War in Ukraine: Being Calm in an Uncertain World

when the rabbi reached out to us a few months ago to discuss today's events and the topic would be staying calm in a very uncertain world in a very unstable world i don't think any one of us could have guessed the dramatic upheavals and changes that happened just over the last few days as a rabbi just mentioned with the war in ukraine i don't know if you know but there are hundreds of thousands of jews that live in the ukraine sometimes you'll see small amounts of number a number that is a very small amount but if you speak to the leaders of the ukrainian jewish communities you know that over 70 years of communism so many jews went into hiding they simply felt that they had to be clandestine and secret and many emerged after the fall of communism so you're talking about a enormously one of the largest communities in the world you're talking about a community of approximately three to four hundred thousand jews in the ukraine and just last night after shabbos here in new york i had the opportunity to speak to around five or six of the spiritual leaders of ukrainian jury it was very emotional it was heart-wrenching it was moving i spoke to some of the extraordinary khabad ambassadors who are in ukraine there are a hundred and eighty-three khabachl that's families so you're talking about hundreds or thousands about 183 ambassadors rabbis and robinsons 183 couples and families who are spiritual leaders and have built judaism in various cities of ukraine in the larger cities in smaller cities in stetlach and i had a chance to have a direct conversation with some of the luchem in kharkov which is the second to the largest city in ukraine after kiev and is under attack sumi mariapal chernigov and some other cities it was incredible to hear their first-hand reports they are all in in basements and shelters with their children and many of them with many jews of the community who have gathered in their homes or in their schools or in chabad centers for shelter and the incredible thing i just have to share this with you as i was going into bed last night it was late after midnight after i got off the phone with some of them i thought to myself here i'm going into a bed in rockland county new york but there's hundreds of thousands of jews who are in a very deep state of fear and i want you to know that all of these rabbis and robertsons are citizens either of israel or of america they could have all left and i asked one of the rabbis how many left and he told me not one not one of them left because most of the community can't leave it's not like people you know they have a second house and they have money you get on a plane and you go live in london for two months go live in paris go live in tel aviv go live in melbourne for two months come to new york for a few months stay hang out in manhattan or muncie most of the jews they don't have that opportunity and these leaders real shepherds decided to remain with them and i asked one of the rabbis rabbi moskowitz and kharkov he's in a basement in a shelter in a basement with little kids with mattresses and i said how do you feel about it and he says it's an unbelievable privilege everything i have learned all my life now i can finally experience all my learning my whole life all the torah all the faith all of our conversations and meditations about what it means to live in a place of serenity or fortitude of resilience of oneness of very deep and mundane faith he says it's now can all come to the fore it was all for these moments and he described the the commitment of of these luchem to their constituents and the spirit of the communities what happened on shabbos the singing and the dancing and the praying he says there's no prayer like a prayer i'm smiling it's it's far from funny as you can hear in the background and i can hear in the background the sounds literally of of missiles of bombs of explosions so for one i was i received so much i received so much strength from speaking to these people who are in a very very difficult situation as they all told me this is not an easy situation this is a very very difficult situation situations a very unpredictable situation and of course i asked some of them what can we do for you do you want money do you need food and some of them need food and they need money but they all told me the most important thing is ask our brothers and sisters to pray for us and ask our brothers and sisters to increase in their mitzvahs in their good deeds and acts of goodness and kindness and learning of torah and prayer and and and commitment to mitzvos and the yiddish that will strengthen us and the truth is that you know their their words are as powerful as words can be because as our great sages have taught us over the generations that the entire jewish people are literally a single organism we are like a body one body and we know an exercise whenever you exercise whenever you heal whenever you repair or perfect even one limb or organ of your body the entire body is affected because the body is not compartmentalized there's the nine systems that work in our organism all work in a holistic integrated fashion the blood circulates throughout the entire body in the circulatory system and the central nervous system of the brain governs and is interconnected with every single dimension and every cell of the 70 trillion cells so therefore any part of the body that is strengthened it empowers directly and indirectly every other limit organ in the body the same is true with the jewish people when any limb of the jewish people in london or anywhere else in the world strengthens itself becomes more empowered becomes more refined becomes more pure becomes more holy becomes more divine we ourselves become channels of of light and of love and of compassion it strengthens literally every single jew in the world and it strengthens the entire world every good person in the world so our connection with our brothers and sisters in ukraine is not just through the news it's spiritual it's deep it's authentic it's metaphysical and meta-historical it dates back to the beginning of the jewish people and continues with an unshakable unbreakable unity that affects all of us in the profoundest in the profoundest way you know when i think of this latest upheaval of the war in ukraine it's extremely moving to all of us it's very it's it's it touches us in a very deep place especially because it's ukraine and i want to say something about this you know you there's every centimeter in ukraine is drenched with jewish blood i don't know that there's a community in the world that suffered like the ukrainian jewish community of course the entire our entire nation in eastern europe we know what happened and everybody was affected in ways that can't even be described with a quill but there's something surreal and really absolutely unique historically when you think about the ukraine jews have been there for more than a millennium and literally when i tell you i don't exaggerate when you say state the leftish detail village after village city after city is drenched with jewish blood over the centuries you may have heard of the pogroms of 1648 1649 the khmelinetsky pogroms serious when the kazakhs slaughtered tortured in the most horrific ways which i'm not going to describe the ukrainian jewish community the numbers are not even clear how much how many were killed some put it at 300 000 some put it at smaller numbers but enormous amounts of jews men women and children and in horrific ways this is in the 17th century the community was still relatively young and then again in the 18th century the famous pogroms again of the khazaks of there were the famous heinous pogroms of the 1880s after the assassination of alexander ii the czar alexander ii after his assassination in 1881 pogroms were unleashed on ukrainian jury which caused a mass immigration also to the united states to england to other places and then there was during the civil war after the bulsh after the revolution of that claimed some say 50 100 000 lives these are things that are not even known how ukrainian jury suffered poverty savage savage subjugation torture bloodshed violence and death and then came 1941. even the most conservative numbers put the number of victims of ukraine at 900 000 some say it's more like 1.5 1.6 million jews in almost every community of ukraine shot literally if you go out to every stettle or every village outside of ukraine there's a grave there with thousands of jewish holy bodies men women children old and young shot by the eisendust groupers that came in after june 41 when hitler invaded this soviet union stalin didn't expect it and they went literally from city to city and not hundreds of thousands more than a million ukrainian jews we all know the baba yar story that happened on yom kippur the time of the days before yom kippur in two days 33 000 jews shocked placed in a grave so you think about ukraine what the jewish people went through in ukraine and then and then despite the fact before the holocaust there were two and a half million jews living in ukraine and close to a million escaped close to a million escaped and many of them came back after the war but under stalin's communism you couldn't practice as a jew you couldn't live as a jew in the open tremendous anti-semitism tremendous hatred and remember the ukrainians assisted the nazis in the dirty work and the filthy work of slaughtering the jews and then communism falls and a miracle of miracle happens resurrection of ukrainian jury and most incredible incredible one of the greatest miracles of jewish history if you want to understand the miracle of jewish history you go back to those places and you see the tree mason you know the prophecy of ezekiel where he discusses how he sees the dry bones and they have no hope and god says the dry bones will come back to life as i say to you and i know many of them are friends and colleagues 183 and this is the chabad movement and the other rabbis and leaders who have come and resurrected judaism and all of the communities of ukraine affecting thousands hundreds of thousands of jews in one way or another with schools and mikvis and schools and camps and social programs and senior citizen programs and programs for youth and for middle-aged people and for the elderly men women and children jewish holidays and champions simply incredibly inspiring to understand the secret of nets israel the eternity of israel so when you look at such a history and no remember something else some of the greatest luminaries of the jewish world came from ukraine the baal shamtiv who changed the jewish world where did he come from ukraine he was born there raised there lived there in measure bush ukraine the laboratory who changed the jewish world in our generation where was he born and raised in ukraine he was born in the collie of raised near perpetrovsk it was the cradle of the extraordinary hasidic movement luminaries like nachman of bresliv the great one of the great spiritual masters of judaism also ukraine his burial places and uman which also experienced some heavy explosions in the last few days as we pray for all of those communities in ukraine i think three of the prime ministers of israel come from ukraine if i'm not mistaken moshe shareth levy eshkol and golda meir if you're familiar with hebrew literature you have echoed you have yiddish literature shalom allah ukraine pulsated pulsated with jewish culture with jewish life and many many different manifestations many disagreements and many debates with which jews are prone to so ukraine is dear not just to jews who live there or have relatives there have friends there like some of us do but really it touches something at the core of the jewish heart and jewish history and as i said we are all one organism we are all one body even if we sometimes deny it or we don't feel it or we don't see it it's the real truth of our of our reality and those jews give us tremendous strength as we want to give them strength thinking about them praying for them sending our love our blessings our prayers and everything every possible thing we can do financially and spiritually to be able to uplift the morale and strengthen their spirit during these very very excruciatingly challenging and difficult times how do we internally and emotionally processes i have to say something else the khabach leak of sumi his name is rabbi levatansky he sent me last night a report that his eight-year-old daughter gave her teacher in israel she learns on it with a teacher in israel so she gave a report in hebrew an eight-year-old girl talking about the explosions that she heard on shabbos the satsuchi heard on shabbos and the way she processes it i'm like wow the ability to process because we know about trauma what is trauma trauma is not the event that happens trauma is that which is stuck in our body and it doesn't have an empathetic witness we have no way of processing it only through repressing it or through criticizing it and delegitimizing it and getting angry in it but that real deep ability to be an empathetic witness to painful events inside of you and around you changes everything and i was listening to this little girl how she was processing and talking about the shabbos with her parents and her community and i was like just such an incredible purity of of love and faith and compassion wow how do we learn from it in our own lives where you're living in london you're living in new york everybody went through an upheaval the last few years that we couldn't expect and how do we process it how do we internalize a calmness a serenity during challenging times during uncertain times and i want to say i want to share with you what i think are a few fundamental ideas from our torah from our tradition that i think can help each of us at least i try i hope it can help me and i think it can help many of us process the information process the experiences in ways that build us in ways that make us better people in ways that keep us more connected more anchored and also more relaxed more serene more happy more confident and more wholesome point number one the last few years have brought out layers of self that have not been brought out previously i know it to be true about myself about my family about people who are close to me and anyone i come in contact with i've seen it from the beginning of corona a certain superficiality that was part of many of our lives has been stripped you know sometimes what was it shakespeare that's your neck of the woods what did he say some people are born great right and some people grow into greatness and some people have greatness hurled upon them the unforgettable rabbi jonathan sachs your former chief rabbi of blessed memory would say he says i don't know that every jew is born great or every jew develops greatness he says but every every jew has greatness hurled upon him or her simply by our history by our by our sheer genes by our past and our present and our future or as god tells moses every jew is mamlakh you're part of a kingdom of princesses and a sacred nation but often it's easy to deny it you know i look in the mirror and i just could choose a more superficial lifestyle but sometimes events happen in your life curveballs come your way and i can't surrender to mediocrity anymore i can't just live a life of quiet desperation i think that was thoreau who said most people live lives of quiet desperation we are challenged in ways that are unexpected or to paraphrase thomas paine these are times that try men's souls these are times that try men's souls and women's souls and all of our souls and they bring out sometimes the worst in people and they bring sometimes out the best in people you've seen in last year's last few years some very deep anger that emerges from people an anger that comes from a place of being completely unsettled i have nothing i can hold on to and i literally it's like almost as a shipwreck a shipwreck and i'm going to hold on to anything i can hold on to even if it proves futile i've seen this here in the united states of america again and again people are so desperate to hold on to something to be anchored in something stable so they'll take something that looks stable and they'll hold on to it because i don't want to drown it turns out that that object that you're holding on to is going straight down it can't hold you up there's no substance to it it can't keep you afloat it can't help you soar but i'll hold on to anything because i'm desperate i don't want to drown and that's why we've seen in the last few years i'm not a sociologist i don't mean to give here scholastic sociological interpretations of everything that's happening in society but i think it's a sentiment that i'm just experiencing so i'm sharing it with you maybe i'm wrong but i i don't think i'm i somehow feel that there's a truth here that the the the upheavals in the world because remember the corona brought 7.7 billion people to their knees it was the first time in decade centuries that in tehran and in baghdad and in new york in borough park and in stamford and in gold is green and in downtown london and in your synagogues and in australia everybody was talking about the same thing corona the vulnerability of the human race has emerged in its ferocious intensity and scientists and doctors who we trusted so much were clueless many of them are still clueless what do you do at such moments it's very difficult so we see that a lot of people have literally reverted to absolutely a lifestyle of very deep anger and the anger comes from deep deep fear deep deep anxiety and i'll hold on to anything and people become absolute enemies at such moments there's no conversation there's no dialogue because it's literally i go back into my amygdala and i'm just coping i'm it's a coping mechanism trying to survive a lot of rationality has been thrown out the window people who are otherwise intelligent you can't talk to them you want to talk to them face to face almost intelligence goes out the window why that's what fear does fear shuts us down it makes us stop thinking but i want to say something else i have seen during the last few years some of the highest angels come out from people people not becoming their worst version of themselves but people becoming the best version of themselves such idealism such clarity of thought so much love so much spiritual focus such unwavering commitment such deep faith fortitude wisdom resilience depth in hebrew the beautiful word for depth is amkus amok these are times that try people's souls and challenge us in deep ways and have a choice the choice is either i just grab on to whatever i can grab on and turn former friends into enemies people who disagree with me into enemies and i live in this little bubble and read only things i agree with and get upset at anybody who doesn't agree with me and i become vindictive and i become a little bit like an indoctrinated zombie and we see this happening in political conversations and in other conversations across the spectrum of people but there's another choice and the other choice is that your deepest self emerges a self that you didn't even know exists a leadership a self that is defined by very very deep wisdom a wisdom that does not confuse short-term with long-term a wisdom that does not confuse decisions made out of trauma with decisions coming from a place of empowerment and deep deep awareness decisions that come not out of weakness but out of strength people who rise up to the occasion and become voices of unwavering clarity decisive truth ambassadors of love light and hope compassion authenticity wisdom healing redemption it's a choice everybody makes during such moments i can become the worst version of myself which is understandable or i can become the best version of myself which is the opportunity that every one of us has and what our children and our future deserve it goes back to that moment in the book of esther we're soon going to celebrate purim and esther is the first lady she's the spouse of ahashverish there's a genocide decree on the jewish people haman convinced the king to wipe out and exterminate every jew heaven forbid and murder pleads with queen esther go into your husband and plead and beseech him to save the jewish people and she says i can't i'm married to a nut job i'm married to an alcoholic a persian monarch you think iran now is bad that's the same iran wants to kill every jew i go out i go in without permission i come out with a head shorter and mordechai tells her one line and it could still pierce your heart it's in chapter four of the book of ask he says who knows if this is not the reason you became a queen and those words inspire her to sacrifice her life put her life in jeopardy go into her husband and navigate events to the point where she saves the entire jewish nation until today we are here today because of queen esther thank you queen esther but what motivated her those words marduk i told her you are not where you are by mistake you were chosen to be in the palace when you were chosen to be in the palace because you have a mission life is not random we are not random mutations we are not insignificant and valueless cells that mutate we should not be defined and not define ourselves as an infinitesimal blimp on the surface of infinity amounting to nothing all of judaism is a meditation contrary to this you were conceived in love your life is meaningful where you are is part of your unique mission your soul was sent down air on a mission all of your gifts all of your resources all of your talents and all of your challenges all of your past experiences are all part of this unique journey that your soul needed to go on in order to be in the place where it is so that you should be able to flex your physical and spiritual and emotional muscles and light up your corner of the world and infuse yourself and your loved ones and the people around you and your community and ultimately the whole world with more awareness with more oneness with more love with more hope with more authenticity with more truth and when you can wake up with that sense of mission everything changes i was asking myself this morning i had a hard time sleeping i'll tell you the truth because i was just thinking about the contrast people i asked to some of the guys in chernigov that's ukraine and in some other some other cities you're all in the basements what do you think did we slap down mattresses do they have food so one of them doesn't have food they said but somebody's bringing flour from the mill they're bringing flour they're bringing flour somebody else is bringing beans and somebody else is harvesting barley and i'm thinking to myself when was the last time i harvested barley and saw flour being brought from the mill but i also felt a certain serenity from people who know what their mission is and that they are on a mission now it's easy to talk about it when it comes to the visceral experience everything changes because the body gets overwhelmed by fear but this is part of the gift of judaism that on a daily basis we train to integrate these truths of me a day as martin says there's a reason you're in the palace there's a reason you are where you are there's a reason you are who you are and there's a reason you went through whatever you went through and don't allow it to reduce you to victimhood but allow it to challenge you and bring out the best the deepest the most juicy choicest parts of your soul because every crisis from a jewish perspective is also an opportunity the word in hebrew for a breakdown is majber the same word in the bible in the hebrew and the tanakh is used as a birthing stool isha yoshevita a woman who would sit in times of yore on a birthing stool is the same word why two opposites because in judaism everything that gets broken every breakdown is an invitation for a new birth it's painful it's hard but it's how judaism sees the world that sees history when one door closes another door opens when my previous paradigm breaks when my old lifestyle is shattered and shaken up i can become angry i can become vindictive i can become restless and those are normal emotions and i have to we all have those moments there is panic and there's hysteria and there's chaos and my body is dysregulated and we have to become an empathetic witness to our experiences and allow ourselves to sublimate ourselves with compassion to a deeper place where i open myself up to the opportunities that are before me each and every one of us has now opportunities that we never had before because we see things with more clarity our doors of perception have been cleansed we have been forced to shed layers of vanity egotism haughtiness arrogance narcissism the need for validation living a more superficial life where we allow distractions to distract us from our priorities which brings to mind a wonderful anecdotal story that i wanted to share with you there was a professor who was talking to his students and he came in with a big glass jar and he filled it with pretty nice sized rocks till the top and he asked his students do you think i could fill this jar with anything else it's filled to the top and they said no there's no space for anything else so he took out a cup with little pebbles and sure enough he poured them into the jar and there was plenty of space for the little pebbles between the spaces of all the big rocks now the pebbles reach the top of the jar they fill the jar and he turns to the students is there any place for anything else they said no not anymore and he took out a cup of sand and of course he went on to pour the sand into the jar and there was enough place for all the sand till the top of the jar and he turns to the students what about now they said now there's really no place for anything else and he took out a cup of water and he poured it in and there was plenty of space for the water until the jar filled up and he turned to the students and he said what's the lesson so some said the lesson is there's always more space for something else right you ever sat at a shabbos table and people say after the third course i am stuffed i'm satiated i can't breathe anymore until the dessert comes out what do they say this place in the heart this place in the house if there's place in the taste buds there's place in the stomach but then the teacher said there's a much deeper lesson the deeper lesson he says if i would have started with the water there would have been not place for anything else unless the water would be displaced i started with the big rocks and then there was space for little rocks for sand and even for water for a good drink whatever that drink looks like he said in life make sure you first secure the big things the foundational things the important things make sure those go into the bottle first then you'll have space for the pebbles you'll have space for the sand you'll have space for the water what are the big rocks what are the big things those are the questions we have to answer during such times what are you anchored in something that is stable consistent unwavering a tree that will not be uprooted because its roots go so deep they are not shallow they may be still waters but they run deep i need to be anchored in something that's unshakable we could learn from king david king david says in psalms 27 my father and mother abandoned me but god took me in king david says in psalm 23 even when i walk in the valley of the shadow of death i fear not evil because you are with me nathan sharansky the famous refusenik from the ussr wrote a book fear no evil and he describes how nine years in the gulag what kept him saying was the book of psalms he couldn't even read hebrew the jew grew up in communist russia no hebrew lessons he taught himself hebrew in the prison and even in solitary confinement when he went on a hunger strike was they wouldn't give him back his psalms his book of psalms he taught himself hebrew he says that book kept him sane kept him alive kept him jewish even when i walk in the valley of the shadow of death i fear not evil because you're with me king david says in psalms 139 when i ascend to heaven you're there when i go down into the abyss i see you as well i acquire wings and i go to the end of the seas there too your right arm will hold on to me i say there is so much darkness that is eclipsing my vision but the truth is no darkness can eclipse your presence because even night will shine like day darkness will be transformed into light what is king david telling us king david knew what traumas king david knew what unstability is king david was always almost always on the run for his life he had no easy life he was not welcome in his own family when he finally got married his father-in-law wanted to kill him when he finally was a king his own son wanted to kill him but throughout he had something to hold on to that he knew would never fail him and that was the fact that he was anchored in the presence of god he knew that god is holding his hand and always with him king david was anchored in the core of his own soul and the soul is a piece of god the soul is a derivative of the infinite consciousness of god the soul the mystic says it's a spark of the divine it's a manifestation of god's light in this world he was always anchored in that place but i can be anchored in that place when my big rocks are there now you could fit in other things but make sure those big rocks are there what do those big rocks look like they look like the times that you spend in prayer the moments that you dedicate for meditation for connecting with the core with your own soul with the soul of the world with hashem they're the times that you dedicate to the story of torah that give oxygen to the jewish mind and to the jewish brain and to the jewish body in a world of uncertainty they're the moments that we dedicate to really good deeds the deeds that are divine deeds what we call mitzvahs deeds of goodness and kindness deeds of love and compassion the baal shem tov who was born in ukraine said a soul comes into this world for 70 80 years sometimes to do one favor for another person for another jew a spiritual favor or a physical a material favor those big rocks look like those essential innate characteristics that i must nurture day in and day out your relationship with your soul your relationship with your inner core with your inner body with your inner voice with your inner essence your relationship with god those big stones look like nurturing your deepest relationships your deepest attachments your marriages your relationship with your children your relationships with your closest friends with your loved ones it's allowing yourself to be attached to things that really matter those relationships that are truly truly valuable that we can often dismiss and disregard because we're all busy i got to make money and i got to make ends meet and there's always an appointment and there's something stressful and there's emails to answer and the phone is ringing and there's a new clip i rabbi yy or there's a whatever it is maybe that goes into the big rocks also i don't know you'll ask the rabbi but those relationships don't let go of those are important stuff those are important of nurturing our deepest emotional and spiritual needs nurturing our presence of self as a manifestation of god in this world and then you have the little rocks and you have the sand and you have the water and you'll already figure out what that is in your life my dearest friends today's sunday sunday is a day known as the day of hafdala abdullah means separation there's an unbelievable very beautiful jewish tradition saturday night there's a mitzvah called havdalah just like we make kiddish we welcome the sabbath the shabbat we also say goodbye to shabbos they're saying hello and they're saying goodbye it's harder to say goodbye we call it closure and there's a special ceremony called many of you grew up with it we pick up a cup of wine we say a special blessing over the wine we light a flame we smell the same the herbs the incense and the text of the blessing is blessed are you god king of the world who separates between holiness and the mundane between light and darkness between the jewish people and the nations between the seventh day and the six days blessed are you god who creates a segregation between the holy and the mundane and i always wondered what's the blessing what's the blessing you're thanking god for what i understand i thank god for breathing and thank god for my eyesight and thank god for my taste buds and thank god for my ability to wake up and to walk and thank god for life but what am i thanking god for abdullah you separated you made a separation between the holy and the mundane okay great so shabbos is over i don't even like when shabbos is over i like when shabbos continues but it comes it's over there's a very deep message here friends life has a lot of dollas there's periods and there is transitions and they're very dramatic the transition between holy and mundane between shabbat and saturday night and sunday jews on saturday nights suffer from a condition i call pss post-shabbos syndrome that's why we have to smell them some of the talmud says in beza we have an extra soul on shabbos and it leaves when shabbos leaves and it's painful it's difficult it's traumatic for a jew there's a void matsuri shabbos on saturday that's why people feel they have to go out on saturday night because there's a spiritual void so we think pizza bowling something else is gonna fill it it doesn't really fill it because it's a different type of void the best thing to fill the void saturday night is to learn gemara probably but the fact is there's a void life has transitions we can't be children forever we can't be in our mother's womb we emerge and then we grow up it's nice to remain a child to have that innocence we grow up we get married we shoulder the responsibilities of our family we get older and everybody's life goes through transitions so there's different approaches some people deny it or they're not good at it they repress it they don't deal with it judaism says no hamas learn that even the separations also come from god when you go from one period in life to another period in life it's not a mistake you weren't throwing off the plane you weren't throwing under the bus you weren't throwing into a brutal and difficult reality how do i deal with it the same god who created the holy created the mundane and he is the one who created the gulf and said now we start a new period and i'm giving you power to deal with it there's a beautiful song my grandfather used to sing saturday night it's an eastern european yiddish song al-tira yakov god says don't fear my servant jacob shabbos is over there was a fear in the jewish heart how can i go in to a week that may be very stressful so god says al tiro of the archive it's a beautiful song don't fear my servant jacob goes through the entire the entire hebrew alphabet telling jews don't fear because the same god who created shabbos he also created sunday and monday and tuesday and wednesday and thursday and then his friday already heir of shabbat so the point is when you go through seasons in life the transitions the fluctuations divisitudes shouldn't cause fear they have to create a humility and a curiosity to open ourselves up to the new energy of this season and the same is true with history every year has a different energy every week is a different energy every day is a different energy you know every hour has a different energy in kabbalah and that's why our moods change and that's why we have ups and downs it's not a mistake life doesn't continue on one plane it doesn't work that way life is a roller coaster hopefully sometimes it's a ferris wheel at least it's a merry ground but you this movement shiva yipa zadek will come proverbs says the righteous person falls down seven times and gets up all those separations also come from god they're not mistakes and as the balshemptev taught and with this i leave you and then we go to questions and again he is the light of the ukraine measure bush is where the bashamtv is still buried i had the privilege of being there more than once that's where he taught that's where he inspired that's where he lit up the world from little shtetl in ukraine and the bashamtv taught it says in psalms shivisi hashem le negde summit i place god before me constantly the word srivisi comes from the word shaveh which means identical uniform and he said when god is before me always then there's a uniformity in my life there is a stability in my life because even if i'm going through upheavals and transitions the fact that i know that god is before me constantly allows me to hold on to something that becomes a stable and eternal and infinite anchor that throughout all of my vicissitudes there's a shivisi there's a certain regulation a calmness a serenity that pervades me throughout may we be able to internalize the baal shem tov srivisi in our lives thank you so much okay first question do you think this war is a continuation of the past tragic events of our history what's the reason this is happening do you know the inner reason behind this war listen i i don't have that knowledge and i don't have that expertise you know obviously it's very very worrisome it's very very disturbing yeah you can ask questions in the chat yeah it's very very worrisome it's very very disturbing disturbing the president of russia mr putin i believe has made a colossal colossal cruel cruel mistake to try to handle this crisis rather than through negotiation and diplomacy through bloodshed and such brazen aggression and violence and i feel bad because instead of going down into history as somebody who built russia and really helped jews a lot in russia and and helped him a lot um i've seen what goes on in russia and a lot of us to the credit putin you know i fear that he's going to go down in history as a as a monster and uh it's it's it's it's a sad day it's a sad day for russia it's a sad day for ukraine you know i spoke to some friends in russia as well and uh you know they're under putin but everybody's many of them feel just they feel shame they feel embarrassed they feel hurt there's very little they can do besides pray for their brothers and sisters in ukraine but it's it's a very painful very painful situation and you know the weakness of the united states of america and other countries has also emerged in a dramatic way and somebody says what are the great lessons for this for the jewish people well the first lesson is for israel first lesson is for israel for decades we have been hearing people tell israel don't worry make concessions you know oslo records give away gaza and if they use the territories if they used ammunition if they use the weapons to declare war you have the united states of america to help you europe will help you the united nations will help you other peace loving countries will help you israel was always schlepped to make concession after concession after concession and it knew those concessions can endanger literally the six seven million jews living there and arabs living there but they were told the world will be behind peace so now look what happened russia invades ukraine and nobody could stop it nobody can stop it now the ukrainians are putting up a very very impressive fight i don't think putin expected this type of resistance this type of fight and vladimir zelinski who's of course a jew the first president of ukraine i think ever who's a jew his father is jewish his father is jewish his mother is jewish i don't know if you know his grandfather fought the nazis in the soviet war against the nazis there were four brothers and three were killed and his father his grandfather survived much of his family was killed in the holocaust in the ukraine some of them ran away his grandmother i think ran away that's why they survived they came back to the ukraine after the holocaust where he was born and you know he was offered to leave and he said i don't need a ride i need ammunition but we're dealing with a very very difficult situation now this is not about i have no intimate knowledge in the politics between russia and ukraine but we have to remember that the traumas of war are devastating and nobody thought that in the 21st century a leader would not understand that to go invade another country in such a fashion is simply simply heinous the bloodshed that wars have caused the pain the trauma for generations for centuries is indescribable and even one life even one life that's lost is a an international catastrophe but this is a great lesson for israel people tell israel don't worry people will be here for you who's going to be here for you and that's why it's so important that israel remain absolutely strong and with god's grace always focus on its national security interest to make sure that every citizen every jew and every non-jew every good person is protected there and protected there in the most meticulous and precise way and god forbid not to make a concession that literally can offer terrorists the ability to continue to launch attacks that kill and maim innocent men women and children i think that is one major lesson next question very good question sir okay oh sorry let me just get back to the questions people are talking about the possibility of a third world war i'm terrified i can't find peace i can't sleep at night i'm scared for my children i am so concerned also about our brothers and sisters in the ukraine i'm concerned about my son we're about to send our children to poland on the march of the living and we're about to send them to israel next week we're from mexico city oh okay not from london do you think it's safe for our children they've been waiting for this trip for two years by the way you could put questions in the chat i see the chat just do chat to everyone and i could see your questions in the chat because i see somebody asked you could put your question in the chat listen i i can't answer questions that i don't know then answer to i'm not a prophet i don't have wisdom that you don't have and i don't have knowledge that you don't have if you ask me for my hunch this is but this is completely not scientific and not based on any political military sociological economical expertise or any intimate deep knowledge of russia and mr putin and the dynamics of the geopolitical situation and the relationships between the countries and nato and the european union and russia and america i know what you know um but generally speaking fear even though it's normal it doesn't help us fear doesn't help us as i said before this is a time for leadership it's a time for clarity it's a time to be ambassadors of faith resilience empowerment strength hope compassion fortitude it's not a time to buckle down in fear it's a time to ask what is my role what is our role what can i do in my own little corner and in my own small way to help my brothers and sisters i don't see a third world war i don't see i think these are extraordinary times i don't see the problem of going to israel or of going to poland again i i don't see but i'm a very you know i have my own limited tools and i i'm not answering you from a place of deep spiritual authority please understand that and it's important to encourage our children to explain to our children you know what is at stake in all of us being here in this world teaching what the torah wants us to teach to create a world of love and kindness and compassion a world in which every human being is respected as being formed in the visage of god where life has absolute and non-negotiable value we want to empower our children not scare our children you know what you need you need to call one of the chabad rabbitsons in the ukraine and let their children speak to your children next question we have witnessed a pandemic we have witnessed huge damaging hurricanes affecting the pacific island we are now witnessing a war we witnessed economic hardship jews and humans suffered a lot in some strange way these challenges bring about both good and bad what are your thoughts about it can such good come with no challenges no change i think you're 100 right this is a time when the world is going through major major changes from the laboratory i heard 30 years ago that this is a time when the energy of redemption the energy of gullah is has entered into the world and the world is going through a transformation from a state of exile into a state of redemption many also great rabbis and sages have shared similar sentiments and experiences but as a student of the laboratory and one of his oral scribes in the last years i heard it from him dozens of times during the last years 1990 1991 and 1992 30 years ago actually exactly 30 years ago when he suffered a stroke and he couldn't speak anymore it was it would be tomorrow 30 years ago 27th other one 1992. but the point is that you could look at all of these changes and see them as very depressing changes and they are difficult changes there's no question there's turmoil there's pain a lot of suffering you know how many deaths were caused by corona we know now the bloodshed in ukraine may there be a stop to all of it that may everybody be safe especially you know all good people should be safe all people should be safe and all good and innocent people should be speared and safe and secure it's a time of upheaval no question but we could look at upheavals in two ways we could look at upheavals as something that's just you know everything is coming to an end or really there's an invitation here for a new consciousness and that's what's happening there's an invitation for a new consciousness and yes the worst in people can come out or we can choose for the best in people to come out the fact is that the pandemic brought together so many people it was wonderful to see yes as i said some of the highest angels in people some of the best things in people came out question does god want all jews to physically fight against ideological fascists and racists who hate the jewish people do we have to fight physically well there is a rule in the talmud if somebody is coming to kill you you have to kill him first you have to protect innocent life that's why it's so important god tells us just like we learned torah and we do mitzvahs we need to physically protect ourselves that's why it's so important that israel is strong and powerful because even though without hashem's protection nobody can live and nobody can walk and nobody can breathe that's true but god wants us to implement the tools of nature and utilize the tools of nature to bring good to the world and to protect innocent people so that is very very important question what can i do to calm down my children okay the answer is i think it's important to calm down yourself some good things is to listen to music together when i spoke to odessa last night they were dancing i said what are you doing in the basement they had music on and they were dancing imagine and kids put on their purim costumes and they did a purim skit in this in this sheltered basement with there were 11 people in that particular shelter they were dancing and doing a purim skit so learn from them put on music do meditation breathe pray together talk to them explain to them what it means to have faith to have the talk and to have trust to know that we are all connected and we're connected to eternity so these are some of the things i think we can do to help ourselves and our children regulate ourselves and maybe you need maybe special assistance maybe you can seek somebody who who knows you well and can maybe give you more specific advice i want to thank very very much the chigwell community rabbi davis chigwell united synagogue and all of you who have graced us here with your presence i know this was a whole day of learning with rabbi tatz and other by rowey and other great rabbis and teachers and communicators rabbis and robertsons and i thank you for the privilege of being here with you my dear friends brothers and sisters from london sending you love and blessings may we all strengthen each other empower each other be here for each other encourage each other as a community this is the time where we got to be here for each other we can't just think about ourselves every person has that ability and that power to be able to support to sustain to uplift to animate our brothers our sisters friends strangers community members children nephews nieces neighbors childrens of neighbors so seize the moment seize the opportunity and may we indeed use these moments to become stronger and more empowered than ever until the great moment when we will see the consciousness of oneness called the consciousness of ghoul or the redemptive consciousness descend on our planet speedily in our days amen thank you thank you very much good night