Pardon Me? Bibi, Venezuela, and the Kislev Connection by Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz

Heat. Heat. [music] [singing] [music] [singing] >> [music and singing] [music and singing] >> Okay, good morning everyone once again from the frosty or cold anyway and rainy New York City. Um this is the final week of my uh trip uh basically of Kuba to visit with my mothers and I wanted to just mention um some of my experiences here in the context of this week paras which is such an incredibly important week as we think about the relationship between Jacob Vainu and the world of Asav and also even more internally with the wars within Israel. that need to be resolved as we clear the path for the gula. So the key word for today is called Venezuela. Something is happening in the world that we should take notice of and I'm going to commented it from the from the perspective of the para as we always do. Okay. So let's begin. Manakim began when he was going to Camp David in 1979 and was under the oposes of the then Jimmy Carter who as I once explained to you was a very um difficult figure. He was um um very very in the end adamantly a foe of Israel. uh used his position as a democratic president which was otherwise failed. Let me explain Jimmy Carter's failure and and what it has to do with this week's para. So told man bean at that point in 1979 I believe it was that we're going to you're going to be going to speak to Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter of course is devoutly Christian. His theology was based on the fact that the Jewish people had ruined his world, had murdered his his deity um and were meant for enduring punishment for all time. Certainly were not entitled to be the um blessed within the context of the blessings of Abraham as as we know they are as we know we are. and was not an issue for him. And in fact indeed during negotiations told was told by the rebi study paras and you will be prepared for that meeting. In other words everything that you need to know about navigating this immense pressure that was brought to let me explain to what this pressure was. So at one point during Camp David, Jimmy Carter jump um wrote a note to Manakim Bean urging him to forego Yushaim to allow Yusim to remain in the context in in in out of the out of the conversations of the future of Israel of of of the state of Israel and let it be in the hands of the Arabs including Harab completely seeded to them. CED DE zed to them and he wrote a note as follows. Jimmy Carter he says sometimes a person must cut off a limb in order to save the body. That was his argument. Pragmatic argument we'll do an amputation of the part that's problematic and uh we'll continue to live a good healthy long life. answered beggan to him he said yes but what if that limb is the heart then that's not a good one cannot cut out one's heart and then say we're going to live this was an actual conversation that took place it shows you the mindset so what is the challenge of aish the challenge of aish is is that the world the world's perception is that the Jewish people definitely exist. They definitely have some role to play. Some suggest as a proof by their suffering to the righteousness of others. In other words, that Hashem's anger with Kali Israel since the has never dissipated and therefore he has gone on to other endeavors of more of more worth and the Jewish people have been relegated to eternal suffering. That's their position. It's either that or they've been simply replaced. Very nice people. The more moderate position is, okay, so Claudius Israel was nice, but you know, been there, done that, and back in the day, they were important, and thank you very much for your contributions, but you're no longer relevant to the heart of the matter. These are the two um dangers that pres that are presented when the non-Jew gentile world of today and of then uh encountered the Jewish people. They don't know what to make of the Jewish people. They they understand that we have a unique relationship with God. We understand that the relationship has had ups and downs. We understand that we've had times of gul and we have times. But that's the point. The relationship between Hashem and Kal is usually extreme. So what I mean to say is nothing is typical when it comes to Israel. That's why in the Torah, Hashem told Abraham in advance that we would be either we're going to be literally on the top of the world shining brightly or we're going to be will be something that everybody can tread on like the sands of the beach. This is an important reality about Israel that Hashem told communicated with Abrau from the very beginning. What does it mean? What is the point? So the point is is that we are the only hope for portraying for God's little not little God's uh significant representation in the world is cla we represented when we were when we are at our best and our finest we can bring the to bear anywhere in the world and even if we are worthy in Israel and that's when we're in the top top top of our game that requires immense the key word being connection association unity. If we are unified if we are on top of our game then there we are unstoppable like the stars of the heavens. When we fragment, when we begin to point fingers, when we begin to see other parts of Kai Israel as disconnected, negative or un unworkable, that's when we can we can fall to the sands of the of the of the sea. So the analogy of that was in tant of Yaku ainu was the the nva that was associated with the aokum that nvua that yakovino had was a very very strange um in many ways let's just take a little analysis going back to last week's para what happened so according to kazal yakovino goes back to bereva backtracks to bereva uh even though technically he might have been more in the area of he was inva to the land where everything started so to speak where where his father Yitzak resided where he had had the braha in the land of Gar so to speak the border towns the border towns of Arat Israel beva is the border of Arch Israel when you go beyond the borders of Beerva you're in Midbar Pan or you're in Aritz which is Arat Israel, but it's a step down. It's a uh decompression chamber of Arat Israel heading towards Mitim. That's what Gaza is. And then or your midbar, which is no man's land. So he goes back to the edge to the back to the beginning as it were and then begins his meteoric ascent. Bashv is sandy, you know, it's a sandy place. It's close to Gar which is on the sea. Those are the lower points of Kali Israel. Ultimately would be in the region of Dun Dun is Tel Aviv you know Dun is that whole co that area that the area it's it's the outlying just outside the land of Yehuda towards the land of Dun. It's you know the starting point and then he moved progressed towards towards and then and then onward to start. So what happened [snorts] when when he miraculously went one step all the way to asal tell us he said how could it be that I skipped over I can't go from be to go in one step goes back but it doesn't go back all the way going to rash rashi ram rashi says that the haram maria moved upwards nor north northwards towards bait l which was the original landing point of armavina when he entered Archer Israel from the other side when he entered Arch Israel from from the land of Har and the the Haria the the temple mount as it were jumped northwards from the area which was in the border between the land of Yehuda and the land of Binyamin. Remember that Jerusalem is the northern border of Yehuda Pereva the southern border of Yehuda. What comes immediately north of us line but I mean immediately north of usim is beyam. And at the next station which is the north of beyam which connects to Ephim right which is the northern kingdoms which is the these are the children of Yoseph is what's going on over here like what is what is what is the message here? So I like to suggest the sulam that the dream that he had was all about the golas. But it wasn't only about the golus. There was a second theme that was going on that if we just pay attention we see it so blatantly. The first theme was the gulos the sulam that great ladder that went upwards to tell Israel listen if you want to reach the the potential of you want to reach ouras you want to reach the fact that we're going to be broadcasting the message of to the world we're going to be teaching about about the connection between hashem and this world if that's our message then we better be ourselves if you are unholy If you are disjointed, you cannot broadcast connection. You can't. You're not connected yourself. You're fragmented. If you're fragmented, you cannot preach unity. You cannot attach to others easily because you are isolated in yourself in some way that you cannot associate with the other parts of you which are different, which are foreign, which may not be comfortable. This is the great challenge of Claw Israel. So if the sulam predicted the four kingdoms that would go up and down that would challenge us as we go through that journey with the worst one being the one that we are currently in for 2,000 years which is edom as goes up up and will not seem to come down which was what drove to a to a certain panic in that in that state of that dream. So that's one message but there's a concurrent message and that is the the the in the miracle of the aanim of the stones. Let's understand as Jacob was preparing for that dream, there is something simultaneously going on that most people think donors make that they will not make that association. But I will tell you that it's blatant what are telling us and it's very very very much part of the dream. It's very much part of the message that the Rebi told and that he would tell us today uh if he if he would got be guiding us and how he guides his mishay. And that is the Evan is the is that rock and that rock is the known as foundation stone. It's what's under kipatasella. It's what's on our it's the single most controversial point in the entire world and yet the entire world depends on it. If you understand right, the most explosive issue in the entire world is not drug cartels in Venezuela, is not atomic bombs in Iran, and it's and it's not about the struggles between China and America, and it's certainly not about Gaza. It is all about Kipatasella. So what underneath there the we call the foundation stone Evan Shia tell us that that is the point of that was the point of Ram says that it's the actual place where the sands notice sands of of Adam [snorts] of the lowest elements connected with the brilliant nishama where the sands connect to the stars. That's the place where the sands connect to the stars, the Evans Shia from whence Hashem created the world. And more than that, according to Ramal, it's the place from whence Hashem governs the world. What does that mean? That means according to Ramal is that when you want to know whether there's going to be good weather in in Venezuela that depends on a a spiritual but actually real connection between that mukum and the other parts of the world to such an extent that if we truly understood imagine imagine a nerve center imagine a center A brain a brain which controls the entire body. So if that's the brain of the world that will tell the hands to move, the legs to move, the toes to move, the heart to be moved, right? Everything stems from that point. It is the control center and that of course associates as the Ram Khal says with the stars which convey somehow the will of Hashem down to this world with which Hashem governs the world. That doesn't mean we we think of them as deities. They are they are like Hashem has many many like any manager has any CEO has many many managers that manage certain systems. That's not Hashem created. He did a little bit to create space for us to have the impression of disunityity to their impression of and to call that out because the reality is there is nothing but we are all we are all unified under the thought waves of Hashem. We are as it were here given an incredibly unfathomable choice whether to stay associated with Hashem or to disconnect. That is the simple choice of mankind. That's and that depends. If you want to associate with somebody, if you want to be yourself, you have to see the merit. No one wants to marry a criminal a terrorist. Here's my here's my daughter, right? I'm going to present her to a terrorist, to a criminal, to a thief. Never. If you think that what's being presented to you, the match between us and Hashem, between us and other people is the same. You're not going to choose to associate with people who are evil unless you want to be like them, which is a choice to dissociate from good. So ultimately the evanga which is that flash point which of course by definition has to be the most important place in the world only simple simplified choice reality boils down to are you going to connect yourself to hashem and others or are you going to disconnect and remain in your own isolation serving your own purposes and your needs. It's so simple. It's so simple. Now there are many connectors. There are many ways to plug in your wires. Torah and mitzvah. That's about it. Now notice Torah is not about you. You sit in a corner and learn Torah all day long. That's wonderful. But that's not the mitzvah. Your mitzvah is to teach Torah. We call it Talma Torah. If you refuse to share your Torah with other people and and no one has access to it and it's kept in a sealed box, then you have not ass not accomplished the mitzah whatsoever. And ultimately, you've stunted its value and you've disrespected it. Torah is meant to be shared because it's a it's a vehicle of associating with Hashem. When 10 people get together in a room, they're going to sit down to Davin or to a that's going to be their association. that's going to be creating with so when Yakov was was at that point what happened actually was that the Evans Shashia made its way northward very very unusually and left the bound left the boundary line of Yehud and Pinyamin and decided to take a journey northward to the border of Beyamin and Yoseph. Why? Why in that one circumstance here was I believe an incredible incredible message number one that make Evan Shia relevant wherever you are. That's message number one. It does not only Judaism is not restricted to shalim I'll be a good Jew. If I leave you shalom I'll do what I want. No you can create the bring it down anywhere you are. That's message number one. But more importantly, the Jewish people have inherent conflict. The conflict between Yehuda and Yoseph very very big conflict. Who is the Bhore? Who is the leader? What are the priorities? Are we going to be more like Yehuda is the fun of Gna which will be in the land of Yehuda around you Shaim and concentrating on inner kadusha or we're going to be like Yose who's out there in the world and is being the car of the world and bringing wealth and riches and blessings to the world and through that um helping the non-Jewish world connect to the Jewish world or are we going to be more prioritized inward and the answer is we cannot afford either one to give up either one we cannot We cannot draw the wagons as it were, circle the wagons as we've had to do so many years, thousands of years in golus and just survive. Think about being a Jew in ger in Germany, in France in the middle ages. You know, even then the balas with their incredible incredible learning with their masora that they had from the go onim with their own unique interpretations of how to understand shas with the written text that they put together which eventually became rashi and rashi refined it and presented it to the entire world. The genius of the German French uh limra we we all have it. We can't learn kum without it. We can't learn gamar without it. They shared the entire world but they were entrapped in a hostile environment and they were often murdered and expelled time and time again and yet they needed to connect to that outside world to make partna and so on. That is the yose experience. That experience requires both. You have to have the inner base medish and you have to have the outer ways to make a parnasa with whatever ways they're affording you. money lending this that we don't even know how it's possible that Jews survived with with our great strength. We survived in ways that today are completely unfathomable. Today it's so much more obvious and evident and easy to be to be connected to Torah and Yiddish. That was even before even before the advent of the internet. But now with the internet, there is no Jew anywhere in the world that cannot edge elves in [clears throat] listen to thousands and thousands and thousands of presentations of Torah, Jewish music, information about today there's a new post that and and his name is Rabbi I. Rabbi Ai. Rabbi Ai. What does that mean? You want information say I need information about this. Bring me the shots and postkim that talk about this issue. Okay, no problem. Here they areahubah says this and says this and why why all of a sudden? Because hashem wants us to say don't say you can't connect. Don't say you can't find out. Don't say there's no way for me to understand. You want to learn dyomi. There's shroom in every single language at every single speed and every single there's a rum there's a way to connect has never ever been better and yet at the same time we face the greatest isolation that we've ever had in the history of the world at the same time people [snorts] isolating themselves into their own thoughts problems and issues. So what was the message that Yakov received? It was a two-fold message. He said, "If you're going to survive this long journey from Afar to then try to hold the together." Yakov took me. That's was the Shia. He tried to build a claw Israel 12. That was his almost impossible task. Yakov's task was to hold us together. He never did anything else down to his very last moment of life. He gave blessings to his 12 sons in order to create a unified claw Israel. He mourned the loss of Yakov and could not Yoseph and could never be consoled because it represented a failure to his primary objective which was to hold Israel together into one unit of I'm going to I'm just going to make an aside and say that there was someone who um was a little baif Rifka Sisson. She was a woman who lived in Burough Park. She grew up um and went to Shalamus school early back in the day and fought her way to get education. Shashid one founding students of Malah made it to Israel worked on the kibutim married raised a family of Ben Torah and she was a staunch what I would call believer in connection the she would bless people always that they should be connected to the Jewish people and to Israel everything she lived and breathed she did enormous she took forced her children into her home she raised raised them. She adopted them. She had her own children, but herid went beyond that. People needed money, she raised money for them. It wasn't like something that she worked on. It exuded out of her. And I experienced that her home was an open home for the students of yeshiva to das in the mid 80s where we were getting and growing up. And that place yielded many many many Raanim. But her home was the MC where we we we students used to go for a shabas for someone to talk to for uh an aim for those of us who our families were so many of us out of town. and her passing yesterday uh at was graced by uh speeches from Rabonim of all kinds. She had an ice daughter. She had an optometry store. I actually was to provide preside over her husband's funeral about 20 years ago, little less. But um at that optometry store in Burough Park, not only were all students of Tarvadas welcome, not only were all children that needed homes like from Oel in the early days came to her home, but big Rabonim Rashiva Rabonim were her clients and she all helped them see and she never ever uh played games with who she was. She was tioni. She was dati. But in her world and her values, she could treat someone who was satar, the satar reb himself. She could treat big rushi yeshivas. And she advocated for students who had special needs that they should be included in the yeshivas. That's what she did. She took in children and she made sure and poor people make sure they were included in the community. They had what they needed that they had special education. where the robot got up and said, "She made me go to meetings that I should have special children with learning disabilities accepted to my yeshiva." Who was even caring about those people back in the day? She forced them to go. She advocated. She she demanded that there be accommodation to those who didn't who would necessarily be those little stones that might fall away. She demanded connection. If you didn't call her for a certain period of time, she had tightness on you. You had to call. You had to visit. You had to keep in touch. I never experienced such a thing. We were independent kids. I was an out of towner. Since when did this woman who was our dead mother and she had connections to all of our students? She wanted to know how are you doing? Call me. What's going on? How are you? I never experienced anything like it to this day. And it turns out ironically, this is a crazy story. But Friday when I arrive when I arrived in arrived from Erit Israel here her son her son Rashai good friend of mine called me from Israel trying to make a connection are you here let's get together he goes actually I'm here he goes where's your mom my mom is living in my sister she's not so well and I said you know what I have occasion to go to my I hope to go to the hopefully today everybody I'm going to go toi please send your names for keepim so I said okay I'm going to go visit her and then I get a call with Shabas that she passed away. I said either way I was going to see her either way instead of a visit to the Shiva house and I was by the Levia in the driving rain yesterday here in New York. We drove from Burough Park all the way to Queens. hyonic connecting worlds and um and it just hit me her name was Khan Rifka. So it hit me that this is the incredible theme of of Yakov's life was how do we get how do we keep these 12 stones together? How do we make them one? Right? And everybody wants to be connected to the sadic. And that's really the answer that through the sadikim we become sadikim through emulating the ways of Israel Sabah Yakov himself. We become motivated to care about another person to look at their suffering. She was ironically antometrist office. Her husband was an eye doctor and she ran the office just to help other people see the need for see the need for. So what was a satari coming in or Rashiva coming in or heads of heads of Jew girls high schools oh hell bim from out of town Israel was her was her dream because that's the land of so what the message is that was conveyed to Yaku au is that you're going to have to hold it together you can imagine how difficult it was when Yakov had in this week's parha to separate his flock and his families into different parts How ironic that he had it it says that Jacobu wanted wanted to actually he didn't but he thought to divide the camps that maybe if Asov comes and he destroys part of Kai Israel we'll be able to regenerate Kai Israel from the rest this was a very difficult thing never had to do that instead of putting them in separate camps what he did he put them in consecutive order. He put the and then he put the ben on and that's not called separation. That's called prioritization or finding your place in the order. They were they were never fully separated. So um the the uh the accomplishment of Yakovino at the end of his life was to bring all the 12vatim around his bedside and bless them and explain to them uh how they could and how they would play a role in Israel. BK Jacob Legalates. He wanted to go already to that final ending where we were all Jacob sitting in in in a bed in barely being able to be buried in let alone as and he had that dream at that time. And has done in our generation an amazing thing is he started not completed but started the aggregation of Israel and Israel and the between the through Torah and now through a goro. It is impossible to be a Jew anywhere in the world without being evaluated in the context of Israel. Isn't that amazing? Someone could live in Australia someplace in New Zealand and say, "What do I have to do with Israel? I'm a Jew. Leave me alone." No, no, no. You are a Zionist. What do you mean I'm a Zionist? What kind of Zionist that? I have nothing to do with it. I don't go to the army and I don't nothing. I sit and learn Torah here in New Zealand. What What What does have to do with me? No, you're going to get protesters at your door saying that you're a genocidal person because you're denying the the idea that somebody else is in charge of Eric Israel in your life. What what we do you know this famous episode that actually launched the secular Zionist uh leader Herzel on his journey which he was successful which is really truly amazing to to create a Jewish state. He took on he took on the job to make a Jewish state and he was successful. Hem gave him a Jew that knew nothing absolutely nothing about Yiddish. Nothing but he had a roam to bring the Jews back to their home to create a between Hashem and between the Jewish people and the land of Israel not necessarily Hashem but the land of Israel and he was successful because that's what Hashem wants. Hashem wants that's what Hashem wants ultimately and and therefore he saw the Drifus trial which was where a Jew who was a distinguished French officer this in the late 1800s of course everybody knows the story was accused of treason and there was a mock trial and it was all a big fake and a big charade much like the international criminal courts much like the courts unfortunately that are being going through such travail in Israel today about their honesty about their intention, about their political motivations. This is what I'll get to in a moment, what's happening. And and um he said, "I can't believe this. This Jewus did everything I would want. He was loyal to France. He wasn't observing his fighting for France and this and that and this is the treatment that he's deserves that he's a Jew and he's a traitor. What's going on over here?" And then he realized there's no escape. And at the Drifus trial, they actually brought up um classic anti-semitic tropes such as that it says in the Talmud that that uh and but a non-Jew is not called only is called Adam. So that seemed to be a very terribly anti-semitic thing. Most of the anti-semitic tropes you'll see is that the Jews look down on want to be their slaves. That's what they that's what they you know it's it's all goes back to the bra of Yakov and Asov. Who's going to be serving who? It's all it's not there's absolutely no new information in the world and no new issues. It's all replaying the same ancient issues again and again. Who's the who's the master? Who's the slave? Jews want to enslave us. Take all our money. It's all the same. All the same. and he was they were leveled with this accusation. One of the rabbis or one of the people who spoke on behalf of the Jewish people at the time said, "Let me explain to you what that means. It means that when a Jew and the world is accused of a crime, then all Jews are held accountable." So back in that day there was and Moses Mendelson was involved in this because he was so mubar to the goisha world. He could talk to them they thought about a blood label in Damascus. Crazy back in the blood liels and then they asked him you know uh how could it be that Jews on one side of the world are being beaten and threatened because of something that a Jew did on the other side of the world. He says that's what it means to be an Adam. Adam is an integrated being. A one person has hands, feet, toes, nose, whatever all over. But they're one person. So if the tippy tip of the of of the pinky does something wrong, that means the brain did something wrong. So that's why we are called Adam. We are one being. You are not nicad. When some guy in Ireland, which is not a good country in terms of uh love of uh love of Israel, that's for sure. and does something wrong, we don't hold all Irish people accountable across the world. But if a Jew does something wrong, we hold him accountable from all across the world because we're Mubar. We are Adam stands for Adam Mashiach throughout history from the beginnings of time whether it's from other time through Messiah, we're one and that's what's really being demonstrated here. So that's theme number one. Theme number one is that was the message of Yaku. That's the goal of Yaku. How do we hold together the how do we get Yoseph and Yehuda which is this theme of the next several paras all the way to the end of Yakov's life will be the struggle to create unity between the different factions of different units of Kal Israel and that is the theme today Israel is rife with inner conflict that I believe is driven outwardly because inwardly we are really we really don't have that many issues with each other. But the forces that wish to splinter and fragment and destroy the unity of the Jewish people with each other are so strong in the land of Israel today as they've always been. But now it's a clamor. It's a clamor. There's not one politician on the nonood side of the coalition who wishes not to take Netanyahu either a force him to resign in disgrace or and resign and go to jail or be removed from power immediately. What's going on? What is this all about? He's the elected leader of the majority like yeah remember Nathaniel asked for a pardon. The pardon is a litmus test of the kibur of amra or its fragmentation. This is my this is my comment. If people protest he should never be pardoned. What did he do wrong? Nobody even knows what he did wrong. He's on trial for six years. They can't even find anything to be mashim him on that's worthy of of some sort of punishment. And yet this is the ultimate disgrace that he's they decree that he's held prisoner three days a week. Can you imagine your own prime minister is in jail three times a week testifying at a bogus trial about what he has to testify. What can he testify to already? How much can you testify for six years? You know he has to testify about testifying. There's nothing else to testify about. Testify that you testified. He's in prison. He's in prison by forces. Now whether they are coming inwardly from the voice of those people or being egged on by agitators, political players who are very very wealthy and very very politically active whether they're Goyam or whether they're are Jews inside Erat Israel that fund the protests that fund the discord that's wish to rip the state of Israel into pieces over whatever issue it might be whether it's the draft whether it's the war, whether it's the judicial process, whether it's the the captives, it doesn't really matter. It's it's it's like uh Natanya himself said, it's a white board. You put the problem of the day here, why we should tear the country apart and we'll go out and protest and people are being paid to protest and it's a farce. And why why is it that this is allowed to carry on? So there's [snorts] one voice that says stop. And ironically, that voice comes from outside. That's the voice of President Trump. He said, "Stop the trial. Just stop it already. Stop the inner fighting. This is the reason these protests are the reason why you were attacked on October 7th to begin with. Cuz our enemies thought that we're weak, divided, distracted, and we were. And who knows what happened on October 7th as a result of different opinions. Even today, no one knows what attorney general's opinion, her associates is this way. Peace justice is that way and the political liidnics are that way and then the leftwing parties are that way. And either way, you're going to get a protest. If you touch anything in Israel, it's a bomb. Whether right now right now right now what's happening in our world the test of is are you going to allow some sort of arrangement so yes can continue to learn and yet also serve with the security or is anything you do bad and we just want to keep the problem boiling and alive to stew hatred and accusations across the board. They tried one reading one reading of a new bill already. People are saying if this bill goes I'm going to resign so go resign. I mean, you know, who cares? We need a resolution. We need and and any voice of dissolution and disunityity is a danger to the Jewish people. A terrible danger. The judges keep prosecutors who keep in jail for three days a week that he has to get from from his teacher to go out and deal with nuclear threats to the state of Israel. Are you okay? Are you kidding me? Are you absurd? No country in the history of the world would ever do that to their leader. Can you imagine George Washington being under lock and key for three days by Congress while he tried to to lead the country? Are you kidding me? It's not possible. So look at that. Number one, the Netanyahu trial is a symptom of disunityity. The the yeshiva Bakim issue is a symptom of disunityity. Right? the the the the struggle over judicial powers, secular or otherwise, is is a issue of disunityity. The control of the lands of the land of Israel, what rights Arabs have to continuously build and to destroy Jewish attempts to build, horrible, horrible disunityity. The support of terrorism with our own hands, of feeding Hamas so that it can stabilize, regroup, and maintain its power is an issue of internal disunityity. If you can't if we can't open our eyes and take a look that the stones that represent the om ofar are being hammered at from every every position the breach the break these of it all the betrayal of it all the viewing the other as the ultimate danger as as opposed to the ultimate solution ultimately it has to be understood that y is the solution y is the he says I came here to save you, not to destroy you. How ironic. How ironic. Will there be a turning point where we can honestly say enough of the voices of division. We're not perfect. We are not without blame. said we we are we are we say we say it in our dings right uh we are to a certain extent in need of self-examination repair motivation putting aside petty our internal concerns for the greater good of the Jewish people we have to and the other splintering is why the nation will try to distinguish between Israel and the Jewish people but then again will as we said earlier blame the Jewish people for anything that Israel does. So let's call let's call it the truth. I am alarmed. We should all be alarmed. But it's never been different. That's the point. It's not a new thing. This is the age old struggle for unity that besieges Jacobu the moment he had his dream. The moment that it was necessary by their to take Haria itself and put it on the border of Yoseph and Binyam Biny who is friendly who is blameless who does not was not involved in the Yoseph and connect and connects physically to Yehuda right puts it on the boundary of Yoseph as if to say hold on don't let go this is our life raft Yakovu's dream the of the right here because if we don't hold on over there then we cannot be unified neutral in the history of Israel was like that. Yoshlommo and David managed to unify the Jewish people for all of what 80 years and among those 80 years rife with conflict. It's not an easy thing. It's not an easy thing because it's the challenge of of mankind and of the world what we're created for. So don't be in despair, but we just have to choose the right decisions to love every Jew to try to reach out at the same time and teach some Torah and be macar them through our deeds, through our actions, through our concern. To understand a little bit about that lady and what she really believed, the people that weren't even particularly close to her, she demanded connection. You barely know me. You're not even my, you know, who are you to me? No, call me. How are you? What's going on? Check in. Be part of the funny. She used to call all of our friends in with us the How appropriate. That was her name. She said, "You guys are friends. Some are more friendly than others. Some are more peripherally friends. We're all part of a general network of friends. We know each other. We're friendly. Some are very close. They see each other every day. Some speak once a yo." No, no, no. To her there was no difference. Whether you spoke to each other once a year or once you spoke to each other every single day you were in the same a remarkable thing that insight is also now the last point I'll go back to Venezuela one of the key forces of destruction of the world that would like to um use utilize the destruction of human beings i.e. drugs as a way of weakening countries, weakening and destroying individuals, families. Let's be very honest, America and to a lesser extent, Israel, we're too busy fighting for our lives to worry about America doesn't have to worry about fighting for their lives. So they they they are fighting for their lives in other ways against depression, sadness, lack of meaning, lack of purposelessness, isolation, um hatred, dissociation, a disorientation, not no connection between parents and teachers and teachers and friends and and the government itself and the values that are at clash. If there are any values at all, people resort to drugs because they're in a lot of pain. The opioid um situation in America is so dramatic. We're not talking about marijuana. Marijuana was legalized. They don't even care about marijuana anymore. But marijuana was a gateway to many many other drugs. Oxycat oxycodone and all these horrific drugs that are flowing through into America that are funding terror. This is how Hamas makes a living. This is how this is how al-Qaeda made a living. You know how much Lebanon poppies from Lebanon and heroin was the original original source of yasar fat shimo and to destroy and weaken America you can flood the country with with drugs that are so powerful that one dose will destroy a life and this is what's going on I read somewhere where there's a the police you know the the fire department usually gets called for emergencies we have hot solo they have the fire departments across America. You know how many overdoses they get called in from? The firemen are exhausted from their shifts cuz every 5 minutes they're getting a call, another overdose, another overdose. And the firemen themselves can't take it. And they have to like split their shifts because what they see is a country that's burning down, but it's burning down not only from the outside, but from the inside. Burning down from the inside because of a lack of association with with between the GF and the Nishama. If there's no value purpose and if there's only a if there's only a value of tearing down the the the protests in America today are about lawlessness, looting, Palestinianism is an open violation against law and order and goodness in the name of what? giving money to poor people who are in pain and suffering and don't think that they have and don't believe that they have anything good in them enough to earn it themselves. Okay. Venezuela fell into a great evil is run by the socialist left and has become a funnel of drugs and alcohol into the United States that has literally threatening the people. But one thing you have to say to Trump is that he's he is honest about what the problem is and doesn't fake. He's not fake. Maybe he's fake in other ways, but he's not fake in ignoring the truth of the problem. What he did in the last 24 or 48 hours was to tell Venezuela and to tell all the countries, China and all the other countries that are funding this mass assault on America internally through drugs that their airspace is closed and there will be no more flights flying in endless amounts of drugs that are life destructive um and making billions of dollars doing so. We very interesting development. Let's see because the roots of evil are being exposed both in Arch Israel and throughout the world. This is the process of the gula that we're in. It's called we have to separate the and go from that tree to the which we know is our Torah. The only way you're going to survive is if you listen And means that by definition you're associated with the kaduca of an isama. You're not going to destroy lives with drug, alcohol, greeds, uh lust, u all the mitzvos which are self-destructive. You have to affirm life. You have to embrace life and not in a way which is destructive to others. So here we are in one of the most important maybe may certainly the most important year to date but in a year which has implications for Msiah tin pav [snorts] we've said before is the ace shalom as we said um earlier but we know noted from cohelis many people pointed out that world shalom and we are in that final epoch and this is the ace shalom. So where is the shalom? But the shalom shalom has to be fought for. We are very grateful to go in and this year in this last two years despite all the hardships that the progenitors of evil have taken a big kop. Iran took a big kop. Hezbollah big kop. Okay. Syria big kop even though they're very troublesome. Lebanon and they're about to get more. Gaza, they're being hit hard and often the vehicle for hitting them is Israel. And now Venezuela is up on the docks. The sources of evil, the behaviors that are destructive to this world, the of a dissociation of of turning man into afar are are being viewed and at the same time the efforts are being redoubled. Canada just outlawed another charity that supports Israel because of the BDS people. We've lost all the British Empire. The British Empire who were friendly to the Jewish people to whatever extent they were never totally was a haven for Jews after the Holocaust. Britain, South Africa, Australia. How many hidden from the Holocaust survived to these places? Even New Zealand, even certainly Canada. How many how many plate sha found refuge arr which was under the mandate? You follow me? The British Empire was a place of refuge and now across the board hatred, denunciation, danger. And what's left? America not so pushed. Namani AOC. I will tell you right now that Trump is what two years left. Three years left and after him I think there may be one more presidency of Trumpian Hashbah whether it'll be Rubio or his vice president who I'm no great fan of. Maybe, and we don't know how pro-Israel they'll be, maybe they'll fetch out another presidency, much like Reagan produced another Bush presidency after him. But it was a cult. And then then after that, AOC Manny in the White House. Is that what we have to look forward to? Yes, that's what we have to look forward to. Unless Mashiach. Unless Mashiach. So don't think that all is lost. It's just that the battle is very pitched. Ifem if we shall be z to remain. If they'll allow the Shiva students to learn Torah to whatever extent, if they'll allow a pardon from Natanyao, if they'll back off the judiciary and say we're here to serve Kal Israel and not deserve secular Arabism, and we're not here to make Bennett a a a government that includes Muslim Brotherhood, for the first time, Trump said no Muslim Brotherhood. He's like the only voice and and he's problematic. very problematic. So, so we call Israel have to remember that we're in the months of encounter with Asov and with even with parro but the bigger encounter is ours within saw a remarkable thing. Hashem said move Haria to the point of conflict. Move your values to the point of conflict. If we will create that should help us and save us in these months and in remarkable times that rah should be from the world finally as we dive in for every that should be taken out of the world. Gaza is zodium and many many many others. The should beem a great light of Kaneka should spark. In those days of Khaneka, they saw the remarkable thing that the all pervasive Greek empire which had blanketed the world for 150 years without any without any any stop was able to be sent away by one group of Jews that came together and sent me a lie and they were to banish immense darkness. That's our task this month. We should see a great hispash and aber of Israel to Torah mitzvos. We should inspire each other and keep talking about it because from week to week, this is our goal. Help another Jew, teach another Jew, love another Jew, speak for the truth, and don't be antagonistic. Don't contribute to Makus, but be a voice for reconciliation, consiliation, and comfort. Let's have a great week. [music] [singing] Heat. Heat. [music] [singing] >> [music] [singing] >> Sh. >> [music and singing]