Rabbi Jonathan Rietti - Revealing G-d Behind Life's Challenges

Good crap. Good evening. Thank you for your introduction of my book for your kind words. And I'm grateful as well to Gateway for co-sponsoring this evening's talk. I believe you've asked me to speak on the subject of revealing God behind life's challenges. So, I'm going to ask you to dig into your memories to your favorite movie. I don't think it lasted more than 2 hours. Maybe a little longer. But if you had to give a guess, how many hours did it take to create that movie? What number would you probably come up with? Any Any idea? Years. A couple of years. So, I'll give you a little a little bit of an insight. I used to work in uh the film business with my father. My father's a film director in England. He's actually very well known in the film industry as the best in the world in dubbing. Dubbing is a a specific specialized field of re-voicing. So, the time of James Bond, which some of you have heard of, the old Bond movies with Sean Connery and Roger Moore, so my father directed the re-voicing in all those movies. And when I was about 9 years old, first time I met uh Sean Connery, so I was walking up steep steps into the volcano in the movie called You Only Live Twice. I don't know if you've seen that. It's uh it's it's still available on DVD and whatnot. But what's really interesting is the following. thing. That part of the movie where you see the volcano was shot on location in Italy. However, the volcano inside was in Pinewood Studios outside London. And it was an enormous set. I mean, we're talking about tens of thousands of square feet of an internal volcano. So, that you see from the outside as a helicopter is coming towards the volcano, that's shot in Italy. But when you go inside, if you ever saw the old version of Batman, they open up this cave on the outside goes into an entire building inside the rock. So, inside this volcano, that's shot in England. And there you have a railway system inside the volcano. And you have a railway that takes all the different people to their stations inside. And you have a rocket, which of course, according to the script, holds the nuclear warhead and is threatening to destroy planet Earth, this and that. But what's really interesting is really the following. Between the script writing and the raising of funds and the producing of the film, how long do you think it takes on average to film about 2 minutes of a movie? Any guess? Yeah, it can take up take up to about 100 hours. And and never forget, you know, you probably think it's really glamorous to be there on a real set. I was once with my father in the film The Omen. Uh that's before your time. Uh Gregory Peck was was starring in it. Went into a few sequels. And one of the scenes in the first movie, which was really scary when you watch it two-dimension, is you see a graveyard. And people are opening up a grave and they find the remains of a skeleton of a dog instead of their child. It was quite shocking. And when you watch the movie itself, it is so frightening, people are jumping out of their skin. There I am watching this inside a very large area where the graveyard was created out of grass taken from outside. And it was all indoors, and there I am, I'm trying very hard to stop myself from laughing as I know what's about to happen next. You cannot believe how boring it gets to watch the same the same scene shown over again and again. Now, when it comes to re-voicing a movie, you'll see why this is relevant to today's topic in a minute. When it comes to re-voicing a part of film, what happens is the following. Many movies are completely re-voiced into another language. It's called dubbed. When they do that, they divide the film into what's called loops. That means the soundtrack is broken up into very small segments of no more than about 10 or 11 seconds. So, you can imagine how many segments there are in the entire movie. Then what they do is they play on the screen that 10-second part of the movie, and underneath the screen is a segment screen. And on that, you see the writing of the words of the dialogue of that particular segment. There's a line. And as the band, it's called the band, as the words hit that line, if you read those words exactly as the words hit the line, you will be saying them in perfect sync and synchronization to the mouth movements of the actor or actress on screen. Now, this is the real hochma. This is This is not a simple thing. I'll explain why. When they take the words of a movie and put it into English from Italian or French, they have to rewrite the entire script in another language. And they have to choose words which fit the mouth movements. That's That's how That's how difficult it is when you redo a movie and it's dubbed and you can't tell it was dubbed. My fellows are best in the world at dubbing. You will not know that the movie was re-voiced. So, you have to match the words to the lip movements and then you have to say the words and act it to the exact moment that the mouth is opening and closing. It's not easy. How many times do you think it takes till on the average one a 10-second segment called a loop is done successfully? Any idea? It could take No, it usually takes about 3 hours. 3 hours to do it in a 10- to 11-second segment. And this is done in a studio. Guess where the studio is. About 100 ft beneath the ground. And you're there for hours and hours, up to 14, 16, 18 hours a day for weeks on end till you finish a movie and you're on the schedule. You have to get it done. Can you imagine how exciting and glamorous that is? Now, the reason why I share you this information is the following. WHEN YOU WATCH A MOVIE, you are looking through the lens of the camera. Is that right? And you're seeing it on a screen. What you see is what the camera wants you to see. What you don't see, the light technicians, the sound technicians, the producer, the director, the other actors actresses who haven't yet come on on their cue into that part of the movie, right? You don't see all of that. What you see is not real. WHAT YOU DON'T SEE is much more real. And what you do see on the screen, how much of that is actually real? What you're watching on a TV screen, on a movie screen, how much of it is actually real? Half. JUST THE AFTER IMAGE. ZERO. IT'S TWO DIMENSION. IT NEVER IT'S ONLY ON THE SCREEN. THERE'S NOTHING THERE. IT'S ALL LIGHT. It's an illusion, right? It's only a perception of after the film has been developed as to what you think you'll see. But it's so compelling, it's so engaging, so absorbing that many times after the movie a person walks out of the theater and there's a a few seconds. You know that like moment of merging back to reality. You've got to remind yourself, "Yeah, this is this is the real world, right?" But but really I'm still sitting in the seat absorbed by what I just saw. That's how powerful the media is, but that's not my point. The point I'm making is really the following. What we see is not real. What we don't see is much more real. Now, the lecture. I want to share with you the following. In science there used to be a golden rule. Until you could observe it, it's doesn't exist. Does that sound logical? Yeah. If you cannot see it, if you cannot experience, you cannot tell me it exists. However, science no longer follows that rule. Why? Because when you look up at the sky at night and you see a star, do you know that it for sure exists? Why not? It's there. I can see it bright, shining. How can you tell me that it might not exist? It could have burned out a long It takes time for the light to get here. It takes time for the light to get here and maybe that star burned out a while ago. And if it did, what I'm looking at is the light that's still coming off the star before it blew up. If this is a little bit confusing, I'll make it much more simple. How long does it take for light to travel? How fast does it travel? 186,000 miles per second, correct? 186,000 miles per second. How far is is our local sun? How far is the local sun from planet Earth? 93,248,000 MILES, RIGHT? HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FROM THE moment a light wave leaves planet the solar the sun. How long will it take for that light to arrive at planet Earth at the rate of 186,000 miles per second traveling a distance of 93 million miles? 7 minutes 52 seconds. The answer is somewhere in the range of between 7 and 8 minutes. That's correct. It will take between 7 and 8 minutes. Which means when when a person looks at the sun, of course he's wearing sunglasses, and if God forbid it were to blow up, you wouldn't know about it for another 7 plus minutes. Cuz when you're looking, you can see the sun. It's still there. Why? Cuz what I'm looking at are the sun rays that are projected off the sun. But it could be that 3 minutes ago, 4 minutes ago, 5 minutes ago, it blew up. It's no longer there, but I won't know about that. That's why I could see a star in the sky and say, "Hey, I can see it exists. I'm a witness. Testimony. Doesn't get more certain than that. For sure it exists." And in reality, it's not there. There are many instances like this in science. I'll give you another example. Before the atom was discovered, we did not really fully understand the molecular structure of a mass. But now we do understand the molecular physical structure of mass of solid items. From a scientific perspective, how much of it is actual mass and how much of it is totally empty space? Almost all empty. Almost all empty space. How much is almost? 99. 99.99% of it is empty space. Which means that the vast majority of the world that you and I physically experience all the time is mostly empty space. The only reason why our hand doesn't go through rock is because the atoms them protons, electrons, they're moving so fast that it appears and physically feels as though there's a solid mass there. But scientifically we know that's not true. It's not ACTUALLY IT. THE VAST MAJORITY of the physical mass is empty space between the atoms. To the extent that if one were to theoretically reduce planet Earth to its actual mass physical state. In other words, if there was some way to remove ALL THE EMPTY SPACE out of everything that's solid and then compress the physical mass into one area, how big an area would planet Earth be compressed into? Approximately the size of a basketball. Planet Earth would be reduced to the size of a basketball if you were to take out all the empty space from the physical mass. Do you follow what we're saying here? You see, even in the physical world, most of what we see doesn't exist. It's not the real world. In Hebrew, how do you say spirituality? Ruchaniut. What is the shoresh? What is the two-letter, three-letter root of of spirituality in Hebrew? Ruach. What does ruach mean? Spirit or wind. Let me ask you, can you see wind? Can you hear it? Are there any physicists here? ANY CAN YOU HEAR IT? YOU CAN'T HEAR IT. HOW DO YOU KNOW IT EXISTS? YOU FEEL the impact of winds upon physical reality. When you see leaves blowing in the air and they're making a noise from the wind, it's not the wind you hear, it's the rustling of the leaves from the force of the wind. Wind cannot be seen and it cannot be heard. The only reason you and I know it exists is because we see its impact on physical reality. So, the word ruchaniut, spirituality, means that there is a spiritual force behind every physical action that takes place in this world. That actually what we see in this world is a revelation of God's will, but God's will is not visible. It's a spiritual force. Now, let me share with you the following. In the world of technology, we've made some incredible advancements. All of you know, most of you, if not every single one of you, have at least one cell phone. Am I correct? And if you were to call I would notice just coming in this evening, one young lady was calling friend of hers who was actually descending down the steps and her friend who was descending down the steps uh, had her cell phone ringing and the one who was coming towards her was holding her cell phone, saying, "I'm just calling you now." And someone in the hearing would say, "Is that correct?" So, but how did the signal get to your friend who was only a few feet away? Space, satellite. First it went to a satellite, quite a few miles in outer space, orbiting planet Earth, and it came back down. Isn't that amazing? You see, if we were living just decades, not even centuries ago, and someone would tell us that, it would be very hard for us to fathom that. It would sound something that's either magical or in the imagination, but we could not contain this as a possibility in our human experience. God, in his sense of humor, so to speak, has compressed information in this generation, which is very close to the end of our calendar time for this world's existence, the thousands 6,000 years. We're in the year 5,765. So, we're we're pretty close to the 6,000 year deadline, by which the Messiah has to have come. God is, so to speak, making it easier and simpler and part of our actual experience that there are dimensions that we don't see, but know exist. Most of us in this room could not explain how, if you press a switch on the wall, the electric light bulb comes on. Some of us can explain that. But, we do know that it it is explainable, that there's an explanation that's logical and scientific. But, to someone who has no clue, could easily think that there's some sort of magic, that when you press that button, this is the result. God wants us to know that there's no such thing as an accident. There's no such thing as anything happening without a perfect, calculated purpose. I want to enter one more area, which science has boldly dared, with great courage, to enter and come out with some fascinating conclusions. And I mention this because typically over the centuries, science has deliberately ignored the possibility that God is one of the candidates for creation of universe. Science has deliberately avoided the possibility that there's a spiritual dimension beyond the physical observation, physical experience. And so I want to share with you a work that has been published quite recently by Dr. Ian Stevenson. Dr. Ian Stevenson, he has a seven-volume work on the subject of where biology intersects with reincarnation. And he condensed his seven-volume work into one volume, and it's based on 2,600 case studies where children were telling their parents, 2 years, 3, 4, 5 years old, telling their parents that you're not my real parents. Now, a few decades ago, what would a What do you think a parent would do when there were no therapists or psychologists or psychiatrists? Where Where do you think this child would land up? This kid would either be ignored, just like completely ignored, or shunned, or locked away. You're insane. I WAS I WAS THERE WHEN I GAVE BIRTH TO YOU. IT doesn't get more obvious than that. And yet hundreds and then thousands of such children making this claim, parents are bringing them to the therapists, and psychol- psychologists, psychiatrists. Eventually, Dr. Ian Stevenson decided to make a research of this, and he did. He took 2,600 case studies of these children, and he prepared a 200-question questionnaire in which he asked these children, "What was the name when you were in your previous life cycle? What were the names of your previous parents? What were the names of your neighbors? What was the name of the street that you lived on? What number was your house? What was the layout in your house? What were What What did the furniture look like in your home? What were the names OF YOUR SIBLINGS? LOTS of questions." And then these children were taken to the places where they claimed to have been born originally, who their real parents were, and then they would identify their home, their neighbors, and in some case cases their parents. And out of 2,600 case studies, 2,600 children answered 200 questions correctly. What conclusion is any scientist or any non-scientist supposed to come to? So, Dr. Ian Stevenson came to the following conclusion. He said, "I'm not a believer in God," he said, "but based on this evidence, it is obvious that there is a life beyond the life we live in, if not for everybody, but for some. And that sometimes people have a memory of their previous life." The reason I'm sharing with you this with this information as a hakdamah, an introduction to the presentation, is because it's become less and less difficult for us in this generation to make a leap of faith and believe in something that we can't see. Because we already have scientific evidence that there are dimensions beyond what the human is capable of experiencing without a special technology that will give us access to that particular dimension. Why is this happening now? Because it's all preparation. And what's the preparation for? Eventually, God is going to reveal the ultimate movie. We actually say these words, not the word going to see a movie, we say the following words at the end of our prayers every morning, afternoon, and evening. It's the last taste, the last message that we are meant to carry with us into the rest of the day. And it's such an important message that we repeat the message morning, afternoon, and evening in order that we are preparing to training ourselves. So, when God finally reveals himself, it won't be a shock to us because we've been preparing for this moment. And what is the last words on our lips at the end of every prayer? The higher sham la malach. And God will be king al kol aretz on the entire earth. Bayom hahu on that day yihyeh Adonai echad ushmo echad. On that day, he will be one and his name will be one. What does it mean that he Then he will be one on that day? We know God is one. Who is one? What does that mean? That's what the Talmud asks. So, the the Gemara answers, it means that in human experience we designate positive experiences as great, that's wonderful, a blessing. That's good. And when we experience pain, a personal challenge, with a difficult boyfriend or a difficult girlfriend, or a difficult mother or father, a difficult brother or sister, a difficult boss or coworker, or roommates. Sorry? Did I miss someone out? Okay. A difficult landlord, a difficult landlady, a difficult teacher, whoever we experience difficulty with, what we're saying over here is that God has perfectly calculated that bayom hahu, even though right now I declare that as a negative and a negative encounter with the particular person, God is going to reveal, at the end of the movie, we're going to sit in an IMAX theater, and we're not going to just see the two-dimensional part of the movie, we'll be seeing it from every angle. And we'll be seeing all the participants, and we will see the movie of their personal lives from the beginning of their life to the end, until we have such a complete picture of the total movie of creation that there will be no more questions about God's justice or apparent injustice. Because in our personal experience of life now, there are two blessings we make, one for when things go good, and one when things don't go so good. But by Yom Hahu, on that day when God finally reveals himself in full regalia, the entire movie, that's when we will declare that God was really only one blessing all along. He's only good. There are no mistakes. Even tragedy is really a misperception. It's my human perception of injustice. But in God's perception, God's angle, there's no such thing as a mistake. If you have to grapple with the two hardest questions that mankind has ever really had to deal with, related to tonight's subject, revealing God behind life's challenges, the two questions that are the hardest questions for people to deal with is number one, personal difficulty in my life, personal tragedy, God forbid. And number two, national and global tragedy, national and global suffering, the challenges of around the world. Those are the biggest questions that people have. Now, putting that aside for a moment, we're going to relate to it in a few moments in the context of what we're describing. What would you say is arguably the most valuable moment in a person's life? Think for a few seconds. What's the most valuable moment in your life? Marriage? Birth? Death. Who said death? Why is Why is it that death, the moment of death, might be the most valuable moment in life? In my last moment, in my last moment before a person moves on to meet their creator, how will they depart from this world? In the moment they know they're going, are they GOING TO SAY, "WHY? WHY ME? WHY?" "I'M SO GOOD. I GAVE CHARITY TO YOU THOUGH. I FEEL LIKE I'M SO BAD. WHY?" THAT'S ONE WAY TO GO. BUT HOW IS IT YOU'RE supposed to go? Shema Yisrael. WHAT ARE THE LAST words that all our lives we're training to say before we go? Shema Yisrael. And what are we saying? Listen, oh Israel. I'm also Jewish, so I have to listen, too. Shema Yisrael. Hashem Eloheinu, God is our power. Hashem Echad, He's one. One what? One power? One power behind everything in our lives, both the blessing and the bad. He was the same power. Now, look at the rest of the message. Devar Ahavta et Hashem Elohecha, love Hashem b'chol l'vav'cha, with all your heart, u'v'chol naf'sh'cha, with all your soul. What does it mean to love God with all your soul? So says the Gamara on that last mission in Barachos. Even when God takes my soul, that's the moment to LOVE GOD. I LOVE GOD THROUGHOUT MY LIFE. I'm practicing it every day. I have to say but WHEN IS THE MOST VALUABLE MOMENT TO MEASURE THE human being's demonstration of his love for God? When I give back to you what's most valuable to me, MY SOUL, MY LIFE. OH, DO I give it back complaining or with gratitude and love? That's very telling. That's a very powerful moment of who we are when we're really squeezed. And love with all your might. What does might mean? Might means very. Very what? Might is the same letters Adam. With all of our person, all our essence. But all of us also means all of our money. All our talents, all our possessions, all our money. All of our comes from the word measure. What does measure mean? Measure. The whole measure or measure. With every measure to whom God measures out to a person, they measure to a person whether it was a measure of blessing, health, wealth, family, finances, they measure to a person or whether God is exacting payment from me, be very exceedingly grateful. Wow. That's the mission that a Jewish child is with. THAT DURING OUR LIFETIME WE'RE PREPARING FOR THE LAST MOMENT. That we move ON. WE'RE SAYING, "GOD, I'M PREPARING MYSELF. I'm training in your reality, not mine. Cuz in my reality, there's good and there's bad. BUT I'M TRAINING EVERY DAY IN YOUR REALITY THAT WHEN I GO, NOT IF, WHEN I go, I'm going to go with the words, "I love you, Hashem." As the one power, the loving God that was behind everything in my life, both the good and the not good in my life. And I'll love you in that last moment. That's what we're training in. That's what our mission is. To find God not just in the last moment. We're training every single day to look for you are in my life and I'm going to love you no matter what. This is actually the words taken from the code of Jewish law. The code of Jewish law under the subject of how to respond to suffering. In Sima section Resh Haf Bet, 222, SUBSECTION THREE. CHAYA ADAM LIVARECH AL HARA, a person has an OBLIGATION IN HIS LIFETIME to bless God when pain, negative experiences hit him, K'shem Y'varech with the same simcha, same happiness as when good happens to him. Now, let me ask you, does that make sense? Can Can we honestly be grateful to God when bad things happen and say, "Thank you. I love you." in the moment of pain? That's very hard. IS THAT A FAIR EXPECTATION? LET ME ASK you a different question. WHAT IS THE CODE OF JEWISH LAW MEANT? What's the purpose of the code of Jewish law? The way Shabbat comes, oh, you know, I better look up. How do I to Shabbat? Do I look it up on Friday afternoon and start studying the laws of Shabbat? Or the laws of Shabbat I'm supposed to study from the code of Jewish law in preparation that when the occasion comes I'll be prepared and know what to do. Or not what to do, know what to do. The question is here, when God gives us an obligation to be grateful when bad things happen, if God forbid someone suffers and comes to the rabbi, "Rabbi, what should I do when I'm suffering? Do you know the laws of what to do for this?" "Oh, that's very simple. In section 222, subsection three, it says here, you have an obligation to be grateful to God for the bad in your life." "Oh, thank you, Rabbi, so much. So much thank you." IT'S TOTALLY UNREALISTIC. THE PURPOSE OF THE CODE of Jewish law is for me to study IN PREPARATION for when challenges in life hit me. So that I've already learned in advance how am I supposed to respond? There's another section, Resh Lamed 230, right at the end, subsection five, quoting the Talmud from Rabbi Akiva, very strong language, consistently. You hear Adam Ragil, a person should constantly say the words L'Olam, Kol D'Avid Rachmana, whatever the Merciful One does, L'Tov Avid, is only good. Is this just positive thinking and denying the reality of pain? Or are we training in when bad things happen, yes, the pain IS REAL, I CAN'T AVOID IT. I LOST MONEY. I GOT HURT BY THIS person's insults. My spouse doesn't understand me. That hurts. My child is disrespectful. That hurts. But what we're saying here is something much deeper. I have a choice of how to respond. I can come ungrateful to God, angry at God. I can blame my spouse and my friends and whoever it is that I want to say is the cause of my losing this job, not moving ahead in my career, not being happy in this relationship. But God wants me to understand there's another dimension of play that I may not see, but he wants me to train in. And that is there's always a BENEFIT THAT IS FAR GREATER THAN ANY pain I'll ever experience. How can that be? Where do we see God train us in that? What's the first lesson every human being, Jew or Gentile, gets in this world? What's the first lesson we ever get? A SMACK. WHAT? SORRY, I DIDN'T mean to wake you up. SORRY, EVERYONE. THE FIRST LESSON A HUMAN BEING GETS IN THIS WORLD IS A SMACK. NOT 3 SECONDS IN THIS WORLD. NOW, imagine you are that baby. You were that baby once. You don't remember, but just if you could recall for a moment, imagine now we would give you the intelligence of your adulthood into your mind when you got that first whack. How would you respond? NO, BESIDES WELL, HOW WOULD YOU RESPOND? WHY? WHAT? WHAT THE WHAT? I JUST GIVE ME A BREAK. I HAVEN'T SAID ANYTHING YET. I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING. I CAME IN GUILT-FREE, CAFFEINE-FREE, SUGAR-FREE. WHY? WHY ME? WHAT DID YOU DO? I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING. DO WE GET an answer? You don't get AN ANSWER FOR YEARS later when we have sufficient intelligence to understand the answer. And what's the answer? Why do I get that whack? It gave me my first cocktail of oxygen. Whoa! That whack opened all the airways so that my lungs were freed up from any mucus or other liquids, and now I'm breathing in for the first time and the whole respiratory system, blood, heart, everything is starting its cycle in full force. Oh! The first lesson God gives us in THIS WORLD IS PAIN. WHACK IS REAL. PAIN IS REAL FROM A HUMAN STANDPOINT. BUT THE PURPOSE BEHIND THE WHACK IS IMMEASURABLY GREATER IN benefit than the pain of the whack. BUT I DON'T HAVE THE MATURITY YET. IF YOU WERE TO EXPLAIN THAT to me, dear mom, dad, doctor, and I'm I'm about 10 seconds old, and if I could just get out of the crying, once I recover from the crying, try to empathize and then explain. Listen, darling, you're on really Sorry, I I don't even have a name for you yet, but I'm I'm going to just explain this to you. We had to whack you to save your life. No No reasonable, logical explanation would have been satisfying cuz I didn't have the maturity to contain the answer. I couldn't understand the vocabulary. God wants me to know my first taste of this world, pain is real. But there will come a time where where I will not only justify the whack, I'LL BE GRATEFUL ETERNALLY THAT YOU GAVE me that hit. For without which I possibly may have choked to death, died at my own weakness. Is that a peaceful way to put this? How many ways do you and I say why in Hebrew? There's two ways to say why. madua and lama In English, how many ways do you say why? Why? Now, why have you got two ways to say why in Hebrew? See, you have to ask God this question. You know why? Because God not only created this language, biblical Hebrew, he created the universe with Hebrew. Hebrew is responsible for physical reality. God spoke, and then reality was manifest. This means that when God chose words in Hebrew, there's a perfect reason. There can't be two whys unless there are two whys. If there's more THAN ONE WHY, THEY CAN'T BE THE SAME. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE between madua and lama? Madua comes from the language da. Give me the knowledge. Give me the information so that I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY it happened this way. Give me the breakdown of events as they unfolded, so I've got the information that led to this tragedy or this event, and now I understand why. Which time zone does madua send me into? Where am I going? Which time zone? The past or the past? You have to pay me to speak this way. All right. Madua Madua sends us into the past. But look at lama. It's a totally different why. La ma. What does lama mean? To or for. Ma, what does ma mean? WHAT? TWO WHAT? FOUR WHAT? SEE, THAT'S COMPLETELY DIFFERENT. WHY? MA DUA, GIVE ME THE information of the past that enables me to understand how it came to this time now. Let me understand there was a a volcanic eruption, an earthquake, and then this giant wave. Oh, that's how the tsunami came about. Give me the information that led up to the event so I understand the why. But that's not the same why as la ma. Four what? Two what? God is not responsible for the la ma. His domain is in the ma dua. Sometimes I can understand the why of the past if I'm smart enough, or if God reveals enough. Later on I'll understand why the whack was not only justified, I'm grateful for it. But la ma, how do we respond in the future? FOUR WHAT? TO WHAT MIGHT THIS BE A BLESSING? To how will I change myself because of what I've experienced? Do I become a more caring, sensitive human being because of what I've been through or what I've seen others suffer, or do I become callous, less sensitive, and in order to block out the pain of myself and others, I deny evil happens, and then I don't really grow that much from it, or at least not for now. La ma is my domain. FOUR WHAT? TWO WHAT? WHERE AM I GOING with this? The purpose of the why in the past is only useful if I take a lesson to propel me to the future. But the real question I'm here to answer is la ma. Four what? What am I going to do because I've been through an abusive relationship, or God forbid, abusive parents, or I came through after being on on a certain type of abuse of drugs or some other substance. How do I make something out of myself? Who will I become because of what I've been through, not just despite what I've been through? Here's the question that I'm now going to pose. When we ask why to God, is God answerable to me? Is God answerable to me? Who the hell DO I THINK I AM? AM I HERE TO JUDGE GOD? LET LET US JUST FIGURE this out for a moment. God is all knowing, all powerful, all loving, all just. These are concepts we can't properly fathom. We don't have access to the whole movie, SO WE DON'T UNDERSTAND THE LAVA or the madua. We can do our best where relates to me to write the script for lava, how I'm going to respond to this, but madua, the why of the past, that's God's domain. Is God answerable to me? I'll never forget when I was first married, my first Pesach with my parents was in St. Moritz in in Switzerland. And then my youngest son, he was a young boy, and we ordered ice cream in the hotel. He gets the ice cream, and it turned out to be vanilla and he wanted chocolate. So he's screaming away. So embarrassing in front of all the guests. WHAT'S THE MATTER? HE WANTS the chocolate instead of vanilla. Which one I can't remember which one it was. He got the wrong one. And now he's in a total tantrum. A lady passes by in a very thick East European accent. She says to him, "And what are you complaining about?" She said it twice. "AND WHAT ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT?" LIKE you know, this is not a real reason to complain. Anyway, later on in the holiday, it came out people in the community were sitting around having talks and this lady was talking about her experiences in Auschwitz in camps. And she describes how in her first marriage she had a child and she survived with the child while she was in the camps and there was one Nazi who laid his eyes on this child and kept offering to save the child's life. And when it was her turn to go to the gas chambers he said to her, "Look, you're going to lose your child anyway. There's Yeah, I'm making you an offer that I'll take care of this child. I'll make this child for you." This is very tempting. Nazis did this frequently. And not always did they really mean it. Sometimes it's a horrible joke. Finally, she acquiesced when she saw there was no turning around. Despite the fact that she actually survived the war in the end. And the Nazi picked up her child by his legs and swung him and crushed crushed open his head against the brick wall. This lady telling us this story. Later on I went up to her. I said, "I don't understand. You're a woman that remarried after the war. You wear a shitel. Your hair is covered. And you started a family again. And you're you're keeping Passover Pesach eating matzah and you don't eat chametz and you're in a kosher hotel. How do you still believe in God and keep his mitzvot after what you've been through?" I'll never forget her answer. Her answer was unbelievable. Very simple, she said, "You want I should question God?" And suddenly hit me. Whoa. I had a different definition of God. Where in my definition was I reducing God's intelligence to mine so that if I didn't understand something, God was answerable to me. She had a very simple understanding of God. Very deep. PROFOUND. GOD IS GOD. HE'S ALMIGHTY, ALL-KNOWING, ALL-JUST. YOU'RE asking me to question God? Do you know who you're talking about? It's amazing. When Moses ASKED GOD, "LAMA?" WHY? FOR WHAT? ARE THE JEWS STILL SUFFERING IN MITZRAYIM? WHAT WAS GOD'S ANSWER? "ANI HASHEM." I AM GOD. WHO DO YOU THINK HE'S TALKING TO? IT'S A VERY SIMPLE ANSWER. I am the God, Yud Kay Vav Kay. Yud and Hay and Vav and Hay is an abbreviation. Haya, Hoveh, V'yihyeh. I was am and always will be. In English, it translates correctly as the eternal one. What does that mean? The time, and only science has only recently revealed, thanks to Albert Einstein, time is part of creation. Time can be measured according to space and light. Time can even be manipulated. If we were to go to at the speed of light, we would actually slow down time. See, time is part of creation. What God is saying, "I DON'T EXIST IN ONE TIME DIMENSION. I'M IN ALL THREE DIMENSIONS SIMULTANEOUSLY. You can't understand that. YOU CAN'T ASK QUESTIONS AS A HUMAN being on my level." But one day, says God, "B'yom hahu, on that day, I will reveal all the reasons why, and then you won't have any questions." Rabbi Meir, in the Gemara Berachot, page 61A, tells us, "Olam yivneh al shnei atinim lifnei Hakadosh Baruch Hu." A person should train himself to consistently say very few words in front of God. That doesn't mean you can pray as much as you want, but it means when I complain, oh, be careful. Be very careful. Careful, Shlema, and he quotes from King Solomon, "Al tivahal al pikha." Don't be hasty in your mind. In your mouth in your mouth, "v'libekha and your heart your mind al yemaher hotzi davar lifnei Elohim." Be very careful. Don't be hasty to say something in front of God, "ki ha Elohim ki ha Elohim because the Almighty bashamayim." He's taking the movie in heaven and he's got a picture of everything THAT'S GOING ON. "V'ATAH, BUT YOU al ha'aretz." You're on earth. And when I look, guess what I'm looking at? I see things in front of me. I don't see anything beyond it. SO, I MAKE DECISIONS BASED ON WHAT I CAN SEE. I CAN'T make decisions based on what I can't see. God says, "But you know what? When I make decisions, I make decisions based on the whole picture." "Ata al ha'aretz." You are on this world. "Al kein therefore yihyu dvarekha mu'atim." Make sure your words are short. Be very careful when I complain against God. In the closing of the Torah, God describes himself. "Hatzur tamim pa'alo." The rock, in reference to God. Rock means secure, unmoving. You can be totally trusting that it's not going to bend. "Hatzur tamim pa'alo." His acts are perfect. Tamim means perfect, without blemish. "Ki khol drakhav." ALL HIS WAYS, NOT SOME, all his ways. "Mishpat av." Just. There's no injustice. "Ein avel." There's no such thing as injustice. "Kel emunah." He's a God that is totally trustworthy. There ain't no evil. There's no injustice. Sadiq v'yashar hu. He is righteous and straight. No bending. No messing around. That's our description of our creator. Madua is not our business. The why of the past is not our business. Lama. How we change ourselves because of what we see in our lives, personally, and nationally, and globally, that is our business. Another point I want to share with you. What is the purpose of a prophet? What do the prophets do? What was their job? To receive the future. Foresee the future? That was part of their job? Spread God's word? Reveal the message. Reveal the message? Actually, what was most of their work? Most of their job was what? What? To explain the Torah. No. Rebuke? Most of their job was correcting the Jewish people when we faltered. Now, do you think most of us were going around asking the the prophet, "Hey, prophet, could you tell me what's wrong with me?" Most of us are not that honest and open. Yonah, the navi, Yonah the prophet. When he's on the ship, running away from God. How does a prophet run away from God? Doesn't he know you can't run away from God? So, why is he running away from God? Because he didn't want God to communicate to him. He did not want to have to do what God asked him to do. Go to Nineveh, which was a gentile metropolis, and tell them to do teshuvah, to correct themselves, because he knew they wouldn't listen to him. And if they would listen to him, they would put the Jewish people in a bad light. So, Yonah refused to do what God asked him to do. So, he ran away from God. How do you run away from God? God's everywhere. Oh, Jonah knew that God can only communicate if you're happy. And one place for sure you can't be happy in the old days when you went on a cruise, uh it wasn't exactly a luxury. It was more like And on this ship, there was a storm. And Jonah finds himself down below in the hull while the sailors are throwing stuff overboard and don't know what to do and they're desperately praying to all their gods. Finally, they find Jonah and they say, "What are you doing here?" He tells them, "I'm running away from God." "Which God?" "God almighty, the one who created the heavens, the earth, and the seas." And when they hear that that's the God he's running away from, he tells them, what do you think he tells them? Think about it. What have they been doing the last few minutes? Praying to their idols. What do you think Jonah has a perfect opportunity to do right now? Pray to the RIGHT GOD. YOU IDIOTS! YOU FOOLS! YOU'RE PRAYING TO THE WRONG GOD! THE ALMIGHTY CREATOR, THE ONE POWER BEHIND ALL POWERS, HE'S THE ONE YOU SHOULD BE PRAYING TO. THAT'S WHY YOU'RE SUFFERING! WOULDN'T THAT HAVE been a great position to What did Jonah answer? JONAH SAYS, "BISHLI!" HERE ARE THE WORDS, "Ki yodea ani, I know, ki bishli, BECAUSE OF ME, hasa hagadol hazeh aleichem, this great storm has come upon you." Who's he blaming? Himself. Jonah knew exactly where to point fingers. He took total responsibility. When suffering happens around us, who's it really for? The Talmud tells us a frightening statement. No tragedy, catastrophe comes upon this earth unless it's for the Jewish people. That means that if the Gentiles suffer, for the most part, a tsunami, the message is not really for them. The message is more aimed for how am I going to respond? Says Rashi on that Gemara, on page 63 in Yevamot, tells us that they lay down that a Jew should be filled with a fear in order that we do teshuvah. The actual words there are that you don't get scared of teshuvah. That I should see what happened, and I should change, because when I change, the world changes with me. The purpose of Judaism in this world is to notice that God is behind everything. There are no accidents. Actually, if there are no accidents, let's figure this out for a moment. When God created the world, and he created it with biblical Hebrew, with Lashon Hakodesh, the holy tongue, if there's a word in English that has no equivalent in Lashon Hakodesh, in biblical Hebrew, if there's no such word in Hebrew, what does that say about reality? It doesn't exist. Think about it. Is there a word for accident in biblical Hebrew? Shogeg is. Ones means forced. Shogeg. Shogeg means a person that is by accident, wasn't thinking. Mikreh. Mikreh is the word that is translated by the St. James's Bible as accident. Mikreh doesn't mean accident. There is no word for accident. Mikra comes from the word kuf resh. Kuf resh means called out. Uh-huh. Mikra means it is called out. Says the Gemara, the Talmud, in Ta'anit, I think it's page seven. AIN MIKRA ELA KODESH BARUCH HU. THERE IS NO ACCIDENT, ONLY GOD. Amazing statement. And do you know what the the the proof is? She ne'emar, Hamikareh bamayim aliyotav. That God roofs His attic with water. What? Roofs His attic with water? Yes. The sky, the roof of God's above the world, is roofed with water, with clouds that contain water. When you look down from a helicopter and you see thousands of cars going in spaghetti junction, turning right, turning left, taking this one, taking that route, would you think for one moment that these cars are just haphazardly going in any direction with no destiny? No, of course not. Maybe one in a thousand is lost. But even while he's lost, he's trying to figure out how to use the stupid GPS system to get back on track. He He's still trying to figure OUT HOW TO GET HOME, RIGHT? HE'S GOT SOMEWHERE TO GO. HE JUST DOESN'T He's lost RIGHT NOW, BUT HE knows he has somewhere to go. When we look in the sky and we see clouds, would you think for one moment they have a destiny? Would you say, "Hey, the wind, ruach, blowing them wherever it wants." Uh Says the Talmud, "Ain mikra." THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS, ela Kodesh Baruch Hu, only God. And what's THE PROOF? EVERY CLOUD IN THE SKY HAS AN ADDRESS, BECAUSE EVERY DROP has been predetermined as to where it will fall. And what decides where the rain falls? Our actions. Our prayers, our behavior is what brings water to this world. Rain, water, blessing, or God forbid, the power of water can destroy, too. A mikra el akaras baruch all accidents happen on purpose. There's no word for ACCIDENT CUZ THERE AREN'T ANY. IT'S PERFECTLY CALCULATED. IF we read the media, if we watch the media, are they going to give us God's interpretation of reality? No. Just one angle, one lens, two-dimensional. You and I are not going to see the full picture, not by far. God wants us to wear his lenses. How are we going to put his eyes on? How do we wear God's eyes? How do you do that? Hey, there's an easy way to do that. How's that? When God wrote the Torah, you know what he's really doing? It's his autobiography for the world. Say, "No, follow the text. Do you know what you're looking at? You're looking at what I see as important to write. And what I don't write about is what the author doesn't deem sufficiently significant to communicate to its reader." When you read an autobiography, what the person writes about himself is what he wants you to know about him. What he excludes is what he doesn't want you to know for whatever reason he deems unnecessary. When we follow the text of the Torah, something unbelievable starts to reveal itself. Watch this. This is going to scare some of you of the entire Torah. First line, Bereishit bara Elohim et hashamayim ve'et ha'aretz. In the beginning, God created heavens and the earth. How big are the heavens? Billions and billions of stars, light years, distance to cover, correct? And little planet Earth, how significant are we? Even to call ourselves as a speck of dust in the Milky Way would be an exaggeration. We're not even that. And yet, AFTER ONE VERSE, GOD IGNORES THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE, THE EARTH. AND THE land was void and empty. And the next 31 31 verses, God has completely God has completely ignored the whole universe and is only focusing on physical creation. AFTER 31 VERSES, SUDDENLY God's not interested in physical planet Earth anymore. This whole Earth, you could spend many many many lifetimes on any one subject of geology, geography, topography. You would never exhaust all the details there are to know about this planet. God has ignored it after 31 verses. But watch his focus, watch his eyes. And now he's only focusing on mankind. And after six chapters, he's not interested in all mankind. He's looking for an individual who will choose to be a righteous individual. Noah. Matsu hates the entire nation. Noah found favor in God's eyes. And he became a target, a righteous individual. And after him, God's not interested in anybody except Abraham, chapter 12. And from that point on, for the rest of the text, there's no mention of anything else in this world unless it's in the context of the Jewish people. Suddenly, God's changed his whole focus. He's only interested in us. And what is it he's interested in? Our conduct, our behavior. Are we carrying the torch of clarity of light to the nations to teach the world that God is already in the world and is not just going to be revealed at the end of time. But before God signs off in Deuteronomy, he gives us a list of prophecies. That's dangerous. What's the danger of prophecy? What's the obvious danger of any prophecy? It might not come true. Yeah, it doesn't come true, then what? The Torah is not true. The document that you claim this prophecy comes from is not true. And if you're claiming this prophecy is in the name of the divine power, what do you say about that divine power? Whole thing is false. So, you don't really want to play this game unless you control future, right? So, Moses plays the game of prophecy, and he writes Deuteronomy chapter 4. You're about to enter the land which was promised to you in chapter 15 of Genesis. Check it off, did it come true? Entering the promised land to of Abraham. But, says Moses, you will not remain there for long. You will be expelled, not once, LEVITICUS CHAPTER 26, BUT TWICE, this Deuteronomy chapter 28. NOT ONLY WILL YOU BE expelled twice, YOU WILL BE DISPERSED AMONGST ALL THE NATIONS. YOU WILL BE DOWNCAST. YOU WILL be word of disdain in their mouths, anti-Semitism, Deuteronomy chapter 29. And you will remain small in number, same parashah Va'etchanan, chapter 4, Deuteronomy. You will remain small in number, but after your final exile, you will return to the land. And you will return to God. Check it off. Did we enter the land after the Exodus? Check it off. Were we expelled not once, but twice? Check it off. Were we scattered amongst all the continents, nations of the world? Check it off. Have we been the target of anti-Semitism? It's as fresh today as it as it ever was. Amazing. Check it off. Have we started returning to our land after 2,000 years of exile? Check it off. Are we coming back to God? Check it off. God has a track record. The music is bonus. That was It's all part of the same thing. God's track record is perfect. He made many prophecies. There are only three major prophecies which we're waiting for. Number one, the coming of the Messiah. Two, building of the Bet Hamikdash. Three, Tichiyat Hametim. What is the third one? Resurrection of the dead. Those are the three major ones which haven't come yet. But we're not finished. We're in the last chapter of this volume. That's where we're at. In the year 5,765 out of 6,000 years, we're really close to the end. And here's my bottom line message. The greatest prophecy that the Jewish people ever came to as one complete nation, the only time the whole Jewish people ever gave a prophecy together was when? At Mount Sinai, God revealed himself to us, but there was one time that we had such an amazing clarity of God's revelation. At the Yam Suf. At the crossing of the Red Sea, what were the words we said as a prophecy of the entire nation? Az Yashir. And in there, we said a one-line prophecy which is quoted frequently throughout prayers. One line. What did we say? It's a prophecy. Hashem Yimloch L'Olam Va'ed. God, you will be king forever. That was the one time the entire Jewish nation made one prophecy in unison. It was an amazing prophecy. We came to a clarity. We realized God will always be in control. God will be king forever. But you know something amazing? Our sages criticize us. We missed an unbelievable opportunity. When we were at the Yam Suf and we saw that God was the power IN HISTORY, NOT JUST CREATION, BUT HE WAS THE ONE THAT BROUGHT US OUT. THE MAKOT, THE 10 PLAGUES, SPLITTING OF THE SEA. The clarity WE REACHED SHOULD HAVE BROUGHT us to a different prophecy. Says the Mechilta Parshat Beshalach, Rabbi Yossi HaGlili Omer, "Ilu Amru Yisrael AL HAYAM, HASHEM MALACH L'OLAM VA'ED. GOD IS KING FOREVER. Lo Hayta Uma L'Haslich L'Netzach Bahem L'Olam. No nation would ever have been able to control us forever. Al Amru Hashem Yimloch, but instead we said God will be king. As though we're going to lack the clarity along the way, but eventually we'll be able to say he will be king. That was a mistake. An opportunity missed. L'Atid Lavo, in the future Shelo Yimlichu L'Olam Va'ed. We won't be able to say God is king forever until the very future. Ad Yavo HaMashiach, until the days of the Messiah. V'Az Yihye Malchuto Kayem L'Olam Va'ed. Then God will be king forever. But until then, guess what? IT'S YOUR FAULT! THERE'S NO RELATIONSHIP WITH MY GOD. IT'S YOU, JUST LIKE YOUR FATHER! MOM, YOU LEFT ME IN THE DARK FOR THE FIRST SIX YEARS OF MY LIFE. THAT'S WHY I'M DYSFUNCTIONAL. YOU CHILDREN TOOK THE BEST CHILDREN OF MY LIFE. YOU YOU KNOW, WHEN I BLAME WHEN I blame other people, I'm getting I'm getting across a very powerful message. IF IT'S YOUR FAULT NO, NO, NO, NO, I KNOW YOU GUYS ARE DOING GREAT. SORRY. IF IT'S YOUR FAULT THAT THIS RELATIONSHIP IS NOT WORKING OUT, YOU RUINED OUR MARRIAGE, BIG TIME. YOU ARE THE BEST CHILDREN OF MY LIFE. YOU KNOW, I BUT YOU KNOW WHAT? I'M SO FAT CUZ YOU DON'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER. I JUST KEEP ON EATING AND EATING. IT'S YOUR FAULT. THERE'S NO ONE ELSE I CAN RELATE TO. SORRY, YOUR FRIENDS AND ALL THAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. WHEN I blame other people for my not being happy, my not being successful in my life, in control of my food, my body. If I'm angry at you, you're not the real reason my anger is there. On the surface, it's to get you off my back. Who has to change if it's your fault? This one. I don't have to change. You have to change. You see, if you're the one who messed up the relationship, if you're not showing enough love and appreciation and respect, you have to change. But that's all a cover-up. That's only on the surface. THE REAL REASON I BLAME YOU is because I haven't got the courage to admit who's the real source, power, behind everything that happens to me that I don't control. I don't want to admit that God is behind you. And so, rather than complain against God, I'm blaming you. Who was the first play person on planet Earth to play the blame game? not blaming. Who did he blame when God said to him, "Adam, why did you eat from the tree I told you not to eat from?" What should he have said? What should HE HAVE SAID? SORRY. HE SHOULD HAVE DONE TESHUVAH. HE SHOULD HAVE admitted his mistake. BUT INSTEAD, HAISHA! THE WOMAN! WHO'S WHO'S HE BLAMING? GOD. HAVAH. THAT you gave. ASHER TITANI IMADI. THAT YOU GIFTED TO STAND BY ME. WHOA. Who is he blaming? Hashem. He's blaming God. And when God says, "You know what? Adam, I'll deal with you later." He turns to Eve. "Eve, why did you eat from the tree I told you not to eat from?" What should she have said? Remember what she should have said? Sorry. I'm sorry. But what did she say? THE SNAKE. HA NACHASH HISHI'ANI. THAT SNAKE. THE SNAKE DID IT TO ME. NOW, why did God ask the snake? Didn't have a leg to stand on. That's what she said. Adam and Eve played the blame game. But the blame game is a cover-up. It's a cover-up for two things. Number one, to get me out of changing the only person God created me to change. And blame other people for being responsible for why things aren't working out. That's one cover-up. But the biggest cover-up is the following. My anger, my complaining, and my accusing, my blaming, and denying, and excusing is a cover-up for admitting that God sent you. Not to hurt me, to test me. To try me. To squeeze me. To see how I will change, how I will respond. We just learned it last week. In parshat shmot, by parshat haman, in chapter 16 of exodus. What happened? The Jewish people are complaining for food. Can you believe that? You know the Muslims, they're going to get 70, you know what, in the when they die. So, you know the Jews are going to get 70 cakes. No, no. Who bites the HAND THAT FEEDS THEM? GOD SAYS, IN THE MORNING YOU will see as Kuwait the the power of God's glory. Bishamo et lunotechem al Hashem, for the complaints you have against God. Moses is saying, for the complaints you HAVE AGAINST GOD. VENACHNU MA, WHAT ARE WE? What are we? Ki talinu alenu, that you're blaming us. Listen to the words of Moses. Vayomer Moshe el benei Yisrael, betet Hashem lakhem baerev basar God is going to give you meat by evening to eat. Leekhol velechem baboker and bread in the morning lisboa to be satiated. Bishmoa Hashem lunotechem, because God's listened to your complaints. Asher atem malinim alav, that you are complaining against him. Venachnu ma Who is Aaron and myself? Who are we? Lo alenu lunotechem, you're not blaming us for the lack of food, water, bread. You know what you're complaining against? Ki al Hashem. Moses hit hit them straight back in the eyes. Don't ever think that your complaints are about me. They're really about God. When I'm angry, I don't really want to admit it. But my anger says, I don't like the way the world is treating me. I don't like the way my parents, my my brother, my sisters, my spouse, my boyfriend, my girlfriend, my siblings, my co-workers, my boss, my landlord, my landlady. Did I miss anyone else? Have I know. covered everyone? When I blame other people, it's my way of avoiding admitting you are the one power, and if you are the one power, WHO SHOULD I BE GOING TO? GO directly to the boss. Rebono shel olam, help me have the strength to respond to what you are sending in my life, the difficult people, the different people. I go to the nation of mine, who hurts me, you're not so everything really comes from you except my choices. Anger is a misperception. It's a misinterpretation of events. Be it local, as local as my spouse, my children, my brother, my sister, my parents. They are all invitations for God calling out, mikrei, calling out. You know what the Targum translates call out? Mikrei translates mizamen. Mizamen means invite. What's it call? It's a call together. A zimun. When you're invited, you're prepared. God is preparing me by testing me, by squeezing me, cuz the only way I'm going to become a stronger me is when I'm squeezed. Then what's inside of you will come out. I will end off. How do we train in revealing God is in our lives now instead of waiting by Asher and Balak for that final day when God will be king. THEN HE WILL BE KING, and will admit he was king all along. How do we train? Do you know something interesting? If you take a statistic, how frequently do we say the Shmoneh Esrei in a lifetime? The standing silent prayer. How many times do we say it? Three times a day if you're a male, right? How many times over a lifetime does that come out? Do you know? You do the math. It comes out about 65,000 times. It depends how long you In a 70-year 70-year period, you'll take it say about 65,000 times, not including the first 12 13 years of your life. You're going to be saying this 65,000 times plus. The same words. What Why am I doing it again and again and again and again? And the answer is because the Shmoneh Esrei contains a very powerful message which is said every single blessing. Watch the words. Very powerful. You God, you know who you are? You are Kel HaGadol HaGibor. You are the Kel, you're the power, HaGadol, the independent power, HaGibor, the powerful one. Gomel Hasadim Tovim. What does Gomel Hesed mean? Does acts of kindness. Hasadim Tovim, which are good. Are all acts of kindness good? No. Sometimes acts of kindness could destroy me. Is that true? Mom, leave me alone. I can do it myself, thank you. Son, you've got a plane to catch. I'll finish up the PACKING FOR YOU. MOM, I'M 45 YEARS OLD! COULD MOM BE DOING AN ACT OF kindness in the name of goodness, but really nurturing a selfish egoistic child? Absolutely. Gomel Hasadim Tovim, God's kindnesses are perfectly good. Which tense is this sentence? Past, that's future or present? Present. We're training in saying, "God, whatever's happening in my life right now, I'm declaring three times a day, you are Gomel Hesed. You're doing acts of good which are kind now and good FOR ME NOW." ZOCHER as they have it. You will remember the kindnesses of our forefathers or Zocher in present tense. You remember. May the God OF ABRAHAM YOU WILL BRING ALL YOUR BRINGING. WHICH TENSE IS THE END? Present tense. It doesn't SAY YOU WILL BRING THE REDEMPTION. WHO MAY BE GOD? YOU ARE BRINGING THE REDEMPTION. I'M TRAINING every day in admitting that you ARE BEHIND THE SCENES IN EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS. MALACH OZER, YOU ARE HELPING, NOT YOU WILL HELP. MOSHIA, YOU'RE SAVING, NOT YOU will save. Magen, you're a uh SHIELD NOW IN MY LIFE. OZER GIBOR OLAM, YOU'RE ALWAYS POWERFUL. V'CHAIM MEIS MATA, I'M NOT SAYING YOU WILL bring the resurrection of the dead. I'm saying it's happening now. We know that with the concept of Gilgul, recycled souls, that we mentioned at the beginning of the lecture. You are giving us a chance. Every time I mess up, you send me back in this world for another chance. Rav L'Hoshia, you are abundant in your saving, and it's not in the future, it's happening now. M'chalkel Chaim B'chesed, how's Parnassa? HOW'S YOUR LIVELIHOOD? B'EZRAT HASHEM, HOPEFULLY IT WILL GET BETTER. NO! I DIDN'T SAY THAT when I prayed this morning. I SAID M'CHALKEL CHAIM B'CHESED. I'M SAYING IT PRESENT TENSE, THAT RIGHT now you are providing me my life with kindness. Not it will get better. Someach Noflim, oh, I hope Hashem WILL SUPPORT ME. NO, HE'S SUPPORTING ME NOW WHILE I'M FALLING. ROFEH CHOLIM, I HOPE I WILL GET BETTER. NO! I'M GETTING BETTER ALL THE TIME. THERE ARE BILLIONS OF REACTIONS, chemical reactions going on in my body at every any given moment. And for whatever I may be complaining about, a whole lot worse could go wrong. What I'm saying every day is I'm training in admitting reality, that you're already in in life. EVERY SHMONEH ESREI, I'M PEELING AWAY, REVEALING GOD, YOU'RE HERE. YOU'RE HERE IN EVERY ASPECT OF MY LIFE. EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THIS IS all in present tense. I'm saying already right now, you are the one that is now healing the Jewish people. M'varech hashonim, not you will give us parnassa, right now you're blessing the years. M'kabetz nidchei amo Yisrael, you're bringing about now the exiles. You're not going to do it in the future. THAT'S TRUE, IT WILL HAPPEN, BUT IT'S UNFOLDING NOW. THAT'S WHAT WE'RE ADMITTING TO. Every day we train ourselves in revealing God is in the challenges. Melech ohev tzedaka umishpat, shover oyvin, you are already right now destroying our enemies umachnia minin, and subjugating those who ARE AGAINST US. BONEH YERUSHALAYIM, NOT YIVNEH, NOT YOU WILL BUILD JERUSALEM. BONEH, WE'VE BEEN SAYING THIS FOR 2,000 YEARS. Right now, God, you're building Jerusalem. Do I see it? Not always. But that doesn't take away from God's reality. That's cuz my sight can only see a two-dimensional world, three-dimensional world. Haha, there's more dimensions, much more. Matzmiach keren yeshua, right now you're causing the Mashiach to come. Shomea tefila, you're listening NOW TO PRAYER. MACHAZI ashchinato l'Tzion, not yachaze, not he will return his shchinah, HE'S BRINGING IT NOW. That's what we're training in. It's all happening now. That's what we're repeating thousands, tens of thousands of times. Every bracha we make, same idea. Shakol niya bidvaro. You know, everything exists because you said so. That's what we're saying. You are in this world now. That's what the Jew is here for. That's why we are and we are the cause of That the non-Jew knows that we're here to tell the world God is in the world. And when we don't live to that standard, we're falling short of what the gentiles expect of us. You'll hear from Rabbi Ordman, phenomenal speaker. He once spoke to a New York Times newspaper reporter and asked him, "Why is it that Jews are always in the news?" And he said, "Jews is news. You know why?" He said, "Not because we're so anti-Semitic. Because it's not true." He said, "You know when You know why Goldberg will be getting the front page for embezzling funds and Mr. Christiani, this Greek Christian over here, Catholic Christian, he won't get into the front page. You know why? Cuz Jews is news. A Jew, a gentile holds to a much higher standard. So, when a JEW MISBEHAVES, THAT'S NEWS. WE DON'T EXPECT HIM TO BE THAT WAY." When a non-Jew misbehaves, well, what standard were they held to in the first place? Jews is news. It's not just anti-Semitism. They hold us to that higher level. I will close on the following. What are the three names a Jew has? What are three names a Jew has? A Jew is called Yisrael. Yehudi. Bnei Yisrael. That's Yisrael. Ivri. Right? Those are our three names. And they're all the same. Look carefully. Where does Yehudi come from? Yehuda. Where does Yehuda come from? Where does the word Yehuda come from? Hoda'ah. What does Hoda'ah mean? Thank you. Thank you. What does Hoda'ah also mean? Comes from what lashon? Vidui. Hoda'ah means to admit. Means to be grateful and it means to admit. Same thing. Why? Cuz when we admit, when we are grateful to God or to a friend or to a parent or to our spouse, we're admitting that we owe you something, right? Hoda'ah, the essence of a Jew is to admit to God's reality. That I'm GRATEFUL TO YOU. WHETHER I'M BLESSED with good in my life whether I'm blessed with not such good be very exceedingly grateful. The essence of a Jew is to be in this world, to be grateful to God no matter what happens to him. And what's the second name? Israel. Israel is made up of two words, Yasha Kel. Kel means God the power. Yasha means straight. A Jew is here to say God is straight. There's no injustice. That when we respond to suffering and challenges locally, nationally, globally, we say Yasha Kel. Our emunah, our certainty that God is Kel emunah, a God of trustworthiness. That we don't waver, we say you are straight there's no injustice. And the last name is Ivri. Ivri comes from lashon avar. What does avar mean? Not the past, the past. Avar means Avar MEANS TO PASS OVER, RIGHT? ABRAHAM WAS CALLED IVRI CUZ he was on the other side of the river. He was on the other side of the ideals of the world. Avar means we have the power to pass over everything that comes our way, all the challenges, with our strength, knowing God is the one behind it. I'll tell you a quick joke and I'll end up with a true story. Two boys constantly in trouble. You cannot believe they got so much trouble that every time something went wrong in town, you knew it was their fault. Finally, the mother found out that the local rabbi is really good with discipline. So, she goes to the Rabbi and says, "I want an appointment." She makes a 10:00 appointment for the 10-year-old, a 12:00 noon appointment for the 12-year-old. 10-year-old walks into the Rabbi's office. The Rabbi stares at the boy and says, "Where is God?" "WHERE IS GOD?" THE BOY SCREAMS, RUNS HOME, SCREAMING. HE'S SHAKING FOR 2 HOURS, HIDING INSIDE THE CLOSET. FINALLY, HIS OLDER BROTHER COMES AND FINDS HIM. "MOSHE, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU? WE LOOKED FOR YOU EVERYWHERE." "THIS TIME WE'RE IN BIG TROUBLE. GOD'S MISSING." AND THEN HE STARTS TO LAUGH. "GOD IS NOT MISSING. God is not missing. When things go wrong, I CAN BLAME my parents, my spouse, my boyfriend, my girlfriend, my children, my sister, my brother, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law. I CAN BLAME EVERYONE I WANT. BUT, ULTIMATELY, God is the one source behind all of them that sent us these difficult, different people lama to find out how will I respond, lema for what? How will I change me? And when God reveals himself on that day, we will have the final what's called comfort, nehamah. Nehamah is a very interesting word. It means comfort and it also means regret. Nehamti asher asiti. I regret I made. The word nehamah means regret. What's the connection? This is God's perfect language. Because when God finally reveals the movie and we see that God was perfectly correct all along, we will be comforted that everything that we thought was a tragedy or pain had a perfect reason that was immeasurably greater in its benefit than the pain. And then the Nechama will regret that we misjudged our creator and we held him answerable to our intelligence. That's the reason why comfort and regret share the same root. I'll end up with a true story. Gateways is a seminar that is born from a mother seminar called Arachim. Arachim has about 100 seminars a year in Israel and over 150,000 Jews have been through the seminar in the past 25 years, 27 years, that have recommitted to the Jewish heritage. What was the genesis of the Arachim seminar? I'll share with you an unbelievable story. Not many people know this. The person who started Arachim, two people, Shalom Sharabani and Zvi Einbinder, two Israeli scientists. They put together a very powerful seminar and the first time they ever presented it was in the home of a Jewish politician in Israel who invited a number of close friends, dignitaries, and businessmen. Amongst them was a certain gentleman by the name of Yossi Vales. How did Yossi Vales end up at this seminar? I'll tell you. Just a few weeks before he was standing online and he remembered the story that his mother told about his grandfather. And this is the story. His grandfather was 6 years in Auschwitz. His father survived right till the last days before liberation. The day before liberation, the Nazis, as it was known amongst many of the camps, rounded up the inmates. Some they took on long marches, others they just played last minute games and shot them. But in this particular circle, they took the inmates and they pulled out this Jew, the father of Yossi Vales. This Jew, his his grandfather, sorry, not his father, his grandfather. This man refused in all the years that he was in Auschwitz, he never once ate from the soup because it had meat in it. So, he ate the bread ration, had water from the puddles, vegetables that were that were rotten, but never touched the food that was served with treif meat. He never allowed it to pass his lips. And the Nazi officer pulled him out from the circle and get said to him, "Eat this, Jew. It was pig's meat or I'll shoot you in the head." Here, he'd given his life not to eat this meat, and he refused. And he was shot in the head and killed. And his daughter was in that circle. And she said, "GOD, IF THAT'S YOUR REWARD FOR MY FATHER WHO WAS LOYAL TO YOU UNTIL THE LAST MOMENT, I swear I will never pass across my lips kosher meat." And she kept her promise. She survived the camps. She settled in Israel. She married. She had children. And she never served him kosher meat. Her son, Yossi, the one I'm talking to you about, was a general in the Israeli army. He had 300 men under He didn't have a position of great responsibility. And after the the war, he started his own helicopter manufacturing plant, became very wealthy multi-millionaire, moved to America for a short period, then back to Israel. And on one Friday afternoon, his wife calls up, tells him to pick up some basar lavan, pig's meat, on the way home. So, he stops at the butcher and he's waiting online. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. 15 minutes. 15 minutes goes by. He looks at himself. Something's wrong. My grandfather gave his entire life away not to eat what I'm giving 15 minutes of my life away waiting to eat. Suddenly hit him. Very confusing question. Either my grandfather was insane or I don't understand what the value was that my father my grandfather didn't feel so necessary to give his life away for. And in this confusion he walked away from that line. And he said to himself, I have to find out, investigate, what did my grandfather give his life away for? And it was within two or three weeks