The Soul of Israel: The Secret to Swimming Upstream

[Music] Shalom everyone welcome to the soul of Israel on Malanda bezel calm on the land of israel network this is rabbi Katz I'm joined with my dear brother by Ari Abramowitz and we're in the we're in the rush towards freedom we're in the rush towards Pesach which I'm sure you all can sense in the air and and we're not just speaking about the cleaning that you're thinking about or that you're not thinking oh you're trying not to think about we're speaking about the opportunity that peso has for us and that's the opportunity to be alive that's the opportunity to give our children life that's what pays us all about it's an opportunity of stopping everything and asking myself where in my life does the fact that I'm created in the image of God does it play any role in my life for real and what does that even mean and all these a lot of heavy statements to start a show with but there's so much in my heart I wanted to share and and I hope and pray that each of you really realize how precious it is that you feel so precious in our eyes you feel that because every time you've reached out after our shows and shared your heart it always always always creates the energy for the following shown after last week's episode I got so much I don't even discuss it with you Ari I got so much mail I got so many letters and so much an outpouring of love and and this longing to to feel that it's possible to become free and that's what I wanted to talk about today and because this coming Shabbos it's really when the beginning of this freedom truly truly opens up because this coming Shabbat it's the big first day of the month of Nisan it's Rosh Chodesh and we know that our state sages have told us Ben is an eagle no Reuben Nisan at Adina Higa L in Nisan we were redeemed story of Passover and in Nisan in the future we will be redeemed again and there's something in the air and I'm not talking about elections I love I please God which be redeemed from being slaves to to elections being slaved whatever it anything other than you were gonna show them and even with you II don't want to be slaves wanna be but this coming Shabbos we also read what's called Parata flourish we read there's four special segments we read an additional to the regular Torah portions in like the month and a half before Pesach and this Shabbos we read about Parshat ha'qodesh which is the reading of the first Mitzvah that was given to us in the Torah which is the sanctifying the new the new month Kadosh Levana Hadassah lehem Rosh Chodesh Shem and the word month in Hebrews the same letters as kadosh kadosh kadosh meaning that we we welcome in the new month by talking about newness by talking about rejuvenation by speaking about renewal I once heard a phrase by the grand rabbi of the dynasty of Kobrin it's a Hasidic dynasty that doesn't really exist anymore but the coroner to be said like this whoever thinks that there's a mitzvah that's big enough that prevents a Jews longing to renew himself in his service of God has not stepped on the doorpost of Judaism meaning if you think that you did something in your life that's large and that's big enough to separate you from the opportunity to renew yourself then you have no idea what Judaism is now I can't tell how many times that statement is actually saved my life not as a cop-out god forbid but as something very real and essential in my understanding of what it means to be in a lively service of Hashem lively service of God where was this Mitzvah of renewing yourselves of being in charge of time where did it come where was a Brit given to us we were still in Egypt we were still slaves we were still on our we were on our way out we weren't fully free so our classic masters explained to us that this Mitzvah was given to us Daphna there while we were still in a state of somewhat slavery because God was telling us listen you're gonna feel like you're gonna be a slave in your life many times slave to addiction slave to Las slave to jealousy slave to people's opinions and someone would come to you and talk to you about coming close to God and refining your soul and you'll probably say no no I first have to become a clean clean person in order to discuss such beautiful ideas and God says doesn't work like that it starts when you were ready when you're when you're still in the mud when you're still in Egypt when you're still surrounded by everything that goes against what you want and I know this is easier said than done because it's easy to say these statements but to actually act on them these are big things that's why you we need to pray while we're learning today's you know what we're saying today it's got to come with the prayer I mean our IDI do you feel that you want to smack me in the face right now or do you feel like please call me when I need to hear this you know which one the latter come on just the latter I never want to smack you in the face yeah what you're saying is really striking deep because even you know new you become new let's say we have Hashem answers are diving right and this record ish is a new one so we hold this is what I find for myself I hold on to the newness but then the newness gets old right and and then you need another influx of divine assistance because that actual real core spark of what is new you can't engineer that it can only come from above and that leaves you feeling a little bit helpless I think I don't know if that was so you even become a slave to renewal yes that's pretty yeah that that that just means that we have to deepen the concept of what it means to be to be renewed some people think that means I need something different all the time I need to travel somewhere else to feel new or I need to do something right to change something physical and myself in order to feel that that newness I gotta tell you I I see I've seen people that look like they're wearing the same clothes for 60 years and they look like they haven't made any fashion statements ever and they live in the same place in the same house and I if I don't know if I would be permitted to swear I'd swear they're the most renewed people I've ever I could ever imagine so so what is it so what what makes a prison he defined as someone that has the power of renewal what is it so I learned a beautiful teaching by a bigger of Rabbi Biederman Biederman has this he's a he's a rabbi lives in Bnei Brak and I encourage you all to find his stuff online Wellsprings Wellsprings i is what he puts out every single week Hebrew English and Yiddish and he brings our attention when when we discuss on the concept of renewal to DAF Coutu what makes what classifies fish as kosher and what what's like tahor and what's not to her by fish because not all fish are permitted to be consumed rape be eaten this is an amazing thing one of the signs semen a Tara one of the signs of purity by a fish or fish that have snappier Vikas Cosette and we love those words of funny words it's not P R Vikas Cosette means fins and scales he says why Daka is it that a fish that has fins and scales alludes to seem Anita Hara signs of purity because with fins and scales it provides the fish with the ability to fly to go upstream o negatives air him against the the flow the current rain he says that's a Simon of a doctor and there's a opinion in the in our sages that says a fish that does not have the ability to swim upstream it's not kosher now this is like the this is this says it all this says it all you're not the power of renewing us the power of renewal is that whatever is happening in the world I have the ability to swim against it Meeny this is also the meaning of what Avraham Avinu was he's known as a rama every in an every a hebrew means the hebrew the hebrew but it also means forever on the other side zaza i say just tell us what made adam Avram was that the whole world was on one side and I'm Raveena's on the other side and he can swim also up stream upstream meaning he can go he can go directly up like not opposite but he can although all the rhythm of the world is going one way but my heart tells me something else that I can actually do that that's someone that is seeking renewal all the time and III honestly believe in my heart of hearts this is one of the hardest things to really hold on to in times of need because a person that's given up on life it's because he's given up on the concept that he'd be able to be like a like a hook like a pure fish that has fins and scales they have none and even if you have fins and scales you get too tired and say I can't use it anymore alright sometimes it feels like the flow of the river is so strong it's not even good we can't even swim against it you just have to surrender to it absolutely like I look at especially an American jury American Western culture it's so overwhelming here it feels overwhelming looking at it imagine being immersed in it you know it's just it's it would take a miracle to be able to swim upstream within that environment right now you know somebody have to remember like some things we don't have to choose like you could choose to not swim in that ocean as well but it takes a lot of cough to renew yourself to choose to not swim in that ocean well but whatever it is God tells us when we start this march toward Seder ha ha - ah sale ahem it's in your hands it's in your hands to know what to do with time how to utilize time you're not a servant that you can use the time that God gave you in this world to sanctify it and say no matter what's happening in this world I can choose right now with all my heart and soul to be like that Finan skills or I could say it's already decreed that I'm like this you know can imagine how many leaders we wouldn't had we wouldn't have had in the years that could have legitimately justified their non-renewal energy in the world due to what they've seen think of how many people chose fins and scales and hop and how easily they could have said it's too big for me what I went through in this world it's just too much I mean this country was built by so many people who throws fins and scales were cut off by the Germans and yet they come here in 1946 47 48 and every day since then and saying I'm renewing my concept of what it means to believe in myself this is the land of renewal it's me it renews itself every single day right now as we're recording right now it happened last week and we're hearing it again we hear a tractor right now at a nearby mountain a mountain that's renewing itself by bit by building homes for Jewish people to dwell in their homeland the concept of renewal is all around us in this country all the time and that's why I really connect what you said before but that the sense of renewal is meat siient it's a it's from here it's from this this is the headquarters of renewal it's the place that please God fashion doesn't dictate to us what what it means to be in or not in the whole world says one thing and it's not that we go against it because we like to Daphna people but it's just that's not our rhythm we're something else and that's why we read Parshat Hakodesh as they like him that God tells us listen you're still in Egypt I'm giving you a mitzvah you know what that Mitzvah is sanctify your time choose right now what you want to do with the next five minutes and that's what I want to advise all I listeners right now when you're done with this choose right now don't let what you think the world is dictating to you to do to be that which you have to do choose right now how you're gonna sanctify the next five minutes sing a song for five minutes write a nice letter to someone for five minutes say some to helium Psalms for five minutes go on a walk without air buds without without the earphones and just breathe in nature but sanctify the next five minutes that's your key to freedom that's your key to becoming a free person and that is the true path towards renewal what you choose to do with the next five minutes Oh [Music] tune into inside Israel today here in the Land of Israel Network where we have been introducing the world to the candidates running for Knesset from the merits party on the far left to the old smile deep party on the right from the Likud to the blue and white party from the Labour Party to these a hoot party we at inside Israel today have been interviewing politicians from across the political spectrum we're running in the April 9th election tune in to inside Israel today on the Land of Israel network on the Land of Israel calm