Understanding Teffilah Part 23 (Rabbi Dovid Gottleib) (Teffilah - Prayer)

okay so we're working on the shma which in this sitter started on page 91 or 90 and yesterday we worked on the two words and the and I mentioned at the end that the ofma and the do of of are larger than usual which is not mistaken the sitter that's the way it is is written in the actual Torah scroll and I ask you to think about that so of course you all found or you know on your own that you put the two letters together and you get a and a is a is a witness and the idea when you say you're giving testimony to the to to to monotheism the Sens that we spoke about yesterday but what is not very generally known is that you can reverse the letters also and reverse the letters you get the word da and da is a command to know and the idea is you should give testimony to things you know not things you're guessing at or hypotheses izing or theorizing or feel inclined towards or someone told me or so on and so on and that means you have a responsibility to know and this goes together with the idea of shma me to understand that you're going to give testimony and you should be prepared if someone asks you what does it mean how do you know you have something to say you should invest in analyzing the idea that's that's presented here I forget where I where I heard that from about about 103 years ago because I'm very old um now someone asked me yesterday what about AEM our god um everything I said yesterday was what you could call theology whether it's the philosophical idea that God is one in every possible dimension and therefore no number other than one applies so he can't be physical they can't talk about them and so and so on or the calistic idea that God's power is the only agency that makes things happen in the world all of that is very philosophical the third thing which I said on the basis of linguistic analysis that God creates the world out of mercy and that implies a relationship that he wants each of us to succeed that already made it into some kind of relational description elu our God is the full-fledged statement of a relationship and um here I mean but I'm going to say now it's obvious but it's it's worth worth just putting on record you know you have the phrase that some people use in English the Jewish god the Christian God the Muslim God and so and so on that's nuts there is only one created in the universe Jews Christians and Muslims don't live in different different worlds with different creators what they what you should mean is maybe the Jewish concept of God Christian concept of God M concept of God that those are different concepts but real the reality is certainly only one elu means that the one creator of the universe has a special relationship with us he's just as much the creator of the rest of the world as he is our creator but he a special relationship with us he is so much the creator of the universe that our view is our Torah sets the responsibilities of everybody else in the world for what the Creator wants them to do idea that they have their religions and they have their own ideas and their own ways and all Customs R says forbidden for anyone to make up a religion for himself it has to come from the Creator indeed now they're thinking of it R says that a non-jew gets into the world to come if he keeps the mitzvos that the Torah requires of a non-jew because they were commanded to the Jewish people by Moses if he doesn't have that content in his mind he doesn't make it just gives charity because he feels like it or he gives charity because I say he charity keeps Justice in he does the things that not you're supposed to do because he believes that the Creator wants him to do it that's not good enough it's got to be because he understands that it was commanded through Moses now that bothered me for many many years I've discussed with many people but at least it's occurring to me now that it fits together the two things fit together because if he ints that the creator of the universe wants him to do it he's making up his own religion that's what he's doing he happens by accident to get it right these are in fact things that that the Creator wants him to do but it doesn't mean there's not making up with the religion he's making it up because he didn't get it from the religion that exists that would be a little step forward in understanding why the r says what he says about a non-jew that he can only get into the world to come if he does the MIT because Moses commanded him because otherwise he's making up his own religion I don't think it's a full explanation but it's something until now I had nothing anyway that's what is doing here that dma is not only talking about abstract Theology of how the world is run he talking about that fact that the Creator who makes the world and present tense and and who runs it is has a special relationship with us that idea the special relationship is very very broadly Braden our okay let's go on to the next page you have we spoke yesterday about why you should love hem on the basis of the shma because if he creates us with with mercy and wants us to succeed and creating us with certain means built in that we should succeed that's a good reason he's showing his love for us that's a good reason for us to respond with love here it says you should love AEM uh our God with all your heart with all your soul with all your resources property um the first two are explained in the classical literature all your heart means you dedicate everything you do to God why are you buying that house why are you joining that Athletic Club why are you ding in this Sho and why you going to that she every one of them the answer has to be because wants me to how do I know because he gave me a Torah and I went to my teachers and they explained the Torah to me and I went to my de re and I told them my life conditions and he said with his knowledge of Torah and his understanding of me this is what wants me to do the bottom line answer to everything you do is wants me to do it and when you learn about the what the breadth of scope that the Torah takes in terms what wants rest of recreation is included and sleep is included and eating is included everything is included but the bottom line answer is means everything you do is dedicated to means that when there are times that says you have to die rather than transgress the Torah you're prepared to give up your life and the comment the the SPM explained that neither one implies the other it's not redundant you have people who on a day-to-day basis they can give you they the reason and they they're honest and it the reason why they're doing things because wants them to do them down the line but when someone puts a gun to his head and says bow to the idol he goes to pieces and he says okay I can't do that I just can't do that I can't die I can dedicate my whole life go but I can't die the ability to say yes I'm willing to to allow my life to end is is a very big unique kind of test it's not something that you could pass times you know in training you do once only once and vice versa this we know from the Spanish expulsion there were people whose performance of mitzvos was choppy like it is for most people but when the Christians said you have to pledge allegiance to Christianity they said this is where I draw the line maybe there are times when I wasn't so strict about chabas and maybe I was strict about kis but Christianity absolutely not kill me I don't want I don't I won't do that so neither of these implies the other and that's why it's important to have both of them on record the puzzling feature here is loving God with all your property why isn't that redundant if you already love God with all your heart and with all your soul you're willing to die and your bank account don't forget your bank account and your car and your books that does sound anticlimactic it does sound like it would be incl included in loving God with all your heart with all your soul it's a good question I think you should ask other people also I I have an explanation I wouldn't say it's the only explanation my mother-in-law Allah Shalom lived through the 1929 stock market crash in America and she told us the following observation that people made as you probably know some people when they lost all their money committed suicide they jumped off buildings the observation was made that person who 1929 jumped off a building because he lost his money so he ended his life if earlier in 1927 one of his children had died would he have committed suicide have you ever heard of a parent committing suicide because a child died I've never heard of that happening that doesn't seem to happen there are cases that someone died out of Sorrow that's something else that's not committing suicide talking about a guy jumped off a building now second question if you would ask that person in 1927 what do you love more your money or your children what would he say said my children of course and he wouldn't be lying he wouldn't be lying but now ask yourself in 1929 when he loses his money he commits suicide is that good for his children are his children better off now not at all they're much worse off but you see he can't live without his money he could live if he lost a child but he can't live without his money so what does he really love more sounds like he's certainly more dependent on the money than the children so what happened what happened is that the money that he has ate away his identity without his even knowing it without his even appreciating it when you ask him 1927 what do you love more your money or your children he says his children he's not lying he thinks he's reporting correctly how he feels but when he commits suicide in 1929 and leaves his children Oran you see that it's not true if he loved his children more he wouldn't dream of committing suicide because he doesn't have his money he has what he loves more he's committed to them he's responsible for them why should he commit M because he lost his money it's not true so money has a way of eating away your identity without your even knowing it I think that's one of the things that this verse implies make sure that you're serving God you're loving God with your property don't take it for granted analyze yourself and here are a few ways in which you can carry this out in practice if you're if you are in Israel you come to Israel take a look at how people live here go to families for shabas or other occasions take note of their material circumstances their physical circumstances chances are you know very well that in United States no one would live like this no this is way below the poverty level when I grew up I remember what the psychologist were saying then they changed their minds every 10 years which means you shouldn't trust them ever um every child has to have his own bedroom every child has have his own bedroom how will he develop individuality and how he be able to fun function on his own and autonomy and everything else see here I know people who have nine kids and they have three bedrooms that's a lot could have been two bedrooms three one for the parents and if they're more or less evenly split one for the boys and one for the girls or if they're not even split they double them up so it means four or five kids are sleeping in a room my wife I she has 14 children I grew up it was quite crowded so she redivider house in such a way as to as to create a small extra sleeping place and then she said to one of the kids I've made a place where you can have your own place to sleep why are you punishing me why should I be separated from all the other kids I want to sleep with all the kids I don't want to sleep with myself so now first of all take a look at how people live here and then ask yourself would you imagine living that way in America how would people look at you what would people think you're irresponsible you're not giving your children a decent upbringing and so forth and so on so in America you'd be working extra hours to pay rent on that bigger house wouldn't you now do you need that do you really need that well in America you might need it because you can't stand the social pressure and that's a realistic consideration but it's not not built in not genetic that you need it is that built into your brain cells that you needed so maybe you have to think carefully about what it means to love with all your money and especially if one of the things you're earning money for is your social position maybe you should move to another place where it's they don't have the Rolling Hills of uh of M you know maybe you should move to to Spring Valley which is a lower a lower level of of of of Economics so that you don't have to spend so much time earning the money be able to keep up with the jums so I think that's one message here the message is it's easy to lose your way it's easy to think that you have to have when it's not true in that case you will not be really loving coach BR with all your resources in that that respect is not it's not um redundant okay these words which I am commanding you this day should be on your heart now just a little less than logic um suppose somebody calls you up something you haven't heard from in 10 years George how nice to hear from you wow we haven't spoken in 10 years tell me something where are you George and he says I'm here yeah well um wherever he is is here for him right even if he were in timak to he could say I'm here be true the word here is what's called in philosophy an indexical which indicates the place where you are when you're talking so when you say I'm here do doesn't give me any information about uh about when you know where you are similarly talking to somebody on the phone and say oh you know I forgot my watch tell me what time is it now and he says the time is now yeah that's right it certainly is because whenever you're talking now is when you're talking but I want to know where it is on a clock I don't want to know when the IND indexical you know he say the call comes in you say who's calling please and he says it's me yeah it is that's true it certainly is me but me doesn't tell me who you are I want to know who you are right says to CL Isel these words which I'm commanding you today yeah of course today is the day of what you're talking that's quite right it is today but so what everybody knows that that's the indexical indicating the day in which you're talking so it's got to be something more indicated by those words so is say is you should try to relate to these words as if you're hearing them the first time when Moses gave them over for the first time they'll be fresh and new and exciting and not something that you've heard or said already a thousand times or 2,000 times or 10,000 times you say this twice a day and some of us say four times a day or five times a day they um you know it's got to be fresh and new that's one of the things they read into the idea of the when he says I'm telling you today the reader later should say it should be for me as if it was to them when they heard it for the first time and this is a real challenge we say certain texts over and over over again whether it's shma or or the and to keep it fresh and to keep it new and to keep it uh inspiring is quite a difficult challenge and as I say over and over again I'm saying it again now you should ask other people this question also because this is a question of psychological techniques I'm going to give you one I'm sure there are others and you you can get much more information we ask other people as well one way to make the texts alive and engaging is to project yourself into the text and in particular project yourself in your present life and all the circumstances is you're living under into the text let me give you one very simple easy example as a blessing we went through it in the right where you're asking for um health and wellness and recovery from sickness and so and so on that changes all the time because your state of health changes all the time and then you're not only ding for yourself you're ding for other people the people who you know their state of health is ding all the time most people people when they come to that blessing have a mental some people speak out the extras that they put into the blessings some people don't I T us not to but other people do we speak it out so it's either a physical or a mental list of people you go through in your mind and say this was sick with this and this was sick with this this sick with this please heal them and that's going to change all the time if you care about other people those people are meaningful to you important to you when you you have that in mind you you won't sleep during that blessing you won't feel that that blessing is boring because these people are sick and they need help and you're dominating for them so that's that's part of the idea of putting yourself into the the blessing here these words we just read that you should love let's say say the words twice a day one thing I recommend is think about let's say it's 12 hours a part think about the last 12 hours what did do for you in the last 12 hours so the very least you could feel appreciation of gratitude and the appre Gratitude then can support the idea that provided me with all this because he loves me and then you could come to a love uh if I say to krishma in the evening and I thinkwell let's see um since I di in the morning so in the morning I ate breakfast and I'm healthy enough to eat and appreciate and the food was good and I benched for it I learned with this K with that and I spoke to people who need help and I answered emails I gave stuer I came here I was outside I appreciated the beauty of the world that created he did a lot he did a lot for me I exercised which is true I exercised today they I have the the strength and the ability to exercise um I have a lot to be grateful for soest when you sayma say have take four seconds is that a big investment of time I think look at what happened the last 12 hours then when it says I should love it's alive it's not just something I said yesterday because yesterday I said it on yesterday's 12 hours and today I'm saying it on today's 12 hours put yourself into the words that you're saying when you talk about God um The Blessing ofu fight our fight you know fight our battle and save us save us from our dangers wow last since the last month that hasn't changed that blessing that blessing hasn't become alive for you you don't think of those soldiers who are risking their lives every day we have konas we have people who were were killed trying to protect the CL from from from their enemies that blessing is is alive it's it's it's a poignant blessing people are being shot at but as we you know as we talk so put yourself into the text put your life into the text that's one way to keep the text alive meaningful you know okay that's the word um these words which I commend you this day should be on your heart you should now they train that that teach them thoroughly actually vishant has in it the idea of training not just teaching your translator was sensitive to this he doesn't say just teach them that's the LA made in Hebrew not the sh sha canote repetition when you repeating something it's not just giving him the fact you're drilling it in and that's why and so it's really training them in these these things these words now why is that emphasis here what's the point of it here so those of you I'm speaking out to the people who are watching the video addition the people in the room those of you have children will already appreciate this and those of you who don't let me predict something about when you have children you have children and you're responsible for their growth and their development and their education and their training your motivation will be want things to be good for them and you'll use your experience to determine what's really good for a person's life and you'll want that for them I grew up in generation of people of parents either they were immigrants to America or they were children of immigrants they had very rough time establishing themselves and many of them did not go to college every one of them was committed the children should go to college because they look around at them and they saw who had good lives in particular who had the ability to earn money you went to college you could earn a lot more money and they scrimmed and they saved and they sent their children to college one of the tragedies was that at College they were taught to despise their parents criminal the professors took advantage of us and oh your parents didn't go to college and they don't know and you know better you don't have to listen to them and you don't have to follow their values and so and so on was just criminal they took advantage of us they know what they were talking about typically not about what we should do with life their political motivations the fact that they were lefties even then and okay that have a long a long rant on this as you could imagine so just as they felt they looked around and they said College gives you a basis for a much better life here the Torah is saying look at yourself look at what your life is based on look at what you treasure what's precious to you there's nothing more more precious to you than Torah then train your children in that because that that way you'll be giving to your children the best that you can give to your children that's part of what's going on now speak of these things when you are sitting in your house and when you're going on the way when you lie down to go to sleep and when you get up in the morning I hope it's obvious it doesn't mean just these four times or these four conditions and other conditions are exempt this is me to meant to be inclusive either you're at home or you're not at home and you're traveling I mean that's those they they covers like almost all of life and the two here are opposites your home home is is a place of security should be a place of physical security emotional security psychological security that people at home with you should be people who are committed to you committed to your welfare um whether you're not young enough to be living with your parents or with your siblings or whether you are living with other people who you're sharing with or you're living with your own family it's a place of Maximum Security whereas when you're on the way you're maximally exposed You're maximally vulnerable so these words should be on your mind and you speak of them when you're in situation when you're home when you're in maximum security when you're on the way when you're maximally insecure the last thing that you go to sleep at night and the first thing you think about when you get up in the morning there should be I would say constant Focus awareness of these words now the problem here and it's a problem which would apply also in the previous but I didn't bring it up there is that it's not clear that for to the to the beginner it's not clear intutive whether this is healthy it sounds like you're a one-dimensional person this is all you have in your mind you have this and only this in your mind what about the rest of Life similarly if you say you should love a God with all your heart does that mean you don't have any room left for loving anybody else so first of all this can't be right because one of the Mitzvah is to love other Jews so if you thought loving God with all my heart means all my heart has to to be devoted to God so I have no room in my heart for anybody else that can't be right because himself tells you to love the other Jews so something's gone wrong something's gone wrong and the same thing's true with the idea of being occupied or preoccupied are those the same occup preoccupied with the ideas and words of Torah at all times under all conditions would that mean to to have no room to be occupied with anything else focused on anything else experiencing anything else paying attention to anything to anything else so I want to explain to you that there are two different types of preoccupation or Focus sometimes focusing on X means you can't focus on anything else and sometimes it doesn't mean that so for example imagine a person not saying you or me but person who's Crossing ing the street suddenly sees a Mac Truck bearing down on him at 60 M hour well he'll be focused on that all right and he won't be focused on anything else not tonight's football scores and not how the stock market is doing and not the president is supposed to buy for his for wife's birthday no he'll be thinking it's get out or die that Focus crowds everything else out as it should because that that way you'll Galvanize your your ability to save your life but other things aren't like that let's say for example you're engaged to be married and the marriage is in eight weeks and you're preparing for the marriage so you're hiring the hole and hiring you're hiring the band and you're deciding which Rabbi should be the M Kad and who who the guest should be and and so and so on now when you're hiring the band got to talk to the band leader you talk about the kind of music that you want and what is experienced on do you forget that this is for a wedding I don't think so you're hiring him for the wedding but on the other hand you're asking about his musical background and how many pieces he has and how he's going to charge and until what time will he play the fact that you're preparing for the wedding doesn't prevent you from negotiating intelligently with the band leader does it you're ordering the flowers what kind of flowers how many hours can they be there in the hot room and not Wilt you know and what kind kind of decoration should it be do you forget you're doing this for the wedding no you don't the wedding is in your mind all the time and because it's in your mind all the time you also have room in your mind for the band and for the flowers and for the menu and for the hall and because that's part of acting out the the wedding so focus on the wedding doesn't prevent you from doing all these other things where as focus on avoiding the Mac Truck does prevent you from thinking about anything else at all it crowds out everything so now you have to ask yourself whether loving God with all your heart or being preoccupied with words of Torah is like the Mac Truck or it's like the wedding what is it like what kind of focus is it the wedding of course and let me give you an example let's say you're married and you love your spouse now another thing that you love is sunsets now you're sitting there and watching sunset with your spouse are you in trouble I mean you know you love your spouse and you love the W the sunset but how can I love both you know if my love is and I love my sons with my spouse with all my heart how can I probably love the sons I know here's what I'll do one minute for my spouse one minute for the sunset alternate minutes cuz you know the house can't hold two things at the same time below me because I love my spouse when I sit and watch the sunset I enjoy the sunset more because I'm sitting with my spouse who my love and it's because we share sunsets that we each love that we love each other the loves reinforce one another they don't compete with one another for one's heart they say I only have one heart they can't spend it in both places got to got to alternate or whatever no they reinforce one another so I never forget the love of my wife I have it on my mind all the time and because of that the other things that I do have an extra added Dimension because they're together with the love for my wife the same true of loving a you can love a with all your heart all the time and it doesn't crowd out other things it includes the other things so for example tells me I have to make a reasonable effort to earn a living so when I'm making my effort to learn a living my love of isn't gone absent forgotten let's say I'm a surgeon so I'm learning surgery I have to learn the medicine and and the technique I'm doing surgery on a person and saving his limb or saving his life what am I thinking about I'm thinking about saving his life why am I thinking about saving his life because I love and this is what he wants me to do so it's that absent that gone so the the love of is is compatible with other things which express that love by being focusing my attention on those things also same is true with Torah you know the blessing we make in the morning about study of Torah the literal word is not it's none of that was the occupied so my first wife asked the following question it turns out the commentators agree with what she said let's you're a businessman and you're negotiating a contract and you're looking through the clause in the contract say wait a second this clause in the contract I remember learning in the but you can't do that you can't put that in a contract let's call the r because seems to me that says I can't do that he call the r and he says well you could do it this way change the Clause write it this way that way so when I was negotiating the contract was I Tor you bet I was I want everything I do to be done the way the Torah wants me to do it so that being the case when I'm negotiating the contract in the back of my mind is what does the Torah say about negotiating this contract so it's not it's not uh um crowding out everything else the Torah itself wants me to earn a living and the Torah tells me how to earn a living and when I'm doing it I'm doing it with the the the Consciousness that everything I do has to be done according to the way that wants me to do it so that's the the idea that these things can be a constant preoccupation and don't have to be exclusive of other things that's a very important piece of psychology and it's a very important piece of understanding what wants for us okay now it says okay to bind these words for a sign on your hand or arm and they should be the toos between your eyes whatever toos are and should write them on the doorpost of your house and on your on your Gates so first of all let's try to figure out what this means bind these words on your hand well listen words are abstract words are not physical inscriptions are physical but words aren't physical so you can't bind words on your hand that being the case there's got to be some accompanying oral tradition to tell us how to perform this instruction and left to your own devices you would never dream of parchment and leather straps and the boxes have to be black and the straps have to be black on one side but not the other side doesn't have to be black on the other side and it's not clear I'm sorry it's not even clear the boxes have to be Black Block is going to be white only the straps have to be black and which words have to be written WR down and how they have they written all those things have to be communicated in oral tradition that's number one number two okay so I'm taking these words and I'm GNA bind them on you know write them on on parchments and put them in boxes strap them onto my hands and between your eyes where's that you'd be forgiven if you thought just if you read this sentence that's to be here that's between your eyes isn't it that's what the carites do but what they're ignorant of is that the oral tradition explains to you how to read the written tradition and there's another place where between your eyes is written and that is don't make a BAL spot between your eyes don't make a BAL spot don't make it by shaving off the hair between your eyes I think you notice for almost everybody this is bald automatically right there's no hair growing here here most of yeah for almost everybody right uh so what it means is between here means equidistant from and this part of your forehead is equidistant from your two eyes and here you have hair growing so the prohibition there is for shaving off this part of your hair don't make a BAL spot equidistant from your two eyes and the word there is Bane so that if that's what it means there then that's what it can mean here also when it talks about putting its fill in Bane and it means equidistant from your two eyes and that's why it's here that's how you read the T thank you tell you understand the okay so that's that's that's where it goes and then it goes on the door post that's what's being being being you're being told to do I think that there's a question here in terms of of the paragraph as a whole that this thing is upset with me because I'm my blood sugar is going low okay I heard you six times um we talked about God's Oneness philosophically and capitalistically and the fact that he creates the world mercy of a loving God all your heart with all your soul talking about training your children in this talking about these words being fresh and new by putting yourself into The Words which talk about speaking about them and being constantly preoccupied with them wow big stuff High stuff high philosophically high emotionally right and don't forget the parchments don't forget the leather straps and the leather boxes don't forget putting it on your doorpost and your Gates isn't that a little anticlimactic okay they're mitzvos yeah very good okay right good good good they're mitzvos but but boy oh boy to be in context of monotheism and love and training your children and also leather stps and leather boxes it seems at least anticlimactic it seems like it's a big let down from the rest of the paragraph there ought to be something big here something fundamental here something you know of of massive spiritual importance philosophical importance and there is sorry preservation mechanism preservation mechanism that the importance to preserve the tradition well by by what by by by putting on the and putting on the mza maybe but that would be true for every Mitzvah that's true for all the things we got them from from and we preserve them um so the first thing PR people say but what are the words that are in it fing they're these words so that means you're showing how precious these words a you that you wear these words on your put them on okay I hear that I hear that that's that's that certainly contributes but there is in fact here a gigantic philosophical idea what is the attitude of the Torah with all these great beliefs and commitments and love what is the attitude of the Torah to the physical world is the physical world just a necessity you have to eat and drink and sleep otherwise you won't survive so that you can meditate on high ideas and think about philosophical principles and fill your heart with love is the religion of the Torah a religion of thought and love no it's the religion of thought and love and Myriad physical performances now why is that why is that are the physical performances just a matter of reinforcing the thinking and the love is that all they are so actually read in a superficial and inappropriate way you could think that maybe the r holds that because the elastics of the guide he talks about the reasons for the Commandments but that is I can't go into that now I think that's a superficial and inappropriate to read way to read it but certainly in the capitalistic tradition there is a pro a a a pro a project of elevating the physical and making it spiritual and that's the program of physical performances of the Torah is the program of elevating the physical and making it spiritual and the symbol here is this that your body which is physical can be made spiritual and according to the calistic sources that's a way to put the main project of the Torah to take the physical and make it spiritual and the most intimate expression of that is what you do with your own body but then it spreads out it can spread out to anything physical that you come in contact with whether it's your home or whether it's your city anything within the city Gates any physical thing that you have an interaction with you have an opportunity to elevate it and make it holy and that's a gigantic principle um we spoke about this not in this year Well if can't not what I say grouping but when you talk about Abraham and ask why he took money from pharaoh and didn't take money from the king of Sodom and one explanation is that what you do in the physical environment affects the physical environment and although Egypt was not a a moral and spiritual Paradise it did not reach the degradation of Sodom and that being the case Abraham said the physical environment there can be recovered recycled rehabilitated and therefore if I take the money from there I can elevate it and make it and make it spiritual but in Sodom that's impossible the the wickedness of Sodom had got to such a degree that the physical environment was polluted Beyond repair so now what happened couldn't didn't accept anything from it and when punished the people of Sodom Andor the other three cities not only did the people die but the physical environment was destroyed wasn't it why why wasn't it like the verse of mishle says the the wicked accumulates property and he dies and the sadic inherits it why did the physical environment have to be destroyed if these people are wicked let them die and let good people take it over no because their wickedness saturated the environment with evil to the point where the physical environment couldn't be in elevated and that's why the physical environment was destroyed so here what the Torah is telling you is your body can be elevated he obligation to do that and the physical environment the whole city could be elevated to do that that's why you put something that has Holiness the fillan and the mza have holiness you strap it on your arm and put it on your head and you put it on your doorpost and your gates to tell you all of this can be elevated all of it is not just a compromise with the body and the body's low and crude and and degraded and animal and you know and you're really living in this world of the spirituality now religions divide on this basic principle what is their attitude toward the physical world and that's why there are some religions with practices of living on a Mountaintop and isolation living in the cave in isolation and not in investing not having a family God forbid to live with other people because then you have to earn money and earning money dealing with the physical world to to to create money and everything no isolate yourself spend your time meditating meditating is spiritual and everything physical is not spiritual I've had people tell me this in this year I said to them what's your attitude towards mud mud dirty mud dirty mud yeah but K is creating it all the time isn't he he's not divorcing himself from the mud so if the highest spirituality is be like the Creator you shouldn't Divorce Yourself in the mud either nope he's creating it has to have a purpose same true with the body same true with all your physical resources to regret them and feel that they're degraded and cut yourself think that they're only Temptations to drag you down and and the goal is to cut yourself off of them as much as possible is to deny the deny the Creator yeah do we have some exposure to the elevation to what to the elevation do we have some exp can can we see it sense it recognize it or or beyond our well it's expressed in let's put it that way I don't qu talk about seeing it or sensing it for example when you make an animal into a carbon it's holy and it has certain special restrictions to what you can do with it because it has become holy that's uh so it elevated because it said so so we don't have any beyond beond that that it said so we don't have any other ways to I would say there is but but you have to but you you you can see it in the character of human beings people have succeeded in doing this lead Exquisite lives you look at what some of the things they do and you think boy I could never do that but if I did it I'd be a much better person and someone said the only way in which Darwin could have thought that men that people are involved from animals is because he never met rebis salant if he had met re salant he would have know right away there's no connection couldn't possibly have he couldn't possibly have been evolved from an animal because the gap between him and animals is just so enormous this it's too big a gap to cross just by gradual Evolution so I think you could you could see it in human beings other than that no you can't you can't see it doesn't glow in the dark you know it's not radioactive that you could test with a when you mean see in human being you mean like when you meet like a g or other oric people who behave as as a sadic behaves um I'll tell you one short story which which illustrates this in one way so a man had a very sick son and he went to the and said there's a doctor in tou of a city quite a distant City and he has a cure for this disease so it took him like weeks by train to get there he gets there and he finds the doctor doctor gives him the medicine and uh he comes back and he treats his son and his son recovers and the said don't ever tell the story to anybody fine 10 years later the son is fine he's getting married and he figured what the thankful to the he saved his life son's life told the story immediately the son got sick and got sicker and sicker till finally he had no choice he went back to the and he said I know you told me not to tell the story and I made him mistaken I told the story he's sick again said I fasted for your son 40 days I'm not strong enough to do that now I can't do it again and he died meaning he sent to the doctor to cover it up it was just a cover up the doctor didn't know and the medicine didn't do anything it had nothing to do with it he fasted for him for 40 days but he didn't want it to know why should he have why should he know he didn't want it to be thankful he didn't want it to be publicized that he was able to do that by fasting for somebody he did it because that was his way of curing him an intelligent chimpanze wouldn't do that and intelligent chimpanzee would not do that here's where you can see an elevation he's not doing it for ego he's not doing it for gratitude he's not doing it for publicity and had the father follow his instruction no one would have ever known about it no one would have ever known about it that that's a level of of tius that you know beyond what the physical get would give you yeah so somehow the I want to the idea with that feeling is that is it like to to to um through our actions to to um make holy our bodies like kind of the symbolism with that's right that means it's like it's it's a symbol of all the things you do with your body which can affect the Elevate the body and uh that's one gigantic part of what we're doing in the world to do that for the body because that's prepared for a whole long thing of that in the ra if you want to see that short um in theem in the back of some additions there's something called essay on fundamentals which is a summary of the of the plus other things that he put in there but you can if I remember correctly you can see it in there okay my pleasure