Insomnia? Try Prayer! Guaranteed to Put You Right to Sleep (or not?) with Rabbi Gedaliah Gurfein

Heat. Heat. My birthday. >> Are we locked and loaded? >> Okay, let's rock then roll it. All right. Uh, I see that none of you. Maybe you were. Were you here at my uh shuot class? No, you were. >> I was. >> Okay, that's all right. I don't mind if you were cuz there was a thing in in the shot class I used, but I thought that maybe since nobody here remembers it anyhow. And anyhow, when you teach on Shiva, everybody's sound asleep. So, I could repeat it and start off the class we're going to deal with about prayer. There was a very amazing rabbi who lived here in Jerusalem named Rabbi Schwadran. And uh he was in an area called um or still called actually Shahikid and right in Raavia area. He was very very close with Orbach. >> Yes. >> Good man. So I used to be a student of his. >> You think I'm joking? >> No, I don't. I never never I don't even think >> No, I am. So therefore, yes, I was a student of his and I was able that I learned by him for a couple of years. And one of his classes, which I will introduce you to now. And if you ever saw the man, he was a short man with a very long beard. And it didn't matter if you were Jewish or non-Jewish. You looked at this man, you saw a holy man. You saw a holy man, which is important for the story. And he has a voice which I can't do but if his voice and that's about as far as I can do of his voice and so anyhow so he would he would give this class on Friday night in the middle of uh Gula near me Shahim and all Rabbi Diane Fiser all the giant rabbis I mean they were all 480 and up hitter rabbis like amazing and he would spellbound them and he began like is he said I he said I want to tell you a story that happened to me the other day. I went to Machni Yehuda to the marketplace and as I'm walking down I hear a guy yelling out tomatoes for such and such and cucumbers for such and such and before I knew it somebody came up and punched me in the chest. You can't even imagine somebody punching this man, right? But that's what he said. I got punched in the chest and before I knew what was happening, boom, I got punched a second time and I start hearing and I realize I'm not in Makhura. I'm in the middle of Davanese schona in sh and my brain is wandering and wandering. I'm walking around M and that's why maybe that's why I'm not this is not part this is not part of the class but maybe that's why the sages made these two like speed bumps you know so that if we're like off in another universe the little speed bumps can somehow bring us back and and wake us up. But this is really important because the whole idea of the power of prayer is not mumbling the words. And unfortunately, which we're going to address, you see the same thing. Hey, you see the same thing day after day after day after day, it becomes wrote. you just kind of you it's easy to fall into I don't know if any of you guys were ever into Dick Tracy but it's easy to fall into mumbles you know where you're just kind of mumbling the text as you go along and that's why our sages teach us that the most important thing in prayer is from the word kun is like an arrow the way you aim it and you shoot it and when people ask the question well you know why do we need structured prayer shouldn't we have just prayer spont spont spontaneously and just comes out whatever comes out and the answer is yes structured prayer does not come to exclude spontaneous prayer to God spontaneous prayer to God should be 247 but what happens is if we want to just for a minute do a reality check we don't do it like if we really doing 24/7 okay great but we don't do that when we think about ourselves yeah I'm going to do 24/7, but we don't do that. So therefore, the fela of structure comes to lock us in and lock us down to what's really going on so that we don't just fly off in fantasy land and then one day before you know it, you're 120 years and you're gone. That you had an opportunity to grab life cuz guess what? Nobody gets out of here alive. Everybody's sentenced to life, right? How long you in for? I'm in for life, right? Everybody's here sentenced to life. So what again almost like our question before, what's the purpose then? >> If nobody's gonna live forever, why are we even here? The answer is golden opportunity >> as well. The Zohar says that when a soul is born into this world, it's like an su n. It's like a sun that radiates light into the world. But if you navigate correctly, when you leave, you become a universe of light. That's the opportunity a universe of light. So as you I don't know if you guys ever into or remember uh Pez candy dispensers, >> you know. So that's right. So like after 120 years, we're like that. The little head kicks back, the soul pops out, right? So what is it going to be like when we pop out? Are we going to have like one of those little scooters? That's all I did with my life. for you. >> That's yeah, that's what I did with my life. >> And the prayers will keep you aligned. >> You know, it's like I don't know if you I remember when I was a kid, we used to go to a summer camp and one of the challenges in the pool was to go the entire length and under with one breath. So, you're pumping and pumping and pumping. You're starting to feel like you're turning blue. You're waiting to be like one of those fish that rolls over on its belly. You're dead. But you're not quitting. You're not quitting. All of a sudden, bing, your head hits it and you made it and no, you didn't. What happened was you veered off and you hit the side. So, it's the same idea. You're swimming in the world of life gives you a chance come up for a breath. That's called Shabbat. So, each Shabbat becomes a little milestone. As time goes by, you have a handle on it. And down in the water, you have markings so you can see where you're going. And those are filot those are the prayers to keep us aligned with what we're going to go through. So this is really important because also I'll tell you another thing God willing you should all become great Torah scholars and as you become great Torah scholars and it doesn't matter how old you are right Moshe only learned Torah at 80. So everybody can learn Torah. And therefore, as we grow in learning, the problem can become the Torah. We can also wind up being like cowboy gunslingers trying to like pull out our guns and show. Yeah. You want to see a Dvar Torah? Bing bing bing bing, right? Or somebody else comes in and they challenging you on guard, right? And now suddenly you're I mean the Torah can become a lethal weapon. God forbid. But the truth of the matter is that Gomorrah says Torah is one thing. Torah is God talking to you, but prayer is you talking to God. And that's why it's got to be both ways because you know Reblau once said it's what is the difference? You have in Israel you have two lakes. You have the Dead Sea and you have the Canerit. One of them the Canerit is alive filled with fish and it's alive and it's alive and the other one like its name says is dead. Nothing can even live in it. What's the difference between the two lakes? One is one and alive. They both draw from the same source, from the Jordan. Why is one alive and one dead? The answer is because the canness, a canerit, it's interesting slip. Erase that. The canerit is something that receives and gives. >> The other one just takes and dies. It doesn't give. Receives but doesn't give. So therefore, the same idea. We receive the Torah. Kabala Torah. We receive the Torah, but unless we are responding, we're dead. No matter how much Torah you have. Watch this. It's very interesting. You have a word called emmet. Emtt, which means truth, right? You look at the three letters of the word. It's alf. It's the very first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It's the very last letter of the Hebrew alphabet. And it's the middle. Because something which is true, shalom. Something which is true is true from beginning to end and all along this even if on the outside you don't see it it's running on deep waters it's always true. Now what do these three letters relate to? So alf which is the most important of the three letters is love. Ahava that you have to love God. You have to love the convert. You have to love Eris Israel. You have to love your neighbor like you love yourself. It's all about love. And love is the heart. However, it doesn't stop there. Once you have the heart in its place, then you have the mem. And the mem is mitzvot. And the mitzvot are the physical body. There are 613 commandments that correlate to the 613 parts of the body, which is also very interesting because if you ever study like Chinese acupuncture, you'll know that there are 13 meridians with 613 points of entry. >> Yeah. And it's also has a whole connection between fillin and kabad wrote a lot about this really very interesting. Anyhow the point is is that the body which is the mem is the mitzvot and the last letter t is tora that's the intelligence that's the wisdom that's the but if you remove the first letter from emmet it spells dead mem is met is dead. So therefore the heart is something that is beating like the breathing right we breathe is is our nishima nishima is connected to the word nisha which is the soul that's why when a person is balanced and they're healthy and they're breathing correctly this creates disease is a lack of ease therefore illness comes from disease when we are at ease when we breathe and so on then that Torah that we have and its relationship ship to our body because it's everything not just something is pumped by our heart but that's the key the key is is the heart and when the Gmorrah asked the question when the Gmorra asked the question what is called the avoda of the heart it answers prayer prayer is work it's called avoda meaning like let's say you know people have the same job maybe not in Israel but in the olden People have the same job. They work 60 years. They get a golden watch and die. Right? So, but the point is is that you're doing sometimes the same job day in and day out and day in and day out cuz you're working for the man here. You're working for the creator. Every time you step up to the bat and you pray, you are doing a voda. You are doing work. I want to just read you from two gamors in Brahot that sort of bring out this idea as well. There's a a website I highly recommend uh because I made it. So therefore, I'm very prejudiced and it's completely 100% uh free, which is why I'm busted. Just kidding. But um it's called the people's Talmud. It's designed for intelligent, smart people. No matter Jewish or not, everyone's created by the same God because only one God. And so therefore, it's a a design to allow you to have the same access of the Talmudic wisdom even if you didn't go to yeshiva your whole life. Why not? Talmud is a national treasure. Doesn't mean that this website is designed to stop you from learning more, but it's to inspire you to really begin learning. Take a look at it when you can. It's completely free, and I I welcome constructive and especially destructive criticism. So you can let me know what you have to say about it. But so this is from that the bra at the very beginning it says that prayer is a Jewish mantra. People wonder what the value is in having fixed prayer texts like we were just talking about. Now why can't people just pray spontaneously like we've said if in any form they wish the answer is they absolutely can and should. But sometimes in the reality of daily life we don't actually do that. So therefore think of fixed text prayer like a mantra. Each time it is recited, it is drilling deeper and deeper into a person's soul, mining his inner spiritual light. Like when you are hammering a nail, you want to hit the same spot the same way each time as each hit moves the nail deeper. And that's what the prayer is designed to do. The Tama takes this one step forward by emphasizing the importance of having fixed prayer for prayers as well. meaning this type of discipline text and place. In other words, not only fixed in time, but you have a mukum kva, a place which is your place where you pray and davin uh can turn a physical location into a sacred place. I just want a little side. I'm not going to touch on too much here, but I do want to touch one point because many people do not learn this correctly and weirdness comes out. So, I'm like anti-weirdness. So weirdness is people know that. Oh, I learned a new law today. I have my own dollar amote. That's the definition. >> That's the definition of my space around. >> Yep. That's right. So now what happens is when you have that little bubble, if somebody pops your bubble or or takes your seat, >> takes your seat. Whoa. Now what do I do? Meltdown. So I want to show you an interesting thing. According to Mosha Feinstein of blessed memory, the distance or let's call it Yeah. Yeah. Let's call it the diameter of not sure the length the length of a dollar is approximately 6 and 12 ft. Now why is that important? That means if you're in a shul, let's say this is my seat in the shul and somebody came in new visiting whatever had no idea that this my seat, right? So he took my chair. Well, I could be really like, you know, not so get the you sitting in my chair. I'm here to pray to God. You sit in my chair. That's a good attitude to come to God, right? That's really healthy. Okay, you could try that. It's not really going to do much. Or you don't say anything. Shalom. How are you? What's your name? Welcome. So nice. Your first time here? Right. And don't say a word. Why? Cuz you sit in this chair. It's still inside your daladamote. That's the point. Dalad almost is bigger than you imagine. It has room to move. So you could sit here. You could sit here, here, or here. Still have your sacred space. Still have your bubble. And yet you had a chance to welcome somebody else who you should feel privileged that you're able to give him your seat. What an honor, my fellow brother. Shalom. Welcome. Please. >> Zone. >> Zone. Yeah. Like like that. Staying in the zone. Good man. Ball player also basketball. No. Okay. That's kind of like hoop lushing. That's why it's really cool like that. Thank you. Okay. So, let's take a look at uh davining in the morning. I know that the rabbi who's normally here is sort of at the beginning of the of this prayer book. I think you're holding right now a table of contents or maybe copyright. I remember exactly where you're at, but I'm going to sort of jump to a helicopter aerial view of the morning prayer. Morning prayer, you have Sedorum if you want. If it helps, I don't know. It doesn't matter. Or you could watch the video 10 times. But morning prayer is really four basic components. The first part of them is what we would call the animal world. These are the offerings. The various we call in Hebrew carbonote. Now carbonote is an interesting word to uh especially if you are you know had a real Jewish mother because carbonote is often translated to sacrifice. I say Jewish mother because like I don't know I got it. Do you know how much we sacrifice to put you through college and now you're just becoming a freaking hippie? Right? So there's always this like thing about sacrifice. What I sacrificed for you. Oh, I'm sorry. Let me just kill myself. Right? So what does that mean? what I I sacrificed for you. But that's not at all what corbon means. Corbon is from the word corov to come close. And it comes close to the letter nun, which is the 50th gate of wisdom. The level where there is no argument, the level of ultimate unity and perfection. That's bringing yourself up. By giving, you're getting. That's the whole idea of prayer. You take the Torah, you give your soul in prayer. So this idea in the animal world is because animals have the soul of the human being is divided into different components. One component is called nephesh. Neffish is the type of soul that an animal has. Animals also have souls just like people do. Animals do not have the shamote. They don't have the higher level. They don't have ru but they have nephesh. If they didn't have nephesh, then there would be no way to have offerings because only by them having a nephesh and are having a nephish are we actually able to transfer to the animal which is why when an animal offering was brought they did was that you want to ask a question? I'm sorry. Okay. That's why they did means literally to be to lean upon. They had to you had to lean on the animal. You had to feel it. You had to feel like crap. You had to realize that this little animal, why should it die? Cuz of you. Cuz you screwed up. It has to die cuz you screwed up. That's That's nice. That's fair. Hopefully, it repulses you to the point that you won't screw up again. Cuz that experience was horrible. Horrible. Okay. So that's the whole idea is that but nonetheless more horrible would be God forbid if we died. So God leaves us a little loophole because after all God owns everything. God owns us. God owns the animals. God can decide whatever God wishes. We're all in God's sandbox. >> Whole world >> everything. Right? So therefore the animal becomes something that we transfer. Now, in saying the carbon note, what we're basically trying to do is begin to wake up the lowest level of our soul, which is good in the morning cuz I don't know how many coffees you have to like shoot down before you go to prayer, right? But certainly at least one just to get the where am I happening, right? And therefore when you're in the you start at the animal level. The second level is the level of trees or the let's call it the the the human world because man is like a tree. I don't want to go into that right now. It's another class. But this idea of the trees and so on and this is the section which is called zimra which a simple translation is puk is a verses of song >> of song. Zamir is a song right? So verses of song is basically a sort of uh ground level translation of de but if you bump it up one level you'll see something phenomenal so means to cut like if you ask a rabbi he'll give you a in other words the pak is cut this is where it is here you want to know where it is pink this is where it is so or puk It's called a verse because it's like in in geometry it's like a line segment has a beginning and an end. It's cut here, it's cut there. That line segment is a puk. So suk means to cut. Zimmer zmer also means the brushes the trees when you go out there with your electric, you know. Yeah. What are they called even? electric whatever the electric thing and you're like cutting the the bushes the trees to right to make it a nice beautiful garden. That's actually what you're doing here. Because in the Garden of Eden, everything was harmonious. All the vegetation, everything was just beautiful beyond comprehension and gorgeous. But the minute that its equilibrium became a skewed through the downfall of Adam and Eve, suddenly there was dardar. Suddenly there were all of the things where it's like um kind of like a thorn bush where you could no longer tell the difference between the beautiful rose or getting pricricked by the little thorns. Everything becomes mixed up. >> That's where we are today. Right. We're trying. >> Yeah. Absolutely right. And so therefore that idea now is that's what we're doing. So now that we've finished our animal level, we come into the level of living as human beings, but we're in it in a way to be able to clean it up. Zimra. Now just a little huck issues because it's important sometimes forgetting the difference between Ashkanaz and orard because there are a few differences there but on a simple level the primary format of this area called Zim are two pillars. One is bar which ends in a blessing and the other is is which also ends in a blessing. According to Nusakari, they have a couple that come before Bshamar like Hodu for example doesn't really matter. The point is is that the main pillars are these two. That's why you're not supposed to talk in between the two of them because you really want to connect the blessing of Brook Shamar to the blessing of Ishtabak. Now, if you look a little closer, it's really phenomenal. Besides hodu, which we're not going to get into today, let's go to the first realm, which isn't even aim. It's called is actually a compulation of random, not random, but selected verses. Okay? If you look, if you guys are have ashkinaz there, so then you have after ashkanaz, you have hodu, which we're going to just skip over for now. Then you have a little teeny teeny one called ms mortoa. And then the next real one is called cavode. But the first psalm of King David is >> Ashray. >> Now you have Ashray, a bunch of other psalms before you get to the I think they call in English the book of Chronicles, which is the story of King David praising God. And right so you have a few of them. Guess what? Those psalms starting with ashray are the very end of. So every time you are singing uh in the morning your morning de zimra in a certain sense you are completing the book of psalms because we say I don't want to go down this road but it's alluded to in something we do on Friday night. We say the last thing we do is rooted in the first thought. So therefore every time we do something like a we complete something it brings with it all of that was there before. I just to show you digress for a minute but I think it's an interesting sidebar bar the viligon asks what is this word right you make a summ if you finish a gamora or whatever so on what is the word so he points out that it means that when you finish the revealed meaning that the book that you actually read you also are picking up unbeknownst to you all of the mystical and hidden knowledge that came with the gamore as well how do you see that so I don't want to get too deep, but it's really I I think you can deal with this. It's cool has four letters. The word it's it's visible letters, meaning the letters that are on the surface numerically equal, they're hidden letters as if to to suggest that that which is revealed and that which is hidden are one and the same. So if you look at the letter SK, which is the first letter, it's 60. And if you look at the letters, if you were to spell the word, it's sme. That's s in written form. So memcuff is also 60. >> That's s. Then you have yud. So yud on the surface is 10. But if you write out the letter yud, it's yud vavval. Valid is 10. And then you come to sum. You come to uh me, which is only the letter me, right? So mem. What letter did I I missed one here. Oh, Vav. No. Yeah, Vav. And Vav is vavv. So all of the four letters of sum are exactly as you see on the outside, they are on the inside. So our idea of finishing psalms with these suk de zimra in a certain way is bringing in the whole power of king David. Which is why the minute that we finish this piece on king David, the prayer now when we stand up because we've done our work. So standing up is like the epitome of being a human being, right? Because the difference between an animal and a human being here I'll illustrate. This is a little four-legged animal. And on this level of animal, it's got a head, it's got a heart, and it's got a kidney. The three energy zones, let's say, according to Cababala of of Judaism. Therefore, uh, as an animal, though, it's all the same level. By a human who's erect, the head is above the heart and the heart is above the kidneys. Now, if you look at the three letters that spell these organs, you have mem cuz brain is moak. You have L, you have lammed, which is heart. And then you have, which is cuff. So, that spells king, melik. So when you rule over yourself, your mind by the Torah that you learn is powerful enough. No matter how strong your emotions are, you're a horseback rider. You can control it. You can own it. It's your life. Own it. God gave you what you needed to do. Each of us have our own package specifically for our particular voyage journey through this world. >> Tiko >> as well. That's later. We'll take a If you like the word Tiko, I'll take a quick little side thing on Tiko. Don't disappear. I hear you got water. >> Oh, okay. Hope you won't miss this. >> I'm I'm actually listening, so it's good. >> I'm kidding. >> It's okay. So, you have a a word in Hebrew, which is even in modern Hebrew called teu. >> Tu. >> Anybody know what teu means? >> Great. I wasn't there yet, but you already we'll hold on to that. I'm going to just put that there for a second. Just the word though, not that was the acronym, but great. I'll get back to that. >> Means equal. >> Yeah. How about modern Hebrew? >> It means tie. >> Yeah. In a in a basketball game, if it's a tie game, it's tu. If it's a wrestling match, it's tu. Exactly. So, tu means that it's a tie. Meaning that our sages were unable to get to the nun of a particular argument. And therefore, both sides are the will of God because it hasn't hadn't been resolved yet. But once you get to the level of 50, the rebi mayor, then there's no more mak everyone knows rebi mayor. So therefore the acronym is as you what's your name? >> Yehuda. >> Wow. What's that? >> Yehuda. >> Oh Yehuda. I heard something else. Must have been the acronym. Italia. Nice to meet you. So if you the acronym of the word teu actually is a reference to Eli Yahu arriving and resolving all of these arguments. Okay, we won't deal with why Elahu if it's already resurrection of the dead. You got Mosher bu standing there, but that's that's not today's class. But it's Eli Yahu. And what does he do? How does he do the the tikun? He puts the nun which is the 50th gate of wisdom and he attaches it to the word tu. It becomes tikun >> by bringing that level which couldn't reach the highest height. Eli Yahu reaches us and that's why the resolves that particular mak okay so now you have the next level now you hit boru I mean you have oir not spending too much more time on that I don't want to lose our time here I I apologize I I told my wife I've been teaching for almost 40 years now and no matter doesn't matter I feel such a responsibility to the yidden who come people who come to my classes that I really feel it's important to come up with original material and to prepare Well, so I wind up preparing like 5 hours worth of material for a 50-minute class. But so I still see if we could keep moving. Anyhow, you hit Poru. Now Poru, you did the animal, you did the world of people, and if you read the words, you see that's all about people and so on and so on. But now you're in the world of angels. It's all angelic from Baru until you get to the This is called the world of angels. And if you look at the text you'll see in the angels this one coral zel zar each one calls to each one and so on and then a little interesting thing I heard from rebi liifer of blessed memory when I used to live in spat it says and then comes up from behind me a great noise rash gdole rash gdole even the words like anamanapia rash gdole a great noise but these are angels talking Angels are the ones that don't even bother to listen to Aramaic because it's tame in their ears. So, so then what is it that is this great sound that comes up from the Netherlands of planet Earth? I call it U RF. Now, I don't spell it E A R T. Call it Earth because that's the sound you make when your soul comes flying down from heaven, Earth. When you hit this planet. So, now you're you're you're lost in this planet. What the freak am I doing here? Right? and so on. And so now you're here trying to figure it all out. Nope, wrong. Nope, wrong. Oh, well, a little bit. Okay. Wrong. Right. And that's what we're doing. So, as we're going through this this process, this process as we're trying to grow and to grow and to grow, we have to come to this level. What What could it be? What noise would the angels I'm going to sound very religious here. Hearken to hear, right? What would the angels hearken to hear? Is that the sound of somebody watching Tik Tok? No, I don't think that's it. Right. So then what would it be? So Ruby Lifer points out the numerical value of the word rash gdole is 613. Every time a yid actually not just a yid any person because all people of the world have at least seven commandments of the noi laws which actually is all 613 but that's not today's class. But therefore, every time a person does a mitzvah, ding ding ding, there's sounds. It's heard. It's heard. It's not just a little ding actually, right? It's rashole. And that's what the angels hearken to. And that's what we have. Amazing opportunity. You know why? Forgive me angels, but it's no big deal to be an angel. I mean, seriously, what are you afraid of? Hell's angels? I doubt it. Right? You know what you're doing. You see your kuru and everything. It's unbelievable. It's as they say in Spanish, devalic, right? It's a wonderful experience to be in heaven. So, you know, maztov maztov you worship God. Maz. Try to come down here inside one of these things. Let's see how you well you do here. Let's see how well you do, you know, when it's summertime in Tel Aviv. Good luck with that one, right? Let's see how you deal with an opportunity to slip another little mill. I always remember when they were busting Anderson, the big accounting group, and I was watching the US Senate and they had the accountants there and they were like with all their books and books and books and the senators repeating repeating and the guy looks up one of the account ah that billion. Oh, I'm sorry. You know, right? So when you have all the temptations of this world and guess what you still put on fillin that's amazing he's still wearing tites that's amazing it's amazing we don't the villag cried on his bed and his talidum said what are you crying like like you know they're like they're already roll I could see the red carpet already coming down what are you crying he says right now I could take a couple of pennies out of my pocket by a few stupid meaningless little strings but I tie them in a special way on a particular garment rash. It's just amazing and that's what we have. We have opportunity you know in Wall Street we used to say I used to work down the wall street I went from the wall street to the wall. So we used to work on Wall Street. >> We used to say that opportunity knocks at the door but won't open it. You have to open it. If it if you don't open it just assumes there's nobody home. It goes away. But as long as you're alive, there's always opportunity within a flash of an eye. Maybe I'll digress for a second. There was I can't remember his name on Fort Huda. Maybe Ben I don't know but I don't He was a connoisseur of prostitutes. He traveled the entire world sleeping with every beautiful woman he could possibly find. And then finally he hears about >> what? >> No no no rewind. Delete. >> Hold on. But that was funny. Okay. No. Anyhow, in a Gamora, it's a Gomorra. Stone Gamora. >> And as he traveled, he finally heard I think Rashi points out that that the ultimate woman was Cleopatra. >> And he gets to her and I don't have the whole story. Whatever. Anyhow, bottom line, >> Julius of what? >> It's one of the one of the emperors. No. >> No, no, no, no. This was a Jew. This was a Jew. Yeah. And he and he >> Josephus. >> No, no, no, no. Josephus was way after the days of the Anyhow. So he or rather anyhow so he he as he's there he finds out that he's gone too far. No chua for you Charlie. Sorry. Door lock key he's thrown away. You're out. You want out? You're out. Okay. >> And he freaked obviously. And it says that he put his you know he prayed to the mountains and the and the mountains quoted verses say well we're also going to die. And then he quoted the sun and the moon. Well, we're also going to be dead. And then he realized there's tou it only depends on me. And he sat down with his head between his knees and he cried and cried until his soul came out. And a voice from heaven, what we call bat call said, "Welcome Rabbi so and so." And Rebi who tells this story himself started to cry. He said, "I worked my whole life to be a good Jew. I try every single man. I don't know if I'm going to heaven or not. Like Rebecca and Ben Zakai, I don't know if I'm going to heaven or not. Right? Great giants, they don't know if they're going to heaven. And this guy on the turn of a dime, on the last breath, bottom of the knife, out of the park, and he wins. That's what opportunity is about. That's how precious life is. As law doesn't, God forbid a per you see a person in a hospital, they can't talk, nothing. Cannot pull that plug. Cannot pull the plug cuz you don't know what's going on inside there. You don't know what thoughts and and god forbid he's about to say yes I love you right. You can't pull that plug. >> And maybe you're talking about Marante. >> No, no, it wasn't. It wasn't It wasn't a Roman. >> Wasn't Roman. Okay. Yeah. Cleopatra, right? Should have stopped with the last one was better. Okay. So, now another idea. So, then finally we finish the world of the angels and we have the Shma Israel, which we're going to go to in a few more seconds. And then we come to the king and I sha life. Life life is only from God. Nothing can kill you. Only when God collects you and then you know if God collected you what can you say? He is the righteous judge. >> And so therefore it's all about God. So what then is Shimmona Esray? It's a little bit of a farce. God forbid on a superficial. Yeah, that's right. God, hi Gdalia over here. 22 uh 10356. Yeah, that's me. Right. So I have a a list of requests here. I think there's some things that you should bring to your attention and and maybe you can take care of them. You know, I would like to have more knowledge than I have now. That Yeah, that's the first one on the list. What? What? Seriously? That's what you're doing? And if you shuckle harder, then there's a better chance you'll be heard. If you if you just What is that? The Jewish boogie. Right. God, what's that with? Madagascar. I've got to move it. Move it. Right. So, what is that? What is that? You you have to say loud because God's like a little old. What is this? What is this? So the answer is that the secret of the schona ay is for us to remember deeper remember deeper. remember deeper that everything is in God's control and everything that we need for our life as an individual which we have to in a minute or as a nation is under control. I mean we used the expression before and I just assume that you know this I'll just repeat there's a term called a bot hole. Bot call is an expression for a voice that comes from heaven. Okay there were were and are according to Gmorra there cold that are going out all the time. We just don't have the the necess the kalin the vessels to be able to receive them. But they're all going out all the time. And then there are those that were received. Some in the form of prophecy, some of the porn of like ruesh, some in the form of just actually hearing the actual whatever it was. I want to tell you one bat hole that never happened. I want to tell you one thing that never was said from heaven. Never. I'll put everything on it. All in. All in. 18 red. All in. Okay. You know what it was? Ready? Whoops. That never happened. There was never Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. I missed him. Never happened. Never happened where God lost control for a billionth of a billionth of a billionth. Now some of his agents did there's another great just which I shouldn't go into which is the you know the um the angel of death can't handle the load they're like mill what's that >> whoops one time he picked up the wrong >> yes exactly >> yeah exactly right you could just imagine like these are like little mini angel of death like if you ever watched Austin Powers so he has like little mini angels mini me angels of death who go out and do collections and these guys were like, you know, maybe like hitting the bottle as they're like coming down to earth or whatever. What was that name again? I can't really read it, right? And then they got the wrong person. And they and they brought the wrong person up. And now, whoa, whoa, this 2. Doesn't really match. And they say, "What do we do with her?" And she's like, "Well, I duct tape, right?" I say, "Well, we can't send her back." Right? because then she'll tell everybody game over. There is life after death. Oh, okay. Right. So, we can't do that. Right. So, what can we do? So, they decided we can give her extra years to sadikim and the mitzvot that they do will be a revenue share and she will also get part of the profits so that she won't uh lose that. But yeah, that good man. That's good. That was the one. But that wasn't God though. Yes, please. What do you think about people using religion to serve themselves? >> Great question. Not class for today. >> Really use it. >> It's it's okay. It's a good question. It really is. And and you should all questions are holy. But otherwise, the problem with Judaism, we have to drive a straight road. So, we're staying here right now on filopote. Okay. So, therefore, you now reach you reach the highest level of you are alone with God. This is a precious moment. Don't use it, like we began the class by saying, don't use it to daydream about what you're going to do in your proposal when you make your pitch for your next startup or my gosh, my wife is angry with me. What do I do? Or whatever it is. There's no lack of junk out there to distract you. Don't do it. Don't do it. It's a little window. Therefore, I want to teach you another in the morning prayer. It's an argument among our sages. if any of it is a Torah level commandment. Raban says of course that prayer itself is a Torah level, but we're talking about the structured prayer of Shaharit, the morning prayer. And even if there is, the only opinion only opinion that holds that it's a Torah level commandment is the reciting of Schma Israel. Now, there's an interesting I brought the Gomorra, but I don't want to waste time. I'll just tell it to you on the outside. The one of the later chapters in the Gomorrah here in Sot talks about how we deal with war. Since we've been at war for quite some time now, it's an interesting thing. And one of the things is that when the soldiers were getting ready to go to the battle, a particular appointed cohane would come and he would address this is found in the Torah as well, but the Gomorrah elaborates on it. And he would say certain things to them. Anybody who build a home who didn't and so on and so on and so on. But one of the things it says is that he says Israel right up at the beginning and and Rashi says the Gmorra says my Israel what is why is different and Marsha says what that's a very strange language of Rashi Rashi should have said Israel l why do I need Israel why does he use the language of my versus the language of lale they mean two different things and the answer is because everything that Cohen is telling the people the soldiers is in the plural and begins with the y you as an individual. So why is this is what Grashi says this is what Gomorra is really asking. Why does the gum go from public public to individual and then back to public? That's what's strange. Why? And the Gmorra gives a you know what I'll read the language inside. gives a phenomenal answer here and it says uh here uh yeah so that's the language of the Mishna theor says and here Rashi just is here inside he says why do we begin with this particular language and that's what the Marshall hops on what he means is because why do we suddenly revert to the singular It doesn't get more exciting than those two gentlemen, right? So they say God says to the Jews if you don't do any mitzvot shalom but this is the gmorra you don't do anything except you just say in the morning and at nightm You will not be given over to your enemies. It's the Gomorrah. Now, on the one hand, there are two parallel worlds here. The enemies can also be understood as the har >> you won't be. But in the context of this Gomorrah, which is Moshe talking about war, war, it means actual enemy. Just a little side point since we live here. The Gomorrah says it makes a play on the word allehem. allehem on them because if it's a Jewish war, but believe it or not, there were Jewish wars, then if you get captured by the other side because you're a Jew, they'll have mercy. And he brings sukim from Tanakh of Jews that were captured and they took care of them and so on and so on. And then the Gomorrah says, "However, when you fight Hamas on your enemies, they're the ones that you're going to fight because if you become a hostage in their hands, they will not have mercy on you." And that's what you got to know. And so keshma therefore has the 248 words that correlate to the 248 physical limbs of the body and it becomes the individual's iron dome. That's what it is. And if you can't catch those three words in the middle of davin or you're dying alone, the sitter provides you with three words to make up for it. And even if you're in a shul, let's say, and you didn't hear the guy. So there are 16 vavv words that begin with vavv at the end of the schma and that also is considered as muslim filling in the missing three. But the idea is the 248 together that's yours. That's why the keshma goes to you because each you each you we all of us have to first put skin in the game. I'm in once is skin in the game then the next paragraph is plural. Okay, now we're together. But it begins with keshma. That's why keshma is the middle of this third section of being a human being. Now you became a mench. And if you look in your sid is you'll see has a large in and a large dalid which spells the word witness. I am witnessing that I believe in the one God. And if you take the word and you read it backwards because it reveals what's hidden. It's all moayim. You accept all as the yoke of the kingdom of heaven. Sage schmma is bringing the kingdom of heaven upon yourself. Fortifying your entire body with the 248 limbs through the 248 words and that becomes your force field. That is perhaps a Torah commandment. Now, if that's the case, let's think about this. What happens if you're in a minion and you feel like you're a cowboy? Everyone's wait a minute. So guess what? The only part of your prayer, it's really important. The only part of your prayer that requires you to be in a minan, in other words, with your is the there's no mitzvah to have to say schma together. You do say schma together. It's a different thing to show you part and parcel, but you don't have to say the schma with everybody else. So therefore, know your own speed. If you need more time, get the shul 10 minutes earlier. Start davening. It's okay. Start ding. Read the schma correctly. Think about the words. Who said that? Think about the words. Right. The balentov says that uh it says there God says to Noah, "Enter the ark." Now the word in Hebrew for ark is tva, which is also another word for word. So the balento says that each word of your prayers are like little boats that are coming out and you're filling them with your nama as you say them with the kavana of your mind. Think of the filling on your head like a light uh for the lighthouse, you know, showing the boats. So like here's a little the light of a lighthouse illuminating your little boats going up into the dark world with a little light inside because you put your soul inside of when you fill them up with kavana. So therefore, when you do like that, don't let anybody rush you. I mean, doing a shul is the ultimate peer pressure. It's so nonsense. >> What? >> Good. Yeah. 10 kilo, right? Exactly. So therefore, don't rush. Allow the time that you need because guess what? Why waste your life? Why waste your life? You know, I remember I was with on an airplane once with Schlommo Riskin, may he be well, and somebody asked him, uh, Rebe, can you define the word kavana, meaning uh, focus or attention. He said, no, I can't do it. But I'll tell you what it's not that I can do. What it's not is I'm in the middle of benching from a bread and I'm saying to him that's called not cavano. Could you just imagine you have 10 minutes let's say you're in high-tech or business and you got a great idea and miraculously you got a 10 minute meeting with Alon Musk to pitch it. Here you are. You're alone Musk. Okay. I'm about to pitch my idea. I'm talking to you and as I'm talking where's my mo Yeah. Yeah. And we also think that just Yeah. Yeah. And you're standing before God. Standing before God. If you don't believe in God, just toss it. But if you do, then wear it. Live it. Live it. Who you fooling? What game is this? You have to outroom the other guy cuz you got the right look. because you know how to do the right you know whatever what eat fish with your hand what what is that right so this is the beauty of of realizing the shimona yeah is yours you have to come into God but all together as one so that's the most important part in your prayer time yourself so that you can be there at that moment okay let's just see if there's another 300 pages but I'll just see uh ah shoot you What I'll I'll leave off with this one for um a a wonderful quote from Schlommo Carly. So brahas on the back of your heart that way you can remember 32b lev bet right the back of your heart talks about something called holy arrogance and uh used to call it holy that there's and there's holy everything has holiness for example the gummor says there are three things that take a person like a vacuum cleaner out of this world jealousy desires and seeking honor. Well, jealousy, desires, and honor are good things. So, what's the Mishna mean? Maybe, this is an important point here. I'll drill down on this. It's an a mind-boggling meish rabba. In the beginning of uh the Torah, it says God on each day says to good. on one day he holds back on it and delivers a double dose on the next day. But on Friday comes to mo very good. Now what is very good right? I mean what does that mean? I mean this is God creating stuff. Oh this is good. Wait till they check this out. This is very good. They're gonna love this one. So obviously the med was really into understanding what was this you know as we say in Hebrew right so what was this that was like really good so it says oh I'll tell you what was really good angel of death the devil this is the medish this is the medish medish raba I mean this is written by the same tanoy that roares and amaroyan what does this mean what does it mean are we living on some sick sato masochist planet that we're all like set up like a little like remember Pac-Man and each trying to run away from being eaten by dinosaurs or whatever. What does this mean? So the balshm explains it. It's actually I found it in measures as well. The balm explains a very beautiful way. Everything God makes is good. Man distorts the good and it becomes bad. So the letters for the word ma which means very are the same letters for the word Adam man. >> Man was created on the sixth day. That's this power. Man was created with free will. He she has the power to bring death into the world. Adam and Eve did it right power. They brought death in the world. They have the power to succumb to the yates of horara. They have the power. All of this negativity, it comes from Adam when he's not Adam. When he's mixed up and confused, he's the most volatile, dangerous animal on the planet bar none. No giraffe can launch a nuclear bomb. Only one Yeah. Well, they're training them. Only one creature can do that as of now. And so therefore this idea is that when God made it, it's tove. When we distort it, it becomes the word very. There are two primary words for sin in Hebrew. There's a ver like the English word o v to transgress, to go too far, and there's from the word, which means to stiny or to miss the mark. So or too too little. So it's either to o f a r or to o o little. If you hit the target that God made, it's good. It's only when we don't live up to its potential or we abuse it that it becomes bad. Now back to our closing point here. So therefore, jealousy is not bad. We have in our Torah. It's called kinatre. There is a mitzvah to actually induce jealousy among scribes in order to motivate them by using the negative to the positive that they'll be better because you know if you're playing basketball just shooting hoops by yourself you think you're like I don't know who you right but when you're on the on the court and somebody's covering you well are you still hitting those shots or not right so same idea so your situation where you're competing with other scholars it's sharpening you how do you make iron sharp iron against iron So brains against brain. That's why you learn in a bait midash with a you don't just sit home and read books. You have to have somebody say, "What are you nuts?" That's not what it says there. And yeah, no, you're nuts. It does say it. And thus it begins the learning, right? And when you finish after you be like fighting, you walk away with your best friend because you were fighting in holiness. Holiness fighting doesn't bring. So even fighting is good cuz you're fighting in order because you really want to know truth. You don't want to be right. You want to know what is right. Even if you're wrong, I don't care about being wrong. I want to know what's right. That's what the karuta does. So jealousy can be used good desire. Desire is not bad. If there says that when the Sanhedrin locked away the yates for intimacy, not a single chicken laid an egg in one day. So that's the force of life. How could it be bad? Only if we abuse it. And honor, honor is a wonderful thing. But here's an interesting thing about honor. Because yesterday was the yard site of Aron Hakoen. So Aron Aoen says sorry and says that a person who runs after honor honor runs away from them. But a person who runs away from honor honor runs after them. Well in the desert they had the anenha cavode the clouds of honor. Whose merit were those clouds? Aon Aron because he ran away from honor became known throughout Jewish history as the man who had the greatest honor. The clouds of glory, the clouds of honor were in his benefit. So I just want to end by saying that this is where the idea there is a holy in the way that we can pray to God and it's something that can actually be very good and very welcomed. But here's the differentiation in two different sources. I'm going be brief here. In two different sources it says to to go into prayer in depth is a good thing and in another source it says it's a horrible thing. What's the difference? Difference is means that you really feel that you do so wonderfully that the angels are definitely giving you high fives standing. Whoa. Did you see that guy over there in Emer how he was doing? Whoa. God, God, come. God, come. You won't believe this. Look at that guy. Watch how Whoa. Look at the shuckle, right? Unbelievable, right? And so you walk away, right? I'm sure God will answer me. And you not you don't get answered. >> You get bummed out. Whoa. What? Whoa. That's the best. I gave it everything. I gave 110. How could you not answer me, God? I gave you rang it. Rang it. Rang it. How can you not answer me? That's the dangerous infil because that type of infill is really arrogance. But the holy of is where you just keep hitting and hitting and hitting. Say the same words three times a day hitting and hitting until suddenly like by ribba the rock explodes and the water beat the rock. So the arrogance of ego ego stands for edging God out. The ego shell that blocks that relationship to God finally snaps. We become so humble. But the humble doesn't mean that we lose our sense of being. Just the opposite. The humble actually releases our true sense of being, >> right? Because everything else was just the Wizard of Oz. And therefore, we have that chance. That's the power of prayer. I bless you. I bless myself. bless all of us that we should open up this amazing fortress of real weapons with real power that can change the face of the world through our prayer. Okay, thank you very much. Oh my god. Oh my n