The Power of the Mind - Rabbi Akiva Fox

there's a famous Jewish Yiddish joke that a person is driving he's got a meeting in Manhattan he's got to be there on time it's a chance to make millions and he looks at his watch and it's late and he's got to find a parking spot now now parking in Manhattan finding a parking space in Manhattan is almost as difficult as finding hair growth on my head both of them are impossible they don't exist so he doesn't have a choice what's he gonna do park by fire hydrant in Manhattan everybody box by a fire hydrant there's nothing to do he needs to find a parking space quick so he turns to God and he said God if you find me a parking space 1 million dollars to charity done deal a sham I need your help and that second right in front of him right in front of the office building that he needs to go to a guy pulls out what do you think is responses he's like God forget the deal I found it on my own I got the parking space it's an old joke what are we going to learn from it what do we learn everything in the world is something to learn from nothing exists that we human beings the highest most prestigious creature in this world is not being sent messages through and to humans to everything even from jokes so we're supposed to learn from this joke that in truth this person number one didn't want to see the hand of God because it's gonna cost him a million bucks because he made a deal and number two is that when the guy pulled out in front of him he said I should I'm I took care of it myself but that was his mistake sometimes things that we think we do we think we make these brilliant investments I come up with this great invention this great idea and I sell it startup company 20 billion dollars me and Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are sitting in Florida together on the beach living it up only for millionaires but you know what where did the idea come from try to figure it out ideas are not something that we can understand how they get their knowledge in general you can understand the 2+2 is 4 but sometimes something pops into your head and you don't know where it came from I'll tell you where it came from there's a god God wants you to think of something so much so that the rambam my mana t says that a person's mind a person's creativity his brain is a transistor radio and so to say for God to speak to mankind God speaks to you through your knowledge when you have this brilliant idea I should invest in that one when you have this inkling that this is not going to work out and this might when you come up with this brilliant concept some invention where did you get that from that's God speaking to you and in truth God speaks to us all the time problem is there's so many channels on the transistor radio and there's so much static from all the things that we listened to you got rap you got rock and roll you got jazz you got all the other impure types of music in the world and static news and other things that you can hear the voice of God imagine you listen to the radio turn on channel one this is the voice of God most people would turn it off this is the voice of God then you hear static that's your mind that's your heart that's your desires but in truth God speaks to you through your mind creativity and then shins many if not most inventions not most but many inventions which are crucial to mankind for example rubber was an accident how it was discovered there were certain chemicals that accidentally got mixed together and they came up medicine came from penicillin penicillin was mold on a sandwich these type of things are God speaking to mankind so if a person wants to realize connect a Shem just listen God talks to you but first get rid of all the static get rid of the impurities get rid of all the interferences so you can hear that transistor radio talking to you right here and ultimately you'll learn that it's a two-way radio because you with your purity and with your sense of being able to connect a shim after he connects to you you can talk to him too that's called prayer one of the great sadiq and once said when you pray you talk to God when you study Torah God talks to you what that means is that when we pray we're talking touch them we ask we praise we we think when we learn the concepts that we are able to understand to internalize the things the sea duchenne the new ideas that we come up with the ability to connect things and put things together the brilliance of great told me there's a common great Godot lemin leaders of the Jewish people that have come out with brilliant ideas in Torah that's God speaking to them so if a person wants to connect to Russian all he has to do is listen listen to a sham talking to him and be thankful that he has the ability to talk to sure so this is another aspect of realizing a Shems hand in our day-to-day lives not just from the physical but also from the mental from the ability to understand things to relate to things from the ability to put two ideas together from the ability to be creative and invent I believe truly and I say this with one hundred percent confidence some animals really are brilliant really I have seen parrots that talk and can count up to ten dolphins are very friendly and they also are very very smart and some dogs are also I've seen a video of a panda bear that can set a table but with all those are all of their brilliance no animal has ever done anything to better its society the better its nature or to change its status quo from what it was and what it is to what it will be they're all the same all dogs are walking around the streets eating other people's garbage none of them has ever stopped and said you know fluffy we've been doing this for a long time maybe we should get a job huh how are we going to make money maybe we should have a house have you ever built anything the knowledge the intellect is something that God has given straight specifically to mankind and that is continuous God continues to give that God continues to bestow it upon us in us through us and he speaks to us through it if we want to hear him if we want to see him all we have to do is open our hearts and open our minds God talks to you through the things that you think of but those things that you think of will only be the voice of ash n if you don't have your own desires and once inside if all you think about is what you want you'll never hear God if all your ideas are god forbid based on your wants your desires and temptations that's not the voice of God that's the voice of good old heart if you want to hear the voice of a shim if you want to have pure conversations with a Shem and you need to purify your intellect you need to relieve yourself of all the impurities that try to capture your mind and heart and emotions and once you do that you will hear the voice of a sham talking to you you