(Way# 21) LAUGHTER IS A SERIOUS BUSINESS : 48 Ways with Rabbi Aaron Dovid Poston

[Music] hey good day everybody welcome back to beyond the seven where rabbi uh aaron david poston live in jerusalem's teaching us uh the 48 ways to wisdom and today we've got part 21 and i know it's getting late there in jerusalem i so appreciate rabbi poston stand up to teach us torah and this series is just such a beautiful one so let's just jump right in rabbi so good to be with you uh you've got the class sir shalom aleichem chabot everybody it's been a tough week uh tonight for those who don't know we're in 21 so you can go back and watch the previous of the 48 ways to wisdom right we're in the period of counting the omer meaning the time from we the from between pesach and shivuat between the leaving of egypt until the revelation of mount sinai and there are these we count 49 consecutive nights consecutive days and we're anticipating right we're moving towards uh receiving the ultimate revelation of wisdom of the world called the torah god's wisdom and this time it's actually in times of the temple supposed to be unbelievably full of symptom joy there's no question about it unfortunately because we've been on the temple and of for those who are aware not aware of the story not of just rebi kiva but other horrible incidents that happened throughout jewish history during this time that it has actually turned into a period of mourning right the 24 000 disciples of rabbi akiva were i don't know the word to use they were killed they were annihilated they died of a plague and the talmud explains why because we didn't show enough kavod they weren't showing proper respect right for each other and this is going to actually lead us into tonight's topic because the topic for tonight in hebrews mute sculpt um minimizing laughter now the roshiva has um again we use this book the 40 ways to wisdom for those that are familiar not familiar right this is what the lectures are based on is um well one second his seminar world name and seminar based on this idea uh on these ideas of the 48 waves towards wisdom each one of these are individual gems if you're interested in acquiring wisdom it's worthwhile studying each and every one of them and inquire you know putting them into your life in terms of character development that's what it's about so he titled this in another i think it's on the webpage h.com laughter is a serious business right in other words when we talk about minimizing anything as we spoke already about minimizing sleep means getting the most out of life right what else do we talk about minimizing whatever we're minimizing we're not pleasure it means being a kind of sore figuring out a way to use it to its maximum by minimizing it okay so here too laughter is going to have a really positive aspect and of course it could also have an does for many times have negative ramifications so if it's a serious business i want to speak a little bit about the tragedy that occurred on thursday night like by omer israel and the reason i'm bringing it up because i think it's very apropos when a jew finishes a meal right we have a special blessing to make it says in the torah right you shall eat and bless the lord your god when you're satisfied you're blessed lord your god so if you're satisfied you eat you bless the lord your god on shabbat and on holidays we add king david's famous psalm 126. now this is actually for ashkenazim svardim they do something different but if you want to read for us dan i would start with one it's really verse two that i'm looking for but i think just to add the context add verse 1 it's 126. one 126 reads a song of a sense when the lord returns the returnees to zion we shall be like dreamers yeah that's really the verse i wanted to read but i wanted to get context uh two then our mouths will be filled with laughter and our tongues with songs of praise then they will say among the nations the lord has done this great thing or great things with these okay so i just want to like get an idea here we're talking about laughter now here you have verse two it's a future tense it's messianic we're talking about when the lord returns the the captivity of zion then we will be like like it's unbelievable like dreamers like whoever would have thought that this could turn into such a reality after such a long exile now we are still in exile i know there's some people that look and say well the jews are back in their land but the majority of jews are not in the land and therefore we are one right the jewish people it's the one of the biggest secrets right can you believe it the jewish people actually feel the brotherhood and the truth is because we are a sheep right the jewish people can't compare to a sheep a sheep is a very fragile animal i know it might look very fat and plump and muscular because you really can't see it it's covered with i don't know say pounds of wool pounds i mean that every time they you know sheer sheep you get pounds of wool so it may look fat but really it's a very sensitive animal it's a very tiny animal actually we're told that when it stubs its toe or has one little you know it knocks its knee so to speak the whole animal trembles in pain the whole animal trembles in pain because the animal feels the whole body feels the pain in one spot so when a jew is killed or dies or experiences pain the whole jewish nation feels pain so just keep this in mind we are not out of exile until the majority i mean the rambam says all of israel but all we have in the concept for those listening to torah tapes understand the concept all means majority so at least a majority of jews coming back to the land then many of the i don't know the status of the status of omni israel will change dramatically and we're really approaching we don't really know how many jews are lost in what we call a diaspora but those who identify let's say uh identify halachically meaning they have jewish parents jewish mothers and majority it's almost it's really close so i'm assuming we have um the shemitah years coming up we keep shemitah means the sabbatical year of letting the land lie fallow that is basically on a rabbinic level when i say rabbinic just so people know yes it says to do it in the torah but every law like anywhere has certain criteria that have to be met for that law to apply so you have to have the jubilee year enacted you have to have a temple you have to have certain things and since we don't have that we don't have the majority of israel living in the land of israel this law let's just say is not applicable in its fullest sense so we as jews who had right these famous you all know about the prophets many of them were rabbis many of them had the court some of them sat on the sanhedrin as a rule not because they were um prophets but because they were great sages the sages millennium ago um let's say during the the dispersion between the first and second temple 70 years and then when we came back so even during the second temple majority of jews did not live in the land of israel and the shemitah year was rabbinic ravinic means we do what we can to keep it and to remember it right so the rabbis enacted we're called decrees to keep certain aspects certain aspects are still from the torah but there are many more uh details that are rabbinic that is symbolic of what the torah wants from us so that we don't forget it so that we're already used to doing it so when the temple is rebuilt the jews are returned to the land then we are used to doing even though we weren't commanded ontario level during the let's say long and bitter exile and that's one and the other idea is just to remember the temple in other words it's not only to look forward but it's also to look past and to remember the past so that's something very important in judaism that i think it's true like they say about any nation if you don't remember the past you'll keep making mistakes same mistakes over again many nations have just disintegrated and are gone because they have no sense of let's say real history or or simultaneously they don't have a vision for the future obviously the jewish people have both they have the past the present obviously and they keep in mind the future so going back to um this psalms 126 so on the holidays on shabbos when we're not in this state of mourning right we're forbidden to mourn on these days so we say this when we do all the other days we have a different psalms and that hat that psalm has to do with the exile okay we're not going to go into that because i want to talk about this this laughter that has to do with some future event ozya malay then our mouths will be filled pinot right our mouths will be filled and our tongues will sing and then we'll say the going will say right well hashem has done great marvels with these with these people so what does it mean that our mouths will be full with laughter the truth is i just want to mention about zaharia chapter 14 9 right somehow in the future hashem and you want to read it as zachariah zechariah chapter 14 oh verse 9 and the lord shall become king over all the earth on that day shall the lord be one and his name one now you have to ask the question i mean come on everyone would should ask this question you mean god is not one now he's not the king over all the earth well yeah because obviously he is in his dimension but he created this world an illusion we have free will many of the inhabitants do not recognize hashem as ones right yeah there will be a day when all the inhabitants will come to a recognition similar to the song this song of king david in 126 right then our mouth will be filled with with laughter and it's the it's the non-jews who will then come to this recognition similar to what we said in zepharia but come to this recognition so it's huge for the renee noah rabbi that is so huge and i think it's so applicable i think yeah forgiving so why am i bring this in okay we believe in the afterlife i also believe i mean if you know anything anything about these people these 45 individuals who were died who died um they were also they were pure souls the purest or the holiest of holies and i don't want to say they were a corban okay we don't believe in human um sacraments people die we do think of it of and i'm not saying in the term of sacrifices of the temple i'm just saying in terms of their death was not in vain there's something about i'll just say the possibility we're talking about so many miracles have occurred in this place hundreds of thousands of people have always been there right every you know let's say for the last 100 years maybe the last 50 years i used to go i'll just mention uh but the secret that i used to organize and i still do but i used to organize foreign torah and this the the uh the the log bomber trip and with gil eisenbach who's the messiah up there and the trick was to leave at 3 a.m in the morning and you drive up the jericho highway and you end up around 6 o'clock 5 30 6 o'clock at the tomb of rebbie mayer that's that's great tana rabimir balanese the master of miracles we would pray the sunrise service there we would have a packed breakfast eat our breakfast and then we would move on up towards mayron and around 7 00 a.m 7 30 everybody was sleeping whoever was up the entire night was sleeping the the the roads were easy to get to right there was no traveling on the road at that time except for us we were like the only car bus on the road and we get there and everyone's basically sleeping and we would pray and meditate a little bit and then we would go to one of these separate beaches where they have just men and women separate and we would spend a few hours with a barbecue and enjoy the day off so to speak relaxing recharging our batteries and so that was the trick to avoid all these crowds i happen to love crowds but i i hate standing in line right i just despise the waves and you know and avoid the crowds at the same time and get more accomplished because this year it fell on a thursday night friday it was in i we didn't do it but we have done it in the past last few years i organized it with you barnett and we've actually done it i rented a boss and up there according to my schedule according to the 3am schedule and of course that that didn't happen this year because friday what would be the point you have to get home prepare for shabbat and that just wouldn't happen um okay so what these these were holy holy souls it's so there's no accident right i spoke did i speak at that last week of the week before i remember which class i spoke about it rabbi i think it was your class rabbi akiva right all everything that hashem does for me is for the best right we talked about with the three different um you know it could be in my other class on uh charlie chuva i i think that there was but i heard i watched it so if somebody really understands that everything that happens for them is for the best even if there was criminal action by the police which we don't not know or there was criminal action from whatever right a investigation still needs to be done so that god forbid right so make sure that these things don't happen again lessons learned but ultimately everything that hashem does is for the best even the death of 45 holy souls somehow we'll elevate the jewish people now for the whole week since last shabbos because in last week's parsha via loretta love your neighbors yourself than one of the most important fundamental principles of the torah and so for the jewish people to be talking all week about love your neighbor as yourself like as on shabbat and it brings that spirit that ru off into the weak and yet pesach shami base like cheney was we well i don't know if we talked about it but it's called second chances and then you had lava omer which again revolt revolves around i know many people like focus on ruby shimon bar yochai but who was sh ruby shimon's rebbe it's really akiva rebbi kiva is the one now he didn't coin the terms but he was famous for saying this is the greatest principle of the torah of love your neighbors yourself that the jewish people this is something that every nation should learn from right the non-jews i understand your nations are quite um they're quite divided right even the christian religion has like 80 000 different sects but ultimately if we're we should be and we hopefully will live up to that of being a light to the nations the very fact that we care about every human right every jew let's just start with our own we're a light to the nations that we're supposed to give this message over or the message is supposed to be received happily look how they treat each other hopefully hopefully we're living up to where we actually love each other so much that you'll see this now there obviously is a lot of friction we just had our i think fourth i can't even keep up maybe the fifth election is coming up there's quite a lot of division but ultimately when tragedy like this hits the jewish nation everybody you know there's a few odd nut but you know not nut cases you know but everybody there's secular people donating blood you know different sex within the jewish you know jewish people israel they're all coming together and nobody's pointing fingers everyone wants to know what really happened but the ultimate goal is to feel the pain like the sheep now what does this have to do with laughter okay in the future i wonder i want to go through a certain gemara and i want to discuss it in length so let me first go through the outline and then we'll get into the details the outline is like this right it's called minimizing laughter which really means to master laughter right um it doesn't say excluded entirely now we will see different verses i think they're in ecclesiastes at cohelis so we're going to see verses that say laughter is a very bad thing and we're going to see other verses that praise and uplift laughter so we're going to deal with these contradictions and we do know and we're going to talk about let me just give you the headlines you know ridiculing others is a very bad thing cynicism is a very bad thing excessive laughter can be quite dangerous but on the other hand we're going to talk about the laughter of god that god himself sits and laughs that obviously has to be a good thing so how do we follow hashem how do we use laughter ourselves properly to know there's a time there's a place so in order to this is one of the 48 ways to wisdom so this if you can master laughter then you will help you realize your potential okay so um you have to learn how to laugh heartily right and remember too much could be negative and we'll talk about the positives positives and the negatives and how to master them um how do we start okay let's start with the outline that the roshi he basically starts off with this idea and it's this is really the game i want to talk about so i what i think i'll do is i'll read through the whole thing and come back to gamora shabbos 30b basically speaks about that every a rough when a rabbi gives a class he should start with a joke now since i'm not good at telling jokes i think it'll backfire i don't have enough confidence in myself to and i don't have such a great memory i mean i imagine reading a joke right you're not supposed to read a joke you're supposed to tell a joke and you know get into it i don't know i don't have experts it's just my maybe one day i'll graduate to that point where i would be able to um see i'll tell you about my own personal life i came from a very serious family and what really turned me on was not brought up religious what really turned me on to yiddish called judaism orthodox judaism i saw the gleam in these people's eyes i saw them it was a constant smile that was pasted on their face i saw that they could laugh they could joke there was something that was not just real but it was something that i wanted right i started lacking my you know i don't want to say anything my parents they're lovely but we know overachievers right my sister is also still listening we are all very like overachievers we were driven driven driven i have i don't know what the psychological psychology about why it was but for some reason laughter was not one of the main points in our home growing up so uh when i saw this group it wasn't like one individual you know shabbos festivals you know just the joy of learning torah and living a jewish lifestyle see judaism when i was growing up was something that was like it was it was dead it died in the holocaust like it came with a lot of misery you know what i mean when someone is not involved in a dynamic community and what can i tell you that's my my story my problem uh many jews may be able to relate and judaism was i'm gonna say you know like it was i don't know if it was a burden but i you can imagine i mean you want to go out and eat you want to be like an american you're like limited right it's saturday i mean we didn't really know about shabbos but i can imagine if someone's not that learned or that much passion about their judaism shabbos is a big burden it keeps you prevents you from maybe playing certain sports right or involved in let's say music where everything is on the weekends who knows but the more you're passionate about and it's meaningful to you so then you know you you weigh it out and it takes on a different um a different um priority in your life okay so the idea was that a rov should i'll tell you rev good elizabeth always started this year by asking the students who was the the best and the mvp player on whatever let's say uh in in baseball uh in a certain year for a certain team and what was his batting average i mean yeah to me that was like it was it was a little joking it was a little bit folly and we'll talk about this folly idea like so folly and laughter i think go hand in hand there's a little bit of folly and then you get into the serious stuff and we'll talk about that as well shortly so whether it's a joke a riddle something absurd let's just say absurd is is a good thing because so we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna deal with it but this is the first idea so what does it do it snaps you out of your melancholy and any other distractions you have it puts you should put you into a fresh frame of mind in order to pay attention and focus which obviously is very good these days because so many people have adb adhd i don't even know the the alphabet soup anymore but let's just say death they're deficient in their attention right i was always amazed i mean i was a proud jew growing up and i know there weren't that many um sports guys right there was a few you could list maybe on your hand you know the jews were not really in the sports field you know maybe you had sandy koufax you had certain people but what about okay we all knew they were i mean there were too many lawyers too many jewish lawyers and even actors a lot of jewish actors in hollywood but what about comedians right i made a short list and for people familiar i hope i'm not outdating myself but this was something i was very proud of but what's the point why do jews seem to excel in humor remember the title is maximizing you know this concept of laughter the idea is when you're able to say something that is so true that is absolutely absurd you will have a a knee-jerk reaction you will laugh because you know it's true and you know it's uncomfortably true and that's usually what happens so i'll just give just a quick uh list of something i just wrote down of famous jewish comedians maybe people don't even know that they're jewish some of them are obvious mel brooks george burns sid caesar by the way groucho marx you know the three stooges were all jewish jerry lewis joan rivers jack benny don rickles eugene wilder while we're at gene wilder marty feldman uh buddy hackett okay jerry seinfeld and uh peter sellers that was just a really short list i mean you can go on yeah go ahead you know rabbi one of my favorite is adam sandler and he is jewish and he's got a show out called the goldbergs uh by adam f goldberg who is also jewish and this show is set in philadelphia in the 80s and uh being raised in in a jewish household that's actually in the scenario you're talking about one that doesn't go to shabbat every week but they're still steeped in the history and and the reality is the comet there's genius in there so it's it's there's there's so many jewish comics and so that's um so basically laughter comes at seeing the absurdity of life something unexpected so let's talk about laughter in the bible itself right you have the famous birth of yitzchak what what did we say the word for laughter skulk so yitzhak is the the name it's based on this idea of laughter right in in genesis i mean we know the name but anyway genesis chapter 21 verses 6 through 7. if you want to read it chapter 21 go six and seven and sarah said god has made joy for me whoever hears will rejoice over me and she said who would have said to abraham that sarah would nurse children for i have borne a son to his old age right so you have to hear the hebrew just so you know we're talking god made a joke god laughed i mean so we're seeing there is a humor right hashem has a sense of humor as well and this is somehow that is um this yitzhak which the jewish people obviously are from and his whole i guess coming into being is the absurd right she was 90 years old she had not had a period i'm going to guess either from the age of 20 onward or at some point as normal women would have let's say 45.50 she's 90 years old she was not capable of having a child i mean she dried up it was she didn't have the menstrual cycle she didn't even have a womb so so our tradition tells us and therefore that's an absolute miracle so for avram to be told and not only to be told she laughs and then there's a whole back and forth but anyway so this is an idea when you hear something that is insane right the first way to use laughter is to laugh at the insanity that surrounds us now this gets into a very important point of when mockery or laughter in which we would normally say is negative is actually to be used in a positive way and i know this will offend uh some of the people who um not not your audience of course but maybe some of the people that will watch this it's brought down in the gomorrah that all mockery is basically forbidden except the mockery of idolatry so i'm sure you've heard quite a few rabbis and jews mock idolatry but it's very important not to mock the people no mock the idol so hershey always makes like a joke he says you know you're gonna you know so instead of mocking the person saying i'm so sorry that i i caused your idol to have a bloody nose obviously you know there's no bloody nose that's not even a lie can't even react but hopefully that would the idea of mocking the idolatry is to awaken them from their sleep you know help bring some sense into this idea but there's another additional benefit and this we don't think about but on a metaphysical level maybe psychological level he brings down by laughing at the at the theology not the people we remove ourselves from its influence and reduce its power so you see when we're mocking it we're really saying it's nothing by convincing ourselves i mean not that we need convincing if you already believe it but it helps to reinforce your belief that it is nothing it reduces its power in this world because hopefully you're also letting other people know but metaphysically by knocking the idolatry it's it's a good thing um so he brings down ideas of what what oh let me just talking about another idea that we have to learn to laugh at ourselves right we take life sometimes way too seriously and and when you're involved in a really heated argument and it could turn you know go really out of control beyond where you wanted it to go if you really you know want to try to at least get the person on your on your page not necessarily convince them of to win the argument but at least let's say bring it down a notch or two you know you give a hug you give a laugh you just don't tell a joke you or even laugh at yourself speak about some absurdities in your own life just to bring the the thing the uh the temperature down and we'll talk about that a little bit more okay laugh at the absurdity like we talked about idol worship laughing at idols at the art of worship here's other things to laugh at laugh at the absurdity of people wasting their lives chasing after money and material possessions when they already had much more than they even need and sometimes more than they could even spend another idea laugh at evil and that the worship of artificial values at the way people are absolutely sure they have no absolutes and that's oh there's no absolute truth but they'll fight tooth and now to prove their point to defend their position exactly laugh at the ridiculous ways people waste time watching transfix i don't even know what this refers to as candy pieces tumbled down on their iphones i i i can only imagine this is what it's talking about you know these games uh laughing at ideas not the people but laughing at ideas at ideas that will distance you that will distance you from these false values and keep you from getting caught up in them so in other words you're setting your own priorities you're getting things clear in your own head by laughing at them making fun of these ideas which is fine which is what we discussed in the beginning of mockery towards idol worship but this is the main idea making sure that we um we have to put our own life into proper perspective um try poking fun at your own idiosyncrasies your own hang-ups right let's say you have three phds and you're out of a job okay i would say that's a sad situation but you know laughing at the absurdity of the situation helps keep the problem in proportion laugh at your problems doesn't mean you're ignoring them that obviously would be irresponsible but hopefully this laughter will pull you out of your own self-pity and will help you achieve necessary distance from your problems so you see that laughter actually has a lot of benefits again we have to master it right this will give you hopefully the positive energy and the zest that you'll need to deal with more serious undertaking underlying cause that's holding you back from solving the problem that's really one you want to get to if you're not getting a job you know just laugh at the idea hopefully that will then we're going to talk about this idea of prophecy prophecy can only come in other words let's say clarity can only come if you're in a good mood if you're in a sympathetic if you're in a joyful mood you already discussed this idea before laughter can bring that you know science has proved right they're the enzymes these endorphins whatever i'm not sure what they're called i think somebody wrote in already in the last time that there's certain enzymes certain yeah you just don't mean when you force a smile right even if it's for no reason right obviously if someone cracks a joke and you laugh for sure that will also uplift your spirits but even just to crack a smile would be would be quite helpful so this also helps diffuse tension like i mentioned before you're in a heated argument but this actually releases tension it dispels stress and pressure and puts you into a more relaxed mood he discusses this idea of using laughter consciously to break the tension in yourself and others um also it will help release steam and lift yourself up and you'll be so surprised to discover how much tension you were walking around with if you just do something to give yourself a good laugh and release that tension uh when speaking with someone else who it seems tense you can smile and tell a joke we call it mirroring right there they're a little bit uh whatever you know if they put their hand here you want to try to ease them out of that situation so you mimic them you do exactly what they're doing and then you start to move out of that state and hopefully they'll follow subconsciously so that is also a way um and at the end when you realize how ridiculous all this stuff is if you can bring a joke to it so then all the bad feelings disappeared and you saw how silly the whole fight was to begin with uh using laughter consciously to dispel anger during argument we talked about that already just feigning laughter can lift your spirits and relax you he says remind yourself of the great joke and start laughing okay you people might think you're insane but it's okay laughing when you don't feel like it itself can be funny let's talk about the abuses of laughter right so there's problems with laughter so even though we describe that even hashem laughs that yitzhak is called laughter and hashem brought this all about ishmael unfortunately and not just ishmael even the jewish people let's just say the arab wrath where was involved with the the golden calf at the time it also used the same word mitzhak mitzkok means you could translate as laughter but it really means like mocking right was already avraham noticed it but it was ignoring it uh sarah noticed it and did not ignore it that he was going to be a bad influence because of his behavior already uh in relationship to um to yitz to yitzhak so ishmael i'm sorry uh yeah yeshua so of course god tell sarah mentions he should be you know uh taken away because it's gonna be a bad influence on my little baby yitzchak okay so that that term already implies there can be negativity so here are the negative things you have to stay away from we mention them already ridiculing others um laugh with people don't laugh at them right this is this caused great embarrassment and can make a person feel absolutely worthless um ridicule is one of the deepest ways of really affecting a hurt into another person um the next time someone does something funny make sure to direct your laughter at the funny thing and not the person and never laugh at anybody who's experiencing worry right that even that makes it could like he'll compound the problem and make the person even feel worse all right cynicism now we're talking about ideas right never ridicule serious subjects right you want to create a dialogue it's fine but don't make fun cynicism and sarcasm destructive forces that strip away the import of meaningful ideas and causes don't mock a person's idealism you can redirect their idealism you can you know mentor them or coach them or even give suggestions but the fact that someone is very idealistic that you know have a discussion maybe you feel they're wasting their time right um don't inject pernicious energy all right oh yeah nice guys finish last right you you're such an idealist no cliches yeah uh excessive laughter right you just met i had a friend unfortunately he um he committed suicide he was the life of the party he had some issues i was not really aware of the issues and i thought he was just absolutely funny but obviously it's some really deep rooted unresolved issues and his attention like for himself to seek the attention he was one joke after another one joke after another and he sought help and he was on medication and he he really went to top top therapist and whatnot and i don't know exactly what happened i shouldn't say i'm pretty sure with suicide everyone discussed at the time they knew it was suicide he was in such pain right it's an escape that's what i shouldn't say laughter is not an escape people could use it as an escape so he says like this don't use laughter as an escape we're talking about excessive laughter and deciding deciding to refresh your batteries and alleviate tension through humor has a purpose as we discuss but laughing to avoid responsibility and engage in aimless frivolity is empty and ultimately harmful right don't get distracted by laughter now laughter in god okay god does interact with the world on a certain level with laughter right one of the i'm not going to say it's the holiest day but in jewish tradition we do have this concept that purim is eve on certain levels is even greater than yom kippur just understand how hebrew works it's used or maybe even logic in english if one day is like another if i'm telling you this day is like that day that means the day that it's like is greater so purim is a day of laughter right everything is here it's actually everything reverses itself okay before we get to that point yom kippur that's what the day of atonement is called yom kippurim so if you just hear you have an ear to hear it you'll hear that it says it's yom it's a day the word the letter cuff is a whole word it's like it's a day like purim so yom kippur is a day like purim which implies that purim has a certain level that's even greater now i don't want to go off on tangents because i want to stick this topic tonight but the torah itself was actually given to us on yom kippur meaning the second set of tablets how the timeline works i don't want to go into it but trust me believe me from shavuous until you know the 17th the tamos 40 days until the first develop another 40 days god says come and receive the second set forty days later is yom kippur on purim we were told the judah he moved the keyboard says in the gilas esther that we accepted the torah on a whole new level right as if when yom kippur the first yom kippur in the desert god held a mountain over our head and basically forced us or let's just say we were stuck between a hard place a rock and a hard place and so we accepted it out of fear but comes purim and we accepted it out of love or joy there was a whole new level of acceptance okay so that could be why in the one explanation why purim is actually greater than yom kippur we don't sit around and laugh and tell jokes and do skits on yom kippur but we do that on purim itself so there is something to be said about laughter and hashem and what goes on so the whole story it's crazy because we're talking about the annihilation the possibility of the annihilation of the entire jewish people and we're sitting there obviously celebrating the the whole story turned around right so where's my last page [Music] so the idea the jews were um the jews go from being the target of annihilation to being the heroes and victors right human is actually hanged on the same gallows that he planned to hang mordechai right um i'll just tell you the words he's like basically the decree was turned around for the good it was a miraculous 180 degree turn around right purim reveals god's hidden hand orchestrating all events now this really gets into the first topic we talked about the tragedy that happened at meyrone even though yes horrible nobody can even take away and soften the punch but know the unity that has been created it never happened before like you know i think i think there were two helicopters that crashed in northern israel not far from haifa there shar yeshua i think it was like 73 soldiers were killed in an instant um listen they were soldiers and it was wartime but it was friendly fire so to speak it wasn't the enemy it doesn't matter it was a tragedy but these are civilians i mean i'm not saying it's any softer of a blow but this was this was a major a major you know civilian catastrophe yet there is good we don't know it we don't know the goodness that comes out of it immediately right it slowly rev it will be revealed it will be revealed okay so purim reveals god's hidden hand orchestrating all events the very things we thought would be our undoing were flipped they were flipped around and used to redeem us that's why i originally used the concept of a corban corban is a certain aspect of redemption so too these were very very holy souls and i'm sure that they will call defend us defend the jewish people in heaven this idea of the sudden reversal of fortune engenders a crystal clear realization that ultimately everything is for our good and that generates laughter and joy and that's again just 126 of psalms that's the future in other words we have we can have one foot in what we call the world of them that the world of truth the world to come right that's what shabbos is shabbos is a feeling of already connecting to to to eternity so we have a foot in the eternal world so that eternal world is where god is one that idea of god is one is we'll understand that meet us meaning the judgment and seemingly negative aspects how hashem performs certain things in this world we call punishments or yes ultimately ultimately ultimately everything was for our for our good and that's where i want to go into this gemara because the gamer itself now i have an english version i'd rather stick to the hebrew but i think it would take too long for me to go back and forth and um and uh translate but there are certain parts i do want to read out okay hopefully this won't take too long but stick stick around okay so you can find this in our shop is 30b so it i mentioned that there's basically contradictions in ecclesiastes let's make it there's two sets of contradictions let's read one and then we'll read the second now the english does not really help you i know that you depends which translation you have but let's try ecclesiastes 7 scriptures chapter seven verse three says vexation is better than laughter for with a stern that's enough stop there vexation is better than laughter now the word in hero here is cost cost means anger is better than laughter anger anger is is that what vexation means i don't know i i think vexation means something a nag nagging you something yeah okay so here in hebrew it's kass kas means anger so they now we already know that cause is something that you have to stay away from anger is one of the worst character traits so if cass is one of the worst character traits and king solomon says it's better than laughter where does that put laughter on the stage of you know on the on the scale that means it's really bad okay so one verse implies vexation cause anger whatever this cost is is worse than laugh that means laughter is bad okay so the first verse we read is laughter is like the worst of the worst okay then you have to look at ecclesiastes two verse two chapter two oh of laughter i said it's it is mingled and concerning joy what does this accomplish okay so i want to mention the word in hebrews is mingled mixed up but that's not how we're going to read it that you have to re you have to see both sides of that same verse right and you have to say that it means praiseworthy because what's the second part of the verse what does this accomplish what does this accomplish but it says simcha two different things this is good and this is uh maybe worthless so so we understand like like praiseworthy okay so that's what the word so the the gomorrah is bringing this up for a reason it wants to show you we have to we have a contradiction and we need to resolve it we have to understand what it means now we already have when the gamora brings these questions up this is a discussion that took place for hundreds of years and it was a it was the answers were already known but it was never less discussed over hundreds of years and then written these are fundamental in jewish theology right it's not just a simple like reading a newspaper oh okay i get it and put it away these are these are concepts or discussions to contemplate and meditate and absorb and understand the greatest minds king solomon you don't think he knew what he was saying he knew there was a contradiction here and he himself had an answer but we'll have to get to it so that's the first contradiction number one laughter seems to be the worst then the ecclesiastes two two is laughter is actually praiseworthy great let's go now to the second contradiction in other words that's one put it aside go to ecclesiastes 8 15 15 reads and i praised joy for there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat and to drink and to be merry and that will accompany him in his toil the days of his life that god gave him under the sun we're just going to deal with the first part where it says joy that i praised joy i made joy like a high level right so joy in this context was something very good but we already read in 2-2 where joy simcha the second part was not good because we compared to the first part which was good which was laughter so here you have joy is considered very high level and the second we'll call it a seeming contradiction where joy is not considered very high level so the gemora says it's not a question it's it's not a difficulty right it's not a contradiction and it will now explain now we're talking about deepest theological concepts that when it was said that vexation is better or cost is better than laughter it means that hashem's laughter told us that the vexation or the anger that god has is better is good for the siddiquim the righteous in this world that makes sense what does he do what is god doing that he's taking out his his anger better is the anger of god in this world for the siddiq because he is bringing these horrible tragedies to them in order to remove from them this the sin in other words he there he's calling he's causing it to become this to become purified that's what i talked to earlier about these 45 souls they were also digging in order to grant them immediate entrance into the world to come without any purification process because that purification process took place in this world wow that makes sense and then the next few questions that laughter that god laughs that's on the evil people in this world meaning he gives them pleasure he makes them successful and in this world that's their reward that's their little bit of reward let me just read this again because of the small amount of mitzvahs the good acts that they did they're receiving their reward in this world in order that god will basically wipe them out in the world to come the skulks and sake wait so what does it mean now when it's said that the martin of that the the the the laughter that i said is praiseworthy that is the the laughter that god will give to the righteous in the world to come and that is very praiseworthy okay that only deals with the first part what about the second part [Music] now the second part we said that was praiseworthy and the other was simply what does it accomplish what does it do so this gets into a deeper concept of basically it's the joy of performing a mitzvah remember what is a mitzvah i i people will translate it as a law a commandment command you're not you're going to hear something i mean i've spoken about this a lot already the root of mitzvah is in the beginning is causative so means a it's a group of people working for common goal in other words there's a common goal and there's a group there's a connection that sevit is a staff when you go into uh i don't know you go into a concert and there are the ushers or the people cleaning up or setting up the chairs they all have a big sign on their back says seven they all have one goal in mind and that's to make it comfortable for the clients or the customers or the audience whatever it is you have a high-tech company this guy does that that guy does something else that's the seven the the the staff they all have a common goal that's either make money or to keep the company the the the clients happy whatever it is there's a goal obviously they all do different jobs but they're all doing it for one purpose okay so the mem causative means to cause to commune the mitzvah is an opportunity to commune with hashem so the jew has 613 opportunities i'll call them we call them obligations we call them laws commandments whatever we want but they are opportunities to what to connect so too the new interface now it's harder it's harder for the jew it's harder for the jew to cut that off in other words already ingrained either through the dna through the family through the upbringing hopefully you know religious wise there's almost like a it's harder for a jew to lose his world to come and non-jew has to actively even though they're all negatives basically and non-jew that has to make some effort to get his rule to come by actively not doing those you know violating these seven commandments but it's based on another two premises which i've discussed many times one is believing that the torah is from heaven that's like i'm going to say is to get to heaven that's a prerequisite and number two is support the jewish nation in doing what they have to do they have to keep 613. so in other words if you were a ghiratosha of the benoit who lived amongst jews is not making the jews stump don't put stumbling blocks in front of them encourage them to do the 613 okay that's simplified version beautiful over here so the idea here when it says simcha there was this contradiction i pray i praise the idea of joy that's simple of a mitzvah with when simcha joy is praiseworthy that's because you're doing it with joy um what about the idea where it says simple what is it what does it accomplish what does this joy accomplish so this is called joy that has no benefit nothing you're not doing it for the sake of a mitzvah there's no benefit to it all so basically we're t we're learning here now this is this is a very important point it's teaching you that the divine presence which i will now translate in the different terms as ruach in other words clarity the divine spirit the holy spirit will own will not rest on people that fit these next categories except one the only time that god's presence will rest on the jewish people or in fact i'll even extend it to the world is if you have let's let's go through it okay so the divine presence will not rest on you if you are with sullen uh depressed sad worried if you are lazy if you are laughing for no reason and if you have lightheadedness meaning you're not taking life seriously or if you're talking nonsense you're using your words for wasted things not for torah ella but the only time the only time the divine presence kurdish will rest on you is imprisoned only when you're involved in joy of the mitzvah now there is a proof for this alicia was a prophet and you can find the whole story in second kings it's in second kings chapter 3 verse 15. so i want you to read it for us not the whole story to get context you'd have to read the whole story or maybe a few verses before a few verses after second kings what chapter it's uh chapter 3 verse 15. verse 15 reads and now fetch me a musician and it was that when the musician played the hand of the lord came upon him okay so what happened was these two kings wanted to strategize speak to the prophet about attacking moab and um there was a lot of pressure and there were there were these kings were not righteous not not all of them but there were certain sins so the prophet's job of course was to confront them anyway it brought it was a heated discussion put it that way and uh they really wanted to know how to go about fighting this war so be so after he got done giving them a confrontation about their sins now it's the time to but he was in a state of cast he was in a state of you know mixed little mixed up you know what i mean he didn't have a settled mind so what did he say before i can give you and talk to you i need to have the the goal wasn't just to talk to them the goal was to derive the shrina the divine presence to bring it down so he could have clarity isn't that what we all want in order to have that he says bring me in bring the instruments i think david also he was known right the player of the quinoa of the harp or whatever i'm not sure what kind of instruments it was but it was a stringed instrument in order to have this settlement of mine you need to call that joy let's call it even laughter to a certain extent you need to have this settling after a heated tense discussion you need to bring this tension out you need to have the tension released you play some beautiful or soft music and then the divine presence will be relevant to you you'll be able to have clarity and that is the point but what i want to mention about this idea of mitzvah i've discussed this before and i'll say it again i just love repeating it it's good for me mitzvah you have four letters of hey are the last two letters of god's holy four-letter name so is the last two letters what about mem sadiq so for those who are not familiar it's called at bash it's one of the four um it's one of the many different types of gematria it's one of the most famous you can even look it up on wikipedia not et phone home but at e a s h it's basically it's a formula if you look it up that even the american army used in world war ii and maybe other words uh to send messages it's like pig latin i mean you're basically switching letters so if the a would be for the z the b would be for the y in hebrew the aleph for the tough and the bet for the shin and every letter in between so amen sadiq which is the first two letters of mitz is actually equivalent to the yud and the hay it's actually god's name you're bringing god into the world you're connecting to god you're you're i i have no words to express you're transforming your act into a holy act you want to commune with hashem you want to bear which the word mitzvah means it means to connect so you can so what's the what was it saying here if your mind wants to connect that's that's what it really comes down to that you want to connect with the almighty the maker the creator of the universe the one who's constantly involved with your life with the with everything around you you hear of a tragedy you have to know if you want to go back i think it was um whatever the last class that i gave in in the i think was chapter two paragraphs four and five not mistaken that i discuss this more at length so i encourage you to go back to see that charitrova video it's all about seeing the good knowing that no matter what happens there's an ultimate good so we see this when god laughs ultimately there may be a laughing i.e negatively towards the rashoi and the evil people but at the same time that's in this world to pay them but also at the same time this laughter could be for the siddiqui for the righteous people for an unbelievable reward in the world to come so we should take it for ourselves we have to know laughter has to be mastered it cannot be used uh right try to control yourself learn how become a master of laughter and that's it we'll end there and we're looking forward to next week i hope that was uh somewhat insightful for everybody it was very insightful rabbi now those messages you mentioned now i know that i record this beyond the seven and they're up on the noahide world center but can they go to yebene.com to check those messages out that you mentioned or you there's a yibbin a uh youtube channel as well right um there is a you've been a youtube channel um next week when i post this i usually post this class a week later it'll be in the um description box i'll uh i'll add it to but you can look it up anytime you know any time of the year awesome beautiful well it's a beautiful message and i do uh uh uh relish the fact that you were honest about your you know i've always had difficulty with comedy myself some people find me funny i spend you know but in reality it's not my natural starting position i love to have a good time i love to be filled with joy and be with wonderful people but comedy's not something that i've had a strength in ever in my life and i do appreciate uh uh people that share joy mastering it is key i think i changed a lot i'm very funny i mean i um i'm known as a little bit of a jokester a little bit of a trickster a class clown um i am i i'm just telling you i i could take a little bit too far sometimes um but i think i have improved i've grown that's what life's about i'm not there yet you know one day i'll be able to tell jokes at the beginning of every class but in the meantime i do try to have a sense of humor i think i do have somewhat a sense of humor but if that's a little bit subjective uh you're okay we know so my wife knows i i'm pretty funny so well your your wife must think it awfully funny that you stay up so late i mean it's going on to 1am there in the morning in jerusalem and here you are still preaching sharing torah with the world we're so thankful and grateful you do rabbi so till next week we're going to sign off for sure all right have a wonderful wonderful week [Music] is