Transform Fear Into Empowerment - Coronavirus & Passover

the yeshiva dotnet good evening and welcome welcome to all of you who are gathered here on this very special evening virtually from literally all over the world dearest friends brothers sisters ladies and gentlemen young and old I send you from here from my home here in Muncie New York all the love and all the blessings during a very challenging time certainly unprecedented during many of our lifetimes at this moment allow me to begin with a prayer a prayer to our Father in Heaven to God Almighty to the creator and ruler of the world please join with me Lord on high we come here before you tonight and we asked you to please bring healing and recovery to all of your children who need it so desperately let all of our brothers and sisters the world over struggling from this terrible virus or any other illness be cured then be cured completely our Father in Heaven please bring solace give strength and empowerment to all those who suffered such terrible devastating and tragic losses in recent days and weeks with the death of so many loved ones dear God stop this epidemic help our planet heal from this terrible virus God please give strength resolve and courage to all of those special heroes and heroines during this crisis who are in the front lines helping humanity the doctors nurses first responders EMTs hatzala volunteers all health officials all scientists and all researchers desperately trying to find cures for this terrible malady give them the courage and the strength they all need to be able to continue to save lives and give us all the courage and the power that we need during these confusing times to remain strong to remain empowered and to remain focused God allow us to open our hearts to a new consciousness a new dawn of love of oneness of true healing and of true Redemption god have compassion and bring only good and happy news to all of our brothers and sisters in Israel in America in the entire world he linked to all those who need it and to all good people in the entire planet help all of us assure in a new era of profound unity of cosmic oneness of truth of authenticity and allow a new morning of redemption to descend upon our planet redeem us of a bitter dark and difficult exile very speedily in our days and let us say our main my dear friends I'm now going to say a prayer in Hebrew you want to join me I'm opening up to hilum chapter 19 Psalms The Book of Psalms has always been that biblical book of King David that has sustained us through thick and thin and I'm going to go to capital Kofi attests Psalms chapter 119 if you have it - hello wherever you are in Hebrew or in English you can open it up I'm going to do it's based on the alphabet the Hebrew alphabet I'm going to do the two letters of you'd and tough in Hebrew and have all of you in mind as we pray we pray for all those who need healing we pray for all those who need recovery and we pray for all of us and I pray for all the families who have suffered terribly as a result of this virus your dad calls to me by a friend in Oni having a DVR madam it's my circle here for you maybe a small hook in the dwarf a year culty your daddy I know it's a bit much but I love mo name is Sonny he know how's the Halima Khomeini came rose wholly after for either you need a comma Xavier episode of social issues 18 consecutive Soni Ani or C / Fukuda ho yoshu valeera either yo bada circle Healy be summoned by coca-cola man Louie which calls Alicia was Lisa was Kamakshi who lit lead were holy holy Holloway nightly merciful a my Masai Tanaka Mulaney Kasich annoyed Makita Phuket Alicia fifty calmly may have the foremost sight how severe it find me sport coral is a team she chose a shallow sea sailor Santo convinced myself a moon our share California's rain II Timothy Louisville its money days after the coup d'etat because the society vs me a deuce pijo [Music] my dearest friends first and foremost I want to thank all of you for joining us here virtually from all over the world I want to thank my dear friends my dear beloved friends at chabad.org for doing such a magnificent job and bringing us all together and hosting this lecture on this great evening of 11 Nissen v 780 just a few days before pace on April 5th 2020 and I do want to say that about that org has about that org slash corona Passover for all your Passover needs or all or anybody's Passover me this is a unique Passover coming quite unprecedented so about that org slash corona Passover is an enormous an extraordinary resource to be able to help all of our brothers and sisters the world over celebrate a happy emancipated and awesome and healthy healthy pacer you know the old anecdote it just came to mind this evening about this fellow who had a ticket on the first class of the famous Titanic and he ordered a drink of the rocks and the waiter went to get it as the way that comes back it was already after the Titanic tragically hit the iceberg which happened to be a few days after Pesach April 1912 literally a few days after Passover it hit the iceberg the Titanic was doomed and this anecdote both funny and tragic tells about this fellow who turned to the waiter and he said I know I ordered ice but not this it's always refreshing for people to be able to stay home to be able to be quarantined a little bit not to be running all over the place we all appreciate once in a while those huge snows that keep the kids home and allow us just to breathe and instead of focusing on making a living focusing on living itself we asked for ice but not this this caught everybody off guard we are fighting a war against an invisible enemy the coronaviruses size is one iraq smoothly 125 nanometers a virus which we cannot see with our naked eye and yet it has literally transformed every single life on this planet it has virtually changed every single sector of society every single industry there is not an individual who has not been impacted from one way or another by this invisible virus incredible times people are scared some people are hysterical there's a lot of sadness there is fear and uncertainty there is panic by some and there is deep brokenness by others the common denominator is each and every single one of us has been shaken up and shaken up in a very profound way and it's at such moments where I glean inspiration from one story which I heard from an elderly Jew whom I merited to know even though it was much older than I am but when he managed to leave the Soviet Union and come to the states I knew him in his later years he was a closet a very special Jew a wise man and really a servant of God a truly dedicated you a funny man a humorous fellow and an interesting character very good conversationalist his name was remember what the fuss rep Mendel Fattah vas spent 14 years in the gulags his sin of course was preserving Judaism in the Soviet Union and helping Jews get out of the Soviet Union through false passports he was sent for 14 years into the gulag as you know Joseph Stalin has killed millions and millions and many of them in the gulag after Stalin's death I believe in 53 Rep Mendel was liberated and in the 60s he made it out and he came to England and then to America and read Mendel used to share stories experiences of 14 years in Siberia and he said one night they was CID laying in a barrack and the barrack was filled actually with intelligent elegance you people of culture remember that anybody who used the brain was a threat to the Communist Bolshevik regime so when the gulag you had thinkers and journalists and essayist and professors and really talented talented individuals who were sent to the gulag and he says it was one evening in the barrack of Mendel says a fellow starts sobbing and he says you know I used to have such a glorious life I was one of the most popular doctors in Moscow and look at me today ah schemata a person who owns nothing no money no career no honor no glory I don't even know if I'm going to survive in this devastating frost of Siberia Siberia can reach a climate of 70 below zero plus the hard labor and the starvation and the malnutrition and the way they treated them and the cold and the work and how they slept and the typhus that used to travel and other viruses and bacteria most didn't get out of nother fellow and the barrack turns to the back that it is you have what the more and about I was a decorated military general and the Czar's army I was considered one of the most distinguished general what'll we have today nothing a prisoner here in Joseph Stalin's gulag and so it went the next one who spoke up was an actor one of the greatest Russian actors who was of course in prison in Siberia and then there was a lawyer and there was a journalist and man essayist and a novelist and a professor and a writer and a thinker and everyone described their former vocations so honorable affluent respectable glorious now left with nothing they were crying they were all cried one man was not sobbing and this was this drew this Hasidic Jew Mendel foot the fuss and they turned to him one of them turned to him and said I know why you're not crying you must have been a loser before and you still lose you probably had no real job before and you still have no real job you have nothing to cry about I read Mendel looked at them and he said no my friends you're making a mistake I actually had a very successful business before I was imprisoned I was quite affluent I was making quite a lot of money relative to the Soviet Union and yes it's very hurtful it's very upsetting how much I lost I also have a wife I'm a married man I have children I've been separated from them so the men look at him and say so why are you not crying like all of us for the great career that you have lost I remember looked at them and he said I'll tell you why because my primary career I haven't lost it has not been taken away from them they looked startled what are you talking about what type of business are you running here are you running from here in the gulag and the Mendel said you see throughout my life my main question in life was not what I want to get out of life it's what life meets to get out of me I asked Matt what God and the world can do for me I asked what I can do for the world at what what what I can do for God my business that I ran was simply the median through which I was fulfilling my soul's mission in the world but my primary vocation was to ask myself this question what is my soul's mission here in the world how does God want me to serve him that career that question that mission statement has not been obliterated here in the gulag it's only the format that changed in earlier times I served God through running a very successful business today I still serve God I serve God as a prisoner in Siberia in earlier days my soul's mission expressed itself in one form of living and today I still know that my soul has a mission every day in every single moment it just expresses itself in a different form of living you see my friends the software of my career has changed but the hard drive the chip the quintessence of Who I am what I am about has not been taken away from me I was a servant of God then and I was as I am a servant of God now knowing I still have a mission and I still have a purpose Wow when that Mendel shared that story used to share it with the young American kids most of us quite spoiled most of us did not know of much crisis most of us did not live through personally the pain and the scars of war like some of our parents and some of our grandparents and we took it as a lesson in life but today it's more than a lesson today for me this is oxygen this gives so much perspective and so much guidance what rep Mendel was teaching his fellows and Siberia was circumstances never ever define your core you are never a victim to events that happen around you even when they are earth-shattering and cataclysmic not because you're naive not because you're detached and not because you're immune but because you know that you're here to serve your soul is here on a mission the question is only what is my mission and it's obvious that now what God asks of us is a unique calling or unique vocation and I would specify at least a few points of answering this question what is my service today what is my mission today number one it's quite obvious the divine providence through the coronavirus wants us all at home stay home quarantined at home which means that we I we all of us have a mission at home we have to do something in our home what that means you have to figure out in your life just like I have to figure out in my life you know just in a few nights we're gonna have that extraordinary Jewish ritual called dica summits the Mishna says in the opening of the community saw from earlier bar us are both gonna say how much lower honey on the eve of the 14th of Nissen the night before the Seder of Passover we go around with a candle and we check the comments in every crevice in our home and the mission that tells us the rabbi say a place where you don't bring in hummus you don't have to check and the Great Pacific master said you know what that really means in life it means I have to check those places where I bring in hama comets representing toxicity comets representing that which represents uninflated pompous haughty arrogance eagle I don't bring in comets to your home I don't have to check your home I bring it to my home I have to check mine so this is a time where each of us goes home physically and conceptually to clean out our own home of humus no not to clean out other people's homes you clean out the place where you brought in comets I have to clean out the place where I brought in comets you didn't bring it your comics to me and I didn't bring it in to you what does that mission mean it means so many things for so many people might it be that it's time to work on your marriage in a very serious way you're now home with your spouse it's time to really repair those things that need repair in a respectful way these are difficult times people can get on each other's nerves but in a respectful way to bring up the issues that maybe have not been brought up if you have a clear path of how to deal with it respectfully to be able to really tune into your souls and reach a deeper place of oneness of respect of love of camaraderie and most importantly of trust these are special opportunities might you need to repair your relationship with your children individually and collectively this is a very special moment to spend real quality time with each of your children talking and listening is this perhaps the time when you need to create a greater family sense of family bonding yes losing together singing together choking together playing together dancing together somebody emailed me that they made a game of muted went out to their garden in London and somebody with family was playing musical chairs remember they gave musical chairs however you can entertain and inspire yourself but this is that fresh historic opportunity to create solid families because these times of bonding of closeness your children will never ever forget so number one your home turn your homes into mini sanctuaries the synagogues are closed nobody's going to show up a son nobody has been going to show on Shabbos or in middle of the week this is the time that God tells us I want your home to become become a mini temple I want your home to become a spiritual epicenter I want your home to become a mikvah Sh'ma app a mini based on Victor's a mini sanctuary with the divine presence dwells let's turn our homes into places of trust a love of joy of camaraderie of connection of belonging and that also means not to sweat the small stuff and to cut slack for everybody and understand that the people are getting on each other's nerves and people are climbing on the walls and siblings do fight with each other and we get into arguments and that is fine perfection is not the name of the game accountability commitment and trust and loyalty is the name of the game but friends there's another very important point than a very important mission today you know this is a time to go back to the beginning we all know when the computer freezes and you do ctrl alt or alternate delete all delete and you press restart refresh this is a time to go back to the beginning the slate is clean to ask myself the deepest questions that I simply did not have the time or the mental space to ask myself I was busy running I was busy flying I was busy coming and going so consumed with life's accessories deprived of the ability to ask myself questions like what is life Who am I what is the purpose of my life what is the mission of my what is life really all about what is the distinction between life and the accessories to life why am i alive what is the note that I have to contribute to the divine cosmic Symphony and you know friends this is such an opportunity for us individually and collectively because the Jewish people were chosen to be the light unto the nations to be moral teachers of mankind Lusaka the malkos Shindou the good as we say in the elena prayer to heal and repair the world when have we had a time when we have a captive audience of seven point seven billion people nobody's going to the movies nobody's right to games nobody's going to malls nobody's right the club nobody's going to recipes right the bars no tourism so much of leisure is God with a captive audience people are asking one question what is life how do I deal with uncertainty what does the future hold what is the meaning of all this what does God want from us how did we become so vulnerable when we thought we are so invincible these are the questions people are asking then our asking about impeachment they're not asking about the next elections they're not discussing politics and the terrible rifts and politics we have seen we are experiencing our shared humanity in the presence of a real war against an invisible enemy and this is the time when we individually and collectively ought to serve as role models to usher in a consciousness the consciousness that our prophets and our sages have been talking about for thousands of years we call it the consciousness of redemption the consciousness of mushiya the consciousness of gula to usher in a consciousness of love of expansiveness of cosmic oneness understanding that we're not narcissistic materialistic creatures only each of us is an ambassador each of us is an ambassador of the divine an ambassador of love and of light and of healing and of Hope if this cannot bring us individually and collectively to this expensive and expanded state of consciousness what will and every one of us is an ambassador every one of us has our planet to play in changing the landscape of planet Earth yes not everybody is a president and a politician not everybody is a great mentor a teacher not everybody is a great sage or writer and not everybody is a millionaire or a billionaire but everyone was chosen as an ambassador to bring to her world closer to a place of redemption to a place of goodness to a place of kindness which brings me to point three and here I want to suggest something very practical literally practical that you can go away with I wanted to say you can go home with but I know I know you're home you can go away with I'm just gonna get my drink I want to suggest something fairly feely practical which I think is applicable to every one of us young and old women and men of all ages children and senior citizens and that is I want to suggest to you as a brother to brother as a brother to sisters we're all in this together take your telephone and each day during the next days and weeks call during the day at least three people who may be lonely of course you're calling your parents and your siblings and your close close friends and acquaintances and close-knit family but I'm talking about something else can you call the person who lives in the next building can you call the person who lives upstairs and the other floor can you call an old friend oh we haven't do spoken to in 10 years can you call an old partner you had a disputed with can you call an old classmate a great-uncle because and maybe a third cousin or even a stranger especially those who are home alone without family people who are not just quarantined in their homes but they're quarantined alone especially the elder and those who need recovery and those who are the most vulnerable to covet 19 reach out and when you call them just say I wanted to tell you that I'm thinking about you I wanted to tell you that I'm praying for you I want to know if you need any help can I do anything for you do you need food is there some way I can help you each day I ask you make three such calls not only will you be making the day of those people you will also be making your own there you will be transforming your fear into empowerment from victimhood you will become a leader and leader is somebody who asks not what the world can do for them but what they can do for the world paraphrasing John Kennedy or two generations earlier a few generations earlier rabbi schneider's almond of Leah de l'homme de Lu one stole the follower ask not what you need of God but ask what God needs of you the same question at Mendel foot the Fox asked in Siberia so I turned to you and I say during that day at least three you want to do five do five you want to do ten great but call three people who would not expect a telephone call from you doesn't have to be people from your community doesn't have to be people who agree with you religious people can call secular people a secular people can call religious people you've got people from different communities this is a time when we're all equally vulnerable and therefore we are all equally open to profound camaraderie and love let's seize this opportunity because the impact of this when we get over this madness will be extremely extremely powerful now I know friends there's a lot of panic there's a lot of fear and for good reason you know there was a wise man who once said every evening he said I turned my worries over to God he's going to be up all night anyway and then there's that famous expression that worry is wasting today's time to clutter up tomorrow opportunities with yesterday's troubles somebody once said worry polls tomorrow's cloud over today's sunshine my favorite is this line Waring is like a rocking chair it gives you something to do but it gets you nowhere these are all good lines but they seem to work at more peaceful and tranquil times today it's not easy it's not easy I got a call on Friday from a Hatzolah volunteer in Queens in New York Queens I think was hit hardest from all the other neighborhoods in Brooklyn Brooklyn was hit very hard unfortunately but Queens was hit very high this is a very good friend of mine and he wrote he what cept me since I'm losing my mind I'm losing my mind he's been up days and nights trying to save patient after patient and he was reaching out for some empowerment and inspiration he's literally in the frontlines of fire and I found the moments before Shabbos as he was getting home to his family and I said to him my dearest brother's name is silly I said my dearest brother you know when our troops are packed Normandy June 1944 the casualties were in the thousands but every soldier who stepped foot on those shores of Normandy knew this is a time of war and in a time of war either you panic and retreat or you find your courage and resolve not because you're not devastated by the casualties but because you have a mission to complete at a time of war there's only two options either you're part of the problem or you're part of the solution and I said to me we're in a time of war yes there will be a time to cry yes there is a lot of pain yes there is a lot of devastation but we need more than anything at such a moment in history is leadership duty responsibility love dedication and caring and resolve they holy master of simcha Benham up sister said you lose your money you lost nothing money comes money goes you become sick you lose your health it's a struggle because your soul may be healthy but your body is still but he said when you lose your courage oh you lost everything war brings out the best in people just as it brings out the worst in people and this war has brought out the best and so many people I pay tribute here to all those heroes and heroines in the frontlines of fire trying to save lives through so many different methods Wow we love you we respect you we admire you and may God bless your efforts to save lives as you have been doing and you will be doing in the coming days and coming weeks but now I tell you all of my dear friends whatever field you're in this is a time for courage this is a time for empowerment this is a time for leadership our world needs leadership and the destiny of our nation is to provide wisdom love and moral leadership on every level there are those leaders in the field of medicine god bless them and may they be extremely successful but every one of us today must be a leader an ambassador of clarity of Hope of wisdom of courage of resolve not because we're not devastated by the pain not because we don't go to sleep scared not because we have not lost close friends relatives mentors and teachers but because in a time of battle you have to stay focused on your mission and the mission today is to be leaders leaders of hope leaders of spirit leaders of healing leaders of Prayer and people who will help the world assure in new consciousness of we not only I a new consciousness of togetherness a new consciousness of our spiritual mission tonight I received solace from one special and extraordinary stanza in the Haggadah and the great Passover text that we're going to read just in a few nights Wednesday night Jews the world over from New Zealand to Alaska from Hawaii to Brazil from Kobe Japan to Moscow from Jerusalem to New York Jews will sit and tell the story of the exodus of Egypt three thousand three hundred and thirty two years ago when we were emancipated from Egyptian bondage and when we opened the Haggadah and I know it's going to be a difficult Seder for so many we're used to being with parents and grandparents we're used to being with uncles and aunts with an extended family and some of us are going to have very small Saders and some of us are going to be alone literally alone one person doing to say that it's not easy and I take solace and I give you solace from that opening passage and the Haggadah one of its opening chap honor its opening sections paragraphs my scimitar Belleza variably Scheuer variable is abanazar ear but keep it with a paraffin shawl you miss Subin by Bnei Brak for you miss a prim be it see us with Ryan Karl I say ha Lila actually he'll call me day and one rule everybody say no gears man crush marshal shadows it was a story that happened in the second century after the Common Era the great sages the Talmudic sages that annoyin who lived shortly after the destruction of the second temple by the Romans in the year 70 rabbi eliezer rabbi Joshua Rebelo savannahs arabic eva a bite - we're in Bnei Brak in the jewish in the city the famous city of Bnei Brak in the holy land and they were telling the story of redemption from egypt call Oso hawala that entire night that entire night they told the story until their students came and said teachers Dawn has broken the Sun is coming up it's time to say smart in the morning and here I ask you two big questions Ruby Akiva was the student he lived in Bnei Brak the Talmud says Rabi Akiva lived in the made by a rock his teachers relocated from their homes and they came to do the Seder with their student Robbie Eliezer was rubbery Aquila's teacher and mentor rubber youngsters would be a Kiva's teacher the teacher comes to the student for the holidays this the student comes to the teacher for the holidays I stand corrected the teacher doesn't follow the student to the holiday Ruby Akiva should have come to Lourdes with his teacher rabbi eliezer lived instead his mentors came to him at B'nai Brak how are we supposed to understand that the question is only dramatized when we remember that statement in the Talmud tractate suka 27 be the same rabbi eliezer was visited by another student Rabbi Judah on the holidays and he says to him rebel EoE I'm sorry to be late came to visit her be a liaison the Holiday Inn would and his teacher looked at him and he said you don't believe in celebrating the holiday Misha beya from the Assads longings aim amusing me Burton the samantha actor who may say i praise those lazy people who don't leave their homes on the holidays because you're supposed to stay home and celebrate with your family he chastised his student who left his home and came to greet his master and teacher and Rebbe on the holiday Robbie Eliezer was upset he said that's not the way to celebrate stay home here he himself defies his own ruling he leaves his home on Passover and he goes to another city he leaves loot and he goes to Bnei Brak to be with rebbi akiva how are we supposed to understand this the answer my dear friends is by studying that strange phraseology or you miss a Prometheus messiaen call a cell Island they told the story of the Exodus throughout that in higher night Hebrew grammar dictated dictates it should have said how you miss a PBT is miss rhyme call how ila they told the story of the Exodus all night it does not say that is called icicle ila it wasn't just all night they told the story call I see how ila throughout that very night that night is when they told the story what are you talking about it was a Passover and it was night on coha while Anat Calise Hawaiian the answer my dear friends to these questions and it's based on a commentary by the famous hora - rabbit hill Mikkel Epstein the rabbi of Navarro dick who wrote a commentary on the Haggadah called Lael she bore him passed away I think in around 1908 and he says as follows he says these sages were living after the destruction of the second temple Roman oppression has reached horrific levels the suffering of the Jewish people the sheer amounts of deaths was incredibly horrific the spirit was broken and these sages could not get themselves to celebrate Redemption they did not see a future it's not just about them isn't that true in so many cases about different individuals and that's what he speaks about when he says they told the story called I said huh Lila not that night but that very night that very night you see each of us has that one night in life that wants us consciously or unconsciously do you remember that night when you were given that news that changing your life forever that night stays with you forever do you remember that night when you experienced terrible abuse or another form of trauma that night stays with you forever do you remember that night when something happened that made you lose you and since forever that night stays with you forever everybody has that cold ice AHA Lila that night that dark experience in your life maybe as a child maybe as a teenager maybe as a young adult maybe consciously maybe unconsciously maybe something from within or someone or something from without which holds you captive in the shackles of pain despair and depression some of you I'm speaking to now have been through very difficult experiences in life what about that night when you experienced loss when you experienced illness or death when you experienced another form of profound pain that someone else may not even understand but for you it represents that night that night that conscious or unconscious night which still has me gripped in its terrifying embrace do you know friends what I'm talking about that night they too had a night and how would they overcome that night the night when they saw the sunset and it didn't seem like it would rise again when the brightness of their life was darkened and they all knew they could not do a seder our home and despite everything they went to their student rebbi akiva why rebbi akiva but could he is the man who the talmud says at the end of track they'd marcus that these same people and others were walking and they came to the Temple Mount and they saw a fox coming out of the Holy of Holies which was desolate and they all wept and Rabbi Akiva laughed and they asked him why you're laughing and he said why are you crying and they said how could we not cry when we see a fox emerging from the holiest place in Judaism the place of the Holy of Holies where the temple once stood and Rabbi Akiva said that is exactly why I'm calling that is exactly what brings me joy because in the biblical prophets we have a prophecy that Zion will be plowed like a field we also have a see that one day the elderly men and women will come back and fill the streets of Jerusalem with song and dance as long as the first prophecy was not fulfilled I did not know if the second one would ever be fulfilled but now that I see the first prophecy has been fulfilled Zion has been plowed like a field a fox can emerge from the Holy of Holies I know that the second prophecy will be fulfilled oh the issue scammy most came out we recovered yerushalayim there will yet come a day when the elders elders the senior citizens those who are at least immune to this terrible coronavirus will dance and celebrate with one of our people in the streets of Jerusalem and the sages looked at her be a key man they said Akiva my camp on Lu Akiva near Campton Oh Akiva you are honest comfort Akiva you have brought us comfort when they needed to celebrate Exodus they knew rebbi akiva is the address they went to Bnei Brak to the city of Rabbi Akiva to be in the presence of Rabbi Akiva they knew that interview heavers embrace they will still feel the pain they will still feel the uncertainty they will still know that these are difficult times but they will be able to hold on to the courage to the faith to the conviction of Rabi Akiva that we may not understand all of history but what we do know is that we are ambassadors to bring light into every situation that we never become defined by the darkness we define it and this path we should all go to rebbi akiva Seder I know you should not physically go to Bnei Brak as Bnei Brak shouldn't physically leave Bnei Brak pun intended but I'm talking about being in Rebbe achelous spiritual Seder in many ways this year we are like our ancestors who left Egypt like our ancestors we are also walking into unknown territory we're searching for answers we're searching for summer shirt footing the Jews left Egypt and went in left fake after ID by mid barbarous laws and rule the prophets as they went in to a desolate desert with uncertainty you know the Brooklyn Bridge which is not far from where I'm speaking to you now gets you into manhattan from brooklyn the Golden Gate Bridge gets you into San Francisco the question is which bridge takes you across when you have to enter into a world of uncertainty not Manhattan into Brooklyn or Brooklyn from Manhattan which can also be a world of uncertainty not to San Francisco which could also be the world of uncertainty but there's some predictability there but when you have to enter into a world of uncertainty which bridge do you take friends this is the bridge of Passover it's called the bridge of faith we call it a munna the Zohar says the matzah that we eat is bread of faith because matzah represents the inspiration and the empowerment of the Jewish people to walk confidently with Moses then and with Moses today into a world of unknown and it doesn't mean that I understand how it's gonna work out it doesn't mean I understand why it's happening I certainly don't understand the sheer number of loss and tragedy but I don't have to understand I don't have to wrap my brain around divine infinite mysteries what I do have to do is hold on strong onto a bridge that has sustained us for thousands of years and has not let us down it's called the bridge of faith it was the great 16th century rabbi or the leave of Prague the morale of progress would they leave one of the great spiritual sages and leaders of his day the rabbi a proud who once said why is the Seder called Seder say there means order so the literal interpretation is because the Seder follows on order there's a 15 step pro Graham in the Seder card and sure god star pass yeah that's Maggie drops almighty matzah Maracay rachel condo you're a tough on Bay Rock Hallel neared saw if they say that can only take a short right 15 steps there is an order through which we progress as we follow through the Seder but the morale asks a very good question is a okay so there's an order that's why it has the name Seder is it defined by order and he says because this night confers upon us the most important gift of life the gift of conviction that there is a seder in the world that there is order in the world even though life sometimes seems so chaotic and uncertain sometimes the world seems like a jungle sometimes we wake up in our heart is pounding what is the website what are the websites going to tell us today what is the next what's up going to inform me and sometimes we're addicted and every few seconds we have to once again look at our phones to see what is the news and we live in this world of chaos and disarray the Marel says that's not how you live the night of Passover gives you a gift and it's the gift that there's a Satan that you're standing on solid ground that there is divine providence orchestrating every moment of your life that you are always in the loving embrace of God who runs this entire world and if he would stop running the world for a single moment everything would cease to be look what one little virus that stole over from an animal to a human being and this Jeni this human being sneeze look what it did to the world how many things have to go right every day for the world to function normally do we think about this we are always in God's hands we are his representation in the world we're his ambassadors in the world and in that sense we go into a world of uncertainty but there's a foundation there's deep resolve and there's a deep sense of belonging that's the gift of Passover this year perhaps more than any other year before my dearest friends and you know I conclude with an experience I had as a young G Sheva student I saw it recently made its way around the world back and forth a couple of times what they call viral which was named after a virus by the way but there are devastating viruses and then there are healing viruses and those are the viral messages that bring hope to people and I hope and I thank God that this was one of them and I conclude with this personal story and experience I was 15 years old today the 11th of Nissen is the birthday of the lubavitcher rebbe of righteous memory and there was February 1988 I was living in Brooklyn learning in yeshiva and they're ever lost his wife Robertson Chaya Mushka passed away as you know they never had children and they used to conduct the Seder themselves the rapper and his wife there was somebody who attended in the house my dear friend Robuchon on gangs Berg who would serve the food that helped out in the house but generally it was the Rebbe and his wife who conducted the Seder and then she passed away and I wonder to myself with who would the epital abhava chair ever have the Seder every Jew in the world every Jew in the world has somebody to do a seder with everybody even the most unaffiliated Jews even Jews who are not really involved in Jewish life but for Seder Passover they come to a family they come to a relative of course there's the hundreds of Chabad houses all over the world that hosts hundreds maybe thousands of public Saders from Kathmandu to Nepal literally in every community in 1984 the rapper asked the chief rabbis of Israel rabbi Shapiro and rabbi allahu of blessed memories if it's a victim liberal Roberto Kelly our reformed rabbi remember 84 he asked them to make sure that every city does a public Seder for every Jew doesn't have a place to go there and I think they're ever said he would sponsor it and he did every place in Israel every year soup every town every city in Israel every Jew has somebody by the Seder and I remember that year Passover 1988 there was a young boy his name was Ari ha Bushnell he was later gunned down on the Brooklyn Bridge by a terrorist in 1994 and I happened to be standing there I saw it with my own eyes he went over to the Lubavitch a rubber and he said my mother asked me to invite you to come to the Seder by us he lived on 706 Eastern Parkway which was just a two-minute walk from 770 the rebus show so it makes sense for their effort to walk over two minutes and be at the Seder of the harbor stumps especially that Ari's father helped in the rebus house he helped out their evidence and his wife years earlier in the previous years I still remember their ever smiled he asked them to thank his mother profusely but he elegantly declined an invitation rumor had it then that the Rebbe his long-standing secretary rabbi label groaner may have a complete and speedy recovery also wanted to be at the Seder but there Epis sent him home to his wife and children and the person who used to appear the food in their Eva's house trip sullen bear also went home and the Rebbe did the Seder all by himself the yeshiva Boys there were a few Yoshimura boys who decided to stay there and they saw after some time the Rebbe became and opened the door himself to greet Elijah the Prophet Elio 1rv and he went back in to finish the Savior himself and this went on every single year since their up his wife passed away until their birth himself took ill they're ever conducted the Seder of Peyser all by himself with nobody present he asked the man astana to himself he asked a fork just to himself the Mishna says when you have nobody you ask yourself all of the questions I was only 15 in 1988 but I felt said I felt sad that the Lubavitcher ever a man who inspired more satyrs in the world that anybody else maybe in history a man who was responsible for making sure that hundreds of thousands maybe millions of Jews had a place to go at the stages they would not be alone and they would not be forgotten and he himself has nobody to have the Seder with it was a sad thought but life goes on and I really forgot about it to be honest with you and life moved on a few years ago I was asked to do a workshop for single mothers I did the workshop one of the women said I want to ask a question and the question she asked was unforgettable she says rabbi Jacobsen I had a very difficult divorce my ex and I were constantly fighting I believe he has narcissistic personality disorder uses the kids as a tool against me and it's been very difficult we alternate Jewish holidays with the children and last pace I was supposed to have the children I cleaned the house for a month I bought all the food I purchased mats I purchased wine I set the table I cleaned out some comments I got all the chicken and the vegetables in the produce and the meat the house was spotless and I was excited I was working hard but I was excited that I would have the entire Passover with my four beautiful children I told my friends and my neighbors and my parents a half an hour before the holidays a half an hour I was waiting with bated breath to welcome my beautiful children and my ex-husband phones me and he says Oh something came up there's a crisis I will not be able to bring them for the holiday she says rabbi why why I thought I would faint - grab my heart my chest and sit down on the couch I didn't even have the strength to call my parents to call a friend to call a relative to call a sibling or a neighbor and say I want to do this ad with you I couldn't face anybody I was too crushed I was too devastated she said I didn't have to eat more of that night I was Dimauro my life was the morrow my entire say that took 25 minutes it did not feel like Passover it felt like tissue buff and I want to ask you a question was this called pacer that I celebrate Passover that I do to say that was it even worth anything I mean there was nothing there there was no singing there was no family there was no community there was no conversation there was no are you man to help you ever say do without Jews arguing there was nobody saying okay enough with the speeches let's get to the meal let's get to the matzah nobody was telling us telling me how delicious or horrible the matzah is how bitter the murderous nobody was bargaining about finding a Fatima it was an orphan say there that it even count was it even a Jewish thing that even fulfill the mitzvot she said I cried through that say there and I just went to bed you know sometimes a thought comes into your mind unprepared that's what happened a moment of inspiration entered from my unconscious into my conscious brain and I had a flashback a boy 15 years old watching re halberstam may God avenge his blood asking the lubavitcher rebbe to come and be with his family at the say D&D rebus saying no going home to my Seder my parents my beloved family and thinking that the Rebbe is alone and these words literally came to my mouth and trust me they were not prepared they were literally inspired from a place which I do not know the name of that place and I looked at this woman and I said you know all my life for many years I was perturbed by this phenomenon of the Lubavitch Arriba conducting a seder alone it so bothered me I don't even know why but I guess I dunno why just didn't make sense to me today I think I know the answer as a genuine leader of the Jewish people there have been needed not only to help us people but to experience as people and they read the new perhaps that one day there will be Jews who will be forced to conduct a seder all by themselves less they think that there say there is meaningless and worthless and insignificant and valueless the rebel was setting an example that there say there is as potent and as powerful and as meaningful as any say there in the world because trust me I told her trust me the Labov ature Abbess say there was a sailor trust me he sat himself in the room but he relived the exodus of Egypt and Jewish history came to light in that room of that one individual the Divine Presence dwelled in that water room of that one individual to teach and empower and inspire every Jew who may be forever quarantined at the night of the Seder to know that you're saying there is a special as exalted as energetic as powerful as Holy and as divine as any other say there which may be filled with the voices of young children singing asking the mannish Tama chewing on the matzo and bargaining with their parents for the Alpha Chi month I told this woman if the rebus say there was a seder and it was a saint there trust me your savior was just perfect this Passover as some of you will be having a seder alone I want to ask you to remember this and I want to ask you to remember the message that this bread of faith gives us and the entire Jewish people as we enter into a world that seems so different than just a few weeks ago and I say to you my dear brothers my dear sisters and my dear friends Kazak isochronous kaze let's stay together quarantine quarantined physically but emotionally filled with love and oneness let us assure in a new era with a new expansive consciousness to find for deep introspection it's a time for deep personal transformation the world has changed do I have the courage to change do you have the courage to change it's a time to heal our marriages to heal our families to heal our homes it's a time to start from the beginning most importantly it's a time for courage it's a time for leadership and it's a time for unconditional love and positivity I call out to you again my dearest friends every day engage in acts of goodness and kindness call three people as I suggested before three crime quarantine people and just reach out give them your heart and give them a few minutes my dearest friends at this moment as we say goodbye to each other I bless you and I pray for all of us and for all of you may God bring the speedy and complete recovery to all those who need it may he give strength and missile can solace and comfort for all of our dear friends who have lost loved ones during this very very difficult period where they can't even have visitors during Shiva may God bring healing to our planet to our world to our people may you all celebrate a beautiful meaningful inspiring and healthy pace on stay home follow the guidelines of the health officials because they save lives don't don't do anything that can god forbid jeopardize a life error to the side of or should I be very very careful to protect lives at this moment we each have to do our parts because every moment you stay home you're doing the great Mitzvah of helping save innocent lives every moment you are quarantined you're doing a mitzvah may we experience an era of healing and may God have compassion on his people and on the world and liberate us bring us out from exile to Redemption from darkness to light and assure in that great moment when the whole world will be one when we will all return to our homeland experience the third bet HaMikdash and the divine presence in the whole world when all of humanity will be united and the world will be filled with divine awareness as water covers the sea speedily in our days of Maine thank you very very much my love and my blessings but Yom Tov whoa let's sing again whoa whoa whoa whoa sham wah-wah see see how Leyva Charlie I love Hashem Hiwassee see a laborer shall I love aha Hashim kasi see ah late mostly a llama ha oh my CC lay very sure layer Lamba car simcha CeCe ah lavishly alum the harsh MCC labor chalet lalalala lalalalalalala [Laughter] [Music] lalala lalalala lalalala Shanta CC ah virtually alone before shampoo CC lay very shocked they alarming you God I find refuge I will not be afraid forever in you God I find refuge I will not be ashamed forever this class is brought to you by the yeshiva dotnet please help us continue the classes make even a small contribution at triple w dot the yeshiva net / donate