The Three Weeks: Change the World - Rabbi David Orlofsky

[Music] Y pointed out that it says when we enter A of we lessen our sa And I had a friend of mine who had a wonderful mind at being able to see, you know, those those cute little contradictions in life, you know, and he said the happiest day of the year is approaching. He says the happiest day of the year is how does you figure it says when you enter you increase your and nowhere does it say to stop. So you get happier and happier through ad through nissan through tamuz and then when you hit a it says which means that you're going into a at the peak of your happiness and then you get more and more depressed till now that's obviously not correct but it is one of those cute kind of observations and uh and the fact of the matter is that sim is a very uh a very difficult thing under the best of circumstances. is uh when I was teaching in Orak there was a fellow there who lived in theim and I remember he came to me after class and he says I don't know what to do he says someone in our was killed in a terrorist attack they're going to have the funeral today and then there's a young man in who's getting married tonight says how do I go from one to the other and the truth of the matter is that that is the constant challenge of a Jew constant challenge of a Jew to be able to go from tragedy to and back and forth forth. Um, raonim do this on a regular basis. They go to a bris, then they go to a funeral, then they go to a laa, [Music] then they go visit someone in the hospital, then they go to a wedding. You know, there's our lives are complex. The world is complex. And uh even even in tragedy, friends of mine had to go to a Levia once and they were saying, "What the you say on your way to a when you have to travel?" And it says we should bring us to our destination basimra. So he says I'm going to a funeral. How am I going to go bas? And he himself said to me he says because you can have a multitude of emotions at the same time. I could be sad that I'm going to a funeral and I could be happy that I got there alive. So uh so life is complex. Having said that, right, the three weeks that began on Shabas, it's kind of interesting, you know, um I spoke at a Shivas Tamuz event on Sunday. I said that's a little tricky because today is the 18th of Tamuz, not the 17th. The 17th was Shabas. Yeah. There was a I remember when I was a kid, they had a they had a riddle. Is there a Fourth of July in England? Yes. And a fifth of July and a sixth of July. The question is the 4th of July means the independence day. Is there an independence day? The answer is no. There is no independence day in England. I had an English student who said to me, "There's only two dates that every English student has to remember." 1066 and 1966. 1066 was when William the Conqueror captured England from the Anglo-Saxons and began modern England. 1966 was the last time England won the World Cup. Now, since we're Americans, I have to explain that the whole world plays soccer except for us. Everybody plays soccer. It's a major sport and they take it very seriously. If your team is in a game in the World Cup, you can't reach anybody in the country. Everybody is watching that game. And there was a story in in Colombia, a guy had kicked the ball into the wrong goal and when he got off the plane, they shot him. You know what I'm saying? They take this very seriously. And we most Americans really could care less because we only care about Americans. You know, they say what what's someone who's triilingual? Someone who speaks three languages. Bilingual, two languages. Monolingual, American. You know, we don't we care. So, we take one American baseball team and play another American baseball team and call it the World Series. You know what I'm saying? That's it. you know, so uh so even though Shivasamuz was Sunday, what we mean is there's a concept called Shivasamuz just like there's a concept called tb. I remember during the first Gulf War, I had been living in Israel for about three years and we were under imminent missile attack. I don't know how many of you have been under missile attack. It's really very nerve-wracking. you know, you go out with your family and you pick up, you know, um, gas masks, you know, adult gas masks, children gas masks, and little gas cribs, which are these little rectangular plastic bags that you stick the baby in and roll it up, you know, and, you know, and they give you out nerve gas shots and stuff. It's really very nerve-wracking and people were very nervous and they asked Orbach, the great saint of Jerusalem. If you want insight into him, my friend wrote a beautiful biography called from Jerusalem his word. He was close to Mam and they asked Mam and what's going to be and he says I'm not a Na'vi or the son of a Nvi, but I promise you the following. The coalition gave Iraq the deadline of January 15th to pull out of Iraq. I'm telling you that on January 16th, the Jewish people are going to say halal. And this year, we're going to eat meat on Tishb. And the word spread through the streets of yushim said the day after the deadline we're gonna say halal and we're gonna eat meat on tish. Then somebody realized that January 16th was kodesh. We always say halal and that year tish came out on chabas. But for a while there we were really very excited you know to have a little fun at our expense. But anyway, but uh you know, but but tisha and shas are concepts beyond merely the date. The date gives us an idea. But these three weeks are a time of uh of you know tragedy for the Jewish people. It always has been. Yeah. And we tend to repeat events. Uh let me explain what I mean by that. You know, time brings with it certain opportunities just like place does. You know, you go to the beach, you have certain opportunities. You go to a gold mine, you have certain opportunities. Go, you know, to a holy place. Mishna Caleb says there are 10 levels of Kadusha, you know, the first being the land of Israel, second one being cities that were walled from the time of Yahushua, the third being, the fourth being the B mikdash, and it continues on until the 10th level, which is Oman. Um but uh I'm just basing that on the fact that I know there are people who leave us and go to Oman. So it must be it is the 10th level but anyway but um actually the mission doesn't say it says the kosh the holy of holies but okay whatever yeah that each place places have opportunities in them just as time does. Let me ask you a question. Can you do chuva anytime you want? If a person wanted to do chuva right now could a person repent? Sure you could. So what's so special about yam kipper? Okay. So, if you take a childproof cap that only children can open, right? Because my age, I can't open them. You give them to little kid. Could you open this for me? Sure, grandpa. Boom. Pops it right open. Yeah. But so, you know, if you line up the two arrows, at least theoretically, you could open it very easily. Let's say the arrows aren't lined up. Could you open it? Yeah. Get a pair of pliers and rip it off. Take a knife and cut it open. You could still open it, but it's much harder. At certain times, there are greater opportunities. So this is what happened in history 3,300 years ago give or take. Yeah. Moshe goes up the mountain on shuis 40 days and 40 nights comes down with the luos first set of tablets and finds that we had built a golden calf. He breaks the lucos. He says you guys are in really serious trouble. I'm going to try to get God to forgive you. Goes up for another 40 days and 40 nights. comes down and says, "Okay, God's not going to draw destroy you, but this shakant there's a dwelling in your midst. That's not going to happen anymore." And Moshe took his tent and set it up outside of the camp and called it the Oh, Moade. And the cloud went over it and said, "Me and God will live out here. You guys stay in the camp, have a good time, and you know, do whatever you want to do." And the people said, "No, we want that opportunity again. We want to get back what we lost." You know, we we have the concept that we can almost always make up for something that we did, but it's not really true. Sometimes it can't, right? Sha Melik, King Saul lost the kingship, never got it back. You know, Tishab, the decree was made. And even though the next day the people got up and said, "We're really sorry." And they they, you know, put on their weapons, they got ready, God said, "It's too late. Too late. You blew it." But in this instance, God said, "Yes." And Moshe goes up for another 40 days and 40 nights and bring down the second tablets, the second lus on Yamipper. And that is the Torah that we have today. The Torah we were supposed to have, we never got. That Torah was destroyed. When he broke those first lus, the second lus were not the same lus. Yeah. I'll give you a simple example. The medish says there were supposed to be holidays and tamuz of an el and they were removed because of the sin of the golden calf and all of them were moved into tish. So in the Torah there would have been holidays and of those are gone. Those are gone. Those those aren't going to happen. So the Torah that we have today is different. Don't read carved. Read freedom. And this is what the the say freedom from death. Freedom from forgetting. Freedom from the freedom from that would have been it. That would have been the messianic era. We would have moved out of this world back into Ghana. Back to the way it was before did their first sin. It would have been a world back in completion. We lost that. And that was Yam Kipper. And then what happens? We say we're going to build a Mishkan. We spend days collecting and they start building it on sukis. That is why says the villagian we celebrate the anonyo the clouds of glory because they returned when we started to build it. We put it up on roesh nissan and the princes all brought their offerings and brought their offerings and then we had pesak and then the people who had said I want another pesak. We had pesi on the 14th of year and then on the 20th the Torah says we began a dramatic march to three days and the people said are we there yet? I'm tired. And they complained. And then after they complained about the trip, they said, you know, I haven't had a steak like in forever. And then we had the whole story of the meat. And that went on for a month. And then we had the story with Miriam. And she was locked up outside of the Mah for a week. And the people didn't travel. And now at the end of uh Sivan, we're ready to go. And the people say, let's send out scouts and check out the land. And they went out. They returned on the eth of of gave their evil report. That night the Jewish people cried and God gave the decree that we would all die in the desert. That was the end. So the events that we commemorate on the 17th of Tamuz and the 9th of were actually separated by more than a year but they are the same event. That's what Rashi says in at least four places. God said you're going to be in the desert for 40 years. He predated it a year. Why? Because when we built the golden calf, says Rashi, he already thought to make this decree. It was already and this he was just waiting till it was finished. The Moragim and the was a one-two punch. Yeah. He says it a number of other places. Both places you find that he uses the yudgimidos, the divine attributes. You know, in both places, uh he brings the argument, what is Egypt going to say? There's a lot of similarities in the two stories. However it is, we see that historically these two events are related. So that in the second basikdash, the second temple, they break through the walls on the 17th of Tamuz and they set fire to it on the 9th of O. Those three weeks were a period of time of tragedy and destruction. Now, because we're here and we're not in Israel and the temple has not been rebuilt, I would say it's safe to assume that when the 17th of Tamuz came around once again on some level, we built the golden calf and Moshe broke the lus. And we now have less than three weeks to see whether or not we're going to cry for no reason and give up hope. Yeah. and and and God's salvation. And if we're going to make the same mistake of tishb, we have for the past 3,300 years. That's why we are where we are. Yeah. I think it was Winston Churchill who said, "Man will occasionally stumble upon the truth, but he usually picks himself up and keeps going." Yeah. We we know that there are problems. We know that there's something that we have to do. But very often I tell something to somebody and they say, "Yeah, easier said than done." I said everything's easier said than done except for krishma. That's the only thing that's just as easy to do as it is to say. But otherwise, you're right. Of course, it's easy to say. But if we could at least understand what the problem is, if we could put our finger on the point and we could actually figure out what it is we're supposed to change, then maybe we stand a better chance. So there's a question everybody asks that I don't really understand and that is how could the da mudbah the da this generation that saw the exodus of Egypt and heard God speak how could the generation like that build the golden calf? I don't understand the question and I'll show you why. If you look at the text I understand the question. If you look at Rashi I don't understand the question at all. In fact I don't understand shvet ley. I don't understand the people who were not participating in the building of the golden calf. Yeah. So let's read the story the first way so that it you know makes our heroes look bad. The people saw that Moshe delayed coming down from the mountain and they assemble to Aon but God Moshe had left Aon and in charge where was that killed him. Yeah. And they say to build us a god to go before us because the man Moshe took us out of Egypt. I don't know what happened to him. Aaron says, "Take your wife and your daughter's jewelry and bring it to us. Rashi says their wives would not give them the jewelry, so they brought their own jewelry. The dascanum says their wives wouldn't give them their jewelry, so they ripped it off of them. Okay. Yeah. Doesn't look good for our heroes, right? And Aaron made a molten calf. This is your God, O Israel, who took you out of Egypt. And saw it doesn't say what he saw. And Aaron built the altar and he says, "Tomorrow will be a holiday to God." All right. So, you're right. Sounds pretty bad. You take a look at Rashi. He paints a completely different story. Yeah. Kibos Moshe Moshe gave them a sign. [Music] Um, when I go up the mountain, I will come back on the 40th day by the sixth hour by noon. They thought the first day that he went up counted. And so they thought that not the 17th but the 16th was the 40th day. And on the 16th the came the stirred mixed confused. How exactly we translating that word? [Music] Um and showed them the appearance of darkness, deep darkness and arvuia. um mixture confusion again they said they said Moshe must have died and that's the reason that this is coming to the world one more rashi Moshe because this man Moshe The Sultan showed them Moshe dead being carried up to heaven. Okay, let's put this into context. Moshe says to the Jewish people, "Here's the plan. God's going to speak to me the Ten Commandments, and I'm going to tell it to you." And the people said, "No, no. We want to hear God speak ourselves." And he says,"I don't think that's a good idea because if you're not on the level for that type of prophecy, it can be a wrenching experience." You have any idea how difficult that is? Abraham was not spiritually developed enough. When he had a prophecy, he was shaking on the ground. It was so difficult for him. Yeah. And that wasn't even so to speaking God speak. That was just a he got a image and he had to understand it. You're talking about hearing God talk like like he talks to me. punt him upon him face to face if you're not on the level you're not going to be able to sustain this and they said we don't care we want to hear it anyway says okay prepare for three days they gather on the mountain and Mosha standing up there and Hashem begins to speak whatever that means obviously he doesn't have a voice it was some sort of an unbelievable prophetic thing where the Torah tells us they saw the sounds and heard the sights it was something out of our s our conception and God spoke which means that he revealed himself to them and he said, "I am the Lord your God that took you out of the land of Egypt." Bam, they all died, but everybody except for Moshe Aron Chevy. Everybody was dead. Mosha's looking around at the entire Jewish people wiped out kind of, you know, making the man a little nervous, you know, and God brings them all back to life. Now, I don't know what that's like to die and come back to life. You know, Voldemort tried to describe it, but I I don't know if he really did justice to the experience. You know, I mean, you're so ripped out of you, but I don't know. But, uh, they all died. Came back to life. Devastating experience. Everybody okay? Yeah, I think so. Okay. You ready? Yeah. All right. Do not have any gods before me. Bam. They all die again. But everybody dead. Mosha says, "Wow, this is starting to look bad." God says, "Don't worry. I do this all the time." Yeah. Brings everybody back to life. Yeah. little woozy. Mo says, "Your guy is okay." Yeah. Yeah. Only eight more to go. And someone in the crowd says, "You know, I'm thinking. How about instead God speak to Moshe and Moshe speaks to us?" "Yeah, great idea." And Mosha says, "Don't you want to hear God?" Nope. We are convinced. Very impressive. Yeah. But you only die twice, I think. In fact, I don't even know if that was a what it call movie. James Bond. You only live twice. Yeah. But uh I died twice. I think that's really quite enough. You know what I mean? So uh so we trust you, Mosha. Yeah. So Mosha speaks to the last eight of the Dros. And then he says, "You guys going to be okay?" Yeah. Okay. I'm going up now to get the L. Hurry back because they're a little nerve-wracking, right? We're sitting around this mountain with fire and flames and God and and it's like, whoa, you know, I just dropped dead twice, you know? So, uh, so Moshe walks into the midst of the flame and the smoke and the Jewish people are somewhat nervous because they're thinking to themselves, could you imagine if we had to face God ourselves every time we need a hala, you know, is this bor? Bam, you're dead. You know what I mean? To wait and see if God brings you back to life, you know what I mean? I know people who pass out during halum, but this is a whole different experience, you know what I mean, what we're used to, you know? So he says, "Uh, okay." Moshe goes up and they're waiting and they're waiting and they're waiting and comes what they think is the 40th day just about at noon time and the entire world begins to collapse. Now they know what this means because Rashi says clearly that Moshe wrote down the entire Torah from Berius till matra and gave it to them. So they came to the pekk in peric alifi the 16th of excuse me the sixth of if you accept the Torah good and if not I will return the world to to vu to emptiness and nothingness emptiness void whatever you want to translate ated and darkness and if we don't accept the Torah the world is going to unravel voker there was mixture confusion chaos boer is seder as rashi says light and darkness were mixed together every time I see that rashi what does that mean can I even imagine that was a checkerboard was like waves you know I can't even imagine how darkness and light exist the same time without boundaries, you know. So, whatever it was, everything was mixed together and God gave it the rules of nature. He organized everything. Very, it went from a state of disorder to order, right? And now they're seeing they see and and they see the universe unraveling. They see the time space continuum coming apart at the edges. I don't know what it looks like when the universe itself disintegrates, but it cannot be good. Yeah. And the people are seeing this and they're saying, "Uhoh, we're in trouble." So they run to Aaron and say, "Do you guys see what's going on here? You know, the entire universe is collapsing." And says, "Please return to your tents. There's nothing to see. Please disperse. Now, we're trying to save the universe. And who is blocking us, right? We've seen this a dozen times. You know, it's our job trying to stop James Bond from diffusing the whatever it is. There's always the bad guy you got to fight before you get to the bomb, you know, and save the universe, pull the switch, whatever the case happens to be, you know. So, they kill because he's in the way. And they say to Aaron, "Iron, you're a nice guy. But take a look up there. There's your brother Moshe." And he's dead. Now you're nice, but you ain't your brother Moshe because when we all drop dead, you drop dead, too. So if Moshe couldn't do it, Hish Moshe, then no human being can do this. We need something to use to communicate with God, something else like a Mishkan. And this golden calf was nothing to to take lightly. The Kazal say they pulled it down from the kayak, whatever that means. This was a very powerful thing. How powerful was this thing? Just to put into a context for you. Yeah. The has a parish on and he says the following. The stick came and beat the dog. Meda says that the dog was parro and the mata was the the stick was the mata of Moshe. And came the fire and burns the stick. What's the fire? The fire that burnt the B mdash ended the effect of the mata because the mata took us out of Egypt let us build the mishkan. The mishkan turned into the ba mikdash and when that was destroyed then the mahalik of the mata was over to the point that the migillah says that the Jews asked do we still have to keep the Torah? If a man divorces his wife does she still have the right to demand that he listens to her. God ended that. That's all over. Our house is gone. Everything's over. So comes the Torah, the water, the anzah and brings it back. But but the whole mahalak of the mat ended at that point. A strange thing, very strange. Yurat takes apart, brings the 10 northern tribes, makes the northern kingdom, they make him king. And the son of Schlommoik, he remains king of Yehuda and Binyam. And Yurovim gets nervous that when the base of Mikdash, you know, you have to go there in Sukis. So the people will go to the base of Mikdash and they'll become reattached to the southern kingdom and he'll lose uh his control. So instead of the base of Mikdesh, he builds not one but two golden calfs. If there is one thing that should be in the collective subconscious of the Jewish people that you do not build, it is a golden calf. And he built two of them. Why? For exactly this reason. He said, you know why the people were wrong when they built the golden calf? Because they thought Moshe was dead and he wasn't. But if he was, if that had been disqualified, then the next fallback plan is the golden calf. And now that Bavid and the Basa Mikdash have been disqualified, the next fallback plan is a golden calf. And that's why even when they got rid of all of the Avodzora, they never got rid of those two golden calfs. The Sim says over and over again because Nat was the greatest Torah scholar and he gave this argument and it was so convincing that everyone so this golden calf wasn't a simple thing. They brought it down. They thought it was an unbelievable thing that they had accomplished, right? So uh so they said okay listen Iron you're either with us or against us. So he says okay you know who is dead I could say no they'll kill me and they'll do it anyway. Stall for time I'll stall for time. So he says okay go and ask your wives and daughters for their jewelry. And they come home and they say honey I need all your jewelry. He says why? He says because we're going to build a golden calf. Said no I don't think so. Says yeah yeah because Moshe is dead. No he's not. We saw him dead go up to Shayim. No you didn't. Yes I did. And and and the whole world is falling apart. No, it's not. Yes, it is. Look out the window. You know, the entire world is collapsing. No, it isn't. You know, husbands understand this. Wives sometimes can be so completely unreasonable. You know, even though to us it's obvious, we we know. We know the truth. We don't have to ask any questions. We just know. You know, if you don't believe me, um I'm going to have to go back many many years, you know, into ancient history. Before there was ways, there was a GPS. Before there was a GPS, there was what was called a pencil and paper. And you used to write down directions. Uh most men did not do that. Most men would say, "I'll know it when I see it." And they would be driving in the Catskill Mountains. They would come to a Tjunction, 44, 45, 54, 55, one of those roads. It's trees as far as you can see in both directions. And they're looking and they go, "It's to the left." Wife says, "Why don't you ask somebody?" I know. And they drive with absolute confidence, three miles, four miles, five miles. And then the resolve becomes a little shaky and they say, I think it was the other way. And they drive back five miles. And then they start driving. Oh, now I'm right. Three miles, four miles, five miles. No, no, I was right the first time. And they drive back. There are still people from last summer still going back and forth every time. Another few miles, you know. And the wife is unimpressed by the man's obvious command of the situation. And they'll say, "Why don't you ask somebody?" Because women are okay with that. Men will not. Men already know. But my Shapiro says, you know, men want an impact on the world. So what will they do? They'll read the paper and then they'll yell at their wife. I don't understand what Obama thinks he's doing. Doesn't he say what's going on in this deal? Is crazy other than that. Now they saved the whole world. They yelled at their wife. They explained the geopolitical situation. Now it's all done. You know what I mean? But women uh women are okay not really understanding all the details how it's going to work out. It's okay. Yeah, promise. That's because the word am aim, mother, is related to the word amuna. Because as Rahutna explains, a little baby's in a crib. He can only see from here to there. That's it. So that a baby who's nursing can see his mother's face. That's as far as a baby can see. Yeah. and you're lying on your back and all you can do is flail about with your arms and legs and you're hungry and you're cold and you're and you're dirty and you're lonely and you start to cry and out of nowhere these hands come and pick you up. You're like, "Cool, I'm going to cry more often. Let's see how far we can push this thing, you know." So, uh because that's how we learn a muna. We learn a muna from our mothers, you know. So, they were not taken in and they said, "We are not giving you the jewelry." And according to Duskum, they said, "I'm taking it anyway." Oh, I hope those were clipons. And they come up with all the jewelry. And they said, "Oh, your wives gave you the jewelry." No, we ripped it off. Oh, that makes sense. All right, we'll throw it all in and then we'll set up a committee to decide what to build. Aaron was no idiot. This could take weeks, you know, put out coffee and cake. You'll have to, you know, elect officers and also take suggestions, you know. I forgot who said the quote, but a camel is a horse designed by a committee. You know what I mean? Like, you know that we'll talk about it. We'll discuss it. But of course, Mika was there. Mika, who Moshe had pulled out of the wall as a baby because he told God, "I know better." And Mika has the little golden thing that says Al Shore that Moshe used to bring up Yoseph's uh coffin. And he throws it in and out comes the Aigel. And that is what Rashi says on the Pikon. And Aron saw what did he see? It was alive. Out jumps this golden calf walking and talking and eating grass. And the entire world returns to normal. Now come on. If you were there and you pushed for the building of this and you saw you just saved the universe, you wouldn't give yourself a we saved the universe. That's great. I I would like to you know what can I say? It's to my mind if I was there I would have for sure been on the side of the a hill. Luckily, I'm a Cohen, so I know I was on the right side, but uh it's easy for me to talk. But gosh, when you read these arguments, you see Moshe dead. You see the universe collapsing. How did Shiv Ley stand up to this? How did Yoshua miss the Ael? The only member of who missed it. Moshe is praying and fighting with the bar who saved the Jewish people. Is lying dead. Aron stalling for time. Shy is screaming stop. The air of Rav is making their magic. You know the the Diego's walking around. All of Clay was confused and Yahushua is just standing there waiting for Moshe. He has no idea anything's going on. Oh, look. There's Moshe dead going up to heaven. Anyway, you know, oh, look at that. All the stars are exploding. Mountains are collapsing. Seas are boiling. Anyway, just waiting for Moshe. He's totally so that by the time that Moshe comes down, he says, "Hey, sounds like there's trouble in the camp, Batman." You know, he says, "I don't know. Doesn't sound like a war to me. Let's go check it out." You know, he had no idea what was going on. He was the only one to miss the whole agel. How do you see all these events taking place and it doesn't affect you? And let me ask you a different question. I don't think this is fair. You know, the the Sultan has to play fair, doesn't he? You know this is this is a ridiculous test. You see Moshe dead. You see the universe collapsing. You know what did you expect at that point? Well let's try to understand that part. Let's go back to Ganed a cast of three Adam and God says to Adam, why did you eat from the tree? And Adam gave the answer that men have been giving for 5,000 years. It's my wife's fault. And he says to Kaba, "Why did you eat from the tree?" And he says, "What can I do? The devil made me do it. This the tricked me and and I fell for it. You know, it's not my fault. He wasn't fair. He tricked me." So God says, "Okay, I'm going to start giving out punishments." And the Nash says, "Excuse me, I didn't have my day in court." Says, "We're going to start with you, Nish." He says, "I'd really like to say something in my own defense." He says, "Okay, I'm going to cut off your legs. You're going to eat dirt. We're going to smash your head in." He goes, "Okay, I'm really going to say something now. You know why I did it? You told me to. You told me go into the garden and tempt mankind, and I did it in record time. I should get a promotion and a raise, and instead you smash my head and make me eat dirt. You know how hard it is to eat dirt with your head smashed in?" I don't understand. It's like they say in the unions, don't work too hard or you'll lose your job. You know what I mean? Here, I did a great job and I'm getting punished. So God said, "You did a great job. You did too, got a job." So when you and humanity are on the same level, it's fine. But now humanity has fallen. If you stay up here, it's no contest. Take a fourth grade girl, a tough fourth grade girl, the toughest girl in fourth grade, and put her up against a heavyweight champion. It's not really a contest. He'll just like punch it through the wall. You know, in universities, they make uh make short films. There are awards given out for these short films. I don't know all the awards. one caught my eye. It was called Godzilla meets Bambi. It was a very short film. Yeah. Essentially, Bambi comes out, looks at the little butterfly, looks up and goes and a big foot comes down and squashes Bambi and that's the end of the film. Yeah. It's not much of a contest. You know, that's what it would be like if we're over here and the Sultan is over here. You don't stand a chance. That's why you have a garum starring people with like Rebi Aka and Rebi Mayor where the Satan comes to get them to sin and turns into a beautiful woman and this one's swimming a a river and this one's climbing a tree and he turns back into the satan and he says just remember Aka I could get you anytime I want but God doesn't let me. You're going to fight the we're going to fight the destroy you. I will crush you like an eggshell, little man. Crush. You're gonna fight the Soawat. God says, "Listen, what can I tell you? I can't make you as powerful. I'm going to cut off your legs and I'm going to uh tie your arms behind your back and you're only going to be able to come from behind and because if I ever released you to your full power, nobody wouldn't stand a chance against you." But what happened at Hari? They reached the level of Adam before the original sin. They were now and what was Eden. So it says he ate from the eightas. It's always interesting the sadas. He ate from the tree of knowledge and now he had knowledge. The ka says that when Adam was created he saw from one side of the world to the other. He was created with all knowledge. He could look at an animal and tell you everything about it and based upon that give it a name. He had total understanding of the universe. He knew everything. It was a slow deterioration for us to get to where we are today. The the Garra says that even before the flood, a baby would be born just like a little baby horse comes out, stands up and starts walking and ning kneing right away. Nighing right away. That's how a human being was. A little kid would come out, walk across to him and get the the knife to cut the cord. You know, he say, "You have to cut the cord sometime." Kid did it himself. You know, it was no problem. Bye, mom. You know, you need anything as long as I'm up. You know, and that was it. When in Ghana, it was a world imperfection. The the the bread grew on the trees. You didn't have to do anything to it. It was perfect, you know. They they uh they had everything. You understand the Nish had to work pretty hard. And what was there was the eight hadas to ver not the difference between good and evil. Anybody can tell you the difference between good and evil. Eight had to ra. What does the word do mean? No. Any of my former students want to jump right in? So I'll tell you how I define it. I have my own definitions. Yeah. I always tell used to tell the girls when I used to teach I'd say the goal of life is to become independent thinkers but on the test write down what I say then you can have your own thoughts. Yeah. Rashi says kma is acquired information. You memorize the encyclopedia you you memorize the library of congress you know uh you know whatever it is you have all the information. Bina is how you understand that knowledge because you could have knowledge and come up with different conclusions. All right. Guy cut a took a pulled a a leg off of a spider and said crawl. And it crawled. Pulled off a second leg. Third, fourth, fifth. He was down to one leg. And he tells the spider crawl. He crawls. And he pulls off the last leg. He says crawl. It didn't crawl. And so he concluded that when you pull all the legs off of a spider, they go deaf. You know, so that's that's beina. You know, you can you can have the facts and come up with the wrong conclusions. You know, I don't know what side you're on, but if you watch either one of the conventions, everybody's coming up with wrong conclusions. I don't know who's right. I don't know who's wrong, but they can't. Not everybody can be right, not everybody can be wrong, and not about everything. So, you know, there's there's different conclusions that a person can make when you have information. But once you come up with conclusions, those conclusions is called das. When I say anodea and I say I know, I am defining my sense of reality. That's what das is. When I say I know, I'm defining how I perceive reality. Now, people throw around the term I know and they don't really know. And the best case of where a person doesn't know is when they say it twice. I know. I know. Then they for sure don't know. Yeah. When when a person says I know for real that it becomes a part of me. It's a total then if it turns out that that das is not true it's like cutting off a part of your body right so people who know things they don't really integrate it to that point right I'll give an example when I went to school they didn't really have Pluto the planet not the dog yeah and so the way we remember the planets was Mary visits every Monday and is for the asteroid point and just stays until noon then they found Pluto go. So, okay, they had to work fast. Mary visits every Monday and just stays until noon. Period. But, okay, that was a little lame. So, they came up with a new one. My very educated mother just served us nine pies, right? Very nice. Uh, now it turns out Pluto is not a planet. I haven't found anybody who's upset about this. I said, you know, Pluto's not a planet, but for me it's not a big deal. I just take off the period. And you know how silly everybody else feels? My very educated mother just served us nine That's it. That's it. They're left hanging. So, I tell people plan Pluto was a planet. It's not a planet. Nobody really cares. If you would have told me the whole thing was just a smudge on the lens, I'd also be okay, you know. Nobody cares if there is a Pluto. It's not a Pluto. It's a planet. It's not a planet. You know, but if you found out you were adopted, you know, that would be very upsetting to you. I used to say this, you know, said, "What if you were adopted?" He says, "No, I'm definitely not." How do you know? My parents told me. Ah, they didn't want you to feel bad. No, but my aunt told me. She's in on it. No, but they have I look just like my parents. What do you think? They were going to adopt someone who doesn't look like you, you know. Yeah, but I've got baby pictures. Well, they took you from your birth mother. Of course, you have baby pictures. You know what I mean? Anyway, at this point, they get a little uncomfortable. They don't want to talk about it anymore, you know? But things are like that. And if you really think about it, you know, um maybe you're just a brain in a petri dish and you're receiving electrical impulses and you're imagining your existence. I would say to one of my seminary girls, you know, what's your name? They said, "Name? Where do you come from?" I said, "It's not true. You're a 45year-old non-Jewish man in Kansas and an insane asylum. You're hallucinating that you're a Jewish teenager. But I'm hoping with therapy and drugs we can get back to your state, Mr. Smith, you know. No, that's very uncomfortable because let's say it turns out to be true. You understand? Like that would really, really, really upset my opportunities. Anyway, talk about a crisis. Anyway, so I know this 45year-old non-Jewish man in Kansas. It's like a mess. You know what are you going to do? But uh but when you really know something and that turns out not to be true, it's wrenching. So das is my sense of reality. Dastove is reality. Das rah is illusion. And you could know illusion just as well as reality. And our hold on reality is tenuous at best. 1985 I was a NCSY chapter advisor in Los Angeles in 1978. 1985 one of my former uh NCSY was getting married. I decided to go out for the shabashvas. I brought my son who was one month old and you know at that age really only a parent can understand and he told me I mean at least I understood that he wanted to go to Disneyland. So um you know you want to make a child happy. So, I took him to Disneyland and uh they had just opened the haunted house and okay, so the ghosts are running around and everything, you know, and as you're leaving, there's a sign. Don't pick up any hitchhiking ghosts, which by the way is always good advice, even if even if you don't see a sign. Yeah. So, as our little car is leaving, there's a mirror and I see us and in between us is a ghost. And so, what do I do? Now, I'm a relatively intelligent person. Yeah. I look down. There's no ghost there. Of course, there's no ghost there. And then I look back at the mirror and he winks and waves at me. So I look a second time because that's how powerful an illusion is. An illusion is so real that you that that you buy into it so completely that you just don't even realize it. It becomes part of you. You you don't know people who are more attached to films and literature than they are to the to real life. A guy said to me, confided in me. He said, "I cried when Dumbledore died." If you haven't read the series, I'm sorry. I just He says, "I cried when Dumbledore died." And then he looks at me and he says, "I didn't cry when my grandfather died." I said, "That's because you weren't as attached to him as you were to Dumbledore. you were much more invested in his life and his existence, you know, you cared more about Dumbledore, you know, because you buy in. There was a very powerful book by Richard Bach called Illusions. It's a short book and very powerful about this guy who is a crop duster, you know, in the Midwest and this, you know, godlike character comes and says that you're really a god and you came down to this planet and you forgot who you are, you know, and he's trying to remind him and he takes him into a movie, his favorite movie. And it's reaching the end of the movie and he says to him, "Why are you here?" He says, "Let me just watch the end of the film." And he asked him again, "Why are you here?" And he keeps asking him until the guy says, "Be quiet." At the end he says to him, "Why was this so important to you?" He said, "You know, that wasn't real. That was just light flickering on the world, the flickering on the on the on the wall. And you know that those the guy over there who got shot, he's not really shot. He's he's living in Hollywood. He's doing very fine, you know." But you were so invested in that flickering light, that illusion that it was more important to you than a real person who's sitting here talking to you. You know, that's what happens. We get caught up into the illusion. That's called das ra says shan per gimmel that because of this power you could think that good is bad and bad is good is good is bad right what would be bad how about embarrassing somebody in public would that be bad I would say that's that would be bad but you see this situation play out more often than we care to realize yeah Somebody decides to tell somebody off right in front of everybody and like really rank this guy out and give it to him over their head. And you see everybody is embarrassed and he says or she says, "What do you think? I'm doing this for me. I'm doing this for all of you. He's taking advantage of everybody. You know, I'm standing up to him. I'm doing the right thing. I'm embarrassing him in public and I'm a big sadic." Because we can see something bad as being good. What would be good? I mean, there's something something bad is good. would be good. How about giving charity? Good thing charity uh you know saves you from death, you know. Um I'm not advertising any particular charity, but if there was one, let's say that was teaching Torah to, you know, people around the metropolitan area and and making activities and you know, things like that, you would certainly be worthy of our support. But I'm not talking about anything particular. Anyway, listen, what all all I could say is that in the midst of we need anyway. So with a Q anyway, so for bananagrams, but anyway, so um so okay, so uh giving stuck, what's the worst thing you could do? It says in four levels, right? You don't give and you encourage other people not to give. That's a Russia. That's what it says. I was in a shul in. And a guy came in to collect. I didn't know him. Nobody knew him. You know, it's not like in some neighborhoods where you get a letter. You know, guy came in. I don't know. Maybe he's sick. Maybe he can't work. I don't know. Maybe he's got a sick kid, needs an operation. Unfortunately, that happens all too often. You know, maybe he's just running back and forth and uh you know uh visiting his his his sick wife in the hospital. I don't know what his story is, but this one member of the congregation is following him around as he's collecting, telling people, "Don't give him money. You're just enabling him. Let him go out and get a job." So, here's a guy in Shul wearing his talis and fillain telling people not to give stark and he thinks he's a sadic because that's the power of illusion. We can look at something bad and think it's good and good and think it's bad and it's just as equally real to us as anything else. That's called it's called illusion. When we reached our we reached the level of before the illusion went into them before the das all there was was dastove and god opened up all the raikas and said take a look is there anything here there's nothing here he opened up the home take a look down is there anything here there's nothing there look in all the directions look everywhere in the sea there's nothing right you are in complete contact with reality okay satan now you're back to full power Yes. Ah, it's great to be back. Let's have a little Dead Mosha action over here. Let's have a little the universe collapsing. Ah, I love my job. Yeah. And he's creating all of these illusions. If your hold on reality is strong enough, you will not be fooled by these illusions. And if it's not, then you'll be suckered into the illusion. Yahosua was in total contact with reality. It didn't matter what he saw. He knew what the truth was. And he knew this couldn't possibly be happening. But you have to be pretty strong in your convictions. Noah Weinberg Zatsalo the founder of Ahaturra used to give a mushel. You're sitting on the plane. You're going home. Sits down next to a guy and he says, "Where do you live?" Flatbush. Me too. Where? Uh Avenue K. Hey, me too. Where? Between East 22nd and East 23rd. He goes, "I can't believe it. That's my block. What's what's your name?" Mosha Cohen. I'm very funny. My name is Mosha Cohen. So the guy looks at you, pulls out his passport, your name, your address, his picture. He pulls out his driver's license, your name, your address, his picture. He pulls out his library card, your name, your address, his picture. He brings out a family photo and he's standing there where you're supposed to be. Okay. I don't talk to him the rest of the flight. I don't even uh borrow his pen to open up my special kosher meal. I'm just ignoring him. We get off. We get our luggage. We take a taxi. We get home and I see him walking into my house just ahead of me. So I go to the door, knock on the door. Hello. H excuse me. Misha. Because I have a son, Mosa. No, no, I'm Misha. And the other guy pokes his head out and goes, "Mom, this guy was right next to me on the plane. He's not well." She says, "I'm sorry, young man. and I can't help you and shuts the door. What do you conclude at that point? I've asked this to people. I'm crazy. I didn't know it until this moment, but I'm obviously crazy. That's how strong I hold on reality is. I've lived 18 years and because I've just been presented with a set of circumstances I can't understand. That means I've imagined my entire life. But you don't know who you are. You don't know what you've gone through. How could that possibly be? You know, there's got to be any number of explanations. Maybe they're aliens. You know, maybe uh this is a CIA plot. Maybe someone's got a gun to my mother's head. I don't know. Find an investigative reporter, a couple of car chases, and we'll work this out. You know what I mean? But I know who I am. How strong is your hold on reality? What does it take you to give up on what you know to be true? How many people won't sell out? Somebody once said to me said, ' Ry Alaska, you have integrity. I know you wouldn't sell out. I said, 'n no one's offered me enough yet, that's all. You know what? Do you think I can't be bored? And it just, you know, I have too much pride to be bored for a small amount. So, who knows? Anybody Anybody knows how strong their conviction is? What's it what's it going to take for us to to the illusion to shake us out of what we know to be true? We all had a point time in our life when we had dreams when we believed something we knew what the truth was and bit by bit we become like everybody else. It's it's a true statement. Most people do what most people do because that's what most people do. And to be true to your beliefs and be true to what you know is important, you know. Okay, I'll give you an example myself. Yeah, I I I try not to talk in sh I try not to and sometimes people come over to me people who are more respectable than I am and you know raon and they start to talk to me I try to ignore them you know I just go and they start asking me like direct questions that you know seldom do I have enough confidence to say to them I'm sorry but I I don't talk you know Even though I don't even though I believe it's right you know the I'm not discussing the particular issue but I know girls who have certain standards of you know dress for themselves right wrong or indifferent doesn't make a difference and they'll sometimes compromise that for whatever reasons they are you know don't we don't we all want to fit in don't we all want to be part of the crowd how many people want to be the one who stands up and and and be different even though it's what we believe in even We're following what we know to be reality and we'll sell it out. We'll sell out reality for any number of things and we'll live an illusion. So people look at other people's marriages and they say, "Oh, they have a much better marriage than I do." I say to her husband, you know, why can't you be like Yankee? Yankee helps so much and Yankee doesn't go because, "Well, maybe if you were like Shai, I'd be like Yankee because Johnny, yeah, but that's because Yankee and Shy, you know, and everybody's kids are better than our kids. You know what I mean? in, you know, they're so well behaved, you know, until, you know, they're so nice, they're so polite, and then one day they're in prison, you know, I mean, you know, it's like because you don't know, you don't really know, you know, but we have a fantasy. We build up this whole fantasy in our mind, you know, if only I had that, you know, uh, you know, the way many people date, you know, they do so much checking, you know, so much checking to make sure and and they go through it and they discuss and by the time they go out on the first date, they're already married with two kids, you know what I mean? and it's one date, you know, and then, you know, one of them says, "No, it's not going to work out." And they're going through a divorce, you know what I mean? Because they've already been married for two years, you know what I mean? Because in your mind, we build it up. We build it up, you know, and and what's really important, what's really important to us. And often the most important things slip away, right? Have you ever heard anybody say in their 50s or 60s, I wish I could live my life over again. Why didn't you live it the right way the first time? Because I wasn't I thought I wanted something else. I thought I thought I didn't realize I didn't realize what reality was. I didn't realize what was really important to me. When I was teaching into the intro program, which is mostly collegiates, this older gentleman walks in and I say, "Can I help you?" He says, "I'm joining the intro program." I said, "Really?" He says, "Rabbi, I'm 82 years old. If not now, when?" And I thought, "Wow, it's 82 and I'm going to start now." You know, okay, that that's good. Imagine if I started at 22. Imagine if I lived the life I wanted and I saw reality and I did what I know to be true. You know why we built the Ael? Because we were fooled by the illusion. And that was the same sin and tish. The people came back and said, "We can't do it. It's too hard for us. We can't capture the land. The people are too strong and the cities are too strong. And it I don't have to go back to ancient time. Read the firsthand accounts of what happened in the Yum in in the in the six- day war. There was one Israeli soldier with a broken gun and he captured 500 Egyptians. A true story. It was it was documented. He jumped out. He says, "Everyone drop your guns." And they did. I was like, "Cool. All right. Follow me." You know, we look at something. I saw a bumper sticker once. I saw one bumper sticker. It made a real impression on me. It says, "If you can read this, then you're tailgating." But there was another one that said, it said, "The impossible is the possible that hasn't happened yet." You know, before uh they broke the four-minute mile, Jim Thorp was it Roger Baster. when he built until he broke the four-minute mile. It was a given that you can't break the 4-minute mile. Once he did, half a dozen people did because everyone thought it was impossible. Once they saw it was possible, you know, we think it's impossible. You know, you can change the world. One person can change the world. You know, I know it sounds a little overdramatic, but who do you think is going to bring Mashia? I mean, we're the cream of the Jewish people. We're the ones who are here on an evening to become to be able to hear a Torah lecture because we care. And that's the most important thing. They did a survey. They the the question was, "Would you agree that the two biggest problems affecting the Jewish people is ignorance and apathy?" The number one answer was, "I don't know and I don't care." You understand? You know, so we're here tonight because we're the ones who care. Who do you think is going to bring Mashiah? It's going to be us. And it's just going to take a little bit. We're at the end of time. Bigger people than me have said this. It's going to take a little push. You know, all we have to do is take that same energy, that same concern and shake away the illusions. It's the next step that defines who we are. It may not be the the best source to choose, but as Bill Boagan said to Froto, "Be careful when you step out of your front door because the same road that goes through the Shire leads to the lonely mountain." How very true. Yeah. It's the next step that we do that that's going to determine the the the course of Jewish history. And we don't ever realize it. And I'm not talking about, you know, diving with such cavana. You know, that's a good thing, don't get me wrong. I'm talking about saying hello to somebody, right? You ever read Chicken Soup for the Soul? There must be 18,000 people who didn't kill themselves because somebody said hello. You know what I mean? You you smile. You help somebody out. You give a little something. You do you give a little bit. We care a little bit more. We have the power to shake off those illusions. And when we do, if we during this time of year where we're recreating the events of the past 3,300 years, I don't think Z was just having fun with us when he said this year we're going to eat meat on tishabove. That's this year too. I'm not going to tell you there won't be tish. Just like I won't tell you there's no Fourth of July in England. There'll be a tishov. But it's a tishabove whereas the Gmorra says you can have a suda melik. We can eat a eat a shabas meal with the finest finest foods and then go from there to welcome messiah. We can do it. All we have to do is shake off those illusions. Thank you very much.