talks lash as person speaks slander then he opens up the book for himself and he gives license to the prosecutor to talk about and this is why the spend so much emphasis on uh talking about writing about uh avoiding avoiding evil speech. So this is the last day. This what happened to Adam and Eve when they fell with the f fruit. They this what happened to to Noah and Noah fell with the wine. And so what happens? They fail the test. They fail the test. Now they fail the test. There's a major spiritual setback and a person falls into immediate slumber. spiritual slumber gets knocked down. And this is what happened. As soon as the viceroy ate in the first test and drank from the river of wine in the second test, he fell into deep spiritual slumber. And what's a deep spiritual slumber? Rabbi Nman explains if we know if we're cognizant that we're being tested, that's not a test. That's not a test. We say, "Okay, give this a test." But what Hashem does is takes away our wisdom, our knowledge, our spiritual awareness. And we all have to ride on innate gut amuna. This is all we have left to do because we can't. There's no logic. No more logic. Can the doctors say to a person that he can't live? The doctors say to a person that he's never going to win the court case, he's going to go to 30 years to prison. The lawyers tell him that when the the accountant says that you're going to have a million dollars of back taxes, but doesn't care. Doesn't care. Hold on. But when a person falls into spiritual slumber means Hashem takes his logical weight and he doesn't see any logical way out. All he could depend on is a muna. So at this point where every one of us takes a fall and you could plug in your own template of your own test in life whether it's a legal test whether it's a test with the children whether it's a marital test whether it's a test at work whether you have some kind of abusive person in your life whatever that test is when a person falls he or she needs some encouragement so we ask ourselves why did the viceroy fall he did everything perfect all year long he did he bull every day spoke to Shem every day he did the letter did the letter of what the princess told him to do and then on the last day blows it all and that's it and so we could see you can see this don't understand this why do you see a person all his life he goes through different stages and he becomes the United the president of United States he becomes the leader of the world bank he becomes some type of great thing and then in one moment of idiocy He does something forbidden with his secretary and knocks himself way down. People on the outside say, "What is this guy crazy? He's nuts." Throws his entire life away for for one for for seven minutes of lust or whatever it was. He's crazy. This is right here in the story. Right here in the story. You want to know how the president of United States falls? How the what was it? Boris Johnson, he had had some kind of test. He couldn't pass it. It's it's one by one all these leaders uh all all these leaders the prime minister the woman prime minister the the head of Germany and one by one all these national leaders the head of the world bank it's right here it's right here okay Hashem what happens when we fall suppose sashm why don't you let me succeed why don't you let me succeed look how we will see that the viceroy he failed the first time he failed the second time. But Hashem gives an opportunity to test his amuna against giants, against giants, against the whole world. All the animals in the world, all the birds in the world, all the winds in the world. They certainly know what's going on. And they all tell him he's wrong. They say, "Forget about it. Forget about your journey. Go back home. You're not going to find lost princess. She doesn't exist. The castle doesn't exist. The gold mountain doesn't exist." Holds on to his amuna. Yes. Yes, it does exist because that's what the lost princess told him. At one of his privileged moments, one of his privileged moments during personal prayer, he felt Hashem, he felt divine presence. She came and told him, "We all have, we all have, you talked to any new Baltua, talked to any righteous convert, talk to any Noah hide. Every single one had their Eureka moment. The Eureka moment where Hashem came to them and they know and Hashem said, "I am Hashem." Why does Hashem do that? This is the moment divine presence where a person had that Eureka moment. Why does Hashem do that? Hashem comes all the way down to that person's level to whisper in their ear when they're sleeping, "I am Hashem." We all had that. I had mine in the middle of Beirut and in the middle of a war and and you never ever forget it. You never ever forget it. And this thing that things that had to go through where that the the viceroy was asleep and while he was asleep and armies passed over him. this that we all know if if we look how each one of us once we come back to Hashem people tell all the time oh as soon as I came back to Hashem my life became so difficult and I'm not accepted in the community and I'm here and the highbrows run over me and other people run over me everybody said this and people make fun of me but hold on remember your Eureka moment remember the moment that the divine princess spoke to you don't ever forget that moment and this is what the viceroy says he remembers that moment It doesn't care what the giants say. It doesn't care what all the animals say. It doesn't care what the birds say. The whole world, all the winds of the world. No, she doesn't exist. She She does. She told me she exists. So, what happens as soon as he holds on? We see how the opposition turns completely around and his enemies become his allies. His enemy, they come and help him. So, he wakes up from his 70 years of sleep and he's looking now. He knows he has to look for the the first she was in one palace, the palace of the evil one. Now he has to find her in another palace uh and on the way to the second palace. He has to go find this river of wine on the last day and he he thinks river wine not supposed to touch it. It was an illusion. Theara he looked at himself that's interesting the water should be clear either clear aqua blue or green or something. It's red. This water. It It looks like Cabernet Sivon. It smells like Cabernet Signon. I've never seen a Oh, no. No. It's not Keianti. No, it's not Barabus. It's Cabernet Sivon. Can it be a river? And that's not in in France. It's not in Israel. Cabernet Svenon. Where could it be? And he looks at I got to test this. Uh, here's where you went wrong. Here's where you went wrong. As soon as you let that lust, you start going and negotiating with lust. You can't negotiate with lust. As soon as a person goes into negotiation with lust, lust defeats them. No way. You can't beat you can't beat the theahara, the evil clation, the prosecutor is the best lawyer on earth and in heaven. The best absolute best lawyer. So that's why you have to hold on to simple amuna. Don't get into an argument. I don't care what you say. This is what the divine this is what the viceroy teaches us. He didn't care. The whole world is trying to convince him. giants. The giants, the supernatural giants are trying to convince him. I don't care what you say. I know this is what the lost princess told me. This is what the prince told me it is. And so, okay, he the second time he tempted and he listen took a sip of that river and one sip of that river put him again into 70 years of sleep. During the 70 years of sleep, this we get knocked down. We knock down, we get a spiritual slumber. Oh no. When people make the wrong wrong wrong wrong conclusion, Hashem hates me. Hashem doesn't like me. Hashem is pushing me away. Rabbi Nakman teaches us the exact opposite. Every time Hashem push away is the distancing principle. How do you teach a baby to walk? You you step away from the baby. If you have the baby on your arms all the time, the baby's never learned to walk. A parent, it's a loving parent, steps away from the baby. The baby yields for the parent. The baby tries and lunges toward the parent. And before the baby falls, parent catches them. Then puts someone on's feet again. And next time the baby takes two steps, then falls. Then three steps and falls. That's the distancing principle. Hashem distance so that we'll learn to walk. So we'll find him. If we don't learn to walk, Hashem reveals to us. Nobody's going to look for a divine princess. Everybody's going to be fat. And so if Hashem would have let the viceroy could see that first, the viceroy might have thought that, oh, look, he's already perfect. That's it. But the viceroy hasn't even fulfilled half of his potential. He goes, he tries again. Another second effort, second effort, and tries even harder, falls again. Okay. But the during the second effort, he thinks he fell. But the viceroyy's fall on the second time was stronger. It was a higher than even if he would have succeeded on the first time. And then finally, we'll see in the third time that he he does find the princess. Doesn't find the princess. What happens to us? Hashem knows that our potential is 96. Well, maybe we're down at 51. And if Hashem lets us succeed now, oh, I'm great. I'm close to Shem. Look at me. I'm I'm a holy person. I guard my eyes all the time. I never do anything wrong. I never make a mistake of speech. And all my prayers are perfect. No. And you become arrogant. You become smug. And you don't try harder. When Hashem knocks us down, we try harder. We try harder at something. I can't imagine. can't imagine that the week had been a difficult week. We just got knocked right down and knocked right left and and and just last night I was at on the phone with our with our team in the UK and we were trying to plan had so much to do. Prepare tonight's lesson. Prepare tonight's lesson. I'm not a magician. Pull it out of the sleeve. Takes a lot of preparation. And right away an email from British Airways. Uh, sir, you no longer have a ticket to London because British Airways has decided to cancel all flights until the end of June. Thank you. Okay, here we go. We've got an event planned right away all around and going crazy. Thank Thank goodness for LL got a new thing. One thing I've had at one this is and that's the small that's the small one of the that did the test and it came to a point that this morning it's as if the whole world was telling me that uh hey something's wrong hey that there's no what are you talking about Hashem what you talking about you talking about the all all these things and the things that I don't even want to go into I want to go into this small thing where the whole world is yelling at me. All the giants in my life told me there's no Hashem. There's no Hashem. I don't care. I don't care. But dude is I don't care. Hashem do what I all I'm holding on to you. I've got no brains. Just holding on to all I know is amuna. All I know that there's Hashem in the world. And I came back. Wow. And everything turned around. Everything turned around for the better. It's all it's all a mirage. So what's Hashem doing? It's Hashem is doing this to just test. He wants to lift us higher. He doesn't want to knock us down. He wants to lift us higher. So he gives a challenge so we'll be stronger in amuna. And the stronger we are in amuna, the more we reveal the divine presence. We can't reveal the divine presence by eating chocolate ice cream. It doesn't work like that. And this is the king's daughter. Who's the king's daughter? That's we call in Sha. She's the root of our souls. Our souls come from the divine presence. And she sees a person in 70 years of spiritual slumber. 70 years is a mar. It's a metaphor for a person's life. Well, but we go we go past way past 70 years. I've already left that down the road. But this is Reb. 70 years of spiritual slumber. The people in on earth 70 years of spiritual slumber and the divine presence. She weeps. She weeps and she weeps. My beloved daughter, my beloved son, when are you going to wake up? You're still looking for money. You're still looking for cheap thrills. You're still looking for a nicer car than your neighbor. You have a car. You can get from place to place. And and some some of us we don't even need cars. Thank go much prefer healthy legs to to walk wherever I want when I go and rather have a car. She has the divine prince has so much pity on her. But she's in exile. She's in exile. Why? Because we're not looking for. And that's what the whole thing of the lost princess. So what does that mean to him? It's clear. It's clear as a bell that uh every time we fall, the divine presence, the she comes personally and wakes us up and and that's our muna and our muna that's that that's the king's daughter and that's why we're all the time looking for amuna. You can see this lesson maybe more than anything explains why we put divide my whole life into myself and helping other people find amuna. That's it. because we're finding lost princes. This is the correction of the world. This is I can't think of anything in the world could be do help correct the world more. And this is what we're doing trying to get close to Hashem, bring ourselves close to Hashem, bring everyone else and not only me. when you have your own students, you have your own I've said to many of you that they have everyone in our group, you're on such high level, such high level to take out the time that you take out to sit and learn Rabbi Nakman's teachings on Thursday night and many of you participate in our Wednesday night to sit and learn amuna night. This has been going on for three years and and but the Rabbi Nakman's teachings has been going on for a year and a half already on a high level. So I'm telling every one of you is capable of being a teacher and having your own students and and this what I want my prayer is that all of you should be teach wherever you are in the world that start learning with one person two per two people three people bring closer and this way we spread ama in the world and we all discover the divine presence. So after lots of toil and searching and he wakes up and he sees the message the divine presence of the the lost princess gives him a scarf and he discovers the big giants and the vice reaches the first giant and this is the first giant who's in charge of all the animals and he says I'm I'm looking for this is this giant with this big log a log about this the size of a city on on his back And he says he's looking for the golden castle, the golden mountain, the pearl castle. So the giant says, "You're nuts. You're you're baddy mate." As they say in the UK, "Your batty mate. There's no such thing." Bur says, "Yes, there is." So he calls all the animals. He summons all the animals. He's the the the appointed it's a metaphor to the appointed angel over all the animals. He calls all the animals from the world. They ask them. They don't see anything. But don't listen. He tries to convince him. No, you're wasting your time. He tries to dissuade him from his journey. This giant tries to dissuade him. This is people trying to say, "What are you spending your time? What do you spend your time at muna? All this stuff, spirituality, divine presence. What is this? Come on. Do do another two hours of overtime. Go bowling. Go swimming. Do something." No, no, hold on. It is a true thing. So as soon as the viceroy is insistent and he holds on to his muna, not to logic holds on to logic is with the giant. The giant has logic, but the giant has all the animals to say that there's no gold mountain and there's no pearly castle. But as soon as his assistant, well, the giant says, "Well, maybe second, maybe I'll help you. I've got a brother and my brother is in charge of all the birds." So now he sends the viceroy to his brother and the same thing again. The brother says, "You're crazy." Brings all the birds. My birds, they fly all over the world. They know everything in the world. Bird's eye view. They can see everything. I've got eagles. I've got hawks. I've got They all come and they say, "Hey, uh, feathered friends, have you seen a golden mountain?" "No." They all chirp. "No." "Have you seen a pearly castle?" All chirp. "No." You say, "See." He says, "You're crazy. You're delusionary. You you're seeing you're seeing a mirage. No, I know it. He holds on to it as a moon again. The viceroy and this again logic bringing more proof and more proof and more proof that there's no divine presence. Heaven forbid that there's no Hashem. Heaven forbid that it's all it's all silly. No, he holds on. He holds on. Not only that, but even you have the dark side that try and tell you that uh oh, you're one God. No, no, it's not that. It's uh Muhammad and then and and his prophet and if you don't if you don't do it then we're going to kill you with the sword and it's another another side says no it's uh it's the trinity and if you don't do that they're going to make uh crusades and they're going to make inquisitions and they're going to kill you for that. This is the truth. Okay, if you don't accept the truth you get killed. That's throughout history. So you have the ones that are telling us doesn't exist and the ones that are telling us it's not what we think and he holds on to his amuna. He holds on because the divine presence told him she revealed herself. He had his Eureka moment. He knows that the divine presence revealed himself to her that one time. And when he holds on to that, this is enough to keep him going until he finds her. So now he's insistent. So now the second giant turns around and says, "You know, I've got a third. We got a third brother. We're three brothers. Our third brother's in charge of the winds and the winds. Okay, maybe there's something animals can't see. Maybe something the birds can't see, but the winds, they're all over. They know everything. And he calls all the winds and winds. Is there a golden mountain? No. They all blown. No. What? Is there a pearly castle? No. No. And they say they call all of them and he holds on and he's crying. He's crying. He says I know it does. The the the the lost princess she told me no it does. So he holds on to that and finally in the end when they're about to be get discourages come little wind comes and the the angel in charge the the giant in charge of the winds says to this tardy ang tardy wind where have you been? He says, "I've just taken a lost princess to a golden mountain and a pearly castle. Who's this?" So, not only did she take him and she says, "I'm going to take you also." And that's where the story ends. And Rebi Nman doesn't reveal to us how he got there, but he shows us on the way when we're in this world of concealment. Helm and we hold on with all our might to Amuna no matter what the whole world tells to us then we're going to find the divine presence and you certainly see that we'll find when enough of us find it and we will we will I know we will I believe we will keep on learning amuna we'll keep on learning that how to how to get close to Hashem how to find Hashem we come talking to Hashem every day and we're going to find the divine presence not only find but divine presence Hashem will show us we'll see with our own eyes the rebuilding of our holy temple, the coming of Messiah, and the dwelling of the divine presence in our world speedily in our days. Amen.