The Shabbat Show- Episode 22: Praying with Fire

[Music] and good shabbos everybody shabbat shalom another week it's amazing how quickly these weeks are going this is a very special show for us this is going to be the last show of the i would say the summer season starting next week we're going to be doing the shabbat show on thursday night and so the friday afternoon frenzy and being here with you just for a few minutes this is a very special time it's amazing the show began with a way to connect to each other during the virus and even now so many weeks later it's such a powerful and important part of my week and i hope yours as well we'll look forward to giving you more information about how the show will continue of course um as we get closer into the winter and shabbat gets earlier but it's great to be with you right now this is an important day um in america i believe 19 years ago today was day that changed america forever i remember like it was yesterday i was in the train all the way up to law school and um the train that i was taking was the uh was the one nine north and we had on our train individuals who were working in the first tower that got hit and they ran out and they jumped on the first train they got and they just took it as north as they can go and i'll never forget got on the train and and here they were and the crowd just crowded around them and they said what happened they said well some crazy guy probably made the wrong turn out of laguardia and ended up in uh at the towers and somebody said you think it's terrorism and i remember the place laughing at him terrorism like what is this gaza it's about terrorism like i remember the mockery that got happened yamakon and i remember the people were mocking him for like thinking that we'd ever have terrorism in america and there was some like eerie feeling at that moment that the world is about to change and as we ascended off down this front for off the steps of the subway to the campus of columbia university it was it was surreal it was a surreal experience trying to call loved ones cell towers down the the uncertainty they're not knowing what what new york city felt like on that day it was unbelievable the loss of life people that we people that we love people that we knew it's a day that we'll never forget nor should we ever forget one of the things that came out of that day was this incredible appreciation for things that are meaningful it's amazing that a little or a large disruption to our lives resets our priorities and living and commuting every day to manhattan during that september and that october and november the city went from complete shock where people couldn't function to slowly coming back but when they came back there was a meaning there was a purpose there was something that was intangibly different about people whenever we're faced with challenge it reminds us that life is more than just the the survival that we are engaged in that our family is more important and maybe we should be allocating more time to the things that are the most important when we grapple with death we start to live life it's a famous of noah weinbergism north weinberg was famous for saying that when you grapple with your mortality you start to live a life where you tap into the immortal and this is this period of time and it'll always be in the history of america this period of time where we take a minute and breathe and realize that life is more meaningful and the running around needs to be slowed down a drop and we need to be bigger people we need to have stronger relationships we need to appreciate life a little bit more that's what we take out of 9 11. yes there are enemies out there and yes we've got to defend themselves and yes there was loss of lives in which we will never forget and they'll always be with us forever but for those that were granted the ability to come out of 9 11 alive we have to be stronger we have to be bigger and we have to be better we have to be more meaningful we have to be deeper it happens to be this year that 9 11 falls out the week before russia yom kippur because the whole goal of that period of time is not to scare us god's not interested in a judgment in which we come in like sheepishly saying can you please give me a life it's god god's our dad he's our best friend it's a time where we get to experience that same-ish feeling the feeling of weight i gotta slow life down and i gotta fight for more i gotta be more i gotta strive to go beyond myself to tap into the infinite to tap into things that are deeper than what i eat or what i wear or how i live or the bills and the stuff in which my life takes takes up a lot of life can't define life the tool that we walk into rosh hashanah the tool that we use in many ways to create a consistency in a deeper way of thinking is the tool of prayer and for many prayer is like a foreign object we're taught it growing up and in some cases it's taught and pushed a little bit too much sometimes maybe for some people although maybe they just feel like it's too much and we don't understand it and we do it but it's meaningless for some people it's they walk in every once in a while and they open up a book and words don't make sense and they are sitting along long prayer services or the cantors everyone has some conjured up image of what prayer is or isn't and today we're going to begin to uncover it because when you understand that prayer is not just a tool it is it's a sword it's it's a powerful weapon in which we can cut away at the physical world and unravel and unveil the spiritual world we start to realize that prayer is something that is totally accessible and available to me or to you no matter our background no matter our denomination no matter our connection it's available to all of us that's what we're going to do today so stick with us we've got a great show we've got our bahashi climate on we got dr lisa aiken on we're going to meet an incredible family who's being honored by uh the dinner the mandelmans we got jamie geller of course we got new music videos and we've got of course the ability for us to get shabbat shalom in together let's begin by telling you what's going on in project inspire this week check out mineflex mineflex is a great program this week we got two great great rabbis teaching you don't want to miss it rocky mountain toe preparation for the holidays check out mineflex and of course you can always check out the shabbat show.com the shabbat show.com you got this show streaming live you've got previous shows if there are longer interviews you put those up as well if you're watching right now and you're like man i know someone that should hear about prayer just text them the shabbat show.com and off you go it's that easy we got a great group joining us this week i want to give a big shout out and welcome to elon cormbloom and the foodies group who's joining us this week on shabbat shalom um elon just for for my own reference elon and i actually grew up together in canarsie brooklyn so elon regards to your family and in regards to everybody that grew up in canarsie just a straight out canarsie uh shout out and of course one on one text 9711 is there a better time than high holidays to get a personalized rabbi uh lady man friend whatever just to teach you i mean like does it get better than that like 97 000 one on one like hey what's going on this period of time i want to get deeper of course and of course monday that's in a couple days from now monday september 14th project inspires having their virtual dinner to help raise funds for this and all their programs you don't want to miss it it's got the famous singer shulam lemmer chief rabbi sax chief rabbi lao and of course jamie geller will be on i'll be i'm seeing it with the mat my with project inspires managing director jesse friedman it's going to be great if you want to even go on now you can check it out at project aspire.com and if you can't make it but want to donate and participate we'd really appreciate it just go check out the website projectinspire.com go to the dinner page and please feel free to register or to be a part of it and of course we'll get to us later next week the show will be on thursday night thursday night so check out we will uh be in touch with details for broadcasting times okay let's begin uh we are just before we start i just want to get through them sometimes you just can't get through all them which is amazing keep them coming a few shout outs before our first segment um and of course next week we get to not only give shout outs but next week we get to give shana tavaz um to adam leff shabbat shalom uh to rachelle kurzner uh through sheldon michael kurzner from toronto shabbat shalom and thank you for your kind words um to hana shabbat shalom uh to roger and erica matloff shabbat shalom in chile southampton didn't realize chile shabbat shalom two uh to goldie and jerry tauber in ballot kenwood that happens to be the one and only jaime's mom so shabbat shalom to you shabbat shalom to the novak family in toronto shabbat shalom to helene shabbat shalom to ozzie from baltimore okay let's get rolling here first i want to go to our man michael with michael on the street for his special report hello hi i'm michael apfel i'm going to be asking people what prayer is i'm going to be asking what it means to them who they pray to if they pray to anybody there's going to be people from different religions different backgrounds some people who actually don't really believe in anything what was the question i just asked you what is prayer prayers is when you talk to god do you ever find yourself praying about anything no when you pray you kind of feel connected to god you know what i'm saying why is it important for people to pray prayer for me is um it's not an access point to eternity but rather it's just a reminder that we're already there that we're already in kind of an eternal like we're in an internal situation like there's no getting out of this one what do you think is the main purpose of prayer for individuals then i think it is some sort of stress relief some people go to therapy some people drink at bars some people pray to god i think it's to get a load off of your mind what do you think is the purpose of prayer for people you know it's about your belief system and if you're in your belief system you can find solace in prayer and the dialogue that you have with a higher power it's a it's a it's a good thing i think if you don't necessarily believe in a higher power you can still use you know a prayer to an unheard voice as a as counsel in the same way you of any kind of religion like practicing or not practicing uh i mean i was raised protestant christian but i don't practice i'm not religious i consider myself a humanist you know what i'm impressed at the amount of times that we've been asked today are you jewish like never you were asked twice if you're jewish oh me oh yeah because you're jewish you're assuming we're all jewish yeah i mean a black person could be jewish you know that what what sort of stuff do you pray for of course we have to have things in mind every person has their own individual needs and of course the needs of albany strong in the whole world do you think prayer actually helps people absolutely absolutely please believe me and if you really believe him and asking him for help his lesson when you pray do you think god actually hears you pray sometimes sometimes god actually wants you to live your own life and choose your own path so he can fix it do you think that if someone prays for someone else do you think that actually makes a difference absolutely that's what it's all about praying for other people not being selfish okay that was our uh segment on prayer i hope you enjoyed it so i'm gonna pass it back to you charlie take care and uh shabbat shalom thank you michael and it really does stress for us just how different we all think about prayer it's amazing how each of us have such a different approach thank you michael for that you know we've got a great message right now from a rabbi who i have been reading for years on prayer he's an expert at it he's been lecturing and teaching it to thousands of people he spent his entire life writing about prayer and teaching it to students internationally he's the author of praying with fire an entire series of books the power of teshuva and other books he's the founder and director of anita fila foundation i want to play you a short message very powerful for rabbi heshi kleinman if we were facing a critical moment in which the wrong decision would change our life which would send our life into total chaos what would we do i think we'd probably seek out someone that we trusted someone who had a track record of great success and as for guidance is for help well i'd like to share with you a remarkable moment that helped shape my life the moment takes place in 1944 and although i wasn't personally involved my mother was the nazis were in control of my mother's city and the jews were their target my mother was holed up with 500 other jews in a dilapidated hotel that could fit no more than 200. one day she went to the town square to do some shopping and there she met a former gentile neighbor from a childhood who was quite fond of my mother and she offered to hide my mother in her attic my mother was safe at the time with the other jews in the dilapidated hotel and now she had a great dilemma should she stay in the hotel with the other people where she was safe or should she go with her former neighbor so when she got back to the hotel late that day she had 10 minutes to make up her mind because it was a five o'clock curfew and the gates would be locked and you know what my mother decided and it surprised me my mother decided to go with the neighbor so she went back to the town square made up with the former neighbor who took her to hide her in the attic the next morning the former neighbor warns my mother stay in the attic it's dangerous out there don't come out for anyone two hours later the woman returns and yells for my mother to come down my mother says what is it what is it have i been found is this the end of my life her hostess answered her questions by throwing a newspaper down on the kitchen table it bore a glaring headline and a dreadful photo of the hotel where my mother had been staying burnt to the ground along with all the people inside and just then it hit my mother like a ton of bricks she could have been one of those people in the picture and yet thank god my mother was safe lived through the rest of the war came to america got married and here i am so when i asked my mother ma how did you possibly know what to do how could you possibly know what the right decision stay where you were safe or go to town with your gentile neighbor my mother answered me with the words that i will never ever forget was tears streaming down her 91 year old cheeks she told me something that seemed to be a sconce in her brain has ever happened the day before she said to me taco you need to know that whenever i had an important decision to make in my life i always looked heavenward and i beg god i would say sweet creator help me help me make the best possible decision and please protect me so may i so that i may live to tell the tale of your great compassion and kindness my mother must have told me this story literally 10 times in the year before she died and she died at the age of 92. i guess it was my mother's way of passing the critical advice to me and to the future generations that when you need help in a critical moment of life speak to god he is your sweet creator my mother's epiphany her moment of truth during the world war in 1944 and yet in our year 2020 many of us have experienced our own moments of truth during the pandemic yet what's remarkable to me about the pandemic is that within the first several weeks of the crisis going back for march the virus was constantly described as an invisible enemy remember that imagine an invisible force was upending life for billions of people in every corner of the globe it was affecting economies education professional sporting events travel life work leisure everything we couldn't even get together with our friends no one on the planet could see the virus and yet everyone on the planet was affected by the mass and as i was quarantined in my home the company by only my thoughts i contemplated the meaning of the fact that this unique force called the coronavirus is invisible and yet it is very much our reality and then i had my own epiphany if something invisible like the coronavirus can so completely affect and control everyone's lives all over the planet and no one doubts that it does because it actually does we know that and it should be so easy and it was and made it easier for me to comprehend that god who was also hidden god's also invisible and yet god is also our reality and god absolutely affects and controls everything in our lives it made it so much easier for me to connect with that idea especially as i pray to god thank you and have a wonderful new year i think about a lot thank you rabbi climbing for your powerful words but this concept this story it's a lifetime it's a lifetime of recognizing that the wisdom comes from above or from within the god from within of course and when we look up heavenward and we we pray to god in our own language we start to access something that wasn't available for one of the great misconceptions about prayer that people have is they think the only way to pray is to do so with a hebrew book and if you don't speak hebrew then almost by definition it becomes a very different exercise but what do i climb in was getting at from the story of his mother was that really prayer is something much deeper something much bigger i had a chance to catch up this week with dr lisa aiken dr aiken is a clinical psychologist international speaker and author or co-author of 13 books including the art of jewish prayer the hidden beauty of the shema and living to hilum as well as a licensed israeli tour guide check out the conversation i had with dr aiken so dr aiken thank you so much for being on the show with us we appreciate you being here thank you thank you for having me so you wrote a book about prayer it's called the art of jewish prayer and you're also a clinical psychologist so you have an interesting mix a blend of understanding both the spiritual side and the psychological side so i believe that we all want to pray but so often what holds us back is that we don't really know if god's listening and we don't really know if it works so how to get over these obstacles first of all i think it's important for people to realize that um judaism and prayer are not magic and god isn't a cosmic slot machine so a lot of times we assume that if we pray to god he's going to give us what we ask for and when he doesn't we're very disappointed and maybe we give up after that because we say this doesn't work and so if we understand that judaism and prayer are about having a relationship with god we use the same tools and have the same challenges that we have in our human relationships he set up the world in a way that we have human relationships that we can learn from those relationships how to relate to him so if we think about a human relationship let's say a marriage so each person does certain things for the other person and they also have to communicate so in judaism we have the torah that tells us how the relationship has to be had and then we have prayer as the means of communication so if we look at prayer as about only getting what we want it's like having a marriage where we're only using the other person so we have to be partners in that relationship and the same way the first time we meet our spouse you don't fall in love in the first five minutes we have to develop it over time we have to use skills we have to do things for the other person we have to invest in the relationship and we have to be vulnerable we have to disclose our feelings we have to show that we care about what's important to the other person and so the same thing with prayer when we come to god to pray we can't expect that if we don't if we pray for three minutes that you know a miracle is going to happen he's going to appear in a cloud of fire and you know we're going to be 100 sure that he exists we have to work at the relationship and the working of that relationship means talking to him bearing our souls being vulnerable and being willing to hear no as much as we're willing to hear yes so if i only take god in my life when he gives me what i want that's not god we have to believe that there's a higher power who knows more about the world and the universe and what's good for me and what's good for them than i know and so the way we view not having things in judaism is about a vehicle for us to connect to god because if we had everything we needed we probably wouldn't talk to him at all so when we lack something it becomes a motivation for us to talk to him about how we feel and what we're missing and how we need him in our lives and if we believe that he's really powerful then he's the source of all the love and all the things that we're looking for but at the end of the day if we open ourselves up and we ask god for things that we need and he doesn't give them to us the process of prayer is first and foremost a way of intensifying that intimate relationship that we want to have with god it's not first and foremost a way of manipulating him to get what we want right and we also have to accept that we sometimes have to change to be partners in that relationship and to make the prayers effective yeah you know it's it's i want to share with you the feeling that i have in the implications of what you're saying which is what you what i'm hearing from you which is very powerful which is the following the relationship with god is a different relationship than we may be used to that's really just me standing here and speaking to you standing there relationship to god in is the this it's an all-encompassing relationship in which he is all around us and he is delivering for us and we are part of his world and the more we are attuned to his his method of communication which is circumstances and speech of other people to us the more we are aware and grateful of the the godliness around us the more we're able to step into that role and really create the relationship how he speaks so to speak not just how we speak it's a it's a total shift in how one would approach not only prayer but in our general way we relate to god you know it's a beautiful thought that charlie when i work as a psychologist i often tell men and women and couples that they have different languages they have different vocabularies different ways of communicating and god also has a different language and we have to tune ourselves in to the way god speaks to us then we have to be sensitive to hearing his frequency so to speak amazing dr aiken thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today and appreciate your book and all that you do for our people and shabbat shalom looking forward to speaking again in the future thank you charlie have a good shabbat okay that was dr aiken what an incredible different perspective here switching from turning god into i think she said a cosmic slot machine i love that uh or i always say amazon.god to using the things that we are lacking as a way to create the relationship it's very powerful concept a couple more shabbat shaloms to rm shabbat shalom hindi and leia miller shabbat shalom and thank you for the hopefully future viewership on thursday night to um hillary and lawrence hess and fairlawn shabbat shalom the propelled in miami shabbat shalom the simons of phoenix shabbat shalom lay apparel shabbat shalom to um the mervis family in silver spring maryland shabbat shalom to uh bonnie artelli in austin texas shabbat shalom rana salinger shabbat shalom the silverson highland park shabbat shalom adam leff in mount vernon new york eric and elisa hirsch shabbat shalom to you guys rivka tyler patriots rock shabbat shalom to you one more thing very important before we go to the next segment if i am getting your name phonetically wrong please when you say so when you send me the note spell it out for me phonetically i want to make sure when i give you a shabbat shalom getting your name right okay let's go to the next part we've got an incredible video from aish.com it's really about prayer especially as it relates to the western wall and israel and just how much our prayers matter and something that really inspires us so if you've been to ishta isha torah and you've been able to go to the wall and you pass by this room you'll remember this video but otherwise it's a video that can really touch yourself check out this video from h.com [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] and i find it very powerful to think of prayer and the way that it is the quill of our soul how we pray what we pray these are the words that they come out of our mouths and we think that they're meaningless but they're very meaningful every prayer you give every prayer you say this never goes on waste never goes wasted we got incredible couple coming up this week we have the uh the practice inspire dinner and we are honoring an incredible couple with the torah growth award i want to welcome to the show mark and michelle mandelman welcome to our show thank you charlie thank you shabbat shalom shabbat shalom of course thank you so much for being here and of course congratulations on your torah growth award honor that's taking place this monday night thank you so much it's our privilege so tell us a little bit how you got involved with project inspire people may not know of it they're coming to the show for the first time they don't understand i guess the breadth and the reach of project inspire and two you've been around for so long tell us how you got involved and the impact it's had on your life yeah so it really started off with the trips to israel that project inspire sponsors uh for both men and women my wife went on a trip in 2014 uh and then uh that really just sort of lit the fire for us and got us going uh we started continuing to participate my wife pushed me uh to go on a trip and i went with you and spent a week with you in 2017 charlie uh and then i my wife went on two additional trips one was a madrika um and i did a second level trip and but you know project inspire really has gotten us exposed us to such an amazing such amazing learning uh the luncheon learns that project inspire runs the whiskey and wisdoms the shabbatons that we've been to uh the learning that we've done and the growth that we've experienced through project inspire is just amazing and we've met so many friends and and and people um that people have become very very close to because of project our participation in project inspire events and uh which come you know we we wanted to keep the enthusiasm going so we have uh every year we've hosted a reunion dinner for all the bergen county uh trip participants here in our home uh for about five years running and in fact this year was just before coronavirus so we we got it in this year and uh but it's really changed our lives it's incredible incredible and michelle what what how how have you sort of seen the impact that it's made on you and and what what are you seeing out there from your perspective well every friday this show is a must it's like i have to schedule it in i have my exercise in the morning and then this show is like a staple in my diet and it's my spiritual diet you know this show's been going on for 22 weeks it's taken us back all the way to april you know and that's that's what we call a ritual [Laughter] she's listening to the boost charlie when i think about the shabbat show it has such an important impact on our family i see it as another form of learning it's just a in audio-visual learning because just the whole uh segment on prayer how awesome thank you you learn to understand what prayer is if you don't know what it is you know it now um i love learning and i all the different learning opportunities that we have i take in so the one thing that i love is the one-on-one learning that's another reason why i love project inspire because they've set me up with the with the learning partner i learn every week one hour it's better than any shopping uh opportunity that i can have it's great i gotta tell you that it is worth it just for the two of you and to hear your kind words and appreciation you make everything we do worth it thank you so much for who you are mazel tov again on your honor and for everyone who's watching right now please feel free to join us monday september 14th 14th to of course be part of your honor and the guest shabbat shalom to both of you and continue inspiring and shining your light on the jewish people and don't forget to donate this organization needs your money so we can continue to provide informative learning for everyone amazing that's right you go to projectinspired.com right now if you're not going to be there you want to give a contribution please do shabbat shalom thank you so much for joining shabbat shalom thank you charlie amazing it's so great when you have people that care and that are there and that appreciate it's amazing how awesome that is so thank you so much for who you guys are okay it's time for kahoot um this is the time where all the competitive juices begin to flow to my mom i hope that you're logging on this is usually the post uh call this is the shabbat call that we go through 992 7940 last week we had some new entrants into this so uh you should be really careful those who are jumping in right now you got some the key players but it's going to continue to bring up some people as well so check it out go to kahoot.it or get it on your app 992-7940 okay as everyone's pulling into kahoot i want to get a couple of shabbat shaloms in from boston shabbat shalom rivka mansour shabbat shalom and thank you fallon levin shabbat shalom to you to fallon and michael levin in southfield michigan shabbat shalom to ken winkler shabbat shalom and i hope you're feeling good um to jennifer badani from thornhill canada shabbat shalom to the benjiji family shabbat shalom to you um shabbat shalom to jen in georgia shabbat shalom and thank you for your kind words lori heifetz upper west side shabbat shalom the patulski family shabbat shalom the bagoon and bolton family shabbat shalom henya from toronto joel salesman of milwaukee shabbat shalom the duke family in thornhill shabbat shalom shabbat shalom to gail bloom and the blooms in brooklyn shabbat shalom okay here are we ready let's get rolling and let's start let's give everybody one more minute okay let's start let's do it the fun begins right now question one how do you say prayer in hebrew how do you say prayer in hebrew stacey and alan levin ran from maryland shabbat shalom ten seconds ten seconds five yo safe doe ferrell from passaic shabbat shalom here goes oh man that ripped we gotta make our questions harder shabbat shalom wow rift gut diamond the liquid rachel avigdor and mfam remember if you get the answer you get points for the speed let's go to the next question you get points for the speed okay what what is different about the first day rashana this year than most years what's different bigger short of a brisket is there a shortage of brisket first time it falls out on september 18th venus will be aligned with jupiter or the chauffeur is not blown on the first day because it is shabbat what is unique about this year brian risa and brian wolfe from oak park michigan shabbat shalom shabbat shalom five seconds left here we go the answer is chauffeur is not blown because it's shabbat wow people are ripping these through 59 let's see how we do today mervis family ozzy diamond in lakewood maya and avigdor okay let's keep on rolling next question which one of these was produced by israeli producer haim saban see how we just go from side to side homeland charles in charge how's it in charge the power ranger and charlie's angels i don't know if you did this on purpose project inspire by connecting media to uh to me thank you very much homeland charles in charge the power rangers of charlie's angels which of these was produced by hayem saban six seconds left and the answer is power rangers power rangers was produced by israeli producer haim saban let's see how we did on this one maya steps in putney hillary's bro rachel and hillary here we go the fourth and final question chakrit or the morning prayer service was first prayed by abraham isaac jacob or moses who was the first one to pray shakharit shabbat shalom to rosalie weisfeld from mcallen texas who was the first one to pray shaharit five seconds left goes answer is abraham abraham okay let's see how we did great answers this time huge number three rachel s number two putney i feel like putney continues to be part of this leaderboard here and the number one answer is hillary's bro congratulations hillary's bro hillary b i guess that's hillary and patriots rock make the board this we're giving out prizes for uh that has holiday written all over it so check out go to projectinspire.com email them there and they will get you your holiday prizes get it at info project inspire dot com last week we had a a new singer we brought on a guy named tony polanski and his video really touched a lot of people here we found them into one of his great videos so check this out [Music] seems like we're all missing something [Music] when we live without connection it's like [Music] see past the surface [Music] felt like you couldn't go on [Music] somebody [Music] the choice is up to [Applause] [Music] so i love each other [Music] don't you know that you're strong [Applause] don't you know that you're strong and powerful yeah you gotta believe [Music] la la la la la la la la la la la [Music] la la la la la la la la la [Applause] each other [Applause] [Music] everybody long for the day long for the day when we see past the surface that's the game right longing for the day when we see past the surface prayer actually is one of the tools to see past the surface we have a great guest on next by simcoe barnett is joining us on the show rabbi barnett is the educational director of project inspire individual that i had the honor of spending years with someone who i respect greatly we've been to israel many times together and uh someone who has really uh taken upon themselves to really share his life with the jewish people rabbi barnett welcome to the show hey charlie how you doing it's great to have you good to see you it's good to see you as always thank you we're talking about prayer and there's so much about prayer that i want to sort of go through with you here and one is about the interrelation between prayer and desire and ruts own how does that work do you do you pray for what you want is it how does align with their interest in their desires of prayer well listen what i wanted him bringing it bring uh ravi weinberg you know founder of asia torah who talks about taurus client tour for living very practical i know you're a big sports guy so am i the legendary coach bill parcells right new york giants we had hall of fame running back curtis martin back in his days with the patriots right in the beginning he said son i see what you can do i know what you can be but i can't want it for you more than you want it for yourself wow and to me that's such an amazing message because it is what prayer is about it's that we got to know who we are and one of the most essential aspects of prayer is shaping who i am what i want to be it comes from the word pile which means to self-judge so it's reflection to shape that song because charlie we know that talmud tells us that in all made lift me a russo when you know what you want and you dig down to who you are nothing can stop you that's that's point that's point number one you know if i could you know just mention i think the second point is even when you when you've got that red zone what you're about that's when the fun begins right because now it's like okay so what can i do you know when you ask people about fixing world problems they say what can i do who am i and even if i know what i want who am i so robin weinberg would always give this analogy as you know johnny the crane they would say in israel cranes are slapping you know tons of pallets thousands of pounds of building material they bring it into place there's always a guy at the bottom a construction worker just guides it into place so a kid that's standing next to the construction worker can teach superman and we know we know what's the what's the analogy god's the crane all we're doing is putting our hands on the palate so when you know that when you have that awareness which rabbit wiry would just grill into us there's nothing a human being can't do nothing that you can't do you can do that is so unbelievably empowering wow fantastically empowering well you know just just one sorry today i want to say before you continue it just sort of changes the approach like i wanna i wanna react to how i'm feeling right because because i'm hearing you say something i hope everybody's getting this which is this like whole like jewish i'm a nothing inferiority complex i didn't go to this school i didn't go to that school i can't say these words i'm not the rabbi all that stuff what you're saying is oh no you're missing it you're missing it you're you have something inside you prayer is not like can i order something from god prayer is can i align my desire at the highest level recognize that he's my partner and now use it as a tool to to accomplish things in my life that i couldn't imagine otherwise it's a tough one he's bringing you into the family business and he is he's giving you all the resources to succeed but the last point i think is so crucial it really goes back to what dr hagen said so particularly that you can know what you want you can know that god's gonna help get it to you but you got to know the end of the day if you don't know it's about relationship as you always say talking to your dad you missed the point you know about adam's being the torah but all the fruit and vegetables and everything in the world right below the surface and it was funny what i mean get it done what are you waiting for no he wanted man to pray because he knew that was the way god was gonna man through his needs we're gonna call onto god it's not that we need prayer to get our needs met all the way around we need our we need needs so we'll talk to dad and if you miss that that's the real that's that's the epicenter of prayer is you know desire ability and relationship to god amazing and that's such a powerful new approach that even it's a flip and dr aiken said it as well but it's important to sort of stress it here which is when you recognize that you have a need and you're you almost i don't say get excited about it but you almost appreciate it for an opportunity to connect to somebody else and that connection to being the creator it sort of flips what a need even is it's a great way it's a great way of putting it it's almost like even just what i need what about even the negative circumstances the challenges i might be going through you look at it like that you flip it on its head it's like when's the next opportunity this is like you know part of the game for me to score big points right now you know yeah you know it's funny story that i was told once um by famous rabbi but laviative the prediction of a rebbe and he said to his congregation once they had gone through a particularly difficult time and he said if a person has a week with no problems nothing green lights everything is into place you find your keys everyone's good nothing goes wrong for one week go into the synagogue open up the the our own kodesh stare up in god and say god why have you forsaken me it's an incredible perspective in which the things that go on and of course we don't want to go through terrible challenge of course nobody wants a tragedy of course we hope we have a sweet new year but we have to recognize that whenever we hit a challenge um it's an opportunity i want to just remind everybody of course you're going to be at the dinner of course you'll be at the dinner and i want to just remind her can i just say just charlie just one last thing i just want to thank after we're going to project inspire you got to thank for behind samson the founding director just made this whole thing happen and it's the root of pride inspires that idea that you were saying the power of the individual to change the world all of us together how can we not change the world and that's what we're talking about we talk about monday night amazing well rabbi good to see you continue your wonderful work and i'll see you on monday night with god and thanks for watching shabbat shalom okay amazing so powerful these are these are concepts that i hope afterwards we get to like put into our hearts a little bit okay you know it's time for the one and only jamie geller coming up right now charlie thank you so much hello everybody i'm coming to you i'm almost ready for shabbos here as you can see with an amazing challah recipe this one is stuffed with apples for rosh hashanah which is just around the corner it's also a great recipe just for the whole apple picking fall season and to be honest it's an amazing recipe for year-round it's fun it's got a beautiful presentation it's easy to make and i think you're really really going to love this sweet challah for a sweet new year now i just want to say one little funny thing here this week's episode is about prayer and i don't know how many of you know my story but i started out in my career as a non-religious tv producer and my signature dish was burnt toast okay if you need the recipe just enough be in touch with me after but i knew nothing about the kitchen i was raised to be a career woman and not a bala busta so under my choppa under the marriage canopy when i got married i actually prayed for my food that my food would be good and my future husband would love it i really needed help i needed divine assistance and i was told that and now i know that under the chupa under the marriage cat pee is an auspicious time for prayer so i prayed so so hard as i circled my house it's been in the traditional seven times for food never imagining just hoping i'd be able to put out like a decent shabbat meal never imagining that this would be the results of those prayers so it just shows you the power of prayer and uh i want you to keep that and hold that close to your heart always every day especially as we go into these high holiday seasons so i hope you love this gala and make sure to tune in monday night to join us join donate and celebrate at projectinspire.com blacks backsplash lights and you're in for a major major special incredible events shabbat shalom [Music] oh my gosh jamie it looks amazing jamie keller how quickly she makes things that look phenomenal jamie galla for more on jamie go to jamiegallow.com facebook instagram pinterest youtube twitter tick tock jamie geller by jamie of course remember next week will be thursday night check out um the details coming at you of course the dinner please check it out if you want to just donate beforehand or you're welcome to do so here is the final uh the ad for it so please feel free to to check that out and be part of the dinner with us a couple more shout outs for those that are watching through my facebook page um joseph beton shabbat shalom judy hertzfeld shabbat shalom elisa webber shabbat shalom ellie cohen shabbat shalom rana adler shabbat shalom yehuda haskelvich shabbat shalom to you and shabbat shalom um to everybody else and really i want to just uh thank everybody i'm looking forward to our new time i'm looking forward to sticking uh hopefully together with our family it's been so i can't believe it's been 22 weeks can you believe that i cannot and it's amazing uh being able to uh to be with you guys during this period of time as the sun sets we enter into the best time of the week this is it this is the moment where it all shifts and you know like every week every topic is connected to shabbat shabbat's a time of prayer because shabbat's a time where we get to go deeper prayer is not about saying words that are meaningless because we're scared the creator like needs us or he's going to hurt us like that is so not judaism judaism is so not old and tired it's so fresh and dynamic prayer is the ability to talk to god and the reason why shabbat is so critical for that is because sometimes we're just too busy we take that time here and time here and time here but on shabbat we like slow down and when you come to shabbat and you have the meal and it's after maybe after the meal or in the morning whatever it is it's an incredible time to stop what we're doing and to really look up and connect to say what's on your heart we have this tradition for those of the guys that come on the trip you know that we go down to the western wall for the first time we speak about how god is our dad we're our mom he's not god's not a human but god's a loving parent and sometimes we live in a world where they've mischaracterized him really some of us have been through institutions when we're younger and they mischaracterize him they make god scary because when you make god scary it just keeps you in line keeps us obedient god's not scary he needs he deserves respect there's an awesomeness to god but he's not scary there is no better time in our lives than this shabbat the last one of the year to begin a new relationship to deepen what we've had what we have with god to ask him not only for the health and happiness of our family but to ask him to help us get closer to him to help us appreciate the sweetness of this relationship to ask him to enable our eyes to see deeper than the physical enable our heart to feel more than just what our bodies desire to be to enable our ears to hear things that empower us to enable us to connect to him and to see challenges as ways to connect like rabbi barnett said to see to see the power of our soul there's nothing better than to spend shabbat connecting with our loved ones and to include god in that inner circle so as we get to the last shabbat of the year the last shabbat of the year i'm excited for the new year we should be we should have the we should be worthy of a great new year next week on thursday night we'll have our show about rosh hashanah but i want to wish you one more time from me and mine to you and yours shabbat filled with peace of shavat filled with perspective with wisdom with prayer with purpose where we stand before our dad in heaven and speak to him in the way that he loves the way a child would speak to a loving parent the way you'd want your kid to speak to you may this be a shabbat that is the end of the year and it may be the greatest one that we have until now and may everyone afterwards get even better thank you for being a part of this family and with all my heart i wish you shanata a good shabbos and a shabbat shalom cannot wait i hope and pray that next week when we do our rosh hashanah show we can do it in the streets of jerusalem but if not with god's help i can't wait to see you next week [Music] my [Music] you