The Shabbat Table - May 27 - with Guest Leiby Burnham

it is now 7 702 Denver time 902 New York 802 Detroit time welcome everyone I'm Danny wolf from Denver great to see you all here it's my privilege and honor and again please go ahead and let us know where you're from if you haven't done so yet we love seeing all the diverse diversity of you young young folks out there it is my honor to introduce tonight by an introduction the special student spotlight for this evening in which it's my my my privilege to from introduce from the the recent graduate from the Ohio State University in in Columbus Rickie Shankar Rickie take it away thank you for coming out tonight and sharing some wisdom with us thank you hi everyone my name is Ricky Shankar's like you said I'm from Columbus um I just graduated from Ohio State it was definitely an interesting virtual graduation and I'm applying to medical schools this is what I really wanted to briefly talk about tonight is just about how grateful I am for this Shabbat table initiative right now in the middle of this pandemic every week is different we're getting different news different scary announcements and more and more events are being canceled and no one knows what next year or even tomorrow will bring but one steady event that we can count on is that's never wavered is Shabbat every week no matter what in the world we can look forward to a Thursday or Wednesday night of learning and growth and to a yummy meal that's ready for us as we welcome another Shabbat and it's been really amazing to see the network of support that our rabbis and communion communities have created so that even in the midst of this pandemic we feel connected and I really want to say thank you I love you keep keep keeping Shabbat in our lives during this unpredictable time it's something I know I can count on and something that I know will continue happening as every other event gets canceled and we don't know what the future holds um I also wanted to give a quick intro to ship load which will learn about chubu o tis the holiday where we commemorate receiving the Toro and what's fascinating about that is that every single Jew is there it didn't matter your age it didn't matter your affiliation didn't matter your observance what background you had God wanted the entire Jewish people to have a portion in the Torah and tonight we also have a very diverse group with us we're all from different places we all got here through a different way but we're all here to learn and tonight it's really special that tonight we're learning about receiving the Torah in the same way that it was given to us thousands of years ago so thank you so much for letting me introduce myself and talk for a bit I'm wishing everyone a Fox in math and shabbat shalom beautiful thank you thank you so much for sharing it's now before we begin the talk for tonight I wanted to just make a brief announcement at 10:30 Eastern Time there's a very special concert by 8:00 on cats in the beautiful program in collaboration with another online program that's been going on so I'll put that in the chat for everyone to take note of and to join that half hour after our program ends and now for the the speaker for tonight it is my privilege and honor to introduce rabbi labia Burnham of Detroit he doesn't know this I don't believe I've even met him necessarily but his brother his brother actually tutored me for my bar mitzvah and many many years ago so here we are full circle I'm able to introduce my bar mitzvah tutors brother of a lady Burnham to dazzle us it's administration at this time thank you so much lady all righty thank you so much first of all I just want to say this is an incredible incredible assemblage that we have over here the fact that you have so many people coming in from all over America and just getting together and finding inspiration and having Shabbat experiences together while card it's really beautiful and it's incredible and I thank you for inviting me to be part of it I do want to talk today about Shavuos although we're gonna see there's gonna be some links to our Shabbos experience as well a little bit later in the program so Ricky just eloquently described she voice is the holiday where we celebrate the receiving of the Torah at Mount Sinai so sure horses when God came down on the mountain and said I have the Lord your God you know together land of Egypt and so on and so forth and that was a incredible experience in terms of human history the only having recorded human history that God came down and spoke a multitude of people a mess we call mass revelation it's the only mass revelation recorded human history which is pretty awesome like pretty cool feel like I'm part of that religion that has the one thing that nobody else has a mass revelation but any case that's that's what we celebrate on Cebu is now I want to talk about the Shabbat table though because this is really called the Shabbat table and now on about the should more stable so we are most of us are familiar with the concept of Harry having dairy on Shabbos there's a very ancient custom to have dairy people have cheese cakes blintzes people have all kinds of pastas people have quiches it's a beautiful beautiful holiday for the dairy lover and what I want to talk about though is having an incredible steak uncoolest because that's actually what one of the rabbi's in the Talmud used to say he wanted the best steak so I'm gonna read you a source is from tractive force a theme in the Tomlin page 68 B in case you want to look it up in fact check here we go review said for yamadera tartar ever yoseef who was a great sage on the dam Lewis he would say I'm ray he would say if Neely is good till some made for me a third one calf so a third one calf in the olden times was considered to be the best kind of beef for whatever reason they believed that the third animal was the choice yes I actually my third born son as well I kind of go with that theory I like that ready to go out that I don't know how me case but definitely think on the choices child anyone else's like that's a big deal if you like one of two like your choice I'm one of ten litigation so Rebbe oh she used to say on the day of ship who is give me the best possible need you can find we're talking about like Wagyu beef we're talking about age five age stake you know premium USDA highest cod choice premium whatever it is he would say make for me a third born calf and he would say he would say I'm are you love how you own what the kaga room if not for what this day caused I each service calmly Oh sleepy cup of sugar there's so many other jobs in the marketplace but it was Joseph Jones I would be an average Joe and Rashi explains what does that mean and not for this day Eli Hayashi one of the primary commentator says Shalom oddity Torah Harmon learning a lot of coordinates row Monte and I became elevated through it then it's not for that if not for all the Torah that I learned that was given to us on she was her a an awesome Harvard Ashok c'mon yo say there are many men on the marketplace whose name is Joe who mob a Mila bainham how would I be any different than the average Joe now this is what I don't understand about this whole statement okay if you want to show how you're elevated above everybody else what do you do you sit down to steak dinner right I remember our friend of mine and I will once and I'm taking a subway from Far Rockaway where I went to a medical school to the city in Manhattan where the a train it's a very long circuit or destroy past and put a lot of marshlands near JFK so especially if you get on the beginning the first stop was Rockaway and you go all the way to the city it's a long ride so we're sitting with these two thousand we engage them in conversation and they tell us that what they do for a living is they go around and they collect cans soda cans and they recycle them and they get the five cents apiece I was like you should have moved to Michigan man ten cents but anyway they were in New York and literally for a living what they do is they collect soda cans and they bring them from they told us like how they have all kinds of deals with like janitors of various schools they give them once in a while they give them like a six-pack of beer and then the janitor always leaves out the all the cans for them behind this door at this time of that night they got this whole racket going on there collecting the soda cans of the New York City public school system right and this is what they kept saying to us it much said if they said that once I said it a hundred times like you don't understand man every night I eat steak and watch cable TV you don't understand man every night I eat steak and watch cable TV and this is like the pinnacle of achievement right like I've made it man I made it in life every night I eat steak dinner and watch cable TV so evidently you don't need to learn a lot of Torah to eat steak dinner right reduce him is saying on she ruins the day that celebrates the day we got the Torah and I've become so elevated by the Torah bring me steak dinner dude the guy collecting the cans in New York in the public schools he has steak dinner every day every single night like what's going on what would what would make sense to me if reviewers if did the balling there's a rabbi in Israel his name is grab a hose on Holloman which is the intermediate days of Pesach and circus he gets up in front of a crowd this man is brilliant he's absolutely brilliant he gets up in front of a crowd we're talking about hundreds and hundreds of people standing-room-only there are literally people listening in from the windows I'm not kidding right there's a bunch of benches they're all filled up people are standing at every bit of the room and there's literally people listening from the windows because the windows are like this Street is never at street level anyway he gets up in front of a lectern there's nothing on the lectern no notes no PowerPoint no slides nothing he gets up and he speaks for two hours and 15 minutes straight about deep deep tongue unit passages back and forth and he's he's got Soros sheets coming from he's got all these sources from all over the place he's got nothing on his lectern it's all in his brain and he's ripping out sources like they're just like okay he has a library in front of him like he's got Google in front of him and he's just going through all these different times music passages and how they interact and with the question from here to there it is back and forth and it's so brilliant that he has hundreds of people sitting there listening in shot silence for two hours and fifteen minute straight takes a break time for a break claps on the on the lectern everyone goes to the bathroom they Dobbin the evening services they pray the evening services then everyone's suspect down again and he gets up for two more hours and he speaks this time about inspiration and and cabbalistic ideas and inspirational on ethics and all that so once he's doing the great intellectual Tom unit delving into the community and then once he's doing like incredible inspiration he's got over the course of those four hours and he's lecturing he's giving hundreds and hundreds of sources all by direct memory and the crowd eats it up hundreds and hundreds of people literally listening from the rafters in awed silence and just to show you how amazing is you know he does the next night he does the exact same thing again all new material all new material this guy's absolutely brilliant if you want to show how much you've been elevated by the Torah rabbi yosef why don't you give an incredible class why don't you show everybody look I learned a lot of Torah and here's what I can do moobs away with your incredible brilliance have people hanging off the rafters to hear what you have to say don't sit down at home and eat steak dinner the guys collecting the cans in New York City get steak dinner what's going on over here how does this how does a boost it will make sense he's sitting here and feasting at a smooth stable on the best Wagyu beef if money can buy and that's how he celebrates Shamu is come on man this is the day we got tuturro show us some Tara wisdom show us what you got okay question number one question number two there's another time eunuch passage that discusses how a person should spend their young t'v whether it be pays off or Shavuos or circus and it's a track date and stuff him and there's a whole dispute amongst the rabbis by the way I know if he knows rabbis like to dispute so there's a whole dispute amongst two rabbis one rabbi says that you have to you have to binary choice either you spend the entire day of the holiday studying and praying being very godly or you spend the entire day feasting and partying binary choice right there's no 50/50 split over here right either you party or you pray who party or prayed I don't know if I had to do a little boat over here I think we'd get a pretty good choice on the party side right okay the other rabbi says no every holiday you should split it what the day spend part of the day praying and studying and the part of the party says the Talmud everybody agrees even the people who say that you normally get a binary choice either pray or party everybody agrees that I'm Jewish you have to party huckle modem divide Sarah's ve Nanami listen everybody agrees that I'm sure you have to party by the way and this is for your Shabbos table experience it also says jaco modem did the Shabbos de nun nah me look I'm everyone agrees on a Chavez you got a party too why cuz the Torah says the Carosa was Shabbos owning and the Torah said you shall call shoppers a delight how do you delight in Shabbos you have a party how do you have a party you go to your rabbis house and you eat with him and you drink with him and you have an amazing time and if it's the middle coronavirus you go to his house on Friday afternoon and you pick up amazing food I hope the rabbis also give it a couple of climbs out right hope so I don't know but the bottom line is that's how you party and that's a commandment on Shabbos because the Torah says you shall call Shabbos at the light now here's what I don't understand if savaris is the day we can receive Torah on Sinai shouldn't be that that be the one day that the rabbi's would say ok if you want to sit and study the whole day you could show us you can do it normally you got to split your day party and play party and pray I'm sorry party and study function who is it's the day that God gave us the Torah if you want you can spend the whole day studying Torah but that's not what it says it says truest the day we got the Torah if you want you you have to party no matter what makes no sense are you guys with me right shake of hand I'm watching you on the zoom over here this is some some weird stuff over here right we're dealing with some weird stuff I'm not getting it alright ok that's the next question now again I'm sure as we celebrate the Torah giving us the Mount Sinai revelation you guys need one more question and then we're gonna start answering here we're getting some answers of here there's a statement in the book of ethics of our fathers it says the following and the tablets it's quoting a verse in Exodus about a luckless Marcelo Kim Hema and the tablets were the work of God got me the incredible beautiful miraculous sapphire tablets that could be read from any direction was a miracle he was standing on the right it was spelled to the right and the left it was incredible and the writing is God's writing but I missed Oh mr. Bell Oh Kim Caruso alhelou close it was engraved on to the loo close on to the tablets says the Mishnah and ethics of Our Fathers I'll tick referrers do not read it as engraved Ella Harris rather read it as freedom you should read it and the writing was God's writing freedom on the tablets why shameless ah Ben Lauren Ella me show Sigma Torah the only free person is the person studying Torah now guys I don't want to bring out to break this to you I'm calling his bluff okay what are you talking about what are you talking about you're telling me that you're free if you study torah i can show you one book just one book it's like maybe 400 pages long it's got 12,000 laws in it and that's just one book and every rabbis house is an entire book he's filled with books and they all have thousands and millions and hunt 1 billion laws right 1 billion laws in the Torah right and you're telling me that the guy who stays tolerance free what are you talking about I thought I can do whatever I want then you tell me no I'm Shabbos you can't do this you can't drive you can't use your cell phone oh you you don't like the Fatima meat you can't take the fat off you guys take the meat over what's going on over here there's laws about how you shower you know there's laws about how you shower just start with the top go down to the bottom right hand before a left hand if it's crazy there's laws about tying your shoes what do you mean when you tell me there's no free person except for the person who studies Torah the more you study Torah the more you find out that there's thousands and thousands of laws that are telling you what to do you're not free at all okay those are my three questions are we all good questions okay excellent now let's get some answers I want to quote here a Indian poet the first Indian to ever get a Nobel Prize in Literature his name was rabbinic Ranas Tagore he writes the following and this is so brilliant my friends this is this is so mic drop brilliant again it's this not me is this incredible Indian poet he writes the following I have a violin string on my table it is free but it cannot produce music to produce music I must stretch it taut across my violin then it is no longer free but it's free to produce music again Wow one more time I have a violin string on my cable it's totally free but it cannot produce music to produce music it must be stretched taut across my violin and then it will no longer be free but it'll be free to produce music what does free mean what do we mean when we talk about a free society this free mean that I can do whatever I want this free mean that I can do whatever I want because then I don't want to be free because the only person who's really truly free and I gotta say this with some sensitivity now because we're middle coronavirus and most people aren't living in their parents homes and possibly in the basement but if you're like 33 years old and you're living in your parents basement right then you're probably the most free person in the world because you don't have a job dude up you think I'm gonna be a slave to corporate America that's slavery and getting a job I'm gonna be working for the man no way you probably don't have a college education either because college what a scam I gotta sit there and listen some professor pontificating tell me what I did what I need to know that's that's slavery I'm not going to school you probably don't have a boyfriend or a girlfriend because boom that that's slavery right there yeah I always want you come around they always want you doing I don't need that you EE not married cuz that's the biggest ball and chain oh wait no no that's not kids kids kids that's how can you sign up for kids you have kids and you're at separates 25 years of being stuck taking care of somebody else no way I want to maintain my freedom I want to do whatever I want I want to be able to play you know I want to play Halo 4 against some kid in Japan at 3 o'clock in the morning all right oh you got me okay great yeah there you go I'm the freest man in the world I don't have to work I don't have to hang out with my girlfriend cuz I don't have a girlfriend I don't have to go to college I don't go to college I don't believe in that I don't have to do anything I'm so free I'm totally free to do whatever I want but I'm also a 33 year old guy living my parents basement with no job that guy is free he's like a violin string stretch sitting on the table if you do whatever he wants he could flap this wave flap that way do whatever he wants but he has no ability to produce any music in this world what I would much rather have than freedom is responsibility because every relationship in this world comes with responsibilities you want to have a job you wanna have a relationship with a company yeah there's responsibilities I got to show up at 9:00 or show buddy 30 leave it 5:00 or 5:30 whatever it is or maybe later be married I work 80 hours because I ever really should with a big bank and I'm working crazy hours if I want to have a special relationship in my life there's responsibilities that come along with it I'm in a relationship with somebody they're vested in me I'm invested in them I got to be real about it I got to spend I got to put effort into it I'm not gonna always be able to watch my horror movies and play Halo in the basement and if I want to have a marriage even more so and if I want have children even worse on if I want to be involved in helping my community even more so I don't want freedom I want relationships I want to be involved with people with children with my wife with the community and every relationship I have has responsibilities along with it but guess what what we discover is fascinatingly that when we involve ourselves in lots of responsibilities we've become people who produce beautiful music who's making more beautiful music in the world the guy sitting in his basement not working not doing anything no girlfriend no friends no no nothing or the guy who's you know married with children raising a beautiful family and he's involved in the community he helps out community organizations he helps out other people he's got lots of friends that he cares about and gives time to that guy's making so much more beautiful music the Torah is about setting us free by giving us the structure to be able to produce the most beautiful music look at the turrets filled with rules about how to produce music how to respect your parents not to like respect your parents there's actually there are books written about the laws of respecting your parents to make sure you get it right it's not just somebody haphazard how do you miss one to be kind to people and do stuck on charity how do i do soccer how do I get charity there's laws there's books written about this all informing me about how to be the best person in every relationship I can be how to take on more responsibilities in this world how to help others how to be selfless how to get out of myself and get into other people and involve myself with the community and other people at large so that's what the Torah does now the Torah does it in a very interesting way most most religious texts are a little bit afraid of this physical world because the physical world is dangerous you start getting a bow on the physical stuff it's very easy to get over-involved it's very easy to get lost so if you're like Catholic for example you know the closer you want to be in spirituality the more you got to stay away you can't have any intimacy if you're a nun you're married to God and if you're a priest you're also married to God and there's like Oh intimacy no physical relationships cuz that's that's below you nah it's okay for the common folk but you're gonna be spiritual and holy it's not for you and if you're enough you're a Muslim you cannot have any alcohol at all and if you're a Mormon you can't even have any caffeine right and if you're a Hindu you can't have any meat and if you're a Buddhist you pretty much can't have anything right just just sit on a mountain and you know I'm saying so the reality is if you look at most of the spiritual systems in the world they're it's like they're scared of the physical world and I get it because the physical world we all know many many people who have indulge in every area of the physical world too much whether it be too much partying too much alcohol too much food too much sex too much you know video games too much everything we we all know people who got involved in physical stuff and got sucked in and got to got lost Judaism says the only way that we're gonna bring beauty into this world is through the world through engaging in the physical world God wants us to use the physical world but to use it in a way that's elevated there are 613 commandments in the Torah and the vast majority the vast vast majority are dealing with physical stuff the Torah wants to teach you how to party the Torah wants to teach you how you can be a person fully engaged in the delights of the world but in a way that will not suck you in and get you lost and get you addicted and get you way far beyond the norms but rather in a way that what you'll do it in a responsible and modulated way in a way that you're not only caring for yourself but you're caring for others you're using the physical world you're in using the enjoyment that you get out of this beautiful physical world that God gave us to engage to engage responsibly to share of the beauty you have to think about the Shabbos table program what is it it's about sharing our bounty our physical delicious bounty with everybody around us in our community that's what the Torah is all about and now we start to understand what's going on Rebbe yusuf says of course i can give speeches for hours every cleric in the world can give speeches for hours that's no big deal but the greatness of Rev Joseph was that he could eat a steak and it would be a totally different experience than the guy on the subway the guy subway he's eating a steak and he's watching cable TV and that's the pinnacle of his experience Reb yo se is using the steak using the physical to appreciate his relationship with God which was cemented on truest he's using the physical world to party but to party with God to elevate himself to become a greater and better person and that's why this townlet says everybody agrees that I'm Jewish you have to party there's some people say pays off some suckers you could spend the whole day in prayer and the whole day and study but on Shibui everybody agrees you have to party because the Torah is not just here to teach us how to build beautiful responsible relationships but he tells us how to do it using the bounty of the physical world how to have great food how to have gish motto science how to have great trips to Israel or to all over the world think about all the Jewish activities that you've done with the various organizations you've been involved with how fun have they been how much partying have they been but in a way that is quite different than the experience you might have had you know on frat row on a Friday night it's a different kind of partying it's enjoyable it's physical but it's responsible and it's the kind of day that makes you have better and deeper relationships with other people and makes you into a person that just produces beautiful music into the world so that my friends is the message of sugarless the Mastiffs Lewis is today we celebrate we're gonna be celebrating the time when God gave the Torah to humanity and the Torah is a book that teaches us how to create beautiful relationships and a lot of laws and Judaism for sure doesn't there's a lot of laws about playing violin right D minor E whatever you got you got to play it right if you play it wrong it doesn't make any music any time you want beauty coming to the world there's got to be some rules and some laws but that's what creates beauty and it also does it by teaching us how to engage in this physical world in an elevated way Judaism is not about divorcing yourself in the physical it's about using the physical to elevate yourself and the people around you and that my friends is cheb us I want to give you guys two things I want to give you a call for action and I want to give you something to discuss so in terms of the call for action in this shavoo is holiday in our prayers on every holiday and every Shabbos we pray the following we say to God catch a new bat mitzva sanctify us with your mitzvot the same call cannabis or Assefa and give us our portion in your Torah there's an idea that basically there's a bit of the Torah locked away in every one of you that does not even is not it does not belong to anybody but you there's no one in the world that has this beautiful tour idea and it's about how you're gonna bring it out into the world so on Shavua s-- you might want to think about what exactly did god give me what did he sort of sink inside of me that I can bring to the Jewish world what what is my Torah contribution to the world it could be a thought of me a way of doing things it could be an involvement in a particular project but what when we save the same volcano Basara Safa and give us our portion of your Torah what is your portion in the Torah like where where do you where there's a big massive book called the Torah and there's a bunch of pages that are blank at the end and each one of us has a line what does my line say so that's something to think about over shabooey and then for you guys to talk about right now in your breakout sessions if the Torah is here to teach us how to use the physical for great and elevated purposes talk about how you see Torah as pro physicality and pro responsible physicality as opposed to just simply spirituality people say I'm spiritual what does a spiritual mean I don't know the Torah is very much about physical elevation and using the physical for the better how do we do that and how do we make sure we use robustly I love the physical world trust me I love eating I love drinking I love it all right I love going to beautiful places in the world how do we make sure we use that in a way that elevates us and elevates people around us thank you very much beautiful thank you so much for the inspiration so now we're going to transition to the next part of the evening we're going to go into the breakout rooms and we're going to discuss that very thought-provoking question about you know how to how to take the the Torah and elevate to physical and everything that rabbi Burnham so eloquently just so thank you again so much I think we'll put up maybe on the screen and typically we like to go around and introduce each other and then you know start with your last name alphabetically and then we can really dig into this amazing question there our Burnham just asked us so thank you again so much Robert Burnham for your time and we really appreciate you thank you