What Every Jew Needs to Hear Right Now - Rabbi Yoni Fischer

[Music] It's very difficult to to speak, very difficult to share at such a at such a big time, at such a mammoth situation, a a time where where Clalusel where Clusel is in a state is in a state a of of Tara where the Jewish people where Clalus there's fear instilled in Clusel in the Jewish people and it's always important very very important as I was telling Yehuda before as we were singing that it's so big it's such a big. It's so much bigger than us, but at the same time, it's so personal. Here you have uh this massive worldwide thing that's happening, but it's so so personal. It touches each and every one of us in a very deep way besides the practical implications, but it brings and touches each and every one of us. And as we've been saying, as we said, shalashudis, as we've been saying over Shabas, is that it's messages from Hashem. It's a message from Hashem. It's a message for every person, for every individual. And no two messages are the same message. Everybody has a different reaction. Everybody has different things that go on when things like this happen in a person's life. foral Israel both as a as the Jewish people as a whole there's a there were we have to always think about the people our brothers and sisters who were killed over Shabas this morning today we're all one we're one body we're one clal and it's always important the sahara wants to always throw somebody off that's one of the they say the The sadik can bring a type of snake that that comes around and it and it uh hangs out under a tree. And what it does is there's a bird that that flies around that flies around on top by the tree. And what the snake does is it puts its head up and while the bird is is jumping around or flying, whatever it does, it makes a very strong sound, the hissing sound. And the bird gets gets scared and freezes. And because it freezes, it can't fly as well. And it falls down and it falls down and the snake gets the the bird. Theahara is always trying to just throw us off. Throw a person off. If I don't have focus, if I don't have my head together, and I want to say very very very clearly to everyone, I want to say very very very clearly to everyone is that if you want to get more nervous and you want to get more anxious and you want to lose perspective, so the more news you look at and the more you go like this, the more a person goes like this, whatever people do, right? That's what they do. They're looking and looking. All that's going to do in general in life, all that's going to do is get make bring you more anxiety. For sure. For sure. That will bring you more and more and more anxiety. So if you want anxiety, right, I always say you want anxiety, get a future, right? You want terror, get a future. So we'll add that to the list. You want anxiety, take out your phone and look at the news. And that goes to everybody. That but that goes to to young and old. Whether you're 8 years old, whether you're 15 years old, whether you're 90 years old, the same thing. All it does is create anxiety. Oh, I have to know what's going on in the news. It's important to know what's going on in the news. Great. So, spend time, spend time, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 20 minutes, whatever it is. Make a time that during this time to this time, I'm going to look at the news. That's fine. I'm not saying to be pirish. If you're on the level not to look at anything, okay, that's a that's a great level to be on. But I'm saying to go ahead to go ahead and and if you're going to look at the news, so make it very specific time to look at the news because otherwise what happens is you get sucked in. We get sucked in. You get sucked in to the anxiety, to the fear, to to to to what what everyone's saying, what everyone's talking about. And all that does is cause a person to be confused and cause a person to have nervousness and cause a person to be thrown off. The key during during this time which we're going to talk about is it's minim it's minim for each and every one of us that this happened. Think of you our yeshiva you as an individual. I think everybody here, 90% of the guys here, 90% of the guys, maybe even more, 95% of the guys were flying out this week. And Hashem chose you. Hashem chose you to stay. He chose you. Just like their husbands who thought they were going to be home over Shabas, and just like their soldiers who thought they could finally take a breather. But instead, what happened? They got a call to say, "I need you. I need you. I need you to stand. I need you to do something maybe different that than you were going to do." And it's so so important to be able to hear that message to be able to hear that message that Hashem it could this could have happened mamish three weeks ago. Could have happened a month ago and it'll be okay. Great. So, we'll figure it out and we'll just the last Shabas of the year together. the last week of yeshiva. Hashem said, "No, wait one second. I want you home. I want you home as an erritus. I want you in yeshiva." That's what we've been speaking about. We spoke last week before we even knew about this about what it means to go home to go to your house to go back to and now that's not noa right now. What's no gaya right now what affects us right now is perspective. How do I get the proper perspective? And I want to also differentiate between two things which I think are very important. I I want to thank Yehuda Mattel for being here. Thank you. And and we're going to hear and I want Yehuda I want Yehuda to talk a little bit afterwards as well. We can go through we're we're we're here um together. uh we spoke about uh the message what's important to to give over um and I and I want to differentiate one thing that I think is very important. Try as much as you can to differentiate between when the siren goes off or when you get a buzz on your phone to when nothing's happening. And it's a very very good time. It's a very very opportune time to learn about yourself. That's why I think it's so incredible that there's this global thing going on. There's this cosmic thing going on between nations of the world and mameshia. That's what the Nvi the Naveim talk about this what what a global global thing that's going on and this affects little me sitting here. It affects me and my relationship with Hashem, my relationship with myself, my relationship. It affects me. And what I would do during this time is I would try, myself included, because for everybody, what's the line? abnormal situations, abnormal um things that happen. An abnormal response to an abnormal situation. Again, an abnormal response to an abnormal situation is normal. So, you can't say, "Oh, I'm supposed to act this way. I'm supposed to feel this way." It's a matana from Hashem. It's a matana from Hashem. It's the greatest blessing and present. And we have to dive in for we have to dive in for the soldiers. We have to dive in for yidden who were hurt. I heard there were I don't know how many 80 to 100. You can't just that's also something. You can't just look at the news and and be chewing on your your your lunch. I'm eating pizza. I'm looking oh this guy died and this thing happened. Got to be able to look and and process process. We've spoken about that with late son Sharm speaks about that. It's it's it's it's terrible to look at the news. I try and whenever you see something in news, it's got to affect otherwise what happens is you become DC. You don't you know you're not sensitive anymore. I'm going to sit there and chill out and tell a joke and oh yeah, oh the Yankees just won and uh two people were killed. There was some rubble, some sirens, uh some stuff, some shrapnel fell over here. Oh, there's a siren. Make it mashuga. And people wonder why they're going mishuga. That's why they're going mishuga. That's why people literally are going crazy. They're going crazy because your body, your emotions, your brain can't handle that. You're not supposed to just read, uh, 12 people were killed and this was killed and then what's for lunch? Is is lunch ready yet? It's not supposed to be like that. We'll we'll we'll talk afterwards. Let's just get the Yeah. Maybe that's my abnormal response. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good. Good. But all that will do. Good. Bye. Good. Har. That's why we're here together. So Ben saying, "Oh, but that's my abnormal response to an abnormal situation. So let's try and normalize and try and say, okay, that's good. We that's why we didn't right away we didn't talk about this because right now it's happening. The situation is happening. Right now the flights are cancelled. Right now you're not going home tomorrow. You're not going home Tuesday, Wednesday. You're not going. Things are things are what they are. Things are. So now, what do I do? How do I get a hold of myself? And like we're going to talk with Yehuda. There is a time and a place. There is a time and a place. And it's important to be able to learn your anxiety and to learn your abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation. Why? Because what happens is any reaction that we have to things in general are the reaction that you're always going to have. It's underlying. If a guy has anxiety through the roof when a siren goes off, guarantee that that guy has anxiety almost through the roof when the siren doesn't go off. It's very, very, very connected. All it does is it magnifies and it opens up more of what it is that you're struggling with. So like I said, it's a matana from Shamay that there's another week that Hashem has chosen each and every one of us to stay in yeshiva to to be mazic ourselves to learn more. It's like a gift from Hashem. It's a mamisha mata from Hashem. Now we don't want it on on the on the curtails of of a war and people getting hurt, but that's not we're not politicians. We're not involved in any uh war. What we're involved with is the reaction, the circle of influence. What I can influence and I can influence I can influence the decision that's going on in in from from Iran. What I could do is I could davin. I could learn. I could focus on certain things. I could dive into Hashem. I could focus on the things that I have to work on. But it's very very very important to get perspective. Um yeah, I think that's I think that's it for now. I think what's important is I think what's important for all of us what's important for all of us is really really and we speak about this all the time is that what is happening to you and what is happening for you this is for you this is for me now again I'm I'm not saying that that that that it's not difficult I'm not saying that it's not challenging I'm not saying that it's not not knowing when you're leaving not knowing knowing what's going on, the sirens, the fear, the phone, that noise on the phone definitely is more scary than than what's probably going on outside. That like, you know, I don't know about your phones, but my phone like goes bananas when that happens. Like, it's like it's like I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what just happened?" It's like a missile just hit my phone. So, that in itself causes Okay. Uhoh, what's going to be? Oh, especially when it's 3:00 in the morning. Especially if it's 6:00 in the morning, 5:00 in the morning or random and then you don't want you don't know what's going on. Seder. But like we said yesterday, that's Hashem. It's all hashem. It's all hashem. Ask Hashem that I want this to translate into hashem. Everything everything is shim. But what I could do is how am I interpreting the missiles? How am I interpreting what is happening? Does this make me go more on my phone? Does this bring more anxiety for me? Which it might. And we'll hear from you. Huda, we'll talk about that. Let's talk about that. Can I take this situation and in your lifetime, just to tell everybody here, in your lifetime that's going to happen. This will happen. these things will happen that you're in a situation and the situation is okay it changes I have difficulty something's triggering me something's getting this this happened it's happening and it continues to happen this is where comes in this is where getting to know yourself comes in more this is like extra or a person could just say okay I'm out and I'm not saying and again And and again, I'm not saying that if you have an a a a certain reaction that this that this hits you and and and uh you know, literally um paralyzes you. That's a great insight because other things in your life will paralyze you as well. Other things in life will paralyze you and it is scary for everybody and there is what to talk about and it's important to process. That's why Yehuda is here and we're going to talk about that. It's important to be able to compartmentalize. And in general in life, what are you going to do? What's a person going to domashem? When you're married with children and you have a tough day, you have a difficult day and you have anxiety, things aren't going your way, things are happening. So, what are you going to do? You're going to have to compartmentalize. You're having to say, "Okay, I could put this to the side. I'll deal with it later. Right now I got to focus like this. Right now I might be I might need to call my therapist. I might need to call my friend and talk out how things are going for me. It's very important to know to get to know yourself. Hashem is giving us such a matana such a matana. It's such a I know it sounds crazy. It's a matana to remember who we are. What are they kill? What are they what are they coming after us for? Does anybody know what they're coming? What do they want to do? What do they want to do? They wanted, it was Rashi this week's para. They want to destroy the Jewish people. Why? Because Rashi says anybody who is against the Jewish people, they are against who? Hashem. What do they want? Give us, we have a little tiny country the size of Iran, the size of Iraq, the size of Saudi Arabia, the size of the world. Give us a little t a little the size, right? We're smaller than New Jersey. little tiny country. What do they want? They want to get rid of what? Shabas. They want to get rid of the Tory. They want to get rid of this. And how ironic. They're We have Hashem with us. What's the They're keeping us here. They're keeping us together. They're going to keep us learning more Tory. They're going to keep us being mazic, strengthening ourselves, each one of us. And you can you can strengthen yourself. You can strengthen yourself. You can strengthen yourself. You can get perspective. You can. And if tomorrow you lose the perspective, you'll remind yourself to get a little bit more perspective. You'll be makazak. Your friend will be makazak. Your friend will be makazaku. You'll be mazic, your friend. It's a time to strengthen ourselves. It's a time to get more focused. Oh, it's the last week of yeshiva. Ah, we just want to end with with like uh smoothly. Maybe this is maybe this is going to end end off. I was thinking of of this year. We had such an incredible incredible year. I'm like, we're going to end off with a strength. We're going to end off even stronger. We're going to end off even more clear. Learn about yourself. Learn what I'm from Hashem to learn about myself. Like I said, we can't control. I can't control what's going on in the news. You can't control what's going on in the news. Whether even the news is true. You don't even know what's true anymore. You don't even know what's true anymore. But I do know that I have anxiety. That's true. I knew I do know when that when the sirens go off that that it makes me crazy. Great. That's true. I do know that I'm worried. That's true. So, focus on what's true. Focus. I do know that the only thing that wins a war, I do know this. The only thing that wins a war is not by machine guns and not by bombs and not by strategy. Barakashem, we have that and we have to dive in for the soldiers. We have that. But that's not what wins the war. What wins the war is us strengthening ourselves is to strengthening ourselves and us sitting here in a big caravan in Mosha Matio in the West Bank by us sitting here in B medish by us being makazic in whatever area you're going to be makazic in any area you're going to strengthen yourself in any area you're going to strengthen yourself in is so so so powerful it's so so important important. It's so so powerful for what's going on in a cosmic sense. How crazy is that? As I started off, the irony of a global war comes in my dalid amus of the my my speech, how I speak to to somebody, how I look at someone, how I'm myself, my how I'm able to work on myself that affects that affects the entire planet. Okay. Question, comments. We're not going to We don't We have to record this. You could pause it now. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I know I call you know I know I Even though sometimes I'm [Music] to do this on my own is not enough. I need you here with me cuz I don't know who I'm meant to be. Please stay with me. [Music] I call you I [Music] Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Yeah. [Music] Heat. [Music] Oh, [Music] heat, heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Yeah. Heat. Yeah. Heat. [Music] Oh [Music] yeah. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Oh [Laughter] [Music] yeah, Heat up here. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music]