Rabbi Yom Tov Practical Spirituality: Naked With Your Neighbors

welcome to a practical spirituality here at Asia tour overlooking the what Temple Mount the and the question we're dealing with right now is that well one question we had was how do you know you've finished doing Truvia and the answer is when you feel clean with God so if you're not feeling clean with God young and Shuba and just one more remark on that is that is that I can give you like a shortcut to feeling clean with God without being perfect because you might be thinking clean with God only means you're perfect now between you and God but there's actually a shortcut and the shortcut is and I believe it's I I believe it's a healthier approach and it's very Hasidic but uh you know forgive me for being considered the and that approach is that wherever you're at now is a result of all kinds of like thousands and thousand millions of factors that are pushing all the time like you're you're like you're like play-doh and it's you're getting pushed on all the time and you're also putting back cuz you're human beings can act and do and say and people I think and interacting and so so but wherever you're at now is where you're at now exactly divinely created even with all your free will because your free will so far has landed you right there so you know this is where you are with all your free will yeah you want to tell me you're not clean with God well I don't know what that means exactly because if all of God's running creation with all your free little involved has landed you where you're at right now so so then this is exactly clean with God this is clean with God now do you have to brush up on your hills of Shabbos do you have to brush up on Kostas you have to brush up on your Cavani innothing and all kinds of other things was there ever a person who didn't have to work on that and so my Rebbe taught me something amazing many years ago he taught us that the big mistake that people make is to never feel they're there and so what happens is you're always striving for some where you're not which means you're never alive you're never present where you're at and well where's God God's here with you now where you're at that's where God is and so that means you're never with God now being a very observant Jew who's totally OCD I'm about where they're not at where they're where they aren't meaning where they got to get to is makes not a lot of sense it doesn't make sense because because you're you're not with God so what's the point of being observant like the whole point of sacrificing for Judaism is that you would feel close to God but if you've got it set up perfectly that you're never close to God so then what was the point of becoming observing her being observing in the first place if it wasn't to be close to God meaning let's just say a Gentile walks by a woman who is like clearly observing her watched by a guy who's like gotta keep us is a woman walks by or Gentile watched by them by walks by that person they're saying whoa I just passed one of God's chosen people and then when they'd speak to you they'd be like waiting for something prophetic to come in at mouth like I'm talking to I'm talking to this person who's like close to God but meanwhile if you ask the Jew generally the more observant they are the more OCD they are about the fact that they're not where they're supposed to be which is exactly where they are because of the relationship with God because God and you are in a relationship and it's landed you here meaning your whole life is like a long equation of God in that you know God running that equation and then there's an equal sign and it's here you are like boom you're the equal sign on the other side of all that and that was all hush-hush approaches that was all like if you want to say well you had free will yeah and free will accept the variables you were choosing amongst are quite orchestrated aren't they like everything's quite orchestrated in your life in the end you make the choice but look at how everything was orchestrated the choices get a little obvious after a while like for example I could have predicted like $1,000 to one that you would have come here on this trip and you might say no that was totally unpredictable and I would say no because if you really understood the factors involved it would have made all the sense in the world that that when the factors got a line right at the right spot you'd say yes and so and so our free will even with your free will that you that would your only kasha on the fact that you're exactly where you're supposed to be right now you're only Kashan that is a will ivory will maybe I blew it and I'd say yeah you have free will some free will but you're still your decisions are quite predictable given that God's orchestrating all those factors it not to mention the creator of free will is the one who created the situation's so he's way beyond free will and God's beyond all that God's outside time and so he knows what you're gonna choose before you even choose it there's a whole discussion on how we even can call it choice now we do call it choice because your experience of it was choice I knew it and you also were all gonna be judged on their experience of choice so it's gotta be it is real but it but God's way beyond that and gods landed you the equations landed you it equals you right now and that's your closeness with God so stop denying that you're clean and close to God right now do you got to work on some stuff I know I do but God's with me now when I stop and pray I'm praying where I'm at now and I'm in a relationship now even having not yet worked on certain aspects of my life that I've got to get to you know I got to clean up but here I am now you know it's the same thing like for example I'm taking my wife on a date tonight we go out every Wednesday night you know imagine if like I wasn't being so what's the word relatable that's not the word that would be the right word yeah I would let's just say I wasn't relating very much you know and she'd be like what's the matter I'm like I just haven't worked out everything yet you know I haven't just worked I'm not like totally worked out yet so I can't really have a relationship with you she'd be like I I forgive whatever hasn't been totally worked out yet you know like just like let's just enjoy the wine and the in the candle and the flower and let's just be together I would never tell her that but we all tell God that we all have postponed our relationship with God till we've achieved some of something that we'll never get to and so my Rebbe taught me this amazing lesson and that lesson is that that you must be where you're at you gotta be where you're at and you can't you it doesn't take away from your striving to be able to be exactly close to God now where you're at cuz where you're at now is where God's at because God's okay what is this if not the unfolding of infinite into finite well God's the infinite for the finite and he's unfolding himself into the finite so like this is where God's at and this is where you're at so I guess you're really at one with God I told you I'm very by the way so so this is where God's at and this is where your and that's fine and you can see and you grow don't think that being a peace with where you're at means you're not gonna grow and you could even argue that real growth comes from from experiencing where you're at you know why think about it let's say you go on ways to find a location you want to get from Jerusalem to you know you let's say you're a Jaffa Gate and you need to get to judge old Jaffa you're a Java game you got to get the old Jaffa telling me now you put in the phone old Jaffa tel Aviv and all you care about is it should find the address there and let you know how to get there but what is the way is really concerned about because it knows where that is that's easy that's easy it's an address what is it what is it and what is the real work of ways it's got another figuring you out it's got to figure out where you are you didn't put that in there it's using its GPS system based on something your phone to figure out where you're at because that's the concern of ways they need to know where you're right because they can't get you there without first figuring out where you are and so you could say that the way there is only based on one being where you're at and now ways isn't might proof I'm just using this to get your head around the fact that being where you're at is gonna be there your best it's gonna be an anchor of being you fully showing up wherever you are to get somewhere else now as opposed to a nebulous version of you that you're not really even clear with it cuz you're always trying to get somewhere else so you have no idea where you're really at now and you don't except where you're at now and you're not feeling God where you're at now and so and so you don't even know where you are so how you supposed to get anywhere and that's why probably getting there gets nebulous because cuz you GPS has no chance getting you anywhere if it doesn't have your coordinates do you mind oh nice lady the upper panel is there air-conditioning in the bottom right corner of the upper panel is a tiny little button for the fan to lower it you got it good job your excellent following instructions you got it it's got it should went down a bit there you go and I'm coming to your point in a second but they'd be so I want to say just one more thing is that my Rebbe taught me this years ago and I said that already but but what happened was it got illustrated in a moment where I was with nine heavy-duty rabbis like we were like doing big work on some stuff it's called a fedora sabores where you work together with other Torah scholars to kind of innovate and so we were working together and what happened was someone realized it's the sun's going down we need we got a diamond cut but we're only nine we need a tenth and we were not in an area that had any went around or at least not then so and that's and it's getting you know it's really the time and in Israel the time is different than New York so we're like we need a medium and so the only guy we could find was like this tattooed body pierced like long hair like shaved on the sides you know it was like this dude was tripped out guy you know and he and the fact that we even hoodwinked him into our minion was a miracle because like he hadn't when we had some he had no intention of coming in there but I I kind of turned on my my more persuasive side which is extremely powerful and what's in that bottle over there any water in there where I'm dying yeah there's a tap is that a have you been limping that thing she even living it just take two cups and there's a sink everyone saw there's a bottle in the room on the right or behind the desk look on the right there so the room on nevermind you missed that anyway the somehow we get this guy in there someone took their hand out there keep off because they're wearing black hat so they put their keep on this guy and we get my see door and him a page number in and we prayed anyway what happened was we were all totally done with our prayers within I think mins alas min ha was about 15 minutes and you know we all just kind of did our little penguin move you know and like I got through it backed out you know cottage and we we all were busy and we're all going home to our wives and families and you know we all had what to do so thank you so much both really appreciate that and anyway so the guy was still in prayer and I went and looked over and he was into it I mean he was like you know standing before God you know this was like Russia show no for this guy and anyway I went to peek over his shoulders see where he was at cuz he was going along with the words he had gotten the like the fourth blessing of shmoney I said like he was and he was going all the way with this thing like he was really going for it and I just looked and left but do you realize that this guy was with God and way more than we were we were like being yo team in Kona but it's not just that it's a deeper thing you get that like okay we get it like this guy this freaked out freaking guy had that got got to have a chance to pray and really win for it okay that's the simple meaning of the story / meaning of the story is that and this is something I really enjoy like the nice thing about beer Bazaar for example as people are who they are there's no there's no poker face you know there's no pretense there's no posturing you know one of the things I like about the mikveh is like every man is naked in the mix I spend every morning stark naked with all my neighbors okay and so you could be an important rabbi but you spend enough days with naked with your neighbors you know going to the mikveh it's just the pretense of being the big rabbi is not really meaning we all very much respect his knowledge for sure but there's none of the pretense part it's only the real part pretense of the lesson pretend and we're doing real with him we do respect him for sure do we stand up for him when he walks into the changing room no cuz there's no covet in the McKown you don't stand up for someone in the changing remove a mikvah but next thing you know we're all new nude in the mikveh together and you know showering and you know going in the water and the elderly you got to do their back you know it's it it's the whole thing you know going on in there and then here's the guy we broke his leg so you're like helping them in the pool and stuff it's it's just very not Western you know very non-western at all you know there's this party guy brushing his teeth under the shower I mean watching a large Sephardic man brush his teeth under the showers stark naked every morning is just like you know it's one of the highlights of my day I suppose and I call them fuzzy wuzzy anyway anyway but but you'll notice the one thing I can't say a ton of like really positive things about the secular culture but there is one positive thing is that everyone is like really gotta be in who they are you know like that and now who they actually are is not what I'm saying I mean if you really actually got to know them you and stuck in some crazy narrative from their childhood just like you're stuck in some crazy narrative from your childhood so of course they're stuck in some narrative but wherever there are in their narrative they're being really clear about where they're at and their narrative now of course we don't hold of people's narratives I mean I mean obviously if someone wants to cry over your shoulder cry on your shoulder about their narrative you know cuz of what someone said to them today how that all fits into this old story of for me we will let them cry but meanwhile while you're holding someone crying over their narrative you're just like you can't help but say like I think what have you what were you were born like a hundred feet over like would you really be crying on my shoulder over that or what if you were the second kid instead of the eighth would you really be crying over my shirt on my shoulder over that it would be a totally different narrative so you wouldn't even be crying right now over what just happened but of course if you're the person crying it's like you know like the whole sky is falling now but the one thing you can say about secular people is they like they really they wear it on their sleeve so to speak that's what they say like they you're just being who you are right now and so this guy this is all to underline my point and that is that cuz this guy's really where he's at he's not living with an OCD Jewish I'm not there yet mindset you got that's what I was saying the deeper point of the story was he isn't living in some OCD obsession overall where he could be or should be he's just this freaky tattooed guy and the freaky tattooed guy is is now you know he's now suddenly in prayer and feeling God in a big way while the rest of us kind of got in and got out of our prayer service so it's about being where you are thanks for tuning in