The Three Weeks: Change the World - Rabbi David Orlofsky speaking for CHAZAQ!

[Music] you have pointed out that it says when we enter of we lessen our semra 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 of it says when you enter our other and nowhere does it say to stop so you get happier and happier if you are there through Nissan through ER through Sivan through Thomas and then when you head off it says which means that you're going into AV at the peak of your happiness and then you get more and more depressed till other 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 simcha is a very uh a very difficult thing under the best of circumstances when I was teaching in North America there was a fellow there who lived in the stockhim and I remember he came to me after class and he says I don't know what to do he says someone in our issue of was killed in a terrorist attack they can have the funeral today and then there's a young man in North America who's getting married tonight he 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 would you to be able to go from tragedy to Summer and back and forth um do this on a regular basis they go to a bris then they go to a funeral then they go to a lavaya 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 Phil said Eric right that's really you say on your way to uh when you have to travel and it says we should bring us to our destination so he says I'm going to a funeral how am I going to go by simcha 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 I can be happy that I got there alive so uh so life is complex having said that right the three weeks that began on Shabbos it's kind of interesting you know um I spoke at a shavasa the tama's event on Sunday I said that's a little tricky because today is the 18th of Thomas not the 17th the 17th with Shabbos yeah there was a I remember when I was a kid they had a riddle is there a Fourth of July in England yes and a fifth of July and the 6th of July the question is the Fourth 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 then 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 trilingual someone who speaks three languages bilingual two languages monolingual American we don't really 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 shavasa batamas was Sunday what we mean is there's a concept culture vastavatamas don't think there's a concept called Tish above I remember doing 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 for swamas one of the great saint of Jerusalem if you want insight into him my friend teller wrote a beautiful biography called from Jerusalem his word he was close to reflement and they asked for someone what's going to be and he says I'm not a Navy or the son of a navi but I promise you the following the Coalition gave Iraq the deadline of January 15th to pull it 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 Tish above and the word spread through the streets of yushalayimu Zaman said the day after the deadline we're going to say hello and we're going to eat meat on tishov and then somebody realized that January 16th was we always say halal and that year Tish above came out on Shabbos but for a while there we were really very excited you know social assignment to have a little fun at our expense but anyway but uh you know but but tishiva and chivasa matamus are Concepts Beyond merely the date the date gives us an idea but these three weeks are a time of of you know tragedy for the Jewish people it always has been yeah and we tend to repeat events let me explain what I mean by that you know time brings with it certain opportunities just like Place does you know we go to the beach you have certain opportunities you go to a gold mine you have certain opportunities so you know to a holy place Mission and Caleb says there are 10 levels of caducea you know the first being the land of Israel second one being cities that were walled from the time of yahushua the third being yushalayim the fourth being the base of and it continues on until the 10th level which is uman um but uh I'm just basing that on the fact that I know there are people who leave you shalim and go to uman so it must be it is the 10th level but anyway but um uh actually the mission doesn't say it says the koshika dosh and the holy holies but okay whatever yeah that each Place places have opportunities in them just as time does I'll answer your question can you do chuva anytime you want if a person wanted to do tuba right now could a person repent sure you could so what's so special about Yom Kippur okay so if you take a child proof cap that only children can open right because my age I can't open them you give them to a little kid could you open this make sure Grandpa boom Bob's it right open yeah but see you know if you line up the two arrows at least theoretically you could open it very easily once in the arrows aren't lined up could you open it yeah get a pair of Plies 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 shrewis 40 days and 40 nights comes down with the luchos first set of tablets and finds that we had built the golden calf he breaks the little house 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 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 Ohio moate 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 a concept that we can almost always make up for something that we did but it's not really true sometimes it can't right King Saul lost the kingship never got it back you know Tish above 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 let's do it 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 Lucas and Yom Kippur and that is the terror that we have today the Torah we were supposed to have we never got that tour was destroyed when he broke those first lujas the second Lucas were not the same Lucas yeah I'll give you a simple example the medrish says there was supposed to be holidays and tamus of an elu and they were removed because of the sin of the golden calf and all of them were moved into District so in the Torah there would have been holidays and Tom was of anello those are good that was a gun 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 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 gun Aiden back to the way it was before Adam and Khan did their first sin it would have been a world back in completion we lost that and that was Yom Kippur 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 villaganian we celebrate the anania covered the Clouds Of Glory because they returned when we started to build it we put it up on Rush Nissan and the princes all brought their offerings and they see him brought their offerings and then we had pesach and then the people who were Tommy said I want another pay sack we had paisakshaney on the 14th of year and then on the 20th the Torah says we began a dramatic march to Earth's Trail 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 Machina 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 eighth 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 and that was the end so the events that we commemorate on the 17th of tamus and the ninth of 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 other and this he was just waiting till it was finished the maraglim and the heita ego was a one-two punch yeah he says a number of other places both places you find that he uses the yud gimmomidos 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 base on mikdash the second temple they break through the walls on the 17th of tamus and they set fire to it on the ninth above 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 Thomas came around once again on some level we built the golden calf and Moshe broke the Lucas 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 God's salvation and if we're going to make the same mistake of tishma 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 Karishma 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 was 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 this generation that Surah 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 shaved Levy 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 but yeah um the people saw that Moshe delayed coming down to the mountain and they uh symbol to our own but God Moshe had left iron and her in charge where was horror that killed him yeah and they say to our own uh bill is a God to go before us because the man motion 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 because Rashi says their wives would not give them the jewelry so they brought their own jewelry the Das Kingdom 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 yum this is your god or Israel who took you out of Egypt foreign 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 kiboshish Moshe Moshe gave them a sign um [Music] when I go up the mountain I will come back on the 40th Day by the sixth hour by noon sha Allah Menominee 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 button and on the 16th the Saturn came the ayurved a Olam stirred mixed confused how exactly are we Translating that word um and show them the appearance of Darkness deep darkness and arvuvia mixture confusion again they said Moshe must have died and that's the reason that this avivia is coming to the world one more Rashi because this man Moshe moisha foreign the Satan showed them Moshe dead being carried up to heaven okay let's put this in the 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 avraham 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 was even so to speak hearing God speak that was just a he got a image and he had to understand it Good Thing Man hearing God talk like like he talks to me pun 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 he says okay prepare for three days they gather in the mountain and Moshe is 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 sign our conception and God spoke which means that he revealed himself to them and he said I am the Lord you got the two greater land of Egypt bam they all died but everybody except for Moshe our own uh shave it Levy everybody was dead Moses looking around at the entire Jewish people wiped out kind of you know making a 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 don't know if he really did Justice to the experience and having you so ripped out of you but I don't know but uh they all died came back to life a devastating experience everybody okay yeah I think so okay you ready yeah all right do not have any guys before me bam they all die again but everybody dead Marsha says well this is starting to look bad God says don't worry I do this all the time yeah brings everybody back to life yeah a little woozy which says yo guys okay yeah yeah only eight more to go and tell me in the crowd says you know I'm thinking how about instead God speak to Moshe and Moshe speaks to us yeah great idea how much 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 uh what do you call it movie James Bond you only lived twice but uh I died twice I think that's really quite enough you know what I mean so uh so we trust you Moshe yeah so Moshe speaks the last eight of the dibros and then he said you guys going to be okay yeah okay I'm going up now to get the Little House hurry back because they're a little nerve-wracking I was sitting around this mountain with fire and flames and God and it's like whoa you know I just dropped dead twice you know so uh so moja walks into the midst of the flame and the smoke and the Jewish people are somewhat nervous because they're thinking themselves could you imagine if we had to face God ourselves every time we need a halacha you know is this borea bam you're dead you know what I mean the wait and see if God brings you back to life you know what I mean I know people who pass out during halacha but this is a whole different experience you know what I mean than what we're used to you know so he says uh okay emotion 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 voracious tomatan Torah and gave it to them so they came to the possic in peric alephe the 16th of excuse me the sixth of Sivan if you accept the Torah good and if not I will return the world to toe overvo to emptiness and nothingness emptiness void whatever you want to translate it and darkness and if we don't accept the Torah the world is going to unravel [Music] there was mixture confusion chaos Boker 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 I was a checkerboard was like waves you know I can't even imagine how Darkness and Light exist at 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 it went from a state of disorder to order right and now they're seeing our Vivia and and a failure 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 uh oh we're in trouble so they run to Iron and Cora and say do you guys see what's going on here you know the entire universe is collapsing and of course says please return to your tents there's nothing to see please disperse now we're trying to save the universe and the is blocking us all right we've seen this a dozen times you know it's odd job trying to stop James Bond from defusing 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 killed because he's in the way and they say to iron 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 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 because I'll say they pulled it down from the key say I covered whatever that means this was a very powerful thing how powerful was this thing just to put into a context for you yeah the the guardian has a parish on the idea and he says the following the stick came and beat the dog Meijers rabba says that the dog was pyro and the Mata was the the stick was the Mata of Moshe and came the fire and burns the stick what's the fire Urban by his region the fire that burned the best ended the effect of the Mata because the Mata took us out of Egypt let us build the mishkan the mishkan turned into the base and mikdash and when that was destroyed then the whole mahalak of the Mata was over to the point that the government 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 dollar and brings it back but but the whole mahalas of the Mata ended at that point a strange thing very strange European benavide takes apart Carl Israel brings the ten Northern tribes makes the northern kingdom they make him King he remains king of Yehuda and binyam and Europe gets nervous that when the base of mikdish you know you have to go there in sukis so the people will go to the basement and they'll become reattached to the southern Kingdom and he'll lose uh his control so instead of the base of magdesh he builds not one but two golden calves 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 full-back plan is the golden calf and now that base dovet and the base of mikdash have been disqualified the next full-back plan is a golden calf and that's why even when they got rid of all of the avodazora they never got rid of those two golden calves the same from Allah says over and over again because remember in the vat was the greatest Torah Scala 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 unbelievable thing that they'd accomplished right so uh so they said okay listen Aaron 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 stole for time I'll stop 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 says why he says because we're going to build the golden calf I said no I don't think so it says yeah yeah because Moshe is dead no he's not we saw him dead go up to shemaim 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 gonna 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 the pencil and paper and you still write down directions 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 tea Junction 44 45 54 55 what are 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 the 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 ah 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 man we're 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 now this deal is crazy man now they save 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 now women are okay not really understanding all the details how it's going to work out it's okay I couldn't Sparkle promised that's because the word aim mother is related to the word amuna because 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 gonna 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 moon from our mothers you know so they were not taken in and they said we are not giving you the jewelry and according to this Kingdom they said I'm taking it anyway oh I hope those were clip-ons and they come up with all the jewelry and they said oh your wives give you their jewelry no we ripped it off oh that makes sense all right well throw it all in and then we'll set up a committee to decide what to build iron was no idiot this could take weeks you know put out coffee and cake you don't have to you know elect officers that wants to take suggestions you know so 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 mijo was there 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 sure that Moshe used to bring up yosef's uh coffin and he throws it in and out comes the ego and that is what Rashi says on the posic and our own soar what did he say 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 we saved the universe that's great I I 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 eagle luckily I'm a coin 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 Chevy stand up to this how did yahushua miss the eagle the only member of kaiso who missed it Moshe is praying and fighting with the Kurdish bar who saved the Jewish people who is lying dead our own stalling for time Chevy is screaming stop the air of Rob is making their magic you know the the Eagles walking around all of clients was confused then yahushua is just standing there waiting for Moshe has no idea anything's going on oh look there's more 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 motion 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 it doesn't sound like a war to me let's go check it out you know he didn't have no idea what's going on he was the only one to miss the whole ego 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 sudden 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 but let's go back to guy Nathan a cast of three other 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 why did you eat from the tree and he says what can I do the devil made me do it yeah tricked me and I fell for it you know it's not my fault it wasn't very tricky so God says okay I'm going to start giving out punishments and then says excuse me I didn't have my day in court he says we're going to start with you nahras he says I'd really like to say something in my own defense he says okay I'm going to cut a few 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 there with your head smash then I don't understand it's like they're saying the unions don't work too hard or you'll lose your job you know what I mean Harry 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 you 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 of 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 Bigfoot 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 southerners over here you don't stand a chance that's why you have a gamara starring people with like rebia Kiva and rebby Mayer where the Sutton comes to get them to sin and turns into a beautiful woman and this one's swimming a river and this one's climbing a tree and he turns back into the Satan and he says just remember Akiva I could get you any time I want but God doesn't let me you're gonna fight the eight Sahara we're gonna fight the Atara the eights are going to destroy you I will crush you like an eggshell little man crush you're gonna fight the it's a horror so Ella white God says listen what can I tell you I can't make you as powerful I'm gonna cut off your legs and I'm gonna uh Tie Your Arms behind your back and you're only gonna be able to come from behind then because if I ever released you to your full power nobody really Akiva wouldn't stand the chance against you but what happened to harsinai they reached the level of Adam before the original sin they were now Adam and Gane then then so it says he ate from the eight sadas uh it's always interesting they hates from the Tree of knowledge and now he had knowledge 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 gemara 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 then kneeing right away right away that's what a human being was a little kid would come out walk across the room and get the the knife to cut the cord you know you say you have to cut the cord sometime the kid did it himself you know there was no problem bye mom you know you need anything as long as I'm up you know and that was it when in Canada it was a world of perfection 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 I understand the knockers had to work pretty hard and what was there was the eight hadass Tove not the difference between good and evil anybody could tell you the difference between Good and Evil ra what does the word das mean no and in 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 I 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 is a quiet information you know 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 right guy cutter took a pulled a leg off of a spider and said cool pull over second leg third fourth fifth he was down to one leg and he tells us by the curly crows and he pulls off the last leg he says Crow it didn't Crow 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 Beena 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 know who's wrong but not everybody can be right not everybody could 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 aniyodea 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 a person says I know for real that it becomes a part of me then if it turns out that that does 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 at the planet not the dog yeah and so the way we remember the planets was Mary visits every Monday and Anderson the asteroid point and just stays until noon then they found Pluto so okay they had to work fast Mary visits every Monday and just stays until noon period but okay I 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 blue is 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 thought people pla 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 that you were adopted you know that would be very upsetting to you I used to say this you know I said what if you were adopted it 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 want 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 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 it's their name where'd he come from I said it's not true you're a 45 year 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 now that's very uncomfortable because let's say it turns out to be true because they're like that would really really upset my opportunities anyway talk about a of Crisis anyway so I know this 45 year old non-jewish man in Kansas it's like a mess you know what are you gonna do but uh but when you really know something that turns out not to be true it's wrenching so Das is my sense of reality Das tov is reality Das ra is illusion and you could No 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 NCS fires was getting married I decided to go out for the shabasheva rachas 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 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 I look down there's no ghost there of course there's no ghost there and then I look back in 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 but you just don't even realize it it becomes part of 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 to me he said I cried when Dumbledore died if you haven't read the series I'm sorry 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 weren't as attached to him as he were at The 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 it 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 god-like 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 wall and you know that those the guy over there got shot that 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 than 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 but because of this power you could think that good is bad and bad is good bad is good 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 making fun of everybody and like really rank this guy out and give it to him over the head and you see everybody is embarrassed and he says well 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 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 basically what would be good how about giving charity no thing stuck him in a Mother's 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 making activities and you know things like that would certainly be worthy of our support but I'm not talking about anything particularly anyway anyway so let's look for the queue anyway so for Bananagrams but anyway so um so okay so uh uh giving stuck what's the worst thing you could do it says in picking up as four levels right I remember 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 school in Jerusalem 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 a 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 see here's a guy Ensure wearing his talented villain telling people not to give stuck up and he thinks he's excited 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 Das ra it's called illusion when we reached our Sinai we reached the level of Adam but for the illusion went into them before the dasara all there was was dasto and God opened up all the rakias 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 at all the directions look everywhere and you see there's nothing right you are incomplete contact with reality okay Satan now you're back to full power ah it's great to be back let's have a little dead Moshe action over here let's have a little Universe collapsing ah I love my job yeah and he's creating all of these illusions if you 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 yahushua 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 used to give a martial 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 we're between East 22nd East 23rd and goes I can't believe it that's my block I'm very funny my name is Moshe 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 is 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 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 um excuse me Maisha because I have a son Maisha no no I'm Maisha and the other guy pokes his head out and goes mom this guy was right next to me in the plane he's not well she says I'm sorry young man I can't help you and shuts the door what do you conclude at that point I've insisted people I'm crazy I didn't know it until this moment but I'm obviously crazy that's how strong our 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 uh 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 finding a guest 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 he said well I'll ask you of Integrity I know you wouldn't sell out I said no one's offered me enough yet that's all you know what do you think I can't be bored and I 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 gonna 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 and 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 and show I try not to and sometimes people come over to me people who are more respectable than I am and you know Rabbi and they start to talk to me I try to ignore them you know I just go and they start asking me like the right questions that you know seldom do I have enough confidence to say to them I'm sorry but I I don't talk control you know even though I don't even though I believe it's right you know the I 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 we all want to be part of the crowd how many people want to be the one who stands up and and be different even though it's what we believe in you know 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 will 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'll say to my husband you know why can't you feel like Yankee Yankee house so much and I keep thinking of men because well maybe if you were like shoddy I'd be like younger because Johnny and then that yeah you know and everybody's kids are better than our kids you know what I mean you know they're so well behaved you know until you know they're so nice they're so polite and one day they're in prison you know what 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 someone's checking to make sure and they go through it and they discuss and by the time they got 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 their 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 saying in their 50s or 60s I wish I could live my life over again I'm wanting to 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 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 I thought well 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 eagle because we were fooled by the illusion and that was the same as Sin and tishov 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 in it I don't have to go back to ancient time read the first hand accounts of what happened in the young in the in the Six Day War it was one Israeli soldier with a broken gun and he captured 500 Egyptians the true story 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 right if we look at something I saw a bumper sticker once I saw one bumper sticker 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 Thorpe was it Roger Bannister when he built until he broke the four minute mile it was a given that you can't break the four 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 me here I mean we are 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 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 understand you know so we're here tonight because we're the ones who care who do you think is going to bring mashiach 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 may not be the the best source to choose but as Bilbo Baggins said to Frodo 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 course of Jewish history I mean you don't ever realize it and I'm not talking about you know traveling with such cavana you know that's a good thing don't get me wrong I'm thinking 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 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 was just having fun with us when he said this year we're going to eat meat on tishov that's this year too I'm not going to tell you they won't be a tissue above just like I won't tell you there's no Fourth of July in England there'll be a tissue above but it's a tissue above where the Gomorrah says you can have a sudha we can eat a eat a Shabbos meal with the finest finest foods and then go from there to welcome we can do it all we have to do is shake off those illusions thank you very much thank you