Rabbi Kalman Flaks: Rosh Chodesh Prayer and The Intensity of Yehee Kavod

Heat. Heat. When we sing, you know, when we talk, it's just me talking. It's a little boring, but when we sing, we're all singing together. I hope so. Uh, let's see if my guitar is in tune. Y again knowing your I visit. I have a Is there is on you. Okay, everyone. Thank you very much. So excited to be starting off the new year, the new month together. You know, this is the real be the beginning. It wasn't really the beginning because we're on such a high and there's so much excitement. It's like uh it's not it's not it's not really, you know, but this is this is where the this is where the yeshivas go back to school and we're kind of calming down from that high that we had from the season and we're integrating and bringing all of those spiritual highs that we had back into our lives. So, we'll get back to that. It's like, you know, the the teaches all of the starts are hard. So, a guy comes to school. The first day, everyone shows up. It's perfect attendance. And everyone's excited. So, ask the Rebi, "What's up? It's not hard." He explains, "You thought that's the beginning? That's not the beginning. The beginning is when the initial high wears down and then you're ready to be jump into the year even though you're not flying so high. So now we're bringing we're really starting start starting again starting a fresh and so even though initially my game plan was to only talk about today uh what can I do came so I feel obligated to talk a little bit about the song we just sang and if there's time remaining we'll we'll get we'll get started on Sounds Nobody objects. We're going to go onward. Okay. So, a little bit about the of and of the month of did you know that every month has a different energy. Every month is a different astr astrological sign. We're in the scorpion a different shasar famously always talks about the cabalistic spiritual avoid of this time period. But he's not the only one. There are many great rabbis who speak about this. And um what is the avoided? What are we supposed to be focusing on here in Marsh? So Mar is traditionally understood to be >> rain is one explanation. I heard another explanation. Mr. Mr. Maybe we'll get back to that. But uh when I was a kid, everyone would say it's bitter. It's a sad month. Why is it bitter? No holidays. You just came off so many holidays. Pam, nothing. And then it's going to start raining. Gets a little cold. So, it's a little bit uh bitter. Nowadays, pretty much every other day, we have a yard site that someone's celebrating, right? Is Kesh is coming up and Sharak's yard site's coming up and many other Kaikim who we celebrate. So it almost feels like it's full of uh high highs but you know at its core it's it's it's missing the holidays. So it's a little bit of bitterness in the air. But actually according to many masters they would call it even in some they at the they proclaim it's ra it's it's a high it's a high month. Why? What exactly is so high about this month if there's no holidays? Last month was high. What's so high about this month? Interestingly the the the shares that the end of days the not the what's it called the consecration of the bas mikdash will be inhan it was supposed to be for the second for the first ba mdash but in the end hashem pushed it off for Nissan and so hashem promised don't worry I'm going to I'm going to consecrate the ba mikdash in this month one to be called. But until we have the B mdash, what is what is so special about this month? So Melik, he was a wise man and he wrote wrote a song. You may have heard of it from the birds where everything turn there is a season turn. But actually it wasn't the birds. It's from Malik. A time there's different times, right? A time for war, a time for peace. A time to plant, a time to destroy. And says a time to speak. That's a time to be silent. That's is a lion of silence. We're screaming, we're dancing, we're very loud. is about those quiet moments. I'm alone in my house and I'm, you know, I'm gonna, should I bench? Should I not bother today? Should I speak that juicy pe piece of lash or not? those quiet moments drawing from the high and the energy of tre and bringing it integrating it into my day-to-day life that the quiet the quiet moments without big holidays like fact the garraig talks about there were two death mute guys and whenever he was talking says they were uh whispering they were talking like Yes. And there's a story that they were miraculously healed. But is a whispering. They were whispering. In the end, they it turned out these guys were whispering the Torah. They knew all of Shas by heart. Is not a time for scream. It's a time for whispering. The entire month of is a time of hearing the the whispering of of but continuing but not in such a loud way of going less on an external level and more working on ourselves on an internal level. He wrote a book it's called I think a hash the wheels of the year and he goes through every month and the not from a cabalistic perspective has his linguistic perspectives way of understanding our and says is a silence van the nun is like the essence of the of the month cuz it's like if you're it's let's say you're a late is a as is a guy makes a joke but if you're always making a joke so you're a late son that's that's your essence that's who you are you're you steal once you're gazel you steal once you're you twice you're a gazlan right the nun is like the the it's already the norm so has to be the month where it becomes our essence to work on our quiet soft avoid that's that's the avoid of two more uh illusions to this concept we have the famous story with Ela probably you've heard the story it's a good story is having that fist fight dueling it out with the bal right and then God does this amazing miracle and he answers Eli Yahu's prayer and they still don't go to the side of Eli Yahu and they're screaming. Everyone was, you know, so excited about their vote. But soon afterwards, they go back to their wicked ways. And al is quite frustrated. They were just screaming, but just like we were in Torah, the same phrases. We get it from there. And what is with this people? A minute later, they're back to their own old shenanigans. It doesn't make any sense. He did all these miracles. So Alia goes to the cave. What does Hashem show him? First he shows him a wind, amazing thunderstorm. Then he shows him an earthquake. Then a fire, amazing visions. And then ultimately Hashem says, "Where do you find me?" But in the silence, in the quiet's trying to say all that big now loisy stuff, it's cute. That's not really where the service of Hashem begins. It really starts in those quiet moments. No one else is around. You just have a conversation with Hashem and you're real with Hashem. That is that's the avoid of this special month. We should tap into it. Oh, two more interesting ideas. The first tablets, how were they given the first in front of everyone? How long did they last for? How long did that work? Did that am go until they sinned? Boom. 40 days later it was all over. Not even was getting the tablets. It was a big deal. 10. Yeah. They get the ten commandments. 40 days later it's done. The second tablets it's quiet. We don't know exactly that lasts. So it's a good it's good for us teachers to have a little bit of muser. You know we like you always want to come and you have a crowd of thousand guys and that's the realm when the kumitz and everyone's partying. But maybe that's not what actually a keshbul cares about. Maybe a keshb cares about those quiet moments. You and a little you and a friend just being kind, being sweet, learning a little bit. That's that's that's what lasts very often in life. In fact, it's interesting the Rambam in his chuva, he's talking about how you can become a sadic, you can become the greatest or you become a Russia who and you can be even be a Russia because you have free will as bad as your benat. That's like the worst Russia. It's like I mean he may he messed up but like how many people even know the story who went to NI class? Who really remembers? I can think of a if I were to take a poll that you know first 10 people that come to mind as really bad guys probably wouldn't be on the list. So why does the Ram say he's the worst guy ever? So the yarus of says you know why because he wanted to make a holiday inv so what what what's the story basically were going to inval he wanted the credit he wanted to be the big boss he didn't want everyone to go after and And so he instead of pushed off the holiday in Tish and made a holiday in Tish and and he made a different center where all the sacrifices we brought and and done and so nobody is going um to but why? So the midra says that Hashem called to because originally was a good guy. He had good intentions and he went off and says, "Go home. Go back to yourself. I'm giving you a chance to do chuva and thinking about it." Then he asks and and Hashem says, "You're going to come with me and and David Benisha is going to come and we'll all together in gam say who's going to go first?" So, Hashem says David, you know, David's David's number one. So, he says, "Forget it. No deal. Not interested." He wanted to be number one and he wanted to make a lot of noise. He wanted to be in in front. That's the avoid of Butesh. He he didn't he didn't have that internal working on when no one else is around. That's when that's when it begins. And so it's it's an important muser for all of us now that we're jumping into the world of not to worry about the big, you know, getting 5,000 hits on on uh YouTube or whatever on Facebook worry about between us and that's of there's much more to say about it, but what what what are we going to say next year? We have to we have to leave something for next year. So I want to talk a little bit about yo now, but I need a sitter. I mean I know the song but it's better if we get a sitter. Thank you Rabbi. So I want to I want to explore this the kiter so it mean a little bit more for us tomorrow as that is the whole point of this sh right so uh first question I want to ask about yalo it's a great song great great great prayer why do we say it in the end of our in the okay we don't say it in like we don't say it we insert the Al prayer mentioning the new month right before mimm right after so why what's that what's that all about any any >> oh so the no fancy Josh is here is because the yala must be connected to the sacrifices why because is the day in which we bring sacrifices okay um we don't think about it as a real holiday. But the Torah describes as a day where we brought sacrifices, a real moed you had the trumpets being bl brought. That's why, by the way, when don't we bring in Kaneka. So we don't mention because there's no sacrifices. We mention in other places but when we do bring sacrifices so then we mention in in the day when sacrifices were brought was a day where if you look in the story with Eli Yahu again was it I think it's Alicia Alisha goes to visit the Shounamite lady and her her husband says what are you doing here it's not uh and it's not Chabas implying that back in those days you would go visit the the the big rabbi every kodesh and there are many sources which indicate that kodesh was a real holiday they wouldn't they wouldn't do in biblical times and women have taken upon themselves to many of custom not to do certain forms of factes it's it's the first holiday that was given to the Jewish people says we should have just started from there so it's a very very of a holiday and it has sacrifices. So we mentioned it in the avoid I was thinking I don't know if this is I'm not even sure if this is true but I was thinking maybe that's why when we bring the sacrifices during the day morning and the afternoon at night we don't bring sacrifices so maybe that's part partially one way of understanding why if you miss yava at night it's not as uh crucial you don't have to review again there are other explanations but um getting back okay so it's a big deal we like and we put What is Yavo actually about? Most people will go through their entire lives and have no idea. Myself included until I prepared this year. Okay, so don't no one has to feel bad. But uh let's jump into it. God and the God of our forefathers. Go up, go in, arrive, be seen, be accepted, be heard, be remembered, be remembered again. remember all of our remembrances. Remember us, God. Remember our prayers. Remember our fathers. Remember, remember the whole Jewish people for good shalom for for grace, for kindness, for mercy, for life, for peace, etc. Okay, so basically what do we want God to do for us? We want him to remember uses. We want God to remember us. Interesting. I thought we just did remembrance day. We did not before. I'm talking aboutash is. It's a day that God remembers all of our all of our deeds. Yeah. So why do we need to be remembered again? Is a day of remembrance? Turns out yes. Is a day of remembrance. Is a day in which God remembers our deeds. And we want God to remember our deeds in a good way. So why is a day of God remembering us? So I saw an amazing idea. It's just if you look in the describes like this so as you should blow the trumpet on your sacrifices and will be before you as a remembrance. So is meant to be a day of being remembered before Hashem. Uh we don't have sacrifices. We don't have trumpets. Maybe we should bring it back. You know, musical hollows. You can bring trumpets. But uh but it's a day to be remembered before God. That's what the Torah says. So aligns very beautifully with the yala. But let's step a little bit back, get a little philosophical. What does that mean exactly? First of all, why why should be a day of being remembered before God more than any random Tuesday? What's what what is it? What what does that mean? Why should it be that once a month God extra remembers our actions? >> It's the beginning. >> Yeah. So, I was thinking like this. I didn't, you know, I don't know 100% but I think it makes sense. We're starting again. In fact, there's a strong men hug that many people have yung kipper katan. You see at the kotel people wearing sackcloth, people fasting, people saying special prayers, people doing chuva, an Arab yum kipper. They're doing chuva. They're introspecting. They're reflecting because we're about to start a new entity, a new bria. We've spoken out many times the concept that every day is a new creation. The schlah says you have to do chuva every day because every day is a whole new world and every week before shabas the kids reminds us do chuva because they're starting again and every month again we're starting again it's a new entity you know a file is being closed a new file is being opened so we need to do chuva beforeh in fact itself is manapara that's what we say in our d it's a time of atonement so we ideally do chuva before starts. If we didn't get around to it, we didn't come to this year, we didn't know. Don't worry, you still have itself to do chuva decide to become better and make a new and start again, start a fresh. One of the things I started taking upon myself is at least once a month I try to um do a kashesh. I try I'm trying this here every single day. But before Ro kesh I uh I stop I look back on my what I'm doing well when I'm not doing well enough and what I want to work on this month. What's the void of this month? That's what is meant to be. It's a time of restart reflect. And so it makes a lot of sense. Just like rash is a time of reflection before the end of the year. every month is a time where God, you know, he's got a lot of things on his files. He's got a lot to remember, but like but he clicks on our box. He clicks on the common box and and looks through, you know, how I've been doing this last month. Could make me a little nervous. So that's it'll get me to do chuva. You know, hopefully I'll wipe away as much as I can through my chva and hopefully I'll be remembered in a good way. So apparently every is a time of being remembered. So far I think we're we're good. Now what exactly does that mean? Let's just on a philosophical level that God remembers our actions. In other words, as far as I remember learning from Moora, Hashem's pretty smart. He knows everything. He doesn't really forget anything. And so what exactly is the deeper meaning behind to remember that he remembers our actions. Now this concept of remembering is not I didn't make it up and which brings up ya they didn't make it up in the Russ you see there's 10 mentionings of different rememberings in Tanakh there's para par Noah God remembers after the flood he remembers Noah we have God remembered her by famous he remembered her and gave her a child and many many stories about where God quote unquote remembers. So what what does that mean that God reme how could God forget? He forgot about Noah and then suddenly he he remembered. So I think you have to explain I guess you could one simple way of answering it is God acts in the way of men. He he makes himself as if like kings and it's like Hashem just like a king doesn't always do everything at once. So he makes it as if he forgets and certain things can make it as if he remembers or maybe put it a little bit differently a remembrance every time it happens in Tanakh is a trigger for something that's going to happen. In other words, Kana wasn't having children. God remembers it and now he decides quote unquote to give Kana a child for Sara or now he's going to go to Noah's Noah's ark and take care of them. To remember means God is going to decide quote unquote to do a certain action. And that's what we mean. We want to be remembered. We want to create a reality in which will act. We'll we'll um we'll do it. We we'll make stuff happen. So we want him to remember us and to to make make things happen in a good type of way. Clear so far. Amazing. Okay. Beautiful. I'm not saying any fancy Torah. Just push up, I think. Okay. That's all good. We want God to remember us. What's with all the yala? It's like just get to the point, you know? God, hear our prayer. You could say, "Okay, it wouldn't be a good song." Yeah, that's it. You know, it was like, what would Miami Boys do? But, you know, that's not a good answer because before 1996, that song didn't exist. So, we need to think of a better answer as to why we need all the yalas. What's what's what's upshot? So many great rabbis have discussed this uh this concept of what's with all the description of the prayers. So we'll throw some ideas out there. Anyone else anyone have a suggestion before I uh throw the rabbis ideas out there? You're very humble. You want to hear what the rabbis have to say? Good. Right. >> I was asking what does it mean that our prayers should rise and go and and and be received and be just get to the point. God, God, hear our prayers. What's with all the >> speak to somebody, you want them to to accept them. >> You still don't want to say something to somebody who's just going to >> very good. In other words, we're it's the different descriptions in the same way you can say something. A lot of times, you know, I'll be on emailing or doing preparing a shear and my wife will be talking and I'll she'll say, "Do are you even listening to me?" And I'll say, "Yes, yes, of course, dear." Okay, so what did I say? And I'll spit back the last, you know, three words. And then she, "Okay, but you really did you really understand what I was saying?" And I'll say, "No, I was I was checking my email." Right? So there's different levels. There's hearing and then there's really really connecting right and and being there and then there's saying yes you could hear and say no so correct there are different levels there are different levels that I think that's the simplest level the simple shot is that we're symbolically reminding ourselves that it's not so easy for a prayer to be heard we want our prayer to go up and we know according to the mikubalim like we mentioned before there's all these kitim there's all these angels which are trying to knock our prayers down if we spoke lashara then you know that lashhara angel is going to knock it down and then there's all these negative forces and then even if it gets up to the heavens you know like who says that god's going to really listen to it and and accept it and say yes so we're reminding ourselves that it's important to refine ourselves in order for our prayers to be heard. Right? If you're a vessel, your prayer will be heard better if you're the proper vessel. If we're not the proper vessel, it won't get there. It won't get where it needs to go. Sometimes it gets where it needs to go and God says, "No, that's okay to, you know, we have to recognize that." And let's say there's a a yid, he's fighting for England, and there's another yid who's fighting for France, and they're both fighting each other, and they're both domining that their side should win or like a soccer game. They can't both you know sometimes God says no but anyways that's one level one one idea of the yalo on a more let's say on a simple level cababalistically there's other ideas there's an idea that there are seven spiritual world worlds okay we thought there's just this world and the next world turns out no the cabalist explain there's von raim There will be a test at the end of the night and anyone who gets all seven names will gets a special prize. But these are the you don't have to remember the seven names but apparently there is seven spiritual worlds and you can meditate next time you're in your yalva and all the prayers that we're saying being elevated and going higher and higher and higher and higher up till the throne of God himself. Pretty cool. That's a beautiful idea by the way how they get that idea of seven. This is a general idea of the seven cabalistic emanations of God is also an expression of the seven heavenly worlds. We know everything in in Judaism is seven. So there's seven spiritual worlds and maybe that explains um the seven words of going up. Another explanation I heard from Lu Lewis Rabinowitz is that it's mimicking the seven prayers the seven steps we would take when we were going up to the beta mdash. First person would y' start going up then he would go in towards the coen then would finally get there would appear before he says sacrifice would be accepted and he would be heard and the answer would be yes. So, so what our prayer is reminding us of the holy of of the co of of of our of our ancestors when they were going up to the bdash and you can also meditate upon that and imagine imagine that okay beautiful um ad like I said I don't want to go deep dive because I want to leave a little bit of time for our original topic but I hope that will make our our yalo a little bit more meaningful that we're our prayers are rising higher and higher and higher and higher and we're being remembered and hopefully remembered in a good way. We're praying that should remember us for the good. Remember all of for the good. Okay. So a tiny bit about um we are finally continuing our our zimra uh journey that we've been uh journeying on. If you look in the art scroll it says the following prayer should be recited with special intensity. You all familiar? So the article says we have to say the extra careful. Now I've always found this interesting curious. Why? Because if you learn the of what you skip first when you're in a rush. So is at the bottom of the stuff that you have to say, right? You got to say the if you're the bare minimum, right? The ash sandwich. Then if you're late, if you have a bit more time, do etc., etc. But at the bottom of the list is that's like we should always come on time, but if you're ever late, that's the first thing you skip. So what is it? Is it like the article says, got special intensity? It's a holy holy prayer. Or is it the first thing that you jump you throw off the boat, you know, when you're in a rush? What is it? I've always wondered about that. And I think I got an answer. So it goes like this. What is is not an original prayer. It's not from it's not the rather it is a I don't know what the right word is. It's a taking of various different verses. >> Compilation that's a good word. >> Synthesis. >> Synthesis. Whatever whatever it is, it's taking a here and connecting it thematically with a verse there and putting it all together with because it is not actually a with from or from so it has a lower status in anything that was given from Tanak is so it's got like superpowers. So therefore it's the first thing that needs to be skipped. Doesn't mean it's not important. It is important because bothered to put it as part of the it just means it doesn't have the super spiritual powers that the other and parts of have. So far so good. So then okay but why do we have to have special intensity? What's that all about? Right? Where' that come from? So the simple reading is like this. The whole thing that's weaving together the heav is the name of Hashem. Every has one of the names of Hashem. That's why if you count it up there is 18 names of God. Okay. In the 18 what does that remind us of of course life um and and our life force which comes in our D. So 18 makes a lot of sense that they were to put 18 names of God. Every p has the name of God. But here's the problem. You got to have concentration when you say the name of God. And we spoke about how we should think on a minimal level. I don't master of the world. If you don't add that minimal level of uh concentration, it's a little bit disgraceful. It's a little bit disrespectful. So on the one hand, it's a spiritually powerful prayer because it's got the name of God. On the other hand, you got to concentrate because you're saying God's name over and over and over verse after verse. So if you're in a rush, what's probably the first thing that a person's going to do? He's going to say it really fast and he's not going to give it the respect that it deserves. So therefore on the one hand if we're doing things properly and coming to doing properly it's super spiritually powerful but you got to give it respect you got to say it properly and my rebby in sixth grade Steinfeld taught us a nice t a song shout out to Rabbi Steinfeld if you're still out there listening um I still sing a song every day and uh it's a holy prayer but you got you can only say if you're keyed in because you don't want to say God's name without the proper respect. Okay, so that's just pushup shot as to why it's the first to go, but yet you need you need to have extra super concentration. They really go together. Okay, beautiful. Now, let's talk a little bit about some of the sukim. We're not going to get through too many, but we'll we'll start. Let's let's try because this is one of those things honestly most people again they just run through their their whole lives they don't really know what they're saying you're in a rush you know and it's a bunch of praises of God but that's not us we're going to go deeper and really try to unravel the meaning may the glory of Hashem be forever and God should be happy with his creatures. So apparently wanted us to focus on the glory of God should be forever. What does that mean? The glory glory in English actually I forget about that word co because when you're dealing with translations that's that's already an interpretation. Let's just take the word itself co. We are praying that God's covet should be forever should be forever and ever there should be the covet of God. What does it mean the covet of God? You can say honor glory but in the root of the word what does covote actually remind us of? What other word comes to mind when you say the word cavode? So again we nowadays we'll say respect but that's already an interpretation the word itself just take the letters >> of presence >> right which means heavy so I think the essential idea is we want when something's heavy you feel it right like the clouds of glory they were clouds where felt the presence of a we were just in it right for all. So think my interpretation of is to feel heavy but to feel in a real way the presence of God. Now it's not because when something's heavy it's like it's there. So we want the world to feel the presence of of Hashem. We're praying for that. That's why we're dabbing because we if we didn't davenin would walk around and not feel the presence of God. So we're bringing it inside our we're making it a real part of our lives. Okay. Nothing fancy just today. Okay. God is is happy and we want God to be happy about his creatures, his mas the things he did. So what do we mean by that? That we that God I I guess I'm just in a philosophical mood today. What can I do? New year. I'm stepping back. Does God really feel happy about when we do a mitzvah? When we do good stuff, does it does God really care? The says, "Yeah, yeah." But I don't know. What do you guys think? Does God Is God really happy about us doing things? >> I don't think God really has emotions. So is a philosopher. He is going align with theam with the mymanades and my manades who in this respect was also affect um influenced a little bit by philosophy and the great philosophers who he studied. He famously writes that God does not actually have emotions. >> And the reason he does it is because he knows everything. Because Rambam knows everything. >> We have an emotion when we respond. >> Right. We didn't know about. >> Right. Right. No, you're right. It works with the Rambam's system of thought that if something is really perfect and he knows everything. So then what what joy is he going to get out of the fact that you did a mitzvah and you came to Shir tonight? He knew you were going to come to Shir. So if I didn't know and then he I saw you came. Great. But if I already knew. So what what happiness? I think that's could be one element of why he's not really happy according to the Rambam. But also, I think because he doesn't have emotions because from the Rambam's way of looking at things, emotions are less than ideal. The ideal man, the ideal entity is emotionless. Is it's perfect. His emotions, they cause trouble sometimes, right? They get us into trouble. People get angry, people make mistakes. But something that's perfect doesn't have emotions. He knows everything. So God in the Rambam way of looking at things, which is also, I'd say, the most classically uh accepted way of looking at things in in Jewish philosophy, um he doesn't really feel happiness. Oh, but is saying that he does feel happiness? He's happy with his with his creatures. So how would we explain that in the Rambam world of thinking? What does the thinkm is our vid and volcano and as the father in my case as a mother when my children do something nice I am happy >> and he is also our king the king expects his subjects to obey him and god has told us I want you to be righteous people so this is a question on the rambian way of looking at things. God's a father, you read the Torah, seems like Hashem cares. Seems like when we do good things, he's happy. And when we do bad things, he gets really mad. >> Yeah. He throw He does. >> So, you would have to say according to the Rambam philosophical way of looking at things, he's not really mad. He's pretending to be mad. It's like when my wife gets mad at my 2-year-old. You think she's really mad when the 2-year-old spills the crayons all over the place. She knows that that's what 2-year-olds do, but she's pretending. She's faking it so that the kid gets the point. So, in the same way the Rambam would probably explain it like this. I think he pretty much explicitly says this. It's all it's not for real. He doesn't really it the reaction is such that it's the the effect is when you do a mitzvah good things happen you get rewarded. So it's like what happens when there's a happy person who smiles upon you but um but he doesn't really that's like the the classical philosophical Ram way of looking at it. However, I just want to throw out there that there are other ways of looking at it. There's, let's say, two other perspectives. The cabalists say something a little bit different. They say, and I'm not a cabalist, so I'm just going to say the words and I can't completely say I understand this. There's God's essence and that and then God's the way he manifests himself to the world. The spherote. So in God's essence, it's like the Rambam. He's beyond nothing touches him. He's perfect. But God has created a way to interface so to speak with the world, the emanations of God. And in that respect, he really does have emotions. Okay? He really does. In other words, he in an amination level, he really is happy or sad when you when when you when you when you do a mitzvah or or don't do a mitzvah. So, >> he has to let us know if we're doing good or bad. So, he uses them as a tool. >> He uses a tool in order to let us in order to have us function. And I would offer a third perspective that I've heard from a few rabbis. It says that God's angry. He's angry. It says that God's happy. He's happy. And to me, a little bit. I don't know if that's emotionally a little bit more satisfactory of a way of looking at it because when I want to do make have a relationship with someone, I don't want them to actually in their minds actually not care at all, but just be putting on a good face to, you know, you know, like my wife does to to the kids. I want them to actually be happy when I give them a hug and and and be sad when something bad happens. So for me at least emotionally, it's hard for me to swallow that God doesn't actually care about any of our actions. For me, I'm also a big shot guy. If the Torah says God's angry, he's angry. Torus, oh, it doesn't work with the Rambam and his philosophical way of understanding. That's the Rambam's problem. In other that's the philosopher's problem. He has to make that work. He has to figure out how to make his philosophical um approach work with the pushup shot of the of the of the text. But the text seem to indicate Hashem I know Hashem is not like a human. I'm not saying it's exactly the same, but to say that he has zero emotions, I mean that to me it seems seems like hard hard to swallow. >> Emotion is a response to something that's >> you're saying how does it work? How does it work? the fact that >> response to something that's unknown. >> Not necessarily. >> Unknown. >> Not necessarily. I could I could I could put it like this. Even if I know someone's going to do something, when I see it with my own eyes, it could bother me. Yeah. I knew that was going to happen. I knew I I knew I was going to be come to class and all everyone was going to be on their phones. No one was going to be listening to me. I know that. That's what happens every time with this type of class. Still, when I get there and everyone's on their phones, it's hard, right? Because there's a difference between intellectually knowing something and in reality. Now, again, I'm comparing my knowledge to aesh and I don't know if that really works. I'm just saying I don't know necessarily if just because you know something that necessarily will take away the emotional element. Okay. So, I just presented with you three possible ways of looking at it. What's the truth? I don't know when we get to Shamine. U we'll find out, you know, or maybe there are greater rabbis than me that know that their particular perspective is the emis. So maybe they know, but I'm just fleshing out the puss with you guys that either is really really happy. Um and of course this is just one example that's you could take this from all the different times when Hashem is responding and emotionally responding in you can have this these three I guess perspectives in mind. Yeah. Yeah, >> we are human beings and Hashem is Hashem. I think as a human being when you do something you want to know that there's a reaction and sometimes I I mean even today I went to some place and there was food left over and I called up the madria from the lone soldiers and he came and picked it up. When I got home, I got a telephone call that a doctor's appointment was advanced two months. And I said, "Thank you, Hashem. I felt I was rewarded right away." >> Right. No, I think there's no question that we have to live in the world where there's a God. He's Arinu, he's scream to him, you talk to him, and he responds to him. Just if we take a step back and we get into our philosophical discussions, so we have we can philosophize about it every here and there. And in the real world of life, I think the only healthy Jewish response is to really feel like there's a God who cares, who loves us, who who and uh not only do I think that's the healthiest thing, I think it's the truth. I think he really does care and it's not just an illusion set up um like some philosophers would have it. >> We have a state. We have a we have a plane that didn't crash into Benurian airport. You have to believe that Hashem loves us. You got to believe. All right, friends. I think this would be a wise place to stop. We're gonna we're gonna call it here for just to summarize a month of being real, being quiet and sweet and having that sweet, beautiful relationship with the not necessarily needing to make a big splash about ourselves, focusing on our internal focusing on being remembered for the good and taking this day as a day of introspection, reflection, and starting fresh and a day to really feel the presence of every today and to really feel like Hashem is happy with us and to dab for a day that Hashem will be smiling down on all of Israel. Thanks. Thanks for another beautiful week of learning Torah together. My sh na.