How Judaism Keeps Up The Stamina

some and welcome to practical spirituality here at Asia tour in the old city of jerusalem overlooking the Temple Mount and please join the club which is Yom Tov media Club calm go online and join our club and help us get the word out as powerfully as possible to as many people as possible in this kind of starving spiritually starving generation so what we're gonna talk about just for a few minutes this won't be a very long class it's just how to maintain momentum it deserves a lot of time but I don't know whatever how much I don't know how much time we'll give it but what happens is people take on first of all they're people who were raised to do the commandments and there's those who were not raised to do the commandments and and the question was actually posed by a dear student of mine that was was if you weren't raised with that kind of momentum in your commandments and then you take them on but you're not getting the you're not getting the the you know the connection that it was you feel it was meant to have to begin with if you're not getting that connection so how do you carry on how do you carry on in that and so there's many ways to slice up this issue and but I'd like to I always try to keep it practical and one of the one of the things to do is to get even more committed and I know that sounds crazy because how you supposed to get more committed when you're like I did commit to it and but the truth is is how committed are you if you even have that question you understand the question itself means that then I'm not that committed and what would I base my true commitment on like a real strong commitment on I would base it on the because what's a real commitment a real commitment is taking the downside with upside that's a real command like marriage I know it's a deep down strong ironclad commitment you know it comes with a contract it's it's you know it's a heavy commitment and what you're ultimately saying is I'm willing to take the downside of marrying this person with all the upside and and so there there is a pretty big downside to taking on commandment and what that is is one of the things that's the downside is there's a great quantity of them there's a lot of things you can take on and you can take them on in a matter of a short time next thing you know you have a pretty big yoke that you're carrying around with you and and who says you're gonna feel a thing as a result of them now would you have taken them out if you knew you weren't gonna feel anything probably not so maybe it's important that there is an incentive that I might feel something as a result of my taking this stuff on well there's something that I think that we all did take on I mean that we did get for sure that we often discount because we don't see it it's invisible and that is existential angst which is one of the main sources of depression and today unfortunately is one of the main source of the increasing rate of suicide is existential angst meaning meaning meaninglessness because when someone's living a life of torrid Mitzvahs yeah you may not feel very high from lighting candles Friday and you know praying may not like really you know you know do so much for you when you pray one of our prayers or whatever make one of our blessings but one thing's for sure is you've been saved from an entire population of people who are who are suffering the meaninglessness of this kind of nihilistic millennial you know ank's that people have this meaninglessness so you're certainly getting there and that's not to be discounted you doesn't hit in the face you don't feel it so much it's not something that's like gets you high but it is a major thing and I've seen people drop Tara because they weren't getting their bang for the buck they felt that they had been ripped off they'd rather I don't know what do something that gives them more of an immediacy of experience and inspiration and drop their Judaism only to find themselves deeply depressed you know half a year year later deeply depressed and not really feeling there's a way back for them and not even really recognizing that that they had lost that meaning and has left them in that depressed place make a brothel booth shikaku neutral anyway but meaning in life and and well-being are directly correlated meaning in life and well-being are directly correlated and and they're also but they're often discounted because because when you have meaning in life it goes invisible quite kind of quickly because you got a deal with like everyone else you got to deal with the vicissitudes of life you're gonna deal with the ups and downs you still got bills to pay you know just cuz you got meaning in life doesn't mean you know you no longer have to you know pay your electrical bill so you forget it goes invisible really quick now as far as gaining momentum on the immediacy of an immediacy like the the actual commandments that you did take on and I've said there's a lot of times but I'll say it again is is slow it down slow it down slow it down get into a meditative state before you do your commandments like last night for example my custom last night I was I was at a restaurant called crave which is the coolest restaurant in town and I was having the house beer and and the only thing that someone like me would eat in a restaurant that doesn't have like the highest level kashrut you know kosher certification is eating I eat a fish burrito you know it'd be like it like you could bet a million dollars I would not order a fish burrito except in this situation so I order the fish burrito we're like what could go wrong and but my main thing I was eating was where drinking was the house beer which was an IPA and an Indian Pale Ale so I made my broth for probably two minutes long literally baruk was [Music] and this video and I was actually I was with newlyweds it was I was coming to say Mazel Tov to them they were in Jerusalem and so I came to say Mazel Tov to these newlyweds and they ordered me this beer in the fish burrito and and so I made this bracha like this which is my broth on craft beer and that is the broth on craft and the reason why I go really big on a broth over craft beers cuz beer is how we know God loves us meaning anything else in the world that is anything I mean obviously the Swiss Alps is a good indication how God feels about the world but there's something about the way a craft beer hits your tastebuds you know and it's just an explosion explosion of experience and I still don't know what was higher the bra or the taste of the beer and and then after I finished my taste which is a large taste you always wine and very different your first taste when you have a craft beer is you you really taking a gulp you know really kind of let it be a full mouth experience and and the when I finished that I might comment which I'd never said before but I looked at this couple and I said liquid god now the only reason by the way that's the stories basically over but the only reason I'm telling you this long story about a brothel last night is because what did i do there I what I do there what I do there with a brothel that I could have just said like like I said on this water which like someone wasn't wasn't even a brothel compared to that what did i do there I think you say aloud I got a real student here everyone say it together slowed it down together slowed it down I slowed it down so if you want to keep momentum in the things you're doing you got to slow it down you know you imagine you imagine like some like meditative a pasta Indian dude like watching us do most of our mitzvahs they just be like like of all the mindless experiences you know like the way you do your mitzvahs is mindless as opposed to mind full so so you know you can't if you're Jewish from the 3,330 your tribe of Israel you can't be you can't show up you know on video lower than then a than a Hindu you understand I mean they have a powerful tradition but it's not prophetic we're coming from a prophetic tradition that that puts us automatically like like there's no actual number but it's like whatever that infinite number would be times the death of a Hindu like like Brahmin priest just by being like the average Jew who like can barely pronounce Hebrew already puts you like you know like cuz I get it's prophecy so it doesn't even it's not even get in heavy an equivalency of how deep you are so so we've got to match that depth with our observance and that I'm just calling slow it down take it slow and you'll be shocked house that simple thing I've Sloan done no not saying you got to slow everything down but slow something down during the day it could be just a bite of an apple but slow it down slow down that Bravo candle-lighting you know that's where women generally like that's where they shed their tears during the week if they didn't cry already in prayer that week candle endings where they're gonna and that's where you really kind of reserve the major cries for the candle lighting you know really pleading with the you know the things you need that's when a woman's gonna shed tears and and so you definitely want to slow that down and make sure the tears are coming in and that's your special moment that's when like the spotlight in heaven is just like on you and it's your chance to say what you gotta say and ask for what you got to ask for and give thanks for what you got to give thanks for so anyway that's one way to keep the momentum going this is to slow it down another thing is to study the particular commandment you want to you want to get more details on that commandment Commandments generally have a lot to study so so you want to study into that particular Mitzvah that you're doing or learn it up in a big way another thing is another thing is to interview people who have the goods on that particular commandment so interview people I've had many people walk up to me and say you know ever since I heard you teach about whatever you know like hair covering or whatever like I recently did a class in hair cover and you watched that one yeah did you actually comment on that yeah and so they so and it just made like this massive impact on people and and so meeting the command in it the commandments cover the hair but that could be pretty mundane but when you get into the depth of it it could become very magical for a person and be life-changing so so that's the other thing is is you need to hear someone orally like shared stuff that you're just not necessarily gonna find in a book someone who has the depth on that particular that particular commandment I want to go back though to commitment because remember I said I started to attack like that but but I had asked like the only reason you could possibly ask that question is meaning the question of like I'm not really getting out of this these these commitments I've taken on I'm not really getting out of them what I hope for and so I'm losing momentum is that the fact that you even asked the question means you never went that committed to begin with now you said what do mean I wasn't that committee I've been doing it ever since I said I would okay but the commitment has many many levels many levels and I've told the story maybe half a year ago I've only told it a few times but but many years ago I had I committed to pray three times a day um I'm close to three decades ago but uh around 20 I don't know 25 years ago something like that maybe already 23 years ago God turned out the lights like he just pulled the plug on the whole commandment of Prayer meaning that commitment I made of prayer whenever I was getting out of him you get a lot out of prayer because prayer is the emotional you know study is the intellectual prayers the emotionally mitzvahs are the physical you know that's how it goes okay when your study tour you're in the brain when you're praying you're in the heart and when you're performing a command you're in the body which is really amazing because a lot of commandments have a great intellectual material behind them most commandments come with a blessing so this prayer involved and you then do something with your body so it's really hitting you on all three modalities of humanity human existence and the anyway but what happened was God messed with me God was messing with me and he took though he pulled the plug on prayer and I felt nothing absolutely nothing felt nothing and wearing my tefillin I felt nothing no matter where I went did man it was the Kotel didn't matter is it rebbi shimon bar yohai is grave I could go down to have room to the forefathers where they're buried I didn't matter where I was it didn't matter what prayer I said every single thing I said had it came with zero feeling like I got nothing I couldn't I tried I did a million different things to try to break through it nothing worked and I was really at my end because like it's a pretty big commitment to pray three times a day especially in prayer chorim's called minions like that's it's a pretty big commitment and and I'd been doing it with enough to no avail anyway when I hit about the ninth month of this I was walking down my street and I was just soaked down and and I run into one of the great prayer masters who's the student of one of the great prayer masters he's an option of her hassan who is the student of an option of a hassan ii of the option of a Rebbe who lives in my neighborhood and not clout and this this prayer you know these pretty much one of the prayer masters this guy he's a big prayer master you should it usually really watch him pray he's I'm sure you prayed with him in many minions before in our neighborhood I don't know if you know which ones revolute interesting but you've seen him dozens of times like yearly anyway he I ran in and I said you know what I'm gonna go up to him and just tell him my plight I mean I'd already spoken to many Rev ease and stuff so I go up to the revolute interesting and I say to him you know I'm desperate I've been praying for nine months three times a day nothing's government like it just nothing I get nothing out of it no matter where no matter what nothing and you know what he says to me he says to me I'm jealous of you I said what do you mean you're jealous of me says he says well when I pray you know it's like fireworks fireworks are going off and and so yeah obviously I'm really into prayer he says but I just I wouldn't even know what it would be like but I'm jealous of someone who for nine months straight it's so committed to it that that you know even with nothing doing like get nothing out of it you're gonna keep going like that so I'm jealous I just I never would know what that would be like cuz I'm just I'm I've always been locked into prayer like since I'm a little kid like I'm born for this I'm born into prayer and there's a lot of people I've met over the years who were born into bright MEPI or born alert IRA and people born to prayer and I've know Buer born just to do physical mitzvahs you know those were those guys like boiling our veg our vessels before it pays off like you ever thought about like what the hell is that guy doing there all day you know suddenly have a life yeah any of other things to do besides that menial tasks of boiling our vessels and no that's his Mitzvah like he's gonna wear those big thick rubber gloves and boil our pots and pans and silverware and like he's right in his own that guy he's loving it you know and say he's of more of a mitzvah guy so so you know what I did I went down to the Kotel for Mari for the evening service after that and I just wanted to say to God I had some I wanted to say to God and I decided to take it to the Kotel so I went down to the Kotel and I sent to God the following I said God I don't care if I ever feel another prayer the rest of my life I'm never stopping that was my statement to gun and then the leader of the purse said borrow who and I started my prayers and I got into Shmona yesterday into the silent meditation and I'm telling you I don't not saying this will happen to you but maybe it will all of a sudden the thing just opened up like literally I could barely get out of borrow cuz both nine months worth of borrow opened up to like layers upon layers of layers of what borrow could be an octa opened up by the time I stepped took my three steps away from the king you know into the left first into the right first the left because that's the the divine presence right so we go left first to take leave of the divine presence on the right we always start with the right but here cuz weren't in front of the divine presence we we bow left and then we go to the divine presence left by bowing right now call yourself you know the normal mean by the time I had pulled out of that silent prayer five different my Reeves had started and stopped meaning begun and finished while I was in my silent prayer and it just kept going that way to the point where I had I had anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour every time I did silent prayers I missed lunch I was at that time I was teaching at Asia a student also Asian a lunch was after mint I missed every lunch for good half a year more maybe even 10 months I miss lunch because I was still what by the time they'd finish lunch I was finishing shmona yesterday and the it went on left like this for years and I not yours for that year and then and then I slowly like boiled down the time to a zip file you knows I don't have to like open up every single word like that and and it's already been that way for two decades plus so there's something about a commitment where you don't care what you're gonna get now that's kind of a weird thing to do but you know normally we only commit to something where we there's an upside but there is such a thing as a commitment just something without an upside I know it sounds strange I mean you like anyone commit to things without an upside I don't think so I think yeah no one's getting married without an upside you know no one's buying a car without an upside no one's getting a job without an upside like we don't live there like that's not part of human existence and committing to things without an upside but I discovered something many years ago which with the great assist of Rabbi lyft interesting who I ran into before this is is that when it comes to mitzvahs when it comes to observance as a Jew is there actually is a huge upside a huge upside to committing without an upside but I mean really committing with that know something like I'm Ian with I mean no matter what and I don't care what I get out of it like give me nothing I'm still in I'm not I'm not I'm not Fairweather about this like I don't care what the weather is I'm in no matter what like a full-on iron clad in and I don't care about the upside there's something magical about that now I just want to mention cuz this is kind of mending one's mind towards blind faith a little bit so I want to just mention that that everything we're discussing here is only after someone's figured out that it's real you know don't don't go for some kind of ironclad commitment with no upside until you know something's real like it has to first be real once some things hit your real mirror you know you whatever your meter isn't real it's got to first hit the you know it's gotta go all the way the top of the real meter when something's hit the top of your real meter then you can go in like if something hasn't hit the top your real example is I run seminars I got a couple of similar graduates in the room actually and so I run seminars in Israel there in Hebrew but and outside haze where I run him in English I please guy got one in my next one that thinks in London England actually please God I'm like fighting for this seminar cos my staff saying like no new places and I'm like new places you said that to me last summer and I'm like we're going to new places and I'm like literally fighting for the London seminar now cuz they're they're trying to crash it in on me like I understand you know man what do you call those people what do you call those people administrators are not known for courage you know they're just not known for courage and and so they're getting scared got nervous and I get it I totally get it and then of the 18 years of running this program I've we've had crashes you know we've we've gone for new markets and fatal you know we've also had great success but they're they're getting complete cold feet and what do you guys say I do what do you think I should do there but their whole thing is like next they're doing next year but they told me that last year next year but wait what greater market is England England I mean of the five fears rejection failure out of control unknown and pain and suffering you know where normally someone has one of those five England every British citizen has all five on a scale of one to ten like 1/10 you know and this seminar is there to like knock those fears out you know and like how can I not go to England anyway does it seem like I want to fight for this yeah on a fight for this but there's another thing I have a fringe benefit is that my my number one city besides Jerusalem is Muncie New York but talking about like 12-hour flights and jet lag and and like you know what I'm saying it's just england's what how long does it take to fly to England it's like five hours it's it's one-hour time zone difference I mean I could just show up there just for follow-ups meaning just to go follow people up you know you hear what I'm saying like it's no brainer so like I want to get that market going already but okay sorry I'm sorry I'm doing this I just used you all as my therapist just now I mean leave it to a narcissistic Californian to use his class as as therapist but but I I appreciate that I think I want to do England yeah I want to do that anyway but in the seminars the whole seminar hinges on commitment it hinges on commitment there have been there have been seminars you know we're talking like close to a thousand graduates so it's a lot of seminars and they're up in seminars where I didn't run the commitment part up to snuff like it wasn't where it should have been and you literally watch how that seminar did not get where it was supposed to get because I just didn't I didn't I don't know what's wrong with me maybe I was hungover I don't know what happened to me but I did not run the commitment section of the seminar the way it was supposed to be and I felt I remember going to bed that night going the commitment part didn't wasn't where it was supposed to be and I don't know why I smoothed it over I kind of let it go and you just see the difference and the results of the participants if a commitment circle the commitment section we call the commitment circle but if the commitment circle isn't a lot like lock stock barrel the seminars just yeah you might as well just send everybody home so there's something very powerful when it comes to commitment that I mean no matter what everyone try those words I'm in no matter what I try that I'm in no matter imagine in your marriage I'm in no matter what say that imagine with your children I'm in no matter what imagine with your parents I'm in no matter what okay I'm in no matter what imagine you're your just your personal relation we've got nothin to it Judy isn't just your personal relationship of God I mean no matter what try that in no matter what how about Judaism I mean no matter what I mean no matter what so there's something magical about it where God just recognizes that I mean you we know we just finished the seventh day of Passover that's the special day where the sea splits and our tradition is that before it even split one knucklehead name knock some Benham another I was already call him a knucklehead but he just like ran out into the water he didn't wait he didn't wait and when the water got up not only into his mouth and now that's doing this but it when he got to his nose it split you know he's like Jesus like I'm going man he's like head now no what kind of swimmer he was I think he was still on his feet kind of going ah this thing better split cuz you know I don't know if he was much of a swimmer but when he hit his nose that he was like oh well honestly then it split and God just favors people go for it like that God favors people just like they're in you know I wouldn't say I'm in but say with that kind of grunt yeah of it you don't even have to use words or like home it's much more in the inflection than the words themselves yeah one more time let's given I mean yeah but it's it's that kind of I mean that is where the magic is and and and it has a momentum all to itself comes with all kinds of little gifts on the sides and and it's a good I mean not because I'm getting those gifts on the side not because I'm getting the momentum but it's just there's a magic to to that level of commitments kind of like a tattoo you know oh yeah that's forever you know we've kind of example but it's like you got a treat you maybe that's why tattoos are forbidden cuz we're supposed to be having that tattoo with God in our heart you know like like that kind of a forever a type of thing where we're supposed to be like we don't do external tattoos cuz IRA data would use inside you Jews tattoo themselves within you know and we're we're internally tattooed and so therefore an external tattoo would be like a joke compared to an internal tattoo but but imagine a person getting a tattoo in full sobriety and they're just like this is something I'm going for forever you know I mean that's big that's big stuff and and it's etched in there and it's not going anywhere and that itself has ability to float float you through a lot and then the last thing I just want to mention is Miss information a lot of people especially those raised observant have a lot of misinformation where what I mean by missing from is not really missing for me that wasn't accurate but what happens is you get a lot of cheerleading rabbis and teachers and Mahima you get a lot of cheerleading educators you know educators with pom-poms and you get these pom-pom educators you're like we're gonna feel we're gonna you know I'm talking about pom-pom educators I think the girls fall victim warded the pom-pom educators then been the boy schools and the boy schools are a little rougher but the girls goals for sure they're trying to like you know all the teachers they're at pom poms in there they're just trying to get you to feel this that and the other and not a good idea you know this this is you know it just I don't know I don't need to go into it but just to go into tiny bit is that is that the girls who didn't feel it anyway from now feel like there's something wrong with them so that's not nice you know and maybe I'm how many girls have gone to me and said they feel and and men said they feel spiritually impaired you know having finished the whole education system never felt a thing okay so that's thanks to pom-pom educator you know cuz that's not what it's about and the and then the other thing is that that you don't always feel it and so like yeah if they managed to convince someone that they're gonna feel something they actually did so who says you're gonna fill it next time you know and so then that kind of breeds disappointment in the end and and gods always playing games with us he gives you the light he takes it away you know that's that's how life works I mean haven't we all met someone who were like wow that's the most amazing person I ever met and so you develop a friendship with that person but then all all the light is gone and then you have to rebuild to get to that again and and that doesn't come with a lot of light and so that's that's a general nature of inspiration as inspiration comes in a flash and then it goes away and then you build towards it cuz God knows our psyche is we need to build towards something we we generally are motivated towards it so so God will often give us inspiration and take it away that's normal I wound up spending a lot of time on this momentum thing it's already after four blessings to everybody again that the club is young to media Club anyone who likes my class I really appreciate it my goal is really just to get a lot of people to to join it at the ten dollar mark I'm just coming to Tim box set and forget like I give a lot more than ten bucks to a lot of different people that I believe in and once in a while my Secretary's like who are these people on your you know likes it and forget list here and I'm like I don't know you know send me a list and she sends me a list I'm like oh yeah oh yeah that was about ten years ago I put that person on my list and you know and she's like what can I take them off and I'm like no I'm gonna put a little bit with people I believe make a difference putting a little bit of money with people I believe make a new difference I just want to be one of the supporters of good things in the world so so that's really I'm really you know it's beautiful some people come in at 36 bucks some people coming in more but my real goal is just ten bucks a month from people who can sit and forget on the website is a student rate you know meeting starving student you know can donate at least one burger in a and a beer you know it's like this price of a burger and a beer per month torts maybe educating the world a little bit to get this role to be a greater place like a Bergen of beers worth of money a month towards it I call the student rate but if the truth I don't care if some like CEO of them you know fortune 500 company puts ten bucks a month we if we get enough people doing that I've already hired then the media the social media expert and a published centered publicity person and I imagine what customer I'm - grandma / person to hire a young whippersnapper who's good at this stuff so so I'm really just trying to get up to a couple grand a month so we can make a big difference so please join that Club Media Club Yom Tov Media club.com Sean I wrote credit card yeah