You Are Here, Why? - Rabbi Samuel Steinhaus

[Music] friends where have you been I've been asking myself where have you been well you've been in America you've been in suburbia or in the city you've been with a middle-class existence and you've asked yourself is listed and perhaps you took yourself off with a backpack and with your light clothing casual clothing took yourself off to Europe and travel the length and the breadth of the European cities and they were beautiful and they were quaint but at the end of the day the question still remains nagging is this the sum total of it or is this what human existence is really supposed to bring well then perhaps you went off to India to the mountains of the Himalayas to India looking for spiritual highs and finding finding the realities the realities of the way of life in that part of the world the squalor the value system that allows the rich to remain very very rich without sharing a single cent of money or compassion for those less fortunate not to talk of what you found in terms of those who went on to hard drugs those whose life became a misery all those who wasted their entire lifetime doing nothing which means meditating on a mountaintop and achieving nothing for themselves other than that or for the world at large in terms of contributing to it and you said to yourself is this it is this it is it then perhaps after Jerusalem to find out what Judaism s to offer friends here we are near Jerusalem and you've tuned him to this this site of this program do we have something to offer that goes beyond all these disappointments because at the end of the day there's nothing more frustrating and to live out to live out my existence and to turn around and say well had I been here had I not been here so what friends what we are looking for what we are looking for isn't out there it's right here it's actually where we are where's the story of the man who had a dream that he would find a treasure under the bridge in water and he travels to water and he starts digging under the bridge and the soldier stops him and he says well he says what are you doing he says well I had a dream there's a treasure it says dreams and nonsense he says I dreamt of a man called yong-chol coming from such-and-such a time this was him that under his own backyard there's a treasure uncle picks himself up and goes back to his own backyard and sure enough there was a treasure stranges the story sounds it has been recorded in the killer book of one of the communities in Europe as being a story with foundation in fact but the message is definitely true we've got it right here our Jewish roots but in which way and how do you know friends if there is a real answer to what we're looking for which means if God really made the world in such a way that the answer is available and where's he gonna hide it is he going to expect that we put on our casuals and our back track backpack and track all over the world to find a grain or a kernel of some kind of truth that will guide us or is he going to make an announcement and not an announcement in front of a few chosen people who whisper something in the ear of another few chosen people who is for something in someone out of other people's ears until eventually it spreads but he's going to gather together millions of people and he's going to make it clear to them in such a way that there's no doubt left in the minds of all those millions but it's actually the Creator speaking where where in world history did ever such an event occur in any part of the world then to the Jewish people in our torah in our sinai story where and if that's not enough the experience the historic experience of undergoing enormous suffering as an enslaved unfairly enslaved nation in Egypt and then that suffering becoming alleviated through God's direct intervention showing his hand announcing each step before it happens and then it happens in a way that left no doubt not only in the minds of ourselves but in the hands of all the expected us that this was something where the Creator is involved now you'll turn around and say to me sounds good but this was ages ago this was thousands of years ago if the creator intended to reveal his plan and he has a plan then it's thought to be a plan that works and it's got to be a plan that works not only in the society as it existed then but in all days and all times and it's got to be tried and tested let me tell you my friends the best way the best way to discover the truth of Terra is to spend a Shabbat with a family that keeps Shabbat to taste of Shabbat Tahu Quito Varsha King David says in Psalms test and see that God is good you've got to test it not to test it to see if it gives you a high equivalent to the kind of highs that are available outside but to see if it tastes genuine to see if a tests right because it is right not because it just gives a good feeling that lasts for the moment the other systems will promise you heaven and put long distance there have been many many imitations but not one single one can claim direct experience of God friends I'm not telling you something that is new and exciting I'm telling you something that should be as simple and well known as apple pie we we the Jewish nation God's chosen nation have been chosen for a purpose to achieve a chosen just because teachers pit we've been chosen to bring this message firstly to ourselves in a very strong and powerful way and then to the entire knowledge of mankind that mankind recognizes that there is a genuine answer to his problems and his quests the creator by definition created a world with intelligence and intelligence doesn't just tell us design the design equals intelligence which of course it does and the world is filled with design filled with beauty filled with evidence of the creator's wisdom and kindness but creation also means there's a purpose and what are we looking for purpose we're looking to satisfy ourselves with a sense of daily purpose achievement satisfaction knowledge that what we're doing is meaningful now and meaningful for the Hereafter when we say meaningful for the Hereafter more and more and more experiences of people who have died would come back confirm that life doesn't just stop when life on this earth comes to an end there's a Hereafter all religions use that to great effect if you listen to this religion you will go to heaven and if you don't you will burn in hell every religion claims they're but friends where's the evidence and as the great kuzuri once remarked he said as much as they talk about the Bliss of heaven I haven't seen anyone having a great hurry to get there whereas the Torah promises if we follow God's ways the broth of the blessing is in this world and the next yes but the evidence is here for all to see anybody travelled as I did for a couple of hours on a bus from the north of Israel to get here to the studio and see the lush beautiful land do you know how long this land has been lush yes it was lush thousands of years ago it was barren waste for how long for as long as the Jewish nation the children of the land were out of the land strange not one of the many inhabitants of this land for 2,000 years could bring out the broker as the Jewish people have done why because God said so where did God say so the Shama moo Alejo I ever how your enemies will find the land desolate at the time when we were prophets prophetic elite are told that if we don't follow God's instruction we'll have to leave the land and eggs are but your enemies will be desolate on them and Russia's commentary says that that desolation is in fact a blessing in disguise the land will not give up its goodness until the children are back we are back the land is beautiful travel to the other areas desolation a Shem promises you follow me you're my children the broth is there the blessing is there available friends those who promise something in some other world don't have it those who make available a spiritual high don't have it because life is not one spiritual high it's ongoing it's daily life does not consist of drug-induced experiences or religion induced experiences it's a combination of the realities that make up a life well-lived friends this is an open invitation take the books the describe God's instructions and start a program of study start reading start looking up on the internet but genuine sites what did God say what's God's point of view how often do we hear in religion well I want out of religion that's what I want out a religion but what is God want and if God does want did he keep it a secret or did he make it available and if he made it available did he make it available in a way that is clear and evident or did he whisper it somebody should have to tell somebody who tell somebody else it's there it's available each one each one of God's special mitzvahs God's gifts to man brings us closer to him brings us closer to reality because friends reality doesn't mean just dealing with the business world out there or just dealing with a family out there in their reality means dealing with the entire spectrum of reality that includes spiritual reality spiritual reality is real if the spiritual dimension is missing then you're the same as a child who has a dimension of reality missing in his life it was one of the great psychologists who remarked young he said he's treated a lot of patients most of them Catholic some Jews and he can not even find one with the root of his problems were not in the fact that he didn't know how to relate to God this was you not a Jewish man spiritual reality is an essential integral part of it so that when we get in touch with totality of reality the total reality and we include the spiritual dimension and give it its space as big as it warrants recognize that it has something for me but more than having something for me it's something for my relationship with God then then I mean then instead of running all over the world to try and find answers and finding very very little I come home don't be misled please don't make that mistake of going to a place where people have a nodding acquaintance with Tara and they gather together on odd occasions to pray together in a show and then I'm disappointed there was no spirituality in that show it can be people who don't know Tara or in the unfortunate situation of trying to make the best with the tools they have and the tools are very very limited sometimes no go to a place where people are happy happy with their Judaism but involved involved where each Mitzvah counts where what the Torah says is important where God's Word is something to abide by and then look at their lifestyle and look at their show and look at the way they focus and then say to yourself mm-hmm this is mine it's mine my Judaism we've been with us for thousands of years it has stood the test of time we've been bullied around pushed away in many many situations but we've never given up and we have a promise of a very very much better future the prophets whose word has been fulfilled in so many ways today tell us clearly in the name of Hashem just as a child just as a child is going to grow from childhood through adolescence to adulthood so too will this world go through its phases all the phases that it has to go through to a state of maturity and awareness of God and a happy building of life around his instruction and his presence and his goodness and it'll involved Jews and Gentiles not that the Gentiles will convert to Judaism but they will convert to the service of God under the direct instruction of the leader that God chooses but it won't be the leader that will be facing the leader will be a traffic policeman pointing the direction just as Moses in his day and the other great leaders in theirs and as a result we will reach this goal for the entirety of mankind thank