KLM: (Part #2) Maximizing Elul thru the Mitzvah of Ahavas HaShem with Rabbi Asher Baruch Wegbreit

[Music] it's as we said last week and i'm going to say a few times we go first in elo hashem wants us to initiate and this is really really carefully selected working on avas hashem okay because it helps us initiate in just such a beautiful way about a year or two ago i described our klm classes as a bait knesset for cavanagh let's uh remind yourselves what that is and for the newcomers welcome to the bait knesset for kavanagh it i don't say it just as a little um expression let me explain what is the purpose of a bait knesset this is what the rashva in his hidushaya gadot deals with because if sham is everywhere i mean don't you think uh standing on the top of the a mountain or scuba diving maybe you could have better kevana to connect to a cottage forum why do we need to be in these uh these houses of gathering but so what's so special and necessary about a bacon asset so the basically the rashba explains that you come into this location called the bait knesset and you gather together and you focus on being present in the presence of hashem you know i i i'm giving sharing also in harnoff right now and there's this one woman who very spiritual woman who's had uh suffering that you can't imagine and she was saying that um she realizes you know women you got to give it to them because hashem doesn't require them to daven in a bacon asset the fact that they can focus at home but now she realized that she needed to go there and be focused and immersed to re to kind of reconnect with hashem so this with the rashford says it's a place where you concentrate your energy and focus on that and then what's ideally supposed to happen you then go from the bait knesset wherever you're going out into your day to your work to your yeshiva whatever you're doing you go out there and you hopefully carry a little bit of the focus and connection of hashem outwards okay that's what a baconess it is and this is tonight and really i i try i want us to do this every time we convene even if you're you turned on the youtube or whatever however you're reaching this class consider this time you've entered a bait knesset of doing kavanagh we're going to do some actual focused work tonight and then it's my prayer and my request of you for your benefit and for clause benefit that then you try to take it outside as well okay that's welcome to the bacon asset of kavanagh all right so you know it's very funny um uh many of you know that thank god we've just completed a um klm book that's aimed at really spreading the the awareness the practice spreading it far and wide in a way that's digestible and doable okay please god it should be successful so um yet on on monday morning i i met with ravashar weiss and uh i showed him the safer um i asked him if he not only uh not only give us scumma but since we know how important cabela's mitzvahs is i asked if he'd consider writing an induct introduction to the safer and please god uh he agree he seemed to agree so when he was glancing at the safer he looks to me says what is klm so i said uh well it stands for cavanaugh missus so he got a little bit of a smile on his face and he says americans like abbreviations [Laughter] so anyhow but i bring up uh that's just an introduction because rabbi uh ravashah weiss said his opinion about the essence of kavanaugh the mitzvahs what he believes it is and we'll talk about this more deeply when i hear back from him but here's you know what it is and and the reason i'm telling you this we're going to do it right now he claims that it's more than merely having conscious intention for what you're doing for the mystery you're doing he says the icker is that you're being leshema for a hashem's sake you're in other words you're doing the mitzvah to bring nachos to bring nachos to hashem so with that in mind even though this is going to be the third stage of avas hashem the third stage of hashem is service from love but what are we doing right now we're learning torah in the presence of hashem so let's given what rewise just said is the essence of kavanagh mitzvos everybody again if you're listening live if we're whenever you hear this have in mind right now this is such a good thing to offer hashem right now have in mind the following i'm listening to this torah class i'm i'm in this beit knesset of kavanagh to bring you nachos ruach because i love you and i want to bring you nachas okay so that's the first thing you're in this bait knesset i hope you did that now let's let's move into obvious sham let's move uh i want to review what we did last time and then we're going to add another step okay let me share a screen okay we good yeah looks good thanks all right so this is the landscape this isn't how we're going to master the material but it's the landscape and it's to remind us that you can if you decide to you can have opposition permanent permeates your life because it applies in so many areas and also i'm going to flash this each time that we're working on abs hashem so you become more familiar but again we have a simplified scheme coming up in a minute all right so number one and the order is not is not organized really but first of all part of loving hashem is loving him a lot being meshuggah meshuggah like we spoke about last week okay number two is what we just did is when you're doing any mitzvah or you're refraining from any of era you're not your agenda is nothing but love of hashem not to get reward or avoid punishment it's not your motivation so your motivation is bring knock us number three okay kiru and by the way we have it's very famous now the cure of in everybody's mind is that when you take a non-religious person and you you bring them closer to hashem no there's care of kroving too whenever you bring someone else closer to hashem through torah through abba whatever it is that's a mitzvah of avas hashem because everybody's hashem where the the jewish people are his children okay next four and we're going to talk about this tonight loving hashem but kolavaca means uh that you don't have a divided heart uh towards hashem we'll discuss what that means all right the next one is uh again but part of piccolo to serve hashem with your yates or tobin yates or coming up the next thing to eat and drink the shame shamayim right the focus of your pleasure is to uh to dedicate every aspect of yourself to hashem that's another expression do you see this covers a lot of parts of your day next to be willing to give your life for hashem to be most or nefesh on the way even if even before having to give your life eight to serve hashem with your resources to hashem okay uh we'll explain that and finally and this will discuss tonight to love hashem the komio dekha also means we call mido meda meaning everything hashem measures out his pleasantries and his retribution okay that's the the map and now let's focus all right next one oh nope this is a different one okay give me a second okay um okay um give me one second please ah here we go here we go all right thank you shannon almost there okay here this is what we discussed last time the uh it the process works as follows taking all those nine different expressions and simplify then find them the first thing you have to do is love hashem when you cultivate love hashem and after you've cultivated that then you go the step three is serving shem with ava okay now it's not a rigid process we started with our intentions for this year but this is the basic path to do it in a very deep way so as we mentioned last time and the rambam and hilka's which really reinforces that we're well focused right now is this process to know hashem is to love love love hashem and then to serve service and okay that's the process and we discussed that the first thing is is we have to do things to get to know hashem better and this inner soul our soul starts to feel love it's a process uh i spoke about this with rabbit green it's a process that just were it it's built into existence that when you have a actual knowledge of a judea idea of hashem it evokes love okay now the exercise i gave last week i i just want to share with you it's it can it's not only gonna help you love hashem it actually is gonna it can invigorate your whole chakras because i realized it's amazing how well chakras is designed to do this exact dynamic to know and then to love and again as rabbi rhc cesar showed me that we're supposed to when you recite krishnan say right when you say those words the safer parading mishna brewer love should enter your heart and he says it's so important if you are rushed and you couldn't do in chakras before you leave show or or the woman before you go do whatever you want chakras uh you do this process so why is chakra so set up for this pasuki de zimra pasuki de zimra is torah that's talking about the wonders of the cottage for who his providence the the the creation it is absolutely so perfectly designed to no no no hashem you here so what what i suggested and if you didn't do it last week please try it now but you know what i we're gonna do it right now because the the mystery brewer said it's an exercise you're supposed to do reflect on hashem and then feel uh if you feel the love express the love to hashem so i'm going to do an exercise like i said we're in the bay knesset we're going to do this right now um if you want to grab your sitter but i don't know if i want to take too much time for um us to get to the exact same place i'll do an example right now and again you're in shul with me you're in the shul for kavana and i want you to do this exercise along with me i'm gonna read a puzzle in the pursuit of zimmer i'm gonna uh let's say en enhance our connection to it because i'm gonna read you rabbi victor miller on it and that way we will know hashem and then we'll after we after we absorb that after we absorb that then i want us um to feel alvas hashem and and of course to have kavanaugh for the midst of opposition okay now you might as well we might as well reap the moment even further we're doing the mitzvah of ian tafila we're looking carefully into the fila have in mind that mitzvah and were um were studying torah okay by this okay i'm gonna control myself but ready get ready to know hashem in the pazuki decima um this is a [Music] it's rooney your kindness and your truth constantly guard me that's something you say in pasuka to zimmer on a daily basis your kindness hashem and your truth constantly guard me let me explain what truth means according to rabbi miller and it fits like a glove truth means hashem's consistent keeping of his promise okay spray listen to these words with the goal of knowing hashem it says here tamid constantly that means without pause in other words the passage reads your kindness and your truth without pause guard me why for if his kindness and his truth should be interrupted for a moment no one could exist a man's existence and the existence of the entire universe is solely due to god's kindness and truth which stand guard over him now listen to this and this is a beautiful setup on what we're going to also focus on when some mishap occurs kasha its purpose is to remind him of the hundreds of thousands of other times that hashem's kindness stood guard over us incessantly your hesed and your truth constantly without pause guard me because if it paused for a second there'd be no existence to no no no him okay now have in mind to claim the mitzvah of avas hashem and just say to yourself i love you i i you know i'll put it in my words i love you hashem for the fact that every second your kindness and your truth are guarding over me and keeping me in existence thank you i love you okay so that's the exercise i'm advocating that you do in chakras you're dominating chakras anyhow grab one just think about it like for a few seconds and then when you get the krishmo and you like parrots you marked your sitter you put a little heart by the ahafta right and have in mind obvious hashem and let that one reflection in the pursuit into your heart and you'll sincerely fulfill the mitzvah and if it's too rushed and davening don't leave till you've done it okay now we're going to the next aspect of um of of where we're at so again no hashem love hashem meaning feel love for hashem that's the missile we've discussed so far however in this section when you know hashem it also can lead to loving hashem even in difficult times and troubles let me show you by the next slide okay so if you look in the middle section to love hashem very much which we just did okay but it also branches into two in other words the processing when you know that hashem is the god who took out of the egypt and is mashiach over everything there's no other powers hashem is one and behind everything so this can help you fulfill look on the left number one in the middle section um feeling love hashem with everything he measures out the good and the difficult okay so when you know and believe me we do get difficulties you know a lot of people are having challenges with their children spiritually physically you know that that's monitor monis and difficult people are having challenges getting married you know and and and the people i'm alluding to right now who are really really love hashem you know so but they they're experiencing difficulties so if you are right so you you should have in mind the mitzvah of hashem i love you with everything you measure out okay now we're gonna do this in a minute but first i just i'm just introducing to the basic mitzvah now go to the right side number two loving hashem the kolavaka that you're not lay belayed you don't have a divided heart meaning that you feel love of hashem when he's treating you well but when he's not treating well you have cautious you have difficulties you have a hard time accepting hashem's treatment of you so when you don't ask difficulties and and by the way obviously most of us are clever enough to they shem it still justify how you're treating me right now you know because no we don't do it like that we complain we just we just don't like i you know make it super explicit that towards hashem but la mysa that's who we're complaining about right so this is curbing complaints is amidst the derisive office hashem okay but there remember the process to know no knowledge ends leads to love love love hashem so this is um paris said i want people to do a writing exercise right now okay we're going to write something down and then we're going to actually uh fulfill these two mixes of avas hashem okay but there's there i want to share some daya about akash for whom some that something to know about hashem that'll make it much easier to love hashem these two myths misses of loving hashem with difficulties meaning to love him when he measures it out and to not um not complain or and ask difficulties about the treatment we're getting okay this is okay so everybody if you can write down you get write down computer uh piece of paper or whatever but what i want to i could have posted this for you and you'll read it and it'll have a like a fleeting effect but what i'm going to share with you is so powerful and i hope that the exercise of writing it down and seeing it you know the more you're involved in the process of in taking the information obviously it's going to penetrate you more okay so please i'm gonna get the piece and while i get the piece be prepared to write this down okay okay where's that x it is apparently did i am i still on shared screen uh no share screens off it's off good i want it to be okay okay everybody the the this comes from the uh peric uh sharpie tejon in jose la vavos um this this is uh are seven reasons why we should feel comfortable putting our complete trust in hashem seven reasons to completely trust hashem so i want you to write these down and let the idea penetrate your mind and then hopefully it's going to go to our heart okay number one hashem is completely compassionate and in love with us more than anybody else in your life i repeat hashem is completely compassionate and in love with us more than anyone in our lives 2. hashem actively attends to our every need hashem actively attends to our every need number three hashem is completely capable of taking care of those needs hashem is completely capable of taking care of our needs number four hashem knows what's best for us number four hashem knows what's best for us number five hashem has been taking care of us from birth until this moment number five hashem has been taking care of us from birth till this moment number six we are completely in hashem's hands no one else can help us or harm us without his consent number six we are completely in his hands no one can help us or harm us without his consent number seven hashem is utterly kind and generous independent of our worthiness number seven hashem is utterly kind and genderous independent of our worthiness okay take a look at your list and the next thing we're doing in this bait knesset of kavanagh is take a moment and think of some difficulties you are currently experiencing or have recently experienced everybody take a moment and focus in on something like that okay now um [Music] okay you have your list and i hope you have um i hope you have identified some difficulties and now now we're going to fulfill these two myths okay just give me a second i want to frame myself as well if you don't mind i'm in the show too okay so have in mind to fulfill the mitzvah darisa [Music] with an undivided heart meaning we should um express in our heart you know quite sincerely hashem i have no complaints i trust i trust your judgment about this just like our we shouldn't have to have our own cohen's uh challenge he was quiet but aubry mavino right we're emulating abramovino when we don't ask questions we don't complain in our hearts so let's express that to hashem okay fulfilling that mitzvah and now let's go to the other one these difficulties that hashem is currently bestowed on us okay hashem i may cobble this with love because i know i mean after all you know what's best for me you're capable you've been with me till now uh you love me more than anybody in my life etc when i think of this when i have that knowledge i love you because i know that whatever is happening now is for is for my best and it's you're giving me an opportunity to love you and serve you in this context okay i hope you had that in mind okay so um [Music] we've just uh finished uh kavanagh and uh again the ideal like the rashford says is that you take the like uras hashem and the connection you experienced in true into your life okay so it's ello and it's time to be a little meshuga and like really push ourselves go out of our uh comfort zone or our habit zone and let's try again let's try to take pasuki to zimra and use it as a vehicle to let love enter our heart when we say the shema okay please do that exercise just give it everything you got and then secondly maybe we should take a little time as often as we can daily would be great to reflect on uh the reasons to trust him you know if you could master any seven points this would be up there and then use that to fulfill the misses avas hashem bakomito meda and bakola lay call lave with an undivided heart okay hashem should help us thank you very welcome that was beautiful really beautiful you want me to give up all control is that a shiloh kasha yeah it's a little bit of a culture yeah what do you mean though meaning you know um just putting everything you know walk out of shul and you know we all have our lives from we have all from the mundane to the profound we have to make decisions all day and uh you know some sometimes the uh the consequences are not so pleasant again it could be mundane could be profound um and uh you know we think that we have some role in that the outcome we think that we have some role in in the decision itself and uh uh accepting that everything is hashem's will everything is for the best and you know in every part of our life in a way in a sense is really um a true a true and deep not just leap of faith but uh ascending a whole nother level of faith where that you just say you know in a sense it's it's it's a it's a abdication of some control hmm i um uh so i i i think i know which point in the house levels you're referring to right says hashem we're completely in his hands right and it said no one can harm or help you but listen this without his consent okay so people the inference is with his consent people can help you let's just focus on the help part for right now you hear what i'm saying so that means that you make an effort to get help when you need it or you help yourself you hear it's just ultimately we're in his hands because it won't go through unless hashem ratifies it so it's not talking about like okay i don't have to do anything or i shouldn't make hashtag lose because ultimately as we're totally in hashem's hands it's just that uh we have to realize that whatever the net result is called a shamayam right whatever the net result was that was because hashem consent consented to it but we have to do our very best effort before us to do what we think is necessary in our lives do you hear it does that no i it does it resonates with me and you know so much of what you said made me think of you know there's a uh an analogy or metaphor that rabbi green used to give that if you know if someone came to you and said you know for one hour um you have to keep your own home hum your own heart pumping our beating by just every 60 seconds say go every 60 seconds have to say go how would you spend that hour like you'd be looking in your watch every day go okay is the time right you know right and and and and and right like that's what's happening every second right that you'd be you'd be talking about meshuggah you'd be you couldn't do anything else you couldn't do anything else right so i get that i mean i'm i'm on that page i just think of that you know leah and hara i know that there's other people who feel deprived let's say the loss of a loved one um some other you know the absence of a of a marriage partner and they just feel that's been going on or they feel like someone was taken away from them much too soon in their life and you know to grapple with that and to say that you know if hashem loves me why did why did hashem deal me this card i did not say that you know that's the mitzvah of officer what are you saying right it's an obstacle for some people yes you know yeah and if you know that you're like how can i you know wh why am i why am i alone why am i why why is my mother not with me you know why did hashem decree that she died at a young age right you know i'm glad i'm glad you're bringing it up uh very much um first of all you um again the qualification is is that um you know uh hashem gives us human beings and gives us mentors rabbis you know we are supposed to process our pain uh in difficulties with people you know hashem and let's say in prayer okay uh so we are it's not that we're supposed to just sit there quietly and not um yeah and i i might have sounded like that by saying not complaining right but um there's um the idea is to um is to first of all is to integrate if you integrate the seven points about hashem right if for those people and for us in our places we're having these on we can't understand it and if we if we had permission we would ask the difficulty right so and though if we integrate that and if those people integrate that i think their way of um the way of dealing with it won't be to complain or ask a difficulty they may be in pain and they may share their pain you know rabbit green uh shared about his first wife's father um that i mean the assuring that the man dealt with in the show uh and he lost his daughter rabbi greene's first wife etc he had i mean it was just uh unbelievable series of things he like spelled them out a bit and he was the one who said he said he he said in sitting shiva for his for his daughter and robert green's wife he said you know when you get up there um i don't know if you can ask questions but if you do if if we do i have a few questions you hear but it uh so i mean it's unbelievable you know and he just he understood that you're not again we if we integrate the truth of those seven points if we know hashem in that way we realize we're not capable of understanding it and it hurts and and it's a inside we can't make sense of it but we're not going to direct it you know at hashem like abramovino did in our own etc at some point are we supposed to you know i know the beginning of isharim talks about you know this world is a foyer right i mean at some point is that factor in that essentially you know you sure him in this world difficulties in this world you know it's just the beginning of the picture you know that there's a you know and that you know you know obviously the governor talks all the time about hashem in his kindness will give us your sermon in this world to clean our slate you know for the world to come so i mean at some point i is part of this and some you know do you think of well the real you know the real life is in the world to come so so how does that that factor play into this well so that's the um uh um give me one second right uh that's what the mishna brewer the mr brewer explains it says you're supposed to make a bracha on the bad just like the good okay so uh with the same sim card so he says is one of the explanations is it says that yitzhak avinu requested yasurim he requested to be blind and hashem said okay i know that i know people might have a question but hashem said good request and he gave it to him and mr brew explained because really he understood that it is much better to go through these difficulties in in the world now and then have a clean slate for the world to come it's it so so that's that is the way one of the ways the mishnah brewer advises to fulfill abu sha shambha committee meeting to macabre that's one of the ways but the other thing that occurred when we were saying this is if um in if you'll see in the shot and scene is it says that right now in this world we make a diane amis right broke dynamics in the world to come we'll make a tova metis meaning all these goshes we had right wow we will actually realize it was good so even hashem's going to bring us to root sim see we just don't ask kasha's right like robert green's father-in-law we shouldn't ask questions but we will get to ruthson in the world to come right right that's very helpful to understand that you know that you can one of the ways to to implement uh loving hashem with whatever he measures out to you is to realize that it could be a bracha it could be you know you know raleigh green likes to say you know people used to say hey man get a wife and he and rabbi green says hey man get an afterlife so if you look at right if you look at everything it's it's about the afterlife you know what you're getting here you're basically you're paying a toll right right and this extra point is so important that it really isn't a negative we just can't grasp it now we will hashem will show us it wasn't the negative at all you know just want to tell everybody on that in in july of 2019 i broke my clavicle i shattered it i was in terrible pain i called rabbi wake bright this was i think summer of 2019 was before the launch of klm and the advice from my weight right gave me was in these moments of extreme pain try to accept it and and with with us hashem and hashem and and and serve hashem even through the pain yeah that that's the by the way that's the schochnorus explanation yeah all right beautiful okay everybody please l no tv shows all right thanks everybody [Music] is