Rabbi Jonathan Rietti @ Project Inspire Retreat 2019

special thank you to rabbi yaakov ginga for inviting me to share with you on this beautiful inspiring weekend and at all all those who've helped put it together I don't know all the name simcha Barnett I believe is one of them so welcome to the body and soul connection I'm not sure the exact title but that's that's what we're going to be talking about the body and soul connection and we're going to look at basically Maimonides he was as you probably know he was besides being a philosopher and a legal code afire he was probably the greatest mind amongst the Jewish scholars of medieval period and he's responsible for having put together a legal code called the Mishnah Tara and that legal code covers every aspect of Judaism and it still can still quoted on literally every single page of the Talmud it's quote it's learned every day in all the yes you vote throughout the world it's said of Maimonides that from if you go to his grave which is in Tiberias it's written there me MA chère from Moses the law giver at Sinai add mahshar til Moses from Moses - Moses referring to Moses Maimonides look am Kim Moshe nobody arose as great as Moses meaning between these two and you're spanning a period of about 3,000 years to 2400 years nobody was as great as Moses Maimonides in the delivery of clarity that he offered on on every area of not just Judaism but even medicine which we're going to look at quite a few of his quotes that helps us understand how to view our body so we're living in a world that is kind of outside in and everything pretty much gets treated that way so for example in debt so instead of trying to figure out what might be the habits that I am doing that's making me spend more than I earn and I'm servicing the debt instead of freaking out well how do I solve this inside out to change my mindset my relationship to money so that I actually spend less than I earn and then pay my debt down with the difference or even invest if I've got extra in an outside-in world and I'm just going to refer it to education for example the assumption is that the child is doesn't have the capability to learn without being taught and therefore we need to teach outside in and that's how children learn in the world of medicine oh if the body is doing something that is not consistent with health we need something outside in to prevent it getting worse or to heal it and this presentation is basically saying the following if we ignore the possibility that there's another dimension that plane that has a lot or almost everything to do with the body then we'll be dealing with the body even in relationships in such ways that we're not dealing with the actual cause we're only dealing with symptoms and when we deal with symptoms we it's economically and impressive it looks like it's more efficient but the problem is if the cause is beneath the symptom and we've only dealt with the symptom the cause is still then so the problems are still going to surface so let me get let me be very specific with you a few months ago I met a lady in a conference my wife and I were chatting with her fascinating personality and but unbeknownst to us I wasn't looking at the program closely enough that when she went onstage and spoke she was one of the speakers you can actually google her name is Wendy said Jessie s e-g gess see I think it is she stands up on the stage and she says I have cancer I'm not cancer my body has cancer I'm not my body she's in stage 4 96% of women with this particular cancer don't make it after five years she's in her 80s just now going into her eighth year and her opening line is I have cancer I am not cancer my body has cancer I'm not my body a number of years ago about 216 years ago I met Christopher Reeve many of you will remember him as Superman and that particular time he was about four five six years into the accident that he had which left him paralyzed from the neck down so he's a quadriplegic in the first words that came out his mouth I probably quote him briefly tonight is I've never been more happy in my life than since my accident now he's a good actor so I assume he know you can maybe get away with that but he explained why he said because I discovered the real me it's not my body he said the real me is not the many homes I own he said the real me is not the tens of millions of dollars I have in my bank accounts he said the real me is not that over half a million fan mail that he's received over the years that's more than I actually get of junk mail almost so it was interesting he said if God only left me with a brain and a heart I could still choose to be happy so what we're going to look at really is is the following when we talk about body and soul can we actually separate the two and because the soul seems to be so esoteric it's like mystical and you can't see it so how can we talk about it how do we get a grip on it so I'm gonna start at the very beginning and it really works like this you never die your body yes our body does die but the real you doesn't die you can't put a bullet through a soul your soul if we're gonna call it as divine intelligence inside of you in the words of the book of Job in chapter 31 he uses a language which is quoted everywhere helic Elohim in morale you are a portion of the power of God above meaning that you're powered by this invisible force which is really Elohim Elohim means the power behind all powers and that invisible force we call the soul than the Shama is what's powering everything inside your body when the soul is removed and when I go like this it's actually it's housed in the head in the brain but it actually controls every part of your 100 trillion cells so and that's actually the Talmud tells us that page 10 in one brother so if those who want to check it out so your soul fills up your entire body and it powers your body the moment the body dies the soul is left but the soul can't die now we actually believe we're gonna talk about it a little bit some afternoon in theater mating which means the resurrection of the dead that means the body doesn't die either it's only a temporary departure a little bit like a short weekend when you consider eternity is forever so let's quickly understand how brilliant your mind which is your soul your thoughts which are powered by your soul how brilliant you really are you take a seed you plant it in the ground this seed has divine intelligence there is really no other way for me to describe this so for example the seed will know to absorb the moisture in the ground from the topsoil grow roots to then reach further down and absorb still more water from the topsoil and a stem which becomes a trunk of a tree with branches twigs leaves and fruit bearing trees all from one seed this seed has the divine intelligence so to speak in knows exactly what to do your body starts as a microscopic heart and brain and over the next 40 days from the moment of conception your brain brilliantly creates yourself now of course I'm as a religious Jew I'm talking about it's God's divine intelligence in that microscopic brain heart but over the next 40 days scientifically what takes place is your brain actually creates your entire skeletal system your entire muscular system your respiratory system your nervous system your lymph system every single system and all the body parts are created by your mind are you impressed so far that's extraordinary so I'm gonna fast forward to the birth and fast-forward to walking there's a lot of taking place in between but here's the piece I might mention it tomorrow night in the first two years of the child's life are you impressed by his brain so far this brilliant is amazing we're all expecting great things right so in the first two years of this child who's almost 100 almost 100 said dependent what's their brain busy doing he created a body that's amazing now he's born what's the brain doing for the next two years learning to speak how do what's the process of learning to speak what what in that goal of learning to speak what happened in between from the moment of birth till the first words came out coming out and then articulating actual sentences so that the child is communicating what he's thinking so his his listening and seeing and absorbing every image every sound and trying to make sense out of all that is that making sense and this goes on for about two years ladies and gentlemen if this child is exposed to two languages in those two years how many languages will that child start speaking at the age of two two languages if that child is exposed to three languages let's say French English and Hebrew for example how many languages will the cha be speaking at three languages are you impressed zero to two is caught as ad there's a book by Maria Montessori it's called the absorbent mind and she talks about this in much more detail she was the first scientist doctor in the history of Italy to female that is and there's a whole movement of school system based on her observation of children but in the absorbent mind this is described in much more detail but the piece I'm bringing out really is the following your mind is you our body carries us and us is the mind insight but everything you and I experience is really thought it's always that way the question we're going to be looking at very briefly and then hopefully we can expand it somewhat is to what extent does your thinking which is powered by your soul to what extent is your mind affecting your physical health so we're going to we're going to try and figure out how much is that very much I'm not gonna give it necessary a scale of 0 to 10 even though we could do that but you're gonna see it's really off the charts yes ma'am excellent question at the moment of conception the Talmud tells us actually very recently in in a book called knitter tractate notice neither actually tells us you look this two places their page 17 later on on page 30 I think at 31 it talks about the soul coming into the body at the moment of conception and it's at that moment when the decision is made of whether the child will be strong or weak tall or short wise or foolish but the question that's left open is will they be righteous or not that's going to be dependent on their choices that's not decided that's not predetermined but so an answer to your question here the soul the soul enters at the moment of conception so moving forward good question that that's outside of the realm of this discussion I don't mind you asking me a little bit about that afterwards there's a there's a place in in so to speak if you want to call it a place in the spiritual realm known as the house of souls and we are all originally from one soul that's from Adam Adam messed up at the tree and since then everyone who's coming back down is here to try and fix the original problem but that's a really a separate direction so I want to share with you the following I think what's happening recently in medicine is it's starting to recognize that your mind and therefore your emotions which we can talk about also in a few moments affect your physical body and that if I were a doctor and I'm only looking at your physical ailment the thing that you're complaining about that's what your body seems to be upset about or hurt it would be very intelligent to expand the type of questions beyond just what's in front of me so for example stress is a massive contributor to the body experiencing fatigue possibly even memory loss weakness I'm not going to go into the whole diagnosis because it's it's kind of depressing but just for your information some life insurance companies actually want to know in the application how many times you've moved house in the last three years and the reason why is because the number one stressor that causes suicide apparently is from moving house and if a person's moved house three times in three years there are stronger candidate for the stress that's caused by that I'm not I'm not going into I'm just I'm just sharing a very simple point just to bring out that everything that we experience is what we're thinking in that moment in in Hebrew the word for mind we've kind of lost in translation because the word lev is usually translated as heart when you look carefully you will see something very interesting you can look throughout the entire scripture for every single time the word lev which we translate his heart is found and you'll see the context doesn't fit to translate it as heart example first time it appears in the word is in the chapter 6 verse 5 of Genesis where God is saying via a Shem Hashem saw Kira Bourassa Adam Alaris the negativity of mankind on earth was so abundant the call yet share and all the design moksha vote liebe Mustafa in Hebrew anyone can help me what's mush of I mean thought liebe we usually translate his heart all the thoughts leap out of his mind rock Rocco Leone was just negative all day long the word lev really means mind we actually say it from a book of proverbs every day in our prayers robert mahashiv would believe ish there are many thoughts in the mind of a person so why why why does lev always get translated as heart so quite frankly and this is really important you're gonna see in a few moments you will not find a single word anywhere in the entire scripture that correctly translates excuse me as emotion now if there's no word for something in hebrew that means it doesn't exist in god's dictionary but the word we always associate with emotions throughout scripture is the word left because lev heart is the icon of our emotions but the fact that the vast majority of times the word love is actually referring to what you're thinking is really indicative of the following you cannot separate what you're thinking from what you're feeling because 100 percent of what you feel is an immediate reflection in real time faster than the speed of light the moment i'm feeling it it's telling me what I think so what God has done has given us the gift of emotions so I can know the source of my emotions the the axiom of this it's just so ridiculously obvious that the moment I feel it it's just an arrow telling me where that feelings really coming from it's coming from over here it's just so obvious that I don't pay attention to it most of the time in the same way that I'm going to ask you how many of you can count on one hand how many times you ever had the following thought I can't live without oxygen simple fact and I just found out there's nearly seven billion people in this planet how do I know there's gonna be enough air for all of us I better begin investing now in my future how many people do you know that ever woke up anxious about there being enough oxygen about and yet you and I know that without oxygen for about two minutes six minutes for sure brain damage sets in without oxygen can't exist but you see because it's everywhere all the time I don't have to think about it you follow the logic here I'm not talking about oxygen even though it's very close by all the time it's inside us as we breathe it and then out carbon dioxide we're breathing in oxygen all I'm talk about something much closer than oxygen talk about thought we can't experience anything except through thought so when you look at the word Lev as mind and immediately it's referring to what you're feeling that's the reality you can't feel anything that you're not thinking it's impossible even pain you can only experience over here I know I got kicked over here but this is where I'm experiencing it dr. Sardo who's anyone who's familiar with his work worked with literally tens of thousands of patients where he made a big switch from becoming a spinal surgeon to recognizing that what's actually taking place in terms of pain is what he called a deprivation of oxygen to the muscles and the origin the source of the deprivation is stress and that once I just know that that's where it's coming from without even having yet gone to therapy to actually address the issue that I'm stressed about whether it's my wife or my sister or my brother or my mother-in-law so just swallowing just like my father-in-law's it makes them if before I even identify and address the actual issue of stress just knowing that it's the stress that I'm experiencing that is the real cause of the oxygen deprivation to their muscles that's causing the pain so dr. Sano spent the next couple of decades of his right life completely focused on helping patients recognize that the pain they're experiencing in their neck and their back in their shoulders was actually starting from stress and there are many people who either read his book or watched his video I am one of them who started to experience an incredible diminishment of the physical pain I would say about 80% no Kuzma I was sitting in a bed watching one of his DVDs and it suddenly occurred to me oh my gosh I'm not so much more flexible I would say if I had to give it a rating of say 80% of my pain had gone and all because I thought I was paying attention to oh so it's stress so it's not I picked something up that it was too heavy he even says you can't pick something up that's too heavy it's impossible so the point one point one of the points he made was the following your brain is wired so that even if God forbid a person has pain in several places let's say from a multi injury incident you can only experience pain in one place at a thought meaning you can only have you can only pay attention to one pain at a time do you follow it's quite extraordinary you can only have one thought at a thought you're only one thought at the time and because it's so simple that's why it's so deceptive I don't need to pay attention to what I'm thinking but and I'm gonna quote you now from King Solomon who offers that if I don't get rid of him killer jealousy if I don't was rid of resentment if I don't pay attention to the fact that I have a lot of anger then guess what will happen is quite extraordinary King Solomon claims guru carve at Summit kena that Kiner jealousy and Rapinoe you know one of the commentators there says it's synonymous to anger anger and jealousy go together because the moment I'm jealous of your good looks or your money or your your professional superiority I'm in the same I'm in competition with biggie but you're better than I am you're doing much better than the moment I experienced jealousy it's like I'm angry that I don't have what you have or I don't have your stature or your intelligence or your looks or your financial or family whatever it is that I'm he says jealousy and anger literally or carve out somewhat actually rot the bones Robinho know one of the famous commentaries they're actually ads and this is chapter 14 in the book of Proverbs he says that my anger and jealousy don't reach the bones before they have first softened my muscles so that my the muscle tone is lessened not because I'm not active enough and exercising but because of the stress I'm experiencing the body is affected that means to say your every cell in your body listens to what you say inside your head we're not about positive negative thinking we're just talking about reality reality is that our body and our emotions cannot be separated they are immediately affected by what we're thinking so going into a doctor's office and not asking a question like well today that it wouldn't be their place to perhaps ask but is there anything that's stressing you out specifically oh yeah I just moved house or anything else oh I'm going through divorce god forbid oh I've got a kid who's like now you know why I'm bald anyone here has teenagers so you might appreciate why some animals eat their young it's a pure human no reflection on reality whatsoever no no offense any teenagers and I'm sorry so comes along King Solomon and warns me that what you say inside your mind affects the physical body emotions for sure because layth heart mind are synonymous that's why the word lave means both immediately simultaneously the moment I feel it it's telling me what I'm thinking because that's the origin so that's why meditation is so popular now it's really spilling into the Western world in the recognition that when a person calms the mind I'm not gonna cux island mind because there's no such thing you can't silent you can quieten the mind you can't silent it you can't stop thinking so your mind is never silent you can quiet in the mind because if I've got thoughts of jealousy thoughts of anger thoughts of resentment towards people in my life thoughts of bitterness of how I feel about my lot in my Porsche so those thoughts affect me over here I think I feel angry but it's not because you make me angry that's just an innocent misunderstanding of reality it can never be that way it's never the traffic that stresses me out proof there are times where the person's in the passenger seat is so stimulating so interesting or the music you're listening to or you might be listening to a fascinating lecture can you imagine that and and and you're not paying attention to the traffic so you don't feel stressed out but what the traffic is is is really bad but that's not where your mind is oh so it's it's it's my thinking about the traffic let's stressing me out you get a kick in the shin in a hockey game oh oh and the referee doesn't blow the whistle for another 20 minutes he is still running around then he blows the whistle and you walk off limping excuse me we I said it's on video we got kicked in the shin 20 minutes ago so why are you limping now and the answer is what were you doing for the last 20 minutes focusing on the game oh it's one up is two it's a championship semifinals other this your mind is on the game oh the minute the mind switches from the game over referee blows whistle mind goes to pain but the pain was it for the last 20 minutes no I wasn't paying attention oh you exist where your mind is sorry oh yes I agree I'm so for those of you who have had this experience I've played soccer I almost actually went professional till I found out that you can't play soccer on Shabbat oh six but I almost signed up for Chelsea and yes so a long long long time ago you are you speak to people who play ice hockey or or basketball even very often you might get an injury in the middle of a game you might be actually on the ground and they call out time timeout for a few moments and then they jump back into the game so sometimes they have a spray to actually remove the pain but but very often it's it's simply your mind is on the game you can't afford to go there so I I'm not I'm not taking away from that I'm not if the muscle is torn they're not going to be running on it right now but I'm giving you an example where person would be can be an excruciating pain and the mind is focused on something else entirely I think one one of the most powerful examples of that is Viktor Frankl dr. Viktor Frankl was being operated on in Auschwitz he was there for six years four years in Auschwitz 2 years in a sub camp and he writes in his book man's search for meaning that they were operating on him and he said he expanded without anesthetic they were removing a part of his body without anesthetic he said I experienced the greatest liberation in my life when he copped he'd realized in a moment that the Nazis had his body and could do anything they wanted with it he had no control over that but they didn't have his mind and when he realized that I can think what I want he realized you don't own me cuz the real me is not my body real means my mind now that's extraordinary that is real exploring because without anesthetic a part of his body's being removed and he's focused totally on an incredible insight that he had about the power of the mind to overcome adversity I'm not going to into detail it deserves much more attention but he's as you probably know the father what's called logotherapy loco is a Greek later on Latin word for meaning so he before the war was already involved in this after the war with his experiences in the camps he was able to share his observations of camp survivors who were not necessarily the most robust strongest people entering the camp but had more reason to survive than even those who came in strong physically robust they said it depended really on what were you living for what did you have to survive for oh you want to survive to reunite your family oh you know that you've lost all the members of the family but you want to you want to start a family again and in that way win the war against Hitler in much might because now the Jews are continuing and you wanted to stop us so whatever meaning a person would find hmm thank you whatever meaning a person will be able to find that would give them the will to continue that is really the bottom line I have a friend who I just was speaking to this week who just climbed Mount Everest I mean to the base are there there's like 18,000 feet whatever but he's in his forties and oh he was the eldest in the entire group of 18 people 10 had to be helicoptered back because it couldn't take but it was so interesting that it he was like he was talking about the willpower it's always willpower and that's not necessarily how physically robust you are it has a to do with stamina of resilience persistence resistance so I'm gonna share with you some sources in the next 20 minutes in closing we're for those who want to know by the way the word lave which we translate his heart I'm not going to tell you where the word the heart originates in the translation it's just too painful but Rambam nach manatee is one of most famous of of our scholars 12th century he offers on in chapter 6 verse 5 that's the famous verse where we say love God with all your live Arvika which doesn't translate his hearts because you only have one heart is talking about love God with all your thoughts so over there he actually writes laid who had that the heart oh la la that is the mind that that idea is knowledge dart is the mind itself so when you have dart so to speak their mind that we're referring to over here then a person actually is in control of everything so to speak when I'm angry I'm angry because I'm thinking about what's provoking me but it's not used who's making me angry and that's impossible do you follow you can't you can't make me angry I could be extremely upset with you now oh Michael how are you doing yes how are you I so great to hear from you and all of a sudden you're totally distracted how do you do that and the answer is if the oh sorry okay what it's worse okay okay so where was I also I myself distracted and the fact that I can do that in the middle of anger is very very simple it's because I am my thoughts in the moment so if when one moment I'm angry with you is because I'm thinking angry thoughts and even though I'm saying you're making me angry you ruined my life whatever it is and then I see a call I want to take this call so my mind switches in in a moment literally in a split second I switched to this client who I've been chasing forever and I really want I really want this deal he's calling me for the first time so your mind goes somewhere else and we do this all the time we always have that power we always have that control in the imma have to rush through some of this I apologize in the book of ecclesiasticus that's called qohelet chapter 11 verse 10 King Solomon says hasta casa milà beca remove anger from your thinking there are there Ram it Soraka and by doing so you will remove negativity or evil from your flesh so this is simply in the words itself when I take anger out of my thinking guess what my body heals it's not complicated because every part of the body listens to what we say if god forbid someone is diagnosed with a terminal disease a person has many options but I'm going to divide them into two categories I could say to myself know what die can't die I know every single cell in my body lessons so if I'm going to die how hard do you think the cells are going to work to fight the cancer well if the message is I'm gonna die so what's the point in fighting but if the same person says I'm going to live I'm going to survive I'm going to get through this I've got children I haven't finished bummers will marry that I want to be there for then the next family gathering or whatever it is all my 60th 70th birthday I want to be around oh you've got reason to live every cell in the body hears that and says let's fight the disease you can't separate the mind emotion body connection because they are not separate entities the moment you think it you feel it and so does the body all three are simultaneous comes along laughs our mayor same King Solomon chapter 17 verse 22 in the book of Prophet slave summary ativ gaya that a happy mind gaya means heals your mind heals the rotten here and if I've got a spirit that slowly depressed toh garam actually dries out my bones so we're talking about an immediate connection between what I think how I feel and the rest of my entire body no separation they are three entities working simultaneously and the mind is your soul your soul knows the reality life is good LG life is great I think the Yiddish version is life is gevalt ik but but LG means life is good and I've got a choice I always have a choice of what to focus on always have a choice things could always be better and things could could be worse we'll talk about that tonight there's so much I really wanted to cover the Talmud in Sanhedrin page 100 B tells us little davia Billy Becca don't let worry anxiety go up on your mind the govern because very strong men really like warriors soldiers cattle davia were killed by worry worry kills anxiety kills but what's beautiful about this is very simple anxiety is thought it's the thinking about the debt that's killing me it's thinking about this marriage that's killing me it's thinking about the extended family that's driving me nuts that's killing me it's not the family it's not the people who are over who are not in my life who are not yet who I want them to be that's killing me it's what I'm telling myself and I've got what's beautiful and simple about this is that how long is the life of a thought it can be fleeting but if I don't stop thinking about it then it's going to be for as long as I think it does that make sense but because it can be fleeting how far are you ever away from a completely different thought you always one thought away one thought away from the next thought and so it's impossible for me to really blame you not you personally but when I blame you and accuse you of ruining my life that is just me delaying taking responsibility for the only person I was created to change not only was I only created to change me I'm the only person who can change me it's never my mother in law it's never my father-in-law it's never the finances it looks that way and it looks very real that way but actually I'm gonna say something shocking and I do mean that I don't mean it for shock treatment I mean it as absolutely sincere but I will explain what I mean by it you are never married to your spouse ever you are only ever married to who you think she is he is your child is never your child ever your child is only who you think he is she is so if I really want to change my spouse if you really want to change your children very funny where should I begin to tell the story so I should start with myself what am I thinking and what's amazing about this is that when I change what I think I change immediately what I feel and we have been created were designed as creatures of reciprocation in the words of King Solomon he says come I'm happening upon him just like waters reflect your facial expressions you look in the water look in the mirror perfect reflection no deviation it's a very simple metaphor that's what michl a means unfortunately we follow another religions translation so it's we just call it proverbs but the word mashallah means a metaphor it's a book of metaphors just like waters reflect your facial expressions cane Laver our damla are dumb so is one person's mind and feelings to another meaning when you change what you think and feel the other person will reflect that just like your face is reflected in water it's a perfect reciprocation so if I really want to change this marriage if i rewatch ange my barding think differently about my body reconnect so to speak to what we said at the very beginning your body is brilliantly designed by you your own mind and heart and the moment of conception for the next 40 days created every system inside of you extraordinary you learnt more than one language in the first two years of your life that's extraordinary that's brilliant that's amazing I'm not gonna say why things go downhill after that this really has to do with the school system I'm not gonna go there now because I don't want to get myself in deep trouble but but but when we put a cap on what you can or can't or make the assumption that you can't learn without me teaching then already we're dumbing down the brain of the child but essentially we are creatures of reciprocation and it's simply a law it's not negotiable that's reality let me quickly give you some quotes from my Mondas because he has so much to say on this incredible subject he tells us for example eat when hungry drink when thirsty go to the bathroom when you have the sensation to go this is in Twitter he's got 23 directives of Health in a chapter which he actually claims if you follow these directives on the hour of light the Hebrew language of I will guarantee for that person Sheila Bailey they Kylie call him up he what will not come to illness his entire life that's that's extraordinary which doctor without consulting his lawyers would ever offer such a guarantee but he's the reason why he's saying this is because he said God made your body so let me show you what the instructions are Oh eat when hungry drink when thirsty go to the bathroom when you have the need excuse me do I need someone the towering scholarly brain personality of Maimonides to tell me that and actually the underseas opening instructions he's telling you and I something simple Lee profound listen to the integrity of your mind when your mind here's a message from your body I'm hungry that's a message to refuel I'm thirsty don't dehydrate need to go to the bathroom need to expel the waste listen to the intelligence and integrity of your own body because it was created with perfection so Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that one day in the life of the human body is enough to steal all the luster from fiction if you and I could travel through the nervous system the circled the blood if we could travel inside our bones if we could just see the perfect harmony inside the human body you could take that 24-hour expedition throughout your body and weigh it on the scale of every fiction that was ever created Shakespeare Conrad Chaucer Harry Potter have to put that one in Agatha Christie I'm not joking because after the Bible sorry oh sorry Scottish actually so it comes along my mind is a Ralph Waldo Emerson is essentially saying if you put all fiction on one side of the scale and for 24 hours you're you would burst your blood vessels just from excitement but if you in the same 24 hours you went through your body it would steal all the luster from fiction all the joy all the ecstasy you could ever have from fiction in a 24 hour compressed period would not equal the extraordinary experience of seeing the perfection inside your body comes along Maimonides he tells us the sum the importance of exercise he defines exercise it tells you when when's the best exercise I'm gonna touch this very very quickly he says there are three things if you follow these three cardinal principles of health you can expect not hope that actually I'm not sure if there's a word for hope in the Hebrew the word takfir actually comes in word cover which means a straight line a straight line you don't hope to be able to figure out all the points that will go through you know you you know exactly where it's going to go if it's straight so the word mikvah for example is a ritual bath where a person doesn't hope to go in spiritually contaminated service we can come out pure no they expect to they know so the word Tikva correctly translates as expectation so says Maimonides don't hope for good health it's a very weak word don't hope give up hope expect if you follow these three under eat number one and it's not good we can to be saying this I should I should have said this Sunday morning under eat number one number two daily exercise and he says number three interestingly enough is soft bowel movement soft bowel room not touched on very fast I'm sorry we just got one minute left and those who need to leave at 3:20 exactly I will not be offended you have to go soft bowel movement is an excellent indication that your body is doing the job it needs to do inefficiently expelling waste toxicity in the body especially digestion is the beginning of disease that's what my monitors actually says in that chapter four he mentions that constipation is a very serious situation that I should try to monitor the causes of constipation which could be irregular sleeping that can often cause it or not enough vegetables and fiber and fruit of water in my diet that can also cause constipation and lack of X exercise but soft bowel movement is an excellent indication that your body is working efficiently number two under eating we don't have the luxury of time to go into that but he basically says if you under eat unhealthy foods that is way superior to over eating only healthy unto eating even unhealthy foods he's not saying you should but but you can expect with good health if you under eat and never reach satiation he talks about not reaching satiation on exercise he says essentially the following any physical he gives her the definition which is this is 800 years ago he gives you how many how many exercise programs are there on the market here today hundreds if not thousands right comes along Maimonides 800 years ago and he tells you the best exercise for every human being he tells you the optimum exercise he tells you how to the definition that's generic to everybody so interesting he he he gives those examples but first he tells you what's the cause what you need to be looking for any physical exertion of the body that causes you have deep breathing it's going to force you to sweat and your lungs your heart are going to be working at optimum any physical exertion that causes you to have deep breathing is exercise for that body he says continue that exercise if it's walking running treadmill and makes no difference which one it is as long as it brings you to deep breathing because that's the indication on the outside that your metabolism is moving on the inside your blood is being pumped to all the parts of the body especially if you're if you're walking or jogging or moving your arms as well oh so that's why swimming by the way is so dangerous after a heavy meal because swimming after heavy meal your digestive system out of all the functions in your entire body nerve you can ask a physician this question which is the one that takes the most priority if you have to share energy and the answer is always digestion the heart must pump blood for the stomach to break down the food because if it's not broken down efficiently it will become toxic toxic it will purify and in putrifying it goes to the bloodstream and now the bloodstream will bring the toxicity to the cells and that's where disease can be caused that's the my mother's bring this eight hundred years ago so he says be very careful not to exercise after a heavy meal always on a light a light stomach and your undigested now he tells you that once you've reached the point where you're sweating a deep breathing continue that until any one of the following three surface and now you know you've reached maximum over exercise don't go there number one if you feel any pain in any joint in your body trust your body trust what you're thinking your body's telling you a signal this is her hurting me stop the exercise if I experience a change in my facial expression so for example I'm in front of the mirror and I'm on the treadmill really look at the mirror and you'll notice that your face strange and the word for face in Hebrew there isn't actually one because the word for faces Panem Panem is plural why plural because you don't have a face your face changes every second of your entire life every moment your face is changing you have over 46 muscles in your face you can make unlimited facial expressions this is not me the reduc says it's in book of Joshua Peter chapter 1 verse 1 there's no word in the entire scripture for for face that means it doesn't exist because your chair your face is changing all this all the time in fact even after we die continues to change from that's what Beethoven did art after he died he decomposed sorry sorry British humor sorry so comes along Maimonides and he offers the definition makes eyes any exercise that brings you to keep breathing and therefore we gonna sweat sweat very very healthy it's the next biggest eliminator after after you and urinating and defecating is sweats because we've got the whole surface body to get rid of toxicity in your body through sweat so it's very very important says Maimonides if I if I notice facial expression is strained stop the exercise if I know to pain in any one of my joints stop the exercise if I and here's very interesting if I stop sweating to stop the exercise that's a sign that I'm dehydrating stop the exercise says Maimonides what's the best exercise of all 800 years ago and fascinatingly he says one you enjoy the example he gives is a ball game he says any any exercise that you're enjoying he claims that the emotion of happiness when you are having a physical workout is totally superior completely different than if I'm I've got a workout but where's my mind this is really hot I can't believe I've got to do this every day of my life gotta be joking but if you're playing a ball game especially if you're winning and you're enjoying the game Oh tennis basketball soccer English football you're enjoying the game even even table tennis - ping-pong you can work up a sweat playing ping pong says Maimonides the best the best exercise of all is one that has happiness because happiness with your physical exercise is the best possible workout there's much more to be said on on this important subject but I'll close on that on the following he says he says the most important benefit of all exercise is physical stimulation to the point that your emotion becomes influenced and rejoices such as ballgames because the emotion of happiness will often suffice to heal the body just by its very presence joy and happiness alone make people's illness milder it's important to pay more attention to exercise of the emotions than exercise of the body to vote all manner of exercises development of happiness contentment and rejoicing and he gives a list of all the items that that reduce body fat and diminish physical strength fasting insomnia anxiety severe emotional strain anger constant desire for women lust for money lust for political power recurring thoughts that give me no peace jealousy [Music] no it's talking about where you're fasting to a point of weakness so actually fasting in intervals he brings like once a week for half a day's excellent it's very very very good very very healthy and there's a lot of scientific information nowadays is there's eight sixteen where people are between the sleeping hours not eating for sixteen hours then eating for eight and it works very well for the metabolism because originally we're really designed not to be eating late into the night and having a very very it doesn't have to be a breakfast first thing in the morning but everyone's what happens difference I'm not gonna I'm not gonna mention too much about it now the main point I just want to bring out and I'll close and take any questions is that you cannot separate the mind which is really powered by the soul you can't separate mind thought from emotions and the body and if I'm going to treat the body outside of what I'm feeling because of what I'm restore and anxious about or bitter or angry whatever it is then I'm I'm I'm only dealing with the symptom on the outside but not the cause on the inside it's always it's always starting here thank you for your patience any questions yes ma'am the quotes I was giving into you are in two places chapter 4 of the of cold hill Castilla switched correctly translates as as the book of a painter of attitudes Hill Chris des amis book of thinking laws of thinking so she should chapter 4 there but the this about exercise and happiness it mentions exercise three times in that chapter but the definition of exercise and this happiness connection is in his in in his medical writings and it's in Chapter four it's in volume 14 three ties number eighteen that's where he brings that oh he says that you should when you eat food on your plate choose the light food first and then the next least light so for example if you've got vegetables and chicken and fish and meat first I should have the vegetables cuz that's the lightest then I should have to the fish it's a bit lighter than chicken chicken next and then meat you just don't don't do it in reverse because what ends up happening is that the vegetables will get digested later and long it'll take longer because the meat I can take up to six hours to digest and break down and so the vegetables god forbid will Putra fire early and that causes toxicity oh no it's you you can eat vegetables with meat yes you can actually but sorry yeah but first first of vegetables yeah and he says don't drink don't drink in the meal unless it's wine but you shouldn't have water in the meal or just a very small amount and it explains why it's very simple when I don't when when i dilute a meal with a lot of liquid the the food in the stomach is swimming around which means that the gastric juices in the walls of the stomach are having less exposure efficiency economically wise so to speak to the food that needs to be broken down because there's so much liquid there so he says if you want to drink drink before the meal and drink at the end of the meal but not during or take a sip if it's wine it doesn't seem to be bothered that you can drink wine somehow rather wine is different in how it's really it's really grapes that that have obviously fermented to wine yeah a few minutes before yeah just a few minutes is fine no you don't need to yeah a few minutes before no no even it's just a few minutes or near the end yeah at the end yes yeah I'm sorry Oh fasting oh right besides that you see the point about fasting is that you're giving your body a tremendous rest that's obviously the origin of the word breakfast break fast because I'm not eating during the night sorry yes oh you're talking to me personally oh I hope I do okay yeah no I last time I looked it was still there but I so so yeah I swim every day and I and I have a mostly a water based I mean mostly vegetables and fruits and nuts I rarely eat chicken or meat and I haven't had dairy in 30 years I have the occasional cappuccino I like that but I don't have pizzas and I haven't had soda in over 32 years 33 years I haven't touched a coca-cola I was suffering from a serious constipation I I went to many doctors none of them could help me eventually I met a reflexologist who studying the soles of my feet and she asked me if I was very athletic in my youth I said yes I was I played up to three to six hours of of soccer a day she said okay that makes sense because you got a very strong stomach but you're abusing yourself with a lot of junk food so when I first arrived America 33 years ago I went drunk with the kosher food we didn't have kosher food like you got here beef burgers and cheese cakes and um pizzas it was like I can't believe it's all kosher so I I was and I was having about 1 or 1/2 liters of soda Coke 7up a day so she told me if you want to die young then you definitely continue but if if you if you want to if you want and the constipation is a very serious a condition a person should colonics is excellent if person has constipation laxatives is is okay as dealing with the symptom but it's not a solution because what laxatives can do is basically this way Rambam puts it when it talks about shooting from medicine before you first exercise unto eat and eat healthier foods that have much more nutrition in them he says that the problem with with laxatives or any medication if if I take that as a first root before I've asked well what can I do differently in my lifestyle he says the medication even if it does work will actually train the the part that part of the body to become lazy and not have to heal itself because I'm using something from the outside in I'm not a physician and I don't mean this to be applicable in any personal specific case but I'm giving as a general principle the the best thing to do for constipation is exercise water-based item of a diet and also to be careful not to have irregular sleeping habits because that that can also disturb the digestion and cause constipation yes yes there's a dr. Esselstyn who's written a book he's he's a prominent heart specialist and cardiologist dr. dr. Esselstyn he wrote a book called treating and reversing heart disease reversing heart disease and so Esselstyn s lessly I'm forgetting doc testing yeah he has a half of his book is showing you he's got a lot of pictures they're showing you the veins of his patients who before they followed his diet was very strict there's no animal products whatsoever but you're talking about people who who have at a very late stage in heart disease but he showed you that the power of the body to heal itself is so strong that literally you can see the difference three months afterwards after taking a water vegetable own fruit only based diet no oils and no meat or chicken the veins actually were able to heal themselves and you saw the cholesterol fall away and and the size of the the arteries came became normal again an absolute ordinary the other half of the book is all the recipes but he's he's a top cardiologist in in Ohio in Cleveland Ohio I'm sorry I don't know Esselstyn yeah ESS you could google his name I'm sure yeah it's I think it's called but google words reverse heart disease Esselstyn it's still going to come up yes so it really depends on the person my monitor says that eight is really oh it appears that well there's I'm not going into the details now because there's it's more than one component here but my - for example tells us be very careful not to go to sleep on a full stomach especially meat the reason why is very simple even if a person who gets let's say eight hours sleep but if he had red meat as as a heavy meal now red meat takes six hours to digest if a person sleeping the metabolism is going faster or slower it slows down so actually takes closer to seven hours to digest red meat if a person is a heavy meal before going to sleep what ends up happening is that even though he to the clock slept eight hours his body got one hour rest maybe two so he could wake up less then I was a ridiculous example but could you imagine let's say a Friday night having a deeper very heavy meal I'm just as a wild example so a person wakes up let's say Saturday morning and says oh no I missed the morning prayers I'm so tired you know I work so hard during the week I just cut you know I just worked so hard so then Saturday afternoon Shabbat afternoon he takes the world's fastest sleeping pill Holland and now he's out for another three hours and he wakes up oh I missed the appraiser company I worked so hard I'm just so tired and the reality is it's just a mistake about reality he thinks that he's Thai because he works hard which is probably true but but guess what if I'm abusing my body to the point where I'm resting after a heavy meal there's not the best time to rest I shouldn't be having hot every meal first place but if I do so walk it off slowly to have take don't exercise in a thorough way but walk it off or or or spend it an hour - he says at least two hours after heavy meal before going to sleep otherwise while my body is supposed to be replenishing energy what's actually happening is its spending energy to digest the food in my stomach and so instead of me actually getting stronger I wake up tired groggy exhausted so that's that's that's his his yes there's the Arcadian clock of the body should really follow yeah but but you know McCann cheat once a week and you'll get away with it like Shub should but you can cheat once a week you get away with your body is very strong and very powerful has got a lot of self-healing properties you're welcome Oh yes oh that's why oh well oh that's kind thank you thank you [Music] how often to the first so so it's brought in it mentioned that Friday's of good data fast as and give give the body especially that one's going to eat much more on Shabbat so once a week is good but it it can you can you can just drink yeah there's in Russia they are the ones that for law the longest time have been using fasting Mon monitored fasting for healing of the worst imaginable illnesses it's starting in the West they're starting to come together there's an actual reality to that so there is this one clinic in a hospital in California that does this but there's an excellent documentary on fasting it's cool fasting yes yeah you could very light very light food that's it yeah you'll get away with that yeah yeah oh good question oh good for you this is complementary for you let me see if I can tell from here yeah I'm guessing from weight looks it looks like you looked like the Sun is pointing in that direction so I have a feeling that that is yes fine okay right okay I mean I'm here the hopes about and you could so thank you ma'am that's very kind of you thank you yes oh yes but is it as cool as he was called he'll hot day art so yeah so rabbi a big Tamila calls that book of added to a book of thinking laws of thinking yes yes oh that uh it does but I'll give you this this has has it in Hebrew and English you're welcome welcome Shabbos oh right