Transcript
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Imagine though, you sat with Avram in
the middle of a desert, he fed you food,
he talked with you, he taught you, he
inspired you, and at the end of that
whole experience, he's like, "Now let's
let's make a blessing." And you're like,
"No." Imagine such a person. Something's
not right about that person. I'm not
just saying that's impolite, I'm saying
there's something spiritually defective.
What?
>> Should have been natural for them.
>> Should have been natural that the end of
that whole experience is they would have
actually felt gratitude and wanted to
express it verbally. Avram's inviting
you to make the blessing and you're
like, "No, I'm not feeling it." There's
something very wrong. So, what's wrong?
We know what causes us
and we know for ourselves and we know
that it's human nature, we know for
others. What causes us to become
spiritually apathetic? We said it
earlier, self-reliance. When we feel
like we're at the top of our game and
we're able to take care of everything
ourselves and we don't need any help and
we don't even need God, this
self-reliance is also a form of uh they
say humility is teachability, so the
lack of humility is a lack of
teachability. We just can't hear. Don't
tell me anything.
>> Self-reliance is a spiritual defect?
>> Self-reliance is a grave spiritual
defect. You might even argue that
spiritual that self-reliance is the core
spiritual defect because first of all,
it seems benign. It's not like overtly
malicious or evil, but it's the source
of being closed off to anything greater
than yourself, okay? Now, self-esteem is
great and confidence is great, but that
should come from a feeling of I'm
attached to something higher than
myself, I'm receiving these blessings,
but when it comes from No, no, no, just
me. It's me and all me. I've got this
covered. Yeah, that's the like the most
grave spiritual defect. So, clearly
anyone who had the Avram treatment and
didn't want to bless at the end had a
spiritual defect.
And and we know we could probably
analyze pretty accurately what that
spiritual defect was. It was that
spiritual defect called self-reliance,
complete like I am my own God, I worship
myself. Don't talk to me about higher
powers. So, when Avraham would say,
"Okay, pay this bill." Paying the bill
wasn't extortion. That wasn't the point.
Because, again, like we said before,
what is the value of an extorted prayer?
The bill
was Avraham engineering an experience
that would create a psychic shift in the
person. What happens when you're at the
cash register? Shouldn't call it the
cash register cuz no one uses cash.
You're at the checkout, whatever they
call it nowadays, and your card is
declined.
And there's a line behind you. People
with their
wagons all full of groceries melting,
and you're standing there like a
shmendrick getting your card declined.
You say, "Try this other card." You need
another card. Ever had a horrific
experience, right?
Such help we start praying.
>> [laughter]
>> You start praying. It's a helpless
feeling. Not being able to
You You really feel acutely this this
sense of of helplessness. I'm not able
to to help myself. That feeling of How
am I going to pay? I can't pay this.
Like, you're given this bill. Pay me. I
don't even have it. Well, how am I How
am I going to get it? What happened at
that moment is that all of a sudden
something opens up in the brain. Oh, I'm
not
completely self-reliant. I'm not able to
just do anything that I want to do at
will. There are limits to my powers.
That moment of having that experience of
feeling limited, feeling helpless, what
would happen at that moment? Imagine
like it would it would break the shell.
If the self-reliance is this shell of
apathy,
that moment of helplessness would
shatter that that shell. At that moment,
what would happen is all of the good
teachings that Avraham had taught the
person during their stay
would sink in. And they would be able to
relate to it. They would be able to
act on it.
And then, by that point, when they would
say the blessing, they would really mean
it. He was entirely sincere. If he was
just extorting people to say things they
didn't mean, then what was the point?
But rather, what was he doing?
He was a surgeon. He knew how to
engineer a mini crisis that would cause
somebody to encounter the limits of
their own power so that it they could
become receptive to
God's power.
Now, I want to just add, it should go
without saying, it's probably obvious,
but I just want to be clear, not for you
guys cuz you are principled and you have
seichel, but some people in the YouTube
world, they might not understand this.
Don't go around doing this to people.
>> [laughter]
>> Avraham was a surgeon. He knew how to do
this. He knew exactly who could take
how much pressure and when and when to
apply the pressure and don't go around
and say, "I'm going to foment a crisis
in in someone's life so that they can
become more spiritual." Uh God forbid.
But what I am saying is that sometimes
when we do experience a challenge in
life where we feel very, very clearly
the limits of our own powers and we
can't help ourselves. It's very clear
that we're reliant on something greater
than ourselves, that that's a that's an
opportunity to connect more deeply with
Hashem and to ultimately to experience
gratitude.
