The Secret of Jewish Resilience

And you know my dearest friends, I'm going to begin with a a story. This is a story about a Jew who I was privileged to know many years ago. He was already an elderly Jew and he was in the gulag in the Russian gulag for more than 10 years. I already knew him in his older years in the 80s and in the 90s. He passed away I think 95. It was 1995. His name was Rebendel. Rib Mendel helped many Jewish Soviet Jews living in the Soviet Union get out of Russia after the Second World War. Stalin Yak Shamoy, the dictator of the Soviet Union, allowed Polish refugees who escaped into the Soviet Union, escaping Hitler's armies to go back to their native countries after the war. So many people seized opportunity and they forged passports and documents showing that they were Polish citizens and that's how they got out. It was an extremely dangerous task as you can imagine. And this Judah Mendel helped hundreds and hundreds of Jewish families flee the horrific lifestyle and the horrific persecution and oppression that existed in the Soviet Union. He was caught. His wife made it out. His son made it out. At the end, he was caught. And he was sent to the Gulag for more than a decade. slave labor in Siberia. Most people didn't survive Siberia. Between the cold, the illnesses, the malnutrition, the slave labor, the torture, most people didn't survive. Millions and millions died in the gulags of Joseph Stalin. But this Reb Mendel made it out. And he would share over the years stories, experiences, you know, when you're in Siberia for more than 10 years with a lot of intelligent people because remember the intelligencia was the great threat to the communist empire. So a lot of intelligent people there. You had authors, professors, journalists, essaists, novelists, teachers, priests, thinkers, theologians, poets, political statesmen, military personality. Very interesting people. So he would share different stories that occurred over the years in the gulak rebendal his last name was futurfas rebendal futfas once shared the following experience such a moving experience he said it was one night in the barracks it was already past lights out as they say in camp they had to be asleep but one of the men lying on his bed I don't know if you call it a bed some planks of wood and straw turns to the comrades to his friends and in Russian he starts lamenting his fate and he says you know before I came to this wretched place I was such a distinguished person in the Soviet Union I was a general he was a general in the Zar's military accomplished celebrated glorified and now I have nothing. And he started to cry. And another one, another fellow says, "And what about me? I was considered one of the top doctors in Moscow. It was hard to make an appointment with me. I was successful financially, socially, medically. People loved me, honored me. What do I have now?" Gornish bupkas zero. Nada. And the next one says, "What about me? I was the top actor, one of the greatest actors, you know, in Russia, a lot of theaters and plays. It was part of the communist culture. They've celebrated theater, theatrics, and plays. Stalin would always go, but the culture suppressed millions of people." He said, "I was one of the top actors. It was an honor to have me at a banquet, at an event, at a feast, and now left with nothing, no family, no money, no health, no future. I'm a prisoner in this wretched place in society in Siberia. And so people were talking about their past lives that were now now gone, absolute. This one was a general, this one was a doctor, this one was a priest, this one was a professor, this one was a great journalist. Everything taken from them. And soon they were all crying. It was so emotional. There was one man who wasn't crying men. So one of the Russian guys there turns to him and says, "Probably you were a loser before and you're still a loser. So you have nothing to weep for. You didn't lose anything. You know, when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose." Probably you had no distinguished life then and you have no distinguished life now. Is that why you're not crying? So Mendel smiles. He had this little wise towinkle and smile called sly smile. And he says, "No, I actually had a very distinguished life. He ran a company, wife, children, pretty affluent man, a successful businessman." He said, "No, I actually had a very successful life." He said, "Why are you not crying?" And Rendel looked at all of them and he said because my primary career and vocation was not taken from me. They said what do you mean? Rendel said this. He said I had a successful business. I had a lot of employees under me. I was making money. I have a wife. I have children. I have community. I have friends. I lost it all. like all of you. But my primary vocation in life was not my business and it was not my popularity. My primary vocation in life, he said, was that I was an Evid Hashem, a servant of God. I woke up every morning to serve God. I went to sleep every night to serve God. And you know what, friends? That vocation I still have. Nobody took that away from me. I'm still a servant of God. I wake up in Siberia and I serve God. I go to sleep in Siberia and I serve God. I work throughout the day and I serve God. What has changed in my life, he said, is the software, not the hardware. It's the methods, not the essence. It's how I serve God, not if I serve God. Till I was sent to Siberia, I served God as a leader of a great company generating a lot of revenue. Today I serve God as a prisoner here in the gulag. But my primary essential destiny and vocation as a human being was not taken away from me. I still serve my creator every day of my life. The people sitting there, intelligent people were stunned. It was a transformative moment for me. It captures the secret of Jewish resilience and the secret to resilience. Rebendal was anchored in something that is indestructible. He was anchored in something that nobody can obliterate, that nobody can take from you. It was as Victor Frankl wrote in many of his articles and in his greatest book about man's search for meaning. He said when he was in Avitz he learned that you could take away everything from a person. The only thing you can't take away from a person is his attitude. The way he thinks about things, his internal reaction to the circumstances, the circumstances I can't control, but my reaction to the circumstances, how I deal with the circumstances, how I view them, how I perceive them. This is a freedom that nobody can take from me. This sits in my heart. I was so moved. I heard a speech by Dr. Edith Ager. You know who Edith Ager is? Edith Ager wrote a book called The Choice. Her first book she published at the age of 91 years old. Okay. 91 years old. Now she gave it a second book called The Gift. She's now 94, 95, 96. for many many long happy and althan and Edith Ager shared a story. She was a Hungarian Jewish she is Hungar she grew up in Hungary not far from Budapest. She lives today in La Hoya, California and practices as a psychotherapist. She got her PhD many years ago and she is now a celebrated therapist. But back in her hometown in Hungary, grew up in a Jewish family not far from Budapest. The mother, a father, I think three sisters and she was an extremely skilled dance dancer and she would go to get her lessons and she was hoping to make it into the Olympics. She was celebrated as something special, a unique talent. Her ballets, her skills were something exceptional. But then one day her dreams shattered as the director told her that as a Jew she would not be able to compete anymore. She thought that was the worst of the news. A few weeks later, she was on a cattle cart with her family headed to Oishin, Poland to Awitz. For a few days, they traveled on this train, on this cattle cart. And then Edith says, her mother turns to her takes her hand and says, "Edith, I don't know where we're going. I don't know what will happen to us, but what I want to tell you is one thing, and that is people can take away everything from you. The one thing they can't take away from you is what you put into your mind. So remember what you put into your mind that is yours forever. And Edith says literally a few minutes later the doors opened up. They were in the Awitz Burkanal death camp. They were thrown off. The selection began. Dr. Joseph Mangallayo whom they called dubbed the angel of death sent her mother and father to the gas chambers. The three sisters were sent to work. An hour or two later, she learned that her mother's body went up in the smoke of the criteria. She's in the barrack with her sisters and she said, "Those of you who visited Awitz, remember when I was there a few years ago, you can see the actual barrack and there's like a plank of wood or a couple of planks of wood and it's made for one person. Two people, 10 people had to be there." And she says, "I haven't eaten in a few days. They haven't had food on the cattle cart." She learned that her mother was murdered, her father was murdered, her hair was shaved, and they were in Awitz. And what happens? A man walks into her barrack, Dr. Mangala. And Dr. Mangala says, "I hear that there is a girl who came here from Hungary who knows how to dance. Can she come here?" And Edith says, "I came." And I was standing in front of the angel of death and with his sinister Nazi smile, he looks at me and he says, "Would you perform for me?" And I knew that you don't say no to Mangala if you want to live. I said, "Sure." He said, "Go ahead." And she looks at the crowd and she says very emotional. She says, "I wanted to dance. Mom was murdered. Dad was murdered. Our souls were murdered. Our life's future was in peril. Everything was taken from us. Our dignity, our humanness, our future. I wanted to dance. But Mangala wanted me to dance. I closed my eyes and I remembered what my mother told me just that very day. Remember, Edith, people can take away everything from you besides what you put into your own mind. And as my eyes were closed, I imagined that I was not an Awitz and I was not standing in front of Joseph Mangala. I was in the Budapest Opera House performing and in my mind's eye, I was in the most luxurious of locations, surrounded by love and support and family and friends. And she says, "I danced that night in Awitz like I never danced before. My whole soul was dancing." And when I finished, I opened my eyes and it was obvious that Mangala was very pleased. He was so pleased. He gave a nod of approval. And then he threw me a loaf of bread. A loaf of bread in Awitz was not worth a million dollars. It wasn't worth $10 million. It was priceless. There's no money that can buy a loaf of bread. I was starving. He left. I held on to that bread like my life. I went back. I wanted to say to my bed. There was no bed. I went back to the planks of woods of wood that I would have to lie on. And there were my sisters. And there were the other girls who were sharing those same planks with me. And I said to myself, "They're also starving." And I split up the loaf between all of us and I gave them all a piece and we all ate that loaf of bread. 1944, spring 1944. Almost a year passes. Edith survives, but then they are told to go on the death march. But at this point, she weighed less than 70 lbs. She was emaciated. Her body was devastated. And as they're going on the death march, you know how it worked. If you stopped for a moment to take a break, you were shot. If you sat down, you were shot. And many prisoners did that. They didn't have power anymore. They didn't have energy. without bread, without water, without food, without health, without the ability, just stepped out of line or sat down. They were shot and that was it. And Edith says, "At some point, I was walking and I just couldn't walk anymore. My feet could not carry me anymore. I was so sick. I was so weak. I was so frail. I simply could not take another step. And I gave up." And at that moment she said four friends whom she gave the bread to at the first night said it's payback time. And with their arms and hands they made an artificial cheer and they carried Edith on the death march. She survived. She lives today in California. She serves as a therapist and she said at the end of every session I give a kick. She says 95 years old she lifts up her leg and she said I give a kick to show the patient that you have to have resilience. And then I remembered the words of Bum, the words of Balum, that great vicious anti-Semite who was hired by the Moabite King Bulock to curse the Jewish people. Yet instead of cursing the Jewish people, he ends up giving the Jewish people in the world some of the most beautiful poetry about God's people. But there's one verse that comes to mind when we think about resilience. Balum speaks about the Jews and he says in the book of numbers this week's portion he the Jewish people the Jewish nation crouches and lays like a lion and like a lioness who will de who will de who will dear to arouse him or arouse her. What is he referring to? What is the symbolism of Jews as crouching lions and lionesses? When I was in South Africa a number of years ago, I went to Krueger's National Park and I remember seeing for the first time in real life, I grew up in Brooklyn, New York, so we don't have a Krueger Nationals Park there. First time in real life a pride of lions. It was incredible. And I don't have to tell you South Africans lions know how to crouch and sit and relax and they fabbranging all day and much of the night. They sleep and they fabbranging and they sleep and they fabbranging again and they smoo in their own way and they groom each other and they hug each other and they play with each other. But what is bum referring to the crouching lion? If bum simply wish to convey the power and might of the Jewish people like the lion why the description of them as they're crouching they're lying why crouching what when they're standing what if they're running what is the meaning of this you know the Talmud says in braot page 12 Aba taught that the sages wanted us to read the portion of bullik every day in the when we read in the morning. They wanted us to incorporate the portion of bulock. You know why they didn't? Too hard for the people have to go to work. It's draining. It's difficult. They canled it. They cancel the plan. But why? Why did they want? We should read the portion of balik. And the Talmud says because of this verse because the Jews are compared to a crouching lion that lies down. Who will arouse them? So Rashi says because it says when you lay down and when you stand up but it's a strange connection and yet the sages felt that we should read this every single morning but I think friends now we can understand this because you know the Talmud asks a question. Can a lion ever become domesticated? Can a lion has ever become domesticated? There are people people like pets. There are people who like lions as pets. Are they dangerous or not? And the Talmud says in track and it's in the code of Jewish law. Other animals can be owned and they're legally classified as such. So if I have an ox or a goat or a sheep and it goes berserk and inflicts damage, there are numerous stup stipulations as to when and to what extent am I liable reflecting the extent the extent to which I was supposed to anticipate that this will happen. When it comes to a lion, the Talmud says in it remains a free creature. It never accepts the yoke of ownership. It could never be domesticated. No matter how many years you have imposed a yoke over it and as a result of that if it damages and it's under your domain you are liable fully because you had to anticipate that it remains a wild animal and you deceived yourself otherwise and therefore you are fully responsible because this is not an animal that can be domesticated. The Talmud says it's an animal that cannot be owned. Ah, now we'll understand what Balum meant when he spoke about the crouching lion. For much of our history, we have been in a state of exile. Exiled from our homeland, enslaved by other nations, subjected to alien cultures, trained to perform in accordance with the dictates of what the world would expect from us. At times, the subjugation seemed so real. comes Balum and says, "You don't understand. The lion sometimes crouches. The lion sometimes seems very docel, but it's not been conquered. It's docel, but it's docel by choice. Not because you imposed your restraints over it. It cannot be conquered. It remains free. And it's never more than an instant removed from the seemingly sudden assertion of its innate freedom. The lion is an animal that doesn't allow itself to have a true master controlling it. No, nobody can become a real boss over it. Even if you think you have made it submissive, it remains fiercely independent. Even if you have confined it and you thought you domesticated it and therefore you can anticipate revolt prepare for the lion or lion is suddenly breaking all the rules. Said balam you have to understand the Jewish people even when they were sent into captivity nobody ever owns them. They can be pressured they can be suppressed but never truly defeated. They remained the Maharal says moral of Prague, a true nation, a true people at its core. How? Why? Because nobody can control what you put into your mind. The last words that Dr. Edith Ager heard from her mother on the way from Hungary to Awitz in 1944. Because at our core, we remain indestructible. Nobody can take away from us as a collective people, our inner power, our inner courage. Even if all the circumstances deny from people that freedom, it's not just true collectively. It's also true individually. We all have times in our life when we feel empowered and mighty and invigorated. We stand erect, firm. I'm on top of my game. I'm the king of the jungle of the world. I am vertical. But at other times, we are horizontal. We crouch. We duck. We lay low. We sometimes feel depleted. We sometimes feel exhausted, tired. We feel empty, weak, scared, uncertain, overwhelmed, and startled by various forces that seem out of control. And we wonder when is it going to end? The last year and a half, the world has seen this. A virus comes from China and suddenly 7.7 billion people are brought to their knees. And at such moments, it's so easy to lose your inner might. It's easy for me to surrender to addiction, to despair, to patterns and behaviors that undermine me because I'm in a low state. I'm in a meek state. comes Balum and says one of the most moving declarations about the power of the soul. He crouches like a lion and a lioness. Who will dare to arouse him or her? Crouching you are, but remember that you are a lion and a lioness. What does this mean? It means that you could never be owned. Nobody can ever ever obliterate your inner soulfulness, your inner power, your inner ferociousness, your inner divinity. Why not? Because since the soul is a piece of God mamish, therefore at your core, you are like God. You're a fragment of heaven. So at your core, you're invincible. You're indestructible. You're full of promise, potential, positivity. Nobody can take your dreams away from you. Nobody can take your joy away from you. Even if I say to myself, "Yes, but I'm dealing with trauma. I may have be dealing with a background or with youthful experiences that were difficult. Maybe even a big trauma with a capital T or small traumas not with a capital T or disappointment or frustration or pain of loss or pain of illness, financial uncertainty and inner psychological, emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, financial stress and anxiety. It looks like I have lost touch with my inner power. Balum said, "Don't underestimate the Jewish people. They are free spirits because they are reflections of God who embodies uninhibited freedom. Nobody can ultimately impose their expectations on a lion and a lionist. Nobody can take away from you your inner resilience, your inner strength, your inner confidence, your inner beauty, your inner power. You are an ambassador of the divine, an ambassador of love and light and hope. There's a beautiful verse in the Song of Songs chapter 3. which means on my bed at night I sought him whom my soul loves. On one level it means on my bed at night I couldn't stop thinking about the person I love so much. Even when I lie down in bed, this is what overwhelms me as my manades discusses in the laws of repentance chapter 10. But there's a deeper interpretation. Even as I lie in bed, I am not vertical. I'm horizontal. I'm lying low. I'm crouching. I'm laying flat on my bed. I may seem asleep. I'm in a slumber. I lack the dignity, the depth, and the majesty of the human spirit. It seems like you have punched me out, and I'm just in bed. Even then, I still search for my love in the depth of my soul. I still pine for infinity. I yearn for God. I long for transcendence. I still pine and aspire for idealism. I may be crouching, but I'm still a lion. Parts of me tell me that I'm a victim, but Balum says, "No, no, no. You have to understand the essence of the Jewish. So this is why the sages wanted to put this portion into the daily services of reading of the Schma because we read Shma twice a day when we lay down and when we rise. Literally it means in the morning and in the evening. We read the Schma twice daily. But there's a deeper meaning here. I could read the Schma when I'm up and about, when I have risen to the full stature of my persona, when my majesty is fully intact, when I feel upright and vertical, comes the Torah and says, "No, even when you're laying low, even when I feel sometimes disoriented, when I feel depleted, exhausted, downtrodden, dejected, depressed, when life gets to me, when I feel powerless, meek, feeble, disillusioned, cynical, immobile. Even then I have to know is nobody and nobody can destroy and obliterate and eliminate and even eclipse the infinite love that exists in your heart, the infinite faith and resilience that exists in your heart. Because as Edith Ager's mother said, nobody can take away what you put in into your mind. That's why they wanted to put this this statement into the schma that we read every single day. So in Siberia that Judah Mendel turns to everybody and says listen they took away everything from me but my deepest vocation they can't take from me. I was a servant of God then I'm a servant of God now. Nobody can take that away from me. Yes, the method changed, the software changed, how I do it changed, but the core, the essence of it all, that didn't change. It's there fully, fully intact with its greatest depth and its greatest power. I still serve God every moment. I serve God. It's a beautiful story. Ah maybe I shared this story with you. I don't know but it's a great story. Twoidic masters the rebel they were in Poland they would go from city to city try to encourage their brethren and one day one day somebody informed upon them and they were thrown into a prison. And in prison they were sitting with another 40 or 30 gentile inmates. And you'll forgive me there was no bathroom. This is the 18th century. There was a bucket in the corner that the men there would use for their needs. It smelled horribly. In the morning, Rabik is crying. Says, "Why are you crying?" So, I'm crying because this is the first day I won't be able to pray because of the horrible odor in the corner of the room. You're not allowed to pray when there's such a bad smell. And says, "So, why are you crying?" He says, "The first time since my bitzvah, I won't be able to pray." says a first time for everything. You don't have to be depressed. He says I need to pray. Prayer for me is a lifeline. Prayer is the time that I align myself with my essence, with my soul, with my core, with God, with the essence of the cosmos, with the core of reality, with the consciousness behind existence. Prayer is the time when I become aligned with reality, aligned with me, aligned with my body, mind, and soul, aligned with cosmic oneness. Prayer is the time of the deepest oneness. And Rusha looks at him and says, "You think you can't connect to God today?" The same God who wants you to pray every day says in the code of Jewish law that if it smells, if there's a bad smell, you shouldn't pray. So, you're not praying today in order to fulfill God's will. And by fulfilling God's will, you're doing a mitzvah. And by doing a mitzvah, you connect to God. Every day, you connect to God through prayer. Today you connect to God through the absence of prayer. That too is a way of serving God. Sometimes God wants you to pray and sometimes God wants you not to pray. To pray or not to pray. That is the question. You have to know what God wants from you. And says, "Wow, I didn't think of it that way." And instead of crying, he starts singing. And they were two. So soon they began dancing. And all of the Gentiles joined the dance and you had 40 people dancing in the cell. It looked like Purim wasra and the prison warden hears the commotion and he runs in and he sees all these people dancing. He says, "Why are you guys dancing?" And one of the Gentiles points to the pale in the corner and he says, "How does that pale generate a dance?" And he says, "The Jews, the Jews told us that as a result of that pale, they developed a new relationship with God." He says, "What?" Yes. They said there was the pre-bucket relationship and the post-bucket relationship. The pre-bucket relationship with God was one style and the post-bucket relationship was a different style. That's why they're dancing. He says, "I will teach these Jews a lesson." And he takes the pale and he throws it out of the cell and turns. He says, "Brother, now you can begin to dav." You see, friends, the Jew always knows that I'm in a relationship, that he's in a relationship. He's in a relationship. Sometimes the relationship consists of davining. Sometimes the relationship consists of not dvening. Sometimes the relationship consists of going to schul. And sometimes the relationship consists of turning my home into a sanctuary. Sometimes the relationship consists through going to school. And sometimes the relationship consists through creating beautiful environment in our own home and our own kitchen and bedroom and dining room and living room and f family room. I'm always in a relationship. Mendel said, "Sometimes God wants me to serve him under these circumstances and sometimes God wants me to serve him under different circumstances, but you are never ever h your soul is never ever hijacked. Your inner freedom is never hijacked. Your inner powerful relationship is never hijacked. Even if you're dealing with difficult circumstances and even when I'm dealing with things that were not foreseen and situations in my family or my children or my marriage or myself or my environment or some crazy corona virus that has taken hold. It means that my mission has now changed. My mission went underwent a transformation. God wants me to serve him in a different way. He wants me to go deeper. He wants me to find inner resources to be able to confront these new realities. But you are never a victim. You're always a king because you're always an ambassador of Hashem, a messenger of Hashem. You're never suppressed. You're always a lion or a lioness. Balam understood this about the Jewish people. We have to understand this about ourselves. Dignity begins internal inside. You know, I want to share something with you that somebody sent to me today. Both of my parents came from Russia. My grandfather was arrested during the Stalinist purges of 1938 and tortured terribly. He was a kabat. His name was Simmon Simakashilli and he was sent by the previous labrene to spread Judaism in the former Soviet Union because when Stalin took over when communism took over Judaism was destroyed in nine years these the Jewish section of the communist party obliterated Judaism in the former Soviet Union. What the hell with the enlightenment didn't do in 200 years these managed to do from 1919 till 1929 and then Stalin dismantled these and he shot them all including its leader Shiman Deanstein who was a student of Tels and some say was ordained by the great the chief rabbi of terrible terrible times. In 1927, the Rebba was arrested and sentenced to death June of 27. And then they converted it. They they commuted the sentence to 10 years in the gulag. And then three years in the gulag. And they sent him away to Castra and he was freed on Yudgel Tamos today. The 13th of Tamos 84 years ago, 1927. It was an incredible miracle. But what I want to bring out is something else. If you were a fly on the wall and you watched those events, you would say, "Here is a fine rabbi who's battling an empire of hundreds of millions. It's hopeless. It's feutal. It would be like an ant trying to defeat a tank. It would be like an ant battling 10 people and thinking it might win. It was beyond ludicrous. You're dealing here with a person who had a few disciples, a few students. The government was ferocious. They murdered millions and millions. It seemed hopeless and feutal. But if you go back to those that very same place 84 years later, you will see today within the same century, a rejuvenation of Jiddishkite in the Kremlin a few yards from Lenin and Stalin's body. A minor is lit every night of Kaneka. Unlike Bom thousands of Moscow children walk in the streets and say hundreds of schools and camps and shs and communities within the century when I went there and I was observing the renaissance of Judaism in the former Soviet Union. I said it's one of the greatest miracles in Jewish history because Jews are sometimes crouching. Sometimes we're crouching but it's kari. It's like a lion. So my dearest friends, the secret of resilience is knowing that under all circumstances, I am never alone. I am never defeated. I am never destroyed. When I can align myself with the source of reality, when I realize that I am an ambassador of God in this world, then I know that nobody can take away that which I put into my mind. And when you put into your mind the truth that you are a messenger, you are a messenger to bring light and goodness and truth into every situation you end up in. you realize you don't end up in situations. You're sent into situations in order to bring out the opportunity, the potential, and the light that exists in those situations. Thank you very much. We have some questions. Should I begin with questions? Perfect. Whoever has questions, we have a few. You could put the questions in the question and answer section or in Yeah, you could put in the chat or better in the Q&A section. Question number one, what about if I am overcome with weakness? What is my obligation if I'm overcome with weakness and weariness and exhaustion? What am I supposed to do practically? Okay, that's a great question. And the way I would respond is obviously there is the medical physical component and this emotional component. Sometimes there are simply physical things you can do to change your lifestyle that will give you much more energy. So I would have a conversation with a doctor, with a nutritionist, uh with a therapist, with a life coach, with a confidant, a good friend who can give you different things that we can do, what we eat, what we don't eat, how we wake up, how we go to sleep, how we spend our day, our postures, our positions, exercise, jogging, swimming, yoga, pilates, massages, uh going to the gym, whatever it may be. But people can create a lifestyle for themselves that will give you much more energy and you won't be depleted in terms of emotional exhaustion. Here is where we need emotional tools and spiritual resources. And what I would recommend is that when you wake up in the morning, you have a very clear schedule of what you do and put in over there prayer, meditation, Torah study, do a mitzvah, help somebody. When we create a schedule where we give ourselves spiritual resources of faith, fortitude, spiritual connection, you will be able to have the perspective that will give you much more energy and elacrity and stimulation. Next question. What you have in your mind you said nobody can take away from you. Is this true about all people? Is it true about Jews? Is it true about Gentiles? I think it's a truth in life. Victor Frankle spoke about it at length. Edith Ager spoke about it at length. I think it's a truth of life. The truth of life is that I don't have control over everything in the world, but I do have control over my attitudes, my reactions, how to see it, what context to put it in, my perspective. That's the one thing that people could not take away from me. And I think this is a very powerful truth in life. And it's I think one of the truths that has sustained the Jewish people that they knew that their role as Jews is always intact. That they were God's people sent down to this world to revolutionize the landscape of planet earth and turn it into a world that saturated with goodness and kindness and holiness and godliness. And even when times were tough and even when times were difficult, they never doubted that inner perspective, that inner confidence and that inner power. And today when we live, thank God, in very different times with much more prosperity and much more opportunity, we still need that resilience because there's so much anxiety and there's so much fear and we often feel like we are victims to our past and victims to our present and victims to our circumstances. And I'm here to tell you, we're here to tell each other that we are not. We have to look at the situation soberly, not blindly, and then embrace the opportunity to be able to ask myself, what is my mission at this moment? Ask not what God can do for you. Ask what you can do for God. Ask also what God can do for you. Pray. Ask for all your needs, but ask what you can do. Sometimes you're struggling with one of your children. Instead of asking what that child can do for you, ask what can I do for this child. What is my mission? This child was entrusted into my care. So this means that God felt that I am the best person for this soul. So let me figure out how I can do that. Next question. Is it not true that we are all born with innate health and innate resilience? Absolutely. the challenges that life sometimes beats us up. Sometimes I go through experiences at home or in school or in my community or at my job or my first marriage or my teen years and I'm beaten down by life and sometimes it's a genetics challenge. Today in epigenetics we know that we inherit trauma of previous generations. Besides that, some of us are very sensitive. There are highly sensitive people who are traumatized by existence. So you may have had the best home in the world. You may have had the best parents in the world. You may have had the great schooling. You may have everything good. And yet existence is hard for you. Some people don't understand this. But for some people existence is hard. And the reason is because existence means that God's oneness is concealed. And that differentiation from oneness is very hard for sensitive people. And you have to respect that. So life can beat us up. And that's why it's important to be anchored in that sense of spiritual oneness that could never take us really away from that oneness. Question. I have recently discovered that I am from Jewish descent. Why is it that when I admit my Jewish heritage, I feel happy and fulfilled? Do you think being Jewish is a genetic memory? Wow, that's a great question. The answer to your question is it's a it's a beautiful question. When you admit your Jewish heritage, when you discovered it, you feel happy and fulfilled because it's it's it's part of who you are. You know, Jewishness is not just I grew up in a Jewish community. Jewishness is really a state of the soul. It's like it's like everybody has their their eyes have their unique color and you have your unique imprint, your unique your unique fingerprints. A Jewish soul has a certain color. Judaism is not just a religion. There are Jews who are not religious and they're still Jewish. They're as Jewish as any other Jew. There are Jews who are atheists. They're still Jewish. They're very Jewish. In fact, I would say Jewish atheists come with a unique form of atheism because they deny God with religious fervor. It's a very unique type of Jewish atheism. The point is Judaism for the Jew is part of my essence. It's the color of my soul. So I think when you embrace that, you feel fulfilled because a certain part of your soul that's coming to life, that's being triggered, that's being aroused. That's amazing. So if this is really who you are, I would do all the research with a proper competent Orthodox rabbi. Embrace it, love it, and suck the marrow out of it. Question: Does your responsibility to your children ever end? Or is it no matter how old they are, you're always responsible for your children? Beautiful. What a Jewish question from Shamama Sham. And the answer is of course we are always responsible for our children but the nature of the responsibility varies drastically. There's my responsibility as a child when he's one or she's five or they're 10 or they become bar mitzvah mitzvah or they grow up and go out of the house everything changes. So for example, you're asking if your child is 60, are you still responsible for your baby? And the answer is it's a different type of responsibility. Responsibility in the sense that if I can help them, I want to be here for my child. Look at Isaac. Yitzk was 37 years old, right? And Abraham gave everything so that Isaac should be able to build a life. Even though he was 37, he could have said, "Yidk, take care of yourself." But that's what fathers and mothers do. We want to be here for our children even when they're 60 years old. But you have to know what's the nature of the responsibility. When my my son is 60 years old and my daughter is 60 years old, don't try to control their life. Even when they're 20 and 30, you don't want to control their life. It's not going to work. It's just going to alienate them. You don't want to give them opinions unless they ask you. It's not good to give our children opinions when they're older and they have their own life unless they they want to. They ask me, great. But does to mix into their life without their consent, you have to be careful with that. So we're responsible. We're responsible in a way that we can help them based on a way that in a way that's going to really help them and be beneficial for them in a way that they want and they will benefit from it. So be sensitive with that. Next question. Hope comes from the destruction of hopelessness. The negative thoughts we put into our minds rule us so often. When life hammers you, it's a struggle to regain the hope. Any way to shortcut the suffering? How can I destroy hopelessness and cultivate hope? Great great question. Wonderful question. And the answer to that is it takes habit to be able to recreate new neural pathways in our brain. I think the neuroscientists tell us that you have to do something 60 times in order to create new highways in the brain. So we have to think hope not hopelessness. We have to train ourselves. In the beginning, it's difficult because my brain is wired by now to go into a space of hopelessness. But observe it. Observe it. Don't be a victim to it. You are not the hopelessness. The hopelessness is a thought. Imagine when you think of thoughts as black clouds that are moving in the sky. The sun is always shining above it. Don't doubt that the sun is there. Let the clouds move and you'll see the sun. Thoughts are garments. They come and go. They're not your essence. The thoughts of hopelessness are like black clouds. The sun is always there. Observe the clouds. Have compassion for them. You don't have to fight them. But don't become a victim to those thoughts. Observe them. And then you can choose to introduce other thoughts, other perspectives. And when you do that enough times, your brain will already naturally go to that space more often. Question. How did Jews, how did people manage to rise above their bodies when their bodies were so much in pain like in the Holocaust? How could Edith Ager ignore her hunger? How how can that happen? Wow. Beautiful, beautiful question. So the truth is I don't think I am the right person to answer this question because I grew up in the United States of America in freedom and prosperity. Thank God. So I think that you know I can't really speak from personal experience but I think what you learned from these people is of course they felt the pain and of course they felt depleted. They were not angels in heaven. They're human beings but their mission statement was so powerful and their knowledge of what they have to do was so powerful that they had the ability to choose not to become complete victims to it. Somebody once said, "Great people are not people who don't have fear. They have fear like everybody else. They just don't allow fear to dictate their lives." And I think this is what happened with these people. I want to say something. It's not a question. It's a statement. This is one of the most inspiring classes I've had the honor to listen to. This is from Ptoria. Thank you so much. Thank you. That means so much. And thank you to the arch of the base. Next question. Does Hashem promise an end to the virus? And has the virus taught us to be more resilient? Listen, you know, we are partners with God in the work of creation. And that's why medical teams throughout the whole world are trying to do whatever they can to put an end to the virus. Thank God we hear that Israel opened up for the most part. Here in New York, we have opened up for the most part. So, you know, I am not a prophet. I don't know what God has in plan for the world but I think I think and I told this to you at the first speech I gave to South Africa that arranged I think it was right before Pes not this PES the previous PES right after Corona March April 19 2020 I said it would be such a pity if we just emerge from the virus and go back to the same life we had before the virus come on as Jacob told his adversary I will not let you go until you bless me. I don't only want to let go of my adversary. I want to go out more blessed and more empowered and more invigorated. So I say we must emerge from this virus better people, deeper people, more authentic people, people with much more focus, maturity, perspective, resilience, vulnerable and humble. And most importantly, people who see themselves never as victims, but as ambassadors of infinity, divine ambassadors of love, light, hope, healing, authenticity, wisdom, yiddishkite, and redemption. Thank you very much. You once again, Rabbi Jacobson, hundreds of people that attended and thank you to the golf teams for sponsoring this lecture. Thank you. Thank you. Another question I should take. Do communal leaders have a responsibility to reach out to those who are weak or do we have to wait for the weak to reach out to us? We have a commandment in the Torah in Leviticus. Don't stand by idol. Don't stand idle by your don't stand by idally by your brother's blood. If I see somebody who needs help and I'm in a position to help, whether I call myself a leader or not, of course, it's my responsibility. Sometimes though, I cannot help a person if they're not ready to help themselves. So, I can inspire, I can talk to you, I can encourage you, but sometimes you have to make that first move. You're ready to help yourself, I can help you. And God works the same way. You know, he will send you all the the famous joke, he'll send you all the helicopters in the world. But ultimately, as they say, God helps people who are ready to help themselves. I have to make that first move. Um, next question. Is the virus a prelude to Msiah? Listen, everything in the world is a prelude to Msiah. The Talmud says in track Sanhedrin in the 11th chapter the world was created for Msiah. Meaning Mashiach is the time when the purpose of life will be manifested and realized in the most acute way. So everything is a prelude for Msiah. But what exactly that means is not something that I know. God decides the day and the moment Mashiach comes. We pray for it every day and we hope it comes every day any moment. What I can do is daven for it, ask for it, hope for it, wait for it, anticipate it, and equally important to be able to live with gula consciousness. to be able to go out of my own exile mentally, emotionally, to be able to cut my strings and to tell God, I'm ready. I'm not invested anymore in exile. But that's not easy because my mentality, my mindset sometimes wants to go into a place of exile, place of blaming, place of victimhood, place of subjugation, a place of mediocrity, place of fear, place of meekness, a place of weakness, a place of resentment, a place of animosity. I want to go there. I'm telling God, I'm ready. So, let's go. So, I have to be ready. So, I have to sever my cords, my connections with an exile mindset, an exile mentality to live in a consciousness of infinity, to live in a consciousness of oneness. Thank you very much.