Rabbi Avraham Goldhar - Spirituality - Discover a Powerful Framework for Personal Growth

welcome everybody I'm rabbi Avram gold Hara from gold high school calm the home of big picture Jewish education and tonight I want to thank project inspire for inviting me to be part of this mindflex series this is the third in this series the first one their technical difficulties yesterday was a crash course in Jewish holidays and today is a crash course on Jewish spirituality you know I a number of years ago my oldest daughter at the time was in a supermarket she was five years old and she'd see one of the workers in the supermarket very tall lanky guy mustn´t about six four six five and she looked up at him and she said wow you're so tall and he kind of just shrugged his shoulders and she said like how old are you you know and from a child's perspective now they think that you know just all do you get the tour you get but the reality is that physically we stopped maturing when we hit a certain age but when our physical growth starts to slow down that's when our spiritual growth really kicks in and life is really not about who we are on the outside our physical nature it's really about who we are on the inside the choices we make the character we develop and direction we set for ourselves in life so spirituality really is the essence of life and yet it's something that needs to be understood well to be able to we develop ourselves into that who we are meant to be and can be as we journey through this wonderful existence called life so tonight's crash course in Jewish spiritual spiritual 'ti is gonna take a big-picture approach to spirituality so instead of sharing it inside here on one facet we're gonna try to build a composite of what means to be a spiritual person from a number of different vantage points and the goal hopefully is that you'll walk away with a framework that is very clear and hopefully insightful that will kind of lighten you in a way that perhaps you've never thought about who you are and what you can do in a very practical way so it's not something which is just in their head or just not hard but something which is something the way that we we walk and do and thing in very practical terms so what we're going to do and how it works is I'm gonna introduce a spiritual survey I'm gonna go to this screen just a moment I'm gonna put it up and I'm gonna give you a surveys so let me do that right now and we're gonna do this together one second the screen you all right so now here we are gold our school comm hold big pictures you education the crash course on spirituality so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you five pairs of words one secondly jammed here one second I'm gonna give you five pairs of words and what I want you to do is I want you to tell me which word do you associate more to being spiritual so it's me five pairs of words will do one pair at a time I'm gonna ask you which word in the pair do you associate with more with being more associated more to being spiritual and again there's no right answers whatever you think it's not a trick question just whatever you you so see more to being a spiritual person so here goes I'm gonna go through the five pairs and then once you take your internal kind of sort of vote your selection will go back and we're gonna review this together and so we come up with okay here we go so which word do you associate more to being spiritual emotion or intellect emotion or intellect which would you so see more to being spiritual that's the first pair now we'll go to the second pair which were do you so say more to being spiritual kindness or justice kindness or justice okay all right now let's go to our third pair third pair is which would be associated more to being spiritual community or solitude community or solitude okay now let's go to our fourth pair giorgia so say more to being spiritual God or nature God or nature okay and now we're gonna do it our final pair which would you associate more to being spiritual serenity or challenge serenity or challenge okay those are the five pairs of words hopefully you've had a moment to reflect anything about which them each of these pair were the words which were do you saw say more to being spiritual now we're going to go through this together now if we had an interactive type of thing I would actually ask you in the chat what the words are I could see your your votes and what you went with so I'm going to do here we're gonna review this and I'll share the experience I've had with many people as we go through it together so here we are which word do you associate more to being spiritual when it came to motion or intellect so I've done this with they all presentations all around the nation and overseas so when I ask you which word is associate more to being spiritual most people most people tell me they associate emotions more to spirituality emotion second pair was kindness or justice which were do most people associate to being spiritual most people chose kindness most people chose kindness all right which were did you associate more being spiritual community or solitude so this one it depends on the community and you know who I'm presenting to but a lot of people in my experience I'm doing this in seminars why people say solitude yes it's good to be with people but it's something about being with yourself in your own skin so to speak solitude then when it comes to God or nature it's a toss-up now here really is it swings back and forth a lot of people though have told me that they associate spirituality to nature right someone's connected to nature very wholesome and then finally when it came to serenity or challenge which word to most people associate to being spiritual most people associate serenity surrending now this doesn't have to be your selections you may have complete choice completely differently but this is the overall composite of a picture of a person being spiritual from many presentation of dumpin people is that a spiritual person is very emotionally connected they're very good-hearted they're kind as a result and they're connected to people they're very comfortable as they said when it comes to solitude they're very very uh I don't know self-contained honestly does that mean alone or but they're very comfortable sort of being with themselves they're very in touch with nature in the world around them and there's a certain serenity a certain sense of inner balance that strikes you when you meet someone's very spiritual you wouldn't be expect to see someone you know in a tizzy out of swords someone's very spiritual you expect them to have a perspective that provides a certain serenity and so that's a that's a picture we get that's the first step here to our survey now what I want to do is I want to give you another survey this time I'm going to give you five pairs of words and I want you to identify which of these words you so say this time more - Jews - Jews okay here goes so which were do you associate more to Jews emotion or intellect emotion or intellect all right now here I'm gonna tell you what the answer I get most of time is most people tell me intellect that's usually weighted to the aside of intellect then which were do most people associate to Jews kindness or justice kindness or justice so here again my experience has been most people answer justice choose or into causes justice fighting for what's right then we have which were do you succeed more - Jews now this is fascinating because when I done this presentation I've got it many many times it's it's almost unanimous or you Natalie is unanimous in all the presentation when it comes to Jews everybody says community everybody says commute which is fascinating it's the only thing we agree on is that we're all in the community and that's where the unity ends but when it comes to Jews we think of community now when it comes to God or nature most people say they think of God as opposed to nature and then when it comes to serenity or challenge sir or challenge when it comes to Jews most people think of challenge challenge so let's put up the the choices here and it's fascinating what arises when we do the survey is that typically typically the answers are the exact opposite right well people a sense is a spiritual the opposite they ascent they associate with Jews which means one of two things it either means that the Jews are the least spiritual people in the world because when the opposite end of the spectrum or it means that we have a very different notion of what it means to be spiritual and therefore it's something we should look at because we're really very different than what most people will tend to associate with spirituality and I would like to suggest that there must be something we're doing the right because we've been around for thirty three hundred years as a nation and that that's typifies or it's a symptom of the fact that we must be connected in some way to the the flow of this world and the fact that we be able to maintain ourselves - despite all the turbulence that we've been in far far more successful throughout history than many nations much greater more more powerful and more numerous in us so let's take a look at via this these to the survey here and analyze it step by step and let's see if we can come up with a a portrait up framework for understanding the Jewish notions of spirituality so I'm going to give me a moment click out of the share you second share how do I do that here we go okay here we are so let's go step by step excuse me and and understand what's going on why we answered typically I again I'm assuming but many many people not everybody may have said when it came to each pair one side and the other side was what we associate to Jews so let's do it step by step so first of all most people I've met have sociate when it came to a motion or intellect they associate emotion much more to spirituality than intellect and when I ask people why the answers I get make a lot of sense because you expect a spiritual person to be a feeling person you know connected to something higher in a way spirituality is something which is transcendent it goes beyond logic it's metaphysical and therefore you'd expect your heart to be very much the conduit and the the form of connection to a spiritual world you have to have feelings so that's why many people associate emotion and again these aren't mutually exclusive really in each pair of words both facets play a role but it's very fascinating that when I asked me when we associate the soul Judaism we believe that there's a body and a soul we have a physical reality and then we also have a spiritual makeup which is the soul the neshamah when I ask people where in the body do you associate the neshamah the soul of a person most people point to the heart but the reality is that from Jewish tradition we don't associate the heart to the soul we associate it to the head to the seat of the soul is the mind the awareness and what you have the seat of the soul is in your mind and in fact in our prayer that we say twice a day and then once before we go to bed at night the Shema prayers were like the national anthem the Jewish people we say in the first paragraph we say in the third paragraph of that prayer a very interesting line about the higher says do not follow after your eyes or your heart all right fascinating don't fall after your eyes of your heart because your heart is not reliable your heart is always seeking connection to something it wants feel wants excitement and therefore you can't rely on your heart in terms of making decisions from the get-go always always go with your heart it can be very very misleading and we've had many people and you show you know some that you know ruin their lives because they they allowed a moment where the heart them someplace where they shouldn't have gone and they ended up losing a lot of things that they knew that they were much more important and they should have done in the head but the heart led them so then our tradition the scene of the soul is the mind and that's why it's very important to understand what makes the soul strong in the mind there's a book that was written from the Middle Ages by a rabbi named Ivan bimba CUDA and it's a very systematic breakdown of kind of Jewish growth and Jewish understanding of life and he talks about the conflict between the body and the soul all right there's a part of us the body that's always feeling like it want certain things it wants to eat and what's to live through the senses so it's always living in the here and now and the soul is very transcendent it's looking for things which are not physical material in nature it's going for things which are you know abstract a notion giving and contribution and love and then harmony and things which you can't necessarily see in the in the most physical way and we're always in conflict between the two but he points out in this book a fascinating thing he says that our bodies have three advantages over our souls and therefore the body kind of gets a head start and becomes much stronger and that's why it's harder to choose things which are soulful in nature and he says the point is this first of all the body gets a head start because when you come into this world as a young infant and even as a child your your mind is really developed you haven't developed a maturity so why you're a physical being you're living and you're strengthened you're using that muscle all the time you're you're developed thinking and thoughts and your ability to make choices and follow through on those choices and those decisions there's something which takes you know many years to get to so first of all the body gets a major head start over the sole secondly he says then any muscle you use the more you use it the stronger it gets the stronger it gets so if you think about the body the ball woody bodies are always emotion you know whether we're sleeping or where we're awake or you know whatever we're doing our bodies at work and therefore it's always being fortified by its own existence and it's getting stronger our soul if you think about it being in the mind only gets exercised when you think by only when you think and you're conscious and you're aware and you're you're making decisions and you're trying to understand things only then is your soul in motion and therefore that's why in our tradition wording is so essential to the development of a person in a spiritual way because the soul needs inputs and needs ideas and needs wisdom it needs understanding of this world to be able to navigate and make the correct decisions as we move through life so that's the second major advantages that the body is always being strengthened it's the soul only gets strengthened when we think and thirdly says that our physical reality is always being reinforced by our outer reality right everything you see right now is physical in nature so that also reinforces the sense that I'm physical when rillette anything that spiritual in nature you can't see it's intangible and therefore again the soul needs to work we need to understand that the things that are deeper that are beneath the surface in life all right when we look at relationships we can't take things on the circuit so if think beyond and and kind of see and read between the lines well that's a soulful effort so the first thing when it comes to emotion or intellect we're gonna see here that again it's not that's one without the other the reality is you need obviously emotions and you'd be intellect but the way Judaism understands the relationship is that the intellect is what guides our emotions and the goal in life from a Jewish perspective is what we have to develop we call realized emotions I'll realize the motion is where you take an idea that you know is true and yet you don't necessarily feel it in your physical being and then to bring that idea make it so much a part of you you actually feel it and it becomes your wave like so for example just say a very simple example someone who understands they shouldn't you know smoke so we all know that uh well we shouldn't smoke instance harmful terrible consequences but someone's a smoker who knows how hard is to give it up but once someone gives it up or at least many people that do give it up once they've you know passed that threshold then going back they realize like a healthy way of life is much better here's a probably a better example just exercise when you haven't exercised for a while the body's fighting tooth and nail to keep you still and not to uh not to exercise but once you're in a routine of exercise and also in the body want you to get to the gym and want to go outside and get to work and strengthen yourself so the body follows suit with ideas but the goal is to realize take allow the soul to take the ideas we know to be true and then to the Med and develop a life around those ideas you know take action and then the body will eventually follow suit another example one more is that you know Jewish tradition you can't speak negatively about someone the laws of Russian there a fascinating area of Jewish law but you can't speak negatively so not spoken to many people that have never been familiar with those laws and when they went out you can't gossip in Judaism the first question they always ask is like what am I going to talk about like it's hard to imagine any social interaction when you're not you know taking a dig at someone but the reality is anybody has ever gotten used to not speaking Russian or negative about anybody after a while and you live in a community where that's the community standard then when you hear someone speak Russian or is thinking negatively about someone it's jarring it's it's uncomfortable so we go here the first step is develop we call realized emotions take the intellect and then allow the intellect to infuse your your physical awareness but it takes action and allowing 2x2 a custom and culture rate to the the truthfulness of the idea is that you know you should follow that's step number one all right so let's go to the second pair of words which is kindness or justice now I think it's pretty obvious we think of kindness as a by the way I just wanna say one last thing on emotion into like we say in the Shema prayer the very opening is you should love with the almighty with all your heart with all your soul with all your possessions it's all about love it is all about emotions in a day but you're not gonna love the Almighty if you're loving yourself and everything that's around you and you're giving in and not being who you could be so but the goal is ultimately to live a life that's totally you've fulfilled with you know filled with passion but it's passion toward the things that are really deserve your attention all right so it's kindness and justice so when it comes to kind of see justice I pin many people I'll choose kindness and it makes sense because a spiritual person you would expect to be a good harder person that they're they're not uh you know insensitive to someone else or uncaring or cold-hearted there should be a lot of kindness and we do believe our founding father Abraham was the patriarch that represented kindness his tent was open all four sides and we believe this world was founded on kindness so clearly kindness is a you know a foundation point for a pillar of a spiritual existence no doubt but when it comes to justice justice plays a very important role in terms of the dynamic the kindness and the way to bring this out is there's a question that really everybody has to ask or in some ways answered for themselves even if they've gone she asked this question which is is the world a perfect place and therefore our job as people as not to ruin it or is this world an imperfect place and our job is to make it perfect a very fundamental question what is your place in the world what is this world even place into is it a perfect place and therefore our job is not to mess it up or is an imperfect world and you're our job is to prepare it or bring it to its perfection so if I'm a Jewish point of view we definitely believe this world is an imperfect place then we're intentionally put in the world by the Almighty that is not fully developed and we have a very special role as people to help bring out the perfection to help build and repair it and bring out the full potential that exists in this world and the place where we see that fundamentally as Jews is in the bris of circumcision the Covenant of circumcision you know it's a very unusual thing to be circumcised and of all things you know why do we circumcise ourselves on the part of the body that we do so we say our tradition teaches the reason why the Covenant of the Jews and a connection to God is through circumcision as we say that the almighty left over a little bit of skin and our job is to complete ourselves by taking that off and making ourselves complete and therefore if on our physical beings there's room for us to actually bring out the completion and who we are then all the more so in the spiritual realm this world is incomplete and our job and the bris of circumcision is to recognize as a people that our job is to bring this out this perfection out and that's why the sailing which is well known it's part of our prayers but it's being become very popular in the Jewish world tikkun olam fixing the world is fundamental to the Jewish people well to fix the world that means there's wrongs that need to be righted there's an justices that you have to stand up against and therefore from a Jewish point of view justice is a necessary forefront of our activities because kindness can be to anyone kindness is almost you can you can be kind and justify kindness to any type of person which is good to a point but the reality is the rule will never get where it needs to get to if we don't recognize there are wrongs and there's injustice Azur their things problems in the world that need solutions and the almighty made us in his image to be able to think about what the solutions are and that's our partnership with him and therefore when it comes to justice and kindness I would like to suggest that of course both of them are essential to our spiritual makeup clearly someone is kind is as good in spirit a thousand percent but in terms of a dynamic there needs to be I'd say the the pathways justice creates a world of kindness there's a saying in our tradition that he who is kind to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the kind once again he is cruel to the kind to the cruel will be cruel ultimately become cruel to the kind and the meaning is that you can rationalize why you should be kind to everybody you know the person who did it - aleady door destroyed buildings or you know robbed people or we can always look at someone saying wow they just need a lot of love and a lot of kindness and and there's ways to justify it but if we don't realize at the same time yay we need to have a world that works there needs to be law and order there needs to be a justice system so that there's a clear sense of boundaries between what's mine and what's yours what's right and what's wrong then society will fall apart so in terms of the pathway once again I'd like to suggest that the world of justice creates the environment that where kindness can really thrive you know in the most healthy way and that's the relationship between the two again in a broad sense okay so now we've done emotion and intellect and kind of some gesture let's go to the third pair the third pair was a community or solitude community of solitude well many people chose solitude again when I've done this a lot of people choose community as well so it's not a unanimous by no means but a a lot of people choose solitude and the reason is because we often get the picture of something very spiritual you know meditating very comfortable being in their own skin and and that's our notion but when it comes to Jews we definitely associate being to being connect to community so why is that why is the community sense so developed amongst the Jewish people it's so much part of our our makeup as a society that we think about in these terms so if you think that what we just said about justice and a world of setting a world that make a world perfect well how do you make a world perfect you can either do it on your own or you can do with others well if you take the job seriously if you really believe that the our goal is to bring about a perfect world then you want to do with others you want to be able to bring about that perfection with everybody because you need everybody on board and the more people that are involved the more talent the more resources the more Minds the more skill I mean the more the better and that's why from a Jewish point of view community is essential you cannot accomplish your purpose living on your own can being complete isolation excuse me you need to have others in fact no I remember that once I was while I was in New York Manhattan I walked into a building I was about to teach a class and the person that I was teaching class for introduced me to his son who was in his mid-20s at the time and he said I want to introduce you to Rabbi gold our fellow he says hello hi you know hi rabbi and they say you know I just wanted a I'm not into organized religion and truthfully those two words don't really ring a bell for me either organized religion it's just not as I wouldn't say I'm into organized religion those two words just don't resonate with me but I said to him he worked for a hedge fund I said let me ask you you know do you work for this hedge fund and how's the company you know successful good is it organized yes you know you're the analyst you have your you know fund manager yeah the people in the back home is the IT yes is it organized yes because in order to in this case make money through investments you want to be organized if you want to find a cure for cancer you want to have a lab and you want have scientist and you want technicians and you want technology and there's so many things that go into finding one cure to one cancer but you want to be organized in fact the more organized you are is identifies you as more purposeful because people have a strong sense of purpose realize that everything matters and therefore they want to put everything together so we as a people believe that we have a role to play as Jews to bring about a major change to be a light unto nations well we're all gonna be alighted to nations if we are as a nation produce out light together as one and therefore when it comes to the two facets of community and solitude I like to suggest that community is the kind of the forefront but it creates the environment and the setting in the context for solitude meaning when we go and we pray if you looked at our Jewish prayer book so you'll see that the prayers are in second person plural it's always about us and we but the height the the most intense moments of repaired services when you step into the silent prayer the amita prayer and you're praying one-to-one with the Almighty when you see yourself with a lot of other people you know you get you got a sense of who you are but in the end of the day that will bring out who you are and just on another note on this is that in solitude well who you with you know you can be with nature you can be on the top of a mountain you can be and you know in a beautiful setting or by the ocean and you can be connecting to the world around you but if you really want to get to know yourself in many different ways then just be around people because people make you grow in so many different ways that you never thought about because your relationships are by nature rich that are dynamic and every Prisons brings out different facets and requires different parts of you and one of the things that I think is most powerful about Jewish the Jewish Way of life and community life in general is that when you go to services on Shabbat and you're part of the community it's a very different thing that when you're part of a family and an office or a school when you go is part of that community so you have people of all ages children two to two grandparents and great-grandparents as many people of all ages you're connect to some people very closely some people you aren't at all but when you're part of the community you're part of everybody's life and you play a role in some facet sometimes more with others of course but if there's a great occasion a wedding or Bar Mitzvah then you're part of that and you contribute to the joy in the simcha that happens there if there is a loss you go to the ship but even if you're not so close and go to the Shiva because your presence lets the person knows that you're recognizing the loss and you want to be there to support them some way so community makes you expand you in a way that someone just alone will never be expanded they might be getting in touch with parts of them through you know through intense focus but they're never aching experienced they're gonna come out that can't be achieved just to mere focus in the way that a person brings him out in you so that's why community ultimately gives you the greatest chance to know yourself and therefore be in solitude alright so that's the the third pair so now let's go to God and nature God in nature so again here it's a it's a split people you know depending on the group some people choose more gone others nature but many people choose nature and again that's because someone's spiritual is sensitive and they're aware and they're connected and they're they're not rushing through life someone said to me that they went to a spiritual experience where where there was wasn't a lot of talking there was you know eating grains and a lot of chewing and and just being in touch you know in a very beautiful setting but it's very interesting in the way that we understand the relation to God in nature is that we called this world in Hebrew an OLE um are we saying a blessing let's say you may not borrow kahshanna okay no Malcolm king of the world you in the universe the olam is the universe in Hebrew the word Olam the root of it is nella which means hidden because we believe this universe ultimately hides the Almighty's presence the creator of the universe is hidden he's veiled by the natural world and therefore well as the natural world is remarkably compelling and magnificent and beautiful and intricate the reality is behind it there's something much deeper which is the Creator who put you here for some reason and therefore yes a thousand percent someone should be connected to nature and appreciate from the moment they wake up for the birds chirping right now I'm you know every morning I go out to a minyan to pray it's in rabbi's backyard and it's just a lovely this the birds are chirping and the there's dew on the ground and and it's very very helpful to my prayers it's been it's been very nice period of time you know that we've been through in this sense but there's something more which is what am I here for what what what why what am I meant to achieve here and there's a important principle that in Judaism we don't believe that anything's accidental everything is here for a reason and everything is happening there there's no coincidence and therefore something happened notice the question that we have to ask ourselves most often is what does the almighty one like he's here he's hidden but what does he want for my choice now what's the the growth that he's asking me to do what's the the contribution that I can make in this moment what's the Mitzvah that I can do that's not evident from the material world but behind it there's a spiritual opportunity and and therefore it's it behooves us to recognize that is beyond is beyond the magnificence of the world as the as there is the absolutely beyond creator that's behind it you know I it's a what a while back I watched a video one of the founders of the mindfulness movement I believe his name is Jon kabat-zinn I hope I'm getting that right but he's the founder the mindfulness movement which has had a tremendous impact on many people's lives so I was watching this lecture he was giving it the we was the University of Finland and he starts the lecture he's at the lectern and he says I want to ask you don't ask you a question you know three questions first of all my question wanna know is why you here why are you here I what brought you here did you see a poster someone told you about it that's the topic that drew you like why are you here okay so he gay people few moments to think about that is now I ask you a second question second question is like why are you really here why are you really here I thought that was very clever right because beyond whatever there was on our mind that were conscious of you know the fact is that we're here at this moment in time and a very you know brief life as we know you're through you think about there's something dramatic smore ponder ins and this I want to ask you one last question why are you really really here no and that's a deep question and I think it takes a few more than a few moments to consider that it may take a lot of time and some people may not be able to answer that question so I thought that was a brilliant presentation of brilliant introduction to his thought to combine from this but I just said yes something from a Jewish point of view which is the question of why are you here you will never be able to answer just for me on your own me why are you really here well you didn't ask to come here when none of us chose existence we just sort of like tada here we are it's Magnus panca on the behind in Bill Murray here no we didn't ask for this existence for a year and I tell you that takes a while before we underneath understand where we are so why are we really here the answer that question is the Almighty we're put here for a reason and that's why the most important question is like why are we really here connecting to God the Creator and recognizing this world is all um is really hidden but that what's makes it even more fascinating is the brilliant wisdom that made the world so spectacular part of that wisdom is a brilliant answer the question why you specifically are here but that can only come through relationship with God and asking him why am I here what do you want from me what am I here to achieve and therefore again being able to in terms of the to God in nature it really is starting with God makes you even more aware I'm more present in this world that we're in because the clues to our existence than the primitives our existence is around us so you become more heightened highly aware of looking and searching and trying to figure out are you experiencing your life that can help you therefore discern your particular path and therefore the world because more than just a mere backdrop but it's becomes a necessary necessary source of answers and solutions that can help you provide you keep asking God why are we here because he wants to stab the answer because he wants us to be fulfilled that's my Jewish point of view so having relation with God will give you a much more transcendent relationship to nature like to suggest now what I conclude with the last one serenity or challenge serenity or a challenge well most people are as I said you know choose serenity because as I mentioned you know we have like the serenity prayer of the 12 steps you know serenity is what you did hope for for someone who's developed spirit being spiritual requires a maturity and again someone's not going to be imbalanced or or in a tizzy or anxious or there's gonna be a certain calmness that comes from recognizing that it's not about this moment I can be control I can be composed because I'm not alone here I have the almighty and there's a reason why I'm in the situation and therefore my question is what do I do now what does he want from me so serenity makes a lot of sense but I want to share something you know wouldn't we have large Shabbos tables and we have a lot of people are tables so you know there's times when we asked you know a question we go around the room and and people I ask the question so one of the questions I've asked is and I'll ask you is where have you brought more in your life from the times when everything was serene or when you were going through challenges and in this case it's almost unanimous that everybody says it's the challenges all right it's fascinating we we grow so much more through challenges then when everything's just you know even keeled and yet we do so much so much of our our energies are spammed are like avoid the challenges you know avoid the obstacles you know oh no I don't want to have a day you know riddled with challenges I want to David just gonna go easy but the fact that matter is that challenges are part and parcel to our growth because again if the soul is here to understand in the mind and we're here to perfect the world and we're here to do together and we recognize the worlds of perfect so by nature we're in a place of challenge right that's the only way the soul can grow is through being challenged and therefore you'll never be yourself if you run away for challenge who you can be and that's my sodium you know the the great stories of this world the great you know biographies the movies of people who who you know overcame some remarkable challenge they're our heroes you know I once heard a wonderful lecture where someone had asked a rabbi why is it when I watch inspiring video movies of someone who overcame tremendous you know all odds and they overcame the challenges why do I cry the person asked why do I cry when I see that when I just cheer and the answer the rabbi gave is because your soul knows that's you then you're here to also overcome and to strive and not just leave and you'll never be yourself if you don't you know tackle the day and make more of yourself but the only way you can make more of yourself is getting beyond yourself you know you're gonna matter I remember there's a a famous address it was given at a commencement I'm not sure who said it but it was you know every day do one thing that you're fearful of and I thought that was very very powerful you know most of us live circumscribed by a let's say a circle we live in a circle and that circle is us is everything we're familiar about us you know I do this I don't do that I like this I don't like that it's everything I know about myself and what I think I can do and what I'm certain but I can't do that's me and that's a circle we live in but the reality is that's not us all right they us that we truly are we'll never know and really make important choices to go beyond and overcome the fears and and do the things that we we don't think we'll be comfortable with but we know we should do and when you do them you feel like a million dollars and you realize this is me and that's why the stories inspire us because we inspire others when we do these things because we all want to feel the endorsement that we can overcome the challenge and the reality is in terms of a pathway the only time you will ever feel totally serene is when you overcome your challenges alright when you overcome a challenge they feel serene because you're more yourself it's bringing you back to who you are meant to be but you'll never discover you're meant to be if you're just standing still and therefore the Almighty put us in a world of tremendous challenges but a lot of perfection a lot of imperfections and and sometimes his eyes breaking down you're scratching your head but our job is Jesus it's not to sit here on the sidelines and say okay okay sit sighs gonna rabble uh-huh that's not us we have to put our thinking caps on work together and with others to figure out how do we bring this world about to its senses and overcome all the the the divides that are so strong and berries are so thick and yet come together well there's a way and if we don't know the way okay well let's think that's why we have life is to think in a godly way and therefore again it's serenity is only chief through challenges the way to come to serenity ultimately can so much that everyday is meant to be a day of growth there's me challenges and really the ultimate serenity have only happened after hundred twenty years but we get the taste of serenity and that's why Shabbat the Sabbath day is a day of serenity tranquility Oh David he was called Manuka just a sense of rest as six days you're meant to be out there battling and growing and changing and doing work real work not just steady work not just mediocre word mediocre words but great work when you get to the Sabbath you get this Shabbat then you get that sense of serenity that okay no more work to do now I can just be me as I know I am and the world that I've created for myself and for my family and for others that's me and that's what the Sabbath day helps us get a taste of it's really the next world that these true serenity will be but Shibani is a is a taste and analog for that and therefore to review what we've done so far in this crash course in spirituality is we have now a portrait that first and foremost when it comes to emotion or intellect of course both are very important facets the equation of being spiritual though we're suggesting that the starts with the intellect and the goal is that we realized emotions not to have primitive emotions not just to go with your emotions but go with what's truthful what you know is right and then live your life according to principles and you will come your body will follow suit and when it follows suit and gets there it's gonna feel like a million dollars and will not relate to me the the superficial pleasures that uh that compromise who we are and what we want to make of ourselves so it starts with the the intellect even realizing emotions and therefore the only way to strengthen intellect it's through learning and that's why torah learning it's a commandment to to do it every day in the morning in the evening because there's really no time of day that you you're not meant to be growing and thinking and getting new ideas and we're living constantly the deficit i mean there's so much more knowledge and wisdom outside and therefore we need to feed ourselves to learning and therefore i'd like to suggest that there's a book that you have next to your bed or wherever you are but i mean a page a day some from the torah from a book of wisdom something that's giving your mind more to think about because that's giving your soul more strength than the reinforcements it needs to tackle the body and bring it in under its under its rule secondly kindness or justice obviously both were meant to be kind of gaybraham just like isaac but we have to recognize this world is an imperfect place my Jewish point of view we entered a covenant with the Almighty and therefore our job is to perfect it that's the space we've been given it's a precious space it's a tremendous privilege but you have to have a cause and should you know if you do not have something but you're part of a cause you know a cure for something or something that's going on is plenty of needs you know there's a cute saying a cute riddle which is what's the difference between dogs and cats so the dogs say these people they love me they can't take care of me they shelter me they gave me so much retention they must be gods and then a cat says these people they love me they take care of me they shelter me they give me so much attention we must be gods it's a very different perspective same same input but a very different outcome so similarly you can look at this world as you know big world so much happening so many problems Who am I to make a difference or you can say this world is so big so many problems so many people Who am I not to make a difference how can I not make a difference like there's so much room to make a difference but clearly that we need to all step up and fight for what's right and for justice and and not let others assume that others are gonna take up the mantle for us because it's not just for them it's for us to do it and that's gonna provide the safest and most secure environment for people to be kind to one another we're a society can still function with law and order thirdly when it comes to community and solitude can I be part of the community you know if you if you know it's once you're always think about expanding if you're part of a shul synagogue a an organization something where you're part of that your more input from others to get something accomplished because you need more people to accomplish great things in life to be part of it and that's where you will ultimately when you put your you know kept me down on the pillow at night you'll fill yourself the most because you're getting to know yourself the most by being involved in relationships with others when it comes to God or nature you're living in a universe it's called olam it's now love it's hidden all right the Almighty is is veiled behind it but there's a reason why you're here and the only way you'll ever understand is by asking the questions the only why am I here what do you want why am I really here really you know beyond the nine to five beyond the the the simple dreams what do you really want from me ask the question and that'll put you in a world that is so alive and so real that as magnificent beautiful it is and and full of wonder nonetheless it's also has the clues to your own existence that you'll find in the around you to help you know answer that question and third and finally when it comes to surrender your challenge yes the almighty wants us to be serene but the only way the soul will ever feel serene our spiritual eyes whatever if you fulfilled is if we rise to the challenge and that's what makes I think the Jewish people going back to the original question of why we're around after thirty three hundred years is we've never shied away from rising to the challenge no matter how hard the challenges are no matter what we've been through nothing stops us because we know that deep down you know evil is not as strong as good and it's temporary it doesn't it doesn't stand it doesn't have legs ultimately any evil Enterprise ultimately collapses and we keep going on but we have to do our part we have to rise the challenge and make every day count and therefore as we conclude this crash course and spirituality hopefully you'll keep all these five points in mind these five pathways to spiritual existence in mind and and therefore enrich yourself every day by what you learn well you do what you do the cause you involve the people and community are part of the connections the almighty they put you here in the first place that can only really answer the question why you're here and to give you all the understanding and awareness you need to rise the challenge to be yourself and discover a life that is far beyond what you know of it now not because not because of anything other than tomorrow is meant for expansion so I hope this has been helpful to help create a helpful framework to grow spiritually as a Jew as human and please God we should all contribute help this rule get to a much better place and as we like to always say you know what shut up Bob you shall are next year in Jerusalem thank you very much and once again thank you project inspired for having me I remember I have REM gold from gold high school comm home a big picture Jewish education if you enjoyed the session you can go to gold on her school comm I have crash course on the Torah and Jewish history the Jewish holiday is our tradition very big picture of video that are short sweet and map out in a way context so that someone who doesn't have a lot of Jewish knowledge or Mossad on a formal Jew education can catch up very very quickly and a very very systematic helpful and empowering way since rabbi rumbling from gold out of school comm wishing a great night great evening and wonderful life thank you very much for joining you